What are you reading?

tis good

Just started the Strain, which was co written by the dude that directed Pans Labyrinth. Should be interesting

Thomas Sowell - Race and Culture. Oh fuck yes. Probably the best writer alive on social matters. He has a scientists mind and a rare level of honesty. Runs everything through rigorous study and verification. Easily the best work on Race I have ever read.

What's even worse was the unauthorised sequel written by wait for it, J.D California, which was supposed to be released last year. It was set 60 years later and was titled Coming Through the Rye, but Salinger managed to sue the author and prevent a release. Think you can still get copies from somewhere though as I read a scathing review of it in Merge mag...

That sounds ridiculous haha.

I just finished Something Wicked This Way Comes and it was really good. At times all the metaphors and analogies overwhelm the action at the time, but if you stick with it, it's worth it...

For my next read, I have the much lauded World War Z, by Max Brooks in my possession. I finally decided to splurge on the fairly pricey asking price they had for it over here (twice a regular paperback), so I hope it's worth it!

I'm a huge zombie mythos fan so I'm really keen. Hopefully I can hunt down the 'Survival Guide' afterwards to continue the journey. For those here that have read the guide, is it worth it?

Glock

It - please tell me you find out why It's so after those 7(i think) people



that's really gonna shit me if you don't

Why he's after them?

You do find out why in a way I guess. I've summarised what I can remember from memory. I mention some stuff from near the end of the book so take a look at the risk of spoilers...

Woah there, Terry Pratchett's turtle is clearly borrowed from the, possibly apocryphal, tale of the "Turtles all the way down" riposte to Bertrand Russel/William James/Whoever's question about infinite regression, at a lecture. I'm pretty sure I heard Stephen King has a habit of referencing it in his books as well.

Ha, really, didn't know of that one. Interesting...

Currently reading "Off the Air" by Mike Carlton, the reporter.
It's got nothing to do with any real life story he's covered, it's a purely fictional, very funny novel. Really light and easy to read, but also very clever.

Set in the UK it centres around a community radio station taking on a huge newspaper. It's funny and doesn't hold back on the naughty sex and drugs bits either.

I'm currently reading Fast Food Nation. It's a book I always wanted to read and got reminded of it the other day (reading something on the net about food chemistry; a subject I am interested in) and was luckily able to find it.

Speaking of food chem, the well known taste of Macca's fries and indeed most of their menu tastes the same across the world now because they use engineered flavours to ensure raw material (meat, potatoes) will tastw uniform across the world. In the old days the fries got their distinctive flavour from a mixture of oil and beef tallow, the latter was outlawed by food administrations, so they kept the flavour the same by using an artificial flavour derived from beef tallow lol.

It's really good so far, an interesting look at not only the machine behind the big fast food companies but also the impact their dominance has had on many aspects of society, from the traditional American cattle ranching jobs, farming, working conditions in slaughterhouses etc.

It goes way beyond the issue usually mentioned, the obesity epidemic.

A fascinating read, and well worth it if you're into muckraking books or can tolerate non-fiction (for some reason I know plenty of people who just can't do it).

A professor of philosophy at Oxford makes an argument for the strong possibility that we are all living in a simulation (depending on your willingness to accept 2 assumptions): http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.pdf

It's only 11 pages long, take from it what you will. Known to elicit anything from perspective changing contemplation to laughter.

Been a while for this thread

ok so In finished It a while ago. The more i think about it, the more meh it was. I know being a fantasy horror book, there's gonna be some not-so-believable moments, but some bits literally had me saying to myself "you've got to be fucking kidding me" (none more so with the 11 year old gang bang-ridiculous)

Next was Anansi by Neil Gaiman who's fast become one of my fave authors. Dude's imagination is out there

That was followed by Horns by Joe Hill. Guy's highschool sweetheart is raped and murdered, and it's widely thought he did it. He has a massive night one night and wakes up with horns. When people are around the horns, they feel compelled to tell him their most fucked up secrets. Pretty cool book

at the moment is Val McDermid's from the Wire in the Blood series

Hahaha classic. I reckon King's got a bit of a thing for the pedo shit it crops up in heaps of his stories...



The Matrix?

http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~jgreene/GreeneWJH/Greene-Dissertation.pdf

Joshua Greene's Princeton PHD dissertation about how there is no such thing as ethics* and what you should do because of that fact. It's excellent. I'm most certainly buying his book when he completes it. It is written incredibly clearly, with relatively simple prose and a minimum of domain specific language as well. It's free. Read it!


*Well, no such thing as statements of moral or ethical truth. Right and Wrong are logically meaningless, etc.

I've started reading that Frankenstein series Quazza talked about earlier in this thread. It's not terrible at least (I'm maybe halfway through Book One), but it's definitely not out and out grabbing me.

The narrative seemed a little disjointed at first (admittedly it's getting better) and I'm cringing at Koontz's massive overuse of similes and metaphors. Most are downright banal while others are made ridiculous for the sake of trying to inject some humour into proceedings. Eg. "...one hand clutching the crotch of his low-rider pants as if he were a two-year-old overwhelmed by the need to pee." This was after a gang-banger gets kneed in the balls; it seems an absurd comparison to make.

That's the other thing that is irking me, he's taking what could be a fabulously dark story and constantly throwing in lame humour that ruins that atmosphere, usually courtesy of the wise-cracking partner of the female cop character, in true cliched "buddy cop movie" style.

Now I've always preferred King to Koontz, in fact this is probably the second Koontz book I've ever read, and if is this is how is style usually is, I can't see myself trying out any more. Admittedly King is fairly heavy-handed with the similes and metaphors as well but they just seem to be a little more graphic and serious when he uses them. Plus any humour in his books is usually quite dark.

Thankfully, Frankenstein is getting slightly better as we go along, I want to find out the answers to a few of the mysteries being posed, so I hope it's going to prove it's worth.

At this stage though it's one of those books where I'm reading it as quickly as possible, not because it's compelling, but because I want to get it out of the way and get started onto other promising books I have waiting.

Which is never a good sign.


PS. I know it's probably the publishers doing so but the "comments and praises" for the author section was ridiculously egotistical in the front of this book. It was literally 10 pages of small type font of critics blathering on about how good he is. I have never seen anything on that level before lol.

I've never really got the point of those things either. I mean, by that stage you've usually either bought or borrowed the book and got to the point of cracking it open to read it, right? It's not like 10 pages of wank over how good the author is will make you read it any more enthusiastically. If anything it's going to let you down if they fail to live up to the hype!

I really liked those books

You've read Underworld. Paaaaages of obsequious DeLillo cock chugging. From famous literati by the bucket load. That guy who wrote 'the English Patient' for instance. Ondaatje? Admittedly, apart from the final sentence*, largely deserved, but still.


*Seriously, "peace". Fuck you, Don. The whole last 2 pages are bad enough, but that particular choice of final statement? Fuck you in your pretentious gaping void.

What's funny is it always seems to be the award winning books that chock out the praise pages. Wouldn't the fact it won an award be enough of a selling point?

I really enjoyed the start of that book, the atmosphere of that game was really well described. In fact, most of the scenes set well in the past were really interesting.

Definitely not deserving of all that "greatest American novel of the last 25 years" or whatever pap they were going on about. Then again I can't think of any really great American novels in that time so it probably got there due to lack of competition.

I'm reading Perfume at the moment


I just want it to be over

  What complaints do you have about it? I have a couple myself.



I don't know. You could probably cut one particular character/minor story arc out of that book, and make him rewrite the last few pages and it would make a solid case for being the best of that period. I think it deserved the Nobel that year. A man with that many idiosyncrasies, pretensions, and bullshit obsessions is bound to have flaws in a 900 page novel, but I appreciate his flaws at times. Motherfucker can write prose, and I tend to be somewhat of a formalist.

As far as competition goes, a Toni Morrison novel was awarded best novel of the last quarter century a few years back. You could stab DeLillo in the Broca Area and he'd still out write Toni Morrison. I still say Blood Meridian crushes the competition, and McCarthy has produced most of the top 5 American Novels of the current era.

Remove McCarthy and I can't think of any American who has written anything that can be considered in the same sentence with My Name is Red or 2666, though.

Its just, I dunno, boring. I get the what the writer is trying to portray, I just think maybe my tastes have moved on from "beautifully written" dull crap

I just read this delightfully fucked up short story from Chuck Palahniuk.

Warning for those of a delicate disposition.

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/features/shorts/guts

More stories found here: http://chuckpalahniuk.net/features/shorts


PS. Quazza, there is another Frankenstein book out if you're keen. It's the first in a second trilogy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Souls_(Dean_Koontz_novel)

As for myself, I'm onto book 2 now. I didn't really see how it could go on after the first one wrapped up a lot of questions but the last few chapters resolved that. It's getting nicely weird.

Yer I've read all 3

This is a new one mate...

ah fantastic. I'll grab it tonight

Cheers for the heads up

reading this at the moment




As someone who's read a fair bit of Zombie fiction, it ranks right up there with the best

Just finished reading Last Exit To Brooklyn last night - seriously fucking weird novel...

finished this last night and went right onto the 2nd. Fkn wicked. Written as diary of one of the few survivors, a soldier

The author himself has served in Afghanistan, so the military side of it is really on point

Not bad, though. He is one of the more palatable and talented Beat Gen novelists/affiliates. His head never completely disappeared up his own arse, which gives him a distinct advantage over most of the Beatniks.

Oh don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it, just found some of the sections a tad bizarre. Also, the ultraviolent rape scenes he described so intricately kind of made my stomach churn, and I have quite a tolerance for these things. All that aside the writing, while unconventional, was brilliant, and the long train-of-thought paragraphs were something else. I think I counted 5 pages without a full stop

It's the first of Selby's books that I've read, are there any others that you would recommend Psuedo? Would be keen to see if Requiem is as good as the movie adaption...

Honestly, it is the only one of his works I've ventured in to. I'm told, by a couple of sources, that Requiem is on a par with the film. One of the sources was a bit of a beatnik, though.

Requiem was a fantastic read. Really stayed with me that one

Though I haven't seen the movie

Oh cheers Quazz, I'll give it a read...The movie is excellent too, I recommend it.

Also, I'm going to start calling people beatniks from now on

I finished the first Dean Koontz Frankenstein trilogy the other day and I must say for my misgivings ranted about earlier, to their credit books 2 & 3 were a lot tighter and had some interesting imagery. It was great when all the mutated shit started popping up.

I'll even be grabbing the fourth one when I see it! Quite a turnaround lol.

I'm now back on the non-fic with David Halberstam's famous book Breaks Of The Game, all about the politics and behind the scenes action of the NBA in the late 70s/early 80s as he follows the Portland Trailblazers recovering from the loss of Bill Walton, 2 years after they won the championship with what many say was the most complete team ever seen.

Good going so far, I love the insider look at things. This was a time when basketball had just started to pay individuals ridiculous sums of money like other sports had been doing, ushering in the new generation of overpaid, guaranteed contracts and prima donna "stars".

the fourth one is getting canned from all angles

Did you get it yet?



Edit: I'm reading a few of the reviews of the new one on Amazon...

i specifically didn't buy COS of the Amazon reviews!

Re-reading Journey to the End of the Night. Fuck Celine can write. Very funny in parts, and highly quotable. Basically he creates an anti-hero in Ferdinand Bardamu, a character who closely parallels Celine's life and thoughts. A nihilistic, misanthropic asshole, who signs up for world war one mostly as a rebellious joke at the end of an argument/discussion with a friend; only to realise he is not much interested in war, is a huge coward (and completely content with this fact, in fact thinks it is the only rational way to be), thinks everybody is fucking nuts, and is largely apathetic and non combatant even in the midst of battle. It also follows a bit of Celine's post war life, as a man whose moral outlook really isn't effected by war.

Haven't been reading too much fiction lately, but I did finally purchase 'A Brave New World' by Huxley last week, and look forward to starting that.

I did finish an interesting business-based book called 'ReWork' by Jason Fried in 90 minutes last night. Jason and his business partners started 37Signals, a software development company, which has very quietly made them rather wealthy by only doing a few things really well, and keeping their business lithe, agile and small.

Their take on how to approach starting a business, and the almost-visceral philosophies behind how they turned theirs into a success, make for a very compelling read.

I hope to get through 'Drive' by Daniel Pink, 'Linchpin' by Seth Godin and 'The Big Switch' by Nicholas Carr over the net few days.

Love my iPad and Kindle app. It's exactly what I have been waiting for.

I've been on a bit of a food journey lately, watching heaps of the Asian Food Channel and I've been reading a few of Anthony Bourdain's books. I'm currently on The Nasty Bits and earlier I read A Cook's Tour and Kitchen Confidential.

The guy has a real sardonic streak to his writing and he doesn't pull any punches. It's been really informative and entertaining reading. I now know a lot more about what goes on in the food prep business and have been inspired to really enjoy the opportunities I have to eat good food.

I've read his first book. Was really good. For the reasons you stated, I really liked his writing style

The TV show "A Cook's Tour" is good too, he cruises around to different countries and eats local food. The book makes a nice companion to the footage as well, giving some extra details and behind the scenes stuff.

I was particularly intrigued by the eating of a live, beating cobra heart in Saigon, followed by a shot of rice wine mixed with the fresh blood and then another shot mixed with the fresh bile from it's liver. Then the snake flesh is prepared in a variety of dishes and subsequently eaten.

That guy eats anything!

finished Haruki Murakami's: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle the other week

epic read, poetry in motion on so many levels, twisting and turning into massive simultaneous crescendos, some serious darkness in there with moments of great enlightenment too, inter-universal symbolism/metaphora...... 

WOW! just read it


currently reading Norwegian Wood by the same author... meh

New book I just started:



Great stuff so far, I love my basketball and inside sports stories so it's been fascinating reading about Magic and Larry's careers and rivalry "from the horse's mouth".

'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins

isnt that on jam session? are you realing in the yeeeeeears.  biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiird.

cant tell u what they are coz there not here, but reading the terminator files which goes heaps more in2 detail than the movies.
gives u a totally diff perspective of it.
gotten me back in 2 reading.
luvin it

Just read the following in the last 2 weeks (yeah, no PC or xbox or PS3 or TV so bored as fuck):

Spook Country by William Gibson - great thriller, but not as impactful as his cyberpunk novels.
It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect by Rodney Dangerfield - fairly interesting and often funny, but doesn't really delve into his life too deeply.
Yes Man by Danny Wallace - hilarious! Danny decides to say Yes more, and it's hilarious where he and his friends end up.

I would like to read more, but the price of books here is as ridiculous as in Australia.

check out the uk book depository. Books are sometime 75% cheaper and free shipping

Yeah, well I could just use the library too... but not having an actual residential address makes both getting a library card and shipping more difficult than it should be

But when I do have an address I'll look at that site 

I am now the owner of the most awesome little bit of technology to come around since the lots-and-lots-of-memory-so-I-can-store-all-my-music-in-my-phone-and-computer-card. The Kindle. I have already downloaded a book and am nearly halfway through it as I can't put the light little thing down! I just ordered a snazzy red leather case for it too, so I'm not scared of scratching the awesome bookiness.

Now I need to get on the DL of some books. I'm currently reading a Chick-Lit special by Marian Keyes called Last Chance Saloon. It's mindless, it's fluffy and it's fast to read. Good for planes, general phasing out and pretending you live the same fabulous life of some of the characters.
Next I'll probably look into fleshing out my Ken Follett collection as Pillars of the Earth and World Without End are brilliant.
I'm also going through a bit of a Edwardian/Tudor/Medieval phase. Any recommendations? I have just finished Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel about the life of Cromwell and his rise through the Henry VIII courts. A bit slow to start but if you like your (slightly fictionised) history, it's a good read.

Anyone use the iPad for reading on?

What's it like compared to Kindle / other readers?

Don think I'll ever get into the kindle/ipad book reader thingys. I like actual books too much.

Currently reading Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet's, Good Omens. I love N.G, and this is a fkn funny take on the appocolypse

One of the main demons, Crowly - any cassette that's in his car for more than 2 weeks, turns into Queens Greatest Hits 

I thought the same until I was given one for Xmas. Oh my God, it's so light, it's so thin and it's so portable and it also has the capability for over 2000 books. At once.
I've even ordered a snazzy red leather case for it so I can chuck it in my bag without fears of scratches. I love books, but I am currently in love with my Kindle.
One thing though, the screen can sometimes have a bit of a reflection which plays with my eyes.

I like the smell of new books though

Hmm, i just took nerdy to strange new places.........

I downloaded the new Ken Follett book last night. Cost me $5 and I had it instantly.

There's a big debate between Rob Frost and Oli somewhere on the board about this very topic. It might be in the Mac thread or maybe there's an ebook thread somewhere.


Edit: Found it mate. Enjoy the one-eyed fanaticism. http://www.adelaidemassive.com/index.php?topic=6494.0

I am finished with "The art of positive thinking" by doctor Norman Vincent Peal. It really works for me. It gives me a bunch of new thoughts and it makes my life easy to go on.

Well here's another new thought for you.

 Dude thats pretty harsh!

Dude thats pretty harsh!

 

I'm pretty sure that sunny29 user is some kind of spam mate. Note the signature going to some accomodation site. Also check out he/she/its two posts...

I am finished with "The art of positive thinking" by doctor Norman Vincent Peal. It really works for me. It gives me a bunch of new thoughts and it makes my life easy to go on.


 I am having HTC Windows Mobile old version and I am satisfied with my phone in every functionality. If anyone want to buy a new phone then i would recommend HTC Mobiles.

Link to accomodation in the sig and their other post in the phone thread says spam/advertising bot.

Link to accomodation in the sig and their other post in the phone thread says spam/advertising bot.

I must say they are getting pretty sophisticated though hey...relevant postings in the right threads and all that!

I just checked out the site in the sig and it's ugly!

 

 This was my strategy

 

Ayahuasca by Ralph Metzner It's a book about people who used Ayahuasca like Shamans, etc., and the stories of the people involved. Trippy shit.

Link to accomodation in the sig and their other post in the phone thread says spam/advertising bot.

Sucks that admins can change sigs doesn't it!

Sucks that admins can change sigs doesn't it!

Rather than doing that why not just ban them?

Because the poster has a bunch of new thoughts and their life will be easier to go on! Maybe that art of positive thinking can rub off on a few people here?

 Spambot posting on topic AND making an insightful comment.

 HOW MANY OF YOU OTHERS ARE SPAMBOTS?

I used to be a spambot but the money was shit and the hours sucked. But mainly it was way to hard to post relevent comments in threads about shit that no one cares about like what book im reading

currently. Lucifers Lottery by Edward Lee.

if there's any horror fans out there do anything you can to read Lee. probably the only author that can make me squirm

Spambot posting on topic AND making an insightful comment.

 HOW MANY OF YOU OTHERS ARE SPAMBOTS?

Is this where I come out of the spam-closet?

Anyway, having a Judy Nunn streak right now. Currently reading Maralinga, about the British nuclear tests in the desert. It's not her best work, but it's still very engaging. The little snippets of fact she weaves through there to keep it historically relevant are fascinating! The local aboriginal deaths from the testing and the fallout that may or may not have happened over Adelaide for example. Keen to research the last bit some more!

Anyway, having a Judy Nunn streak right now. Currently reading Maralinga, about the British nuclear tests in the desert. It's not her best work, but it's still very engaging. The little snippets of fact she weaves through there to keep it historically relevant are fascinating! The local aboriginal deaths from the testing and the fallout that may or may not have happened over Adelaide for example. Keen to research the last bit some more!

Is that the Home & Away actress?

Is that the Home & Away actress?

I didn't realise that until just then! Holy crap! Well, she writes fairly well!

I used to be a spambot but the money was shit and the hours sucked. But mainly it was way to hard to post relevent comments in threads about shit that no one cares about like what book im reading

 

I didn't realise that until just then! Holy crap! Well, she writes fairly well!

Haha. I saw the name and thought "huh?"

Rise To Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 - Stephen E. Ambrose & Douglas G. Brinkley

Laugh a minute stuff right there.

Rise To Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 - Stephen E. Ambrose & Douglas G. Brinkley

Laugh a minute stuff right there.

Stephen E. Ambrose... isn't that the Band of Brothers author?

Apparently so. Haven't read Band Of Brothers, but I would assume the style of writing is quite different to this.

I didn't know that Band of Brothers was a book as well... I only watched the TV series and they were really good. Is the book worth reading?? If so, I'll take a look into Rise to Globalism as well

As I said, I haven't read Band Of Brothers, nor have I watched the TV series, but I would imagine it's very different to 'Rise To Globalism'. I'm reading this as it's actually a textbook for one of my topics at Uni. It is interesting so far, but is most certainly not written as a story.

I didn't know that Band of Brothers was a book as well... I only watched the TV series and they were really good. Is the book worth reading?? If so, I'll take a look into Rise to Globalism as well

Perhaps. I have read "With The Old Breed" by Eugene Sledge which is what they based a lot of "The Pacific" on and it was an enjoyable and interesting read (I also have the follow-up "China Marine") so I think BOB is probably fairly good.

Accordin the the BoB Wiki page, there was quite a bit of creative license used when adapting it to TV.

Accordin the the BoB Wiki page, there was quite a bit of creative license used when adapting it to TV.

Didn't he co-write the screenplay for the series as well though? I suppose you would have to make it more dramatic in places though.

He's credited for 2 episodes on IMDB. It just says on the Wiki page that there are quite a few differences between recorded history and the filmed verison.