What are you reading?

[Dragonxalli]

I just recently read identical and tricks by Ellen Hopkins. Tricks wasn't all that great, but I wud recomend identical. There's sketches by erick Walters. It was decent, but the way it's written, I jumps around a lot like a movie wud.

Some other good books: 19 minuets by Jodi picolt, shiver & linger, by Maggie steifvatter, nd that's bout all I can think of right now... I'm sure I'll think of more, I love reading.

 

I just read Enders Game by Orson Scott Card.

It was quite the read, it is a Scifi based upon set human nature in a time when space travel is possible. It is about the very real possibility of encountering aliens and the outcomes that can happen. Specifically, this book questions what would we as humans do if we were attacked by an alien race. we lost the first skirmish but won by pure luck on a second real invasion. This book is about our actions after that.

 

I actually really didn't like that book. I had to read it for my best sellers class. I thought it was way to predictable. Nd there was to much time crammed into the pages. I think, 10 years or somethin like that. It had a decent story line, just to predictable for me.

[The Alpha]

The Ancestors Tale. Very interesting.

 

Geek, I know

Edited March 31, 2011 by The Alpha

[triskaidekaphile]

i've recently read half of brian greene's elegant universe the second half is presently out of my level of understanding. a very good book (halfbook?) for learning relativity concepts, although his spinning circus ride analogy sounds faulty.

[rktpro]

RK Narayan's Cartoon Collection

[pwagen]

The entire Robot/Empire/Foundation series by Asimov.

[Tr0x]

I actually really didn't like that book. I had to read it for my best sellers class. I thought it was way to predictable. Nd there was to much time crammed into the pages. I think, 10 years or somethin like that. It had a decent story line, just to predictable for me.

 

 

I suggest you try reading the sequels in the Ender's Game series. They're more about morals, philosophy and the ethics of coming to terms with other intelligent life, all set in a really great sci-fi backdrop. There's not so much action/teenagers whining as there is in the original Ender's Game (which is still a great book in its own right). Too each their own I suppose.

 

Getting back on track:

I just finished "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas and am nearly through "Slaughter House Five" by Kurt Vonegut. "The Slap" was definitely out of the realm of my usual reading, but it`s a great treastise on modern life told through the eyes of six very different characters. I highly reccomend it.

Edited July 5, 2011 by Tr0x

[paha]

I'm reading Real Time Relationships by Stefan Molyneux. It's a free e-book.

 

http://www.freedomainradio.com/FreeBooks.aspx

[Sciduck]

calvin and hobbes comic strips

[Essay]

I won't go into the free samples of very expensive scientific books I have on kindle, but as for real books:

 

1. Bacterial growth and form

Author: Koch, Arthur L. 1925-

Published: 2001

Call Number: QR84.5 .K63 2001

pp.470

Status: Checked Out

 

&

 

2. Mitigating climate change through food and land use

Author: Scherr, Sara J.

Published: 2009

Call Number: S589.7 .S337 2009

pp.48

Status: Checked Out

 

This second one is very concise and comprehensive. Thank God somebody finally gets this big picture about how basic economics depends on ecology.

===

 

The first book also talks about the origins of life, from the "first cell" to the "last universal ancestor."

 

hint: google the phrase, with quote marks, "Gradually the global biomass would have increased"

 

~ enjoy

[Externet]

Reading now...

 

3001: The final odissey - By Arthur Clarke.

[GR TSAKI]

3001: The final odissey - By Arthur Clarke.

<<<<<love it

 

 

I'm reading now DUNE: THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD - BRIAN HERBERT and KEVIN J. ANDERSON very nc book

 

 

Also I like Isaac Asimov

Edited September 8, 2011 by GR TSAKI

[Laurens]

I'm reading Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond at the moment. It's a very interesting read.

[CordyceptZombie]

I just wrote and all of my friends are reading: "Life to the Dead: I am Seth - Volume I"

[Mr.Creed]

I'm reading World War Z, and Chormosome 6. Both are very good books. I'm trying to get my copy of Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" sent to me from home.

[Teh Fox]

I'm not a huge fan of Sci-Fi, but I'm reading House Atreides by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson. A lot of my friends have said that the Dune series goes downhill after the first three but I am still utterly immersed in the story/stories. Frank Herbert and his son (and those who helped right the later books) were geniuses. I'm also reading the Ender's series finally (after reading and re-reading Ender's Game tens of times growing up) but I'm more focusing on the Dune series at the moment.

[azazel]

Leon Lederman - The God Particle. Very interesting book which explain quest for the Higgs Boson on "funny" way.

[ewmon]

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (2002)

 

Business author Patrick Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions that go to the very heart of why teams — even the best ones — often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team.

[Kowalski]

As talking about books , .. recently , I just finished reading a book for Paulo Coelho , its title : " Like the flowing river " , it was an extraordinary work . He shares in it many experiences that he passed through , some other stories told to him , and some legends .

 

Honestly , this book was very beneficial , I recommend it for every one .

 

My next target will be the famous book of Albert Camus : " the stranger " , I hope it would be great as they say .

 

 

 

 

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

So I've just read all of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World). The series is something absurd, like 2600 pages, but (mostly) interesting. Neal Stephenson doesn't write stories; he invents an entire universe, including all the details, and then chooses bits of it to write down. Usually too many bits, given the length of the series and the complexity of the plot, but it's usually fun reading.

 

I also read Feynman, the graphic novel by Jim Ottaviani, which was a fun biographical portrait of Richard Feynman. As a graphic novel, it's certainly no in-depth biography, but you get a feel for the curious character of Feynman.

[jeskill]

OK, I admit it. I just read the Hunger Games Trilogy. And I loved it. Mostly because Katniss is totally bad-ass.

[imatfaal]

OK, I admit it. I just read the Hunger Games Trilogy. And I loved it. Mostly because Katniss is totally bad-ass.

 

Much against my normal judgment I just downloaded the first of the trilogy - based to a fair extent on your recommendation and that of another friend (who I thought should have known better) who said almost exactly the same thing!

[proximity1]

I've just found out about a relatively recent book which I'm now quiite eager to read. So, this is a rather a "What are you soon-to-be reading?" kind of post:

 

both of them by NicK Cohen, the first is his You Can't Read This Book: Censorship In an Age of Freedom and the second, Waiting for the Etonians: Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England .

 

In the publisher's promotional copy, at Harper Collins' page (same as the link on the title, above) for You Can't Read This Book, one finds the following,

"After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Communism, and the advent of the Web which allowed for even the smallest voice to be heard, everywhere you turned you were told that we were living in an age of unparalleled freedom*. You Can't Read This Book argues that this view is dangerously naive.

 

and I excerpt that, here, for citation here because it is (i.e. " [we are] told that we [are] living in an age of unparalleled freedom"), almost verbatim, a view I have seen pronounced here in discussions. I suspect that more than a few readers of SFN find this their view as well and think this topic well deserves a broader discussion.

----------------------------------

* emphasis added

[imatfaal]

I've just found out about a relatively recent book which I'm now quiite eager to read. So, this is a rather a "What are you soon-to-be reading?" kind of post:

 

both of them by NicK Cohen, the first is his You Can't Read This Book: Censorship In an Age of Freedom and the second, Waiting for the Etonians: Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England .

 

In the publisher's promotional copy, at Harper Collins' page (same as the link on the title, above) for You Can't Read This Book, one finds the following,

 

and I excerpt that, here, for citation here because it is (i.e. " [we are] told that we [are] living in an age of unparalleled freedom"), almost verbatim, a view I have seen pronounced here in discussions. I suspect that more than a few readers of SFN find this their view as well and think this topic well deserves a broader discussion.

----------------------------------

* emphasis added

 

Amazon is a seriously dangerous thing - I am now £3.71 poorer and a copy of You Can't Read this Book is due on my door mat in 5 days time. Really liked the sound of it

[swansont]

Started reading Chris Mooney's The Republican Brain and have polished off several of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series.

 

Recently finished Daniel Okrent's Last Call, about the US prohibition movement, which was fascinating.

 

(Nice to be reading books again, now that I have an electronic device that lets me change the text size.)

[proximity1]

Amazon is a seriously dangerous thing - I am now £3.71 poorer and a copy of You Can't Read this Book is due on my door mat in 5 days time. Really liked the sound of it

 

 

Hmmm. Okay. I'd say "friends don't let friends go to amazon.com" --but that's just me.

 

For your information, I learned of the Cohen book when ethologist Richard Dawkins referred to it in

, found at Youtube.com.

 

And, now, more "dangerous" reading recommendations. THE NET DELUSION : The Dark Side of Internet Freedom by Evgeny Morozov; see Chapter One of the book (.pdf file).

 

Morozov also wrote an article for Slate.com published 19 March, 2012, A Robot Stole My Pulitzer! which I found published in a translation in this month's issue of Le Monde Diplomatique (page 28).

 

AMENDED TO ADD: A forthcoming book by Morozov, The Digital Fix: Smart Machines, Dumb Humans and the Myth of Technological Perfection (all topics near and dear to my heart) is scheduled (tentatively) for publication in March, 2013.

Edited September 13, 2012 by proximity1