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Thread: What are you reading?

  1. #91
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    Fifth of the series. My dad shipped them all to me and now wants me to send off to my sister in law. Oh, and he hasn't read them yet himself. That guy will read them in a week. Freak.

  2. #92
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    (not in hardcover, though)

  3. #93
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    Quote Originally Posted by andreas View Post
    "the castle" is bleaknes factorial
    Post "American Psycho" I looked at my bookshelf to figure out what to read next. I fancied something a bit more uplifting.

    On the to-read pile is a pile of Iain Banks; The Trial *and* the Castle; The Outsider (Camus); some Ballard…

    I've settled for a non-fiction book instead.

  4. #94
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    Quote Originally Posted by Corvus T. Cosmonaut View Post

    (not in hardcover, though)
    I just got that one, too, arriving via Amazon.

    edit: nixed taking this on ski trip idea, this book weighs to much. Taking Kindle instead.
    Last edited by allegro; 02-25-2012 at 04:59 PM.

  5. #95
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    I just started "Psychic Confusion: The Sonic Youth Story". I'm only a few chapters in, but the history of the no-wave bands in there is amazing. Listening to a few examples on YouTube shows where old Sonic Youth took a lot of inspiration from.

  6. #96
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    Quote Originally Posted by poinoup View Post
    I just started "Psychic Confusion: The Sonic Youth Story". I'm only a few chapters in, but the history of the no-wave bands in there is amazing. Listening to a few examples on YouTube shows where old Sonic Youth took a lot of inspiration from.
    I'll have to pick that up

  7. #97
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    I just started a collection of H.P. Lovecraft. So far so good.

  8. #98
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    Quote Originally Posted by jmtd View Post
    Post "American Psycho" I looked at my bookshelf to figure out what to read next. I fancied something a bit more uplifting.

    On the to-read pile is a pile of Iain Banks; The Trial *and* the Castle; The Outsider (Camus); some Ballard…

    I've settled for a non-fiction book instead.
    wow, some nasty, grim (and awesome) pile you've gathered yourself there... i'm not surprised you're chosen something different to read, especially since you've just finished american psycho, but when you feel like you're again ready to explore some dark corners of your mind:

    i'm pretty sure you've got the wasp factory in your pile - 'cause that's the book by banks that majority of his readers would recommend, but hopefully "walking on glass" is also on the list - i highly recommend it - it's 3 stories that seem to be separate but in the end interwine in such an amazing way it just blows your mind...

    throw "and the ass saw the angel" on top of your pile and you're set to go.

    into the abyss, hehe

    p.s. so, what non-fiction did you choose?

  9. #99
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    Nothing like reading about the history of QFT to make me seriously want to study QFT.. If you like pop-sci books about quantum physics, this is a good one.

  10. #100
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    Quote Originally Posted by andreas View Post
    wow, some nasty, grim (and awesome) pile you've gathered yourself there... i'm not surprised you're chosen something different to read, especially since you've just finished american psycho, but when you feel like you're again ready to explore some dark corners of your mind:

    i'm pretty sure you've got the wasp factory in your pile - 'cause that's the book by banks that majority of his readers would recommend, but hopefully "walking on glass" is also on the list - i highly recommend it - it's 3 stories that seem to be separate but in the end interwine in such an amazing way it just blows your mind...
    Thanks, I've read the wasp factory but not walking on glass so I'll double check for that one (tbh I've forgotten exactly which banks are on my unread pile!)

    p.s. so, what non-fiction did you choose?
    "the tiger that isn't", about stats. It's really good, but most of the examples are about gaming hospital targets.

  11. #101
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    I also really liked Iain Banks' The Bridge, about a guy in a coma. Gearing up to read my first SF book by him, Consider Phlebas.

  12. #102
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    Quote Originally Posted by aggroculture View Post
    I also really liked Iain Banks' The Bridge, about a guy in a coma. Gearing up to read my first SF book by him, Consider Phlebas.
    Enjoy I re-read Phlebas recently. It was better on the second read (but still good on the first)

  13. #103
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    Quote Originally Posted by jmtd View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by aggroculture View Post
    I also really liked Iain Banks' The Bridge, about a guy in a coma. Gearing up to read my first SF book by him, Consider Phlebas.
    Enjoy I re-read Phlebas recently. It was better on the second read (but still good on the first)
    i've read wasp factory, walking on glass, the bridge and the crow road. i've been keeping myself away from his iain M banks, sci-fi output, 'cause i've heard it's worse than what he wrote under iain banks name. would you agree?

  14. #104
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    Quote Originally Posted by andreas View Post
    i've read wasp factory, walking on glass, the bridge and the crow road. i've been keeping myself away from his iain M banks, sci-fi output, 'cause i've heard it's worse than what he wrote under iain banks name. would you agree?
    I've only read about four of his non genre works, and perhaps double that of his sci fi work. To be honest I've found his sf stuff to be much stronger.

  15. #105
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    i should give it a try then, thx!

  16. #106
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    Apropos my own selection and also the previous mention of Kafka as being among "nasty, grim" content, here's David Foster Wallace talking about Kafka's humor—on "deeper alchemy by which Kafka's comedy is always also tragedy, and this tragedy always also an immense and reverent joy."

    (9:28)

    You can also read the same in Harper's, via .pdf: http://harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/Har...07-0059612.pdf

  17. #107
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    Disappointing. Essentially Salman Rushdie lite.

  18. #108
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    Can anyone recommend me some good post-apocalyptic fiction/sci fi?

  19. #109
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fixer808 View Post
    Can anyone recommend me some good post-apocalyptic fiction/sci fi?
    Stretching the definition a bit but the day of the triffids by John Wyndham, also "the crysalids" by him (which might be his best book). "on the beach" Nevil chute is highly regarded but I haven't read it; a canticle for lebowitz is good; I am legend;the wild shore by kim Stanley Robinson is a personal favourite.

    I'm sure I've read a load more but I struggle to remember them. Lots of short sf in particular one about sysadmins by Cory Doctorow; mid career pkd; galactic north by Alastair reynolds (more like post galactic than apocalyptic)

    Oh! Oryx and crake by Atwood and the drowned world by Ballard.

  20. #110
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    Excellent, I've read some of those, but not all. TO THE BOOK DEPOSITORY!

  21. #111
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    Quote Originally Posted by aggroculture View Post

    Disappointing. Essentially Salman Rushdie lite.

    to my great shame, i haven't read any rushdie yet, but i really liked white teeth. i found it funny and cocky and insightful

  22. #112
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    Re-reading some stuff I haven't seen since high school (read: a long time)-



    And



    Surely this is the best of all possible worlds!

  23. #113
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  24. #114
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    I liked it too a funny account of immigrant families living in the UK, never heard it compared to Salman Rusdie before!!

  25. #115
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    Just finished Letters to a Young Contrarian, thought it was a pretty decent read.

  26. #116
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    Just finished up A Dance with Dragons last night, so back to A Brief History of Time.

  27. #117
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    Just finished this. After the brisk ride that was the first volume of Hunger Games, I found this quite slow, dense, and even boring in places, but it kept me engaged and interested nonetheless: the occasional flash of intensity and the trippy ending somewhat redeemed its drawn-out and claustrophobic tendencies.

  28. #118
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    Quote Originally Posted by aggroculture View Post
    Just finished this. After the brisk ride that was the first volume of Hunger Games, I found this quite slow, dense, and even boring in places, but it kept me engaged and interested nonetheless: the occasional flash of intensity and the trippy ending somewhat redeemed its drawn-out and claustrophobic tendencies.
    I read and enjoyed this many years ago, but on a naive level. Check out this excellent critical essay of the morality buried within the tale: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tenshi/Killer_000.htm

  29. #119
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    im reading the wind from nowhere by English author J. G. Ballard. It is with scenarios of 'natural disaster', in this case seeing civilization reduced to ruins by prolonged worldwide hurricane force winds.

  30. #120
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    Currently reading:

    Ambivalent about Updike: he is a great stylist, but also infuriatingly long-winded.

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