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Author Topic: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread  (Read 79165 times)

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Taors

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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #150 on: November 24, 2008, 04:05:37 PM »



I can't quite make out what this is, do you think you could post a higher resolution pic of your clutter?

/sarcasm off

Now reading Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neal Gaiman


I'm sorry, did I defile the beautiful FSP bookmark?

Don't worry, I use them for every book I read. I have a lot.
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Taors

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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #151 on: November 24, 2008, 05:27:51 PM »

Good Omens is a nice book, read it last year.

I decide to try reading a star wars novel, one of the biggest literary mistakes of my life. I think I'll burn the thing in effigy.

Aren't some of them pretty good though?
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Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith)

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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #152 on: November 24, 2008, 05:43:36 PM »

I should read more Hunter Thompson. It's dropped off my radar lately, and that should be corrected.
I read The Rum Diary a few years ago. It was so.... I don't know what how to class it. Engaging and totally off-putting at the same time. In reading some of his short stories, too, I've noticed I'm almost tired when I finish.
Hunter S. Thompson the famous motorcycle rider?  I have a collection of quotes from him but I didn't know he wrote any books!

I'm reading Moonrise by Ben Bova right now, next in line is Moonwar the sequel about liberation of the moon colony from earth government.  After that is Crisscross, a Repairman Jack novel by F. Paul Wilson.  I plan on finishing up the LaNague Federation series after that.
This is sarcasm, right? "famous motorcycle rider?" You didn't know he wrote anything?

Lawl.
Yes, hard to read sarcasm.
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Cowcidile

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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #153 on: November 24, 2008, 07:02:45 PM »

My favorite book is Moby Dick. I like to think of the government as my white whale.
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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #154 on: November 25, 2008, 09:28:14 AM »

Good Omens is a nice book, read it last year.

I decide to try reading a star wars novel, one of the biggest literary mistakes of my life. I think I'll burn the thing in effigy.

Aren't some of them pretty good though?

Well the one I got is terrible.

Try the L. Neil Smith Lando Calrissian adventures.  There are 3 books and they need to be read in order, so that one understands the whole Vuffi Raa situation. This character and his background develop over all three books. 
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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #155 on: December 09, 2008, 08:19:10 AM »

Two going right now:
Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?: Bodies, Behavior, and Brains--The Science Behind Sex, Love, and Attraction

Review requested when you finish!
It is quite good. It doesn't get too deep into any one subject, but the author does a very good job covering a wide range of questions, with enough depth to send you in the right direction to find out more. Some were expected, such as the hormone cocktail which causes the "high" of a new romance. The study which concluded that the only men who consistently have a strong preference for blue-eyed women are blue-eyed men, along with the science behind it, was just one of the little gems which took it from okay to good. I probably knew a little more than the average woman about the changes which take place throughout the middle of the cycle, in terms of attraction and signals. This book talked about more than just posturing and odors - went into all the little changes estrogen triggers, down to making the face slightly more symmetrical.

I started the book half expecting it to be not much more than a book length version of Cosmo's "science". I'd read good reviews, but didn't quite take it seriously. Very glad to say I was wrong. I picked up the book through audible, and listened to it. Am considering purchasing the book, as there were several areas I'd like to flip back through and reread, with the ability to easily reference study info.

Quote
My reading right now:

Your thoughts on this book? I'll be finished with The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World today, and a little dose of Church vs. Science might be just the thing to fire me up over a week of dreary winter weather.
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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #156 on: December 09, 2008, 03:56:43 PM »

My reading right now:

Your thoughts on this book? I'll be finished with The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World today, and a little dose of Church vs. Science might be just the thing to fire me up over a week of dreary winter weather.

It was very good!  It was quite different from "The Devil in Dover" by Lauri Lebo, which I'd read before.  The Gordy Slack book is more pithy, more philosophical, and often more caustic-- and I don't really like how Slack buys into the portrayal of the Dover trial being about science vs. faith which the ID people are pushing, only from the opposite side.  Lebo handles that discussion better.  Both she and Slack are journalists, but Lebo also takes up the discussion of what it means for journalists to be objective, and how that does not  mean that they are required to portray two different sides of an issue in an equally favorable light.  Lebo also spends a lot more time talking personally about the people involved in the trial (she spent a lot of time interviewing both the defendents and the prosecutors, witnesses as well as lawyers), whereas Slack seems to have spent more of his time talking to other journalists and discussing different angles on the trial.  Both of them tackle the over-arching themes of what exactly constitutes science and what does not, and both Lebo and Slack have (in Lebo's case, had) intelligent, caring fathers who deny evolution and consider such denial a requirement for any good Christian....and both struggled on this topic with their fathers.  Slack's book is funnier; Lebo's is more touching.  Slack was writing about the trial for Salon.com; Lebo is a local and can offer that close perspective. 

So how am I going to resolve this?  I guess I'm going to have to recommend both!  Both are compelling reads, and I read each within a couple of days.  There was an uncharitable review of Lebo's book by Amazon by someone who disparaged her relationship with her father-- I jumped on and criticized that review, and the next day got a very nice email from Lebo thanking me for what I'd said.  A few months ago the prosecution witnesses, lawyers, and others involved in the trial got together at Lebo's house for a reunion party, which should tell you how personal this whole thing became for everyone involved.  Judge John Jones spoke at a conference I attended for the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in 2006 and it was really nice to see how seriously he took-- and continues to take-- this issue, in spite of the fact that he has aroused the hatred of evangelical across the U.S. and has even gotten death threats for his ruling on the case.   
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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #157 on: December 09, 2008, 04:08:14 PM »

currently reading anathem by neal stephenson.  i loves the neal
Hear, hear.
I got kinda bogged down in The Confusion, though I loved Quicksilver. I'll get around to Anathem on my next plane ride.

I'm reading the Dosadi Experiment by Frank Herbert,
I just can't get into it, it's not that good.
Curse you. It's fucking great.

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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #158 on: December 09, 2008, 07:21:29 PM »

I finished Cat's Cradle (Vonnegut) and moved on to Milton Friedman: A Biography.  I'm only one chapter in, but it's great so far.  It's well written and easy to read (an accomplishment for a biography).
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Taors

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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #159 on: December 09, 2008, 08:13:17 PM »

I'm not too excited about it, but I think I'll plow through Freakonomics just to say I've read it. I finished The Holographic Universe yesterday.
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Taors

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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #160 on: December 15, 2008, 10:28:57 PM »

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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #161 on: December 16, 2008, 04:37:10 PM »

Nation, Terry Pratchett

Interested to see what he does away from the old turtle.

mike the godless heathen

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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #162 on: December 16, 2008, 05:25:41 PM »



excellent choice.

i am so jacked for the movie.
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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #163 on: December 16, 2008, 07:28:44 PM »

Nation, Terry Pratchett

Interested to see what he does away from the old turtle.

I'll have to check that out too.
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MacFall

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Re: Yet Another "What are you reading?" Thread
« Reply #164 on: December 16, 2008, 08:27:09 PM »

o rly?
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