Books discussion
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Re: What are you reading right now?
I am currently reading The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich.
I also got a large box of, mostly, Analog SF for Christmas.
I also got a large box of, mostly, Analog SF for Christmas.
- In_My_CrossHairs
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Re: What are you reading right now?
Oh, that book! I've seen it at my library, but never read it. Is it any good?
What I'm reading now is The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. Actually very interesting.
What I'm reading now is The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. Actually very interesting.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), British statesman and philosopher
The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.
Friedrich Nietzsche
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), British statesman and philosopher
The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Re: What are you reading right now?
After I finished Grendel, I:
* Read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick - the book Blade Runner was based on, I hear, though I haven't seen the movie. Really good book, lots of you have probably read it; it's about a bounty hunter on earth whose job is to 'retire' rogue androids. A lot of the book is exploring whether there is a fundamental difference between android and human, and what the significance of emotions is.
* Finished Nightside the Long Sun, read Lake of the Long Sun, and realized my library doesn't have Calde of the Long Sun (even though it has Exodus from the Long Sun!), leaving me unable to finish the Book of the Long Sun until my inter-library loan request is fulfilled (if ever). Which sucks, 'cause the BotLS is awesome - almost as good as the BotNS. It's about an intergalactic generation starship whose inhabitants aren't aware they're on a spaceship (or even what a spaceship is), and the political/religious/military affairs of a certain city inside the spaceship.
* Read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick - the book Blade Runner was based on, I hear, though I haven't seen the movie. Really good book, lots of you have probably read it; it's about a bounty hunter on earth whose job is to 'retire' rogue androids. A lot of the book is exploring whether there is a fundamental difference between android and human, and what the significance of emotions is.
* Finished Nightside the Long Sun, read Lake of the Long Sun, and realized my library doesn't have Calde of the Long Sun (even though it has Exodus from the Long Sun!), leaving me unable to finish the Book of the Long Sun until my inter-library loan request is fulfilled (if ever). Which sucks, 'cause the BotLS is awesome - almost as good as the BotNS. It's about an intergalactic generation starship whose inhabitants aren't aware they're on a spaceship (or even what a spaceship is), and the political/religious/military affairs of a certain city inside the spaceship.
For I am Turin Turambar - Master of Doom, by doom mastered. On permanent Wesbreak. Will not respond to private messages. Sorry!
And I hate stupid people.
The World of Orbivm
And I hate stupid people.
The World of Orbivm
- Midnight_Carnival
- Posts: 836
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- Location: On the beach at sunset, gathering coral
Re: What are you reading right now?
Read a short story collection by Ursula somebody or other -The Fisherman of the Inland Sea. Not too impressed by it, she seems to be a good writer, I just don't like her that's all. Also reading collected short stories of Kipling, those can be amusing. And the Reader's Digest Illustrated Encyclopedia of Gardening (fatfun!!!). Started reading Running With the Demon by Terry Brooks, but I really don't know what to make of it. Want to re-read Perdido Street Station by China Melville. Want badly not to re-read a number of romanticly inclined emails and letters I haven't gotten round to deleting.
Favorite author: Phillip K. Dick
Favorite author: Phillip K. Dick
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
Re: What are you reading right now?
The Gate of a Hundred Sorrows is my favourite Kipling short story. It's about an opium house. I hope it's in your collection. Baa Baa Black Sheep is a bit woe is me, but memorable nonetheless.Midnight_Carnival wrote:Read a short story collection by Ursula somebody or other -The Fisherman of the Inland Sea. Not too impressed by it, she seems to be a good writer, I just don't like her that's all. Also reading collected short stories of Kipling, those can be amusing. And the Reader's Digest Illustrated Encyclopedia of Gardening (fatfun!!!). Started reading Running With the Demon by Terry Brooks, but I really don't know what to make of it. Want to re-read Perdido Street Station by China Melville. Want badly not to re-read a number of romanticly inclined emails and letters I haven't gotten round to deleting.
Favorite author: Phillip K. Dick
I enjoyed The Scar by China Mieville. The floating city idea was cool. I haven't read Perdido Street Station.
Good is simply that which is willed. - Eugene Halliday
- Eleazar
- Retired Terrain Art Director
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Re: What are you reading right now?
Gene Wolfe is an amazing and imaginative writer, but ultimately his stories IMHO aren't about anything... there's no message, no point, no focal idea... just random events, interesting in themselves but with no real connection or larger significance. This leaves a bad taste in the mouth after reading, even though his skill at putting sentences and pages together is probably greater than any other active sci-fi writer.turin wrote:* Finished Nightside the Long Sun, read Lake of the Long Sun, and realized my library doesn't have Calde of the Long Sun (even though it has Exodus from the Long Sun!), leaving me unable to finish the Book of the Long Sun until my inter-library loan request is fulfilled (if ever). Which sucks, 'cause the BotLS is awesome - almost as good as the BotNS. It's about an intergalactic generation starship whose inhabitants aren't aware they're on a spaceship (or even what a spaceship is), and the political/religious/military affairs of a certain city inside the spaceship.
Feel free to PM me if you start a new terrain oriented thread. It's easy for me to miss them among all the other art threads.
-> What i might be working on
Attempting Lucidity
-> What i might be working on
Attempting Lucidity
Re: What are you reading right now?
Behold:Sgt. Groovy wrote:Someday I'm going to write a new version of LotR, told from the Sauron's POV.
"Poslednij Kolcenosiec" by K. J. Yeskov
The title means roughly "The Last Ringbearer" or "The Last Lord of the Ring", and, well, it's in Russian. It's been translated into Polish, but there's no English translation that I could find. See http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Kirill_Yeskov for a link to some unofficial, partial translations.
The book is... interesting. More orc POV than Sauron's, it's about how the people of Middle-earth were pushed into a war based on lies and propaganda that portrayed orcs as savage beasts. Victorius human armies kill innocent orc civilians, wizards are power-hungry maniacs wanting to crush Mordor (Saruman being the voice of reason), Aragorn is a bloodthirsty lunatic etc., etc., in general a nice twist on the black-and-white LOTR setting.
Re: What are you reading right now?
cancer ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
going very slowly as i find it hard to remember russian names and find myself flicking back to remind myself of who the characters are
Hyperbolic geometry James W Anderson
one of my favourite areas of Mathematics
and reading in general is going slowly due to exams.. =(
going very slowly as i find it hard to remember russian names and find myself flicking back to remind myself of who the characters are
Hyperbolic geometry James W Anderson
one of my favourite areas of Mathematics
and reading in general is going slowly due to exams.. =(
Re: What are you reading right now?
Well I have finally made a decision on this part and will read "About Death" first.Thanatos wrote:So, I just finished the collection of Death myths by Schopf yesterday.
Now I can't decide which to read first:
Camus, "Der glückliche Tod" (The happy Death)
or
another collection of philosophical texts and poems called "Über den Tod" (About Death).
This decision is quiet difficult.
It's more fitting into my 30mins-reading-time-before-sleep schedule, atm.
Oh, for the German users...
Keel / Vonlanten (Hrsg.):Über den Tod. Poetisches und Philosophisches..., Zürich: Diogenes.
ThanatoNoth | Necromanteion | Undead Rights Protection Society
"The gods can demand nothing of me. Even gods answer to me, eventually. [...] I cannot be bidden, I cannot be forced. I will do only that which I know to be right." (Death in Pratchett's "Mort")
"The gods can demand nothing of me. Even gods answer to me, eventually. [...] I cannot be bidden, I cannot be forced. I will do only that which I know to be right." (Death in Pratchett's "Mort")
- Midnight_Carnival
- Posts: 836
- Joined: September 6th, 2008, 11:08 am
- Location: On the beach at sunset, gathering coral
Re: What are you reading right now?
Thanatos: Not Satre?
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
Re: What are you reading right now?
After Nightfall, i've gotten back into Arthur C. Clark's "space odyssey" series. I've finished 2010 and am in the middle of 2061. I think 2001 is probably the best in the series, but these are certainly good too.
Re: What are you reading right now?
If you mean "Sartre": I've read several (philosophical) texts of him already, but it seems I am more into Camus' variation of Existentialism for some reasons - especially with regards to the questions of "Why to live at all?" and "What is this all about?". Sartre on the other hand is quiet interesting literature on the topic of freedom and responsibility, although I think he didn't explore the consequences of freedom very deeply - else he maybe would have come to some similar conclusions as Camus did.Midnight_Carnival wrote:Thanatos: Not Satre?
Hey, at least they were friends for a while and both got a Nobel prize for literature (yeah and Sartre was arrogant enough not to accept it ).
ThanatoNoth | Necromanteion | Undead Rights Protection Society
"The gods can demand nothing of me. Even gods answer to me, eventually. [...] I cannot be bidden, I cannot be forced. I will do only that which I know to be right." (Death in Pratchett's "Mort")
"The gods can demand nothing of me. Even gods answer to me, eventually. [...] I cannot be bidden, I cannot be forced. I will do only that which I know to be right." (Death in Pratchett's "Mort")
Re: What are you reading right now?
Always heard DADOES was good..turin wrote:After I finished Grendel, I:
* Read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick - the book Blade Runner was based on, I hear, though I haven't seen the movie. Really good book, lots of you have probably read it; it's about a bounty hunter on earth whose job is to 'retire' rogue androids. A lot of the book is exploring whether there is a fundamental difference between android and human, and what the significance of emotions is.
* Finished Nightside the Long Sun, read Lake of the Long Sun, and realized my library doesn't have Calde of the Long Sun (even though it has Exodus from the Long Sun!), leaving me unable to finish the Book of the Long Sun until my inter-library loan request is fulfilled (if ever). Which sucks, 'cause the BotLS is awesome - almost as good as the BotNS. It's about an intergalactic generation starship whose inhabitants aren't aware they're on a spaceship (or even what a spaceship is), and the political/religious/military affairs of a certain city inside the spaceship.
I'm Reading Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. It's a trippy book. Next up in engrish class is To Kill a Mockingbird.. I hate that book. It deserves none of the praise it gets. Lord of the Flies was better, and William golding couldn't bother to tell you who was talking.
I'm probably just a bibliophobe..
Wesnoth Laws of Physics>The Real World's Laws of Physics
Re: What are you reading right now?
What don't you like about it?Snappl wrote:Next up in engrish class is To Kill a Mockingbird.. I hate that book.
Good is simply that which is willed. - Eugene Halliday
Re: What are you reading right now?
The fact that they made a movie out of it. The American they were speaking meant that I couldn't understand a SINGLE word of it. Subtitles saved the day. The movie would also be better if it was silent, or in German. (I can identify about five words in German, that's five more than the number of words in American I can identify).bert1 wrote:What don't you like about it?Snappl wrote:Next up in engrish class is To Kill a Mockingbird.. I hate that book.
Or the fact that I had to write an essay on it. 600 words (mine ended up closer to 900 I reckon), 90 minutes, no notes permitted, question unseen until the 90 minute countdown began. Was not difficult though.
JW's Wesnoth personality quiz wrote:You are a Skeleton: a lifeless animation of bone controlled by a necromancer. See a therapist.