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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2018 2:01:09 GMT
Currently reading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and it is AMAZING
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Post by mark687 on Dec 27, 2018 15:23:31 GMT
Stephen Hawking Brief Answers to the Big Questions
Regards
mark687
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Post by mrperson on Dec 27, 2018 21:32:38 GMT
Almost done with "Going Postal" (Terry Pratchett). Also read all the ones between "The Wee Free Men" and that inbetween. Finished "The 1950s" (David Halberstam) Started "Mass; The quest to understand matter from Greek atoms to quantum fields."
Next up in the physics run is:
"Reality is not what it seems: the journey to quantum gravity" (Carlo Rovelli)
"The order of time" (Carlo Rovelli).
May get myself "Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structur of Space, Time, and the Universe" (Jim Baggott), but I want to work out just how much it covers the same ground as the others.
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Post by tuigirl on Dec 28, 2018 13:35:02 GMT
Invisible Library book 5- the Mortal Word. I LOVE this series. A great mix of steampunk and fantasy, with great characters, action and intrigue. Now I am waiting for the latest Lincoln/Child mystery thriller coming out next week. Although not all of their books are always a hit with me, I won't lose faith in them because they had me surprised more than once. Looking at my list of books on my Kindle I am behind quite a lot with a massive backlog of 30 books... Definitely need to do more reading!
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melkur
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 3,971
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Post by melkur on Jan 27, 2019 19:30:43 GMT
Yesterday I finished reading 'And Then There Were None' for the first time. I know it's a big commitment, but I think I might have found my favourite book of the year...
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Post by aemiliapaula on Jan 27, 2019 21:34:14 GMT
Picked up the latest Rivers of London hardback with xmas gift card. I didn't even know a new one was out!
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,819
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Post by lidar2 on Jan 28, 2019 17:27:25 GMT
The Goat in the wilderness: Lloyd George 1922-31
very enjoyable
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melkur
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 3,971
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Post by melkur on Feb 2, 2019 1:37:44 GMT
This evening I finished reading 'Holes' and, you know, I think I loved it as much as I did when I first read it all those years ago around when it first came out...
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Post by mrperson on Feb 2, 2019 2:47:12 GMT
So.....I'd read the first four installments of The Dark Tower series by Stephen King when I was younger, and Hearts in Atlantis, a section of which intersects with the series. Think I was in High school or something. The dates make sense, as 1997 would've been my sophomore year, and that's when IV ("Wizard and Glass") came out. And then, in college, I'd fallen in love with Steinbeck, Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, etc., and forgotten all about King. When I was younger than that, I read some of his horror stuff, but honestly that seems juvenile now. Horror bores me, movie or book, these days. It's not scary. It's just silly to me. But I love it when King lurches towards fantasy or some other genre. That's when I think he's best. And The Dark Tower series is a sort of fantasy-western-arthurian, with a bit of light horror. But not really horror or close, even if the covers on these describe it as "fantasy-horror". So anyway, I just found out there are now 8.5 (and I think complete...but don't answer to tell me if he's not done, please). So I bought the rest, and in about two weeks I've gotten almost to the end of III. Then I'm going to read IV, then The Sisters of Eluria (set between the tale he tells of his youth in IV, and the events of I), and then V-VIII. They've been busy weeks too. I haven't much time to read but the pages fly. It's exactly as engaging as I expected. Weird, mysterious, sometimes vulgar, even maybe a little silly here and there, as well as oddly compelling. King at his best. I then have a bunch of books on modern physics and theoretical physics I will do my best to understand. I'm on "Mass <rest of long title forgotten>" by Jim Baggot now, and I've got two others by Carlo Ravelli (I want to say "Reality is not what it seems: something something the quest something quantum gravity" and "The Order of Time" - they are downstairs and I am lazy, so that's all you get). I know the true language of reality is mathematics, and I just don't speak it. At least, not at the level necessary to understand the equations. I know the English language is the most vulgar of approximations of what the math says and really isn't it, in the same way that our sense impressions about the world around us are a helpful illusion, and utterly unlike reality-in-itself. But I do like to try to see, just to glimpse the tiniest bit of it. But it's hard work. So I do a chapter at a time, when I can reread paragraphs until I think I understand exactly what is being said. These are longer projects. Another long project or two looms: - Jewish and Arab history from start to now. - Asian history, from start to now. - South American history, from start to now.
That's 10ish years at least, I'm sure. And then I have another 20ish years of books on the shelves in this house I haven't read, mostly biographies, and another 50ish years of books in my parents house. Don't think I'll have time for it all, unless I live far older than I ever wanted to and far older than is possible at this time. If that happens and I haven't had enough, maybe I'll finally around to teaching myself advanced mathematics...
And yet, even then, another pass through all of Tolkien does so beckon. My father may have given me the one true addiction one needn't shake when he read The Hobbit to me at age 5 or 6...then Lord of the Rings a couple of years later. I even remember sitting on the bus to school in first grade, looking around the bus to see if I could find Frodo. Kids, eh? He burned that world right into my soul, and I am incredibly glad he did. (They also got me into Who, even though they don't watch it now...despite my giving them S1 and S5 to see if they'd get into new Who. They don't seem to have).
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Post by mrperson on Feb 3, 2019 3:39:56 GMT
Oh right, and following on, I immediately spotted the Pratchett reference (hadn't read him yet, when I read the first four):
“See the TURTLE of enormous girth! On his shell he holds the earth. His thought it slow but always kind; He holds us all within his mind. On his back all vows are made; He sees the truth but mayn’t aid. He loves the land and loves the sea, And even loves a child like me.”
- "The Wastlands", p.60 (in my version, at least).
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Post by mrperson on Feb 8, 2019 3:41:24 GMT
Half-way through Book Four (probably finish by tomorrow evening's end, EST). The series grows less crude and less rough, more complex, as did King in his advancing age. It really is quite compelling. I look forward to the next give books' worth (a few thousand pages). I might be done in a month at most.
(Got to fly from MA to CA and then back for my sister's wedding.....and I can cover a ton of ground in 11-12h of daytime flight. Managed 2.5 Philliip K. Dick novels on the way back from CA last time, ten years ago). And for the first time since Tolkien, I am truly rooting for whom I see as the good guy(s). I'm properly invested. Authors rarely manage that with me. Well.......non-Who writers.
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,819
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Post by lidar2 on Feb 8, 2019 13:32:49 GMT
Class: The Stone House by A K Benedict
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Post by mrperson on Feb 9, 2019 2:13:28 GMT
****.
Nearing the end of Book IV, will helplessly be into V within the hour. I forgot what Stephen King did to a certain character, specifically that is. So very cruel.
As rarely happens, I genuinely want some kind of impossible happy ending when I reach the end of book 8 or 8.5. I don't usually. I usually appreciate stories with a sad, bleak ending. This time around I'm rooting for the good guy, truly rooting, a la Beren and Luthien. We shall see....
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,819
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Post by lidar2 on Feb 13, 2019 11:36:34 GMT
Star Wars Deceived by Paul Kemp
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Post by theotherjosh on Feb 18, 2019 19:39:04 GMT
Geek Myths, by our very own Tin Dog.
I loved this book. I recieved it for Christmas, started it, put it down because I wanted to make notes of all the reference, got sidelined by personal events, finally resumed it and finished it in one six-hour marathon session. Touching reflection on what it means to be a fan. I'm primarily acquainted with American fandom, but it seems many of the elements are universal. It pops with authentic details, such as the narrator wearing a Seal of Rassilon pin to a night school class as a quiet beacon to other fans who might be there.
Angels of Music, by Kim Newman.
Newman may very well be my favorite living author. The concept of the book is delightfully bonkers. It's a Charlie's Angels/Phantom of the Opera mash-up, told as a series of five linked novellas. The novella happens to be my ideal length for genre works anyway, but my impression is that there is no longer much of a market for them, because it has moved towards massive tomes anyway. It's clever and engaging and just fun to read.
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Post by masterdoctor on Feb 18, 2019 19:49:46 GMT
For a 5 credit independent reading course, I just finished reading and working on Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and am starting Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, which I found out has like 6 sequels/prequels/spin-off novels... I'm excited to dive in.
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Post by mrperson on Feb 20, 2019 0:05:18 GMT
Finished The Dark Tower series, all those thousands of pages. Trouble is the comment I would make regards a Who episode but would completely and utterly spoil the thing. So.... hopefully spoiler doesn't get buggy. But that was something else. Like Phillip K. Dick, King is no master of beautiful prose. But when he's not doing straight-up horror (boring to me), he can weave the most incongruous ideas together beautifully. He can maybe convince you to take today off work and make it up on Saturday....
Edit: I keep trying to say stuff in spoiler but the formatting gets all screwy.
I'm split between hating the ending and thinking that that is the only way it could end.
{Spoiler} And also what it means. Is it like Heaven Sent, where each turn of the wheel grants a few tiny blows? Or is it hopeless torture, for some unseen being's amusement?
How, after all the mythology of that world (unless a lie fed into his mind), could he find himself in such a position?
And even if there is hope, how much is there if the being(s) above would impose that?
I'm not sure King thought it all out. Feels like a bit of a cop-out. Fortunately, if it is, it's one that invites readers to open their imagination.
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Feb 20, 2019 14:36:09 GMT
Finished The Dark Tower series, all those thousands of pages. Trouble is the comment I would make regards a Who episode but would completely and utterly spoil the thing. So.... hopefully spoiler doesn't get buggy. But that was something else. Like Phillip K. Dick, King is no master of beautiful prose. But when he's not doing straight-up horror (boring to me), he can weave the most incongruous ideas together beautifully. He can maybe convince you to take today off work and make it up on Saturday....
Edit: I keep trying to say stuff in spoiler but the formatting gets all screwy.
I'm split between hating the ending and thinking that that is the only way it could end.
{Spoiler} And also what it means. Is it like Heaven Sent, where each turn of the wheel grants a few tiny blows? Or is it hopeless torture, for some unseen being's amusement?
How, after all the mythology of that world (unless a lie fed into his mind), could he find himself in such a position?
And even if there is hope, how much is there if the being(s) above would impose that?
I'm not sure King thought it all out. Feels like a bit of a cop-out. Fortunately, if it is, it's one that invites readers to open their imagination. I felt it was a great ending. And you could end it in one of two places, which i thought was quite clever i always saw it as {Spoiler} The story of the Novels is the penultimate run around the wheel as it were. He's grown more on this particular journey than he has on others. So when it starts up again at the very end, Gan has granted him the Horn of Eld he'd left behind every other time. And thats where the movie picks up. Although they could have done that better
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Post by mrperson on Feb 20, 2019 17:05:02 GMT
Finished The Dark Tower series, all those thousands of pages. Trouble is the comment I would make regards a Who episode but would completely and utterly spoil the thing. So.... hopefully spoiler doesn't get buggy. But that was something else. Like Phillip K. Dick, King is no master of beautiful prose. But when he's not doing straight-up horror (boring to me), he can weave the most incongruous ideas together beautifully. He can maybe convince you to take today off work and make it up on Saturday....
Edit: I keep trying to say stuff in spoiler but the formatting gets all screwy.
I'm split between hating the ending and thinking that that is the only way it could end.
{Spoiler} And also what it means. Is it like Heaven Sent, where each turn of the wheel grants a few tiny blows? Or is it hopeless torture, for some unseen being's amusement?
How, after all the mythology of that world (unless a lie fed into his mind), could he find himself in such a position?
And even if there is hope, how much is there if the being(s) above would impose that?
I'm not sure King thought it all out. Feels like a bit of a cop-out. Fortunately, if it is, it's one that invites readers to open their imagination. I felt it was a great ending. And you could end it in one of two places, which i thought was quite clever i always saw it as {Spoiler} The story of the Novels is the penultimate run around the wheel as it were. He's grown more on this particular journey than he has on others. So when it starts up again at the very end, Gan has granted him the Horn of Eld he'd left behind every other time. And thats where the movie picks up. Although they could have done that better Yeah,
{Spoiler} King does very strongly foreshadow that the next is likely to be the final pass. I suppose this is all what the oblique references to feeling a thousand years old meant, as well as all the references to characters knowing things but not knowing how.
Though I'd really rather King write the last loop rather than leave it to a short movie. At any rate, I feel the same way I do after finishing any great epic (ie, LOTR): all emptied out and soaked in introspection.
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Post by mrperson on Feb 20, 2019 22:51:18 GMT
At the wife's insistence, I'm about to begin "The Raj Quartet" (four books ....I think set in India a while back). But not quite yet. I might need to clear my head (and heart?) first with a little Terry Pratchett. His books always leave you with a wholesome feeling.
She'll read The Dark Tower series, she claims.
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