Books Ok for the high brow crowd what books you are reading - Page 68

big nasty kcnut · 03-11-2006, 10:37 PM

I'm reading The New American Revolution by tammy bruce. She is a great thinker and funny.

irishjayhawk · 10-19-2009, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irishjayhawk

Speaking of Freakonomics, they have another one coming this November. Entitled: Superfreakonomics.

Well, it seems I'll have to read Superfreakonomics a bit more skeptically than I did Freakonomics. While the latter was pretty straightforward and logical, it seems that Superfreakonomics isn't. At least on the subject of Global Warming. The chapter has gotten shredded to peices by climate scientists all over the web. It's pretty scathing stuff. I'll probably still end up reading it but it did take a hit on my "I want to buy this book when it comes out" meter.

On another note, I finished James Rollins The Doomsday Key. (Does anyone read him?) I didn't care as much for the core scientific material as I did for his previous book which dealt with savants and autism. That said, it was as entertaining as ever with some character developments on a character given only a minor role in past. I'm hoping she stays in future installments. It did however have some interesting scientific tidbits. Indeed, the best part of the book might be the Notes following the epilogue where he details what is fact and fiction.

NewChief · 10-19-2009, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patteeu

Is that the same guy discussed in the book Freakonomics?

Yes.

Delano · 10-27-2009, 08:39 PM

I am 12 and WOT is this?

big nasty kcnut · 10-27-2009, 08:43 PM

I"m getting sarah palin book.

**Reaper16** · 10-27-2009, 08:49 PM

I'm re-reading Jon Ann Beard's The Boys of My Youth

Delano · 10-27-2009, 08:55 PM

After I sweep through The Gathering Storm, I will read Wolf Hall, of the 2009 Booker Award fame.

irishjayhawk · 10-27-2009, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewPhin

I've heard very good things about Water for Elephants, and it's on my to read list for the near future. The Kite Runner is excellent. It's one of those books that will stick with you, and it makes you feel like you've really read something meaningful once you finish it. The Subtle Knife was a disappointment to me, as I was so in love with the world of the GC that I hated the broader scope that the second two books took on as they moved into alternate worlds in expanding the story.

Well, I read GC two years ago and liked it. Then lost the series and eventually picked it back up the other week. Breezed through the GC as I was already familiar with it and just needed to familiarize. Then I went straight into Subtle Knife.

I agree and disagree with you. I am with you in that I LOVED the world in GC and wish that there was a sort of Harry Potter like series based just in the world so as to explore it deeply. So many questions. I'm 3 chapters in The Amber Spyglass. So far, so good. That said, I noticed a seemingly contradictory point or a plot hole. Needless to say, it's minor, though. I'm hoping the rest is good. I love the intercut dream sequences between chapters.

I also feel that Pullman uses too much brevity. Whereas Rowling gets flack for expanding too much into the world, Pullman does the opposite. Characters killed purposefully, yes, but so much more could have been told about them. Its a classic example of what happens when you condense a story to the mere basics. AT least that's how I see it. I'll chime in when I finish it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oregon chief

I am currently reading "The Lost Symbol" It's off to a good start.

Ugh. I thought that was more aptly titled "The Lost Time" for obvious reasons. The twist was not like the other books and something I saw coming a good 100 or more pages before it happened. And the overall mystery felt, as keg says: flat. It never took off the way the other two books.

Obviously, I'm slightly biased when it comes to this next point but I thought this book reeked of being accomondationistic. In other words, I thought it was a book written simply to make up for his religious "controversies" of past. To make up for the "slamming" religions took in previous books.

Anyone else see that?

Finally, here's my updated schedule of books. And they're piling up left and right. Course, I don't read more than one book at a time because I feel it dilutes things.

Reading:
The Amber Spyglass.
Should finish that within a couple days.

On Deck:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Racing
Food Matters (Rented from Library)

In the hole:
House of Good Hope

Waiting on the bench:
The Art of Racing in the Rain
The Greatest Show on Earth
Superfreakonomics (Maybe, and dwindling fast.)
World War Z

Wanting to read:
Catch 22
Child 44
iWoz
The Innocent Man
What's the Matter with Kansas

Any recommendations for another fantasy series in the vein of Golden Compass? And I don't think Wheel of Time will be adequate given the number of people not just on here but elsewhere who say it's a bit of a circle that doesn't go anywhere.

Delano · 10-27-2009, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irishjayhawk

Any recommendations for another fantasy series in the vein of Golden Compass? And I don't think Wheel of Time will be adequate given the number of people not just on here but elsewhere who say it's a bit of a circle that doesn't go anywhere.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin is kind of fun, as far as fantasy goes, but it is not in the same vein as His Dark Materials.

irishjayhawk · 10-27-2009, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delano

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin is kind of fun, as far as fantasy goes, but it is not in the same vein as His Dark Materials.

How so?

Jenson71 · 10-27-2009, 09:41 PM

Have you read Lord of the Rings, irish?

irishjayhawk · 10-27-2009, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jenson71

Have you read Lord of the Rings, irish?

I haven't. I have the books and tried to read them years ago and found them boring. Thus, I didn't get very far.

Should I try again?

Even having after seen the movies?

Delano · 10-27-2009, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irishjayhawk

How so?

Well, I'd say Martin's series is much more mature. Politics, sexuality, violence, etc. I'm not discounting the philosophy of His Dark Materials as immature, but the plot is.

They are also different sorts of high fantasy. A Song of Fire and Ice is Medieval High Fantasy and I'm not sure how to classify His Dark Materials.

Jenson71 · 10-27-2009, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irishjayhawk

I haven't. I have the books and tried to read them years ago and found them boring. Thus, I didn't get very far.

Should I try again?

Even having after seen the movies?

I haven't read them. I just figured if you wanted some fantasy, that's the Godfather of them all.

Or maybe some H.G. Wells. Time Machine or War of the Worlds.

patteeu · 10-27-2009, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irishjayhawk

Any recommendations for another fantasy series in the vein of Golden Compass?

How about the seminal cyberpunk series instead? William Gibson's Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive.

Quote:

Neuromancer - Here is the novel that started it all, launching the cyberpunk generation, and the first novel to win the holy trinity of science fiction: the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. With Neuromancer, William Gibson introduced the world to cyberspace--and science fiction has never been the same.

Case was the hottest computer cowboy cruising the information superhighway--jacking his consciousness into cyberspace, soaring through tactile lattices of data and logic, rustling encoded secrets for anyone with the money to buy his skills. Then he double-crossed the wrong people, who caught up with him in a big way--and burned the talent out of his brain, micron by micron. Banished from cyberspace, trapped in the meat of his physical body, Case courted death in the high-tech underworld. Until a shadowy conspiracy offered him a second chance--and a cure--for a price....

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Count Zero - Turner, corporate mercenary, wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him for a mission more dangerous than the one he's recovering from: Maas-Neotek's chief of R&D is defecting. Turner is the one assigned to get him out intact, along with the biochip he's perfected. But this proves to be of supreme interest to certain other parties--some of whom aren't remotely human.

Bobby Newmark is entirely human: a rustbelt data-hustler totally unprepared for what comes his way when the defection triggers war in cyberspace. With voodoo on the Net and a price on his head, Newmark thinks he's only trying to get out alive. A stylish, streetsmart, frighteningly probable parable of the future and sequel to Neuromancer

Quote:

Mona Lisa Overdrive - Into the cyber-hip world of William Gibson comes Mona, a young girl with a murky past and an uncertain future whose life is on a collision course with internationally famous Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell. Since childhood, Angie has been able to tap into cyberspace without a computer. Now, from inside cyberspace, a kidnapping plot is masterminded by a phantom entity who has plans for Mona, Angie, and all humanity, plans that cannot be controlled...or even known. And behind the intrigue lurks the shadowy Yakuza, the powerful Japanese underworld, whose leaders ruthlessly manipulate people and events to suit their own purposes.

An over-the-top thrill ride sequel to Neuromancer and Count Zero.

Saccopoo · 10-27-2009, 11:32 PM

Let's see...on my night stand are the following that are in the various stages of getting read:

Even Brook Trout Get the Blues by John Gierach
The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
A Short History of the World by J.M. Roberts
Sexopedia by Anne Hooper
The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer (and other less well know Rombauers)

Nothing too deep at the moment.

I'm going to get back on my goal of reading all of the Pulitzer prize fiction winners in January.

03-11-2006, 10:37 PM
big nasty kcnut The pizza king of kansas Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Somewhere in the u.s.a. Casino cash: $1230900	Ok for the high brow crowd what books you are reading I'm reading The New American Revolution by tammy bruce. She is a great thinker and funny.
Posts: 18,908

10-27-2009, 08:39 PM	#1008
Delano [b]Supporter[/b] Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: A Hypnagogic Landscape Casino cash: $9015015	I am 12 and WOT is this?
Posts: 12,344

10-27-2009, 08:43 PM	#1009
big nasty kcnut The pizza king of kansas Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Somewhere in the u.s.a. Casino cash: $1230900	I"m getting sarah palin book. __________________ When it's grim, be the grim reaper and go get it. Adopt a chiefs Travis Kelce. You woke up the wrong mother****er!
Posts: 18,908

10-27-2009, 08:55 PM	#1011
Delano [b]Supporter[/b] Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: A Hypnagogic Landscape Casino cash: $9015015	After I sweep through The Gathering Storm, I will read Wolf Hall, of the 2009 Booker Award fame.
Posts: 12,344

10-27-2009, 09:41 PM	#1015
Jenson71 fides quaerens intellectum Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: United States Casino cash: $8330900	Have you read Lord of the Rings, irish?
Posts: 15,986

10-27-2009, 11:32 PM	#1020
Saccopoo Kindness in words... Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Zion Casino cash: $10025483	Let's see...on my night stand are the following that are in the various stages of getting read: Even Brook Trout Get the Blues by John Gierach The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi A Short History of the World by J.M. Roberts Sexopedia by Anne Hooper The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer (and other less well know Rombauers) Nothing too deep at the moment. I'm going to get back on my goal of reading all of the Pulitzer prize fiction winners in January.
Posts: 15,450