I was thinking that we may have a thread for books also.
Currently I am starting The First Circle by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. An interesting glimpse to Stalin's Russia, that in some aspects might hint things to come. :(
Theif of Time
(authour unnecessary)
I'm finally reading "Climbing Mount Improbable" by Richard Dawkins, and I've got "History of the Church" by Eusebius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebius) out from the library in the on-deck circle just to mix things up (and to go straight to the source of a large part of Christian history).
Jim Hightower's "Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush" for political giggles, a psychology textbook manuscript for errors and some Faye Kellermann thriller for mindless enternatinment while waiting in doctor's offices.
Getting ready to start Prachett from the beginning this time and trying to figure out who has my copy of Masquerade...
Oook!
Vital Lies, Simple Truths Daniel Goleman.
I've discovered I am a Detective type. They don't call me Watson for nothing. Wait, wait. Who are "They"?
"Demian" by Herrmann Hesse.
Quote from: NoName on October 30, 2006, 01:22:45 AM
I've discovered I am a Detective type. They don't call me Watson for nothing. Wait, wait. Who are "They"?
I used to be into Dashiell Hammett in a big way (the Maltese Falcon, the Thin Man, etc.), though I think that was as much for his style as the "whodunnit" aspect of the stories.
F.Winterberg: Vom griechischen Feuer zur Wasserstoffbombe
The Last Continent
Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
I wish I had more time to read..
Just been given Thud! and The Wintersmith both by Terry Pratchett for my birthday. Which to read first?
Hmmm... Think I'll go for Wintersmith, I just love those little blue guys!
Bluenose
Just bought the Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Letcha know how it turns out.
Oh, and have a younger reader? Try the Hunters series by Erin Hunter. *I'm* lovin' em too!
AAAAAACCCKKK!!!!!
Must...read....Wintersmith...
----------
Currently reading any and everything on the US elections online, especially forwards from Teripie, who is evidently (like me) way into the election/GOTV thing.
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on November 06, 2006, 05:30:40 AM
AAAAAACCCKKK!!!!!
Must...read....Wintersmith...
and learn the secret of Boffo!
Going Postal. (again).
Just about to begin Thief of Time myself, actually.... :)
Reading my teeny tiny Mort.
:-* (You know who you are...)
Aaaarg! When will the next Pratchett be available?
Rereading a bit of Lovecraft currently
Re-reading Seeress Of Kell by David and Leigh Eddings.
Finishing off Jingo, and The Last Hero...
I think The Truth is next up.
;)
Quote from: Agujjim on November 15, 2006, 03:12:09 PM
Finishing off Jingo, and The Last Hero...
I think The Truth is next up.
;)
The Truth shall make ye fret!
just finished Michail Bulgakov - The Heart of a Dog
and Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere
now moving on to re-read Slaughterhouse 5 by kurt Vonnegut
Just started From Caligari to Hitler, a psychological history of German cinema by S.Kracauer (translated title)
I'm reading Othello, War and Peace, The Elements of Style, and The New Yorker Book of Poems.
Good stuff. ;D
Duke
Yuck, high culture, keep away from me before I get infected ;)
Wikipedia, the book
High Culture: I got it from my dad. :)
Duke
Quote from: Duke on November 19, 2006, 07:48:45 PM
High Culture: I got it from my dad.
Yah, me too... :mrgreen:
I didn't even know you knew his dad!
Ringworld's Children. Larry Niven.
Oh, just today I adopted a copy of The Great Gatsby. I'll start reading it...eventually.
Duke
Quote from: Duke on November 20, 2006, 04:30:18 AM
Oh, just today I adopted a copy of The Great Gatsby. I'll start reading it...eventually.
Duke
Gatsby--- *bleah*
This was the very book where I concluded the "great classics" were often neither great, nor classic.
If a story is not readable, and does not have an actual plot - WHY is it a "classic"? And
who decided it was "great literature" anyway?
I did slog through it, though (and do I mean
slog -- *bleah*! worse than Tolstoy. Only one of 2 people in my participatory english lit class to finish, out of 8 people total. I only went 1/2 the time, and I was the only one who spoke. I got an "A" in participation, even though I missed 50% of the classes - I suppose because I was the ONLY participant. Double-*bleah* for dredging up that particular memory-fragment. :P )
After that class, I finally let go the notion that once I started a book, no matter how bad, I must finish it. Quite a list of "not finished" by now ... ::) Life's just too short to waste reading a book you don't identify with. At the very least, it should make you
think, even if you don't like it much. Otherwise, give it a miss... ;D
Quote from: Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith on November 20, 2006, 11:28:21 PM
Quote from: Duke on November 20, 2006, 04:30:18 AM
Oh, just today I adopted a copy of The Great Gatsby. I'll start reading it...eventually.
Duke
Gatsby--- *bleah*
This was the very book where I concluded the "great classics" were often neither great, nor classic.
If a story is not readable, and does not have an actual plot - WHY is it a "classic"? And who decided it was "great literature" anyway?
I did slog through it, though (and do I mean slog -- *bleah*! worse than Tolstoy. Only one of 2 people in my participatory english lit class to finish, out of 8 people total. I only went 1/2 the time, and I was the only one who spoke. I got an "A" in participation, even though I missed 50% of the classes - I suppose because I was the ONLY participant. Double-*bleah* for dredging up that particular memory-fragment. :P )
After that class, I finally let go the notion that once I started a book, no matter how bad, I must finish it. Quite a list of "not finished" by now ... ::) Life's just too short to waste reading a book you don't identify with. At the very least, it should make you think, even if you don't like it much. Otherwise, give it a miss... ;D
Well, I started to read it, and I enjoy it quite a bit. Maybe it's just my kind of book.
Duke
Quote from: Duke on November 21, 2006, 02:56:58 AM
Well, I started to read it, and I enjoy it quite a bit. Maybe it's just my kind of book.
Duke
Obviously you have a more sophisticated "reading palate" than I do. ;D
I had to read quite a bit of O. Henry to get the taste of Falkenburg out of my mind after 'Gatsby.
I especially liked "The Ransom of Red Chief (http://eserver.org/fiction/the-ransom-of-red-chief.html)". But I still remember "The Gift of the Magi (http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/1014/)" as being my favorite.
(btw, those link to the complete short stories)
Quote from: Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith on November 21, 2006, 06:40:12 AM
Quote from: Duke on November 21, 2006, 02:56:58 AM
Well, I started to read it, and I enjoy it quite a bit. Maybe it's just my kind of book.
Duke
Obviously you have a more sophisticated "reading palate" than I do. ;D
I got it from my dad! I swear! That guy owns an entire library...downstairs.
Thanks for the links!
Duke
I am currently reading a protracted thesis / business plan for the business led regeneration of an inner city area.
thrilling! I would prefer to be reading Gatsby ;)
Night Watch
and
Ginseng, the Divine Root: The Curious History of the Plant That Captivated the World - David Taylor
Atch... I better finish up Discworld soon. The winter non-fiction binge-itch is coming on.
Nice.
I never liked Gatsby. My teacher last year had a thing to dramatic literature, and she dragged us all through it. >.<
Re-reading Belgarath the Sorcesser, and meandering through THe Human Comedy.
Finished up Carpe Jugulum, and onto The Wee Free Men, and The Devil's Cup: a History of the World According to Coffee.
Quote from: goat starer on November 22, 2006, 12:34:33 PM
I am currently reading a protracted thesis / business plan for the business led regeneration of an inner city area.
thrilling! I would prefer to be reading Gatsby ;)
I would rather be reading the thesis/business plan than what I'm reading right now.
My current reading is "Law for Professional Engineers" by D.L. Marston and the Professional Engineers Act. But only for two more days; my exam's on Saturday. ;D
At the moment I'm reading Barry Trotter and the Shameless Parody by Michael Gerber.
Quite funny actually.
I'm reading "Entscheidungen" by my former chancellor. It's quite funny, although he probably didn't intend that...
Cabbage or Shredder? I am not much into the writings of former German executive heads (though I may make an exception for Otto v. B.).
john Le Carre - Smileys people
The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett
Monstrous Regiment
so thats your job but what are you reading? ;D
Quote from: Swatopluk on December 10, 2006, 08:56:34 AM
Cabbage or Shredder? I am not much into the writings of former German executive heads (though I may make an exception for Otto v. B.).
Me neither, but a friend of mine who tries to convince me to join the SPD since 30 years offered it to me ;D ... I wouldn't have spent money on that crap.
I was somewhat interested in what he says about his foreign policies, since I happen to have worked in that sector during his reign (still do). But that wouldn't have been worth the money ...
I'm actually reading "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky.
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
The neighbors have their developmentally delayed granddaughter for the week, while Mama and Daddy take a week vacay since Daddy's back from Afghanistan, and neighborlady had to go to the doctor today, so I stayed with Beth. Beth is 8, and they said she'd never learn to read. She's reading the very basic Dr. Seuss, and some first grade literature.
She's solid on her alphabet, has a grasp of phonics, phonetics, et cetera, and is not THAT far behind on reading! Her math skills are amazing. She adds, subtracts, multiplies and divides. Imagine what would happen if they'd bother trying to teach her math!! Her school is just beginning to go beyond counting with her, and they're freaking out that she's been able to do this for over a year.
Tomorrow, we will read Hop on Pop. And maybe, if we're good, Go, Dog, Go. (Go, Dog, Go has a lot of subtext about social behavior and manners that we'll have to discuss, so it may need a whole day to itself.)
I could never have kept teaching school, but I might have done well in a one-on-one situation.
I wonder whether this book may be worth a look.
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Evolution-Myth-Creationism-Knowing/dp/0976023652/sr=1-1/qid=1166014452/ref=sr_1_1/104-0277183-8975902?ie=UTF8&s=books
The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism: Knowing What's Real and Why It Matters (Paperback)
by Ardea Skybreak
Can't of course judge by the cover alone whether it could be just a long polemic in the Dawkins mold (mould?).
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on December 12, 2006, 05:57:24 AM
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
Beth is 8, and they said she'd never learn to read.
I have a healthy skepticism of the accuracy of the educational assessment of young children. About that age they told my parents I'd probably never be able to do any public examinations. That turned out to be slightly pessimistic, but only after my father had taught me to read, tell the time, and do the times table.
-------
I'm reading Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 Study Guide. Think I'm almost certifiable now ;) .
Beth is a Down Syndrome child.
That said, she can program a DVD player, VCR or a replacement remote control as if she were linked into the signaling system. It's scary. You read the directions, she nods her little head, then just--it's done.
I'm almost over feeling hugely inferior to an 8 year old, no matter what they say about her mental capabilities. Her Daddy's teaching her XHTML as she's learning to read. Why can I not remember it??
She sounds like an amazing kid. I really do think that the medical and educational establishments underestimate those with mental disabilities, especially autisitic and Down Syndrome kids. I used to know a really great DS kid who the teachers treated like a cabbage.
Reading:
Tyranny of the Status Quo--Milton and Rose Friedman
The Human Comedy--William Saroyan
The Secret Agent--Joseph Conrad
I'm reading half a dozen status reports Berlin has sent me; that makes about 3000 pages of text I have to swallow till Friday. And that means I need more coffee...
The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman
A Hat Full of Sky
Quote from: Agujjim on December 18, 2006, 03:28:37 PM
A Hat Full of Sky
What happens if you turn a fat man into a quite small animal? ;D
You don't need a grinder to make hamburgers! ;D
I miss the double-entendres of regular 'adult' Pratchett in the Tiffany Aching stuff, though. 'Specially with the Feegles involved.
Grief Counselling and Grief Therapy - J William Worden
Grace and Grit - Ken Wilber
Dicing with Death - Chance Risk and Health - Stephen Senn (statistics)
Vital Lies, Simple Truths - Daniel Goleman
and a novel...
Private Papers - Margaret Forster
I have a very short attention span so flit from one to another.
In normal health I devour minimum six books a week and have done all my life; until I find I can do that, I don't really need a diagnosis to tell me I am unwell !! On the plus side my shelving problems have slowed down.
I always have lots of books in the state of being partially read. Some are on the fast lane (e.g. all Pratchetts) other may take years to complete.
Some are ideal for certain situations (bathtub books for example: not too big and not too expensive) others are simply to big in nature to read in one go (not necessarily big as in many pages but as in complexity).
It's similar with movies btw. Some DVDs stand very long on the shelve unwatched because the mood is wrong or the time slot doesn't fit (I hate to not watch movies in one go and the longer ones can be difficult to fit in the daily schedule).
Well, I've gone and done it.
I noticed a while ago that I didn't know anyone who was only moderately interested in golf; those who played it took it to a level bordering on obsession.
I think I've seen something similar with Terry Pratchett. I don't know anyone who only likes his stuff a little bit.
Despite this, I went out on Boxing Day and found a sale at the bookstore... I left with a copy of The Colour of Magic.
I knew what I was getting into, so whatever happens is my own fault. ;)
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage, It's fascinating so far. A little like Jared Diamond...
He makes a reasonable case that the actual personal decision for hunter gatherers to settle down to farming was probably to ensure the regular supply of beer! :D
Quote from: Sibling Lambicus the Toluous on December 29, 2006, 06:03:37 AM
Well, I've gone and done it....
... found a sale at the bookstore... I left with a copy of The Colour of Magic.
I knew what I was getting into, so whatever happens is my own fault. ;)
Could it be peer pressure? I just bought that one and trusting my fellow siblings got two more (Mort and Guards! Guards!). I just started TCOM, perhaps we are still on time to save ourselves?
:daz:
---
I also read different things at the same time, read a book based on the Halo video game (Ghosts of Onyx by Eric Nylund if you must know), and ate it like a candy, and on the more serious I am still half way into Solzhenitzin's First Circle.
I resisted Pratchettization for four years.
Then, the sig quote to end all sig quotes, a Pratchett quote showed up on a forum, and I was sunk.
Something about Quoth, the raven and olives... ;)
On holiday so Secret Smile Nicci French. But she has gone off. So many start out good, and merely deteriorate. Having said that, for some reason I perservered and now at page 70 I am totally hooked.
Not a rare occasion. Going into at full steam, then settling down a bit and gathering momentum again. With some authors I get the impression that they could continue for ever and have to force an ending on themselves. Some kind of "I have to finish within 10 pages or the editor gets angry". A lot of those tend to stage a massacre at the end just to not leave any threads loose (the French seem to have a special predilection for that in my limited experience).
<:offtopic:> Like those plays where almost the whole cast ends up scattered around in death throes in the final scene? Revengers Tragedy Middleton Hamlet.... et al
I just learnt there's a (questionably attributed) Atheists Tragdey by Middleton. >:offtopic:>
I read some of the Arsene Lupin novels. The author of those had that nasty habit of discarding characters not necessary anymore for the plot or potential handicaps for the sequels.
That's the great difference to Pratchett, who really cares for even the smallest supporting character (be they nice or not).
---
Just have started Conservatives without a Conscience by John Dean
Diet for a poisoned planet: how to choose safe foods for you and your family by David Steinman.
Very highly recommended for anyone who prefers not to accumulate a body-load of industrial chemicals and pesticides, at least as a starting point.
Just finished Conservatives without Conscience and not yet sure which 500-1000-pager I should take next (there are several in the unread pile)
Halfway through "Applications=code+markup" By Charles Petzold. Another classic from the Windows expert, this time about Windows Presentation Foundation.
Currently reading "Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales," and attempting to plow through Culture Warroirby Bill O'Reilly.:P My grandmother sent it to me and I feel I ought to read it, even if I think he's an idiot.
A thick tome on naval propulsion systems
Re-reading The Fifth Elephant (Pratchett) and about to start on one of two more serious books. I'll decide which after I finish the fun stuff!
Ach! Fell off of Pratchett (waiting for Wintersmith) and my reading exploded. I'm working on a book buffet, which is apt since most are food-related:
Pandemonium : bird flu, mad cow disease and other biological plagues of the 21st century - Andrew Nikiforuk
Curry : a tale of cooks and conquerors - Elizabeth Collingham (non-fiction Indian food history)
From the earth : Chinese vegetarian cooking - Eileen Yin-Fei Lo
Wild fermentation : the flavor, nutrition, and craft of live-culture foods - Sandor Ellix Katz
and browsing You can never find a rickshaw when it monsoons : the world on one cartoon a day Mo Willems (recommended - a travelogue by sketch)
An edition of the Carmina Burana with modern melody transcriptions
(i.e. the usual 5-line notation in contrast to the original neumes).
Problem is, one still has to make up a rhythm because this didn't get noted down in the Middle Ages.
I've finally got my hands on Pratchet's novels number 27 till 34 ("The Last Hero", "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents", "Night Watch", "The Wee Free Men", "Monstrous Regiment", "A Hat Full of Sky", "Going Postal" and "Thud!"), so I know I'll be reading them soon.
Anyway, there's been a discussion earlier somewhere around (can't recall where, that's why I'm posting this here), in which order to read Pratchett's novels. Here's a little thing I've received together with the novels:
Discworld Reading Guide 1-25 (http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i5/bronko84/DiscworldReadingOrderGuide1-25.gif)
John Maddox Roberts, the Oracle of Death
The Rats, Bats and the Ugly. by Eric Flint and Dave Freer.
Sequel to Rats, Bats and Vats by the same duo, which I've read 2 times so far.
As sequels go, it's actually better. It's about 2 times longer, and therefore had deeper character development than the first book.
But, the first book was a comedy of errors-type of fiction (SciFi, of course). The 2nd one has it's comedic elements, including some laugh-out-loud bits, but is deeper and more serious.
Good stuff.
The Bridge Janine Ellen Young
A book on modern high sea reed-boat expeditions (now they have even mastered the art of beating (sailing against the wind) again).
Quote from: Swatopluk on January 17, 2007, 11:08:10 AM
A book on modern high sea reed-boat expeditions (now they have even mastered the art of beating (sailing against the wind) again).
The first time I'd read about those, was in a National Geographic. They were attempting to cross the Atlantic--I do not recall if they made it or no, it was back in the 60's I think. Early 70's? Can't recall details, except that it was a reed boat.
That were the Ra Expeditions of the late Thor Heyerdahl.
The first one ended short of Barbados due to an construction error.
The abandoned boat stranded there a few days later.
The second (Ra II) was a success (the boat can be seen in Oslo).
Currently the Abora III Expedition is being prepared to do a round trip. West on the Southern route, West on the Northern. The tricky part will be to leave the Gulf Stream and reach Spain instead of landing in Northern Europe.
A few years ago I watched a film by Ken Loach called 'Land and Freedom' about the Spanish Civil War and the Socialist P.O.U.M. I was fascinated about this little discussed period of recent history.
Now I'm currently reading Anthony Beevors 'The Battle for Spain'. I've read a few of Beevors books - they are a great read for the history buff.
I'm just mortified yet fascinated about the motivation of both the left and right wing combatants in this book.
This book gives a real insight into Spain and Spanish history in general. Awesome read!
Robert Ludlums "The Icarus Adgenda" (I think, its one of ludlums Im reading lol)
a paper on chirality
Wintersmith (for the second time, I bought it on saturday [I've been very busy since]). I'm going to have to buy The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky now!. :D
Nac Mac Feegle! With their swords that glow in the presence of lawyers!
Quote from: Swatopluk on January 31, 2007, 12:59:24 PM
a paper on chirality
Oooh, chirality! Always a topic of interest, if not much in-depth education, for me.
Reading
What Color Is Your Parachute and various cookbooks.
I was wondering, does anyone around here have Wintersmith (Pratchett) in e-book format (or any source I can get it from)?
I have read the complete Discworld except this one, but am short of money at the moment (so I can't buy it) and can't get it anywhere else.
I doubt that it is available legally that way.
I know it wouldn't be legal.
If it helps, I'm planning to buy it in the future (but the future isn't that soon).
Nevermind.
No local library that has it?
Nope. If that would be the case I wouldn't be asking.
I don't know your relationship with libraries ;) .
Ach... have it on hold from the library. Am currently #54 on the list. :P
And 92 on the list for the new Tom Waits albums.
I am reading The Event.
http://www.micklasalle.com/
Quote from: Agujjim on February 06, 2007, 02:40:48 PM
And 92 on the list for the new Tom Waits albums.
Good luck with that...
Hopefully you'll get to your turn soon.
The contents of a fortune cookie.
Oh, I keep one of those in my wallet. Used to be one on the fridge, too...
"You will tread on the soil of many countries" and "Full Stomach, Happy Heart", respectively. Just discarded a wallet horoscope re: HSM theory (seriously).
Kiyo.... there are 22 copies, so 92/22 * 3 weeks = about 3 months. :P
The biggest issue is that some are still on order... the library takes its sweet time getting new materials.
The morning papers
Another scary article about the yen carry trade.
Again the book on naval propulsion systems
I'm almost done The Colour of Magic, and I've asked for The Light Fantastic for my birthday. ;D
A colleague of mine has just started with Pratchett too. He should be nearly through LF by now. He reads the German translation though, so a lot of jokes are lost.
Quote from: Swatopluk on February 20, 2007, 02:58:42 PM
A colleague of mine has just started with Pratchett too. He should be nearly through LF by now. He reads the German translation though, so a lot of jokes are lost.
Hmm... when I was a kid, I used to get a kick out of literally translating the jokes on the back of the cereal box from French into English. I always thought the nonsensical stuff that resulted was funnier than the English "jokes" they'd done on purpose.
Q: What does a bee do in his leisure time?
A: He plays darts!
Q: What's a bee's favourite playing card?
A: The Queen of Spades!
;D
Quote from: Sibling Lambicus the Toluous on February 20, 2007, 02:32:51 PM
I'm almost done The Colour of Magic, and I've asked for The Light Fantastic for my birthday. ;D
Funny, I finished tCoM and I'm about to start tLF too
This site becomes Pterrynfectious, it seems ;D
Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
Heidi by Joanna Spyri - got to write an essay on it.
I've just got my hands on the johny trilogy by Pratchett, so that's what I've started reading this evening (before started to drink)
Just finished Pyramids, about to start The Truth. Taking a Pratchett break.
Just finished a book on the Spanish Armada
The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond
for the third time (of a projected many)
That Diamond still missing on my shelves (I have Guns, Germs and Steel and recently Collapse ;))
Turkish fairy-tales at the moment
Finishing Feet of Clay, about to start Guards, Guards and am also reading the entire body of material on-line and in print about High-Dose Indium-111 in Pentetreotide Radiotherapy
http://www.carcinoid.org/medpro/docs/Indium111DX.html
http://interactive.snm.org/docs/pg_ch27_0403.pdf
This stuff is made in Canada, then shipped to Houston, one dose at a time.
I just read the Book of Five Rings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Five_Rings) by Musashi. It's a medieval Japanese text that incorporates both military strategy and personal development (kind of a Japanese analogue to Sun Tzu's The Art of War).
And I'm currently working on two books:
Jesus and the Quest for Secular Justice (http://www.seraphimeditions.com/jesus-secular-justice.html) - a book that presents a very different perspective to my own... but if you only read stuff you already agree with, how can you learn about other points of view?
Many a Midnight Ship: True Stories of Great Lakes Shipwrecks (http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=170563) - just like the title implies, it's a collection of the stories behind shipwrecks on the Great Lakes from the War of 1812 up to modern times.
Another book on Hammer Films
Just finished Nanocosm by William Illsey Atkinson and am on to Life as We Do Not Know It by Peter Ward.
Finally got off of the cookbooks (not proper 'reading') and into the nonfiction binge.
War of Nerves (book on gas warfare from WW1 to the present day)
For some reason I cannot figure out, I have started reading Dean Koontz books. Bizarre.
I've been reading The Modern World ,the general editor beening Esmond Wright, a not so modern book published in the early seventies.Fabulous read for history buffs, very enlightening for me since it covers so many key people in many countries that i was not aware of.
Finally after months I finished the First Circle (highly recommended although a bit grim).
On my way with Pratchett's Equal Rites.
Spook, by Mary Roach
subtitled "Science tackles the afterlife"
Max Brooks, World War Z
I finished Jesus and the Quest for Secular Justice (http://www.seraphimeditions.com/jesus-secular-justice.html). It drew some rather different conclusions, and I disagreed with most of them.
One claim he made was that the increased influence of religious fringe elements (he mentioned Islam specifically, which could be considered rather inflammatory) is due to secularism: apparently, societies that aren't founded on a religious basis try to incorporate viewpoints from as many diverse groups as possible, which naturally incorporates people who mainstream society thinks are a bit nuts. Traditionally, the "religious nuts" in this secular mix have been Catholic, but with increased acceptance of Catholicism, the "religious nut" void has been filled with right-wing Christian Evangelicals and Islam.
So... there you go. Islamic and Christian fundamentalism is the fault of the non-believers and their tolerance for Catholicism, apparently.
As for my new readings, I've still got the shipwreck book to get through, and I got The Pagan Christ (http://www.tomharpur.com/books/books_thepaganchrist.asp) for my birthday... surprisingly, from a rather devout Catholic.
Done with Equal Rites and now on my way with Mort.
Grace and Grit Ken Wilber
Finishing Thief of Time again, and about to re-read Lords and Ladies. (Once again, I have been compared to Granny Weatherwax, no matter how Oggish I behave at times. I think it's just that I'm scary...)
Christopher Clark, The Iron Kingdom (a "biography" of the state of Prussia from the 30 Years War to 1945).
Latest reads:
Demons in Eden : the paradox of plant diversity by Jonathan Silvertown
Five Past Midnight in Bhopal by Dominique Lapierre, Javier Moro
Strata - Pratchett
The next Pratchett is announced for about October. A sequel to Going Postal with Moist running the Royal Mint and away from a number of people that want to kill him.
Can't wait, Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
Hmph. Might have Wintersmith by then... I think I'm still 200th or so in the request line at the library.
At least you have a library. I have 'holds' for it at three Half Price Books. If they get it, they call me. (Then I have to go get it--one HPB is in College station, the other two are in Houston.)
I am currently reading Watchers by Dean Koontz. Somebody beat me to Lords and Ladies...
Watchers was pretty good. One of Koontz's book I like better.
Silverlock by John Myers Myers
The Diamond Throne by David Eddings
I was reading Feet Of Clay, but I have ten books from the library to get through before the 23rd. It can wait. :D
Transpersonal Development, The Dimension beyond Psychosynthesis Roberto Assagioli
I bet you're wishing you'd gone for a nice coffee table book with pictures or a whodunit instead...
Recently, I have read the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich.
Jersey Girl loses lingere buyer job, becomes bad bounty hunter, blows up a lot of cars, accidentally...
Mindless and fun. They're easy to keep track of, since they're numbered in the titles. Totally NOT in the least bit intellectually stimulating, just plain fun. I needed that.
Griffin has just kindly explained Transpersonal Development and the superconscious to me. I'm going to lie down in the dark for quite a while now. Once I've checked under the bed for monsters from the Id.
Quote from: beagle on June 04, 2007, 08:36:18 PM
I bet you're wishing you'd gone for a nice coffee table book with pictures or a whodunit instead...
I'd be happier to have a TranspersonalMan and TranspersonalGirl to play with ::) The accessories must be magical.
A book on modern piracy, another on German maritime policy between the world wars and another on crazy WW2 inventions.
Ok, I admit I stopped reading that book..... it got rather heavy going around 4:30 a.m. and I swapped it for:
The Minotuor Barbara Vine
she being a favorite novelist of mine.
Maybe WE should write an interesting book (like Bible-Girl's adventures in Jesusland or Through the Bible Belt).
About what?
Sapphire Rose by David Eddings
About Bible-man and accomplices of course (those were proposed titels not already existing ones to my knowledge).
Ah.
"One for the Morning Glory" by John Barnes
"Valiant" by Holly Black
"The Ruby Knight" By David Eddings
A detective story set in Minoic Crete
Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the zero tolerance approach to punctuation by Lynne Truss
I heard that was an interesting book. On my list of things to read, actually.
"One for the Morning Glory" still.
But also "Equal Rites", and "Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrel," by somebody or other.
I am, thereofore I think
Edited by Alexander George
About to read the chapter entitled: How do we know modern-day mathematics is correct?
(my sister's idea of a good gift)
"Scrawny to Brawny"
It says I gotta eat more.... :P
This and piles of investing books. Ugh - the period between my fiction/nonfiction swings is getting LONG.
Sourcery.
I should get something serious to read apart from Scientific American magazines...
I think we've complied a pretty good list of things to read, between us all.
"Going Postal," "Equal Rites," "Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrel."
A collection of essays about the rise of creationism in Germany.
An article (http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9333471) in The Economist claiming that all the fame and glory given to DNA has led to the importance of RNA being underestimated.
It seems it may be a case of do shoot the messenger!
(oh and half way down the page I found: It's evolutionary, my dear Watson )
Now reading another Economist article (http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9371887) about Southern Baptists. (No they don't pay me to advertise).
Be interested in Sibling Chatty's view on that one if she's feeling up to it.
A book on giant squids
Hard-Earned Lessons From Counselling
Windy Dryden
( a cheaper way of learning)
I haven't heard of anyone with a first name of "Windy" since Windy Miller in Camberwick Green (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camberwick_Green).
Are you sure it's a good idea to be taking advice from this person?
Wintersmith, FINALLY!!!
oh, and.... there's PIRATE FEEGLES!
Carpe Jugularum
Quote from: beagle on June 22, 2007, 12:46:24 PM
I haven't heard of anyone with a first name of "Windy" since Windy Miller in Camberwick Green (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camberwick_Green).
Are you sure it's a good idea to be taking advice from this person?
The book advertises itself as reviewed by the Clinical Psychology Forum as very honest and essential reading and not like all those flawed experts......
It warns against muddling Rational Emotive Therapy (used to be called RT rather than the current RET) up with Reichian Therapy (RT). Given the difference one would have to be fairly insane to do that (I think Swato is the expert on Reichian).
Maybe it should be called Counselling for Dummies.
Or maybe the Clinical Psychology Forum is some ameteur virtual outfit run by Pirates. :mrgreen:
Is there any connection between Reich's Orgon and the character in Moliere's Tartuffe?
Quote from: beagle on June 22, 2007, 08:29:10 AM
Now reading another Economist article (http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9371887) about Southern Baptists. (No they don't pay me to advertise).
Be interested in Sibling Chatty's view on that one if she's feeling up to it.
The Southern Baptist Convention's takeover by the inerrantist, hardcore conservative socio/political cabal is just about complete. The few voices of sanity that wanted to preserve the Baptist tradition of Freethinking (the part about no MAN comes between the believer and God, no MAN or group of men can dictate to any other what they should believe) have just about gone.
There's never been a total BIG LOUD split, the denomination has just fractured. Splintered slowly, as the name Baptist becomes more and more a nasty word.
The Baptist Bookstore is no more. Changed names YEARS ago to avoid the negative connotations. There are thousands of former Baptist churches that no longer use the name. Lots of the BIGGEST, and definitely the ones that have chosen to be about religion, not about politics have no overt mention of the "B" word at all.
Example: One of 5 Baptist "Superchurches" in the Houston area, Sagemont calls itself "Sagemont Church". http://www.sagemontchurch.org/index.htm
You have to search for the word "Baptist", they do not want to tell you, because it's NOT a positive word. (An old friend is a minister there.)
Oh, by the way, Sagemont, for all the size, the staff, the equipment, buildings, everything they have? Debt free. They pay taxes on all their outbuildings and all the land they own, except for the actual sanctuary and the small chapel. Every building they have was paid for when built, and they teach a series of 'How to get out of debt' seminars, free, that anyone can take--not just members, not just Christians.
And you have to FORCE them to say they're Baptists. That's the way it's happening. The 'church' as a group of like-minded believers has ceased to be, there's the Authoritarian "SBC" and then there's the non-political, non-authoritarian rest of the Baptist world.
As in most places, Baptist churches that aren't extremely political may have a male pastor, but it's the women of the church that keep it running. Baptist women LONG AGO decided to keep a different agenda and organization from the political world that the men lived in. They may "rule the convention" but they're sadly short on ruling the 'true church' for Baptists. Don't mess with the WMU!!
QuoteWMU is an auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention, which means that it acts as a "helper" to the SBC. The auxiliary status also means that WMU is self-governing and self-supporting.
They call 'em uppity women at their own risk, because there's a LOT of power there. And a lot of money that the convention wants to control. And they don't, And won't.
This article
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070629-1624-religiontoday.html
gives an overview of the 'other' Baptists, and are the group that will benefit most from the coming political fallout that the US MUST have to survive. There are rumbles within the WMU that the SBC is pushing it a wee bit too much, and the SBC has tried to push the WMU in the past and gotten their hands slapped. They'll keep it up, and the WMU, instead of just cooperating with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, will switch support completely. THAT will begin the slow, tortuous death of the SBC.
And, as a Christian, good riddance to them!!
As ever, I did not leave my church, it left me.
Oh, if you're looking for nice, handcrafted Fair Trade gifts...US only, I think, but you might ask...
http://www.worldcraftsvillage.com/
It's a non-profit group, all 'profits' go to funding new artisan groups. The WMU started it and supports it so that the artisans can support themselves.
Wolfgang Jeschke, Der letzte Tag der Schöpfung
Northshore, Sherri Tepper
The Family Tree Sherri Tepper
Alan Moorehead, Gallipoli
Roots, Alex Haley(30th anniversary ya know!) and Levar Burton is just as fine as ever!
Quote from: The Meromorph (Quasimodo) on July 01, 2007, 01:59:44 AM
The Family Tree Sherri Tepper
I love that book. Reread it at least every other month.
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on June 30, 2007, 09:28:48 AM
...
And, as a Christian, good riddance to them!!
As ever, I did not leave my church, it left me.
Thanks for the detailed reply. I like to check up on the Economist articles from time to time to check they're not making stuff up. :)
One of the C of E bishops has been going on about the floods here being due to our terrible greed and gay civil partnerships. Reckon we may have a mini-Phelps in development.
On the other hand, Allah appears to have made Jeeps wider than bollard spacings, which was a nice gesture.
Do you check any other publications are making stuff up? Or is the Economist the most worrisome?
The Bishop mut have been sorely exercised by Elton John's performance on Sunday, what with the future head of the C of E's involvement.
Well Done Those Men: Memoirs of a Vietnam veteran Barry Heard
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. it explains much about why these people were so stuffed up after they returned home and it shames me the way they were treated, even though I was too young to really have done anything at the time. This book is not an easy read, but it is very compelling.
I have met the author a couple of times and I regard his step father as a good friend. Having nearly finished the book, I think I would like to get to know Barry better. I must make the effort to do that.
Quote from: Griffin NoName The Watson of Sherlock on July 03, 2007, 12:40:50 AM
Do you check any other publications are making stuff up? Or is the Economist the most worrisome?
The Economist is the least worrisome, but it's the one that covers places and people I know little about. That's sort of what I like about it.
With the Sun, Mirror or Express I can be confident they're making it up. With The Guardian they probably didn't mean to, but the actual word they intended could be any anagram of the letters they put on the page.
Don't they have a spellchecker?
Insisting on correct spelling is probably too much of a Torygraph reactionary trait.
Their spellchecker probably has a high volume of mis-spellings added into the custom dictionary. RIRO.
The July issue of Scientific American
----
A question to Swato. After one of his posts he mentioned Opus Pistorum and while the book looks seriously heavy, it picked my curiosity, I wonder if it is worth reading.
Rolling Stone 40th anniversary issue(and by george if I find that Spears or Hilton chick anywhere in it I'm cancelling my subscription!) - not music or music related at all.
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on July 03, 2007, 04:55:43 PM
A question to Swato. After one of his posts he mentioned Opus Pistorum and while the book looks seriously heavy, it picked my curiosity, I wonder if it is worth reading.
Seriously, I don't know. I first heard of it in a radio feature on censorship and later just took a look at the first page in a library (at a tender age where I probably would not have understood much of it anyway).
Definitely not at the top of my reading list. Rather vulgar, I hear (not that I object to vulgarity in general but I don't actively seek it).
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on July 03, 2007, 04:55:43 PM
The July issue of Scientific American
----
A question to Swato. After one of his posts he mentioned Opus Pistorum and while the book looks seriously heavy, it picked my curiosity, I wonder if it is worth reading.
Heh, Opas Piss'd-on-rum would be more fun, I suspect. :mrgreen:
Reading 'Three Days to Never' - Tim Powers
There is enough prawn in the bible itself to satisfy the most ardent believer (where can I get an ad abusum delphini edition? ;))
oh, just looked up Opus Pistorum - it's Henry Miller - now I'm up to speed.
A paper on shadow economy and grey market in serbia (http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=268CC1AD-A498-41DB-AF68-CF55267993D5)
Kevin Brownlow, How it happened here (the making-of to It Happened Here)
The complete Roman Army, by Adrian Goldsworthy.
The bible of all things Legionary...
Reading and editing chapter nine of "It's a Mistake" by a 'net buddy of mine.
Just finished the last Harry Potter book.
Ooh! That was SUCH a good book. :D
Chapter 13: It's a Mistake. Interesting stuff. Political satire meets Dirk Gently.
Also finished the Potter (about 15 hours = about 40 pages/hour)
Potter is finished indeed ;)
Done with Sourcery and now on Wyrd Sisters
Mean Markets and Lizard Brains.
The next Pratchett (Making Money) is announced for autumn. How can I survive till then?
7th April 2007 New Scientist: How many things can you do at once?
Zero apparently. Haven't managed to read more than the title yet.
Quote from: Swatopluk on July 26, 2007, 09:30:13 AM
The next Pratchett (Making Money) is announced for autumn. How can I survive till then?
you may hold my hand tightly until then-- mind over matter- if the black ribboners can do what they do then we will survive this- plus we will keep ample amounts of hot sweet tea about(it's not called scubbo- that's the stew stuff is it sloopy? or am I loosing it?)
I'm reading the daily paper
There is still that massive Mao biography and thick tomes on both world wars, and the book on gas warfare (half-through), the book on creationism in Germany (going to be finished soon; the book, not the creationism :()
This thread.
"A Random Walk Down Wall Street"
Liberty - The Ships that won the War
Stephen Fry "The Stars' Tennis Balls"
and
Martin Fowler "UML Distilled, Third Edition".
Minette Walters Disordered Minds
Isaac Asimov - I Robot
Crazy Horse and Custer, by Stephen Ambrose
Quote from: anthrobabe on July 26, 2007, 01:55:48 PM
Quote from: Swatopluk on July 26, 2007, 09:30:13 AM
The next Pratchett (Making Money) is announced for autumn. How can I survive till then?
you may hold my hand tightly until then-- mind over matter- if the black ribboners can do what they do then we will survive this- plus we will keep ample amounts of hot sweet tea about(it's not called scubbo- that's the stew stuff is it sloopy? or am I loosing it?)
I'm reading the daily paper
Saloop...the tea.
Waiting on both the last Tiffany Aching and the most recent Harry Potter to pass into the realm of used, paperback or used paperback.
Reading ancient Len Deighton out of sheer boredom.
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on August 01, 2007, 07:13:34 PM
Isaac Asimov - I Robot
I envy you if you're reading it for the first time. Wonder if reading it now resonates diiferently from reading it as a kid in the early 70s when people really thought AI and planetary colonisation was only a decade or two away.
That book on the Liberty ships will take a while.
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on August 03, 2007, 05:00:49 AM
Quote from: anthrobabe on July 26, 2007, 01:55:48 PM
Quote from: Swatopluk on July 26, 2007, 09:30:13 AM
The next Pratchett (Making Money) is announced for autumn. How can I survive till then?
you may hold my hand tightly until then-- mind over matter- if the black ribboners can do what they do then we will survive this- plus we will keep ample amounts of hot sweet tea about(it's not called scubbo- that's the stew stuff is it sloopy? or am I loosing it?)
I'm reading the daily paper
Saloop...the tea.
Waiting on both the last Tiffany Aching and the most recent Harry Potter to pass into the realm of used, paperback or used paperback.
Reading ancient Len Deighton out of sheer boredom.
Thanks!!!!!!
not reading right now
Quote from: beagle on August 03, 2007, 07:46:28 AM
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on August 01, 2007, 07:13:34 PM
Isaac Asimov - I Robot
I envy you if you're reading it for the first time. Wonder if reading it now resonates diferently from reading it as a kid in the early 70s when people really thought AI and planetary colonisation was only a decade or two away.
The incredible part is that the guy wrote it in the 50s (in those days it was believed that Mercury's rotation was in sync with the sun as the moon is with Earth) and while AI is far off, and warp drives are as fiction as ever, his understanding of the future (or arguably, the past) is still amazing.
I am indeed reading it for the 1st time, although I've read the prelude to foundation and the trilogy (there are more books in the series and I am happy to say that now I have them all loaded in my reader :D :D ).
The Fabric of the Cosmos, by Brian Greene. (Hooray for physics!)
Re-reading the Harry Potter series, now that I've read the last one. (We need a ecstatically bouncing icon...)
Also reading the news on JPost, Washington Post, etc.
As is my custom I read many books parallel (though not stereo).
Among the current batch is: the war of the World (N.Ferguson)
I do something similar.
Just finished "The Nanny Diaries" and Freakanomics (sooooo good!)
I'm currently reading "The Worldly Philosophers"
"Eats, Shoots, and Leaves"
The Third Chimpanzee (for about the fifth time).
Quote from: Agujjim on August 09, 2007, 08:29:13 PM
"Eats, Shoots, and Leaves"
Aggh! I want to read that! Ben on my list for some time, never found it.
I found it on the apartment 'don't want it anymore' bookshelf by the laundry room.... I had forgot about this book.
Unfortunately, I've been reading before bedtime and am a bit sleep deprived so it puts me to sleep PDQ. ;D
(http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x97/Swatopluk/EPN_326747206_0011.jpg)
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x97/Swatopluk/EPN_326747206_0011.jpg
Currently reading:
Collected Plays of Joe Orton
Aransas by Steven Harrigan
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
And my $1 hardbound copy of Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
Oh, and some old Richard Brautigan poetry.
Niall Ferguson, The War of the World
One may not agree with his political points of view but he is still a delight to read.
Adam Nathan, Windows Presentation Foundation unleashed.
More readable than Petzold's Applications=Code+Markup, and it has pictures; always a plus point for a book on GUIs.
Almost all technical books at the moment due to the tidal wave of new technologies in .Net 3.0. Just WCF, WF, WCS and LINQ to go and I'll be up to date. Till .Net 4.0 (whimper).
mmm my favourites, the unleashed books. But is it the round windows or the arched windows?
The Devil's Feather Minette Walters
I read books as others watch TV: zap, zap, zap
But a lot of them are thick enough that "starting" them means reading the first 100-200 pages and leave the rest for later. It can be much later but usually everything gets finished in the end
Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King, about the guy who built the Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. So far very entertaining.
The Language Instinct Steven Pinker
Some late 19th century essays on Japanese weaponry I bought at the museum a few days ago (the essays not the weaponry).
A walk in the woods, by Bill Bryson.
two guys. one appalacian trail. and a whole lot of failget.
~Qwerty has been making entirely too much 4chan references
Did a quick reading update on my Hammer movie books yesterday evening
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - finally !!
In the end I couldn't face all the hassle of reclaiming the copy the postman sent back and passing a reduced price copy in a bookshop snapped it up. All the copies in bookshops seem to be reduced. I don't really understand the point - why not just make them all that price in the first place (rhetorical).
advertising. everyone who really wants one will already have it by now, so they're trying to appeal to those who don't have THAT much interest in it, but still kind of have to read it. so, it's a month later, and "oh jolly! reduced price!"
near the end you just can't stop reading that book. my whole family read the last 6ish chapters from about 7 to 11pm :P
~Qwerty
Over here it was "reduced price" from the start. For a moment I feared I had wasted money by ordering it from amazon.
well, you got it probably as soon as possible through amazon, and, if german youths are anything like american ones, you don't have to risk hearing people who bought the book, read the last chapter, and start driving around the bookstore yelling the ending.
~Qwerty
Unfortunately a colleague got the end from the net and could not keep his mouth shut. He could of course not know that the mere question whether Harry dies or not is actually completely irrelevant.
hmm... "you know you're a 'chosen one' when..."
... when you've died or know you will die multiple times.
Except if you have been condemned to die "The Thousand Deaths"
you mean, like Megadeth?
hmm, not really a pun... yet.
That would be 106 not 103
oh, so just a Kilodeath then?
or Kill o'Death
now that's just redudant, and incredibly off topic.
BOOKS!
the morning papers
databases and databases of clientel... augh.
At the moment the stuff I am typing into the keyboard on the What are you reading? thread
Just finished reading a bunch of handbooks for work (the Green Apron book, my coffee and tea "passports" ::) and a few other ones. ) I have yet another one to read that I have yet to pick up.
A book on the backgrounds of the change from the K98 k to the StG 44.
Another version of the Arthurian legends...I forget which one.
The instruction book for my new ever so ever so eco friendly dishwasher which has just done it's first perfect wash with very little water, very little cleanery stuff, and very speedily on the extra extra double double quick programme. And I can time it to run on economy electricity during the night. All I worry about now is the folk down the salt mines.
Another bunch of essays from about 1900 on Japanese topics.
Never visit a museum with too much money in your pocket or you'll end with another stack of books on obscure topics. ;)
Ross King - Michelangelo and the Pope's ceiling, about his work on the Sistine Chapel
Goodbye Mexico--Brian Jennings
Espionage and the CIA. And how screwy it is. Hilarious.
The Monroe Louisiana Junior League Cookbook.
Blog posts and comments on the Petraeus farce in Congress and on Fox.
Good that the force is not with me, so I cannot strangle people from afar.
Lol, I have the Denver Junior League's cook book. Never use it.
Agreed, Swato.
Obsidian Wings blog posts for today.
Those are my daily bread too.
bloom County Babylon and some Janet Evanovich paperback that I found on the markdown shelf at Half Price books. Bought my first Jasper Fforde novel to see if I like his stuff.
icanhascheezeburger.com
(http://icanhascheezburger.wordpress.com/files/2007/09/arrr.jpg) (http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/09/12/arrr-wheres-me-grog-wench/)
Lolcatz!
I recently started reading it, after seeing about eight jillion links to them from the Daily Dish.
Good Omen for the third time.
A bit of Lovecraft
Just finished Wintersmith (Prachett).
Starting Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (Robbins).
(Guess who blew the rent at Half Price Books after the car broke down in Houston, since the tow fee blew the rent anyway...)
Only 4 days to the next Pratchett!
David Gemmell
Echoes of the Great Song
Turandot, the tenor part that I should know by now (and I don't)
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on September 21, 2007, 03:51:13 AM
Turandot, the tenor part that I should know by now (and I don't)
That means no sleep for you doesn't it ;)
OK, if I hadn't made that joke someone else would have (maybe, I just need an excuse...)
---
Terry Pratchett - Making Money
About halfway through. Not bad (he never is) but not a masterpiece either.
A book about rebuilding fuel pumps... ???
Finished the Pratchett yesterday. No revision of judgement from the half-way point. Readable but he has been better on other occasions. Hints that Moist will (have to) take over the tax collector's office in the future.
::Throws temper tantrum wanting next Pratchett. Remembers Dan is in Europe, and will be in London. Schemes to find money enough to put in his bank account::
Currently reading another auto repair manual and some piece of dreck paperback that I can't remember the name of.
the backlog of weekly papers (Die Zeit)
Johnny Maxwell Trilogy
About to start James Lee Burke's Caddilac Jukebox.
Have you seen the TV adaption of Johnny and the Bomb?
No. We don't have TV at our house. I'd LOVE to get BBC America, so that maybe I could see some of the Pratchett things, but... :dontknow: $$
Ezentually, I hope it's all on DVD and I can rejoin Netflix.
It's available on DVD now (Region 2, so that may not help you)
I've started reading Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. Makes my childhood almost look normal. Sheesh!
It gets worse, Opsa...there's some question as to the complete veracity of that memoir.
Reading an anthology of short humor from the New Yorker.
Loving the Thurber. Have ALWAYS loved Thurber.
Gosh, I hope so, Chatty. I can't imagine he was actually given away to his mom's batty psychiatrist.
I too, have always loved Thurber. Now his was an eccentric family I could live with.
He's amazing, Thurber is.
Making Money--Terry Pratchett
the weather report from ACIC
Bait And Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
By Barbara Ehrenreich
I am America (and so can you) by Stephen Colbert
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Just finished War of the World (Fergueson)
Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour (Surtees) should be in the mail
Just started The Kite Runner.
Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour (Surtees, 1853)
For the first time in a very long time I actually have difficulty to completely understand a piece of English literature. 19th century (British) English seems to be quite peculiar with quite a shift in the meaning of common words. And me being out of my cultural depths (no expert on horses, hunting, clothing, customs) doesn't help. Also Surtees has a very ironic style that leaves much unsaid requiring the reader to complete the picture/find the word he is hinting at.
Quite entertaining nonetheless.
Fortunately I have a very big dictionary that hasn't kicked out the older or obscure meanings of words (e.g. that a bullfinch is not exclusively a bird but also an obstacle for horses).
Some Orson Scott Card short stories/novellas entitled something about the 'beginnings of the Enderverse'...I'm trying to gather all the "Ender" books together, but it seems to have grown to a 6 or 7 part 'trilogy' so far...
Although not finished by far with the Sponge, I took another reading of David Attenborough's memoirs Life on Air (which I strongly recommend).
Ian Shaw- textbook- "oxford history of egypt" or close enough for horseshoes(the name)
we get to have him on campus in the spring for a lecture-- ssooooo excited. Plus my book is a hard-back so I get an autograph as well. (for some reason the campus bookstore had one hardback copy amongst all the paperbacks and I grabbed it)
Quote from: Swatopluk on October 18, 2007, 10:44:04 AM
Fortunately I have a very big dictionary that hasn't kicked out the older or obscure meanings of words (e.g. that a bullfinch is not exclusively a bird but also an obstacle for horses).
Oh dear. I fear we will be benefiting from your expanding vocabulary. ::)
Val McDermid
Beneath the BleedingI went through a phase of only reading books with "Red" in the title. I'm branching out into blood, although I kjow that can be blue. (factlet: apparently when they took blood samples at the summit on
Xtreme Everest (http://www.xtreme-everest.co.uk/), it actually was blue).
Quote from: Griffin NoName on October 25, 2007, 03:22:56 AM
Oh dear. I fear we will be benefiting from your expanding vocabulary. ::)
That's an old vice of mine. Learn a new old and obscure word, find a way to use it whatever the cost. ;D
At least they are usually safe for the kiddies ;).
Candide by Voltaire
found this great online place for books to download.
U PENN online books page (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/)
Good book, that.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Pratchett's Making Money.
Dan bought it for me in London, along with a British version of the first Harry Potter, so I can compare it to the American version.
Both have better cover art in the British versions, I think ;D
Re-reading William Saroyan's The Human Comedy.
I had forgotten how wonderful that book is...
Just finished Dean Koontz' "The Good Guy" and have started in on Robin Cook's "Terminal".
I <3 the Human Comedy.
Reading up on Alano Españols. They seem like good dogs, and I have a soft spot for anything attached to my family's history. Which these dogs are.
The Zombie Survival Guide again (triggered by the thread on the topic)
Finishing off "Stranger in a Strange Land" and then onto the Deathly Hallows.
Loved SISL.
I'm reading Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing. Made a decent smudge stick yesterday according to the directions in this book. Had a smoke bath. The Opsalette had one, too.
James Lee Burke's Dixie City Jam
Watchmen by Alan Moore.
Or I will as soon as I wash my mitts so I don't get the book (which belongs to my friend's sister) buttery.
A new book on WW1
Re-reading Making Money, T Pratchett
Do you also own the chairman?
Spencer would be an EXCELLENT Chairman. :mrgreen:
Look at that noble face! He'd be a natural for the $500 bill!
Three barks hitting the mark ;D
What influence would Golems have on the US economy?
Forsaken Females.... Andrea Parrot and Nina Cummings- working on that independent study.
An exteremly pleasing article in my local news about how my candidate won the local Republican straw poll with 35%.
Assorted weirdness on the intarwebz. (Booby's blog f'rinstance.)
Just finished "Terminal" by Robin Cook, and just started "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins.
I managed to avoid laughing out loud on the train today whilst reading Making Money, but I am not exactly sure what the couple sitting opposite made of the smirk on my face, they certainly gave me strange look....
Cien años de Soledad (100 years of solitude) by Gabriel García Márquez. It's been a while since I read something from him.
Rabbit, Run-- John Updike- never read it before- just a few pages in- no spoilers please.
Smilla's Sense of Snow--novel by some Danish guy that has letters in his name I can't type.
I'm going through "Modern History" for yet another time......
Right now I'm reading my bills. Holly too many to read & I don't know how will I pay them :( Oh yeah I have a good idea BC, Why don't you lend me money ;) to pay them all & now I don't need to read those my bills :) then I have time to read my Sex Magazine :) Do you think this is a good idea??? He-he-he just let me know!!! :P
Hey! ...Don't be talking any potty mouth here...save that for pyrates...I wuz hoping you would lend me some dough...and you know what Im reading ...i'm just down the hall...leave me be and write that poem you were telling me about...and no potty mouth!
I'm almost through with Kinky Friedman's The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover. After that, who knows?
Still reading technical books, but sending off for "Pigs might fly" (Floyd history) and "Home School" (The Graduate sequel) to read over Christmas.
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on November 23, 2007, 10:37:40 PM
Smilla's Sense of Snow--novel by some Danish guy that has letters in his name I can't type.
Totally brilliant novel. So are his others.
I've been working up the strength to begin Human Traces - Sebastian Faulk.
I decided to give it to several people for Christmas so I thought I'd read it to check suitability.
So far, it just sits by my side, silently reproaching me for spending my time at The Monastery instead.
It's a bit much when one has to do research for Christmas :mrgreen:
Lol, it is an excellent novel.
Rereading "Making Money"
A book with essays on or by Charles Babbage centered on his calculating engines
Playscript of Angels in America
http://seananderson-myjourney.blogspot.com/
This.
And I'm very angry about it.
<shameless plug>
re-reading (and doing some rather late editing) something I wrote online: http://dorkanese.deviantart.com/art/I-Could-Be-Arrested-71848721
</shameless plug>
I'm reading
http://dorkanese.deviantart.com/art/I-Could-Be-Arrested-71848721 (http://dorkanese.deviantart.com/art/I-Could-Be-Arrested-71848721)
You are a very good writer Kanola.
I feels odd to say that I enjoyed reading it but I did and with people like you around there is still hope!
I'm already scared about the political state of USA and the many of the European countries too as the willingly follow big brother USA like lambs to the slaughter, so no you don't manage to scare me more, but please let someone around here know your real name, or tell people dear to you to post here if something should happen, just so you know that we will get the facts we need to to raise hell should that be needed.
Thank you!
DaveL and Anthro have my facebook. And I have an extensive list of friends on dA, and I've dragged a few other of my smarter friends on here (they never post, but the lurk and know I'm here), so I think I've got enough contingency plans, and you guys will at least know.
I am very proud of you. Both this piece and the one here about the Simians...excellent.
I'm thinking a little bit of word usage and a tighter spellcheck on the Simians one, and maybe submitting it to some places like AlterNet might be a possibility. (Between and among..I forget where in the Simians I noticed it, but I did...gotta fix that. It's my pet error, 95% of the world doesn't know or care, but it bothers me. Go figure.)
Speaking out about abuses, about the desecration of our lives and liberties is never wrong.
Thank you! That means an awful lot coming from both of you. :)
I'm ALWAYS looking for critiques...what word usages do I need to change? I'll have to double check my spelling *wanders off to edit*...
Hey Squidly !
Brilliant rant...Mad Will sends his love . Your Cuzz can't get enough writing of such quality...that is one reason he loves the Monastery .
I can't get enough of Toadfish writing in general , Chatty and Bluenoses' essays are (IMHO) compelling compositions with elegant style(s) and technical mastery .... makes reading and thinking fun.
Where do I find the "Simians" thread ?
...for some reason I still think of you as a middle aged guy , don't know why...
Regards , BC
Thanks!
Not sure why you think of me that way either, but go figure.
http://toadfishmonastery.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=32&topic=1021.0
This is the "Simian" thread.
Das Kino der Angst (The cinema of fear), a study on American war movies and the influences on and by them.
Quote from: Swatopluk on December 03, 2007, 08:55:08 AM
A book with essays on or by Charles Babbage centered on his calculating engines
Very cool. That's not available online, is it?
Even if it's not, could you share the title? I might want to scour the libraries for it... assuming it's not in the form of a collection of punchcards.
I just finished the Collected Writings of Thomas Paine (well, not all of them... I focused on
Common Sense and
Age of Reason). I'm currently reading an English translation of the
Bhagavad Gita, one of the Hindu scriptures. Good stuff so far.
Bernhard Dotzler (editor), Babbages Rechen-Automate (1995)
Except for the introduction the texts are contemporary (by Babbage, his son etc.)
I bought it cheaply when a great bookstore (with a very long tradition) went bankrupt a few years ago.
---
Robert Harris, Pompeii
Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear, from the Nursery Crimes series.
Fforde has been posited as the presumed heir of the Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett fan base. I just want it to take a long time before he inherits in full...
I've read the first one. Couldn't get into it.
I think I am going to like the Thursday Next series better, if I can ever find the first books. Well of Lost Plots finally caught my interest about a third of the way in, but then I had no background for it.
Interesting concepts in that series.
I think I will be finished with Pompeii in the afternoon.
Kamer's Ergot
Random little comic series.
Maybe I should start at last that monstrous Mao biography I got last Xmas.
After finishing The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The robots of dawn, I am starting Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov.
Quote from: Swatopluk on December 14, 2007, 08:53:52 AM
Bernhard Dotzler (editor), Babbages Rechen-Automate (1995)
Except for the introduction the texts are contemporary (by Babbage, his son etc.)
I bought it cheaply when a great bookstore (with a very long tradition) went bankrupt a few years ago.
Sounds neat, but hard-to-find here.
Not sure if you've seen it already, but in case you haven't, you might want to check out The Difference Engine (http://www.sfsite.com/08a/dif62.htm) by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. The book takes place in a Victorian England where Babbage's mechanical computers launched a revolution in the 19th Century like electronic computing launched a revolution in the 20th. It's been years since I read it, but I thought it was good at the time.
The Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears series my friend lent me.
Quote from: Sibling Lambicus the Toluous on December 17, 2007, 10:30:36 PM
Quote from: Swatopluk on December 14, 2007, 08:53:52 AM
Bernhard Dotzler (editor), Babbages Rechen-Automate (1995)
Except for the introduction the texts are contemporary (by Babbage, his son etc.)
I bought it cheaply when a great bookstore (with a very long tradition) went bankrupt a few years ago.
Sounds neat, but hard-to-find here.
Not sure if you've seen it already, but in case you haven't, you might want to check out The Difference Engine (http://www.sfsite.com/08a/dif62.htm) by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. The book takes place in a Victorian England where Babbage's mechanical computers launched a revolution in the 19th Century like electronic computing launched a revolution in the 20th. It's been years since I read it, but I thought it was good at the time.
I read it in translation. I heard of it in a university course (department: history of science) on the history of informatics/calculating devices. Since it was available cheaply as a paperback, I purchased it. Interesting.
Helena Kennedy QC - Just Law
Maus (holocaust through the eyes of a mouse family in cartoon form-- sorry graphic novel form) very moving--- based on Art Speiglmans fathers accounts of his survival as a Polish jew
and seriously amazing. If you like that one, try "In the Shadow of No Towers," by the same guy. Really amazing.
A 'graphic adaption' of the 9/11 Commission report.
Almost comic at times, but sickening more frequently than not.
Frank Schätzing, Der Schwarm
After finishing a book that uncovers how the drug cartels gave gifts in the form of models, beauty pageant participants and female TV anchors to politicians and the military in Colombia, I'm starting Relativity by Albert Einstein (1920). A book for those "...interested in the theory but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus." I'm happy I took all those semesters on math and physics in college, otherwise... ;)
Well, the fact the fundies are screaming about the movie, and the fact the book has gotten a lot of good reviews, I broke down and started reading "The Golden Compass". I'm about 1/2 way through.
The interpretation of Murder Jed Rubenfeld
Supposed to be outstandingly clever re Freud but no sign of it yet by page 453.
Buda's Wagon - A Brief History of the Car Bomb (by Mike Davis)
Interesting and disturbing
A borrowed copy of the 2004 Federal Budget. Just wanted to see how bad we're getting screwed to pay off the Top Dogs. (Real bad.)
I've been reading Pride and Prejudice online but the small letters and glare of the screen is making it difficult to read .
Raise your chair (or sit on a cushion) and lower the screen or tilt it downward.
See if you can find an inexpensive pair of over the counter reading glasses in a +1.0 or less that has an anti-glare coating. Even if you wear spectacles regularly, they'll help magnify AND cut the glare.
Only other suggestion is to put a full sheet magnifier in front of the screen and wear Polarized sunglasses.
(We been in da optical bizness, we has.)
Reading a playscript, "Dancing at Lughnasa".
Quote from: Bruder Cuzzen on January 12, 2008, 04:55:12 AM
I've been reading Pride and Prejudice online but the small letters and glare of the screen is making it difficult to read .
You might try changing your screen resolution. Most video cards can do that pretty easily.
Quote from: Aphos on January 12, 2008, 06:51:17 AM
Quote from: Bruder Cuzzen on January 12, 2008, 04:55:12 AM
I've been reading Pride and Prejudice online but the small letters and glare of the screen is making it difficult to read .
You might try changing your screen resolution. Most video cards can do that pretty easily.
Well, if ya gonna do it da EASY (and sensible) way... :mrgreen:
I am reading Barbara Jordan: American Hero by Mary Beth Rodgers.
It makes me even more aware of what America lost to the ravages of Multiple Sclerosis, and the devastating effect that illness in one, solitary person may have caused for America, and by extension, the world.
(It also makes me want to go kick Newt Gingrich's entire stupid ass. Hard, and with steel toed boots. And malicious intent.)
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on January 14, 2008, 06:40:59 PM
It makes me even more aware of what America lost to the ravages of Multiple Sclerosis, and the devastating effect that illness in one, solitary person may have caused for America, and by extension, the world.
For me that has always been Jacqueline du Pre. It was unbearable losing those wonderful glorious sounds when she fell quiet.
Started reading "The Subtle Knife", Book 2 of His Dark Materials, yesterday. The library finally got it back.
Latein - Kleine Geschichte einer großen Sprache (Latin - A little history of a great language)
A 113 page monograph on the speculative use of Som230 LAR (long acting reagent) form instead of sandostatin (octreotide, the current US standard) in the treatment of carcinoid syndrome. Somatostatin is used in Britain (as lanreotide) but in a substantially different formulation. This formula is pasireotide.
:hot-here: I need a quick degree in biomedical science, chemistry or something similar.
Kulturgeschichte des Klimas (A Cultural History of Climate)
Speaking of gasping for air, I'm still trying to get through The Kite Runner but it's so emotionally draining I keep pushing it to the bottom of the stack.
(Hey Chatty, are those steel toed boots or steel toad boots?)
Issac Asimov - Caliban
Quote from: Opsanus tau on January 28, 2008, 09:42:21 PM
Speaking of gasping for air, I'm still trying to get through The Kite Runner but it's so emotionally draining I keep pushing it to the bottom of the stack.
(Hey Chatty, are those steel toed boots or steel toad boots?)
I vote for the steel toad boots-- turn ol' Newt into a steel toad, right quick-like.
Next, kick ol'e dubya in his (no doubt inadequate) privates.
Cheney next.
Anyone see Lewis Black's new bit on Comedy channel?
Toad.
Toadily.
What Bob said.
(I've seen those parts, years ago. He had a bad habit of standing on barstools and dropping his pants.
:barf: :barf: :barf: :barf: :puke:
Not even with 2 gallons of Lysol and some 10 foot long tweezers.)
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on January 29, 2008, 11:00:46 PM
Toad.
Toadily.
What Bob said.
(I've seen those parts, years ago. He had a bad habit of standing on barstools and dropping his pants.
:barf: :barf: :barf: :barf: :puke:
Not even with 2 gallons of Lysol and some 10 foot long tweezers.)
Are you suggesting inadequacy? It
would explain some of his issues... ::) ::)
Extreme. :o :o
And yes, it does. :mrgreen:
If he didn't want people to know, he shoulda kept his damn pants on.
(No, I have NO idea ::) ::) ::) who drew lips on his butt with lipstick while he was passed out on the floor. Not regular lips, ones utilizing an already there 'line' as the center of the drawing. However, the guy that covered the lipstick tube with a bar napkin and stuck it in to look like a ciggie actually TOUCHED him. EEEEEEEWWWWWW.) :mrgreen:
I've never had a substance abuse problem, and probably should have been more tolerant of someone with obvious ones. However, his obnoxiousness just brought out the EVIL in me...
Oh, that is delightfully gross! Puts another spin on "read my lips".
Bob- you mean "Red, White and Screwed"? I saw it. Lewis Black makes me laugh so hard I nearly pass out. His unspeakable frustration is absolutely adorable.
Quote from: Opsanus tau on January 30, 2008, 06:04:39 PM
Oh, that is delightfully gross! Puts another spin on "read my lips".
Bob- you mean "Red, White and Screwed"? I saw it. Lewis Black makes me laugh so hard I nearly pass out. His unspeakable frustration is absolutely adorable.
Yeah, that one.
I don't know which I like better, his rant on Cheny's mistakes, his rant about the stupidity of the Current Occupant, or his little tale about how idiotic creationists are.
Or, then, there's the bits about how the Old Testament is really a Jewish book, and all these fundie Christian preachers never interpret it correctly...
The whole thing's a peach. I may just have to purchase it on DVD if it ever comes out... I understand the Comedy Central one was edited for length. (and, obviously, beeped, but who cares about that-- it was clear what he was saying, despite the beeps.... )
I saw it on Comedy Central. If there's an unedited version, it would be worth the money.
It really doesn't matter if Lewis swears or not. His hands flying around in front of his face curse better than any words.
Alexander, Child of a Dream.
Part 1 of trilogy about, you guessed it, Alexander.
A study (actually a collection of essays) on cultural aspects of nakedness.
Looks like scientists see a big difference between naked and nude.
Also contained an essay about certain lurid aspects of crucifixion scenes. There was a period when the shape of the loincloth intentionally implied that Our Lord had a hard one :o. That's not just something implied by modern art critics but actually theologically debated at the time of these paintings being made. Christus Triumphans or just perverts in priestly robes? :bees:
Reading a Kinky Friedman book, God Bless John Wayne.
I found 3 cookbooks in the dollar bin at Big Lots--- one is called
Mini Mart A La Carte--- cooking not only in the mini-mart but using items that can be found at the mini-mart. Some of the things look worth trying(but at home). NOT the drink that has Smirnoff Ice and Pepto Bismol together-- I'm not that brave.
Still reading a megatome on .NET 3.5, and re-reading "Rogue Male".
The SS-A warning from history
Jolie Blon Bounce, a mystery novel by James Lee Burke.
Alexander, The Sands of Ammon
Part 2 of trilogy about, you guessed it again, Alexander.
Stephen King's new book, Duma Key
Just re-read Asimov's "The Gods Themselves".
I had really only remembered a sketchy summary, which turned out to be not quite correct.
Ahhh, old age does have some benefits after all: me memory's going at last, and I can re-enjoy some classic books as if for the first time. :mrgreen:
I'm seriously thinking about re-reading the entire Discworld set.
Quote from: Bob in a quantum-state-of-faithAhhh, old age does have some benefits after all: me memory's going at last, and I can re-enjoy some classic books as if for the first time. :mrgreen:
That is only too true, and no rhyme nor reason to it, that I can tell. I can just glance at some books in my library and have entire passages leap to mind. Others, which I
know I have read, seem completely unfamiliar on a revisit. Or even a re-revisit. :-[
David Blackbourn - The Conquest of Nature
Spike Milligan
Mussolini, His Part in My Downfall
Un Lun Dun by China Miéville
Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
Quote from: pieces o nine on March 08, 2008, 01:36:37 AM
Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
I don't remember that one-- when was it published?
I just finished David Baldacci's "The Collectors" last night and started the sequal, "Stone Cold", today.
Quote from: Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith on March 08, 2008, 03:31:13 AM
Quote from: pieces o nine on March 08, 2008, 01:36:37 AM
Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
I don't remember that one-- when was it published?
It was planned to be the third Dirk Gentley novel but he died with it unfinished.
The existing fragment was published from his literary remains together with other texts a few years ago.
It's on my shelves but yet unread
Thanks, Swato.
Quote from: Douglas Adams / Salmon of DoubtI've come up with a set of rules that describes our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
Quote from: Swatopluk on March 08, 2008, 09:35:12 AM
Quote from: Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith on March 08, 2008, 03:31:13 AM
Quote from: pieces o nine on March 08, 2008, 01:36:37 AM
Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
I don't remember that one-- when was it published?
It was planned to be the third Dirk Gentley novel but he died with it unfinished.
The existing fragment was published from his literary remains together with other texts a few years ago.
It's on my shelves but yet unread
Thank you. I now seem to recall that information as well.
While we are at commemorating Douglas Adams
The BBC has a nice double CD (presented by Jones, the Arthur Dent from the BBC series) in memory of him.
It includes some of his less well-known stuff (he also did scripts for Dr.Who for example)
Yes, he did. And they appalled viewers who did not like their Doctor all slap-sticky. :D
I'd still say there is an affinity between Adams and Dr.Who (though my knowledge of the latter is limited).
Yes, there is.
(http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9192/drwhosmiliescarf2yh.gif)
Reading Ender's Shadow, by Orson Scott Card.
Trying to find all the Ender books, but that'll entail hitting more used book stores.
Supervision in the Helping Professions, Peter Hawkins and Robin Shohet,
1994 reprint, Buckingham, England, OUP
Bundle of laughs.
CLR through C# Jeffrey Richter. Custom attributes chapter. Likewise.
[url=http://Desolation Jones]Desolation Jones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desolation_Jones#Story_arc_.231:_Made_in_England)
Plot: ex-M16 member/test subject (a la 1960's CIA experiments) hired to find stolen Hitler porn in LA
I have to work in my literature list into my thesis. For that purpose I have to go through all those folders to find out what the papers on the list are actually about (how should I know? I read them years ago and most of it is just mandatory references that had no actual influence on the thesis).
Just finished R A Heinlein's, For Us, the Living
My comments here (http://toadfishmonastery.com/forum/index.php?topic=64.msg60685#msg60685) on another Monastery thread
H.Turtledove - The Guns of the South
Someone in the chorus recommended Robin Ross' Assassin's Apprentice. A fantasy book; I'll drop a review in the big book thread once I finish it.
Just finished Last Call by Tim Powers and is now reading The Drawing Of The Dark by the same author.
Another James Lee Burke novel.
Mr. Burke is NOT enamoured of the current political state of affairs in the US...for about the last 40 or 50 years or so.
Parliamentary drivel.
A prose translation of Beowulf
I'm reading the "short and comprehensive" guide to my retirement fund package (roughly my 401K equivalent), which is a lot of drivel mandated by a parlimentary brain meltdown, and would definitely look better if a Beowulf chopped it down to size. Grrr!
For balance a book on the cultural impact of the AK-47 and another on the Hitler salute.
Also All the Colors of the Dark (aka the Bava Bible :mrgreen:, 5-6 kg printed paper about that (in)famous Italian director)
The Persian Boy, by Mary Renault
Quote from: Swatopluk on April 12, 2008, 11:11:08 AM
For balance a book on the cultural impact of the AK-47 and another on the Hitler salute.
Nice example of good industrial design ;) . A chromed barrel so you can bury it without wrecking it. Pity the changeover lever is so noisy. Bit of a giveaway when stalking in Tesco's car park.
Where did the salute come from? A modified version of the Roman one?
Quote from: Pachyderm
The Persian Boy, by Mary Renault
Read that some time ago. Remember being amused by the Persians' habit of taking the whole court on campaign with them.
Finished Robin Hobb's Royal Assasin (2nd book on the trilogy) and started Assasin's Quest. I got really caught with it and read through the night. I'll do a full review of the trilogy once I'm done.
Still waiting for Turtledove's Toxic Spell Dump to arrive by mail (availability seems to be limited at the moment)
Quote from: Swatopluk on April 27, 2008, 08:58:14 PM
Still waiting for Turtledove's Toxic Spell Dump to arrive by mail (availability seems to be limited at the moment)
Been out of print for years. Too bad, it's one of his best, IMHO
Started on Patrick O'Brian's master and Commander series (again). now on book 9 of 20, Treason's Harbour.
Quote from: Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith on April 28, 2008, 02:55:13 AM
Quote from: Swatopluk on April 27, 2008, 08:58:14 PM
Still waiting for Turtledove's Toxic Spell Dump to arrive by mail (availability seems to be limited at the moment)
Been out of print for years. Too bad, it's one of his best, IMHO
Amazon.co.uk offically has it in stock still but their delivery rate for books (outside the UK) would almost double the price.
Now onto book 10, The Far Side of the World. ;D
Mainly printouts of news/commentary pages (truthout/alternet) at the moment
Deconstructing Psychopathology
Ian Parker, Eugenie Georgaca, David Harper, and Terence McLaughlin
At least, the Introduction. It's very short; apparently there's not a lot to explain about the book ;D
Given I've just finished my Dip. I am a bit concerned I haven't gone for an easy novel. Perhaps I AM mad.
but at least it's not Windows Programming
Charles Nicholl - Leonardo Da Vinci, Flights of the Mind. A nice and thoroughly researched biography.
The Science of Discworld III - Darwin's Watch.
Very entertaining and quite informative too.
It's also one of the rare cases where the obsolete theories and their original proponents are treated with respect (as opposed to those that still adhere to them in face of megatons of contrary evidence).
Although I knew about the watchmaker argument, I had never consciously heard of Paley.
The Descent of Woman by Elaine Morgan.
Quote from: Griffin NoName on May 27, 2008, 11:24:43 PM
but at least it's not Windows Programming
Don't knock it. It's been paying my mortgage for twenty years now. Though it does sometimes worry me how excited I can get about the ability to animate a button.
Still reading
Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed, after a brief holiday reading
Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform.
Next up:
Home School , the sequel to
The Graduate. That's been in the queue since Christmas.
Volume one of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
-sigh- I'm getting progressively dorkier as the years go by.
Oh well. At least I enjoy it.
Quote from: The Meromorph
The Descent of Woman by Elaine Morgan.
That one is in my library!
The Redemption of Althalus, by David and Leigh Eddings.
A PhD thesis on legal aspects of naval escorts in the Iran-Iraq war
Quote from: beagle on May 28, 2008, 08:11:56 PM
Still reading Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed,
Have always enjoyed reading the
Unleashed series........ ;)
You might like this one then. The words "control" and "binding" feature on almost every page. What were the designers thinking of...?
Still trying to acquire The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump.
Difficult ot get it seems.
Quote from: Swatopluk on May 30, 2008, 07:34:14 AM
Still trying to acquire The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump.
Difficult ot get it seems.
Have you tried this place? Albris Books (http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?title=toxic+spell+dump)
Currently I try to get it over the ring of second-hand bookshops (so the risk does not lie with me).
I formally renounce my reading of Deconstructing Psychopathology. By half way through all the sentences were merging into one. In any case, there's something odd about a text on use of language which itself uses language to deconstruct language. I have reached the conclusion it cannot be done.
Moving swiftly on.....
The Water's Lovely
Ruth Rendell
I just finished reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Reminded me a lot of The Satanic Verses.
Hey 'Paca!
I'll have to check that out some time.
V for Vendetta. Infinitely better than the movie.
Annals of Endocrine Medicine, Surgery Reports on the Efficacy of Somolustatin Analogues in Megadose During Pancreatic Surgery.
Heh, the guy that "wrote the book" will be my surgeon.
The annual report of the Bank for International Settlements. Way beyond my economics reading age, but enough to scare the willies (and everything else) anyway. Definitely monsters under the bed time.
Hmm. The site just went dead. Perhaps they're no longer under the bed.
Windows XP Service Pack 3........ installing......progress indicator....
Re-reading assorted Prachetts.
Currently Wyrd Sisters. Because I was referred to as 'very Weatherwaxian in attitude' the other day, and I'm trying to find ways to refute it. (I first thought the not liking cats thing would do, and then I remembered Wintersmith and You, the kitten.)
Just finished Breakfast of Champions.
papers for the exam.
I simply don't can't say, whether I already know all the answers and can relax or am completely clueless and should panic.
Good Luck Swato.
Mother's Milk Edward Albyn
The Signs on the Wall, shudder ;)
---
Seriously, the quality of writing in chemical papers is not very good, to put it mildly. Half a century ago authors were able to write interesting, even if one did not understand what they were actually writing about. Today the publishers actually enforce bad style.
Reading a chemical paper of today is more often than not a task of endurance and suppression of yawning. They could probably publish recipes for the panacea, theriak and elixier of immortality and few would notice because everyone fell asleep on page 3 or got some acid holes in the stomach for having to read the abysmal prose.
phpBB3 (forum software) *
*my reading matter seems to be sliding towards the standard Beagle fare......
Guards, Guards (T. Pratchett) and an as-yet-to-be titled PhD dissertation by some half-witted student in American Literature who is so TOTALLY ass-backwards about the works of a (late) writer I've met (OK shared a home with for four months) that I may seek out the writings of his dissertation committee before I talk to him. If they're as stupid as he is, I'll just let it all go.
Would you like my PhD thesis instead?
Council Planning Application Processing : Legislation, Policies, Guidelines, Preservation Orders, Conservation Areas and Listed buildings, and Flood Plains.
Quote from: Swatopluk on July 02, 2008, 10:00:23 AM
Would you like my PhD thesis instead?
I get lost on page one in chemistry in English. I don't suspect that putting it in German would help...
My brane wud esplode... :fireworks_spread:
It is in English actually and not that much actual chemistry in it (more mathematical than chemical formulas)
The Sister Knot Terri Apter
(Psychology - hows and whys of love/hatred/bonds etc between female siblings)
Quote from: Swatopluk on July 02, 2008, 10:00:23 AM
Would you like my PhD thesis instead?
Oooh, I would!
(srsly, do you have my email addy? want to know what the Swato has been up to all this time)
I think I'd do better with the chem than the math, personally, but would still be very interested.
Books - just picked up two holds, one for the second time. Might just have some actual non-legal reading time after this week as lately reading has been more a process of pick up hold, allow to collect dust, return to library.
"The Pirate's Dilemma" - Matt Mason and "Bad Money" - Kevin Phillips.
What capacity does your mailbox have? There are a few photos in it that eat more space than all the rest combined.
Lindsey Davis' Falco series. Currently, Three hands in the fountain.
"Lighteningbolt" by Hyemeyohsts Storm and he is once again freaking me out, as he did with the first two books.
The Rise and Fall of Alexandria, birthplace of the modern world, by Justin Pollard and Howard Reid. It makes me wonder about all those lost books... :'(
Secrets of the Samurai (a very thick tome on the Japanese martial arts and the philosophy underlying it)
My hugs and hisses.
I must have been BAD as the number has dropped recently.
I can only offer appologies for sinning and I swear I will give myself 20 slashes with the rope thingamy jig.
Slashes? Are you using razor wire?
Marvel 1602 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_1602) by Neil Gaiman and a book Chatty and Goat might enjoy, called Confessions of an Economic Hitman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man) by John Perkins.
I'm reading Mig äger ingen (nobody owns me) by Åsa Linderborg.
Griffin, your hugs dropped because of The Rift™ ;) you're back at the number you had by July 18, I have lost hugs too and so have probably every body else.
:hug:
The newest reasons why Obama is unfit for president and probably is the Antichrist.
Too...
...eloquent
...charismatic
...popular
...physically fit
...skinny
...intelligent
And of course people that draw large crowds in Berlin with their speeches are too similar to certain historical figures of low reputation.
Btw, there was a goat parade yesterday at the Brandeburg Gate
(http://www.tagblatt.ch/storage/pic/newsml-sda/schweiz/64592_1_20080801142557.jpg)
http://www.tagblatt.ch/storage/pic/newsml-sda/schweiz/64592_1_20080801142557.jpg
Opsa, barbed razor wire, of course.
Darlica, The Rift™? No, No, No, it cannot be. I have defintely been BAD. Are you trying to stop me enjoying my masochistic joys? If others have also lost hugs/hisses, for the sadists I offer myself available for whipping.
Swato, you seem to have had the best of Obama in Europe in Berlin. BBC news on his England stopover on Saturday just showed him getting off a plane immediately followed by him getting back on it again. Or so my friends tell me. I wouldn't know as I was at a wedding.
Reading? Oh, yes. I am reading leaflets:
Understanding STRESS
Understanding DEPRESSION
Understanding and overcoming ANXIETY
Supplied from the same source, so presumably they think only anxiety can be resolved; indeed they recommend exposure* as a cure. Perhaps they make their money selling dirty macs. :o
their highlights, not mine
The ZDF recording of Big O's speech is on youtube (in 1 uninterrupted widescreen go without other news blended in, running text below or other distractions)
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=2llrIl72NVc
I couldn't stop thinking on JFK.
I was surprised also by the lack of an obvious paper with the speech, he hay have had it but it was invisible to the camera and he confronted the audience at all times as if he knew the speech by heart.
In many aspects he didn't said anything new or inherently groundbreaking, but he certainly has an aura of credibility that makes me believe he really thinks what he is saying (as a good politician he may not, but who knows). I read the speech as a plea to Europe not to consider all Americans as a reflection of Bush, Cheney & Co, and as a vouch that he is willing to listen Europe's POV.
For someone who is claimed to be terribly 'arrogant' he pretty much sounded the opposite. ;)
Again, it reminded me of JFK, I just wish he doesn't end up like him. :'(
Quote from: Swatopluk
Btw, there was a goat parade yesterday at the Brandeburg Gate
They made you
walk? Couldn't they at least have lifted you up on their shoulders, a hero of the people?
:D
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)Again, it reminded me of JFK, I just wish he doesn't end up like him
rumble.
(then again, maybe McCain is desperately trying to link Obama to a blonde bombshell, too, with that stupid Britney & Paris dig...)
Especially since Britney and Paris are REPUBLICANS. Britney even demanded unquestioning obedience to Bush because he knows best.
Paris already gave the maximum allowed as an individual to the McSame campaign.
Perhaps it's time to make some fliers with pictures of the two ladies and their contributions, and give them at the door of fundie churches?
:devil2: :devil2: :devil2: :devil2:
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on August 03, 2008, 02:43:22 PM
Paris already gave the maximum allowed as an individual to the McSame campaign.
Perhaps it's time to make some fliers with pictures of the two ladies and their contributions, and give them at the door of fundie churches?
:devil2: :devil2: :devil2: :devil2:
You could include some of the more "interesting" shots of Paris in that.... come to think of it Britney has some of those, too... ::)
Quote from: Swatopluk on August 02, 2008, 11:32:00 AM
Btw, there was a goat parade yesterday at the Brandeburg Gate
(http://www.tagblatt.ch/storage/pic/newsml-sda/schweiz/64592_1_20080801142557.jpg)
http://www.tagblatt.ch/storage/pic/newsml-sda/schweiz/64592_1_20080801142557.jpg
and I was not invited? so much for european integration!
Finally got to read one of the books my son gave me for my birthday: Ghandi's autobiography.
Pterry Pratchett's Strata
Waiting eagerly for the next Pratchett being published (it could be the last :help:)
Indeed. And here I was hoping he'd out live me.
The Science of Fear
Declare by Tim Powers
Die Vitalienbrüder (a study on the pirates in the North and Baltic sea in the late 14th/early 15th century)
Quote from: Darlica on August 25, 2008, 02:35:41 PM
Declare by Tim Powers
Oooh, good one.
Have you read the Fault Lines series? (I'm most partial to Expiration Date).
The Fourth Bear, by Jasper Fforde
Gisbert Haefs - Dante Barakuda trilogy, Vol.2: Gashiri
In this volume our hero has to fight against the anarchovegetarians
Quote from: Agujjim on August 25, 2008, 06:35:01 PM
Quote from: Darlica on August 25, 2008, 02:35:41 PM
Declare by Tim Powers
Oooh, good one.
Have you read the Fault Lines series? (I'm most partial to Expiration Date).
I have read
Last Call,
Expiration Date and
Earthquake Weather.
I like them all but I find them very different. I think I like
Last Call best, when I started reading it I couldn't put it down.
Expiration Date was my first Tim Powers novel, so I'm biased. Last Call was as good; I wasn't such a fan of Earthquake Weather.
Gisbert Haefs - Caesar
Another amusing Mark Morford column.
The revised edition of The Science of Discworld
Psychotherapy of Psychosis Mace and Margison Eds.
Biological Anthropology 5th edition, by Michael A. Park
Done with Ghandi's autobiography.
---
Now starting The Golden Compass to see what's the rage about it.
Persian Fire by Tom Holland
Printouts from truthout and alternet
Having read Nations (non-Discworld Pratchett) I have started re-reading the Discworld series from the beginning.
Color of Money is very much like the Robert Aspirin-edited thieves World in the beginning...
Did you mean the Color of Magic...?
I love that book. The ending, when they're on the edge of the disc, is possibly the most amazing description of anything I've ever read. Unfortunately, I lent that book to a friend who has yet to return it. :(
The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner as my fun-book. Hostility and the Minimization of Suffering by Bruno Contestible as my not-really-fun book. :P I have to defend the Paulson bailout, afdter having thoroughly torn it apart in my last paper.
This:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/opinion/12dowd.html?ref=opinion
:ROFL:
Quote from: Scriblerus the Philosophe on October 13, 2008, 12:30:50 AM
Did you mean the Color of Magic...?
Can you tell my fentanyl pain patches were working overtime??
Brain function was erratic for 3 days...and now I'm OK!
Any comments on the TV version of Colour of Magic? I got it from youtube in 20 parts.
The Pelepponesian War
Silver: My Own Tale As Written by Me with a Goodly Amount of Murder - Edward Chupack
First-person (fictional) autobiography of Long John Silver.
http://www.silverpirate.com/book.asp
Microsoft Sharepoint Products and Technologies - Administrator's pocket consultant
Mary Beard - Pompeii, The life of a Roman town.
The Age of Empire by Eric Hobsbawm
The Clothes on their Backs Linda Grant
Fight Club, again.
...Someone is breaking the first rule. And the second.
A biography of Peter the Great
I am reading a book written by my grandfather, Philip Mayer. It is called The Mature Spirit: Religion without Supernatural Hopes and I've had it since he sent it to me inscribed in 1989 (He died in the early 90's)and never got to it until now. He was a religious scholar (but I didn't know how intense he was until now. He was just Grampa, y'know?) and it is difficult for me to get through all the scholarly stuff. He knew much more about religious writings, Dead Sea Scrolls, Ghandi and Einstein than I'll never know, but it is cool to be making this posthumous connection to him.
It's only about 150 pages max, but I'm going slow and am only halfway through. He seems to be making a point about taking more personal responsibility in developing our humanity rather than relying on supernatural forces.
A series of unfortunate events (this will take me a while...)
Printouts from alternet and truthout
New Scientist
Age of the Dromon (continued)
Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, 2nd edition by K. Lualdi, et al.
Reading about Napoleon III and sort of had a revelation about my own family in relation to that guy.
Hadrian: Empire and Conflict.
Book of the British Museum exhibition.
Thinks are looking iffy. Trajan has kicked the bucket without officially nominating Hade as next in line for the purple.
Schiff und Zeit (the journal of the German society for merchant and navy history)
The Hobbit
Booker Shortilisted (didn't win) The Northern Clemency Philip Hensher.
Up to page 25 of 738. Big book.
So far, dull drivel. Will it improve? Or is being shortlisted corrupted? Or is it meant to test one's staying power in the face of irrefutable evidence one should abandon ship?
the morning papers
This week's The Economist
Toadfish Monastery . com
Russell Davies/Benjamin Cook - Doctor Who, The Writer's Tale
C S Forester's The Age of Fighting Sail
Quote from: Pachyderm on November 07, 2008, 09:11:10 PM
C S Forester's The Age of Fighting Sail
Don't know that one and I thought I had read most of his stuff.
Greg Palast "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"
Tony Blair's bunch get a really scathing going over toward the end.
^ excellent book.
There were (3) public access channels in Denver, and he showed up fairly regularly on one of them. Quite disappointed that the "m-s-m" gives his research such a pass.
Bonk : The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
by Mary Roach
James Jones, The Thin Red Line
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on November 14, 2008, 12:58:21 AM
Tony Blair's bunch get a really scathing going over toward the end.
What for? Civil liberties or spin or hiding public sector pensions off balance sheet, or dodgy dossiers or .....) ;)
All of the above and more.
They had David Davis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Davis_(British_politician)) on Desert Island Disks (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20081116.shtml) this weekend. Doubt he's well known enough in the States to get a mention in your book though.
The Good Earth- Pearl S. Buck
Just finished the biography of Peter the Great. Next is the history of china (not the country).
Quote from: Griffin NoName on November 02, 2008, 07:52:56 PM
Booker Shortilisted (didn't win) The Northern Clemency Philip Hensher.
Up to page 25 of 738. Big book.
So far, dull drivel. Will it improve? Or is being shortlisted corrupted? Or is it meant to test one's staying power in the face of irrefutable evidence one should abandon ship?
Still on same word on p25. Progress slow.
Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler
Frank Herbert's Dune
Quote from: Griffin NoName on November 17, 2008, 02:26:12 PM
Quote from: Griffin NoName on November 02, 2008, 07:52:56 PM
Booker Shortilisted (didn't win) The Northern Clemency Philip Hensher.
Up to page 25 of 738. Big book.
So far, dull drivel. Will it improve? Or is being shortlisted corrupted? Or is it meant to test one's staying power in the face of irrefutable evidence one should abandon ship?
Still on same word on p25. Progress slow.
Third word on p.25.
Just re-read Feet of Clay, trying to locate Men at Arms. (Pratchett shelf needs to be organized, and SOMEone needs to quit losing books in her bedcovers around this place... ::) )
A book on the naval war in the Baltic in WW1
The Classical World, by Robin Lane Fox.
The strange story of a Stalin icon (yes, in the religious sense) and attempts to have him canonized by the Russian orthodox church.
http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8624&Itemid=72
(http://img.nr2.ru/pict/arts1/r34/dop1/08/11/4.jpg)
http://img.nr2.ru/pict/arts1/r34/dop1/08/11/4.jpg
Yet another book on Windows Presentation Foundation, and online installation manuals on gas boilers. Reckon I could install my own replacement boiler if it wasn't for the tiny detail they lock up unregistered domestic gas engineers.
Caesar, by Adrian Goldsworthy
Quote from: Griffin NoName on November 19, 2008, 02:50:40 PM
Quote from: Griffin NoName on November 17, 2008, 02:26:12 PM
Quote from: Griffin NoName on November 02, 2008, 07:52:56 PM
Booker Shortilisted (didn't win) The Northern Clemency Philip Hensher.
Up to page 25 of 738. Big book.
So far, dull drivel. Will it improve? Or is being shortlisted corrupted? Or is it meant to test one's staying power in the face of irrefutable evidence one should abandon ship?
Still on same word on p25. Progress slow.
Third word on p.25.
The same.
But I did a detour to a new microwave instruction manual, so possibly that may redeem me.
And it seems at least as interesting as Beagle's reading.
Quote from: Beagle
Reckon I could install my own replacement boiler if it wasn't for the tiny detail they lock up unregistered domestic gas engineers.
Try dressing up as a Domestic Goddess and make sure you borrow a Corgi from the Queen before starting work - you may get away with a plea of insanity if they decide to prosecute. Mind you, if you are reading Windows Presentation Foundation to assist in sorting out the little viewing pane for the gas flame, you may already qualify. ;D
Chemical Law
Currently the German ones (Chemikaliengesetz, Gefahrstoffverordnung etc.)
Those are relatively short
The European law (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals (REACH)) on the other hand has 850 pages basics and 260 pages corrections.
I have a very slim chance to get a job in spring but that one requires knowledge of the laws
I doubt that I'll make it
An offense in the sense of §16.1.3 commits who
1. violates §23.2.5 under circumstances as described under §32a, if not covered by the exceptions of §12.1b
2....
3....
:(
Finally done with A Series of Unfortunate Events and now reading some post-Asimov: Foundation's Fear by Gregory Benford
Michio Kaku - Physics of the Impossible
Dean Koontz - Your Heart Belongs to Me
Quote from: beagle on December 20, 2008, 09:38:53 PM
Yet another book on Windows Presentation Foundation, and online installation manuals on gas boilers. Reckon I could install my own replacement boiler if it wasn't for the tiny detail they lock up unregistered domestic gas engineers.
I'm not sure if it's still the case (I hope it isn't) but up until just a few years ago at least, homeowners here were allowed to do work on natural gas systems in their own home themselves.
I'm currently working my way through three books:
- Life, the Universe and Everything (I got the HHGTG set for Christmas... a replacement for the set I loaned out years ago and never got back)
- the Book of Mormon
- Moby Dick
I hear the second one is a good sleeping aid :mrgreen:
---
The World Without Us
just about to start God's Terrorists, The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad.
Given up on p.25 of the non-Booker prize-winner and sending it to the chairty shop.
So.
Onwards.
Cold Hit Linda Fairstein
A gift from sister at least 2 christmas's ago. As unappealing and stuckworthy as the previous p.25 fiasco, but because it is also badly written and apalling literature, am able to turn pages so actual stuckness is less worrying.
:catroll:
More on chemical law.
Somebody had a strange sense of humor there. The programs to implement the new European law on chemicals (REACH) are officially named RIP (REACH Implementation Programs). Given the intense dislike of the law by the inductry that seems apt and ominous.
Shouldn't worry Swato. We're all going to be dead soon anyway. Perhaps a chemical disaster may be preferable to some of the others looming. :giggle:
The Master Gardener's Handbook
600 pages of yumpcious botanical facts!
American Gods, by Neil Gamian
The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde
and
rereading Going Postal, by Sir Terry Pratchett
<I really need to get a copy of Making Money>
Right now I am rereading Koontz's "The Face".
This:
(http://www.rhgdigital.co.uk/blogs/lostintranslation/wp-content/themes/simpla/simpla/images/lit_paperback.jpg)
http://www.rhgdigital.co.uk/blogs/lostintranslation/wp-content/themes/simpla/simpla/images/lit_paperback.jpg
http://www.lostintranslationbook.com/
Samples:
If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it
Ladies, please rinse out your teapots standing upside down in sink. In no event should hot bottoms be placed on counter.
This hotel is renowned for its peace and solitude. In fact, crowds from all over the world flock here to enjoy its solitude.
This cute mild curry uses 100% Japanese apple and cheerful hamster
Soft and mild, like a Japanese woman. Good flavor and full of juice <on a Japanese chocolate bar>
Nazi Goreng
Nothing sucks like an Electrolux <American ad for Scandinavian vacuum cleaner>
Our editors are colleged and write like the Kipling and the Dickens <Madras (Chennai, India) newspaper>
I am a rabid typist <from a CV>
Personal interests: Donating blood. Fourteen gallons so far <also from a CV>
Junked the Faisrtein - it was junk.
Carry Me Down ~ M.J.Hyland
Glenn Greenwald - Great American Hypocrites
Christopher Paolini's Brisingr, the 3 book from the Eragon series (and well caught in it).
A new book on the Battle of Jutland (actually a collection of essays on that) edited by the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (German Armed Forces Military History Research Office)
A metric tonne of text books. :o I think my eyes are about to fall out and I'm wondering where my lighter is (could they write The American Story, volume II in a more boring fashion, please? Make the DMV handbook look like fun).
Thank god for teh intarnets and the videos!
I am currently reading Baldacci's "The Simple Truth", If IIRC, it was the 4th book he wrote, and is - so far - the best of his I have read. The setting is similar to "Absolute Power", but centered on the Supreme Court this time.
Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer
by Robin Lane Fox
It's excellent.
This. (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Starbucks-Reports-First-bw-14186224.html)
Frick. If this hits my store, I am SO screwed.
I know. Scary.
Borders Books is having a big clearance sale. (Hope they're not going out of business, but you never know. :( ) Anyway, we went in yesterday and picked up bunches.
I'm reading The Gift of the Sacred Pipe.
Also got a history of Punk rock and Lynda Barry's Cruddy.
A PhD thesis on cypher machines
I'll bet I'd need a cypher machine just to read that PhD thesis on cypher machines.
Not going to hit my store, insofar as I've been told.
A wiki article on the Molly Maguires.
Quote from: Opsanus tau on February 02, 2009, 08:13:09 PM
I'll bet I'd need a cypher machine just to read that PhD thesis on cypher machines.
Not actually, provided your German is reasonable. It's a PhD in history of science, not mathematics.
Alas, my German is not reasonable. My fault, I left him out in the rain last night.
Para Handy tales
Back to the ol' Master Gardener's textbook. We're studying turf grasses right now. Thatch, mat, pH, fertilizers, weeds, bugs, water, mowing, seeds, sods. Boooooooorrrrrriiiiinnnggg!!!! ::) Can't wait until we're done with this subject. P.U.!
Tell me about it...
The Qu'ran
While many chapters of the bible are structured as a tale with morals, the qu'ran so far seems far more preachy (like a collection of mass sermons*).
* I never understood how that worked marketing wise. ???
A book to improve my English beyond the confines of the normal textbooks (No, it's not Learn to talk like a redneck in 15 easy lessons ;))
Quote from: Swatopluk on February 14, 2009, 10:19:54 AM
A book to improve my English beyond the confines of the normal textbooks (No, it's not Learn to talk like a redneck in 15 easy lessons ;))
I can't imagine why you would need that. I think you may speak better English than I do, even on a web-conversational basis.
Currently, the first edition of Intermittens, (http://discordia.loveshade.org/xtra/archive/imittens_01_2.3_hi.pdf) which is a Discordian web mag. Appeals to my sense of the absurd.
The conditions attached to my new licence to disturb a bat roost.
Quote from: Scriblerus the Philosophe on March 20, 2009, 06:00:45 AM
Quote from: Swatopluk on February 14, 2009, 10:19:54 AM
A book to improve my English beyond the confines of the normal textbooks (No, it's not Learn to talk like a redneck in 15 easy lessons ;))
I can't imagine why you would need that. I think you may speak better English than I do, even on a web-conversational basis.
On the web I can consult a dictionary. In face-to-face communication that is a bit awkward.
That reminds me of an idea Swift presented in the 3rd book of Gulliver's Travels: In order to keep people, esp. women (that old sexist!) from chattering too much, he proposed a law that no noun could be used in conversation without a physical item representing that noun be present ;).
Also, "book language" is usually a bit behind actual use on the street.
Oooooh, that makes sense, lol.
The One Sentence Meme Bombs thread at principiadiscordia.com.
This month's Scientific American
Old samurai stories
Robert Fisk, The Age of the Warrior (a collection of his articles)
Robert Jordan, The Shadow Rising
Slavoj Zizek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real
David Campbell, Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity.
Carry Me Down ~ M.J.Hyland
Nothing, I ran out of books! (We bought 10 last weekend.)
Now to whine until I get Dan to agree to go to Half Price Books and raid the close-out section. Again.
The manual for the external harddrive I bought as a stand-in for my defunct CD-burner
Various tutorials on Lex and Yacc. Bit of a culture shock to an old GUI programmer.
Reports on Hg, Pb, Cd
Nemesis, by Max Hastings. History of WW2 in the Pacific.
Lectoring a colleague's English translation of a German manual
Token streams from my alleged lexer.
Had to look lexer up. Seems it is how to reduce programme code to cartoons. In which case, I quibble with "reading". :mrgreen:
Will Self - A Rock of Crack as big as the Ritz
Is it possible that a number of posts of the day before yesterday disappeared?
No time to read much more than the morning papers (on the train to work)
Quote from: Griffin NoName on April 02, 2009, 10:05:35 PM
Had to look lexer up. Seems it is how to reduce programme code to cartoons. In which case, I quibble with "reading". :mrgreen:
It's my new plan to deal with the complexity of life. I'm going to reduce it to a stream of well enumerated tokens so that I can deal with one thing at a time with no problems.
Obviously I'm not going to let the pessimism of those amateurs Turing and Gödel with regards to the viability of this approach put me off.
Environmental data on Pb, Cd, Hg
Quote from: beagle on April 03, 2009, 07:03:36 AM
I'm going to reduce it to a stream of well enumerated tokens so that I can deal with one thing at a time with no problems.
Hope you've considered life is a mere token...... else you might be in for a shock.
Still reading
Carry me Down but also reading my cheque stubs and screaming.
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on March 30, 2009, 03:51:20 AM
Nothing, I ran out of books! (We bought 10 last weekend.)
Now to whine until I get Dan to agree to go to Half Price Books and raid the close-out section. Again.
Amazon. That's all I can say. I pick up books for like, $2 (though there's shipping, which can be decent if you're willing to wait). :mrgreen:
The Man in the High Castle--Philip K. Dick
Just started the 4th Kathy Reichs novel. Dr. Brennan an airliner has crashed and she is part of the response team.
I have really enjoyed the first three novels. Very different from the TV show "Bones". Other than the name, gender and profession, the characters are not the same at all. Still, I have enjoyed the TV show, too.
John Gough - Compiling for the .Net Common Language Runtime
and
Mary Beard - Pompeii, The Life of a Roman Town
(covering such interesting questions as how archeologists can tell whether a building was a brothel, or just an ordinary villa).
Quote from: beagle on April 04, 2009, 08:56:34 PM
Mary Beard - Pompeii, The Life of a Roman Town
(covering such interesting questions as how archeologists can tell whether a building was a brothel, or just an ordinary villa).
isn't it something to do with the number of stone bench like projections built into the walls? and also I seem to remember a nearby subterranean chamber with lots of baby skeletons figures somewhere? or am I mis-remembering some other theories elsewhere (but I think still Roman).......
Still reading
Carry Me Down - really hard to get into but the blurb (gushing) is so intriguing I cannot abandon it until I find out why..... another 3/8 inch until I am half way through..... does anyone else measure their reading by size rather than pages or am I just sad?
The Runaway : The Chronicles of a Spy in Medieval Europe during the Reign of Louis XI of France by Thierry Bontoux
From Civil to Political Religion: The Intersection of Culture, Religion and Politics by Marcela Christi
and
Death's Dream Kingdom: The American Psyche since 9/11 by Walter A. Davis
I'm trying to get more into the psychological and cultural aspects of political theory, so hopefully the latter two books will help there.
Quote from: Griffin NoName on April 05, 2009, 12:51:02 AM
Quote from: beagle on April 04, 2009, 08:56:34 PM
Mary Beard - Pompeii, The Life of a Roman Town
(covering such interesting questions as how archeologists can tell whether a building was a brothel, or just an ordinary villa).
isn't it something to do with the number of stone bench like projections built into the walls? and also I seem to remember a nearby subterranean chamber with lots of baby skeletons figures somewhere? or am I mis-remembering some other theories elsewhere (but I think still Roman).......
Some archeologists count every building with erotic pictures as a brothel. However, as even the most respectable Pompeiian families horded and ostentatiously displayed porn with an enthusiasm which would make a modern teenage male blush, this may have led to something of an over-estimate.
The next level counts any one-room home near the street with a bed as a brothel, but this may have wrongly included starter-homes and other hovels.
Professor Beard is more inclined to go for buildings, with lots of small rooms with just a bed, (possibly a small ante-chamber for the madam ), and lots of graffiti of the form "I f***** here".
(Probably sounds wittier in Latin).
However she points out sex for money was pretty much diffused through the whole town.
Wasn't the baby skeleton stuff a European nunnery?
Quote from: beagle on April 05, 2009, 04:35:23 PM
Wasn't the baby skeleton stuff a European nunnery?
Good to know how to identify a Roman brothel ;) I dunno re the baby skeletons; I had it fixed in my brain as Roman but I wouldn't trust my brain further than I can throw it, so you may be right there.
Terrific progress on
Carry Me Down ~ just over 1mm over half-way, downhill from now on. Still haven't found out why it is a good to read seller and I am still struggling.
Warfare and Society in Imperial Rome
European warfare 1494-1660
Darkness at Dawn - The Rise of the Russian Criminal State
Twilight (urgh)
Another companies bat report for a site we just got.
Dreadful. Simply dreadful. Done badly, and at the wrong time of year. Waste of time and money.This kind of thing is what gives consultants a bad name.
But at least we get to remedy the situation.
Just started The Eliminationists by David Neiwert
Otherwise (job-realted) a public information guide on mercury :Elk_Bored:
Niewert is fantastic. Do you read his blog, Orcinus? Alot of the material cited in that helped form my end of year terrorism paper on the "Patriot movement" in the US (in the context of "new terrorism").
Lethal Practice ~ Peter Clement
a medical thriller, right up my street ;)
Quote from: Kaliayev on April 28, 2009, 05:50:16 PM
Niewert is fantastic. Do you read his blog, Orcinus? Alot of the material cited in that helped form my end of year terrorism paper on the "Patriot movement" in the US (in the context of "new terrorism").
I regularly read the blog. The posting frequency has become a bit erratic though since he and Sara Robinson write and work also for other sites.
Quote from: Swatopluk on April 29, 2009, 08:39:20 AM
Quote from: Kaliayev on April 28, 2009, 05:50:16 PM
Niewert is fantastic. Do you read his blog, Orcinus? Alot of the material cited in that helped form my end of year terrorism paper on the "Patriot movement" in the US (in the context of "new terrorism").
I regularly read the blog. The posting frequency has become a bit erratic though since he and Sara Robinson write and work also for other sites.
Well, to be fair, they are the only two people in America with job security currently (in the words of Sadly, No!), so they're probably getting a lot of requests for articles and so on.
I do like the site a lot though. In my third year at Uni I elected to do a module on political ideology and philosophy and I chose to focus on Fascism, mainly because it aligned with elements of my terrorism research (Italian neofascist movements - now there is a rabbit hole that goes into some very deep and frightening places). When Googling around I found the site and have followed it ever since. I've sometimes considered doing something similar for Europe, though I'd need to bone up on Eurofascist parties somewhat. I have all the material, its just finding the time to read, analyze, digest and follow these people.
I really, really hate Fascism, and its the only political ideology whose adherents actually scare me, so I like to know as much as possible about them.
Quote from: Kaliayev on April 30, 2009, 01:16:46 PM
I really, really hate Fascism, and its the only political ideology whose adherents actually scare me, so I like to know as much as possible about them.
I'm really surprised at how many closet fascists and unknowingly fascist people there are, and after what amounts to 8 years of neo-fascism (neo-con is an euphemism for neo-fascist/corporatist, in my view) in the US it scares me profoundly how little we have progressed in the past 60 years. Anything that can be done to prevent those people to take root in power is a good thing in my book.
I tend to think the Neo-Cons are more like the Prussian aristocrats and Italian corporate owners - that is to say, the people who felt they could use fascism as a tool, and then got burned for their efforts. Von Papen and Hindenburg thought they could use the Brownshirts to smash the KPD and the socialists - and they did - but they didn't realize the same would happen to them soon after. Even their adulation of Victorian Britain suggests, to me, an imperialist as opposed to fascist mindset.
The populist/proto-fascist stab in the back fortunately hasn't happened so far in this case, but when you see the kind of people who were lining up behind Palin, and the current GOP purge (which is removing every single moderating influence, and may have to try and pick up Constitution Party supporters to make up for loss of numbers) then you have a scary scenario.
The BNP over here are far less powerful, but they still move in the same circles of suspicious connections, attempted terrorism, paranoia and thuggery that are so common to the ideology. What's worse is how our government attempts to pander to their supporters with xenophobic and bigoted statements, hoping to steal their votes away. I do wonder how a Tory win will impact on the BNP though. Usually such parties do better when left-wing groups are in power, but New Labour isn't very leftwing, and David Cameron seems to be genuinely striving for the right of centre quite hard. Disaffected Tories and Labour supporters seem to make up a fair bit of the BNP base, though one can never discount the possibility that they are lying, as part of their Gramscian meta-political strategy to make their views more publically acceptable.
One limiting factor may be the lack of a real leading figure. The propagandists alone can't run the show. Hitler might have been able to do without Goebbels but Joseph could not have taken Adolf's place (let alone become dictator in the first place).
Or in more concrete terms: Rush, O'Reilly, Hannity and Accomplices would simply not be credible as dictators.
There is that, too. Nick Griffin is a fuckwit, and in America you have some attempted, wannabe leaders (Don Black, the Aryan Nations guy, etc) but no-one who combines charisma, presence and control in the way Mussolini or Hitler could.
Equally, because of the embedded liberalism within the British and American systems (well, more or less, despite the numerous attacks made on them), people belonging to fascist groups often appear in highly antigovernmental circles, which some would consider odd due to the fascist obsession with power (though not so odd when you remember the above and factor in envy).
This is why I like the concept of proto-fascism, it clears up a lot of the hazy ground between right populism and outright fascism.
I'm reading The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy by Avram Davidson.
Encyclopedia Cthulhiana 3rd ed.
Reproduced Daily Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/britainatwar/5845386/Jewish-reign-of-terror---Jul-18-1939.html) articles from 70 years ago.
That in turn reports how according to the "Angriff" Brits are being forced to seek refuge in the Reich from "The Jewish Reign of Terror" in London. I've a feeling this may end badly.
A colleague at work reads Pepy's diary entry every day. That's much more fun as he chases the servant girls.
i weedin dis
wot ya fink i weedin !?
The Battle of Königgrätz (on the title they ignored the Umlaute as usual but I don't see why I should tolerate that)
I Claudius
The Time Travelers Wife : Audrey Niffenegger
ok I am listening to it on audio book-- I really like it- hate to turn it off when I get to work/home.
My daughter heard about it being made into a movie and wanted to read the book- but they did not have it at the library so I got the audio book and since she had no interest in that I popped disc one in on the way to work the other morning and have been listening eagerly ever since.
Claire and Henry-- life long love, trials and lots of subtle humor. Not sure how the movie will go-- they can't cram it all into a standard movie- all the subtlety-- but it will probably be an ok movie.
Read it first!
No spoilers for you-- if you haven't read/listened I give this a big thumbs up.
Quote from: Pachyderm on July 19, 2009, 12:31:51 PM
I Claudius
If you haven't yet, also take a look at the classic British TV adaption.
Quote from: Swatopluk on July 19, 2009, 03:06:59 PM
Quote from: Pachyderm on July 19, 2009, 12:31:51 PM
I Claudius
If you haven't yet, also take a look at the classic British TV adaption.
But don't eat the figs.
That book and Claudius the God are the two books I've reread most over the years.
-----
Currently reading a book on Linq (Language Integrated Query).
You have been linked! (In German 'linken' also means to con somebody)
The Thoughtful Dresser ~ Linda Grant
Quote from: Griffin NoName on July 20, 2009, 01:50:54 PM
The Thoughtful Dresser ~ Linda Grant
Is that a novel or a fashion book? ;)
Any relation to "The Sovereign Reader"?
Quote from: Swatopluk on July 20, 2009, 02:06:51 PM
Quote from: Griffin NoName on July 20, 2009, 01:50:54 PM
The Thoughtful Dresser ~ Linda Grant
Is that a novel or a fashion book? ;)
Any relation to "The Sovereign Reader"?
I know nothing about The Sovereign Reader.
I thought it was a novel when I bought it. Linda Grant's novels are brilliant. It turns out this one isn't a novel. It's a treatise on clothes with chapters called things like "Our Fabric Friends" and "The Cloak of Invisibiliy". Quite interesting apart from the wish that it was one of her novels.
I thought of The Uncommon Reader actually (the German title translates as The Sovereign Reader) but found out that TSR is (in English) the title of another book. It's also about The Queen but Victoria not Elizabeth II.
The Uncommon Reader is ace.
The clothes book finishes with a chapter on Auschwitz. It was worth getting to that; v. interesting.
Gargantua and Pantagruel.
Smutty, smutty book(s), who knew 16th century literature could be so fun?
I read Gargantua once. I wonder whether it landed on the index librorum prohibitorum for poking fun at scholastic philosophy etc.
And it was considered to be extremly vulgar at the time (one reason for its huge success, I presume).
The edition I had was heavily annotated and I think that is necessary or most of the jokes will not even be noticed yb a modern reader.
A biography of Pablo Escobar, written with the assistance of his brother.
Let me know what you think of it (both the book and the life of the guy). I could tell you a number of things about that period back home and more...
Still reading 70 year old Telegraph articles (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/britainatwar/5871797/Criticism-of-US-neutrality-act---Jul-21-1939.html) (slow reader) and a book on Linq.
Should I read old articles from Der Völkische Beobachter (the populist observer) to match that? ;)
It is a bit "Pablo was great", but that's hardly unexpected given it's his brother. He does make the point that Pablo was responsible for a lot of nastiness, but also that he got blamed for a lot of stuff he didn't do, he was just the big name at the time, which is realistic. And he doesn't try to hide the fact that he was dealing drugs (difficult to do), but also gave a lot to the poor of Columbia. It seems to be a relatively honest appraisal of the life and times of a very complex man, living through some interesting times. Still don't like him, though.
Now reading A Concise History of Ireland.
Quote from: beagle on July 21, 2009, 08:58:31 PM
Still reading 70 year old Telegraph articles (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/britainatwar/5871797/Criticism-of-US-neutrality-act---Jul-21-1939.html) (slow reader).....
Aren't the current ones right wing enough for you? ;)
A Darker Domain Val McDermid*
* Billed as the creator of TV's Wire in the Blood series...... irritating..... I discovered her books long before and have read all the originals of the Wire in the Blood stuff........ does an author lose brownie points when they become associated with TV?
Quote from: Pachyderm on July 22, 2009, 05:29:28 PM
It is a bit "Pablo was great", but that's hardly unexpected given it's his brother. He does make the point that Pablo was responsible for a lot of nastiness, but also that he got blamed for a lot of stuff he didn't do, he was just the big name at the time, which is realistic. And he doesn't try to hide the fact that he was dealing drugs (difficult to do), but also gave a lot to the poor of Columbia. It seems to be a relatively honest appraisal of the life and times of a very complex man, living through some interesting times. Still don't like him, though.
Nastiness doesn't cover it. Having gone through the time when he and his buddy Rodriguez Gacha set off bombs as if those were pyrotechniques and the death of Galan* (in which he was involved but not the only one) is hard to believe that there are always fresh flowers in his tomb. He certainly gave to the poor although that was mostly when he was running for congress (you can draw your own conclusions). What I can tell you (and don't know if the book covers) is that things those days were quite convoluted, with broken deals, betrayals, etc, etc, bringing every sector of society "together".
* you could consider the guy our Kennedy although he didn't reach the presidency.
--
The latest issue of Scientific American
Planning Policy Statement 2: Planning and Nature Conservation
The Torygraph's special supplement celebrating Darwin and promoting the film (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/5505963/Creation-the-movie-world-exclusive-trailer.html) about him.
(Spot the difference between UK and US rightwingers...) ;)
An older book (1978) on the role of science in WW2
The Tenderness of Wolves ~ Steph Penney
Maybe I should read the Friday papers at last
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Fateful Choices - Ian Kershaw
Joseph Staten - Contact Harvest (from the Halo books series).
Churchill's Wizards
---
The next Pratchett is due next week in a proper edition (i.e.a British one with a Kidby Cover)
Quote from: Swatopluk on September 12, 2009, 09:11:11 PM
An older book (1978) on the role of science in WW2
Not R.V. Jones's Most Secret War by any chance?
Good book if you haven't read it yet. Good technical stuff and quite amusing (he wasn't overburdened with modesty).
Quote from: beagle on October 09, 2009, 10:18:53 PM
Quote from: Swatopluk on September 12, 2009, 09:11:11 PM
An older book (1978) on the role of science in WW2
Not R.V. Jones's Most Secret War by any chance?
Good book if you haven't read it yet. Good technical stuff and quite amusing (he wasn't overburdened with modesty).
No, the German translation of Brian Johnson's
The Secret War (based on a BBC series I believe)
I saw some of The Secret War (very complimentary about German engineering by the way, especially the Würzburgs :) ). I've still got one of the tapes somewhere, about how radar was discovered while the air Ministry was investigating if there was any credibility in the Sci-Fi death ray idea.
They were in part based on Jones's book. Don't think the Bletchley Park story had fully been publicised by then though, so they were a bit light on that.
James May's Magnificent Machines
Learned Optimism - How to Change Your Mind and Life ~ Martin Seligman
Just the morning papers
I am chronically halfway through a number of books. "Stiff" and "The Great Mortality" are the two that I really need to finish most pressingly.
Still no time for reading anything aside from the latest issue of the Economist, and I've even taken to listening to the unabridged podcast version to fill the long hours while driving. I drove about 3000 km last week, and it damned near takes that long to get through an entire Economist on tape, so to speak. I wish they sold books at those kind of word:$ ratios. ;)
The making of the British Army, by Allan Mallinson
I bought Unseen Academicals yesterday but will probably not have time to read it before the weekend.
Instructions about how to do my new job.
I should read the book on pollution control laws in front of me but I do not feel much inclination to do that at the moment
Yourcenar - Memoirs of Hadrian
Josh Smith, Sacha Barber - Various MSDN and CodeProject articles on MVVM
Various recipe books. I need one that breaks me of using hundreds of pans and utensils (it's a mistake to get into cooking via qualitative/quantitative chemistry).
Rare is the chemist that is also a good cook. How many mg exactly are a pinch of salt and what degree of purity must the salt have? ;)
Cooking is about patience and creativity, although according to one Dr. House M.D. biochemistry is a plus. ;) :mrgreen:
Ha, biochemists! A whiff of chlorine and they run away scared! ;)
Quote from: Swatopluk on October 16, 2009, 08:20:47 AM
Rare is the chemist that is also a good cook. How many mg exactly are a pinch of salt and what degree of purity must the salt have? ;)
Exactly why I was a passible organic chemist but a terrible analytical chemist - I hate following recipes. For uni-level organic labs one can get by with a couple of scoops of reagents, a dash of ether, a pinch of catalyst, simmer for 40 minutes.... ;D
OTOH, a cook that only follows recipes precisely will be limited by the quality of the recipe, and trying to back-engineer a successful cooking session would be nigh-impossible, unless one started with precisely measured quantities of all ingredients and measured the remainder to calculate the difference (i.e what ended up in the recipe).
As a cook, I have started following recipes for Middle Eastern/South Asian/African spice blends (many, many more reagents than any reasonable synthesis rxn) but experimenting heavily with uncharted cooking techniques to draw deeper flavours out of relatively simple ingredients, playing around with temperatures, solvents*, heat sources, rxn times and rxn vessels.
*regrettably limited with cooking (water, various oils and ethanol); anyone know a good edible solvent with a low boiling point that's not miscible with water?Reading OWA policy documents.
"Happiness" is not enough
Samuel Brittan: Templeton Lecture Inst. of Economic Affairs 22/11/01
Agujim, the only edible sovents I could come up with on the spot would be some special fats. For a low boiling point they'd have to be extremly unsaturated and short-chained. But I don't know, whether those would boil without decomposing.
---
A book on the physics in James Bond movies.
Remarkably many stunts are actually technically possible, although often only barely or only with technology not available at the time the movies were made.
My housemate is a chemistry PhD student, and an excellent cook. She does, however, often cook using recipes from old German cookbooks, which tend to lack precise measurements.
I just started an anthology of failed relationship stories called "Love is a Four-Letter Word".
Finished Patchett's Unseen Academicals during the weekend.
I finished Heart of Darkness this morning. Will be re-reading and adding to my annotations this week.
Also, watching Apocalypse Now alter this week.
A book on the ships of the Hanse
Steven Pinker - The Stuff of Thought
Who would've thought a book about semantics to be so entertaining.
Quote from: Sibling Qwertyuiopasd on March 16, 2010, 09:47:39 PM
I finished Heart of Darkness this morning. Will be re-reading and adding to my annotations this week.
So, should he have told her? :o
I cannot comment. That's part of an ongoing investigation.
Also, I just finished Act I of Apocalypse Now. Very interesting to see what ways it draws from the novel. It's much more "Heart of Darkness set in Vietnam" rather than "Marlow goes up the Congo in a boat set in Vietnam"
I can't remember much about the film (well, it was thirty years ago...) except that you definitely shouldn't leave as soon as the credits start.
A combination of Conrad and The Doors ticks the boxes for me though.
Remember I liked "The End of the Tether" and "Youth" as well as H.o.D., but I nodded off with some of the longer novels.
Yeah, my copy has Youth and Amy Foster, and some other short story about doppelgangers, I think.
I definitely want to do naked tai-chi in a motel room somewhere while listening to the Doors.
Don't worry, we've all been there; it's just a phase. And actually one of the saner things you can do to "The End".
One of the saner things you can do naked in a motel room, for that matter. ;)
Looking for the squid book. Can't find it.
Need some anatomical model for the bagpipe playing squid I intend to draw (unless somebody else does for me).
Also reading a bit up on tartan for the same purpose.
What would Sir care to know about tartan?
How to best draw it in black and white. I fear I can't make the squid wear a kilt but maybe a plaid bonnet and definitely pipes of that style.
"Molesworth Rites Again" and a book on F#.
I'm afaid, that as your question is of an artistic nature, rather than one of Scottishness, I am unable to answer it. Others on here, of a more creative bent, may be of assistance. I, alas, cannot.
Colours in the Steel, by KJ Parker
Persian Fire (Tom Holland)
---
I have an idea for a simple tartan designer program but the only (and rather shitty) programming language I have the software at hand for is QuickBASIC and that does not run anymore under VISTAaaargh! Maybe I can put the raw code somewhere here for a sibling to apply.
How long (and unstructured) is the code? qBasic is incredibly old and moving even to VBA* can imply a full rewrite.
*much less .NET
Giving it some thought over the weekend it would be slightly longer but in exchange far more sophisticated than my first outline but, I think, still not more than 1 or 2 pages of code.
I think I'll put the basic (not BASIC) outline in a thread of its own once I have put it on paper.
Qbasic (aka PukeBasic) was imo crap from the start. The very olde Turbo Pascal (2.0 iirc) I learned at school was better than that and nothing beat GFA Basic at my old Atari ST 1040 combining the ease of Basic with the strict structure of Pascal. But I had to use the Q stuff at the university for the Mathematical Methods in Chemical Engineering course and for lack of an alternative (free of charge), I also used it privately despite it being crappy (if I have not mentioned that fact yet).
Later (when I was already working on my PhD) the course changed to Visual Basic and I attempted to switch.
But being that oldfashioned I simply did not get the hang of this 'object-oriented programming' and stopped trying after awhile.
((Give me procedures!) NOT (give me crap!)) = -1
Quote from: Swatopluk on March 29, 2010, 09:30:03 AM
But being that oldfashioned I simply did not get the hang of this 'object-oriented programming' and stopped trying after awhile.
Fortran (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/real.programmers.html).
Fortran is my first language, although I quickly learnt to think and dream in hex machine code.
<quote>
Unfortunately, no Real Programmer would ever use a computer whose operating system is called SmallTalk, and would certainly not talk to the computer with a mouse.
<endquote>
I have to agree. It was all downhill once the mouse was invented.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Still attempting to read The Symbol. @ Dan Brown
It is still truly dreadful and has not improved.
I may not go that far (that would still be my father's job) but to a degree I can find myself in that (including large lineprinter images).
Even at my time not all computers could do graphics and using ASCII characters was the way of the world. I still remember that the white block (screens being default black at the time) was Alt+219.
There was indeed a lot in Pascal that I would not use and also a lot that could not be done (like using integers beyond +/-23767 and PukeBASIC retained that feature in an even more annoying way*).
I was also used to use certain 'tricks' to get either RAM** use or processing time to a minimum: Thou shall not use 'if', if an arithmetic/logic operation can do!
My masterpiece was a runtime reduction from (estimated) 8 hours to less than 2 minutes (under the assumption that 6 decimals was a sufficient approximation for the nonlinear progression problem in case).
And I never even was a Real Programmer. But compared to the informatics analphabeths I was surrounded by ("Programming? I use Superdupermegatool 4008. Who needs programming?") most of the time I almost was. But now I have forgotten most of the old ways and never learned the new ones and simply don't know why I can't play Blu-Rays on my computer (although it tells me it can and has no explanation for its 'unexpected error' messages) and why since the last update I get the "Subspooler sytem disabled for unknown reason. We'll call you back once we have found out" message several times a day. Or why the antivirus sends files into quarantine but then can find no traces of viruses in them***.
*Like certain commands could be used only on some data types, the ones the command was rarely needed for e.g. only on short integer/real not long
**PukeBASIC further restricted use by allowing stacks of max 219 (iirc) while Pascal would recurse till memory overflow.
***I have the suspicion that this could be the reason for the BluRay problem.
Quote from: GriffinI quickly learnt to think and dream in hex machine code.
I loved 6502 assembler! The old BBC Master had an assembler built into the Basic and to me it soon became second nature. I made quite a bit of pocket money selling listings to the magazines, and in
Beebug Magazine I long had my own monthly column called 'Mr Toad's Machine Code Corner'. I even had a (very small) fan club who used to send in questions and I'd answer them in the mag.
That language has only ever been rivalled in my affections by Classical Old English.
I better abstain form any comment that could imply that I have any idea of what I am talking about with all of you around. :mrgreen:
Would violate the first rule: Only play an expert in front of people who have no idea (i.e. talk to chemists about history, to historians about chemistry etc.)
Don't call me an expert. I can barely remember any of it now, 20 years on, and if I did it would be totally useless. But in those days home computers were very simple, and if you knew your assembler and the addresses of a few useful OS routines, system variables and vectors you could do anything.
But when you see a %20 in an http address you know it is a space right?
Quote from: Griffin NoName on March 29, 2010, 08:06:28 PM
But when you see a %20 in an http address you know it is a space right?
I used to troubleshoot digital printing files, and that ^ was a quick flag that some Mac-to-PC shenanigans had taken place with the file. It necessitated a quick find/check/change to get any others in the file corrected before plating.
Quote from: GriffinBut when you see a %20 in an http address you know it is a space right?
Indeed, and if I I see %2A I know it's the answer to life, the universe and everything. Except in the BBC assembler the prefix for hex was &, not %. And if you meant a number and not the contents of an address you had to prefix with #. So to print a space it was LDA #&20 and JSR &FFEE (OS print routine). (LDA &20 just loaded the accumulator with whatever number was held in address &20.)
The one part I do remember and can still use easily is hex.
I (along with about ten million other people) invented the 6502 code to copy BBC ROM packs (Pascal etc) to RAM for "backing up" purposes. It was shortly after that when ROM programs started trying to write to themselves to defeat this "legitimate backing up", and shortly after that when the switch to convert RAM to read-only after program load was invented.
Eventually I sold my BBC B to someone at the NPL, and got an Amstrad 1512. That's still in the loft and there's a MicroVAX II still in my living room, though it hasn't been booted in 15 years.
Strange things in my living room thread?
Still reading the wretched Dan Brown.
Close to the finish of Persian Fire
Dawkins, The Greatest Show On Earth
Should be subtitled Kill A Creationist A Day, from what I've read so far.
Finished Persian Fire and ordered more books by the same author.
Found Karen Armstrong's The Case For God (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_for_God) on sale for $20 in hardcover this weekend, which I had started and greatly enjoyed but failed to finish before it was due back at the library. I bought three copies. :mrgreen:
Quote from: Aggie on April 05, 2010, 04:41:21 PM
Found Karen Armstrong's The Case For God (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_for_God) ... [snip] ... I bought three copies. :mrgreen:
One feels compelled to inquire: one for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Spirit? :bop:
Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon by P D Smith
Quote from: pieces o nine on April 07, 2010, 07:29:43 AM
One feels compelled to inquire: one for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Spirit? :bop:
:ROFL:
Nope, and indeed the book touches more on the unity than the Trinity. One for myself, one for the ex, and one for someone else.
Paul Cartledge's The Spartans
This topic... :mrgreen:
Another BIS report (http://www.bis.org/publ/work300.pdf?noframes=1) on how we're all doomed. Unfortunately they were right last time...
I'm about mid-way through Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.
Very confusing. Very good.
Hi Q.
Still reading Dan Brown.
Reading (at last) the Lord Of the Ring (Mwahahahahha!) :mrgreen:
Stelli! How have you been?! :)
Quote from: Griffin NoName on April 08, 2010, 10:22:03 PM
Still reading Dan Brown.
Better or worse than Gordon Brown? ;)
ARM System Developer's Guide
Moab is my washpot, by Stephen Fry
Just finished the Genghis Khan trilogy by Conn Iggulden (waiting for the announced sequel trilogy on Ogedai and Kublai)
From rags to riches, A story of Abu Dhabi
Dusty Diablos
Confidential (don't know why actually) internal documents
I have recently finished reading Kraken, China Mieville's latest novel.
A very good read, I must say. A strange and weird tale of conspiracy, cephalopods, the end of the world, cults, magic and trade unionism. Some might find this one a bit more straight-forward and accessible compared to his next-to-last book, The City and the City. Hopefully, I'll be able to write a more review-like post in the next few days or so, but meanwhile, if you like weird fiction and/or the Unknown Armies RPG, this one is absolutely for you.
The BASF report on sustainable development 2009
I have just picked up a copy of Stephen Colbert's I am America and So Can You.
I hope it is everything I dreamed it would be...
Lots and lots of wikipedia articles for an alternate history story I'm constructing. Note to self: post-Bismark European history is boring until things get too exciting with Hitler.
Also working my way through Lang's color fairy tale series. Currently reading Green.
The writing on the wall that in 1 year, 2 weeks, and 2 days I'll with near certainty be unemployed again.
---
More on sustainable chemistry
OMFSM, Swato - why? What's going on?
Isn't that when the Old Ones arrive? Or the sheer volume of Big Brother Season Why Is This Shite Still Being Made on the TV reaches critical mass?
Planning and Natural Resources Division
A Northern Ireland Marine Bill Policy Proposals
Consultation Document
And yes, it's as exciting as it sounds...
Quote from: Sibling DavidH on June 15, 2010, 04:25:09 PM
OMFSM, Swato - why? What's going on?
Fixed-term contract meets severe budget cuts. Federal public service has to shed 10-15000 employees, so extension is extremly unlikely. And since I am not the only one any opening in another department (unlikley in itself) will have lots of applicants most of which will possess far longer experience.
---
searching university curricula for sustainable chemistry
Quote from: Swatopluk on June 14, 2010, 08:43:42 AM
The BASF report on sustainable development 2009
Isn't that a bit like "military intelligence"?
Sorry to hear about the developments at your place of work. Keeping my fingers crossed for you! Maybe an eccentric millionaire wants someone to write a complete choral suite with a cthulufication of Wagner's Fliegende Holländer? Or perhaps that one is cthulhoid enough already?
God - The failed hypothesis
by Victor J.Stenger
The Case For God - Karen Armstrong (still, have been picking away at it).
Also just finished The Way of a Gardener by Des Kennedy.
The Case For God - now I would love to get my hands on that.
The Battle (Waterloo)
by Alessandro Barbero
I recommend it. It makes sense out of a lot of the silly questions thrown up by many other accounts of the battle.
Quote from: Sibling DavidH on June 19, 2010, 07:41:50 PM
The Case For God - now I would love to get my hands on that.
I strongly recommend you do - in many ways, it does not so much live up to the title as to explore the history and pre-history of humanity's concepts of God and to examine what the Abrahamic faiths in particular got wrong about it all. Touches a bit on fundamentalisms (including modern fundamentalist Atheism) as well. Reads equally well for a theist or an atheist, and would not tilt an agnostic one way or the other, I think.
If I win the big Canadian lotto next week, I will send a copy of this book to every Toadfish who wants one (and maybe a few who don't ;)). It has me quite captured, obviously. ::)
Thank 'ee, Aggie - I do hope you win.
And if I win, I'll take you all on a tour of Waterloo and Gettysburg and bore you rigid with my ideas on why the two battles were so similar. You'll love that! :mrgreen:
Heck, if I win the $50 million jackpot, I will hand-deliver each copy, and then you can take me on the tour as well. ;)
July's issue of Scientific American
Lawyers, Guns and Money -the supplement on "The New Inquisition" for the Unknown Armies RPG. A very good and entertaining read, but also one that starts me longing to get a gaming group going again. It's been waaay too long since I last played any role-playing games or boardgames. Le sigh!
Little Brother (http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/) by Cory Doctorow
'Tis free for download and really, really good. Give it to all the teenaged youngin's you can find.
'England's First Castle', about the earliest Norman castle in England - 15 years before the Norman conquest.
It is recorded to have been built in Herefordshire and we always pretty much knew the politics behind it. What we didn't know was exactly where it was. This bloke more or less proves it was in Burghill, walking distance from my house. And that settles the argument about the name Burghill, and in my favour!
Rubicon (Tom Holland)
The Spartans (Paul Cartledge)
Re-reading the Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance. Magic.
I like Vance. I love his Realtime books.
Right now I am reading two books, Lois McMasters Bujold's The Curse of Chalion and Sean Carrol's Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Both are quite good, though in different ways.
Discovered a marker halfway through The Demon Haunted World; am finishing it with enjoyment.
The morning papers
My son sold me on Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, and I'm liking it.
A new book on the battle of Edgehill, by three amateur military historians. It claims to be a revolutionary new interpretation, but I'm not sure. They find two reasons for blaming Rupert instead of the usual one and unusually they're biased towards Parliament. Interesting.
back to Rubicon.
Also going to order a book on apokalyptic scenarios later (do you prefer plagues, metoric strikes or zombie infestations?)
Are we talking about plausible zombie scenarios, like the development of rage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Days_Later)?
--
BTW I finished The Hunger Games early this morning, perhaps I should make a review somewhere (ooh! and I saw Inception too! but I'll make a review of that when I see it at least another time [yes, it's that good]).
Patrick O'Brian
Master and Commander
Awesomely good.
The book was in store.
Exit Mundi - The 50 best scenarios
Quote from: Pachy
Patrick O'Brian Master and Commander Awesomely good.
:stupid: Agreed. Are you into Hornblower, Pachy?
Quote from: SwatoExit Mundi - The 50 best scenarios
Just Googled this - it sounds interesting.
I came to Hornblower (and C.S. Forester in general) via the Gregory Peck movie more than 20 yeras ago. Never heard of O'Brian before the Crowe movie. Got some secondary material but have not yet read one of the novels.
The novels are so much better. I actually liked the film, but the books are stunning.
And yes, I am a Hornblower fan. Liked Brown on Resolution too.
There are lots of non-Hornblower novels by Forrester. There's a whole load of WW2 propaganda stuff - The Ship, Gold From Crete, The Man In The Yellow Raft, The Good Shepherd, The Nightmare. Also The Gun, which is an absolute must-read.
The Gun.
I had forgotten about that one. Must dig it out again.
I think The Gun was one of my first non-Hornblower Foresters. I am very fond of 18 pounder guns :mrgreen: Death to the French is somewhat related (also on the Peninsular War and guerillas).
I read most of the books before I learned English, so I was limited to those available in German* and at the libraries. Esp. the WW2 stuff was often out of print and newer paperback editions of Forester's works (that I could afford) tended to be abridged for no apparent reason.
*excellent translations though
Musicophia by Oliver Sachs
Lovecraft short stories to refresh my memory on some details needed for songs
Just finished a trashy novel about the Vietnam war. Loads of blood and guts. Once in a while, a bit of rubbish fiction is a tonic.
Just started the 3rd Holland book (after Persian Fire and Rubicon): Millenium
Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy (everything is a trilogy nowadays).
Joseph Campbell: A Fire In The Mind
Med Lenin på byrån -"With Lenin on the bedstand", a doctoral dissertation by Andrés Brink Pinto, a historian working at the Institution for Contemporary History at Södertörn University College.
This is a very interesting dissertation, carrying the undertitle "Norms and normative formations about class, gender and sexuality in the Swedish communist movement 1921-1939". Brink Pinto studies the (often confused and self-contradictory) discourse of how a good communist ought to act, behave and be, how it interacted with norms of sexuality and gender and how they sought to distance themselves from both the bourgeoisie and the non-revolutionary left, mainly the social democrats.
It is a very interesting picture he paints, where the male communist worker on the on hand has "fists of steel", tempered by communist discipline, but on the other hand also knows where the clitoris of his female companion is located, and certainly knows how to give her an orgasm -in a natural and healthy way, of course, and not in a decadent bourgeoise manner, influenced by jazz music.
The communist woman, on the other hand, is a bright and stalwart companion, of sound mind and body, faithful to her man, her comrades and the Party. Interestingly enough, women "at home", toiling in factories or as domestic servants are often portrayed as downtrodden, prematurely worn down by hard labour and opression, with their feminity supressed by endless drudgery. On the other hand, females "over there" -volunteers in the Spanish civil war, for example, are admired for still maintaining their feminity and natural beauty whilst crawling through the undergrowth and bagging fascists with their sniper rifles.
To a certain extent, the discourses Brink Pinto analyzes are very similar to the equivalent discourses of identity among Swedish anarcho-syndicalists of the same era, a subject that I have written about, but there are also some interesting differences, too. Books like this make me long for (at least certain parts) of theacademic life again! ;)
The One-Straw Revolution, by Masanobu Fukuoka. Makes me long for the fields.... unplowed ones.
Stephen Clarke's A Year in the Merde, which a friend gave to me. I was hoping it would be more like Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, but it's mostly just a British fellow chasing French derriere so far.
Re-reading Good Omens, a collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Quote from: pieces o nine on August 19, 2010, 04:52:12 AM
Re-reading Good Omens, a collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Soon coming to a movie cinema near you iirc :mrgreen:
'The Great Civil War' by AH Burne & Peter Young. Some reasonably down-to-earth accounts of the major battles, but still necessarily with a lot of guesswork. Quite pro-Prince Rupert and therefore to my taste. They talk good sense about Rupert's problem at Edgehill.
Henry VIII - Wolfman
(from the same author that brought you Queen Victoria - Demon Hunter)
Due to insomnia, re-reading the old Foundation Triology by Asimov. Felt a bit quaint, and it was quite fun to play "Spot the idea that was pinched for Traveller". :)
Kublai Khan, by John Man
Makes me want get on a horse, strap a bow to my saddle and kick the shit out of everyone I meet, from the Middle East to Japan.
My mother in her religious anguish gave me The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins. I'll read it as homework and report, but I'll admit that I'm not thrilled about it.
Quote from: Pachyderm on August 22, 2010, 02:39:53 PM
Kublai Khan, by John Man
Makes me want get on a horse, strap a bow to my saddle and kick the shit out of everyone I meet, from the Middle East to Japan.
Conn Iggulden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conn_Iggulden) is working on a trilogy (following his trilogy on Genghis Khan).
Quote from: LindormDue to insomnia, re-reading the old Foundation Triology by Asimov. Felt a bit quaint...
I loved those books. Then the old fool dribbled on with about 35 sequels and ruined the whole thing.
But if you really delve in, all Asimov's SF is just futurised detective stories. Very dated now, as you say.
I still love those books and I still think that his extrapolations from history make a lot of sense even if he indeed milked the cow to the last drop.
Now, his style is certainly quaint although I would say that the whole meaning applies, that is, not only antiquated but charming. Is worth saying that he wrote the stuff more than 60 years ago and science fiction was then a lesser genre (he started writing stories for magazines).
A favorite quote from
Second Foundation:QuoteAnd now her father would be making long, gentle speeches about what young ladies aren't supposed to do. There just wasn't anything they were supposed to do, it looked like, except choke and die, maybe.
:faint:
:ROFL:
---
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on August 23, 2010, 04:11:14 AM
My mother in her religious anguish gave me The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins. I'll read it as homework and report, but I'll admit that I'm not thrilled about it.
Two chapters and I'm already hating the book. He seems to be trying to pull an up to date Thomas Aquinas out of his hat with the same success. In fact his critique of the rationalist camp reminds me of Ayn Rand trying to discredit Kant without making an effort* to understand him.
The guy seems to be justifying his convictions by jumping over rational explanations, and quoting C.S. Lewis. :barf:
Mind you, his goal seems laudable enough -to find a middle ground between religious fundamentalism and a completely skeptic version of science- but in my mind he fails miserably.
*or consciously making an effort
not to understand because it would throw down his (or hers if you follow the parallel) card castle.
Better choose the Summa Technologiae by St.Lem, if you want an Aquinas connection ;)
Good and very prescient book but not that easy to read.
Finishing the Lord of the Rings - the return of the King...
starting the Hobbit really soon!
The manual for the Sid Meier's Colonization (new edition). Since the old DOS based edition does not run on modern systems anymore and I spotted the new by chance on the bargain table, I spontaneously bought it. Will take a while to get used to the far more intricate graphics etc.
Just finished Heidi today after getting it in the mail from Amazon for a penny, with $3.99 shipping and handling charge. ::) I'm going to turn it inot a script for my drama group. It's a lot more religious than I remembered, but a good read all the same. I'll figure out something to do with it.
I somehow get the impression that Swiss Alpine literature has a general tendency in that direction.
You may be right about that. Luckily, all references are to "God" by no other specific name, so I can keep it relatively non-denominational. Either that or turn it into Atheist Heidi. ;)
Bought I shall wear Midnight two hours ago (yesterday there was no opportunity).
I liked it. But I like all his books...
Currently halfway into Monstrous Regiment.
Reading several books parallel thus slowing the general speed.
Millenium
I shall wear midnight
Past Imperfect ('History' in Hollywood movies)
With The Old Breed, by EB Sledge.
I should look for some studies on the safe storage of chlorine and about the consequences of failure. How fast does liquid chlorine boil? Is storage below ground safer because chlorine is groundhugging and may stay in the pit for a while giving valuable time for evacuation? Does it make a practical difference whether it's a dry or wet day when the leak occurs? (Wet and dry chlorine react quite differently. Stuff resistant to either one usually isn't to the other). etc.
Belgarath the Sorceror, by David Eddings
I finished I shall wear midnight. Where's the next Pratchett book? I am waiting!
Quote from: Swatopluk on September 17, 2010, 08:12:03 AM
I should look for some studies on the safe storage of chlorine and about the consequences of failure. How fast does liquid chlorine boil? Is storage below ground safer because chlorine is groundhugging and may stay in the pit for a while giving valuable time for evacuation? Does it make a practical difference whether it's a dry or wet day when the leak occurs? (Wet and dry chlorine react quite differently. Stuff resistant to either one usually isn't to the other). etc.
A few years ago, my employer had a little
faux pas with a chlorine-loaded train that derailed at Ledsgård, outside Göteborg. Fortunately, all the tanker wagons remained intact with the cisterns unbroken. However, salvage operations were quite difficult and the tanker wagons had to be emptied in the field before salvage works could start. The accident investigation report made for some very interesting reading, including a discussion on the methods used for the salvage operations and the behaviour of chlorine gas in large quantities.
I guess it is in Swedish? Otherwise I would be very interested in a copy. I might be able to deal with Norwegian but likely not with Swedish. And I cannot expect my father to do a full translation.
Quote from: Swatopluk on September 25, 2010, 09:07:38 AM
I guess it is in Swedish? Otherwise I would be very interested in a copy. I might be able to deal with Norwegian but likely not with Swedish. And I cannot expect my father to do a full translation.
I've been digging around a bit on the net, and it seems I've misremembered things a bit. The railway accident investigation report focusses, not surprisingly, on the railway aspects, but does mention the salvage work quite a bit, albeit not with a lot of technical details. The report is in Swedish only, but I can summarize the important bits for you if you like.
The then Räddningsverket (Sort of State Rescue Services Authority) did issue a report into the accident and the salvage work, which I have read, and I do remember there being an english summary in the report. However, I can't find it at the moment. :( That report did go into the rescue work in some detail.
Räddningsverket have now been replaced by MSB, "The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency". They still maintain the archives from Räddningsverket, and they do pubilsh old Räddningsverket reports. Their contact e-mail is registrator@msb.se
Several experts from various Swedish chemical industries were also involved in the rescue and salvage operations, including staff from the manufacturer of the chlorine, EKA Chemicals, a division of Akzo Nobel. I do believe that they also published some reports on the salvage works, especially for knowledge distribution within the industry. Their published contact e-mail is ekainfo@akzonobel.com
Oh, and the accident you are wanting information on is the derailment at Ledsgård on the 28th february 2005. The accident investigation board report is available here:
http://www.havkom.se/virtupload/reports/45772136_rj2007_02.pdf
Hope this could be of some assistance!
Thank you, I'll take a (deeper) look at it. Maybe I can find something the EIPPC Bureau would be interested in. They should have translators since Sweden is in the EU. They then could also deal with the red tape. For some reason even publicly available info cannot necessarily be used for BREF documents unless the 'owner' officially gives permit to do so.
For lighter reading, I've checked back in with Cleolinda Jones & Movies in 15 Minutes. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movies_in_Fifteen_Minutes) (That's the wiki link with an overview of her parodies).
She always males me smile.
A lot. :D
Trying to decipher a returned questionnaire
Jon Stewart's America as a preamble to his new Earth book. Funny stuff.
Some C.S. Lewis
The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics, but specifically Mere Christianity at the moment, on recommendation of a friend. Screwtape's in here too, which I might read because I got a kick out of it some years ago.
For someone who is almost comically clueless on Eastern religion, he sure does a good job of presenting a version of Christianity that has much in common with it. I don't disagree with most of it, except the bits about Jesus. ;) He also gives the Devil waaaaay too much credit, which seems to be a bad Christian habit (not sure if any other religions are anywhere near as prone to it, except possibly Islam?).
Dualist religions come to mind where the devil is not just a disgruntled employee who left and opened up his own shop but is co-equal to God.
The best known is probably Zoroastrism (among youngsters it is probably the belief system of the Jedi Knights ;))
Gnosis is a special case where our world is actually the creation of the devil itself (who in some schools is identified with the god of the Old Testament).
Reading the Qu'ran, eating pork sausage and drinking rum. :irony:
Vom Töten zum Mord - Das wirkliche Böse in der Evolutionsgeschichte
(from kill(ing) to murder - the real/true evil in evolutionary history)
No, it's not an anti-evolutionst treatise but one about how 'moral' (and especially moral double standards) could develop given the known 'rules' of evolution and how this can applied to the act of killing.
Improvisation for the Theater, third edition, by Viola Spolin. Studying up for next summer's workshops.
That Hideous Strength - ol' Clive Staples again.
Quote from: Aggie on December 27, 2010, 04:51:56 AM
That Hideous Strength - ol' Clive Staples again.
One of his weakest I think. So much rests on the axiom that Evil must be irrational and chaotic or most of the behaviour of the bad guys makes no sense at all.
It's at least more entertaining than Perelandra, which I found quite dull and preachy.
Quote from: AggieIt's at least more entertaining than Perelandra, which I found quite dull and preachy.
My sentiments exactly. I think
Out of the Silent Planet is also worth reading, if only for the brilliant scene where Ransom translates Weston's words to Oyarsa, showing them up for what Lewis wants you to see them as.
I do think the wave of sex at the end of THS is a bit odd and out of place, even if the excuse is the arrival of Venus.
From a pure reading point of view I think the first of the trilogy is the best, the second is a reenactment of Adam and Eve expanded from a chapter to a whole book and the third (longer than the first two combined) suffers from said axiom that the actions of the evil guys are required not to make sense. Also painting female emancipation as borderline evil. Tolkien was a bit more subtle in that regard.
I would concur; the first book was the most delightful, certainly. Clive seems to have dropped the subtlety used in Narnia when writing for adults. His own personal conversion is certainly visible in the themes presented in the three books, which change significantly.
Evil not making sense seems rather consistent with the series, so it's only an anomaly by external comparison.
I think it changes from reckless but rational in the first to irrational for irrationality's sake in the third. In the second Evil just shows lack of creativity.
:stupid: In OOTSP, Weston and Devine have clear motives. Weston's is in a way noble, and I still sympathise with it even though Lewis makes it seem empty in the translation scene.
IMO in THS the baddies are no longer rational or irrational, they are the puppets of evil forces which they thought they could control.
Btw, Tolkien didn't like THS either ('too Byzantine'). But he also considered the Narnia books to be a bit of hackwork.
That's of course open to discussion. Lewis himself stated that he deliberately left as much to the imagination as possible because that would be the best way for children to get to the message. By having to 'think in' all the details their minds would be open to let the essence sink in.
For that reason alone I am sure that he would have hated what Disney does to the series while he might have accepted the BBC version that runs more along the introduction to Henry V ('Let your imaginary forces work...!'; '...that when we speak of horses, that you see them...'; etc.).
Finished THS, and it rather goes to crap at the end, and much anti-feminist Ultra-Masculine God ranting to close it out.
One passage captures C.S.'s perspectives on other religious traditions nicely, as supported by his other works on Christianity:
"I'm afraid there's no niche in the world for people that won't be either Pagan of Christian. Just imagine a man who was too dainty to eat with his fingers and yet wouldn't use forks!"
to which I reply:
(http://thingsrepublicanshate.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/chopstick_3l1.jpg)
Ah, but you see, chopsticks require effort, fine motor skills and subtlety, not the Manichean "either with me or against me" simplicity of the fork.
::) ::) ::)
Exactly. Nearly anyone who picks up a fork can get themselves fed, even if they do not understand much more than one handle, three prongs.
Chopsticks require practice and technique, and promote a more contemplative method of eating, IMHO. I am a huje fan of food analogies, and C.S. reveals more than he intended with this one*.
*he's generally dismissive of Eastern religion / philosophy in many of his works, and tries weakly to cast it in an evil light in THS.
Quote from: Aggie. . .
One passage captures C.S.'s perspectives on other religious traditions nicely, as supported by his other works on Christianity:
"I'm afraid there's no niche in the world for people that won't be either Pagan of Christian. Just imagine a man who was too dainty to eat with his fingers and yet wouldn't use forks!"
. . .
But-but-but, what about Churchianity's beloved Heaven, Hell & Spoons (http://www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith/toolboxfaith/session1/sessionplan/stories/109416.shtml)
lesson?Why does CS Lewis hate spoons?!?~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
ps: I chose that link because it alone credits this popular Christian sermonette as being an adaption from "a Japanese and Chinese folk tale". ;)
Beware you all can go to heck (http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Phil%20Prince%20Of%20Insufficient%20Light)...
:mrgreen:
Spoon!
During the Middle Ages Christian Europeans did not use forks for eating because the fork (esp. the one with 3 points) is what the devil uses. A two-pronged one could be used to move the meat to your plate but fork to mouth was borderline heretic.
I wonder whether most forks these days have 4 prongs because of that old belief.
I suspect the fourth tine was the inspiration of someone truly depraved...
Otto Waalkes
Die Gabel des Teufels
Ich habe dies Lied umgedichtet in eine...sehr...nette...Erzählung,die eigendlich jeder verstehen dürfte, unzwar
Die Gabel des Teufels
Die Gabel des Teufels hat 3 Zacken,
damit will er dich schon packen.
Mit dem einen Zinken bohrt er dir in den Linken,
und mit dem anderen Zacken in den rechten Backen.
Und mit der Mitte von der Stange fackelt er auch nicht lange.
Den bohrt er dir teuflisch tief in den Afta(After),
das glaubst du nicht?
Das schaffta(schafft er)
Very witty. :mrgreen:
I love anything to do with that particular physical action. :devil2:
-------------------------------------------------------------
I've just got a good, serious book on Offa's Dyke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offa's_Dyke), by some people who have been studying it and digging on it for decades. There's so very little known about it, and as it's so near, we used to do a lot of walking along it. The book looks good so far.
Do you love anal-lysis too? ;)
---
A Genghis Khan biography
Thomas Paines' Common Sense.
His strongly worded prose just makes me smile.
Interestingly, it also makes me want to enlist for the war of separation against our 'connexion' with Great Britain!!!!!!!
:)
Tom Clancy - Dead or Alive
He still can write but his political beliefs now begin to really influence the result negatively.
One still has to admit that he is neither racist nor homophobe (which makes him a real oddity on the Right).
Just finished up the last book of the Odyssey, and now I've got to read some Kantian ethics...
Kirill Yeskov - The Last Ringbearer
A Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, by Ian Mortimer.
It's very good.
Still need to read Friday's papers
Irene Pepperberg's Alex & Me about the famous African Grey parrot.
Val McDermid, Trick of the Dark, badly written and feeble storyline. She is usually very good. Disappointing. What makes a good writer write a bad novel?
Quote from: Griffin NoName on April 15, 2011, 01:32:49 AM
What makes a good writer write a bad novel?
Often it's the publisher.
Just finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Probably one of the best books I've read - in the top 5 or so, anyways. It kind of grabbed my attention at the book shop recently, so I bought it - if I didn't own it already I'd be going to buy it now.
Strickland & Hardy: The Great Warbow
The definitive study on the bow in the Middle Ages
My head is bowed in shame: Dan Brown's Lost Symbol. :-[
In my defense, there was a first edition on a remainder table, so how could I resist that? and I whooshed through it in just under 24 hours. Now back to finish Tom Paines' The Age of Reason, with an even greater appreciation for him. :)
Alan Gurney - Compass
"The Arrival" by Shaun Tan.
A graphical story without a single word of text about a man who leaves his family behind and emigrates to another country, in the hope of finding a better future and being able to support his family. Then, things happen...
Graphically, it is made in a mixture of utter realism and dreaming surrealism that is very, very effective. The book is beautiful, and the images are both thought-provoking and really evocative, truly telling a story, making you hear the words of the story in your head.
Shaun Tan recently was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the sort of "Nobel prize for children's literature" for "The Arrival" -a well-deserved recognition in my opinion. Recommended!
A link to the book itself:
http://www.amazon.com/Arrival-Shaun-Tan/dp/0439895294/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308568182&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.com/Arrival-Shaun-Tan/dp/0439895294/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308568182&sr=1-1)
And the artist's own webpage:
http://www.shauntan.net/ (http://www.shauntan.net/)
Quote from: pieces o nine on June 15, 2011, 06:13:59 AM
My head is bowed in shame: Dan Brown's Lost Symbol. :-[
The question is: does it justify the trees felled to print it?
---
About to start The Absolute at Large from Karel Capek. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on June 23, 2011, 11:26:59 PM
Quote from: pieces o nine on June 15, 2011, 06:13:59 AM
My head is bowed in shame: Dan Brown's Lost Symbol. :-[
The question is: does it justify the trees felled to print it?
Well. he does write ripping capers, if you don't keep plot analysis or even what you know of the real world in mind.
Age of Reason finished. I was amused to find myself taking some umbrage when he broke down and tore into linguists and poets, perhaps after he had completely exhausted his ire against churchmen.
Currently revisiting Sam Harris'
The End of Faith.
Questionnaires for a report on sustainable chemistry
Blood and ashes... I've started re-reading the longest novel in a Latin or Cyrillic alphabet, according to Wikipedia (the Wheel of Time series). 350,000 words down, 3.9 million words or so to go, assuming the last book gets published by the time I finish the rest.
Draft for the revised BAT manual for the chlor-alkali-industry
Almost done with the Infinite at Large, deliciously subversive (which may explain it's relative obscurity). Recommended.
Time for another re-read of Ira Levin's This Perfect Day.
finished Compass (Gurney)
The Girl who played with Fire ~Larsson
(I already read the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo - someone gave me the trilogy)
and
Life-Span Development - Frameworks, Accounts and Strategies ~ Sugarman
Back to The Warbow.
Did you know that in the 250 years when the longbow dominated there were about 7 million of them produced in Europe (primarily Britain) almost leading to the extinction of the European yew tree? The tree has still not recovered and is a protected species, so (traditional) archers have to go for US (Oregonian) yew, although it is not up to medieval quality standards. But that does not matter since very few modern archers are either and modern longbows have about half the drawing weight of their forebears.
No, I didn't know; I knew it was a big number, but not that big.
Still reading the same book. Why do Larsson's books take on average thirteen chapters before anything interesting happens? And just when one thinks I cannot read any more of this tedious stuff, one gets hopelessly hooked and becomes a nail-biting pageturner?
Just finished Snuff, the latest Discworld Book by Terry Pratchett.
After some (minor) problems in Unseen Academicals that I feared were first signs of his Alzheimer he has come back to full and best form. Vimes' butler Willikins grows into a major character and another downtrodden species shows unexpected capabilities. Oh yes, and Vetinari has to admit defeat in a match of wits.
Something I picked upon a whim-
Victor Gischler: Vampire a Go-Go (http://www.vampireagogo.com/)
Does not readily conform to pop genre, but has a great deal of fun with the current "vampires / sparklepires / ghosts / Dan Brown-gak / spy thriller" marketing campaigns. Quite amusing; recommend to any sibling looking for snarky humor to wind down the day.
Quote from: Swatopluk on October 16, 2011, 09:35:59 AM
Just finished Snuff, the latest Discworld Book by Terry Pratchett.
After some (minor) problems in Unseen Academicals that I feared were first signs of his Alzheimer he has come back to full and best form. Vimes' butler Willikins grows into a major character and another downtrodden species shows unexpected capabilities. Oh yes, and Vetinari has to admit defeat in a match of wits.
Hmm, I'm two books behind in that wonderful series. Will have to catch up. I'm still plugging away at the Wheel of Time; getting towards the end of Crown of Swords at the moment. I can't recall exactly how far I managed to get when I was avidly reading the series, but I think I'm getting to the end of the books that I've re-read several times.
Also some other dalliances with the usual variety of odds and ends.
Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery. Wonderful so far.
A history by Max Hastings, called Das Reich. It's the story of how a Panzer division moved from central France to the Normandy beaches immediately after D-Day and was delayed for two weeks by the Resistance. Fascinating though horrifying.
Some old German Science Fiction (for children) I remember from my primary school days and that I could get hold of again.
The Black Hole War - My battle with Stephen Hawking to make the world safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind.
Kinder der Nacht - Vampire in Film und Literatur (children of the night - vampires in film and literature)
A seriously loony book of comic SF stories on Kindle:
Second Star by Dana Stabenow.
Still reading last of the Larsson Millenium series. Been months now.
Quote from: Griffin NoName on February 08, 2012, 07:47:34 PM
Still reading last of the Larsson Millenium series. Been months now.
Finished the first Millennium book about a week ago. Started the second today and I'm about 100 pages into it.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo starts rather slowly. Larson uses the first half of the book for character development, but only a little bit of plot development. However, once it takes off, it's hard to put down.
Too bad about Larson dying. I understand that he had a collaborator that has his notes and plans on continuing the series. I definitely wish her luck.
My other reading project right now is Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's series. I've read up through Shapre's Rifles, the 6th book chronologically. They were written in a very non-chronological order, but I decided to keep the history straight. Sharpe is a soldier in the English army during the Napoleonic wars. He ends up being in Wellesley's army (the future Duke of Wellington) most of the time.
There are still about 18 more books in the series, and since I am getting them through inter-library loan, it is going to take quite a while (I figure about 2 years) to finish.
Quote from: Aphos on February 09, 2012, 09:48:50 AM
Quote from: Griffin NoName on February 08, 2012, 07:47:34 PM
Still reading last of the Larsson Millenium series. Been months now.
Finished the first Millennium book about a week ago. Started the second today and I'm about 100 pages into it.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo starts rather slowly. Larson uses the first half of the book for character development, but only a little bit of plot development. However, once it takes off, it's hard to put down.
Yes, the first half pf the first book is quite hard, nothing much happens, luckily when one is about to give up it suddenly picks up big time and is totally addictive.
The second book is ok but not quite as compelling. The third is a bit like the first half or the first book, hard going, too many characters, when a bit of action does occur ot doesn't last long before more characters get introduced at considerable length. I am on page 578 and wonder when it is going to start being interesting. But note, I can't give up on it.
Found a good used book store on Sunday.
Reading David Sedaris' Holidays on Ice right now.
Quote from: Griffin NoName on February 10, 2012, 01:03:22 AM
Quote from: Aphos on February 09, 2012, 09:48:50 AM
Quote from: Griffin NoName on February 08, 2012, 07:47:34 PM
Still reading last of the Larsson Millenium series. Been months now.
Finished the first Millennium book about a week ago. Started the second today and I'm about 100 pages into it.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo starts rather slowly. Larson uses the first half of the book for character development, but only a little bit of plot development. However, once it takes off, it's hard to put down.
Yes, the first half pf the first book is quite hard, nothing much happens, luckily when one is about to give up it suddenly picks up big time and is totally addictive.
The second book is ok but not quite as compelling. The third is a bit like the first half or the first book, hard going, too many characters, when a bit of action does occur ot doesn't last long before more characters get introduced at considerable length. I am on page 578 and wonder when it is going to start being interesting. But note, I can't give up on it.
My opinion is somewhat different than yours concerning the second and third books. I really liked the second book and thought it was much more engaging than the first book. Of course, he didn't have to put all that effort into developing the characters.
And I have really liked the third book so far. I am about 1/3 of the way through it. In a way, it moves a bit slowly, but that is mostly because the plot is quite intricate with lots of factions doing things for their own motives...which need explaining.
Really, the second and third book are all one story, with the plot just growing and growing as you get deeper into it.
I am hoping the writing picking up the series does a credible job of it.
At last, I finished the Millenium. Everything tied up nicely.
Again I start more books than I finish at any given time.
Nearly finished with Empire of Food
Quote from: Swatopluk on February 22, 2012, 08:03:04 PM
Nearly finished with Empire of Food
Is that in the same series as Empire Strikes Back?
No, this takes place in a galaxy quite near ;)
And is fact based
(http://yentha.s3.amazonaws.com/contentuploads/32c133e7_empireoffood.jpg)
http://yentha.s3.amazonaws.com/contentuploads/32c133e7_empireoffood.jpg
Quote from: Griffin NoName on February 24, 2012, 09:26:16 PM
Quote from: Swatopluk on February 22, 2012, 08:03:04 PM
Nearly finished with Empire of Food
Is that in the same series as Empire Strikes Back?
No, I think in that one the Empire Strikes the Back, the Front, the Sides...
The Hilarious Confessions of 25 Wankers, which is free on Amazon. It purports to be genuine true confessions from a sex clinic, which I strongly doubt. Quite funny.
Still reading Crimea (Orlando Figes)
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris.
Just finished reading Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy. Cute. Get ready to start Dean Koontz's latest book.
Just finished Am 8.Tag schuf Gott den Rechtsanwalt (On the 8th day God created the lawyer)
Nee - die hat der Teufel geschaffen.
I bought a book off Amazon - yes, I actually paid for it. It's called Worm, about the Conficker malware and early attempts to neutralise it. Quite interesting, but possibly not worth the 97 pence I paid for it.
EDIT: I've just acquired no's 2 and 3 of The Hunger Games series, free off TUEBL (http://tuebl.com/). I thought the first book was not bad, though nothing great. I believe it was written for older children, like His Dark Materials.
Counselling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Pratcice Sue & Sue
Lots of interesting stuff like exorcizing evil spirits.
Quote from: Sibling DavidH on March 18, 2012, 09:51:11 AM
EDIT: I've just acquired no's 2 and 3 of The Hunger Games series, free off TUEBL (http://tuebl.com/). I thought the first book was not bad, though nothing great. I believe it was written for older children, like His Dark Materials.
I've been thinking about this... There are lots of children that started reading because of Harry Potter that are now older and perfectly primed for fantasy sagas. I'm sure that the success of Twilight has been influenced at least a little by this, and the mainstreaming of other sagas is maybe a good sign for books. Dad's currently reading
The Hunger Games, and I've a mind to get his started on
His Dark Materials after.
Ultimately, I'd like to coax one of my parental units into attempting
The Wheel of Time, but it might be a little intimidating. I tried to get Mom into Discworld, but the cosmology of the disc got her muddled right from the start (I think she missed the joke). ::) If I get Dad eased into fantasy, he's perhaps a more likely candidate, because he tends to stick with a book and read persistently once he's started. He might like Tim Powers, too... I should sling him
Declare as an intro.
Turtledove may also be a good choice
---
A book on Nelson's naval victories bought yesterday
Speaking of, restarting Catching Fire from the Hunger Games series.
This one's very good too:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/Catching_Fire_-_How_Cooking_Made_Us_Human_%28Profile_books%29.jpg)
;)
Last night I got the Kindle version of Hitch 22, Peter Hitchens' autobiography, off Amazon for 99 pence. First time I've noticed it there. This morning it's £4.11. What's going on there? I'll read it next and comment.
After re-watching Fahrenheit 911 and Sicko recently, I thought i'd dust off Stupid White Men again, and because it would make a nice change from Carl Sagan's Contact that i'd just finished reading. Very funny book with so many good points to make. We need more people like Michael Moore.
Just started to read a biography of Frederick III, the emperor of merely 99 days
Title: Our Fritz
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. I read her Interpreter of Maladies last year and thought it was wonderfully written.
I try to get through a paper of about 40 pages about the last Norwegian witch trial in Finnmark armed only with an outdated dictionary. It's in Norwegian (the paper and 50% of the dictionary ;))
About to start Mockingjay as I just finished Catching Fire.
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on April 06, 2012, 09:42:36 PM
About to start Mockingjay as I just finished Catching Fire.
I hope the Mockingjay has a bucket of water. ;)
I've been wondering what to read next, and have been consulting my to-read list. At the top of said list is
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche. Time for a philosophy binge, I think.
I just read through Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue in one go
Sum: forty tales from the afterlife by David Eagleman
A very delightful and quirky little book (each tale is only 2 or 3 pages) with lots to muse on. Recommended.
I have started several books in the last few days. Among them
Drift (Rachel Maddow)
A biography of Snorri Sturluson
Mythos U-Boot
A backlog of Scientific American issues.
Oh and trying to read the Count of Montecristo in the original French.
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on April 18, 2012, 04:16:51 PM
Oh and trying to read the Count of Montecristo in the original French.
Good luck with that. I've read the English translation, and loved it to bits, but i'm curious to know how it compares to the original.
I decided against the Nietzsche for now, and gone onto
Alice in Wonderland. I'll continue with
Alice Through the Looking Glass, and then go on as originally intended. Not read them in years, and I wanted something frivolous.
The Life of Katherine Swinfield by Alison Weir. Katherine herself is not specially interesting because there are so few firm facts, but the background of life in the C14 is fascinating.
Got it free from TUEBL.
Just started reading the prologue and introduction to The Death of Josselyn, which is about illegal migrants crossing the Arizona border, specifically around the story of a young girl who died in 2008 while traveling through the desert. Written by a journalist, and I believe it does most sides justice, and if biased to anything, biased towards human rights/compassion.
But really I should be reading school materials for a trip to Spain. >.> And finishing up Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong, which I only got about halfway through in fall semester...
Quote from: Sibling Qwertyuiopasd on May 02, 2012, 11:20:07 PM
and if biased to anything, biased towards human rights/compassion.
If it's compassionate is liberal and by definition biased, haven't you heard that empathy is a gateway for communism? :P
--
The complete illustrated history of the Aztec & Maya. Bits and pieces and info in (too) easy to digest portions but here and there with the occasional interesting bit.
Quote from: Roland Deschain on April 26, 2012, 09:15:34 PM
I decided against the Nietzsche for now, and gone onto Alice in Wonderland. I'll continue with Alice Through the Looking Glass, and then go on as originally intended. Not read them in years, and I wanted something frivolous.
Alice? Hardly frivolous. I consider the books to be scripture, and they're less internally contradictive and illogical than most, at that. ;) I read them every couple of years.
Currently reading Lawrence Krauss's
A Universe From Nothing.
Currently a book about the army under Friedrich II of Prussia.
I have to read Alice every once in a while, too. It's just so darned quizzical.
Speaking of reading, Roland, have you read your private messages lately? Hint, hint.
I could borrow the book on Icelandic Inflections only over the weekend.
It will take the better part of two days to scan it all (467 pages).
It's out of print and I was unable to even get a used copy (iirc the only offer I found was about 8 times the original price which was not that low in the first place and even that I cannot locate anymore).
SCAN it in? Show some respect - you should copy it on vellum with a quill pen. All chapter-headings to be illuminated in gold leaf.
As I said, not enough time.
Ok, so maybe Alice isn't exactly frivolous, but I wanted something fun. Irreverent, maybe? It's damn good, anyway.
Oops, Opsa. I responded yesterday after reading stuff. I've not logged in for a little while. :(
I've been reading my bank statement.
I have finished the scanning of the book (470 page scans in total). Just in time to bring it back to the library to-morrow.
On the way I will also have a printout (which will not be that much cheaper than the original book would have been)
Goodness! Such dedication!
More stubborn han dedicated.
Wow. I'd have given up after 469 pages. :o
Just starting The Wisdom of Psychopaths by Kevin Dutton. I may make a review once I'm done with it.
Conn Iggulden - Empire of Silver (4th novel in his series about the rise of the Mongol Empire)
Heat - Bill Buford
It`s got me all fired up about restaurant work in general, and Italian food specifically.
Quote from: Swatopluk on October 20, 2012, 09:01:59 AM
Conn Iggulden - Empire of Silver (4th novel in his series about the rise of the Mongol Empire)
Just finished it and have begun the next (and final) novel in the series
Conqueror which starts with the short reign of Guyuk and will end with Kublai reaching the top. The author has scuttled the originally planned 6th novel that should have covered the rest of Kublai's reign because it would have been an anticlimax
After finishing The Wisdom of Psychopaths and reading a bit of this month's Scientific American, I'm back to Stephen Colbert's America Again. :D
Target Tirpitz (Patrick Bishop)
Der verstrahlte Westernheld (the irradiated cowboy movie hero)(Rudolph Herzog)
Recently finished Charles Shiro Inouye's Evanescence and Form. Very good, thorough, yet accessible introduction to Japanese culture, actually read for a philosophy course. References a lot of things, sometimes without explanation apparently... I only noticed when he started quickly making comparison between Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Otomo's Akira, mentioning Akira and characters from it with no explanation of preparation. I only caught it 'cause I've seen the film so I understood what he was talking about. Anyway... good read. Currently delving into much older Japanese mythology, though I know a fair bit of it already...
If you are digging there, could you also look, whether it is an established trope there that an old woman sitting at a spinning wheel is actually a demon (or at least imbued with magical powers).
I have seen that is several Japanese movies (both live action and anime), so I guess it must be traditional. Otherwise they would have all to have nicked it from Kurosawa's Throne of Blood
Gotta love the Japanese storytelling.
I'm reading 275 Acting Games Connected by Gavin Levy in preparation for my next theater project.
I have actually my own saga in front of me to check where exactlythe gaps still to be filled are.
I'm nearly done with book two, of Denis Leary of the RCN (Royal Cinnibar Navy-- a space opera series by David Drake).
Book one was With The Lightnings.
Book two is Lt Leary, Commanding.
I already have book three, and there are several more in the series. What is nice, is I can get these in ePub form, to use the Cool Reader (android) app to read them, my preferred method these days.
:)
I finished The Casual Vacancy from J. K. Rowling. Interesting reading her in a absolutely-not-for-children book. She has a nice social conscience and she definitively is a good writer (if there were any doubts).
The Cherokee Herbal by J. T. Garrett.
I've always had an interest in ancient plant medicines. I was trying to find a book about this maybe five years ago and couldn't locate one. Then this one shows up at the local library book sale for 25 cents. Hey!
I'm rereading "Declare" by Tim Powers.
It was Match Fo(u)rth, aka Grammar Day today.
The winning Haiku was; (http://[url=http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/the-return-of-the-grammar-haiku-contest/)
Quote from: Arika OkrentI am an error
And I will reveal myself
After you press send
*ahem* ...notice the punctuation... :D
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on February 22, 2013, 03:09:32 PM
I finished The Casual Vacancy from J. K. Rowling. Interesting reading her in a absolutely-not-for-children book. She has a nice social conscience and she definitively is a good writer (if there were any doubts).
Interesting. I recently finished it too. It took me for ever to read. I couldn't get into it at all, until p.400 odd when I gained a faint interest as things started to take off shortly before the end of the book. SPOILER...........Bit of a revenge tragedy, what with everyone dyimg at the end. I found it dull. I couldn't remember who any of the characters were from page to page. Damning with faint praise. Sorry to disagree :)
Now reading
Biopsychosocial Medicine ~ Peter White (am evil psychiatrist- oh woops is that libellous?) - basically crap about non-dualism body-mind where the mind is responsible for making us all ill, never mind scientists proving bugs and viruses do that....... of course subtext is ME/CFS is a disease invented by lazy layabouts who want to live on benefits and never do a day's work - background reading for my dissertation. Every page makes me crosser. Not a healthy book to read.
Guy Deutscher - Through the language glass
Finished book 4, The Way to Glory of Denis Leary of the RCN, now on to book 5, Some Golden Harbor
Am enjoying the series immensely-- I always enjoy books about loyalty to one's peers/fellow-adventurers. Both of the main characters in this series are loyal to their peeps to a fault; a trait I rather admire, I think. The loyalty is returned, naturally.
:)
Simon Sheridan - Keeping the British End Up
Thank god
[c wot i did thar!] I was not elected pope!
Common Illnesses at the Vatican. (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/common-illnesses-at-the-vatican)
QuoteStigmataberculosis
A bad case of the Antichrists
Vaticancer
St. Francis of Alopecia
Exorcysts
Blasphemeasles
Immaculate consumption
Hymnorrhoids
Ave Malaria
There's always off-beat comedy at this blog. I see the link to Comic Sans is still in the Top favorites list. :)
Pierre Bayard - How to talk about places you haven't been to
I'm reading "How to be a woman" by Caitlin Moran.
I picked it up at the airport when we went to Prague but never found any time to read during the journey.
The book is something between an autobiography and a feminist manifest. It's partly hilarious, partly very thought invoking and partly very silly. :)
I recommend it. Especially to women who think feminists are anti men, anti fun and anti sex and therefore call them self anti feminists...
Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary
The guy would feel right at home these days and a lot of the definitions still hold up well.
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker.
Unhinged - The Trouble with Psychiatry - Daniel J. Carlat
A (scientific) book on viking clothing. I have a few problems with the terminology because I am a bit short on vocabulary there and dictionaries are of limited help (since I often do not fully know the German terms either).
A thick book on invasive biology (like rabbits in Australia, kudsu in the US etc.)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Liking it lots.
Gillian Flynn- Gone Girl, The plotting is hitchcock on steroids and thrillers are not a gente of which I am enamouredd but the quality of characterisation and her prose are both exceptional and she does carry off her twists and turns with some elan
Having finished The Poisonwood Bible and adored it, I was floundering around for another book, and found The Inheritance of Loss hiding on my nightstand, a novel which I had put down at page 41 thinking that I wasn't that into it. I picked up at 42 (the answer to life...) and am enjoying it a lot!
Sometimes I can't get into a writer's voice until page 50 or so.
William Shakespeare's Star Wars
http://quirkbooks.com/sites/default/files/book_covers/StarWars_final_72.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__E20tUsM3s#t=15
Just started Nature Girl by Carl Hiaason today. Very odd and funny.
The Three Musketeers - 20 Years Later
Two books I got for 25 cents each at the local library.
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Just started it, and getting used to the 1st person voice. Interesting cultural perspective.
and
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
(Someone who was with me recommended it.) The author's writing style is not so hot, and the grammar is annoyingly off, but some of the things he suggests do make some sense.
Just finished Kim Newman's Professor Moriarty - The Hound of the D'Urbervilles
Colonel Moran tells it as it is unlike that sentimental fool Dr.Watson.
Moby Dick, currently. I'd not read it before.
The Parrot's Lament by Eugene Linden, a very interesting book about animal intelligence from a more anecdotal POV (but not ignoring the science, mind you).
A Good Year by Peter Mayle. Winter distraction reading.
Christopher Clark - The Sleepwalkers
A rather iconoclastic view at the genesis of WW1. I already had a rather low opinion of the political landscape of the time but this makes it even worse, although some characters come better off than others (upgrade from villains to mer idiots). As with the other books of the author, highly recommendable, provided you have lots of time to spare. Lots of pages and info to process.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
African novel. Very serious.
and (depending on mood)
How to Talk Minnesotan- A Visitor's Guide by Howard Mohr
Humor. Lots of fun dialogue situations spoofing language books, only with the dry Minnesotan way of fairly non-communicative conversation.
I have finished The Sleepwalkers.
Among other stuff currently a study on women in the Viking age
After seeing yet another Facebroke meme supposedly by Iaasic Asimov (he died long before the tech was possible... meh) I had a strong urge to read I, Robot again. So, I bookmarked the fluff novel I was reading (I like lightweight novels sometimes-- most are indie authors, and sell for $3 or less on Kindle) and searched. The book was Kindled, and cheap, so I got I, Robot and quickly read the first 3 shorts in it (the book is basically a collection of robot-themed stories tied together by it's human characters).
Bliss... it'd been long enough, that I had forgotten the essential details in most of the tales. After becoming sated on that, I then turned to a package-deal by Jennifer Estep, a silly (but readable) series of 4 books set in a world where comic book super heroes (and villains) are real. And radioactive goo pretty much guarantees you'll get super powers (if you survive). It's lightweight, very silly and a fun read.
New Tim Powers - Hide Me Among the Graves. I just read The Anubis Gates, so it makes an interesting sequel.
Almost finished: Jenny Jochens - Women in Old Norse Society
Quote from: Aggie on February 04, 2014, 06:24:58 AM
New Tim Powers - Hide Me Among the Graves. I just read The Anubis Gates, so it makes an interesting sequel.
Shall we start a book circle? ;D
Hide Me Among the Graves is actually the sequel to
The Stress Of Her Regard.
A very good swashbuckling, mystic novel with Lord Byron, Keats and the Shelly couple as supporting acts.
You will get the explanation to why the poets and painters on the era (about 1800-1820) was so pale and anaemic... and it wasn't tuberculosis... ;D
Just finished the Song of Ice and Fire books.
Now stuck for something to read...
Restarted reading the biography of Snorri Sturluson
Quote from: Darlica on February 04, 2014, 11:14:22 AM
Quote from: Aggie on February 04, 2014, 06:24:58 AM
New Tim Powers - Hide Me Among the Graves. I just read The Anubis Gates, so it makes an interesting sequel.
Shall we start a book circle? ;D
Hide Me Among the Graves is actually the sequel to The Stress Of Her Regard.
A very good swashbuckling, mystic novel with Lord Byron, Keats and the Shelly couple as supporting acts.
You will get the explanation to why the poets and painters on the era (about 1800-1820) was so pale and anaemic... and it wasn't tuberculosis... ;D
Yes, I've read that one as well... but Byron also shows up in
Anubis Gates, and the timeline/setting makes that one the first of a non-continuous trilogy. Looking back at a summary of
The Stress Of Her Regard, the connection between the latter two makes a bit more sense. AG doesn't involve the Nephilim, but the London setting provides a bit of continuance.
I've got Earthquake Weather on standby, which is the collision-sequel of
Last Call and
Expiration Date. I can't get my hands on those two from this library; the latter is the first TP book I read, and still one of my favorites, along with
Declare.
Reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco once more (does it mean you're getting old when you want to go to familiar places?).
Publius Papinius Statius - The Thebaid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thebaid_%28Latin_poem%29
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on April 28, 2015, 08:58:29 PM
Reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco once more (does it mean you're getting old when you want to go to familiar places?).
There are people who re-read books over and over, all ages (the people), and then there's people who don't. (I am feeling wise today).
Life, Death and Brain Surgery: Do No Harm. A sort of autobiography.
stuff on fireworks chemistry. I might have to hold a presentation on that.
I had read most of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, but had not got around to reading the final trilogy for various reasons. So I read the whole thing, front to back, including the prequel. Enormous. 15 books with a total of about 10,000 pages.
I found the last book a rather tough read. The good guys are in a bad way right from the start, and every time it seems they have gotten themselves a little breathing room it turns out they've walked into another trap and things go from bad to worse. A lot of characters end up dead.
The good guys do win in the end. However the Wheel of Time keeps on spinning and the "solution" the main character comes up with just means that it is all going to happen again in the far future...which just bummed me out more.
Currently reading Bill Nye's recent book on evolution. Not expecting any really new information but I am interested in seeing how he presents the subject to an uneducated public. It is essentially "Evolution for Dummies".
I've been reading the Wheel of Time since I was 11, and did a re-read before finishing the final book.
I must say that I was largely satisfied with the way it ended, and after a slightly rocky changeover (i.e. some characters initially falling a little out of character in the first book of the final trilogy) I thought Brandon Sanderson did a good job of taking over where RJ left off. Given the premise of the Wheel of Time, I wasn't bothered by the fact that there was no final solution - there never is a final solution.
I'm a bit bummed that the fictional universe is effectively dead (in terms of RJ writing it), since the series foreshadowed quite a few post-finale events that would have made for more good reading.
In the Dust of This Planet from Eugene Thacker. It has been described as horror philosophy, and makes an interesting analysis from demonology to H.P. Lovecraft. Highly recommended.