OT: Watcha reading?

Edge

Kris King's Ghost
Mar 1, 2002
34,749
42,578
Amish Paradise
So, my taste in books heavily favors non-fiction.

A standout read from my recent endeavors would be Jim Henson: The Biography

The author went into a particular amount of detail about Jim Henson's death, perhaps more than I was prepared for, or expecting. Not going to lie, got a lump in my throat and had to put the book down for a few minutes.

For those interested in some NY history, I recommend The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
 
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SnowblindNYR

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Nov 16, 2011
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So, my taste in books heavily favors non-fiction.

A standout read from my recent endeavors would be Jim Henson: The Biography

The author went into a particular amount of detail about Jim Henson's death, perhaps more than I was prepared for, or expecting. Not going to lie, got a lump in my throat and had to put the book for a few minutes.

For those interested in some NY history, I recommend The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

I read exclusively nonfiction.
 

Emptyvoid

Registered User
Apr 11, 2009
3,616
166
I've been preparing for software engineering technical interviews, so mostly just been reading code >.>

I do intend to read through all the GoT books. Finished book 3 a little while ago. Trying to find a good synopsis of books 1-3 to refresh my memory before proceeding onto book 4.
 
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GeorgeKaplan

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Dec 19, 2011
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I’ve thought about making this thread a few times and haven’t pulled the trigger, glad you did. I’ve been burning through books recently so I’ll try make a list when I get home in a few hours, but if anyone wants a good book podcast to listen to, I can’t reccomend Blacklisted enough Backlisted
 
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haveandare

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Jul 2, 2009
18,879
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New York
I've been on a big kick discovering a lot of classic rock that I wasn't into growing up. Been listening to the music and reading about some of the groups or individuals that have really stuck out to me. Just finished "I Am Brian Wilson" a bit ago - really good read if you're interested in The Beach Boys and/or mental health issues. Read The Traveling Wilbury's book before that, just called "The Traveling Wilbury's" great read about how such an unlikely group came together and made magic.

It's funny, I studied and wrote and read only fiction for the last ten years or so but I've been on a big non-fiction kick recently. Nice to mix things up.
 
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Crease

Chief Justice of the HFNYR Court
Jul 12, 2004
23,974
25,004
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question 'How can we eat?' the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by the question 'Where shall we have lunch?”
 
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apoptygma

2-5-9-11
Apr 9, 2011
501
351
If you like those, give Wheel of Time a whirl.

Im on my like 15 reread of WoT. Hopefully the tv-series will be true to the story and have a massive budget. At the same time I usualy have a historical book or two im readin in when tired of fiction, Panzer Operations: The Eastern Front Memoir of General Raus, beeing the last.
 

SnowblindNYR

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I’ve thought about making this thread a few times and haven’t pulled the trigger, glad you did. I’ve been burning through books recently so I’ll try make a list when I get home in a few hours, but if anyone wants a good book podcast to listen to, I can’t reccomend Blacklisted enough Backlisted


Thanks, the podcast sounds interesting! Are these for particular type of books or any books?
 

GeorgeKaplan

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Dec 19, 2011
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New Jersey
Thanks, the podcast sounds interesting! Are these for particular type of books or any books?
The premise behind it is the two hosts have a guest come on to talk about a book (which they all read before the episode) they love that’s not necessarily part of the Canon or has just fallen out of favor, it’s mostly fiction, but they’ve done some nonfiction books. The conversation around the books doesn’t get super into plots most of the time, but touches on a lot of stuff about the book, author, what the book is trying to do, etc. I’ve listened to about 90% of the episodes they’ve done, and even if they’re talking about a book that I’m not interested in reading, the conversation around it is always interesting to listen to. The two hosts also take a little bit of time toward the beginning of each episode to talk briefly about other books they’re reading at the moment.
 
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SnowblindNYR

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The premise behind it is the two hosts have a guest come on to talk about a book (which they all read before the episode) they love that’s not necessarily part of the Canon or has just fallen out of favor, it’s mostly fiction, but they’ve done some nonfiction books. The conversation around the books doesn’t get super into plots most of the time, but touches on a lot of stuff about the book, author, what the book is trying to do, etc. I’ve listened to about 90% of the episodes they’ve done, and even if they’re talking about a book that I’m not interested in reading, the conversation around it is always interesting to listen to. The two hosts also take a little bit of time toward the beginning of each episode to talk briefly about other books they’re reading at the moment.

Cool, sounds interesting!
 
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aufheben

#Norris4Fox
Jan 31, 2013
53,400
27,073
New Jersey
I just finished the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. There aren’t enough good things I can say about it. Psychedelic, petrifyingly-suspenseful sci-fi. Flawless and infectious writing. For me it felt like having Slaughterhouse-Five, The Trial, The Mist, Infinite Jest, and The Florida Wildlife Encyclopedia dumped at your feet mid-acid-trip.

Did I mention petrifying? Also the physical books are gorgeous.
 
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Lion Hound

@JoeTucc26
Mar 12, 2007
8,239
3,612
Montauk NY
In Harms Way
About the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. An act of war during a cease-fire that resulted in the deaths of 879 sailors, that happened in the most horrific ways imaginable. Amazingly however 300 something actually survived. True story, amazing read!

Missing 411
This book reads like garbage, however i cant put it down. The Author David Paulides has compiled some really impressive intel over the course of time developing patterns of missing people within National Parks. Author is a former Cop who was investigating a missing person in the Smokey Mountains. One person turned into a whole slew of cases from the Adirondacks to Yosemite. Many of which have some really strange commonalities. The author takes a lot of flak from the public as somewhat of a kook, but the evidence is really bizarre if you read through it. History Channel picked up on it and recently aired a documentary called Vanished. Not nearly as good as the book as History tosses out the Aliens/Portals theories and whatnot. In the books the Author doesn't speculate. The books made me want to join SAR (Search and Rescue) team.
 
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True Blue

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
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Im on my like 15 reread of WoT. Hopefully the tv-series will be true to the story and have a massive budget. At the same time I usualy have a historical book or two im readin in when tired of fiction, Panzer Operations: The Eastern Front Memoir of General Raus, beeing the last.
Wait, there is a tv series coming?

If you like historical fiction, have you read Turttle Dove?
 

Machinehead

GoAwayKakko
Jan 21, 2011
141,167
109,563
NYC
Nothing now because I spend the whole semester reading and I like to spend my vacations resting my brain.

This past semester I read The Corpse Washer by Sinan Antoon. It's about a young Iraqi boy who really wants to be an artist but takes over the family business of washing bodies at the local morgue when his father dies, a sacred Muslim tradition.

He constantly struggles in balancing his own ambitions with the traditions he feels he must live up to, as the Iraq War hits and business piles up (literally).

It's as brutal as it sounds, but also emotional and filled with substance. A wonderful novel.
 

SnowblindNYR

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Nov 16, 2011
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In Harms Way
About the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. An act of war during a cease-fire that resulted in the deaths of 879 sailors, that happened in the most horrific ways imaginable. Amazingly however 30 something actually survived. True story, amazing read!

Missing 411
This book reads like garbage, however i cant put it down. The Author David Paulides has compiled some really impressive intel over the course of time developing patterns of missing people within National Parks. Author is a former Cop who was investigating a missing person in the Smokey Mountains. One person turned into a whole slew of cases from the Adirondacks to Yosemite. Many of which have some really strange commonalities. The author takes a lot of flak from the public as somewhat of a kook, but the evidence is really bizarre if you read through it. History Channel picked up on it and recently aired a documentary called Vanished. Not nearly as good as the book as History tosses out the Aliens/Portals theories and whatnot. In the books the Author doesn't speculate. The books made me want to join SAR (Search and Rescue) team.

Why does it read like garbage?
 

apoptygma

2-5-9-11
Apr 9, 2011
501
351
Wait, there is a tv series coming?

If you like historical fiction, have you read Turttle Dove?

Amazon bought the rights for it. They can afford a decent budget atleast. Hopefully GoT's sucess of following the books closly (until they ran out of books) will make Amazon do the same for WoT.

Turtledove looks like have written a score of interesting books. Havent red any of them, but will look further into them.
 

Lion Hound

@JoeTucc26
Mar 12, 2007
8,239
3,612
Montauk NY
Why does it read like garbage?

Paulides, just ins't a very strong writer. Good detective, just not a strong writer. The reason I couldn't put the book down is the data, and patters he uncovered in the process. 750,000 people per year go missing in the US. Many can be explained. Paulides takes on the cases that cannot be explained and writes about them.

He commented on the recent dissapearance of Hathaway. Kid that went missing ion the woods of NC this week. They found him a few days later. Was all over the news. The kid said, he spent the few days in the woods with a Guardian that was a bear. Weird, if a Bear that kid would have been eaten. Of course he could have made up the bear story. But what is strange...There are numerous cases now of people that went missing and were later found that said similar things. Bears, Apes etc. The obviously are no native Ape species in NA.
 

True Blue

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
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Turtledove looks like have written a score of interesting books. Havent red any of them, but will look further into them.
Start with How few Remain. Then 3 consecutive trilogy (The Great War, American Empire, Settling Accounts). 10 books in all. Completely worth it. Very interesting to see how history could veer into something else.
 

cheech70

Registered User
Oct 26, 2013
2,773
2,803
NNJ
History of the Christian Church, Volume I: Apostolic Christianity. A.D. 1-100. by Philip Schaff

Title says it all 8 volumes 600 plus pages each....
 

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