Books discussion

The place for chatting and discussing subjects unrelated to Wesnoth.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
In_My_CrossHairs
Posts: 27
Joined: October 15th, 2008, 5:16 pm
Location: Elensefar

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by In_My_CrossHairs »

I'm currently reading
1: Warlords By Simon Berthon
2: The Siege of Mecca By Yaroslav Trofimov
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), British statesman and philosopher

The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Zaphod
Posts: 18
Joined: September 21st, 2008, 7:08 pm
Location: East Coast Elite-Land

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Zaphod »

Currently trying to find Speaker for the Dead and Children of the Mind (you know, same series as Ender's Game) at the local library. In the meantime, however, I'm reading the Constitution. Good life concepts, but low on action. :eng:
I shall take this potato chip... and eat it!!
User avatar
Limabean
Posts: 369
Joined: August 26th, 2008, 2:14 pm
Location: New Hampshire, USA

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Limabean »

Zaphod wrote:Currently trying to find Speaker for the Dead and Children of the Mind (you know, same series as Ender's Game)
good for you. Orson Scott Card is definitely up there on my list of favorite authors mostly because of the whole Ender series.
User avatar
scienceguy8
Posts: 226
Joined: June 27th, 2007, 2:54 pm
Location: Middle of Nowhere, U.S.A.
Contact:

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by scienceguy8 »

Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, Eighth Edition, by William E. Boyce and Richard C. DiPrima. One of the many hazards of choosing a career in engineering. That, and you don't often get to read what you want to read, only what the professor tells you to read.
"You can't kill an unarmed, upside down man!"
Dr. Rodney McKay
Stargate Atlantis
Runner

Gilberti Industries
scienceguy8
Proud Member of the Marching Salukis
User avatar
Midnight_Carnival
Posts: 836
Joined: September 6th, 2008, 11:08 am
Location: On the beach at sunset, gathering coral

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Midnight_Carnival »

The great thing about this thread is that you can come back to it after a while and you will be reading something different. This means you can post multiple times on the same thread without even having an opinion.

~currnetly Lovecraft. Lots
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
faring
Posts: 36
Joined: January 6th, 2009, 7:20 pm

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by faring »

scienceguy8 wrote:Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, Eighth Edition, by William E. Boyce and Richard C. DiPrima. One of the many hazards of choosing a career in engineering. That, and you don't often get to read what you want to read, only what the professor tells you to read.
An Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations
James.C.Robinson

maybe i get to look at your one next year :(
hopefully not.. I'm maths not engineering and find the really physicsy parts difficult
Noy
Inactive Developer
Posts: 1321
Joined: March 13th, 2005, 3:59 pm

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Noy »

In_My_CrossHairs wrote:I'm currently reading
1: Warlords By Simon Berthon
2: The Siege of Mecca By Yaroslav Trofimov
I'm not sure about your perspective while reading Warlords (given your idiotic title), but if you want a more in depth idea about some of the common traits possessed by great war statesmen, I encourage you to read Eliot Cohen's Supreme Command. It covers Four great leaders and how they interacted with their militaries during a time of crisis; Lincoln, Clemenceau, Churchill and Ben-Gurion.
I suspect having one foot in the past is the best way to understand the present.

Don Hewitt.
User avatar
Des
Posts: 116
Joined: November 7th, 2007, 7:58 am
Contact:

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Des »

A History of Warfare by John Keegan.
On War by Clausewitz (Peter Paret translation)

I plan to read these soon:


Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age by Peter Paret

and

Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought by Michael Handel
Redrock Gulch (Winter 2009 Map Contest Submission)

To rely on rustics and not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the greatest of Virtues. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
User avatar
turin
Lord of the East
Posts: 11662
Joined: January 11th, 2004, 7:17 pm
Location: Texas
Contact:

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by turin »

Finally got a hold of Epiphany of the Long Sun (the second half of the Book of the Long Sun). It's really good; basically, a contemplation of religion and ethics and politics set on a generation starship...
For I am Turin Turambar - Master of Doom, by doom mastered. On permanent Wesbreak. Will not respond to private messages. Sorry!
And I hate stupid people.
The World of Orbivm
User avatar
Limabean
Posts: 369
Joined: August 26th, 2008, 2:14 pm
Location: New Hampshire, USA

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Limabean »

Deciero wrote:A History of Warfare by John Keegan.
On War by Clausewitz (Peter Paret translation)

I plan to read these soon:


Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age by Peter Paret

and

Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought by Michael Handel
wow, an awful lot of war books there. :hmm:

Right now I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath. It's a good book and i'd probably be enjoying it if it weren't for the fact that my teacher makes us keep a journal and literally take breaks every few pages to "record our thoughts" :annoyed:
User avatar
Des
Posts: 116
Joined: November 7th, 2007, 7:58 am
Contact:

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Des »

Limabean wrote: wow, an awful lot of war books there. :hmm:
Well, this is a war game forum. I decided to put what was relevant.
Redrock Gulch (Winter 2009 Map Contest Submission)

To rely on rustics and not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the greatest of Virtues. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
User avatar
Rex Umbrarum
Posts: 85
Joined: August 9th, 2008, 3:41 pm

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Rex Umbrarum »

Limabean wrote:Right now I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath. It's a good book and i'd probably be enjoying it if it weren't for the fact that my teacher makes us keep a journal and literally take breaks every few pages to "record our thoughts" :annoyed:
That sort of thing ruined quite a few books for me. I had to find three specific quotes referencing the role of women in every chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird.
And now I'm (re)reading "The Best of the Best: 20 years of the Year's Best Science Fiction," a collection of short stories and somewhat less short stories. I like it a lot, bunch of cool situations in there.
vivantlingvaemortvae
User avatar
Jetrel
Posts: 7242
Joined: February 23rd, 2004, 3:36 am
Location: Midwest US

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Jetrel »

Currently reading "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas. Good stuff, can't believe I didn't read it earlier. Wicked illustrations, too.
turin wrote:* 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.
:eng: This is one of the rare, rare cases where I think the "movie adaptation" was *better* than the book, because of major changes to the plot.

Essentially, the book was a cautionary tale about making robots that emulate all the 'finer details' of being human (such as movements, appearance, and interpersonal behaviour), but are only putting on the appearance of doing so. Robots that act human, but have no emotions, no remorse, and no feelings. The replicants were the villains of the story, and I think the story ambiguously foreshadowed a conspiracy on their part to gradually take everything over (kind of like the plot of the matrix series).

The movie was the opposite - it was a cautionary tale about making robots* that -were- essentially human, but were being treated inhumanely. The replicants were sort of tragic heroes, struggling against the bad fate they'd been born into (such as a 4-year lifespan). And we were the villain for creating them with that fate.


Warning - cataclysmic spoilers if you watch the following clip, but it is really sweet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK7DBo9Y ... re=related

* one thing about the movie version is that they weren't really mechanical, so much as biological robots - they were basically artificially bioengineered humans, designed to be smarter, and stronger than humans. They were preprogrammed with memories so they wouldn't know that they weren't human, and they were used off-planet in slave labor and slave military work. They were 'born/built' in full adult form, and would just keel over and die four years after they were created (as a failsafe to keep them from revolting).
Play Frogatto & Friends - a finished, open-source adventure game!
User avatar
Midnight_Carnival
Posts: 836
Joined: September 6th, 2008, 11:08 am
Location: On the beach at sunset, gathering coral

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Midnight_Carnival »

This is one of the rare, rare cases where I think the "movie adaptation" was *better* than the book, because of major changes to the plot.
50% agree.

Phillip K Dick himself was apparently dead against the movie before he saw the fx and promply claimed that the atmosphere, setting, ect... was as he imagined it when he wrote the book. His style is distinctive, he builds up to a paranoid climax or anti climax, but sometimes he lets it just die along the way. Sometimes the stories which just die are not so bad. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was not one of my favorite of his works, and I haven't ever seen the movie (though I have read a number of reviews and sumaries...). What I have noticed about Dick is that people do not make movies of his stories, they make movies based on or inspired by his work. I prefer this.

Some of my favorite Phillip K Dick novels:

A Scanner Darkly
A Maze of Death
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich
Eye in the Sky
Confessions of a Crap Artist


Ones I was not so impressed by:

Radio Free Albermuth
Flow My Tears the Policeman Said.

His Short stories are mostly great and have been an inspiration to me in my own (aldeged) work.


Essentially, the book was a cautionary tale about making robots that emulate all the 'finer details' of being human (such as movements, appearance, and interpersonal behaviour), but are only putting on the appearance of doing so. Robots that act human, but have no emotions, no remorse, and no feelings. The replicants were the villains of the story, and I think the story ambiguously foreshadowed a conspiracy on their part to gradually take everything over (kind of like the plot of the matrix series).
Not as such.
I read it as a kind of metaphor for humanities obsession with the superficial turning dangerous and a kind of spiritual realisation fable like that othe guy who did Spirited Away, that kind of thin, only without cute kids and friendly animals.
I am refereing to the guy and the artificial toad in the end.

PHILLIP K DICK LIVES!!!!!!!!
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
User avatar
krotop
2009 Map Contest Winner
Posts: 433
Joined: June 8th, 2006, 3:05 pm
Location: Bordeaux, France

Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by krotop »

Jetryl wrote:Currently reading "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas. Good stuff, can't believe I didn't read it earlier. Wicked illustrations, too.
If you enjoyed this and like reading comics, I would highly suggest "De cape et de crocs" translated into english as "About fangs and cloaks". The language, like in Alexandre Dumas' books, is a strong part of the pleasure of reading it, so I don't know if the ton of puns and alexandrines are translated in a way that the english version is as enjoyable as the french version.


I'm reading "The Parrot's Theorem" by Denis Guedj at the moment, which is a mix of several genre, between thriller and adventure, punctuated with nice anecdotes on mathematical demonstrations or history of mathematic. It's quite easy to read thanks to the smooth rythm forced by the alternance between the actual story and anecdotes tingling your curiosity.

I also got into the "V for Vendetta" serie lately. I did not see the movie, but I loved the comic. At 1st glance the graphic was looking a bit old to me, but once I got through the first pages, the faded dark colors really added to the atmosphere, and the "american-ish" style of the portraits created some nice off-set with the colors, which was well paralleled by the off-sets inside the story. Well, one thing I enjoyed among lots of other things in that comic.
Don't trust me, I'm just average player.
***
Game feedback for the Nightmares of Meloen
Art feedback by mystic x the unknown
Post Reply