What are you reading?

[imatfaal]

O/T re amazon. I like Jeff Bezos much more than most of the independent booksellers I meet - most of them seem to think Bernard Black has too sunny and cheerful a disposition. There are far fewer independent booksellers in London than there used to be - and most of the high street chains are far more dangerous than amazon. the net book agreement made uk booksellers very lazy and ripe for the picking - dillons started the fight and amazon finished it. I use Daunt books for presents and easy-to-come by novels - but for my texts and less common books when faced with a choice between a considerable markup and a two week wait against a decent discount and next day delivery convenience wins. I lost it with Foyles when they refused to believe me that Foucault's Birth of Biopolitics was in paperback and wanted to charge me 90 quid for an hardback import from USA - Amazon sold me the paperback for 20!

[proximity1]

O/T re amazon. I like Jeff Bezos much more than most of the independent booksellers I meet - most of them seem to think Bernard Black has too sunny and cheerful a disposition. There are far fewer independent booksellers in London than there used to be - and most of the high street chains are far more dangerous than amazon. the net book agreement made uk booksellers very lazy and ripe for the picking - dillons started the fight and amazon finished it. I use Daunt books for presents and easy-to-come by novels - but for my texts and less common books when faced with a choice between a considerable markup and a two week wait against a decent discount and next day delivery convenience wins. I lost it with Foyles when they refused to believe me that Foucault's Birth of Biopolitics was in paperback and wanted to charge me 90 quid for an hardback import from USA - Amazon sold me the paperback for 20!

 

 

I laughed a good bit after looking up an example of "Black Books" and watching a few minutes of season one, episode one. Funny. Thank you, that was --well, I'd never heard of the program before. So, now I understand what you're driving at.

 

Anyway, like you, I ordered a copy on-line, too. It's just that I didn't use amazon.giant-killer-squid.com. I used another source and, like you, my book should land in my mailbox in coming days---which prompts me to write that I'd be very interested in discussing the book --perhaps we could read & discuss it as a very tiny 'book-club' of two?

[proximity1]

Category: Tempting But Expensive and possibly over my head reading:

 

Author: KANEKO, Kunihiko

 

Life: An Introduction to Complex Systems Biology ; Springer Publications

 

softcover isbn: ISBN 978-3-642-06915-4

 

[stgeller]

Here's an interesting science fiction story about what might happen

if SETI started receiving messages from the stars.

http://berkeleybus.mysite.com/SETI_Cafe.html

 

[Externet]

Not a book, but on screen... triggers imagination on how would life was then.

 

A bit here and there on ancient legislation :

 

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/laws_of_thekings.asp

 

from : http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/ancient.asp

 

"If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the
river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall
take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused
is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the
accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river
shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser."

(The Code of Hammurabi)

[swansont]

I finished Deborah Blum's The Poisoner's Handbook. Very well written. A story of the rise of forensic pathology in NYC in the context of poisoning deaths, largely during the prohibition era. Then I read Angel Killer (same author) which is about tracking down a mass murderer/cannibal.

[Izzy_Bee]

What books are you reading now?

 

Doesn't matter what kind, what subject, whatever. It'll just be fun to see what everyone's reading. I'd certainly like to get more reading material in.

 

I'll start: I'm currently starting The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins, as I'm currently writing a report discussing evolution and I spotted it in the library while doing research.

"The End Of Mr Y" ~ Science fantasy about going to different plains of existance, I've read it what...9 times now. I adore it.

[LaurieAG]

I just finished Xenophon's 'A history of my times' or 'Hellenica' which continues from where Thucydidies 'History of the Peloponesian War' about the war between ancient Athens and Sparta, left off.

 

I'm also re-reading Robert Grave's 'The Greek Myths' a 'retelling of the stories of the ancient Greek gods and heroes, embodying the conclusions of modern anthropology and archaeology'. This book is a consolidation of the majority of references to the topic from Homer, ancient Greece, Rome etc to the early 1950's.

 

Both are pre 1970's translations that only get into the moral relativism between the different ancient Greek cultures of the time.

 

I have also recently finished Peter Levi's translation of Pausanias 'Guide to Greece', an ancient tour guide of all the towns and temples written by a doctor circa 200 ad, which was one of the main sources for Robert Graves book and a key reference for modern Greek archaeologists.

[Nehushtan]

Some time ago I read Antimatter by Frank Close. Excellent book on the topic.

I’m also trying to read The Beat of a Different Drum, a biography of Richard Feynman by Jagdish Mehra.

[krash661]

oh my ,

i just found my ,

 

william shatner with chris kreski star trek memories

 

book.

[Bill Angel]

I'm currently reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Considerable criticism has been directed at the work over the novel's historical inaccuracies. In reading the book I came across this passage which, from a scientific standpoint, also seems to be fictional rather than based on scientific plausibility (Chapter 6):

"His last correspondence from Vittoria had been in December - a postcard saying she was headed to the Java Sea to contiue her research in entanglement physics...something about using satellites to track manta ray migrations"

 

 

I guess that the idea here is that manta rays somehow use some phenomena based on quantum entanglement to navigate under water. It would be quite a shock if his idea turned out to be true. ;-)

[Sayonara]

Currently reading Jailbird, by Kurt Vonnegut. He's an odd one, but I do like his books.

 

[Kowalski]

I'm reading a new book " Electrical Actuators , models and control "

[Bill Angel]

What I am reading (actually listening to) right now is the audio books version of the book "Quantum Man, Richard Feynman's Life in Science" by Lawrence Krauss, read by the author.
Here is a humorous quote from the book:
"He's another Dirac, only this time human." Eugene Wigner speaking of Richard Feynman.
Eugene Wigner was talking about Feynman when he was young and at that time unknown to the scientific community.

 

The book includes a serious discussion Feynman's scientific work. It is not just a collection of humorous anecdotes from his life. For that reason, listening to Lawrence Krauss just read it is a frustrating experience as there are no illustrations or photographs to ponder while listening to his narrative. I figured that since I had available just the audio book version from the library, the actual printed version of the book would be better and would contain photos and illustrations. Well it doesn't. The printed version has some simple drawings, few in number, and unfortunately no photographs.

[overtone]

"Madness, Rack, and Honey" - a collection of talks, or lectures, delivered over the years by Mary Ruefle,

 

in combination with "Surfaces and Essences", written by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander, a rather different approach to what I suspect is the same matter of interest to me.

 

From Ruefle, on the topic of "Theme":

 

Please do not misunderstand me: you may not have had a choice, but the public is going to assume you made one. The political implications of this are many, and would be best discussed by a political analyst, which I am not. What I am equipped to discuss is Polartec. "

 

From Hofstadter/Sander, on the topic of "The Evocation of Words":

 

In our analogy, the suburban sprawl corresponds to the most recent, fresh, novel, creative usages of the word, which still strike us as metaphorical.

Edited November 8, 2013 by overtone

[DevilSolution]

Currently: Bill Hicks, love all the people

 

Last: Charles Bukowski, ham on rye

 

Before that i read PIHKAL

 

:D

 

I havent read a good novel for ages though.

[rocket]

The latest nonfiction book i'm reading is a new book titled-Killing Jesus by Bill O'Rielly.It's written from a non religious method,their's actually much evidence for the biblical Jesus Christ.

[imatfaal]

The latest nonfiction book i'm reading is a new book titled-Killing Jesus by Bill O'Rielly.It's written from a non religious method,their's actually much evidence for the biblical Jesus Christ.

"nonfiction...evidence for the biblical Jesus Christ." - I don't think so !

 

The Fox News anchor explains in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" that one night he awoke with the title of the book in his head. He says he believes he got that message from the Holy Spirit.

 

O'Reilly says the book is a researched, historic account. Despite its de-emphasis of religion, he is using his special gifts from God in a positive way.

 

He says it's all part of God's plan for him.

So it's a proper, disinterested, and intellectualy unbiased piece of historical research - pretty standard for Fux News and their staff.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/26/bill-oreilly-jesus-60-minutes_n_3996925.html

[Tridimity]

Currently re-reading Richard Dawkins' A Devil's Chaplain

[pears]

I've just started Richard Feynman's "Six Easy Pieces"

[Tridimity]

Thomas Hardy: Behind the Mask (biography)

[Moontanman]

Finished WWZ and now I am rereading an old favorite, John Varley's trilogy Titan, Wizard, and Demon...

[DevilSolution]

Anyone else ever read Recursion by Tony-Ballantyne??

[Tridimity]

Henry James The Birthplace and Stephen Law Philosophy

[Lightmeow]

I just finished Stephen Kings The Shinning. "Come take your medicine like a man". Very good but scary book.

 

I just picked up the Mortal Instruments series, by Cassandra Clare. People who like the Twilight Sega love this book, but I hate the Twilight books, and this was nothing like them. Also, in Language Arts, we had to read Of Mice and Men(Good book, but not like I will read it again), and are reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.