
What are you reading in general?
Moderator: Orlion
- Cagliostro
- The Gap Into Spam
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:39 pm
- Location: Colorado
- Cagliostro
- The Gap Into Spam
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:39 pm
- Location: Colorado
- aliantha
- blueberries on steroids
- Posts: 17865
- Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:50 pm
- Location: NOT opening up a restaurant in Santa Fe
Apocalypse Not by John Michael Greer, which I am really enjoying. He traces the apocalyptic meme through history, starting with Zarathustra (the original, not our guy
). And he's funny. I may post a review in the Close after I'm done reading it.



EZ Board Survivor
"Dreaming isn't good for you unless you do the things it tells you to." -- Three Dog Night (via the GI)
https://www.hearth-myth.com/
- Vraith
- The Gap Into Spam
- Posts: 10623
- Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:03 pm
- Location: everywhere, all the time
- Been thanked: 3 times
Oh, minor synchronicity, I love it. I am about to read what there is of dickens "the mystery of edwin drood" in preparation for reading Dan Simmons novel "Drood." I have high hopes, I think Simmons is great.
[spoiler]Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.[/spoiler]
the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
- Holsety
- The Gap Into Spam
- Posts: 3490
- Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 8:56 pm
- Location: Principality of Sealand
- Has thanked: 5 times
- Been thanked: 5 times
Just finished Stuart Chase's "The Proper Study of Mankind", an exploration of the social sciences which gives an interesting look into how the world must have looked to people in the 50s who were looking into that mysterious, ephemeral thing known as tikkun olam (IIRC reparing the world). Essentially argues quite properly that social science, like all science, is properly conducted with conclusions coming after accumulation of evidence. Definitely sticks to the national level, perhaps very clearly cognizant of the fact that the national level is best maintained for those who come back from wartime intact.
- CovenantJr
- Lord
- Posts: 12608
- Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2002 9:10 pm
- Location: North Wales
I just finished it. Distinctly disappointing, I thought. The reasons are lengthy and detailed. The (too) short version is: the Sonmi/Zachry pair of stories felt like the real Cloud Atlas, and all the others seemed like unrelated short stories that Mitchell had lying around and shoved in just to pad it out to a publishable length. I found the Sonmi/Zachry chapters fascinating and engrossing, and if that had been the full extent of the book I'd have nothing but praise for it. As it stands, most of the book is irrelevant filler, hence the disappointment.Stonemaybe wrote:Finished Cloud Atlas. I can't exactly say why I thought it, but I did think it was superb.
Jumps about in time all over the place, with hugely varying storylines but with good linking. Kind of like a dystopian fairytale with hints (just hints) of a happy ending.
- Shaun das Schaf
- The Gap Into Spam
- Posts: 1193
- Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 6:33 am
- Location: Wollongong, Australia
Halfway through Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett, because it was light (actual weight, not literary weight) and I was on a plane. Ok so far, and certainly much quicker to read than Gene Wolfe! I've never read any Ann Patchett before.
And in response to the Perfume comments above, (or Scent of a Woman as I shall now be calling it
), it was a while ago that I read it, but I remember really enjoying it and also being surprised at the quality of the movie version. Great cinematography from memory.
ETA:
And in response to the Perfume comments above, (or Scent of a Woman as I shall now be calling it

ETA:
Finished now and it was better than 'Ok'. Made me want to go to the opera. (Only been once and that was as a teenager in Germany. The opera was in Italian and the subtitles in German!) Anyway time to go again me thinks.Ok so far
Last edited by Shaun das Schaf on Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
just finished

and will probably move on to her next book. she's irish. soul of a poet.
pretty good.

and will probably move on to her next book. she's irish. soul of a poet.
pretty good.
you're more advanced than a cockroach,
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
have you ever tried explaining yourself
to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies
i've had this with actors before, on the set,
where they get upset about the [size of my]
trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer,
cause... i'm from Kentucky
and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio
a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~
- aliantha
- blueberries on steroids
- Posts: 17865
- Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:50 pm
- Location: NOT opening up a restaurant in Santa Fe
I liked that book. Rutherford is pretty good, in general, I think; he does that kind of historical fiction better than Ken Follett, imho. After I read Sarum, I was all gung-ho to see Salisbury Cathedral -- alas, haven't been there yet.Avatar wrote:I'm reading London by Edward Rutherford. Sorta historical fiction, huge sprawling novel that runs from 54BC to 1997.
It's about London if you hadn't guessed.
--A



EZ Board Survivor
"Dreaming isn't good for you unless you do the things it tells you to." -- Three Dog Night (via the GI)
https://www.hearth-myth.com/