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Thread: Books!

  1. #61
    Finished World War Z yesterday. He totally flubbed the ending. I'd have liked more actually story in the stories - like dialogue and narrative. Hope the movie's good. Gonna watch Fido and Zombieland soon to get my fix.
    The Rules
    Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
    Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
    Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)

  2. #62
    The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. Really intriguing, I think I want to go into urban planning.

  3. #63
    Publication dates are not absolutely final yet, but The Evolutionary Void is tentatively scheduled for release in September 2010



    What!? No!
    I could have had class. I could have been a contender.
    I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum
    Which is what I am

    I aim at the stars
    But sometimes I hit London

  4. #64
    Quote Originally Posted by EyeKhan View Post
    Zombieland
    I approve.

  5. #65
    Cold River was awesome! But then, I enjoy Carla Neggers' writing style!

    Just started Murder Game by Christine Feehan tonight. I haven't read anything by her before, but so far it's caught my interest. Next up are the 2 new James Patterson novels...I. Alex Cross and Worst Case. Since I love his books, I was pleasantly surprised to find both of them on the shelf at the library today. He seems to be one of the more popular authors around here.
    I don't have a problem with authority....I just don't like being told what to do!Remember, the toes you step on today may be attached to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow!RIP Fluffy! 01-07-09 I'm so sorry Fluffster! People who don't like cats were probably mice in an earlier life! My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely!The nice part about living in a small town: When you don't know what you're doing, someone else always does!
    Atari bullshit refugee!!

  6. #66
    Quote Originally Posted by Ziggy Stardust View Post
    Publication dates are not absolutely final yet, but The Evolutionary Void is tentatively scheduled for release in September 2010
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  7. #67
    Just started reading When Worlds Collide. I love doomsday books and since this one was written in 1932 I think the global perspective and the science will be both instructive and curious. AFter Worlds Collide is in the same edition and that will be particularly intersting, I think. That film never got made either, so it will be all new.
    The Rules
    Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
    Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
    Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)

  8. #68
    'Hyperion' by Dan Simmons.

    edit: Gah, 'junior member'!

  9. #69
    Finally finished the 3rd book in The Sin War series for the Diablo universe. Pretty good story, and it was far enough removed from the game that the two didn't overlap, but since close enough that it helped me understand some of the key characters in the game a lot better.

  10. #70
    Finished Focault's Pendulum.

    Thanks Nessus for recommending that here, it was an enjoyable read..

  11. #71
    I'm glad you liked it!

    The book tickled me because it touched on many ideas and feelings I've had over the years, but what was most striking, for me, was how at the end of the book I felt, about the story, almost exactly the way the protagonist felt about his situation even though I only half-agreed with him! That, to me, felt like genius writing.
    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  12. #72
    Okay, so I WAS reading a history of the Erie Canal. But I finished it. Then a family member last night gave me a book called Elements of Investing.



    I started to read a few pages on the subway. Not sure I will finish, not exactly mind-bending literature.

  13. #73
    When I was in Australia I read the three bools from Simon Beckett, intresting thrillers:
    "Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt

  14. #74
    Just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

    Excellent. Very unusual style. Recommended.

    ~

    Movie came out last year. Ain't seen it tho.
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
    It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

    And that's Why I'm Voting Leave.

  15. #75


    Damn straight!
    I could have had class. I could have been a contender.
    I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum
    Which is what I am

    I aim at the stars
    But sometimes I hit London

  16. #76


    The wages of destruction are getting you ass kicked, apparently.
    When the sky above us fell
    We descended into hell
    Into kingdom come

  17. #77
    Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post

    The wages of destruction are getting you ass kicked, apparently.
    Title was probably originally: The Making & Breaking of The Nazi Economy: How *insert cause Y here* caused *insert effect X here* in Nazi Germany. To which the editor/publisher probably replied "The title sounds really boring and dry, how about we spice it up like this..." and so something obvious, yet gripping was born...
    . . .

  18. #78
    Quote Originally Posted by Illusions View Post
    Title was probably originally: The Making & Breaking of The Nazi Economy: How *insert cause Y here* caused *insert effect X here* in Nazi Germany. To which the editor/publisher probably replied "The title sounds really boring and dry, how about we spice it up like this..." and so something obvious, yet gripping was born...
    Is that a Mein Kampf joke?
    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  19. #79
    Senior Member
    Join Date
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    I am going to try to read "Il Principe".
    Congratulations America

  20. #80
    Just finished His Majesty's Dragon, started earlier today with only one real break. I suppose I liked it. It was a lot better than I expected it to be.

    I know. Shutup.

  21. #81
    Throne of Jade done.

    I know. Shutup.

  22. #82
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Amsterdam/Istanbul
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    12,312
    Maybe we should move this thread to the book forum ?
    Congratulations America

  23. #83
    Quote Originally Posted by Wraith View Post
    Throne of Jade done.

    I know. Shutup.
    You're such a goof.

    Dragons.
    We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.

  24. #84
    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  25. #85
    HITLER
    When the sky above us fell
    We descended into hell
    Into kingdom come

  26. #86
    HIMMLER
    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  27. #87
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Amsterdam/Istanbul
    Posts
    12,312
    Kershaw? This is a re-read right ?
    Congratulations America

  28. #88
    I read the Finnish edition of Kershaw's Hitler, which was an abridged, compiled translation of his English two-volume original, Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris and Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis, which I'm now working my way through on my commute etc.
    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

  29. #89
    I finished When Worlds Collide / After Worlds Collide last weekend. The first one was very well done, wrapped up nice and tight, exciting and fascination. The second had a good start, built some interesting problems, then ended rather abruptly. Considering the setting, I'd have thought the authors would have taken in somewhere further than
    Spoiler:
    Commies and Nazis vs. the Americans and Brits, but whatever.

    A few observations:

    Recall this book was writtin in the early 1930s. Because its a global story, you get a glimpse into the geopolitics of the time. Because the story is sci-fi, and written by scientists, you get a glimpse of scientific thought of the time. You also get a sense of the state of racial interaction. (Over and over the main character refers to his "little Jap house boy." Hilarious.

    The technology was interesting too - the alien civilization artifacts they encountered on the new world were highly advanced and entirely metalic. They used very light, brightly colored, superstrong, and occasionaly transparent metals. No mention of plastic at all anywhere. And no television - though the schools in the abandoned alien cities used 'visual machines' to teach. I recall reading that television was originally hailed as the ultimate education tool. (lol) The aliens end up being a variant of humanity, for some very unimaginative reason. They even mentioned, before they saw images and statues, were they like big insects? Were they lizards? What did they LOOK like? They looked Italian.

    The authors also had virtually no understanding of radiation - their space craft were powered by atomic reactors, which on the new world they dismantled and used as super powerful cannon - no radiation sickness. And no uranium - the atomic engines ran on berylium. They also hadn't thought of magnetic containment. One of the main obstacles in the first book was trying to find a metal that wouldn't melt under the atomic heat so they could complete their rocket engines.

    Religion was a big part of the story too. The characters were all atheistic scientists yet profound coincidences occur to allow them all to survive and they eventually confess that the whole catastrophe must be part of god's plan.

    In the second book the conflict devolves into a fight between Nazi allied Communists and Americans over women. Yes, they needed the American women, and to be fair, there was a surplus.
    The Rules
    Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
    Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
    Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)

  30. #90








    In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
    The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

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