Active Member
Finished "Pandĉmonium 1660 - 1886 - the Coming of the Machine as seen by contemporary observers" by Humphrey Jennings (pretty good but I think you have to really want to read something like that rather than casually picking it up; has an English socialist lense to it).
Starting "The Clockwork Universe - Isaac Newton, the Royal Society & the Birth of the Modern World" by Edward Dolnick
Active Member
Finished "The Clockwork Universe - Isaac Newton, the Royal Society & the Birth of the Modern World" by Edward Dolnick ... a pleasure to read due to the style of the writing and the editing that went with it. It also feels a bit too America in its treatment of subject matter. If you've read The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson then you have a good sense of the time frame of the book.
Starting "The Quantum World (and why anything that can happen, does)" by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw
Add Violins
Just finished Darkness Visible by William Styron.
One of the best books about mental illness that I've ever read.
Throbbing Member
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon (topic: isn't it better to be stupid?) (goodreads: rating 4.11 · Rating details · 424,114 ratings · 15,321 reviews)
Next:
Cormac McCarthy - The Road (goodreads: rating 3.96 · Rating details · 647,817 ratings · 42,763 reviews)
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time (goodreads: rating 4.16 · Rating details · 247,484 ratings · 7,448 reviews)
Active Member
Finished "The Quantum World (and why anything that can happen, does)" by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw -- I liked it, I'm keeping it. Yes, there is quite a bit of maths in it, but you can actually ignore it and focus on understanding the language used to describe the maths.
Starting "Inside The Atom (Third Revised Edition)" (1966) by Isaac Asimov ... this will be the first Asimov book I've ever read.
Throbbing Member
Reading this immersive fantasy story by this hip new author: "Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien. Pretty good stuff! I think this guy's gonna go far!
Active Member
Finished "Inside The Atom (Third Revised Edition)" (1966) by Isaac Asimov, Illustrated by John Bradford -- I liked it a lot and am going to keep it as well, it compliments that "The Quantum World" that I just read before it.
Starting "Assimilate - A Critical History of Industrial Music" by S. Alexander Reed
Hairy Member
This Is Not Fame - Doug Stanhope. Not exactly high literature, but funny as balls.
Active Member
What I'm liking about reading "Assimilate" is looking up the songs mentioned to get some context, like "Nag Nag Nag" by Cabaret Voltaire... just painting a bigger picture of my understanding of Industrial music/culture.
Flaccid Member
I'm actually in the process of reading 3 books right now, children of dune, chaos: making a new science and mastering bitcoin, but I've been slacking a lot lately.
Active Member
Finished The Strain series, was pretty solid. Also banged out American Predator. Excellent tale of a serial killer from Alaska.
Active Member
Finished: "Assimilate - A Critical History of Industrial Music" by S. Alexander Reed ... good but I don't need to keep it.Definitely for the type of person who likes to discuss/think about the imagery used in industrial music. Yes, it covers the roots and technology (and even a healthy amount of coverage given to Nine Inch Nails), but we are talking a critical history...
Staring: "A Brief History Of Globalization - The Untold Story Of Our Incredible Shrinking Planet" by Alex MacGillivray
she/her/hers
@MrLobster i envy your ability to read so quickly. i haven't been able to read at all lately because of my emotional/mental state and i miss it.
Active Member
I get it.Originally Posted by eversonpoe
I've spent the better part of a decade not reading due to health issues (having spent the previous 8years working with books). I wanted to be comfortable while reading, and finally understanding that that cannot happen, I just decided to go "Fuck it." and finally started doing it (a decades worth of books in my unread pile, no need spend money... yet... "Hey, you're a good looking bookstore..."). I am pushing 50pages a day out but I'm also stopping every 10pages for a little break to give my brainmeats a bit a of processing break.
Take your time, the books will still be there.
Active Member
Finished: "A Brief History Of Globalization - The Untold Story Of Our Incredible Shrinking Planet" by Alex MacGillivray ... decent. If you want to get to know globalization up until 2006, this will be a nice quick introduction. Lots of tantalizing stories but few probing details into the... but that's why there's a "Further Reading" appendix.
Starting: “Turn Right At Machu Picchu - Rediscovering The Lost City One Step At A Time” by Mark Adams
Add Violins
David Lynch - Room to Dream
I've read his other book on creativity, "Catching the Big Fish," and really enjoyed it. This one was good too, although I don't think I loved it quite as much. I actually already knew a lot of the information in the book, particularly the sections on his older movies, but it was still pretty good. I guess what I realized is that ultimately I'm less interested in Lynch's overall biography than I am in his mental processes and creative concepts and ideas. This book delved into some of that, but not as much as his other one, which is why I prefer that one to this. Nevertheless, it's great as an overall biography and introduction to Lynch's life and body of work.
Active Member
Finished: "Turn Right At Machu Picchu - Rediscovering The Lost City One Step At A Time" by Mark Adams ... a nice travel-adventure book. Good on the history and controversies regarding Bingham and his expeditions. A treat to read.
Starting: "The Sense of Sociability - How people overcome the forces pulling them apart." by Lorne Tepperman.
Active Member
Finished Blindness by José Saramago.
I am not sure what this book was supposed to be about but it just seemed too much like a book since there was no reason given for the blindness nor for the wife not going blind. It was a trope to move the story along, and didn't seem like much more. The back and forth between 'is there a narrator or is this a story' was even touched upon once or twice "who can know these things that are unknowable" and yet the story was not the better for it.
I wonder if this was an archtype of some sort and I have read the resultant books? Because it seemed derivative somehow. I've read books like this and so this did not bring anything new for me. Humanity is mostly shit, and the years since 2016 have not changed that worldview, so the book didn't bring much that I didn't already think of.
Yeah, I'll look for the follow-up just to see what came out of this event.
Also I had eye surgery a few days ago and was blind for a bit after. Kind of wild to listen to the audio book during that.
Active Member
literary comfort food: the new John Sandford. it's a Virgil Flowers tale this time. i find Sandford consistently good.
she/her/hers
perfect gif <3 bowfinger was the last (live-action) movie where eddie murphy was funny, and definitely the last movie where steve martin was funny, and they're both fantastic in it.Finished Blindness by José Saramago.
back on thread topic:
i read "the hazel wood" by melissa albert (YA fiction, didn't realize that while i was reading it because who gives a shit, it was fantastic). my wife gave it to me for our anniversary a few weeks ago and (after not being able to focus on a book for two months) i read it in like five sittings because i loved it so much. the sequel comes out in january and it's not soon enough.
then i immediately started "a darker shade of magic" by VE schwab and i'm also loving that. i think that series is three books so if i plow through it i'll be able to jump right into the next one.
Throbbing Member
Jason Plato - How Not to Be a Professional Racing Driver, great for a fan like me. :-)
Active Member
Finally finished: "The Sense of Sociability - How people overcome the forces pulling them apart." by Lorne Tepperman; pain issues kept me from reading for a couple of weeks but the book is done. It needs updating in language and ideas (would benefit greatly from including concepts of intersectionality but it almost gets there). A meta-analysis of sociological "truths". Very Canadian in parts.
Starting: "Who's Your City? - How The Creative Economy Is Making Where To Live The Most Important Decision Of Your Life" by Richard Florida
Active Member
Stopped: "Who's Your City? - How The Creative Economy Is Making Where To Live The Most Important Decision Of Your Life" by Richard Florida; just wasn't getting into it... and life it too short to read books that don't grab you.
Starting: "The man who loved China: the fantastic story of the eccentric scientist who unlocked the mysteries of the middle kingdom" by Simon Winchester.
Active Member
Finished: "The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom" by Simon Winchester ... decent/good. Needham was a dedicated individual, that's for sure. If you want to know more about the individual responsible for getting the larger world to recognize the historical value of Chinese technology, this will do it.
Starting: "A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906" (also by) Simon Winchester.
Active Member
Finished: "A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906" by Simon Winchester (ARC edition) ... So, story time... back in my previous non-disabled life I was the manager of a book store, and due to the nature of the chain I was with, once a year we'd be flown to Toronto for Book Expo Canada. We'd do sales presentations during most of the week with various publishers but during every meal there was an author as a guest with us. One of the meals was with Simon Winchester. So, perhaps my views are a bit skewed from that, but it's also taken me a legit 14 years to read the book that was given to me. Anyways... given that it's an ARC (advanced readers copy), I can't comment on what the general public read but this was my take on this edition. It needed another pass with the editor, he repeats himself needlessly. It's also weirdly classist in tone, and while I appreciate snark, I like it rapier sharp and not dismissive. Beyond that, you have to really want to learn about a specific period of San Francisco history or, in larger terms earthquake geology and what makes that so fascinating. Or to sum it up better, I liked "The Man Who Loved China" a lot more.
Starting: "Nch'i-Wána "The Big River": Mid-Columbia Indian and Their Land" by Eugene S. Hunn with James Selam and Family
Active Member
Finished: "Nch'i-Wána "The Big River": Mid-Columbia Indian and Their Land" by Eugene S. Hunn with James Selam and Family. Good. Useful. Academic but not clinical. More useful if I lived closer to the geography.
Starting: "In Canada's Wonderful Northland - A Story of Eight Months Travel by Canoe, Motorboat, and Dog-Team on the Northern Rivers and along the New Quebec Coast of Hudson Bay" by W. Tees Curran and H. A. Calkins, B.Sc. (1920)
Active Member
Stopped: "In Canada's Wonderful Northland - A Story of Eight Months Travel by Canoe, Motorboat, and Dog-Team on the Northern Rivers and along the New Quebec Coast of Hudson Bay" by W. Tees Curran and H. A. Calkins, B.Sc. (1920); due to manufacturing defect I am unable to finish reading this classist, racist and sexist old Canadian book. Why Canadian? Well... it's about resource exploitation (the trip is taking basically as a mining survey), racism (being routinely described as "our dusky friends" and with the attitude being something along the lines of "Oh sure, we have to use Indian guides but they are lazy but at least they cook and find usable wood quickly for us"... but also the Indians make unsophisticated tools while the Eskimo are innovate and true masters) and colonialism ("oh this place would be great once the train gets here and it's settled, lots of economic potential at this place"). The manufacturing defect is some pages uncut (205 is uncut to 208 with 206/207 trapped within ... oh darn, now I'll never know how it ends). The authors were many times besieged by mosquitos... awww....
Starting: "The Canadian Rockies - Early Travels and Explorations" by Esther Fraser
Last edited by MrLobster; 11-24-2019 at 10:44 PM.
Active Member
Finished: "The Canadian Rockies - Early Travels and Explorations" by Esther Fraser ... again, a very Canadian book (exploration for resource exploitation and eventual colonization... but this time of the Rockies). Lots of "the first white man to step foot" type of stuff (and in that sense, the book probably could used an editor to help with that amount of repetition...). If you ever wanted to know about some of the marquee names in Canadian Rockies exploration, this book would do you well.
Starting: "Sacred Ecology, third edition" by Fikret Berkes
Active Member
Finished: "Sacred Ecology, third edition" by Fikret Berkes; academic and intellectual. Woe be to you if you aren't at least a little familiar with the concepts behind macro and micro systems as it relates to ecosystems. It complements "Nch'i-Wána "The Big River": Mid-Columbia Indian and Their Land" by Eugene S. Hunn with James Selam and Family that I read earlier. It is good/useful.
Starting: "Our Alberta Heritage" by Jacques Hamilton
Bite me
“Olive, Again” by Elizabeth Strout
Posting Permissions
Likes: 
Faceplams: 
Reply With Quote
