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I finished reading Fifteen Days, by Christie Blatchford on Wednesday. It was good, heart-wrenching though. I've started reading The Ingenuity Gap, by Thomas Homer-Dixon. It's a touch dated though.

I'm about a third of a way through, Naamah's Curse by Jacqueline Carey. So far it's... decent enough, I suppose, but nothing stellar. Jacqueline Carey seems to be losing her touch a bit. Moirin isn't as interesting a character as either Phedre or Imriel, the protagonists in the first two trilogies set in the same world, and while magic in the previous books was generally more subtle, if mentioned at all, this new trilogy is rather thick with it.

Still, I don't hate the book so far, I'm just not in love with it either. Phedre's tales of sex, political intrigue and scheming were far more interesting than Moirin's story of magical adventure across Asia.

Guardsman Bass wrote:I've got Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart and Kim Stanley Robinson's Years of Rice and Salt ready to go from the library. Which one should I read first, or not read?

I've not read Years of Rice and Salt, but I have read Kushiel's Dart, and it's not for everyone. I enjoyed it thoroughly, as did my sister, but some things about it turn off some readers. Still, I recommend it, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Currently reading Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia by Richard E. Cytowic and David M. Eagleman. It's a sequel of sorts to Cytowic's The Man Who Tasted Shapes. Apparently there is now real research into the phenomena of synesthesia. Interesting stuff, although this second book is less chatty and more full of actual research and studies - not a problem, really, but less of a casual read than the first one.

Also reading (at the same time) Superbug: The Fatal Menance of MRSA by Maryn McKenna, recommended to me by someone on another board who knew of my two encounters with MRSA (I got off lucky - only minor scarring for the first one, none for the second, no loss of function or maiming, etc.) Occasionally going for the dramatic, pathos-dripping story more than I, personally, would like (there are a LOT of stories of oogy death in there) it does outline the rise of both hospital and community acquired MRSA and has been educational in regards to their differences (and they are different strains of Stapholoccocus aurens)

Suffice to say, this is NOT a disease you wish to experience first hand... yet S. aurens is ubiquitous in the environment.

I've also started reading two Clive Cussler books, Death Wind and Plague Ship. Corny as hell, I've read some of his books a few years ago, but I don't remember them being this corny.

Well, he doesn't actually write any of them anymore.

Though the Oregon File ones are usually some good popcorn action books.

SilverWingedSeraph wrote:

Guardsman Bass wrote:I've got Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart and Kim Stanley Robinson's Years of Rice and Salt ready to go from the library. Which one should I read first, or not read?

I've not read Years of Rice and Salt, but I have read Kushiel's Dart, and it's not for everyone. I enjoyed it thoroughly, as did my sister, but some things about it turn off some readers. Still, I recommend it, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I haven't read the former but I have read Years of Rice and Salt. Let's just say you're reading the same short story 10 times with the same characters and different settings. Spoiler

SilverWingedSeraph wrote:I've not read Years of Rice and Salt, but I have read Kushiel's Dart, and it's not for everyone. I enjoyed it thoroughly, as did my sister, but some things about it turn off some readers. Still, I recommend it, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I got about 131 pages into it (Kushiel's Dart) before giving up. Not so much because the book was too hard, or because there was anything real bad or annoying about it. I just realized at that point that I didn't really care where the story went, or what happened to Phedre, or the whole anguissette/masochism thing she had going on. Or the setting for that matter.

muse wrote:I haven't read the former but I have read Years of Rice and Salt. Let's just say you're reading the same short story 10 times with the same characters and different settings.

I was afraid of something like that. I think I'll pass - Robinson tends to get weird when it comes to quasi-mystical stuff, at least from what I saw in the Science in the Capital trilogy (which also quickly went to shit, in my opinion).

starting to read some david drake does 18th century romance IN SPACE (picking up book 3 of Lt. Leary)

Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass.

It's surprisingly interesting, actually, to think of all the ways someone can navigate and explore without knowing what's ahead and then find their way back.

I finished up Unseen Academicals, it's all over the place and despite some good ideas and some good new characters it just failed to impress.

The Hacker Ethic and Rudy Rucker's Ware Trilogy (the owners of my favourite local second-hand bookstore find me hilarious as I was able to spy both Hacker's Ethic and Wetware from 10 feet away upside down under a stack of other books...

Also Cory Doctorow's Little Brother .. haven't started yet but looks good.

Has anyone read "Up the University: Re-creating Higher Education in America" by Jon and Robert Solomon? A friend gave me their copy and I was wondering if it was worth a read or just a trip to Half Price Books.

Speaking of which, this is kind of an odd, possibly stupid, question, but I'll ask anyways: I have several old Bibles, both from my childhood and that my grandmother gave me. Seeing as how I'm not Christian anymore and have little use for them aside from an occasional reference, should I go ahead and take them to Half Price Books? I know it seems like a open and shut case, but I suppose my childhood indoctrination is kicking in and my mind is rebelling at the idea of getting rid of several Bibles. I definitely want to keep one, probably my childhood Bible, for reference, but what about the rest? Some are actually quite old others are picture Bibles that would be good for kids. There are a half dozen in all that I would get rid of, and I'm babbling so I'll just stop there...

Picked up (and loved) Excession, by Iain M. Banks. Now plowing through Matter, by same.

Briefly skimmed a Brad Thor book (forgot which one) and the latest Dale Brown potboiler; Executive Intent. Did not feel like forking over $18 for each book, though Barnes and Noble was apparently trying to dump them at a 50% discount.

That steaming shit reminds me why I only read Stuart's stuff nowadays for my technothriller fix.

weemadando wrote:Well, he doesn't actually write any of them anymore.

Though the Oregon File ones are usually some good popcorn action books.

So I guess that makes him the Clancy of maritime action fiction then? The main characters have incredible character shields, that's for sure. An the evil plan is quite often, well, somewhat ridiculous or comical.

Clancy doesn't include psuedo-science or pseudo-history in his. At least not until after the Sum of All Fears.

Cussler is quite happy to have Chinese fleets reach Hawai'i during the Yuan Dynasty, a Japanese zaibatsu manufacturing miniaturized nuclear weapons, evil diamond corporations blowing up volcanoes to start tidal waves, Abraham Lincoln getting kidnapped by Confederates and dying the in fucking Sahara, Neo Nazis changing the Earth's tilt by using nanotechnology to cut Antarctica in half, etc.

The one thing that you are forgetting is that Cussler is fucking fun to read.

It's the same thing with Matthew Reilly. Ridiculous, insane, over the top and incomprehensible. But it's fantastically enjoyable.

Well, I finished up Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass and have gotten a couple of chapters into "I Am America and So Can You".

10-40% Through Kraken by China Meiville, Neuropath by R. Scot Bakker, Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds and Wages of Destruction. (After having finished the excellent "A thousand Sons" 40K).

Out of a greater reading pile consisting of: Genome
The House of Rothschild
The Concise 33 Strategies of War
The Red Queen ... See More
House of Suns - Alastair Reynolds
Neuropath R Scott Baker
The Wages of Destruction
Empire
Kraken - China Meiville
The Extended Phenotype Richard Dawkins
How the Mind Works
God Emperor of Didcot
Metro 2033
Wrath of the Lemming-men
Terminal World - Alastair Reynolds
Natural Experiments of History Jared Diamond
A Thousand Sons 40K
Creative Nature and Outdoor Photography
The Rational Optimist

Which Empire? Hardt/Negri or Card?

I'm currently reading through Discipline and Punish by Foucault. It's very stop and go, but rather interesting.

Finished Wintersmith, I had never read the Tiffany Aching series, but I really liked them.

Currently working through a pile of comics that I grabbed from the library. When the hell did the Authority/Stormwatch/Wildcats settings do their apocalypse storyline? AND WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO KEV?

Just finished Horus Rising from my warhammer pile and now moving on to Lords of the Horizon by Jason Goodwin to make a change from the grim dark struggle for the future.

Straha wrote:Which Empire? Hardt/Negri or Card?

I'm currently reading through Discipline and Punish by Foucault. It's very stop and go, but rather interesting.

Neill Fergusson . (Economic Historian)

weemadando wrote:I finished up Unseen Academicals, it's all over the place and despite some good ideas and some good new characters it just failed to impress.

Glad I'm not the only one. It felt rushed and rather forced.

Reading Raymond Feist's "Conclave of Shadows" trilogy now - Tal Hawkins is such a goddamn Gary Stu I find myself hoping he gets skewered at some point.

Re-reading The Lord of the Rings. The language isn't as hard as I remembered it to be. So far, I have much fun with it.

What I am not reading is Gamow's "Physics" and a bunch of other books I should be reading, as I set them aside for just such a purpouse.

Also got Ray Mears "Survival Book" (I wouldn't use it to survive) and got, by a recommendation from here, John Keegan's "History of Warfare" (which I haven't got around yet).