Books: Book(s) you are Currently Reading | Part II

[Thucydides]

 

[Thucydides]

 

[Thucydides]

 

[Thucydides]

I’m pretty much finished with this. Interesting read . You hear the word narcissist everywhere now , like it has become an epidemic problem almost, so this has been pretty eye opening and interesting.

I’ve noticed new non fiction books are becoming shorter , it’s no longer taking them 300-400 pages to get across what they easily could in 140-150. Great news .

 

[JMCx4]

... I’ve noticed new non fiction books are becoming shorter , it’s no longer taking them 300-400 pages to get across what they easily could in 140-150. Great news .

And yet you're still paying the same price. Great news for the publishers.

 

[Thucydides]

And yet you're still paying the same price. Great news for the publishers.

Haha yeah , publishers would love it. I usually try and get this type of book from the library.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I'm re-reading Pnin, although I won't review it as I did it less than 18 months ago. All that needs to be said is that it's a cuteness overload, the perfect anti-Lolita and the great immigrant story of the 20th Century.

 

[Thucydides]

 

[Babe Ruth]

Witness to the Civil War (The art of John Paul Strain)

Coffee table book, collecting some of the Civil War paintings of John Paul Strain (up thru the early 2ooos). Each painting includes historical explanation/backstory. And with some he includes brief technical details.. like how he determined the appearance of bridges that never photographed, etc. Good, lifelike paintings.. down to the details in the grass, wrinkles in their uniforms. I've always thought Strain's Civil War pieces are better than Mort Kunstler, who seems to be viewed as the genre standard.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Finished leafing thru my Civil War art book, now about 100 pages in to 'Sons of Cain'. A history of serial killers, literally going back to Neanderthals and cavemen. Author has interesting theories on primitive killers, and how their killings may have been misinterpreted (explained thru monster lore), or generally not recognized until relatively recent times. In an ironic twist, the author states he bumped in to a serial killer (Richard Cottingham) as Cottingham was leaving a crime scene back in the 7os. I guess it was a dark omen for covering this subject matter. Grim subject matter, but well-written and thought-out theories about their timeless motivations.

 

[Thucydides]

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Question, are book ratings manipulated/pumped up on Goodreads for new books the way that they are on imdb (mostly for certain foreign films like Bollywood ones on imdb)?

 

[Pink Mist]

Question, are book ratings manipulated/pumped up on Goodreads for new books the way that they are on imdb (mostly for certain foreign films like Bollywood ones on imdb)?

Considering Amazon owns it, probably

 

[Babe Ruth]

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Birthday coming up, so as per every year, I chose some books as gifts (+ architectural legos ). Here's what I've got on the way:

The Blue Room by Georges Simenon (the great film adaptation is worth checking out)
Zazie dans le métro by Raymond Queneau
Exercices de style by Raymond Queneau (one short story written in 99 different styles!)
Les enfants terribles by Jean Cocteau
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Got bored reading history books in February so tarted a sci-fi. The Final Empire which is part of the Mistborn trilogy with good reviews.

Seems solid so far but this will be a long long read.

 

[Babe Ruth]

I mostly read non-fiction.. but this looked interesting. A modern man is basically found floating in the Strait of Gibraltar, and is violently insistent that he is Christopher Columbus. Only read the first few pages so far, where he's laid up in a mental institution..

 

[Hammettf2b]

Do audio books count? Currently listening to Ready Player One. So far, it is really good. Got about 6 hours left. Looking forward to finishing it

 

[Thucydides]

Do audio books count? Currently listening to Ready Player One. So far, it is really good. Got about 6 hours left. Looking forward to finishing it

they count

 

[Thucydides]

Birthday coming up, so as per every year, I chose some books as gifts (+ architectural legos ). Here's what I've got on the way:

The Blue Room by Georges Simenon (the great film adaptation is worth checking out)
Zazie dans le métro by Raymond Queneau
Exercices de style by Raymond Queneau (one short story written in 99 different styles!)
Les enfants terribles by Jean Cocteau
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

how do you like this so far ?

 

[Spring in Fialta]

how do you like this so far ?

Very much enjoying it. Good story, especially the first chapter, and fun to read to a novel that influenced their more famous counterparts in Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and the likes.

 

[beowulf]

With all the Mars Perseverance talk I decided to find my Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson and going to re-read those.

 

[Soldier13Fox]

With all the Mars Perseverance talk I decided to find my Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson and going to re-read those.

I might have to give that series a read, sounds interesting.

On the sci-fi front, are there any must read epic sci-fi series (think sci fi equivalent of Wheel of Time, Song of Fire and Ice, Malazan Book of the Fallen)? The Expanse and Dune are the only thing that comes to my mind.

 

[beowulf]

I might have to give that series a read, sounds interesting.

On the sci-fi front, are there any must read epic sci-fi series (think sci fi equivalent of Wheel of Time, Song of Fire and Ice, Malazan Book of the Fallen)? The Expanse and Dune are the only thing that comes to my mind.

Well you of course have a number of them from Isaac Asimov, The Foundation Series, The Robot and also the Empire series which all, well mostly, link together over thousands of years.

Timeline proposed only for Asimov short-stories or books. It does not include any fan fiction or "Asimov Friends" books:

1995 AD	"A Boy's Best Friend" (The Complete Robot)
1998 AD	"Robbie" (I, Robot; The Complete Robot; Robot Visions)
2006 AD	"Robot AL-76 Goes Astray" (The Rest of the Robots; The Complete Robot)
2010 AD	"Insert Knob A in Hold B" (Nightfall and Other Stories)
2015 AD	"Runaround" (I, Robot; The Complete Robot; Robot Visions)
2015 AD	"Reason" (I, Robot; The Complete Robot; Robot Visions)
2016 AD	"Catch That Rabbit" (I, Robot; The Complete Robot)
2021 AD	"Liar!" (I, Robot; The Complete Robot; Robot Visions)
2023 AD	"Satisfaction Guaranteed" (The Rest of the Robots; The Complete Robot; Earth Is Room Enough)
2025 AD	"Lenny" (The Rest of the Robots; The Complete Robot; Robot Visions)
2029 AD	"Little Lost Robot" (I, Robot)
2030 AD	"Escape!" (I, Robot)
2031 AD	"Cal" (Gold)
2032 AD	"Evidence" (I, Robot; The Complete Robot; Robot Visions)
2033 AD	"Risk" (The Rest of the Robots; The Complete Robot)
2034 AD	"Galley Slave" (The Rest of the Robots; The Complete Robot; Robot Visions)
2035 AD	"First Law" (The Rest of the Robots; The Complete Robot)
c. 2045 AD	"Let's Get Together" (The Complete Robot)
2052 AD	"The Evitable Conflict" (I, Robot; The Complete Robot; Robot Visions)
2055 AD	"Robot Dreams" (Robot Dreams)
2058 AD	(I, Robot framing-story)
2063 AD	"Feminine Intuition" (The Complete Robot; Robot Visions; The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories)
7/4/2076-10/13/2078 AD	"The Tercentenary Incident" (The Complete Robot)
2090 AD	"Christmas Without Rodney" (Robot Visions)
2120 AD	"Kid Brother" (Gold)
2150 AD	"Light Verse" (Buy Jupiter and Other Stories; The Complete Robot; Robot Dreams)
2170 AD	"Too Bad!" (Robot Visions)
2180 AD	"That Thou Art Mindful of Him" (The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories; The Complete Robot)
2160-2360 AD	"The Bicentennial Man" (The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories)
c. 3720 AD	"Mother Earth" (The Early Asimov)
4721 AD	The Caves of Steel
4722 AD	The Naked Sun
4723 AD	"Mirror Image" (The Best of Isaac Asimov; The Complete Robot; Robot Visions)
4724 AD	The Robots of Dawn
4924 AD	Robots and Empire
c. 5924 AD	The Stars, Like Dust
c. 11,084 AD	The Currents of Space
827 GE (12,411 AD)	Pebble in the Sky
977-978 GE	"Blind Alley" (The Early Asimov)
12,020 GE	Prelude to Foundation
12,028 GE	"Eto Demerzel" (Forward the Foundation)
12,038 GE	"Cleon I" (Forward the Foundation)
12,048 GE	"Dors Venabili" (Forward the Foundation)
12,058 GE	"Wanda Seldon" (Forward the Foundation)
12,067 GE	"The Psychohistorians" (Foundation)
12,069 GE	Epilogue (Forward the Foundation)
49-50 FE (12,117-12,118 GE)	"The Encyclopedists" (Foundation)
79-80 FE (12,147-12,148 GE)	"The Mayors" (Foundation)
134 FE (12,202 GE)	"The Traders" (Foundation)
154-160 FE (12,222-12,228 GE)	"The Merchant Princes" (Foundation)
195-196 FE (12,263-12,264 GE)	"The General" (Foundation and Empire)
310-311 FE (12,378-12,379 GE)	"The Mule" (Foundation and Empire)
316 FE (12,384 GE)	"Search by the Mule" (Second Foundation)
376-377 FE (12,444-12,445 GE)	"Search by the Foundation" (Second Foundation)
498 FE (12,566 GE)	Foundation's Edge
498 FE (12,566 GE)	Foundation and Earth

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[beowulf]

Also there is Arthur C Clarke's A Space Odyssey Series

2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968
2010: Odyssey Two – 1982
2061: Odyssey Three – 1987
3001: The Final Odyssey – 1997

The Sprawl series from William Gibson

Neuromancer – 1984
Count Zero – 1986
Mona Lisa Overdrive – 1988

Douglas Adam's Hitchhickers Guide which is great and adds some comedy to the science fiction

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – 1979
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe – 1980
Life, the Universe and Everything – 1982
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish – 1984
Mostly Harmless – 1992

There are tons more but these are some of my favorites.