What has TMD been reading lately?

[Revvik]

Another book that I thought was really worthwhile was Bruce Campbell's "If Chin's Could Kill." 
This thread really has me thinking about all the stuff I read before my last job.

[SpencerForHire]

Bruce happens to be from my county, and was signing for that book a while back.. However the shopkeep was charging for signings without Bruce's knowledge, otherwise I would have bought the book and gotten it signed.

[the19inchgecko]

Vegan Freak and Diet for a New America

[Kowal]

I've been trying to muscle my way through Dostoevsky at work.  Making dents 50 pages at a time through The Brothers Karamazov.  It's really good, but unfortunately Dostoevsky's writing style is a little on the long-winded side, so it's difficult to stay with for more than 35-40 pages at a time.

[Harkius]

Two books I've wanted to read for a long time but never got the gumption to do so are Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel, both by Jared Diamond.

Guns, Germs, and Steel was an awesome work. I highly recommend it.

I respectfully disagree. I think that Jared Diamond had a good thesis statement but that there were just complete lapses in both logic and judgment at points in the book. His continued assertions as to the supremacy of the peoples of New Guinea are irritating at first, and then borderline on ethnocentric. If you can ignore this and the other points where he drifts off the path of rationality and argued proof into the land of suppositions, then it can be a good read. As is, though, it takes some slogging.

The book was well written, but very poorly edited. The editor should have been slapped, quite honestly. I don't think that I will bother with Collapse. I am sure that he makes some good points in it, but I am equally sure that there is a lot of unnecessary alarmism in it. Also, from what I have seen of it (read that last sentence with the knowledge that I read the blurb on the back), and judging from his writing style, he is going to argue that there will be a catastrophic environmental collapse in the next 100 years; he will argue this about ecosystems that are different from the ones that he will cite as evidence, ignoring the fact that their climatic environments are vastly disparate.

Does Mssr. Diamond connect widely separated topics and draw lines of causation that will make you think? Sure. Does he sometimes stretch things beyond the tenuous grasp of logic? Absolutely. Is it entertaining and thought-provoking enough that I will read it anyway? Not to me it's not.

Collapse is right out. Overdo$e sounds pretty interesting, though. Is it about pharm?

My two cents.
Harkius

[Machinus]

Two books I've wanted to read for a long time but never got the gumption to do so are Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel, both by Jared Diamond.

Guns, Germs, and Steel was an awesome work. I highly recommend it.

I respectfully disagree. I think that Jared Diamond had a good thesis statement but that there were just complete lapses in both logic and judgment at points in the book. His continued assertions as to the supremacy of the peoples of New Guinea are irritating at first, and then borderline on ethnocentric. If you can ignore this and the other points where he drifts off the path of rationality and argued proof into the land of suppositions, then it can be a good read. As is, though, it takes some slogging.

The book was well written, but very poorly edited. The editor should have been slapped, quite honestly. I don't think that I will bother with Collapse. I am sure that he makes some good points in it, but I am equally sure that there is a lot of unnecessary alarmism in it. Also, from what I have seen of it (read that last sentence with the knowledge that I read the blurb on the back), and judging from his writing style, he is going to argue that there will be a catastrophic environmental collapse in the next 100 years; he will argue this about ecosystems that are different from the ones that he will cite as evidence, ignoring the fact that their climatic environments are vastly disparate.

Does Mssr. Diamond connect widely separated topics and draw lines of causation that will make you think? Sure. Does he sometimes stretch things beyond the tenuous grasp of logic? Absolutely. Is it entertaining and thought-provoking enough that I will read it anyway? Not to me it's not.

Collapse is right out. Overdo$e sounds pretty interesting, though. Is it about pharm?

My two cents.
Harkius

I think you're making too many assumptions about his writing. He doesn't emphasize the superiority of any group of people - his intent is to loosen our contemporary tendency to fabricate causality, and insted to look at things from a scientific perspective. He uses his personal experience to introduce a lot of the topics, but his analysis is dead on, and as a student very well versed in science and logic, I have to say this is the most empirical and objective examination of these issues (in a popular medium) that I have ever read.

It is almost remarkable for anyone to suggest that Diamond comes to any surprising conclusions about the environment. Not only have many scientists and researchers discovered the same things he has, but the results have been around long enough to become general knowledge in the scientific world. For someone without an advanced study in environmental science to call it "alarmism" is suspiciously partisan.

The first book is regarded by scientists not as a creative work, but as a well-structured explanation and connection of many of the theories and ideas which are commonplace in modern science. It covers many topics, but the general themes of the book all derive from the scientific method.

[jpmeyer]

Whoa, there's a new redwall book? I'll have to read that at some point.

everything by Robin Hobb (also amazing), and Snow Crash (really good)

I got Snow Crash for christmas, but it got buried in my bedroom...got to dig that out.

Back when I was considering being a high school English teacher, I totally put Snow Crash on my fake mental syllabus for any honors/AP class I would teach.

[Joblin Velder]

Another book that I thought was really worthwhile was Bruce Campbell's "If Chin's Could Kill." 
This thread really has me thinking about all the stuff I read before my last job.

I loved it. "Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way" is pretty awesome, too.


"At the Mountains of Madness" and "Wizard's First Rule" are on my nightstand right now.

[The_spooky_kid]

umm the last book i read was t.c. boyle's drop city.  I enjoyed it a lot.  Umm a lot of contemporary literature is dope.  I do want to read the devinci code though.  I heard it was really good...

[Jacob Orlove]

DaVinci code was a lot of fun.

did you like the ship trilogy more/less/the same as the Fitz-based Robin Hobb novels?

Less. The Fitz books were much more focused, the setting felt much more natural, and the whole thing just seemed much less contrived. I also really liked the Wit and the Skill as a magic system. The ship books were still really good, though.

[UR]

Lately I've been reading a bunch of 'historic' novels by Tim Severin and a few by Valerio Massimo Manfredi.

Tim Severin recently published the second part in the 'Viking' trilogy called 'Sworn Brother' and while I think it wasn't as good as the first part, it is still a good read and I'm definately going to buy the third part. He does manage to create a good setting that is very close to what it must have been like in those days and that is something I'm very interested in.

Another person to do that is professor Manfredi. I've read both 'Spartan' (Greek era) and 'The Last Legion' (at the time the Roman Empire falls). His novels are a bit more epic in scale but not too far from what it could have been. He sticks to historic facts, but veers off course a bit to make the story a little more interesting and that is fine by me.

I can recommend both authors if you are interested in history and these settings.

[Eddie]

I'm reading House of Leaves by Danielewski. It's a slow read, but the story is great. I'm also reading "End of Time" by Julian Barbour.

[Nastaboi]

James Dickey: Deliverance.

Uninterestingly, most books I have been reading lately are from authors not known outside my country, or sudoku books.

[Kowal]

I'm reading House of Leaves by Danielewski. It's a slow read, but the story is great. I'm also reading "End of Time" by Julian Barbour.

I read that.  It's a really interesting novel because of the structure.  Most of the pages have some sort of layout gimmick going on.  I think you really need to see it for yourself to understand, so those of you curious as to what I'm talking about, flip through House of Leaves next time you're in the bookstore.

[orgcandman]

House of leaves didn't interest me. I'm not really into the "Odd books that are odd for the sake of being odd"

Recently, I've read some of the Saga of Recluse by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (I hadn't read any of his work since HS when I first bought some of the recluse books).

Also, I've read in the past week "3G Wireless with WiMAX and Wi-Fi", which I recommend for any software developers working in the wireless communications field. It's really good stuff.

[JDawg13]

I recently finished up Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, which I actually found to be better than The Da Vinci Code.  I thought the action just held up better all the way to the end, something I found lacking in The Da Vinci Code.  Now, I'm reading one of Brown's other books, Deception Point; I'm only 50-some pages in and I can already tell it's going to be on par with his others.  I'd highly recommend his works to anyone that hasn't looked into them yet.

On a side note, I know Orson Scott Card has a new book in the Bean sequence out, Shadow of the Giant...has anyone picked that one up yet?

[jcb193]

Blankets- Craig Thompson.  I thought it was over-rated at first, but then i couldn't stop re-reading it. 

Anything by Daniel Clowes...I've re-read these all dozens of times (except for velvet glove)

JB

[Bardo]

I've been trying to muscle my way through Dostoevsky at work. Making dents 50 pages at a time through The Brothers Karamazov. It's really good, but unfortunately Dostoevsky's writing style is a little on the long-winded side, so it's difficult to stay with for more than 35-40 pages at a time.

I loved the first 2/3 of Brothers. But if you're having a rough time of it now, wait 'til you get to the trial. Getting through that to the end was a bloody beating.

I had the same problem getting through Camus' The Stranger. I was completely in love with the first half, and loathed the second. And again, the whole "let's tack on a long and boring-ass court room drama section" onto an otherwise sublime piece of fiction, read sunk it.

A suggestion to all: if you haven't already, read Bukowski. <3^15

[forests failed you]

I'm on a Joseph Conrad kick at the moment:

I just polished off The Secret Agent and Nostromo.  Both were excellent reads.

[Lost In Admiration]

We're starting to cover Faulkner in class and I have a HUGE hard-on.

[Baron.Pocket]

These days, I'm reading many various Encyclopedias and Atlas. Some are well-made and the content, very interesting.

[Harkius]

I think you're making too many assumptions about his writing. He doesn't emphasize the superiority of any group of people - his intent is to loosen our contemporary tendency to fabricate causality, and insted to look at things from a scientific perspective. He uses his personal experience to introduce a lot of the topics, but his analysis is dead on, and as a student very well versed in science and logic, I have to say this is the most empirical and objective examination of these issues (in a popular medium) that I have ever read.

It is almost remarkable for anyone to suggest that Diamond comes to any surprising conclusions about the environment. Not only have many scientists and researchers discovered the same things he has, but the results have been around long enough to become general knowledge in the scientific world. For someone without an advanced study in environmental science to call it "alarmism" is suspiciously partisan.

First, I am not making any assumptions about Guns, Germs, and Steel. I read it when it started showing up on "Must Read" lists, because I was curious. As far as assumptions about Collapse, I already admitted limited knowledge about it, and I didn't mean to suggest that Mssr. Diamond's conclusions would be earth-shaking. Rather, I said that if it is anything like his first book he will extrapolate past the point of similarity, and ignore relevant differences.

Second, he does emphasize the superiority of the peoples of New Guinea. He claims that the only reason that the people of New Guinea (who are obviously more intelligent and adaptive than the Dirty, Cheating White Europeans) didn't take over the remainder of the world was their misfortune of growing up (as a society) on a crappy little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Two questions: if you are that adaptable, why didn't you leave the island? and Isn't in possible that they are as adaptable as they are because they live on a crappy little island?

So, no, you are, quite simply, wrong. He EXPLICITLY states that he thinks that they are superior to us at one point. After that, he calms down a little bit, and lets the issue subside (finally). It was an irritant in an otherwise solid (but not spectacular) work. I am not saying that the book doesn't deserve to be read...I am suggesting that claiming that it is great is overselling it.

Finally, as an aside, calling me partisan because of a misunderstanding of what I meant is simultaneously A) offensive (I consider myself independent, and you are implicitly labeling me as a conservative, which is irritating and offensive to me) and B) logically incoherent. Even if my statement was partisan, it would not invalidate any of my arguments. This, friends and neighbors, is an ad hominem attack, and is logically flawed. Try harder.

Instead of calling me partisan, explain why anyone looking for reading recommendations should read this above, say, Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, Mall by Eric Bogosian, or something else?

I recently finished up Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, which I actually found to be better than The Da Vinci Code. I thought the action just held up better all the way to the end, something I found lacking in The Da Vinci Code. Now, I'm reading one of Brown's other books, Deception Point; I'm only 50-some pages in and I can already tell it's going to be on par with his others. I'd highly recommend his works to anyone that hasn't looked into them yet.

I tend to agree with this, though. I thought that Angels and Demons was fantastic (although not as psychologically stimulating as Mssr. Diamond's work), and I was fortunate enough to have read it before the sequel. The first is, I think, better in almost every way. I was a bit saddened by the lack of the love interest from the first novel in the second. However, I will precaution people from immediately following the more well known Brown works by chasing into Digital Fortress. This lattermost is good, mostly, but it is clearly a first novel type of work. It simply is not the quality of his latter works. The other three, which you mentioned, are all very good.

Does anyone know of any Dan Brown clones that have any merit? I have read The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (not a Brown knockoff, but a similar genre), and was impressed, a bit, although it was far longer than it needed to be. Anything else in this genre would be appreciated if it can be recommended.

Thanks,
Harkius

[Matt]

After watching Colbert Report last night I want to read Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent.

[Dr. Sylvan]

A few months ago, I read David Wong's John Dies at the End, a story published online at pointlesswasteoftime.com. I have been continuously recommending it to people ever since, with the warning that it is hilarious, addictive, and much longer than you expect an online story to be.

I recently finished Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters: America During the King Years, and I'm planning to get around to the sequel (which covers from 1963 forward) called Pillar of Fire, because the first book was extremely involving. A few weeks before that I finished David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest which was simultaneously one of the most frustrating and rewarding reads of my entire life. If you have the patience for a thousand-page novel throughout which it feels like the author is playing with you, I recommend it.

Right now:

Amartya Sen - Development As Freedom: I think his theory is strong, but it's hard to read because it's less interesting than, say, every week's issue of The Economist.

David M. Cutler - Your Money or Your Life: Strong Medicine For America's Health Care System: This is a good way to get more familiar with America's health care system and some of its policy dilemmas, and relatively short to boot.

Robert M. Kuttner - Everything For Sale: This is a critique of the excesses of capitalism, a general rebuttal to the zeal of modern free-market advocates. I'm reading it as part of my personal counterweight to picking the Wall Street Journal for my daily news source, and it definitely has things I hadn't thought of before, even though I've been advancing my post-libertarian understanding of market failure for years. If political economy is an interest of yours, I'd recommend it based on what I've read so far.

I'm planning to read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon soon, to make sure I don't go insane from reading just nonfiction. Since we're talking about books, I will take this opportunity to pressure anyone who hasn't yet to read Ender's Game; it is at least as good as you've heard, and remains my favoritest book.

[Harkius]

Haven't read Cryptonomicon, by Stephenson, but I have read a more obscure work by him called The Big U, which was, for my money, quite possibly the funniest book I have ever read. Anyone who has ever gone to college will laugh their ass off at this one. I mean, c'mon, who wouldn't like a tank that they could take into the elevators???

Harkius

[Disburden]

Just finished Charles Bukowski's "Post Office" and I am now currently starting one of his other novels "Women".

Also in the middle of Dante's Divine Comedy for the third time.

I've been trying to muscle my way through Dostoevsky at work.  Making dents 50 pages at a time through The Brothers Karamazov.  It's really good, but unfortunately Dostoevsky's writing style is a little on the long-winded side, so it's difficult to stay with for more than 35-40 pages at a time.

Which translation are you reading? It makes a hell of a difference. I finished most of his works a few years back and like to go and re-read them from time to time.

The Idiot = Orgasm.

[combo_dude]

I recently finished up Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, which I actually found to be better than The Da Vinci Code.  I thought the action just held up better all the way to the end, something I found lacking in The Da Vinci Code.  Now, I'm reading one of Brown's other books, Deception Point; I'm only 50-some pages in and I can already tell it's going to be on par with his others.  I'd highly recommend his works to anyone that hasn't looked into them yet.

Personally I enjoy Dan Brown as well, but it's very definitely a guilty pleasure, because even while I'm reading them I can feel that they are not good books. I think they would make excellent films, but it feels like it's written with the big screen in mind; it's like a James Bond film with a different hero. There is no real depth to any of the characters, which is one thing I look for in a book - in particular, when there is the same protagonist for more than one book, I feel there should be significantly more character development than there is - and I felt that too much was uncovered at the end in both books. While it's nice to finish with a twist, good thrillers (in my view - again, I know that this is not necessarily a general consensus by any means) will reveal just enough during the plot to make a twist in the ending make sense, bringing in previously irrelevant-looking or small points made in the body of the text, and I didn't feel that Brown revealed anything like enough in any of his three books (although he did this better in Digital Fortress than he did in either of the Langdon books) to make the ending make much sense. It felt like he'd searched a Hollywood film collection for a cliched ending and stuck it on the end of DVC because he couldn't be bothered to write one that made actual sense.

It's something that I might read - but to me it feels like airport reading: you'll derive some pleasure from it, but only when you're stuck somewhere for several hours with absolutely nothing to do. Most books that I get to the end of, I enjoy them while I'm reading them and then look back and say, "that was pretty good"; I certainly couldn't do the latter part of that with Dan Brown.

Adam

[Harkius]

There is no real depth to any of the characters, which is one thing I look for in a book - in particular, when there is the same protagonist for more than one book, I feel there should be significantly more character development than there is -

I tend to agree with this. In addition, I think that the next one, The Solomon Key will be even worse. There is a tendency amongst many, many writers who develop established characters to use them over and over. It allows for less thought and creativity on their part, and many readers simply like to see familiar characters again. Familiarity breeds comfort, which allows for fuzzy and happy feelings. The problem is that it also breeds comfort on the part of the author, which leads to some amazingly craptacular writing. As a general rule, I refuse to purchase (or even read) any book which has "A (insert protagonist here) Novel/Mystery/Thriller/Story/Whatever". This is one of the factors that keeps me from reading the Harry Potter series, although it is certainly not the only one.

(Side note: To keep this from degenerating into the pros and cons of the Harry Potter series, let me simply say that I have not read them, I will not read them, but I do not think that they are valueless. Rather, I simply find other things with which to fill my day. If J.K. Rowling can get children to read four-hundred page books, then good for her. The Instant Gratification Generation needs some balance.)

Other general rules I use for excluding books are the author to title ratio. If the author's name is more than 1.5 times the size of the title on the front of the book, I generally put it back. When authors achieve that kind of success, their names are selling their books, not their stories. As such, they get lax, and the stories suffer. (E.g., the crap that Stephen King has been putting out since...Needful Things, anything by Sue Grafton, John Grisham, etc.) Note: I am not saying that these authors lack good books, but that their first books were their best, and the quality slackens remarkably.

Dan Brown suffers from a different phenomenon. Yes, it is brain candy. And a little is fun, but too much makes you feel a little sick. The interesting thing, though, is that Dan Brown's writing develops more and more into a movie-novel. Is this the trend of the future? I have read a number of books that felt more like screenplays then novels, and I am a bit nauseated by each of them (Meg: Primal Waters by Steve Alten is a fantastic example), because books should never degenerate into the same type of feel as most action movies have, for the same reason that newspapers should not be exploring the news the same way that television newscasts do - it is not conducive to their medium, and they are losing out on their strongest advantage. When you are reading a book, you are committing some serious time to it, and you should be rewarded for that with some depth. When you are watching a movie, you accept that there is a limited amount of crap that can be fit into a 2-3 hour venture and, as such, you will get good action, good character development, or mediocre amounts of each. (There are exceptions, of course, but this is a good general rule.) Books have room for both, but few authors can balance them well. This is, in part, why I love Jeff Long's Descent. His other books are...to put it nicely, I will simply say bad, but this one was incredible.

My two cents.
Harkius

[Lou]

umm the last book i read was t.c. boyle's drop city.  I enjoyed it a lot.  Umm a lot of contemporary literature is dope.  I do want to read the devinci code though.  I heard it was really good...

Drop City was really good.  I have read some of his short stories as well, and they are good as well.

Do we have many Hunter Thompson readers on here?  I am sure that we do.  I really love most of his stuff, and he was a great man to boot.

[Bardo]

 

Just finished Charles Bukowski's "Post Office" and I am now currently starting one of his other novels "Women".

Rock it. Notes of a Dirty Old Man is a fantastic read as well.