currently reading....

[R00k]

Rant - Chuck Palahniuk

I'm pretty unsure about it. Has some funny ideas but i'm halfway through and the pacing is still slow... nothing happens, really

Yea, the way the interviews/oratories are sequenced, the pace of the book seems pretty slow at times, until you're near the end of it.

[Ryoki]

Well i finished Rant but i didn't like it - although things indeed got a bit better near the end.

New book:

Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb - Mike Davis

Short little interesting book.

[MKJ]

read Born on a Blue Day in mexico.

.. meh. first two chapters are interesting. the rest is just 'oh look at me im so gr8 oh im also gay lol'.

[Ryoki]

Who wrote that, also our dear friend Chuck?

[MKJ]

oh, no. wasnt implying such

daniel tammet, that savant guy whose able to describe how his mind works.

[Ryoki]

Ow, ok.

[seremtan]

am reading through iain m. banks's culture novels in more or less order of publication; up to 'excession' now

they're a decent enough read

[Grudge]

I've read them all, good stuff.

Now reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy, it's depressing as hell, so I'm taking turns with that and The Moral Animal by Robert Wright.

[R00k]

I finished The Road recently. I thought it was excellent. I may be biased, because I love his writing style, but I also thought the story was great.

Currently reading: Bangkok 8, by John Burdett. Great book, it's very refreshing for the mystery genre. Set in Thailand, and loaded with bits of Thai culture and personalities. If you like mysteries at all, you should check it out.

[Ryoki]

Macchiavelli - Il Principe

I've always wanted to read this. Now i have it, muhaha! Too bad i need to apparently know all the ins and outs of rennaissance era Italian politics to even begin to understand what the man speaks about. Or so claims the extremely lengthy and dry foreword.

also:

In Praise of Barbarians - Mike Davis

I liked Buda's Wagon so i got another book by the same guy. Mostly fierce anti-imperialist essays with a severely depressed undertone. I figure it's good reading for when i'm angry at the world or something.

[R00k]

I finished Bangkok 8, and it just got better the more I read. It seems that most mystery novels these days are just more of the same churned-out pulp to give addicts to the genre something to buy, which is why I never do read any of it -- though I've always loved Sherlock Holmes stories. This one came highly recommended so I picked it up, and I wasn't disappointed.

John Burdett has a gift. There will be some people who don't like this due to some of the anti-western sentiments, but if you're able to read between the lines you'll realize that it's just an honest expression of cultural differences, and also that it's more of a love/hate thing with the characters that's more subtle (and people who get bothered by that should take the stick out of their ass anyway).

The dialog is strong for this type of novel, and makes for interesting and entertaining reading. But the best part about the book is the twisted, sordid plot and the author's skill in unfolding it. Be prepared to learn about the Thai sex and drug trades and some of the police corruption that goes with them as well.
For fiction, I can't recommend this book enough.

[werldhed]

bump...

Started reading Atlas Shrugged.

About 230 pages in so far and I'm about to give it up. Terrible, terrible book.
I picked it up because it was at the top of a list of "Greatest novels" I saw. This is the same list that suggested reading "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Maybe I misread "Worst" as "Greatest".

Seriously, though. Anyone else read this crap? Does it improve at all? Or should I just cut my losses and pick up something untainted by Ayn Rand? I made the mistake of sticking with "Portrait" to the end, hoping it would get better. I don't want to make that mistake again.

[Underpants?]

well, well, speaking of Atlas,
reading a novel of a famous debate peer of Rand's:
Alan Greenspan Age of Turbulence
actually pretty good. Have a lot of respect for the guy--much more so than Bernanke, at least.

[Peenyuh]

Just cracked open.

Shit I Think About - Eddy Lepp

[Hannibal]

I should just cut my losses and pick up something untainted by Ayn Rand?

win

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

bump...

Started reading Atlas Shrugged.

About 230 pages in so far and I'm about to give it up. Terrible, terrible book.
I picked it up because it was at the top of a list of "Greatest novels" I saw. This is the same list that suggested reading "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Maybe I misread "Worst" as "Greatest".

Seriously, though. Anyone else read this crap? Does it improve at all? Or should I just cut my losses and pick up something untainted by Ayn Rand? I made the mistake of sticking with "Portrait" to the end, hoping it would get better. I don't want to make that mistake again.

Ayn Rand is utter tripe.

[l0g1c]

Uhm, you guys should be my friend.

http://www.goodreads.com/profile/blue_l0g1c

[werldhed]

win

Ayn Rand is utter tripe.

Awesome. That's all I need to hear. I'll go find something else to read. Thanks.

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

http://www.amazon.com/Bebop-Nothingness ... 0028704711

[Ryoki]

Just finished Atilla the Hun by John Man

More chaotically written than his book on Ghengis Khan, but it's forgivable since there's so few reliable sources on Atilla (the Huns didn't have an alphabet, so everything about Atilla was written by his enemies). I just love how this guy paints a picture of a world that was so incredibly different from ours. He takes the time, for instance, to explain in detail what horseback archery means in terms of training and military significance, how it ends up altering the way you look when it's all you do from childhood, how mindbogglingly difficult it is to actually hit a target, let alone accomplish the feet of firing six arrows in ten seconds whilst in a gallop, the near-impossibility of the Parthian shot, etc.

He's a good writer, one of those historians with a wild imagination - but he remains very credible throughout his books.

Gonna hunt for his book on Kubalai Khan next


Mao, The Unknown Story - Jung Chang & John Halliday

A sort of expose on Mao, where the two authors managed to speak to people in the know who had never spoken about Mao before and dove into archives only recently opened. The result is an incredible book, just incredible. Must read!


The Great Derangement - Matt Taibbi

Funny, tragic, makes you angry, makes you laugh. This guy can write.

[busetibi]

Lenin in Zurich-Solzhenitsyn.
bit of a disappointment after August 1914, but it is a second edition
and Willetts as a translator is a complete and utter twat

[Ryoki]

Uhm, you guys should be my friend.

http://www.goodreads.com/profile/blue_l0g1c

Hmm, funny site *mucks around with it*

[werldhed]

After giving up on Atlas Shrugged, I picked up A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.

I realized I didn't get a chance to finish it when I started about a year ago. Pretty good so far; have had a few chuckles. As an avid hiker myself, though, I'm already familiar with most of what he talks about. So I think it loses some the awe I imagine he's going for.

[Grudge]

So I read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Interesting, but not really anything new. I doubt any religious fanatics are "turned around" by reading it, so it's basically just preaching to the choir. That, plus the retoric gets a bit annoying at times left me a bit disappointed.

Then I read "The Moral Animal" by Richard Wright. A spirital successor to Dawkin's "The Selfish Gene" it offers very interesting evolutional take on human psychology. Plus, you learn a lot about the life of Charles Darwin, as the book is written around his life, comparing Victorian England to primitive societies and and the modern day. Very nice read, strongly recommended.

Now I'm reading "Nonzero" by the same author, which focuses on cultural evolution (as opposed to biological evolution in The Moral Animal), and it's main driving force - non-zero sum interactions. Not as solidly scientifically grounded as The Moral Animal, but still very interesting. It starts out with hunter-gatherer societies and moves on through history to the present day, and the last part of the book even goes into the future, and becomes rather speculative regarding the "purpose" of evolution and other teleological questions (he even talks at length about Teilhard de Chardain, which is a bit surprising, but entertaining nonetheless). I still have one chapter to go, but all in all it's a very interesting book, also strogly recommended, although I do recommend reading The Selfish Gene and The Moral Animal first.

[werldhed]

Finished "A Walk in the Woods" (B. Bryson) awhile ago -- nice, interesting read; grossly disappointing ending for someone who's been on top of Mt. Katahdin.

Started and finished "Kim" (Rudyard Kipling) -- Great storytelling; colorful language; interesting characters. A bit obtuse, but in a way that makes you want to explore what's happening... makes you want to read more -- and rewards you for diligence. Mystique and heavy prose done right (unlike, for instance, Atlas Shrugged). Ending is a bit abrupt, but I found myself still contemplating the characters after I put it down, which was probably Kipling's goal.

Started and finished "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" (D. Adams) -- Always wanted to read it, but never did, despite urgings from a friend all through middle and high school. I'm glad I finally found a copy. Great book; made me laugh. Didn't like his style of writing conversations, though. And again with the abrupt ending. I don't have a copy of "Restaurant" on me to just continue reading.

Hoping to find The Restaurant or King's Dark Tower series soon. Otherwise I'll start on "Slaughterhouse 5". Until then, I guess I'll see what else is in my Kipling collection...