StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Went thrifting and found a 16-part encyclopedia in swedish about animals and ecology, as well as another set of 5 books about technology & human society, so I managed to fill almost a whole shelf with interesting books (well interesting to me) for 25 bucks.

About half-way through Mistborn: Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson. I breezed through the first two books in the trilogy in a few days, but this one is... well, I've figured out that a character is being manipulated and tricked before anyone else in the story figured out that he's being manipulated and tricked, and that grates on me. In the previous two books, shit kept you guessing, and fed you hints, bit by bit, but in such a way that it can be deceptive and trick you. But this time... well.
Spoiler That said, I'm still really enjoying it. I'm just... waiting until I'm less annoyed.

I finished Mercenary by Dallas McCord Reynolds. It was short, but amusing. It's available on Gutenberg as well.

Just started Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston. It was free, so I figured, why not?

Looking for a recommendation on best translation of 1001 Arabian Nights, by the way.

Just plowed through God's Demon by Wayne Barlow in two days. Aside from the frequent use of commas, the imagery in the book was pretty damned good. I expected as much given the paintings he did before he wrote the book. Link to an example.

Now I'm staring down A Mote in God's Eye. We'll see if I can finish it before class starts again.

try the annotated version from the same people that did the annotated Dracula, Alice in Wonderland, Gulliver etc. It's based off the Richard Burton translation, and includes all the foot notes and explanations to really get the double entandres, sexism, racism, etc.

like all annotated versions, it's not fit for children, unless they are already damaged and/or aspies.

Picked up a book I haven't read in years tonight: Star Trek #61: Sanctuary.

The basic premise is that there's this sanctuary planet that harbors anyone who comes there regardless of what they've done, but they can never leave. Kirk, Spock and McCoy chase a pirate down in a shuttlecraft, without realizing this, and now they have to escape from Sanctuary.

Spoiler

I haven't started reading them yet...

but since it's my birthday comming up, my parents sent me about 70# of murder-books, plus some DVDs (also detective fiction). When I used the english phrase and called them "Murder-Books" my boss said "I hope they aren't how to."
"No, besides the Rescipies in Agatha Christie's 'A poisoner's handbook' don't work anyways"

Warrior Girls: Protecting Our Daughters Against the Injury Epidemic in Women's Sports
It's frightening. I went through the whole system in my sport and towards the end of my stint it was rather sobering to see how many of us had overtraining injuries of some sort. Then I learn it's a million times worse in soccer & basketball, and womens' hockey has a higher rate of concussions than the NFL. There's also girls going into college who've already had more ACL replacements than most NFL or NHL players do in an entire career. The sport? Soccer. Where the concussion rate is the same as the NFL. Jesus. I had no idea how lucky I was.

J wrote:Warrior Girls: Protecting Our Daughters Against the Injury Epidemic in Women's Sports
It's frightening. I went through the whole system in my sport and towards the end of my stint it was rather sobering to see how many of us had overtraining injuries of some sort. Then I learn it's a million times worse in soccer & basketball, and womens' hockey has a higher rate of concussions than the NFL. There's also girls going into college who've already had more ACL replacements than most NFL or NHL players do in an entire career. The sport? Soccer. Where the concussion rate is the same as the NFL. Jesus. I had no idea how lucky I was.

I remember watching the Bullshit! episode on cheerleading and going: "WHAT THE FUCK?"

Netball in Australia is god-awful for knee injuries. Turns out that having a rule where you can't take another step once you catch the ball means that girls are breaking their knees all day, everyday.

I knew a girl who was only 17 at the time and had already had 3 major knee surgerys, just because of netball.

"Hammer and Tickle; a history of communism told through communist jokes" Ben Lewis, the much-expanded and researched version of a Timewatch programme originally, looking at "the jazz music of the east," comedy under communism.
A lot of interesting wrinkles, including the warped sense of humour sometimes possessed by the system- what do you do, for instance, if the person telling bitter jokes about the cruelty of Stalin happens to be that paragon of satire, Stalin? Do you laugh?
Humour as political feedback, the recycling of jokes and the fate of the jokers- it's actually quite serious, in a very funny way. Includes probably the last ever communist joke. Spoiler Philip Matyszak, "Legionary; the roman soldier's unofficial manual", a present-tense written worm's eye guide to life as a squaddie in the late first century AD, CE if you prefer- or mid-800's AUC for the real pedants. Also quite funny, and rings reasonably true.

Rather more seriously, second hand raiding again, Martin Middlebrook's "Convoy", the battle of convoys HX229 and SC122- the part of the Battle of the Atlantic that really was the darkness before the dawn.

Half way through Iain M. Banks' "Matter", as well, and so far- bits of it may burble up to the old forebrain over the next few days demanding to be thought about, which is good, but the whole of it strikes me as a fireworks display on a midwinter night. Flash and fury and wild display, but it's far over there and my feet are freezing, so sod it. Maybe it's just disillusion with his politics, but the display isn't impressing at gut level the way it used to.

"Halo: Cryptum" by Greg Bear. Not bad, but it has the usual annoyances by the author (he's just so...undescriptive).

"Halo Evolutions" (started this morning, finished it between exams). Not bad, has some good stories (The shipmaster's, and Cole's in particular), but nothing exceptional. Pass.

Carlson's Physiology of Behavior and Life (8 & 9 ed)

weemadando wrote:Netball in Australia is god-awful for knee injuries. Turns out that having a rule where you can't take another step once you catch the ball means that girls are breaking their knees all day, everyday.

I looked up the rules for Netball and if ever there was a sport designed to break womens' knees, this is it. Who the hell came up with this game?

Re-reading 'A Tangled Skein' by Piers Anthony. I'm not sure why, but the book doesn't seem as vibrant to me as it did the first time I saw it.

The Unadulterated CAT by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Gray, Jolliffe, this book is damn funny says the bear

"Hell's Gate" by David Weber and Linda Evans and it's such a goddamn awful book.

I started re-reading WEB Griffin's Marine Corps series. I lost count how many times I've read each book though, it's like this favourite TV soap opera you come back to

I also got a new book by Norman Davies (Lost Kingdoms) but haven't gotten to it yet.

Tolya wrote:I started re-reading WEB Griffin's Marine Corps series. I lost count how many times I've read each book though, it's like this favourite TV soap opera you come back to

Heh. I just picked up two of them at a book sale (2 a pop) along with a MASSIVE PILE of other trashy novels (Splinter Cell adaptions, WH40K novels and much more!).

Oh boy, the original splinter cell book written by Clancy was bad enough. I can't imagine how are the other ones.

Griffin's really good though. and the Corps is the best thing he wrote, maybe apart from that OSS gig in Argentina.

Problem with his books is that once you get familiar with them, every character is alike. Or based on the same recurring template. Perfect rich renegadelike patriots are a must in every book he wrote.

I'm re-reading Fellowship of the Ring on my Kindle, and noticing stuff I didn't on my last read-through.

One thing has stayed the same, though - the part before they get to Bree is still slow-moving.

I'm trying again to read A Treatise of Human Understanding, by David Hume. I got a couple of hundred pages deep last time before the 18th century english and the seemingly random placement of commas broke my head.

It's not even like the subject matter is that taxing, after reading other more modern philosophy of consciousness.

Tolya wrote:Oh boy, the original splinter cell book written by Clancy was bad enough. I can't imagine how are the other ones.

Griffin's really good though. and the Corps is the best thing he wrote, maybe apart from that OSS gig in Argentina.

Problem with his books is that once you get familiar with them, every character is alike. Or based on the same recurring template. Perfect rich renegadelike patriots are a must in every book he wrote.

I believe most of the Clancy books outside of Ryanverse are ghostwritten.

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie.
)After finishing the excellent Soul Hunter by 40k's A-Bowden).

Fun reading, not groundbreaking, but very good and definetly worth buying.

The Brothers Karmazov, by Dostoyeski (sp?). I started trying to read Dostoyevski after a Adam Curtis documentary where one of the Soviet secret service told what they suggested their agents to learn human psychology/soul. Not bad reading so far. I expected the English to be worse, but it's actually manageable.

Also a book called "Élösködés" (Parasite-ing?) by Rózsa Lajos. A book about parasites, giving an introduction about what kind they are (going from simple to more complex lifeforms, also includes diseases), reading statistics (I've skipped that part for now) and ecology (what I am most interested in). Definitely a book on my "to buy" list.

'Six Walks in the Fictional Woods,' Umberto Eco.

A fun exploration of underlying literary and narrative mechanisms and relationships, derived from a series of Norton Lectures delivered at Harvard. It helps to be familiar with Nerval, Joyce, Dante, Kafka, Shakespeare, Christie and Fleming but Eco includes enough relevant content that you don't have to be.