What book is everyone reading at the moment?

[orpheus]

Just picked up 53 Days, the (sadly unfinished) novel Georges Perec was working on when he died. Can't wait to dig in. For those who are unfamiliar with him, Google his name, as well as "oulipo". Great fun!

 

[Palimpsest]

Currently rereading The Satanic Verses

 

[Dcdrac]

The Battle for God an examination of religious fundamentalism.

 

[Terry]

Pandora's Star because Amazon kept on recommending it based on other stuff I've read.

 

[wollery]

Stranger in a Strange Land.

Weird, but good.




Actually I'm listening to it, my friend gave me a CD of audio books. Next up is War of the Worlds.

 

[Lemastre]

Philip Roth's Everyman and Walter Mosley's Fortunate Son. Amazon has them at http://tinyurl.com/ebtvx
and http://tinyurl.com/fxq39. They are short but intriguing as to be expected from these excellent writers.

 

[SuperSquirrel]

Currently reading The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett and getting read to start on Storm Front by Jim Butcher

 

[KingMerv00]

The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins...

for the second time.

 

[Meffy]

Hello, SuperSquirrel. Welcome.

Just finished Foundation, asked my mate to pick up the second volume at the library.

 

[SuperSquirrel]

Hello, SuperSquirrel. Welcome.

Just finished Foundation, asked my mate to pick up the second volume at the library.

Thanks for the welcome.

I read a little bit of Foundation when my boyfriend and I picked it up. We got lucky and found it at a used book store. Is it worth reading all of it?

 

[Meffy]

I think so. The storytelling is odd in style -- we rarely see a true climax but get to learn about the build-up in detail, then the aftermath as an afterthought. The characters are kiiinda cardboardy; you'll not lie awake nights wondering what Lewis Pirenne's life was like after his big defeat. :-} The story is mostly plot, and that's pretty engaging.

 

[El_Spectre]

Carpe Jugulum, Untangling the Rainbow, and a networking book

 

[The Sopwith Turtle]

Thud!, Unweaving the Rainbow (Dunno if that's the same book as you, El_Spectre, it's by Richard Dawkins), Feynman's Lectures in Physics II, and three different books on superconductivity and low temperature physics.

 

[fuelair]

I trust Stranger in a Strange Land is the "restored" version - way clearer.

Just read the pre/post Foundation Trilogy books ca 4 months ago> His characters are cardboard but his stories/ideas were gold!!

Just finished Lynne Truss (Eats, Shoots & Leaves) Talk to the Hand - a book about rudeness informative/interesting!! And Tom Bethells' Politically Incorrect Guide to Science - beginning to look for flaws (except the Evolution section which is too easy) and/or verifications - some of his points I have heard about but may be overemphasized/overstated.

 

[El_Spectre]

Thud!, Unweaving the Rainbow (Dunno if that's the same book as you, El_Spectre, it's by Richard Dawkins), Feynman's Lectures in Physics II, and three different books on superconductivity and low temperature physics.

Um... yeah... I butchered the title... funny that we're both doing discworld and Dawkins

 

[StewartP]

Blind Watchmaker - Dawkins

 

[mrfreeze]

Just finished The Color of Magic audiobook at work, while reading Flashman's Lady on lunchbreak. Next will be moving on to the first Pern novel on audiobook, while reading Stormfront on break.

 

[DickK]

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, an interesting (and quite short) take on interstellar warfare which takes the time dilation caused by the need for relativistic travel speeds into account...e.g. enemy ships with improved technology courtesy of the longer timeline the enemy have experienced (several years) during the protagonist's local ship travel time of a few months.

 

[Meffy]

Now I'm on "Prelude to Foundation," as "Foundation and Empire" wasn't at the library (it's on order though).

 

[sackett]

The Bosom Serpent : Folklore And Popular Art
Schechter, Harold, 1988, ISBN 0877451931

Schechter defines pop art as mass-produced entertainment that aims simply to stimulate powerful emotions and nothing more. His idea is that pop art in its various forms is most successful when it incorporates old folk themes, themes that people really want, maybe need. The actual quality of the “art” (movies, cheap novels, tabloids, etc.) is of secondary importance – which, he notes several times, pi$$es off the intelligentsia so bad they can hardly stand it.

Well…okay. Of course there’s only a finite number of possible plots for stories, so some things will keep appearing in narrative art, highbrow or –low, no matter what. I think his book is intended to make us intelli-junt people feel all right about enjoying, say, Aeon Flux* or Larry McMurtry.

*You didn’t enjoy it? Not even all those squat-shots? Tsk. Some people have NO appreciation for the lower things.