Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
g3org3y said:
First book of his I've read, almost half way through. Intriguing so far. Will report back when finished.
That was the third one I read - much enjoyed "Kafka On The Shore" - but was very hooked by the first I read: "1Q84" wasn't so taken by Dance......
Just completed - "Earthcore" by Scott Sigler. Sci-fi focused on a mining company and their attempt to harvest a massive platinum deposit. Starts out really well with shades of Alien. However, it was too long a book ( could have been trimmed by 25% ) to hold my attention it just got boring also had some fairly kack handed character stereotyping all the way through - I just wanted them all to die horribly. 2/5.
Still ploughing through Seven Eves & not really enjoying it at all. I'm bloody minded when it comes to abandoning books but where this one had the potential to be an interesting meditation on the human condition in extremis, I'm mostly getting page after page on airlock & spaceship anti collision protocols. Halfway through & ever hopeful.
Eddie Strohacker said:
Still ploughing through Seven Eves & not really enjoying it at all. I'm bloody minded when it comes to abandoning books but where this one had the potential to be an interesting meditation on the human condition in extremis, I'm mostly getting page after page on airlock & spaceship anti collision protocols. Halfway through & ever hopeful.
Ah. I read this over the summer whilst on holiday and had the same feelings as you. However, the end of the book was far better. The bit in the middle is really stodgy and, like you say, too descriptive of space ship paraphernalia, most of which I had trouble visualising. Looking back I enjoyed it over all. Will no doubt make a good movie before too long.
ElectricSoup said:
Ah. I read this over the summer whilst on holiday and had the same feelings as you. However, the end of the book was far better. The bit in the middle is really stodgy and, like you say, too descriptive of space ship paraphernalia, most of which I had trouble visualising.
Looking back I enjoyed it over all. Will no doubt make a good movie before too long.
Ah, that's good to know. Sean's dead & now I know all about fuel fleas. Onwards & upwards!Looking back I enjoyed it over all. Will no doubt make a good movie before too long.
Currently sat on the beach in Boa Vista (hard life I know), just read a book called Wings on my Sleeve-The worlds greatest test pilot by captain Eric Brown.
The man holds more aviation records than you can think up to name. He was an RAE Naval Fleet Air arm test pilot that pioneered carrier landing as well as test flight development from the 1930 until probably the late 60.
Fluent in German he was the lead man for nicking German experimental aircraft from Germany back to the uk after WW2.
If you have any interest in aviation then this in my opinion is a must read. Aw inspiring is an understatement.
Link to book - other vendors are available.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002VCR0OO/ref=dp-kind...
About his life wiki.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Brown_(pilot)
The man holds more aviation records than you can think up to name. He was an RAE Naval Fleet Air arm test pilot that pioneered carrier landing as well as test flight development from the 1930 until probably the late 60.
Fluent in German he was the lead man for nicking German experimental aircraft from Germany back to the uk after WW2.
If you have any interest in aviation then this in my opinion is a must read. Aw inspiring is an understatement.
Link to book - other vendors are available.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002VCR0OO/ref=dp-kind...
About his life wiki.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Brown_(pilot)
A very 'johnny-come-lately' reading of the Dexter series. Got through book 3. Um, a bit odd and a bit crap really. Other than the fact I was bored out my skull in a hotel room in Germany this week, I probably wouldn't have got very far through the first one.
It was either this or Big Bang Theory dubbed into German...which is just wrong.
It was either this or Big Bang Theory dubbed into German...which is just wrong.
I found that I couldn't get into 'Bonfire of the Vanities', for whatever reason. Having read the first few chapters I had no motivation to pick the book back up again, and so I didn't. Perhaps in another time or another place I'll enjoy it more, but I felt drawn back to European history.
First up is 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks, a book whose existence I have known of for a few years but have never read. It came up in a question during a history exam as an extract. Turns out the book features a bit more romance than I had anticipated but I'm enjoying what little I've read of it so far. Upon its release it seems to have garnered quite a bit of critical attention, so I imagine a few of you may have read it.
I have other books from the library as well, but I'm just trying to figure out what order to tackle them in after I finish with 'Birdsong'.
First up is 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks, a book whose existence I have known of for a few years but have never read. It came up in a question during a history exam as an extract. Turns out the book features a bit more romance than I had anticipated but I'm enjoying what little I've read of it so far. Upon its release it seems to have garnered quite a bit of critical attention, so I imagine a few of you may have read it.
I have other books from the library as well, but I'm just trying to figure out what order to tackle them in after I finish with 'Birdsong'.
Great thing about literature that we all dance to different beats. Bonfire of the vanities is one of my all time favourite novels & Tome Wolfe one of my favourite chroniclers of the Zeitgeist in general & yet Birdsong left me a bit cold, with (to me at least) gratuitous sex it just didn't need.
Nick Offerman, aka Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec, gives a look at his life so far and his musings on things such as religion, acting, meat, drugs and mustaches (he is American so I'll use that spelling). Best read with a large whisky and some meat products to chew or crunch on. Highly recommended. NSFW.
I like to alternate Fiction and Non-Fiction.
Currently halfway through Marcus du Sautoy’s “What We Cannot Know”
It’s an excuse to give a nice history lesson of a wide range of sciences, and isn’t bad for that. But he’s a bit annoying. I expect he thinks he’s funny, but I think not. Still, that keeps it light because it does sometimes stray into depths of understanding that would make it a hard read in places once you’re at astronomical or quantum limits....
7/10
Currently halfway through Marcus du Sautoy’s “What We Cannot Know”
It’s an excuse to give a nice history lesson of a wide range of sciences, and isn’t bad for that. But he’s a bit annoying. I expect he thinks he’s funny, but I think not. Still, that keeps it light because it does sometimes stray into depths of understanding that would make it a hard read in places once you’re at astronomical or quantum limits....
7/10
Tonight I finished 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks, having ripped through the last 300 or so pages in the space of a night or two. I couldn't get into the story at first but there came a point where I realised I was actually invested in the survival of the characters contained within its pages.
In the Introduction (dated to 2014, so not found in older editions) Sebastian Faulks purports that "Outside academia, the First World War was almost a closed book". For anyone old enough in the early 1990s, would you agree with this? I'm not challenging the idea but it seems incredible to me that the war could have been, to an extent, overlooked.
Next on my list is 'Berlin Ghetto: Herbert Baum and the Anti-Fascist Resistance', by Eric Brothers. I found myself picking it up in the library on the strength of the name Herbert Baum alone, for he is a man whose name I have encountered before in my reading. I knew already that he had been involved in actions against the Nazis but beyond that I have more to learn and, I believe, I may be mixing his actions up with those of another group largely built up of Siemens employees.
In the Introduction (dated to 2014, so not found in older editions) Sebastian Faulks purports that "Outside academia, the First World War was almost a closed book". For anyone old enough in the early 1990s, would you agree with this? I'm not challenging the idea but it seems incredible to me that the war could have been, to an extent, overlooked.
Eddie Strohacker said:
Great thing about literature that we all dance to different beats. Bonfire of the vanities is one of my all time favourite novels & Tome Wolfe one of my favourite chroniclers of the Zeitgeist in general & yet Birdsong left me a bit cold, with (to me at least) gratuitous sex it just didn't need.
Do you have any suggestions on how to approach 'Bonfire of the Vanities'? I couldn't get into it but as I (think) I said in my original post, perhaps in another time or in another place. I like your phrasing on it, though: we dance to different beats.Next on my list is 'Berlin Ghetto: Herbert Baum and the Anti-Fascist Resistance', by Eric Brothers. I found myself picking it up in the library on the strength of the name Herbert Baum alone, for he is a man whose name I have encountered before in my reading. I knew already that he had been involved in actions against the Nazis but beyond that I have more to learn and, I believe, I may be mixing his actions up with those of another group largely built up of Siemens employees.
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