Books you bought recently/are planning to read

Post by **Pext** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:27 pm

usually i read when i'm taking a dump.
or on my free days between getting up (12:00) and breakfast (14:00 or 15:00).
if i have uni i usually read in the evenings before i leave for evening activities like cinema, bars or parties - or - early in the morning if i can't find any sleep - i've been a bit of an insomniac lately.

current books:

* a classical introduction to modern number theory - ireland/rosen
* das schloss - kafka
* formal concept analysis - ganter
* gödel escher bach - hofstadter
* shadowmarch - tad williams

Post by **dnoyc** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:39 pm

tnf wrote:
R00k wrote:I just finished Jordan's Knife of Dreams and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll - just started Alice in Wonderland.

Currently reading/in-use/put down for the time being:
The Brothers Karamizov and Crime and Punishment
Don Quixote (only about halfway through it)
MS Press VB .net core reference and two other VB .net books
And Sherlock Holmes always sits on my bathroom table.

Coming up next:
Just got the complete Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe for Christmas, which is probably what I'll be starting on next.
Still want to read Angels and Demons, and Deception Point by Dan Brown

I've got several more at home waiting for me to pick up, just haven't had enough time to read lately. =\

I gave up on Jordan's books about 3 or 4 books ago. Went through the first 8 or so, then everything just hit a standstil. Can't remember which book it was, but one of them was about 900 pages of absolutely nothing. You read the whole book - waiting for over a year for it, and the plot is not furthered at all. He lost me after that. Bummer too, because the series started with so much potential. I think he almost created a monster he couldn't control with how many branching storylines he had going at once.

books 9 and 10 were trash. but the last book, KoD is really good.

Post by **dnoyc** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:40 pm

tnf wrote:Here's a question -
When do most of you do your reading? I usually only read before going to sleep. I wish I could make myself do some more reading during the day - I get easily distracted with all the tech gadgets around the house though.

i usually read for a few hours before i go to sleep, or at work. i don't watch any tv at all, and i don't play wow or anything so that leaves me plenty of time to read and work out.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:03 pm

Alvin Toffler, read he Future Shock and the Third Wave but left them at my ex ex ex GF.
Also The Y King from Confucius That I left there also. And I would like Howard Hughes my brother says it is far from the movie Aviator or the opposite I think. I mean the book is far more real than the movie.

Post by **chiQ** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:27 pm

I've mislaid my copy of Going Postal, but that's what I'd like to be reading :icon26:

Post by **werldhed** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:06 am

I was just about to start a thread like this...
Oh well...here we go:

Just finished:
-Haroun and the Sea of Stories -- Salman Rushdie (great)
-The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova (pretty good, but slow)
-The Idiot - Dostoevsky (terrible. not nearly as good as C&P)

Currently reading:
-The Golden Ratio - Mario Livio
-King Lear - Shakespeare
-Immunobiology, 5th ed. - Janeway
-A shitload of journal articles.

Next up:
-The Essential Victor Hugo
-Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (*snicker*)
-Lake Wobegon Days - Garrison Keilor (got halfway through and decided to pick up a different book because it was unimpressive. I might give it another shot).
-Collection of Works by E.A. Poe that I might peruse through sometime.

I usually do pleasure reading on the toilet or just before bed. During the day, all of my reading is journal articles and textbooks.

edit: I also got a Foxtrot collection for xmas that I've been browsing in my free time. Hilarity.

Post by **tnf** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:23 am

werldhed wrote:I was just about to start a thread like this...
Oh well...here we go:

Currently reading:
-Immunobiology, 5th ed. - Janeway
-A shitload of journal articles.

I usually do pleasure reading on the toilet or just before bed. During the day, all of my reading is journal articles and textbooks.

edit: I also got a Foxtrot collection for xmas that I've been browsing in my free time. Hilarity.

I've got the fourth edition of Janeway's Immunology...from way, way back in graduate school in 1998. I didn't need it for a class, but I wanted a reference book on immunology and it was pretty good. Came with a very handy little immunology handbook.

Immunology is great stuff.

Post by **tnf** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:08 am

Heh...check out Neal Stephenson's website if you haven't. Some funny stuff about himself and why he isn't too big on emails from fans.

Also - here is his description of writing the Baroque Cycle:

Colophon

The manuscript of The Baroque Cycle was written by hand on 100% cotton paper using three different fountain pens: a Waterman Gentleman, a Rotring, and a Jorg Hysek. It was then transcribed, edited, formatted and printed using emacs and TeX. When it was totally finished, the TeX version of of the ms. was converted to Quark XPress format using an emacs LISP program written by the author. Some share of credit thus goes to the people who made the GNU/Linux operating system and to the originators of LISP. Maps were produced by Nick Springer with useful input from Lisa Gold, who also organized the family trees and assisted in the preparation of the Dramatis Personae. The geometrical illustrations (Apollonius of Perga's conic sections and the woodcuts from Newton's Principia Mathematica) were prepared by Alvy Ray Smith, working from scans or photographs of old books.

here is said manuscript:

Post by **ajerara** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:43 am

Have two books in waiting, Kite Runner (Xmas gift), and Sound of Thunder (Bradbury short stories)

Just finished the Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. Am eyeing Karamazov, may give it another try. Looking for Martian Chronicles in my local bookstores.

Post by **Grudge** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 11:03 am

I just finished this one:

And I've just started this one:

Post by **busetibi** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:18 pm

mik0rs wrote:Been thinking of checking out the Gulag Archipelago for a while,

if you can find a copy,(second hand book shops etc) get, One Day in The Life Of Ivan Denisovich.
also,
check out, Anne Applebaum - Gulag A History, published by Penguin, its along the same lines as G A but shes not as dry as Solzhenitsyn

edit:
Chasm City is a damn good read Grudge

Post by **Ryoki** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:32 pm

busetibi wrote:if you can find a copy,(second hand book shops etc) get, One Day in The Life Of Ivan Denisovich.

:iconthumbsup:

Post by **tnf** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:16 am

bumpy.

just picked up this -

A good synopsis of the major aspects of biochem.

Still pushing through Cryptonomicon too. My wife just started reading my copy of "Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates."

Post by **werldhed** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:53 am

Heh...I was just thinking about bumping this with an update.

I finished The Golden Ratio and it sucks. A lot. It has very little indeed to do with the golden ratio.

Right now I'm alternating between:
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe (currently on Murders at the Rue Morgue)

Post by **HM-PuFFNSTuFF** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:56 am

werldhed wrote:Heh...I was just thinking about bumping this with an update.

I finished The Golden Ratio and it sucks. A lot. It has very little indeed to do with the golden ratio.

Right now I'm alternating between:
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe (currently on Murders at the Rue Morgue)

Poe owns. (period)
Have you read The Fall of the House of Usher yet? Truly brilliant. He was an early pioneer of the detective novel as well.

Post by **Hannibal** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:04 am

Poe is indeed the man. The big ass single volume of his complete tales and poems is never far from my bedside.

Post by **werldhed** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:05 am

I know. I think Rue Morgue was considered to be the first real detective story. He's also well known as a literary critic, which I only recently discovered.

I read House of Usher once, long ago, but I'll be reading it again soon. The Raven remains my favorite work of his, but I'm hoping to find something new in this collection to replace it.

Post by **bitWISE** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:10 am

Last thing I read was Religion Wars. Great book. I should find something else to pick up.

Post by **HM-PuFFNSTuFF** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:12 am

PuFF's q3w suggested reading...

Jose Luis Borges Labyrinths

Post by **Chupacabra** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:17 am

just picked up Dan Brown's Angels & Demons.

Post by **werldhed** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:18 am

It's kind of meh... but like The Da Vinci Code, it's an enjoyable read.

Post by **Chupacabra** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 7:44 am

ok cool...will see how it goes

Post by **Grandpa Stu** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 7:48 am

Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

it's a follow up to Wicked. I read wicked and fucking loved it; son of a witch seems to living up to the first books legacy so far so chances are i'll love this one through and through too.

for those that dont know wicked was basically the untold story of the wicked witch of the west from the wizard of oz series. it's pretty sick and twisted--it's great. son of a witch takes up after where the wicked witch of the west dies.

Post by **mik0rs** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:02 am

Chupacabra wrote:just picked up Dan Brown's Angels & Demons.

Ditto, half way through. There's something I like and something I don't like about his style.

And what the fuck was he thinking calling a Brit "Gunther".

Post by **Deji** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:36 am

Master and Margarita - Bulgakov obviously.

Books you bought recently/are planning to read

follow the yellow brick road bitches