What are you reading?

[kay]

Reading this right now:


Starts out reasonably easy to follow if you have a reasonable grasp of basic concepts in mathematics, then progressively ramps up. Unfortunately, by about halfway through the book his initially clear narrative descends into a mire of technical murkiness that's difficult to follow even with some knowledge of university-level maths because he frequently makes unnecessary/unclear/bizzarre leaps in the middle of presenting proofs/theorems/discoveries. He also forgets that describing equations and relations in words is a lot more difficult to follow than presenting the equations themselves. The pictorial representations are also usually lacking in accompanying descriptors unless you already know what he's talking about.

Pretty disappointing as he's supposed to be quite a good communicator.

[Shum]

Replace The Brothers Karamazov with The Idiot or Notes of the underground plz. And two Kafka titles? How much that i like the man, two titles in a list is a bit to much. You also should mention a writer from the Beat Poetry.

Not The Metamorphosis but Metamorphoses by Ovid

[Riddles]

Just finished Raising Steam, really enjoyed it.

[wub]

Just finished Raising Steam, really enjoyed it.

Fallen behind on that, might need a session tonight.


Currently reading this as well;


The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham


Not a first edition copy as shown, obviously Some of it is going straight over my head, I'll admit, and it's quite hard going, but am trying to do a chapter a night with refreshes on previous chapters to help take it in. Been a while since I've had to properly work for a book,.

[Riddles]

I've now got A Dance with Dragons to read. should be good.

[Muncey]

Was well bored at uni today so was browsing interwebs, ended up ordering Nausea and The Age Of Reason by Satre. No kindle version, boooo!

[m8son666]

I read nausea the other day, really good imo

[RKM]

foucaults pendulum by umberto eco and it is taking me fucking ages to read

[wolf89]

Still reading Book Of The New Sun (part two) by Gene Wolfe

Also now reading

Charles Bukowksi - Love Is A Dog From Hell
M. R. James - Collected Ghost Stories
Various Authors (edited by Harlan Ellison) - Dangerous Visions

at the same time too.

[Sonika]

Hunter S. Thompson - The Great Shark Hunt

[wub]

Hunter S. Thompson - The Great Shark Hunt

Also recommend Fear & Loathing On The Campaign Trail if you haven't already.


Generation Of Swine is a bit flimsier IMO.

[Johnlenham]

[Jizz]

Well researched but lacking heart.

have you read his other one Cloud Atlas? mate of mine keeps talking about it and i was wondering if i should give it a go

[garethom]

M. R. James - Collected Ghost Stories

Can't get enough of collections of shit like that, only problem is it's hard to find any sort of gothic/victorian horror collections outside of Poe, MR James and Henry James.

Got this collection not that long back, might've been around halloween last year: The Haunted Looking Glass, Ghost Stories Chosen By Edward Gorey

Got the following stories in it:

Code: Select all

ALGERNON BLACKWOOD, "The Empty House"
W.F. HARVEY, "August Heat"
CHARLES DICKENS, "The Signalman"
L.P. HARTLEY, "A Visitor from Down Under"
R.H. MALDEN, "The Thirteenth Tree"
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, "The Body-Snatcher"
E. NESBIT, "Man-Size in Marble"
BRAM STOKER, "The Judge's House"
TOM HOOD, "The Shadow of a Shade"
W.W. JACOBS, "The Monkey's Paw,"
WILKIE COLLINS, "The Dream Woman"
M.R. JAMES, "Casting the Runes"

Think "The Signalman" might be my favourite short story ever.

Just ordered a copy of The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-city Neighbourhood, looking forward to that.

[Shum]

have you read his other one Cloud Atlas? mate of mine keeps talking about it and i was wondering if i should give it a go

Yeah I'd definitely recommend Cloud Atlas over that other title. There is a lot going on with the separate stories and how they are told, but if that doesn't faze you then it's a real page turner.

[Sonika]

Hunter S. Thompson - The Great Shark Hunt

Also recommend Fear & Loathing On The Campaign Trail if you haven't already.


Generation Of Swine is a bit flimsier IMO.

thanks Wub! I already read Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas (I liked the movie too) and The Rum Diary, so I'm just working my way through anything by him I can get my hands on. I'll check it out

[ezza]

M. R. James - Collected Ghost Stories

Can't get enough of collections of shit like that, only problem is it's hard to find any sort of gothic/victorian horror collections outside of Poe, MR James and Henry James.

Got this collection not that long back, might've been around halloween last year: The Haunted Looking Glass, Ghost Stories Chosen By Edward Gorey

Got the following stories in it:

Code: Select all

ALGERNON BLACKWOOD, "The Empty House"
W.F. HARVEY, "August Heat"
CHARLES DICKENS, "The Signalman"
L.P. HARTLEY, "A Visitor from Down Under"
R.H. MALDEN, "The Thirteenth Tree"
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, "The Body-Snatcher"
E. NESBIT, "Man-Size in Marble"
BRAM STOKER, "The Judge's House"
TOM HOOD, "The Shadow of a Shade"
W.W. JACOBS, "The Monkey's Paw,"
WILKIE COLLINS, "The Dream Woman"
M.R. JAMES, "Casting the Runes"

Think "The Signalman" might be my favourite short story ever.

Just ordered a copy of The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-city Neighbourhood, looking forward to that.

i need to start reading lol

i like the idea of shorter stories

might get that one

[Nihilism]

Never thought i'm gonna read that.

[NickUndercover]

Viper in the fist

Indictment of 20th century french bourgeoisie and how their methods of education destroyed the author's being. Wonderfully written (in french at least)

[kay]

Pretty good read, hadn't expected the healthy dose of cryptography, mathematical concepts, probability, lateral thinking puzzles, all explained in a very clear way (much better in some cases than in Taming the Infinite that I mentioned in an earlier post). One of the main plotlines goes a bit wonky and in a direction I didn't care too much for (but which the anti-establishment crew round these parts may like), but on the whole it's still pretty good.