What are you filthy heathens reading atm?

Bannasidhe

MagicMarker wrote: »

I did almost give up straight away tbh, found it awfully derivative. But glad I stuck with it as it was a really enjoyable page turner in the end. Will defo keep Reacher in mind next time I want a less taxing read.

Next up, I, Claudius.

I LOVE I, CLAVDIVS.

I also found Graves' Goodbye to All That to be one the most remarkable books about WWI I have ever read.

swampgas

Just started reading "You are not so smart" by David McRaney, and am enjoying it immensely. It consists of 48 chapters, each one describing a way in which our minds can deceive us. Easy to read and quite entertaining. Some familiar topics like confirmation bias and the fundamental attribution error, many less familiar topics such as how susceptible (or not) you believe you are to being recruited into a cult.

kylith

swampgas wrote: »

Just started reading "You are not so smart" by David McRaney, and am enjoying it immensely. It consists of 48 chapters, each one describing a way in which our minds can deceive us. Easy to read and quite entertaining. Some familiar topics like confirmation bias and the fundamental attribution error, many less familiar topics such as how susceptible (or not) you believe you are to being recruited into a cult.

Sounds like a good read, I must keep an eye out for it.

Just started Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway. Good so far.

MagicMarker

Currently reading Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, tis good so far!

GLaDOS

With all the hype around the new Twilight, I decided to go for some Vampirism myself, picked up Dracula and 'Salems Lot yesterday.

Turtwig

kylith wrote: »

Sounds like a good read, I must keep an eye out for it.

Just started Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway. Good so far.

Check out his blog it's quite interesting.
I don't know how scientifically accurate his stuff is. I'm always a bit dodgy there. He does cite references and stuff, but with popular science you have to thread with caution.

[-0-]

Currently reading The Life of Pi. Loving it.

dakan

Currently reading "Servants of the Supernatural, The Night Side of the Victorian Mind", by Antonio Melechi.

It is about the rise of mesmerism, spiritualism and seances in Victorian England.

It interesting to learn about how people like Alfred Russel Wallace was taking in by this stuff (to an extent). And how people like Micheal Faraday came up with clever ways to expose it as a fraud.

Zillah

ScienceNerd wrote: »

picked up Dracula

Prepare to be disappointed.

Aenaes

Zillah wrote: »

Prepare to be disappointed.

What!? Why? I liked Dracula, thought it set a very good atmosphere.

ShooterSF

Just read "The Collector". Talk about a book that makes you feel uncomfortable empathy.

kylith

ShooterSF wrote: »

Just read "The Collector". Talk about a book that makes you feel uncomfortable empathy.

It is quite odd for a book to be written in such a way as to make you empathise with a character so far removed from a normal literary protagonist, Lolita is another one I think, but it's a fantastic novel.

Zillah

Aenaes wrote: »

What!? Why? I liked Dracula, thought it set a very good atmosphere.

I found it dull, with a stilted plot and no sense of pace or flow. Ending is a gigantic "oh...".

MagicMarker

[-0-] wrote: »

Currently reading The Life of Pi. Loving it.

Started on this myself yesterday.

Dades

Aenaes wrote: »

What!? Why? I liked Dracula, thought it set a very good atmosphere.

Likewise! Read it a couple of times during my Bram Stoker phase.

It's no Twilight of course...

Turtwig

Ok I seriously have to ask. I know almost nothing about Twilight. Is it really that bad?

robindch

No idea. Never heard of it.

Aenaes

Zillah wrote: »

I found it dull, with a stilted plot and no sense of pace or flow. Ending is a gigantic "oh...".

I found it a bit chilling at times, I have to admit. The way the locals are so fearful of the Count and his castle, Harker's encounter with the wolves and the desperation of his writing when his fiancee is reading his diary. It's the kind of book I'd love to have read when it was first published.

Jernal wrote: »

Ok I seriously have to ask. I know almost nothing about Twilight. Is it really that bad?

It was written as Harry Potter fan-fiction, afaik. So that's enough for me.

I'm nearing the end of The Company by John Ehrlichman.

Dades

robindch wrote: »

No idea. Never heard of it.

*cough* Liar!

Next you'll claim you've never heard of Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian (I won't believe that either. :P)

Bannasidhe

robindch wrote: »

No idea. Never heard of it.

I saw the film - was confused as to why J.K. never mentioned that Cedric Diggory 'came back' as a vampire....

It was one of those films where it's sheer awfulness suck you in ...I was also stuck on a small island in Clew Bay and there was nothing worth watch on TG4.

Zillah

Jernal wrote: »

Ok I seriously have to ask. I know almost nothing about Twilight. Is it really that bad?

The vampires sparkle in sunlight as though covered in glitter, the fanbase is almost entirely women desperately obsessed with the two male leads, and the entire thing is drenched in a cloying, repulsive sexual metaphor: The male vampire lead literally wants to kill the female protagonist, and his abusive, dangerous self is utterly irresistible to her - they must resist their terrible urges because it would destroy them. The author is, not surprisingly, a mormon, who believes in sexual purity.

gvn

gvn wrote: »

I've just started Melville's Moby Dick, and what a tome it is. I tend to struggle (i.e. lose patience) with longer works, so I imagine this will take quite a while for me to finish. Still, what an opening paragraph!

Not a tome at all, it turns out; the edition I picked up includes several of Melville's novels, and I thought the entire book (spanning 1500 or so pages) was the one novel. That's what I get for buying old books in old bookshops with nondescript, undescriptive covers. I thoroughly enjoyed Moby Dick, I have to say, and it has spurred me to read another one or two of Melville's novels, but not just yet.

I've started re-reading The Case of the Pope by Geoffrey Robinson Q.C., having forgotten most of its contents after my original reading a couple of years ago. I've begun to read Hitchens' The Trial of Henry Kissinger, too, simultaneously with Robinson's book. After both, next up is Robert Graves' I, Claudius, which I'm really looking forward to.

Sarky

If you've never read/watched Twilight, here is all you need to know about the first two films. In lolcat. I actually think the dialoge and characterisation is superior here:

The first one: http://microsuede.blogspot.ie/2008/11/movie-review-twilight.html

The second one: http://microsuede.blogspot.ie/2009/11/movie-review-twilight-saga-new-moon.html

[-0-]

MagicMarker wrote: »

Started on this myself yesterday.

What do you make of it?

Sulla Felix

Aenaes wrote: »

I found it a bit chilling at times, I have to admit. The way the locals are so fearful of the Count and his castle, Harker's encounter with the wolves and the desperation of his writing when his fiancee is reading his diary. It's the kind of book I'd love to have read when it was first published.



It was written as Harry Potter fan-fiction, afaik. So that's enough for me.

I'm nearing the end of The Company by John Ehrlichman.

And fifty shades of grey was written as twilight fan fiction. It's like a human centipede of shít writing.

ShooterSF

kylith wrote: »

It is quite odd for a book to be written in such a way as to make you empathise with a character so far removed from a normal literary protagonist, Lolita is another one I think, but it's a fantastic novel.

It is very strange. While I will check out Lolita I think I'm going for something a little less disturbing for now.

MagicMarker

[-0-] wrote: »

What do you make of it?

Yeah I'm liking it, eager to see how it turns out!

[-0-]

MagicMarker wrote: »

Yeah I'm liking it, eager to see how it turns out!

I finished it last night. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I'll chat to ya once you've finished it - don't wanna risk ruining anything.

Hotblack Desiato

anyone read His Grace Is Displeased yet ? Dunno whether I'd want to spend money just so I can rage at that cnut a little more...

MagicMarker

Just read H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu". I loved it from the opening paragraph...

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining it its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

For anyone on a kindle, his complete collection (or as complete as you're gonna get) is only $3.68.

DapperGent

All his work is in the public domain and someone very kindly kindle/nook packaged it all.

Guilt free (he left no heirs) piracy here:
http://cthulhuchick.com/free-complete-lovecraft-ebook-nook-kindle/

MagicMarker

Yeah I realise it's out of copyright, but I find collections such as the one I linked to are generally better organised and formatted compared to the free ones. Something I'm happy to pay a couple of euro for.

That being said, I haven't looked at the one you linked to so for all I know it's just as good.

DapperGent

It's really well done I think. Which as you say is unusual for (legally) free ones thus far.

Sarky

Lovecraft. Terrible writer, but a fantastic story teller.

CerebralCortex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep

MagicMarker

Finished up Slaughterhouse-Five this morning, will start on The Brothers Karamazov later.

[-0-]

Reading Ten Men Dead by David Beresford. The story of the 1981 Irish hunger strike.

Whether you give a toss about this or not, I highly recommend reading it. It's a serious, serious book.

Bannasidhe

Popped into Waterstones about half an hour ago to do OH a favour. Discovered GOT Dance with Dragons II is out - I did not know this :mad:.

Now I am happy as I have to read them all again to refresh my memory.

The Mad Hatter

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Popped into Waterstones about half an hour ago to do OH a favour. Discovered GOT Dance with Dragons II is out - I did not know this :mad:.

Now I am happy as I have to read them all again to refresh my memory.

Hm, everyone else seems to love these books - I might have to give them another shot.

Dades

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Discovered GOT Dance with Dragons II is out

Whaaaaaaaaat??

EDIT - Okay so this is a release of some stuff on paperback that was only in the Kindle version??

Dammit, I soiled myself for nothing. :pac:

nozzferrahhtoo

I do not usually read fiction at all these days but just finished "Six Suspects" by the author who wrote Q&A (Also known as the film slumdog millionaire). For no other reason than it was on the shelf.

Awful book. Really really awful. Was entirely predictable most of the way through to the point you just knew what was coming on the next page long before it happened and quite often the next chapters too. With the few exceptions where the story just became so pointlessly fantastical and ridiculous that literally no one could guess just how silly the next twist in the story would be. Such as a phone call leading to a target missile drone strike by the US military which happens to kill everyone except the main character who is then rewarded a suit case of 15 million dollars cash for his troubles.

Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

Did however also finish "Children of God" the science fiction equal to "The Sparrow". Both books were enjoyable.

GLaDOS

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Popped into Waterstones about half an hour ago to do OH a favour. Discovered GOT Dance with Dragons II is out - I did not know this :mad:.

Now I am happy as I have to read them all again to refresh my memory.

Dades wrote: »

Whaaaaaaaaat??

EDIT - Okay so this is a release of some stuff on paperback that was only in the Kindle version??

Dammit, I soiled myself for nothing. :pac:

I just got the Tome of a hardback which had everything when it originally came out

Bannasidhe

Dades wrote: »

Whaaaaaaaaat??

EDIT - Okay so this is a release of some stuff on paperback that was only in the Kindle version??

Dammit, I soiled myself for nothing. :pac:

Never checked if it was out for Kindle as I have all the others in hard copy and assumed they would release at the same time - but now I have and yup - it came out in March.

The point is I didn't know it was out in any format and now I do and I am happy so stop trying to rain on my parade Mister!

My OH did say she had never seen two nerds beam at each other as much as myself and the sales guy in Waterstone. I was happy for me, he was happy for me, we were happy happy nerds. We may have done a little dance with joy.

Bannasidhe

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I just got the Tome of a hardback which had everything when it originally came out

STOP TRYING TO KILL MY BUZZ DUDE! :mad:

Dades

I'm just jealous.

Though I'm saving the DWD audiobook for the future (the first 4 are amazing!)

keane2097

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

Hm, everyone else seems to love these books - I might have to give them another shot.

Not everyone, I read the first and gave it up about 85% of the way through because I thought it was terrible. Went back and finished it a few months later and have to say the ending was just utterly predictable and pretty lolbad in terms of conception as well.

End of GoT book 1 spoiler:

Hmm, petrified dragon eggs, I wonder what these are going to end up doing. Kudos to Martin in that I didn't expect the dragons to end up drinking milk from a 13 year old girl.

Will probably take a look at the second one in the hopes that it's a vast improvement.

Bannasidhe

keane2097 wrote: »

Not everyone, I read the first and gave it up about 85% of the way through because I thought it was terrible. Went back and finished it a few months later and have to say the ending was just utterly predictable and pretty lolbad in terms of conception as well.

End of GoT book 1 spoiler:

Hmm, petrified dragon eggs, I wonder what these are going to end up doing. Kudos to Martin in that I didn't expect the dragons to end up drinking milk from a 13 year old girl.

Will probably take a look at the second one in the hopes that it's a vast improvement.

Have to say I found his portrayal of the dynamic of dynastic politics and power plays to be extremely accurate. Wish academic history books were able to get it across that well.

keane2097

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Have to say I found his portrayal of the dynamic of dynastic politics and power plays to be extremely accurate. Wish academic history books were able to get it across that well.

The scheming and power plays are intricate and clever alright, which is the book's main (only?) real redeeming feature, but this is tempered somewhat by the naivety that some of the characters of necessity display in falling into the various traps which makes the whole thing less believable.

Stark the chief culprit here. "Noble" doesn't have to mean naive and incompetent to the point of stupidity and putting your family in obvious danger. The whole storyline with the horse warriors was very poor IMO, although if there have been societies that would remove a king after decades of being undefeated in battle for falling off his horse while fevered I suppose I could give the whole thing a bit more credit.

The Mad Hatter

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Have to say I found his portrayal of the dynamic of dynastic politics and power plays to be extremely accurate.

Yup, I liked that a lot, but I thought they were highly over-written (that coming from me, I know) and there were a few too many Americanisms that I felt jarred too much with the tone and the society he was writing about. I groaned at lines like “Ser Alliser Thorne walked from the room so stiffly it looked as though he had a dagger up his butt”.

Made it about half way through A Clash of Kings before I decided I wasn't getting anything from the books that I wouldn't eventually get from the tv show anyway.