StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Here's a riddle for you. What's two words for mind screw? The answer is Slaughterhouse-5.

perfume story of a murderer. I've finished Therese Raquin. God that story is depressing.

Right now I have Shield of Faith by B. Bruce-Briggs, to be followed up by On Escalation and Thinking about the unthinkable (both by Herman Kahn), The Fifty-Year War : Conflict and Strategy in the Cold War by Norman Friedman, and The Missile Defense Equation : Factors for Decision Making by Peter J. Mantle.

Thank goodness for the OhioLINK intra-library loan system, and an English professor who doesn't know what he's in for.

Currently reading Welt ohne Wasser, it's quite interesting. I'm trying to find a copy of Taming the Landmine, but no luck so far.

Just ordered the latest dresden book, almost finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

His Divine Shadow wrote:Just ordered the latest dresden book, almost finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

Quite a change in gears. I think you'll enjoy the Dresden book. I just finished it and now I'm onto the next Mercy Thompson book, as well as finishing the second Nightlife book by Thornton.

Right now, I'm reading Dzur, having finished the last of Dragon this morning and managed to blow through all of Issola today.

I don't have enough respondants at my station. I'm in serious danger of running out of reading material before the 19th. Plus, of course, the Vlad Taltos books are stuff you'll just tear right through, like your favorite comfort food, and they're not very big.

I'm reading the Posleen books. They were okay time-passers until the author started going on and on and on about fucking Sluggy Freelance. The terrible references awkwardly worked into the dialogue to any number of nerdy things is driving me up the wall too. I don't recognize most, but when the dialogue starts to sound dumb, I'm sure there's a reference I missed in it somewhere.

I really should be reading my textbooks. Fucking finals, this is always the time of year when I start reading my way through an entire series of books instead of studying.

Just finished "Redezvous with Rama" by Arthur C Clarke (got it back from a friend and decided it was time for a re-read)
In the middle of "Use of Weapons" by Ian M Banks (finally got a copy for myself) and "Inside Intelligence: The Revelations of an MI6 Officer" by Anthony Cavendish (interesting insights in to the great game in Europe and 'Palestine' in the aftermath of WW2)

About to start on "Dreaming Metal" by Melissa Scott

Found a nice old (nowhere near original, wish I could afford such a thing) collected edition bound copy of "Foundation", "Foundation and Empire", "Second Foundation" and "The Stars, Like Dust" by Isaac Asimov. Didn't have a copy of 'Stars' and although Asimov thought it his worst work the copy does look quite nice and near mint.

I'm trying, but failing, to read the Unauthorized Guide to The Simpsons - the weird prose (he describes something, then goes on to list a bunch of quotes from various places) is getting in the way.

I'm also working on Bart Ehrman's Jesus, Interrupted.

In the pipe-line is a re-read of R.Scott Bakker's The Warrior-Prophet, and Hernando De Soto's Mystery of Capital.

Finished The Knight by Gene Wolfe. It was interesting - I enjoyed it, but the way it was written made it hard to follow.

Also have finished Eye of the Storm by Higgins which was just silly fun.

And am working on The Deceiver by Forsyth.

Currently reading 1984 by (obviously) George Orwell, and even though the plot and premise are basically common knowledge it's still well worth reading. I'm not anywhere near the grizzly torture yet and the description of how the Oceanean society works makes my skin crawl. I suppose what's really frightening is although Oceania is a bit of an exaggeration in terms of how total the police states control over things is, this condition of being constantly in fear for our life, suspicious of everyone, unable to open up to anyone, ever, must actually be a decent approximation of what it's like to live in such a state.

I'm also struck by just how different the context of his life must have been to mine, because I can't imagine living in the kind of scarcity that must have existed in Britain while rationing was in effect, let alone the Soviet style conditions in the novel. Not just in terms of what's enforced on the members of the Party, but things like 'washing clothes in the street? this is Britain, doesn't she have a washing machine?' Of course not, this is pseudo-Soviet resource-starved paralell universe Britain!

Next up I really don't know. I may start on The Blind Watchmaker by Dawkins again (I tried to read it once, couldn't get past about half way) or Peter F. Hamiltons The Naked God since I've read the other two (they're just so damn long).

A friend of mine just finished his PhD thesis and sent me a copy. It's "Spectroscopic Investigation of Indium Bromide for Lighting Purposes" (pdf, 20Mb).

I fear that my flirt with this book will be a short one. I'm currently reading the introduction (chapter 1), but after that, all these weird Greek symbols and mathmagic start spicing up the text. Then again, my education is not even close to his level and it followed a different branch. Some people on this forum might find it enjoyable, tough.

This week I finished the Dresden Files book Changes and the graphic novel Persepolis.

Yeah, the later's part of this Philadelphia-wide reading thing. Still awesome.

The draft of my PhD thesis...over and over again...if I wasn't bored with it a month ago, editting has pushed me well over the edge!

I'm finally going to start on the second novel of the Dread Empire Falls trilogy by Walter Jon Williams. I liked the first one ("liked", not "loved"), and I have the second one from the library.

I just finished Andrew Young's The Politician, which is basically an expose on John Edwards from Young, his former aide. It's . . . fascinating in its own way. Not just because of how flawed and messed-up the Edwardses often come across, particularly after the whole affair debacle, but because of how it ends up portraying the author, who comes across as sleazy and a complete toady right up to the point where the Edwardses were no longer able to promise him big rewards financially in exchange for his rank servility.

I am enjoying the Cal Leandros novels by Rob Thurman. They're pretty funny in an intentionally over-the-top-way. The main characters carry a katana and a Desert Eagle, but the author's in on the joke so it works really well.

I just finished Silver Borne, the Mercy Thompson book, and I was pretty disappointed. Changes, by Jim Butcher, on the other hand, was amazing.

Next I'm going to read The Desert Spear by Peter Brett. It's the sequel to The Warded Man, which was an excellent read.

I'm done a bit more Higgins (Valhalla Exchange).

I also read the first 4 trades of "Scalped", which is a brilliant story and I can't wait for the library to get more of it in.

And when I walked into the library the other day I saw a sign... John Ringo's "Ghost" was just *there*, first paperback shelf, first book I saw. And I knew that it was a sign from on high that I had been a very bad person and needed to read this as punishment.

Bob the Gunslinger wrote:

His Divine Shadow wrote:Just ordered the latest dresden book, almost finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

Quite a change in gears. I think you'll enjoy the Dresden book. I just finished it and now I'm onto the next Mercy Thompson book, as well as finishing the second Nightlife book by Thornton.

I dunno if it's the volcano but my book hasn't arrived so I've been passing the time with Fall of Reach instead.

Just finished the first Dresden Book Storm Front not entirely sure what I think of it. It was a pretty light read and interesting enough but it didn't exactly pull me in the way other books have.

Finished Salute the Dark by Adrian Tschaikovsky. That's volume four of Shadows of the Apt, which is probably the most original piece of fantasy seen in years. I've quite liked the series so far.

Next up is Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian C. Esslemont and then a couple of Gene Wolfe collection volumes.

Crazedwraith wrote:Just finished the first Dresden Book Storm Front not entirely sure what I think of it. It was a pretty light read and interesting enough but it didn't exactly pull me in the way other books have.

The second one isn't much better. It's not really until the third book that things really click in the Dresden Files, but when they do, it's worth the wait.

Vilains By Necessity, by Eve Foward.

She tries to deconstruct typical fantasy novels, but it's... not that good, really. Entertaining, tought.

The Art and Archeology of Venetian Ships and Boats by Lillian Ray Martin.

A study of the iconography of Venetian shipping from the 9th through 15th centuries; I'd hoped for more 15th and 16th century coverage, but it's a lovely addition to my slowly-being-restored book collection at any rate.

Crazedwraith wrote:Just finished the first Dresden Book Storm Front not entirely sure what I think of it. It was a pretty light read and interesting enough but it didn't exactly pull me in the way other books have.

Remember that first and foremost Dresden is supposed to be entertainment that is, it is supposed to be light reading.

At least most of you won't have to get over the major geographical gaffs he made in regards to Chicago in the first 5 or 6 books (He'd never been to Chicago until he'd written that many of them - now that has been remedied, and he has several contacts in Chicago now to keep him straight on those things. Oh, and Google Earth, which would have prevent the Wrigley Field Gaff. But why spoil things for the rest of you?)

Anyhow, most recently finished Homecoming by Patricia Briggs, a Mercy Thompson graphic novel. Currently re-reading for the umpteenth time Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes by Stephen J. Gould. Aside from being a good read in general, it's interesting to read "Belt of an Asteroid" which dates from when the Alvarez Impact Theory was very new and quite controversial (and certainly before Chixculub Crater was found).

Next on deck: Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia.

Still waiting for the library copy of the Dresden Changes as well as the new Mercy Thompson Silver Borne