Books discussion

[DDR]

I am currently reading The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich.
I also got a large box of, mostly, Analog SF for Christmas.

[In_My_CrossHairs]

Oh, that book! I've seen it at my library, but never read it. Is it any good?
What I'm reading now is The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. Actually very interesting.

[turin]

After I finished Grendel, I:

* Read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick - the book Blade Runner was based on, I hear, though I haven't seen the movie. Really good book, lots of you have probably read it; it's about a bounty hunter on earth whose job is to 'retire' rogue androids. A lot of the book is exploring whether there is a fundamental difference between android and human, and what the significance of emotions is.

* Finished Nightside the Long Sun, read Lake of the Long Sun, and realized my library doesn't have Calde of the Long Sun (even though it has Exodus from the Long Sun!), leaving me unable to finish the Book of the Long Sun until my inter-library loan request is fulfilled (if ever). Which sucks, 'cause the BotLS is awesome - almost as good as the BotNS. It's about an intergalactic generation starship whose inhabitants aren't aware they're on a spaceship (or even what a spaceship is), and the political/religious/military affairs of a certain city inside the spaceship.

[Midnight_Carnival]

Read a short story collection by Ursula somebody or other -The Fisherman of the Inland Sea. Not too impressed by it, she seems to be a good writer, I just don't like her that's all. Also reading collected short stories of Kipling, those can be amusing. And the Reader's Digest Illustrated Encyclopedia of Gardening (fatfun!!!). Started reading Running With the Demon by Terry Brooks, but I really don't know what to make of it. Want to re-read Perdido Street Station by China Melville. Want badly not to re-read a number of romanticly inclined emails and letters I haven't gotten round to deleting.
Favorite author: Phillip K. Dick

[bert1]

Read a short story collection by Ursula somebody or other -The Fisherman of the Inland Sea. Not too impressed by it, she seems to be a good writer, I just don't like her that's all. Also reading collected short stories of Kipling, those can be amusing. And the Reader's Digest Illustrated Encyclopedia of Gardening (fatfun!!!). Started reading Running With the Demon by Terry Brooks, but I really don't know what to make of it. Want to re-read Perdido Street Station by China Melville. Want badly not to re-read a number of romanticly inclined emails and letters I haven't gotten round to deleting.
Favorite author: Phillip K. Dick

The Gate of a Hundred Sorrows is my favourite Kipling short story. It's about an opium house. I hope it's in your collection. Baa Baa Black Sheep is a bit woe is me, but memorable nonetheless.

I enjoyed The Scar by China Mieville. The floating city idea was cool. I haven't read Perdido Street Station.

[Eleazar]

* Finished Nightside the Long Sun, read Lake of the Long Sun, and realized my library doesn't have Calde of the Long Sun (even though it has Exodus from the Long Sun!), leaving me unable to finish the Book of the Long Sun until my inter-library loan request is fulfilled (if ever). Which sucks, 'cause the BotLS is awesome - almost as good as the BotNS. It's about an intergalactic generation starship whose inhabitants aren't aware they're on a spaceship (or even what a spaceship is), and the political/religious/military affairs of a certain city inside the spaceship.

Gene Wolfe is an amazing and imaginative writer, but ultimately his stories IMHO aren't about anything... there's no message, no point, no focal idea... just random events, interesting in themselves but with no real connection or larger significance. This leaves a bad taste in the mouth after reading, even though his skill at putting sentences and pages together is probably greater than any other active sci-fi writer.

[ilor]

Someday I'm going to write a new version of LotR, told from the Sauron's POV.

Behold:

"Poslednij Kolcenosiec" by K. J. Yeskov

The title means roughly "The Last Ringbearer" or "The Last Lord of the Ring", and, well, it's in Russian. It's been translated into Polish, but there's no English translation that I could find. See http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Kirill_Yeskov for a link to some unofficial, partial translations.

The book is... interesting. More orc POV than Sauron's, it's about how the people of Middle-earth were pushed into a war based on lies and propaganda that portrayed orcs as savage beasts. Victorius human armies kill innocent orc civilians, wizards are power-hungry maniacs wanting to crush Mordor (Saruman being the voice of reason), Aragorn is a bloodthirsty lunatic etc., etc., in general a nice twist on the black-and-white LOTR setting.

[faring]

cancer ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
going very slowly as i find it hard to remember russian names and find myself flicking back to remind myself of who the characters are
Hyperbolic geometry James W Anderson
one of my favourite areas of Mathematics

and reading in general is going slowly due to exams.. =(

[Thanatos]

So, I just finished the collection of Death myths by Schopf yesterday.
Now I can't decide which to read first:

Camus, "Der glückliche Tod" (The happy Death)
or
another collection of philosophical texts and poems called "Über den Tod" (About Death).

This decision is quiet difficult.

Well I have finally made a decision on this part and will read "About Death" first.
It's more fitting into my 30mins-reading-time-before-sleep schedule, atm.

Oh, for the German users...
Keel / Vonlanten (Hrsg.):Über den Tod. Poetisches und Philosophisches..., Zürich: Diogenes.

[Midnight_Carnival]

Thanatos: Not Satre?

[Limabean]

After Nightfall, i've gotten back into Arthur C. Clark's "space odyssey" series. I've finished 2010 and am in the middle of 2061. I think 2001 is probably the best in the series, but these are certainly good too.

[Thanatos]

Thanatos: Not Satre?

If you mean "Sartre": I've read several (philosophical) texts of him already, but it seems I am more into Camus' variation of Existentialism for some reasons - especially with regards to the questions of "Why to live at all?" and "What is this all about?". Sartre on the other hand is quiet interesting literature on the topic of freedom and responsibility, although I think he didn't explore the consequences of freedom very deeply - else he maybe would have come to some similar conclusions as Camus did.

Hey, at least they were friends for a while and both got a Nobel prize for literature (yeah and Sartre was arrogant enough not to accept it ).

[Snappl]

After I finished Grendel, I:

* Read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick - the book Blade Runner was based on, I hear, though I haven't seen the movie. Really good book, lots of you have probably read it; it's about a bounty hunter on earth whose job is to 'retire' rogue androids. A lot of the book is exploring whether there is a fundamental difference between android and human, and what the significance of emotions is.

* Finished Nightside the Long Sun, read Lake of the Long Sun, and realized my library doesn't have Calde of the Long Sun (even though it has Exodus from the Long Sun!), leaving me unable to finish the Book of the Long Sun until my inter-library loan request is fulfilled (if ever). Which sucks, 'cause the BotLS is awesome - almost as good as the BotNS. It's about an intergalactic generation starship whose inhabitants aren't aware they're on a spaceship (or even what a spaceship is), and the political/religious/military affairs of a certain city inside the spaceship.

Always heard DADOES was good..


I'm Reading Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. It's a trippy book. Next up in engrish class is To Kill a Mockingbird.. I hate that book. It deserves none of the praise it gets. Lord of the Flies was better, and William golding couldn't bother to tell you who was talking.

I'm probably just a bibliophobe..

[bert1]

Next up in engrish class is To Kill a Mockingbird.. I hate that book.

What don't you like about it?

[LemonTea]

Next up in engrish class is To Kill a Mockingbird.. I hate that book.

What don't you like about it?

The fact that they made a movie out of it. The American they were speaking meant that I couldn't understand a SINGLE word of it. Subtitles saved the day. The movie would also be better if it was silent, or in German. (I can identify about five words in German, that's five more than the number of words in American I can identify).

Or the fact that I had to write an essay on it. 600 words (mine ended up closer to 900 I reckon), 90 minutes, no notes permitted, question unseen until the 90 minute countdown began. Was not difficult though.