What's on Your Summer 2002 Reading List? 172
Quixote asks: "Well, summer is upon us, and I'm wondering: what does Slashdot read? I'm thinking of non-geeky, non-SciFi books. Anything out there that has caught your fancy? Would you like to share your reading list (stuff that you've read and/or plan to read)."
Manuals - anything else aint geek it's nerd (Score:2)
XML-RPC
SVG
that would just about do me
Re:Manuals - anything else aint geek it's nerd (Score:2)
Fast Food Nation (Score:3, Interesting)
See it here.. [amazon.com]
Re:Fast Food Nation (Score:2, Interesting)
A lot of it seemed to ramble on and on, without ever getting to the point. When I was done with it I felt as if he tried to make me hate fast food companies, but didn't present a very convincing case.
I'm currently reading the Qu'ran (Score:5, Insightful)
Because in the end, we're not that different!
Supporting Controversial Books... (Score:4, Interesting)
> understand things from another point of view.
That's how I try to approach everything. Why believe what agenda-driven media and political people claim, when you can get closer to the source and make up your own mind?
That's why, when I saw Bill O'Reilly screaming his loudest about a recent book release, complaining bitterly that a university press would dare to publish it--I knew I had to read it.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/08166400
So, I pre-ordered it, and I have to say it's a fantastic analysis of the current situation. The author makes a lot of sense, and I feel sad that we (Americans) live in a country where people are so outraged by the simple truths most of the civilized world already takes for granted. We in the U.S. treat 15 year olds the same as 5 year olds. No wonder some kids rebel against that...
Anyway, I always like to support free speech by buying the books of authors whose books get assailed for silly personal moral reasons. So, go buy that book, or another one in need of support, as a big F-U to those who would censor our right to read.
Re:Supporting Controversial Books... (Score:2)
I'd like to read the book, to decide for myself, but if my suspicion of its wrongfulness is correct then I really don't want to find myself supporting it.
Re:Supporting Controversial Books... (Score:2)
Re:Supporting Controversial Books... (Score:2)
> Instead of saying, "Yo, parents, quit repressing your kids!" they want to use the public
> school system to force sexual knowledge on young peope.
The book makes some suggestions, but makes no pretense of claiming that they're the only ones that would solve the problem. But, like it or not, the school systems in all but the most underdeveloped Bible Belt backwaters already teach young people about the basics of sex. The problem is, it's taught as something they're not supposed to do, which naturally makes some really want to do it, and the rest develop unnatural sexual inhibitions which can sometimes become full-blown dysfunctions in later life. All bcause sexuality is taught as something to never do until you'e married, or vaguely old.
What's more troubling though is that when young people do choose to engage in sexuality, thwey often get severely punished for normal sexual behavior. For example, the 15 year old boy in Michigan who's on the sex offender registryu for the rest of his life for having had consensual sex with his girlfriend who was one grade below him and a year and a half younger. They're peers. Playing together is normal, dating is normal, but sex is a felony. That's a fucked-up system. That's the system we have today.
That's the system Judith Levine's book is trying to change. So, I support this book fully and without reservation. Despite some reviews, it's an excellent book which exposes this nation's horrible Puritanism and the evils which it imposes.
Re:Supporting Controversial Books... (Score:2)
My non-Bible belt school district had very minimal sex education, and I'm not aware of any great plague of promiscuity or neurosis from the place. I graduated in '97, though, maybe, just like metal detectors, sex education magic appeared everywhere sometime in the half decade since then...
That's a fucked-up system. That's the system we have today.
You condemn your point of view with such strong words. Your example shows the system being slightly flawed in one particular state. It needs slight modification, an increase in the difference between ages, and punishments in proportion to the difference between ages of the partners, perhaps.
There will always be some variance in the laws among the states, thus if your standard is that no state ever, ever err on the side of prohibition, we will have a drastically more liberalized system, in which many states will err on the side of tolerance. And in this particular issue, most Americans have decided that errors on the side of tolerance are completely unacceptable and horrific--as soon as there is one case of it being legal for a 22 year old man to have sex with a 12 year old anyone, you'll see a rapid switch back to Puritanism immediately.
Re:Supporting Controversial Books... (Score:2)
I always get O'Reilly's point. I watch his show on FoxNN every night at 11, and I find myself either completely agreeing with what he has to say on an issue, or feeling exactly the opposite.
> His argument was that this book should not have been published by a state-funded institution.
That's an insane argument for several reasons. The first is that a university is an academic institution, and its allegiance has to be to the facts and the truth, not to some pre-approved noncontroversial political piffle. Only despotisms dictate what academic institutions can espouse, and as Thomas Jefferson said, "An elective despotism is not the government we fought for."
The second is that nearly everything is state-funded these days. They take too much of our money in taxes--which the Constitution originally forbade them to do; they had to amend it early this century to allow the federal income tax at all. Then they use our own money to fund everything, all levels of the educational system, fom pre-kindergarten programs to college grants and loans. So by your reasoning, and O'Reilly's, no educational institution in the country should ever say anything controversial or publish anything controversial, only useless non-offensive PC junk. I call BS. Even private colleges take a lot of state money today, thanks to this insane notion we have that *everyone* should go to college. All that does is devalue a college degree and lower the common denominator, making a college degree worth no more than a HS diploma used to be, and necessitating a graduate degree to be worth as much as a BA or BS used to. And it extends state and federal tendrils where they don't belong.
But getting back to the point, we as taxpayers fund a lot of things we don't want to. I have to fund insane public schools which don't work the way they should. You have to fund books you don't like. Too bad; we have to live with it.
> If the book had been published by a 'private' publisher, O'Reilly would not have put it on his show.
Oh yes he would have! Instead of blasting the U of M press, and calling for state lawmakers to look into it, he would have called for a boycott of the private press. Hell, he pratically called for a boycott of the entire nation of Canada the other night...
more controversial books (Score:2, Interesting)
written a military history of terrorism
published after 9-11.
The NYT reviewer wrote the most vitriolic
review I have ever seen. Most really be worth
reading (no seriously).
Re:more controversial books (Score:3, Interesting)
P.S. To quickly bring this post back around to the question at hand, I've got "The Second Rumpole Omnibus" and O'Reilly's "Programming PHP" in my summer bag right now. (Hey, depending on how you look at it, they're both mysteries.)
Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? (Score:2)
'This Alien Shore' --C.S.Friedman
All about wetware hackers and a genetically derived virus sent out by earth to disable the interstellar travel monopoly of the Guild (a group of mutated humans who alone can navigate the stars effectively).
My Playboy subscription,
That's the list so far.
Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? (Score:2)
But seriously, are the screens on Palms decent enough to do this? When I ask most people, I just get strange looks and questions about where online books come from: When a Mommy book and a Daddy book get married...
Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? (Score:2)
Speaker for the Dead (Orson Scott Card)
Disappearing Cryptography, Second Edition - Information Hiding: Steganography and Watermarking (Peter Wayner)
Although I admit that these are all geeky or SciFi books, I have to learn C++ prior to August, the Orson Scott Card book is interesting, and the Steganography book is interesting, too! Sorry. I'm a SciFi geek.
If I finish these books, next on my list is another book by Kurt Vonnegut (I've only read Cat's Cradle). That's hardly geeky.
Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? (Score:1)
Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? (Score:2)
Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? (Score:2)
:Peter
Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? (Score:2)
Vonnegut. (Score:2)
Bluebeard. I've read the vast majority of Vonnegut's books, and that one is by far my favorite.
As for me, I decided to spend some time catching up on my mid-20th century American writers. Norman Mailer, James Cain, James Jones, Mickey Spillane - maybe I'll reread some of my Jim Thompson collection while I'm at it.
Though I must admit that the parallels between the anti-Communism of Spillane and the anti-foreign message of, say, Dan Rather, is kind of creepy.
--saint
C++ Primer Plus (Score:2)
Some Japanese authors (Score:2, Interesting)
Some Junichiro Tanizaki is always a blast.
You can't go wrong with Yukio Mishima.
And right now I'm reading Michio Kaku.
Re:Some Japanese authors (Score:2)
Reviews? Please ObviousGuy, be a little more obvious.
thanks
Re:Some Japanese authors (Score:2, Insightful)
Murakami is one of the better fiction writers today. He's not a bad non-fiction writer either as evidenced by his treatment of the Aum Shinrikyo Tokyo subway sarin attack in his book Underground. [amazon.com]
Murakami's fiction runs the gamut from love stories to fantasy, and his writing style (at least his translator's interpretation of it) is exciting and quite beautiful in its descriptions of surroundings and exposition of his characters. He writes primarily in the first person so it may take a little getting used to, but the stories really come alive as a result of this technique.
I recommend all his English translations except for Sputnik Sweetheart which felt like a simple rehashing of his older works.
If you read his stuff in order:
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World [amazon.com] Reminiscent of Philip Dick's works. It isn't quite technothriller, it isn't quite fantasy, but it is a blast to read.
A Wild Sheep Chase [amazon.com] THE Murakami book to read.
Dance Dance Dance [amazon.com] Sequel to Wild Sheep Chase. Quite a bit darker in tone than Sheep.
Norwegian Wood [amazon.com] Murakami's first novel. Pure fiction, no fantasy beyond the narrator's imagination.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle [amazon.com] His magnum opus. It draws all of his themes from other books into a single narrative. It's long, but I didn't lose interest at any point.
South of the Border, West of the Sun [amazon.com] My personal favorite because it touches on a lot of themes of love and infidelity. I won't go into the infidelity, thank you very much.
The rest of his stuff is short stories, so read those at your leisure.
Tanizaki is a Japanese writer who has an impish streak running through him. His stories and writing are ebullient and discuss all matters of things from politics to sex. No sci-fi here. I recommend The Makioka Sisters [amazon.com]
Mishima is another writer who was a contemporary of Tanizaki. His writings are infused with Japanese Nationalist themes. Even his love stories [amazon.com] have nationalist undercurrents. I liked the autobiographical Confessions of a Mask [amazon.com].
Michio Kaku is an American (as far as I can tell). His main topic is Superstring theory, so he doesn't quite fit with the fiction writers that I listed above, but hey, some people [slashdot.org] think that string theory is fiction.
Re:Some Japanese authors (Score:2)
my list isn't all non-geeky (Score:1)
Vol. 3 of Knuth's TAOCP (the art of comp. prog.)
Software Engineering [Ian Sommerville]
Selected Papers on the Analysis of Algorithms [D. E. Knuth]
Understanding Agent Systems [Mark D'Inverno and Michael Luck]
Flatterland [Ian Stewart]
The Annotated Wizard of Oz [L. Frank Baum]
Catch 22 [Joseph L. Heller]
Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment [W. Richard Stevens]
That's all I can remember right now but I'm sure there are a few missing
Re:my list isn't all non-geeky (Score:1)
DA (Score:2, Funny)
Dirk
The Science of Discworld 2 (Score:1)
Just remembered (Score:2)
Really good stuff. Historical case studies of when and how to use power. Of course you have to interpret it for your situation but very interesting reading.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/01402801
Re:Just remembered (Score:1)
If you are really interested in how to weild power, there's nothing like going to the source [amazon.com]
books for research & to review (Score:2)
And then just for fun
Re:books for research & to review (Score:2)
Re:books for research & to review (Score:2)
Re:books for research & to review (Score:1)
Re:books for research & to review (Score:1)
Re:books for research & to review (Score:2)
ObOnTopic:
A friend of mine told me about a book club that he and a friend (who I know) started, now containing 3 peopl. I am the fourth, and we just finished reading The Kreutzer Sonata, by Tolstoy.
Re:books for research & to review (Score:1)
The man is hilarious, and very smart.
Reading List (Score:1)
Douglas Adams (Score:1)
have read/plan to read this summer: (Score:3, Funny)
1984 (Orwell)
A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana (Haven Kimmel)(really funny)
The Turk (Tom Standage)
some of Terry Pratchet's Discworld series
some of Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who series (crime solving cats)
some of Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Polifax series (sweet old aunt Emily joins the CIA)
Take the Canoli (Sarah Vowell)
Re:have read/plan to read this summer: (Score:1)
My tenative summer reading list:
Reread the Lord of the Rings, Hobbit and the Silmarillion.
Actually get around to finishing the 80 gabillion computers books on my shelves.
Shelters of Stone, I have fond memories of these books from high school when I discovered they had sex and were school approved.
Finish Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood before I get dragged off to the movie.
And as always a random selection of fantasy from my shelves.
Sarah Vowell (Score:1)
um. . . (Score:3, Funny)
Summer 2001 reading list^U
Summer 2000 reading list^U
Summer 1999 reading list^U
AP English summer reading list^U
Billy Bud
A Patch of Blue
1 Shakespear tragedy
I'm reading the newspaper (Score:1)
My reading list (Score:1)
My list (Score:1)
A bit of a take off for me... (Score:1)
Talk about interesting. Factoring Live Load values on the floor, beams, walls, and the dead weight of snow on the roof to prevent problems is fun. Jumping through all the hoops for the local code office is not.
the shipping news (Score:1)
and so half way through, pretty good book..
Current events, bioterrorism fiction, etc (Score:2)
Read whatever is on the banned book list -- I always try to get a copy of whatever the government doesn't want me to read; there is usually a good reason they don't......
Some Classics... (Score:2)
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. I love sea stories, and I find this to be a very powerful tale of human madness and obsession, although many people find it long and boring. A matter of taste, I suppose.
A Russian Journal, by John Steinbeck. A very interesting historical account of 1948 Soviet Russia. I very much enjoy Steinbeck's narrative style, and if you like Travels with Charley, you'll probably like this one, too.
Hornblower (Score:2)
No Logo (Score:1)
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (Score:1)
No, it's not a sex book. You're thinking of Justine [barnesandnoble.com] , which couldn't be more different.
Candide is said to be Voltaire's most important work, yet it's a readable narrative (like Abbott's Flatland [barnesandnoble.com] ) rather than a dry and dusty tome (like James's Pragmatism [barnesandnoble.com] ).
Re:Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (Score:1)
Re:Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (Score:2)
I'm about two thirds through Candide now, and I'm enjoying it. Certainly no LOTR or Gilgamesh, but still interesting and lively, compared to other books I've read from the same time period. And as you mentioned it's short, which is a blessed relief after recently reading Kafka's "Trial" and Frazer's "Golden Bough".
As a rebuttal of Leibnitz/Pangloss, so far it's pretty thorough. The Bantam version's footnotes are refreshingly brief and to the point.
What of Rousseau's would you recommend?
Mah List (Score:2)
Age of Spiritual Machines (almost done)
Linked: A New Science Of Networks (almost done)
Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
Then the usual computer books (already started):
Java & XML, 2nd Edition: Solutions to Real-World Problems
Java in a Nutshell (review, currently reading)
Enterprise JavaBeans (3rd Edition)
Java Web Services
Java & Soap
Java Enterprise in a Nutshell
Some math books:
Handbook of Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics (maybe)
Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science (2nd Edition)
Introduction to Graph Theory (2nd Edition)
by Douglas Brent West
I am reading (Score:2)
no kidding.
Re:I am reading (Score:2)
The comic is soooo nifty!
Threee must reads for the summer (Score:1)
- Cool book on the NSA and the US' signals intelligence capability.
Stupid White Men by Michael Moore
- A look at America through the eyes of the director of Roger & Me
Good to Great by Jim Collins
- This is a re-read for the summer. Absolutely the most innovative business book ever written. Seek this out!
Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Its that time again...
Re:Threee must reads for the summer (Score:2)
F*cked Companies (Score:1)
Simply put, it was a hilarious account of how stupid some of the
No Logo (Score:1)
Finished it last night, it is brilliant. About evil marketing/advertising/corporations...
SAM LEITH, Observer
'No Logo is fluent, undogmatically alive to its contradictions and omissions and positively seethes with intelligent anger.'
An odd suggestion (Score:2)
A surprising search for the orgin and inventor of the screw and screwdriver. The Screw is named the most important invention of the past 1000 years.
Very intresting.
Re: (Score:2)
On the list... (Score:1)
Here's what I plan for the summer (actually, these books and more that I can't remember are sitting beside my desk -- I've put a moritorium on buying book until the pile is at least 10% of its current size)
A strange list, I agree. And I suspect there's more beside my bed. The emphasis on recent history is merely my theme for the summer. (Republican Roman history is an on-going interest).
If anyone knows of a good book to counter Summers' above, giving a favourable history of Nixon's career, can you let me know?
Éibhear
Some of my favorate non-scfi books (Score:1)
My all time favorate, A theodesy.
Stupid White Men -- Michael Moor
What's wrong with america today.
Round the Bend -- Nevile Shute
Hard to find tale of a Modern day messiah/airplane mechanic (this predates the Jonathon Livingston Seagull sequal with the same idea executed less well) as told by his non-believer boss.
Cryptonomicon -- Niel Stephenson
WWII Codebreakers, gung ho marines and globe trotting unix administrators.
The World's Most Dangerous Places -- Fielding guide
A travel guide to places you DON'T want to go.
A Wolverine is eating my leg -- Tim Cahill
Travel tales of disaster
Bingo -- Fanny Mae Brown
Small town life
Not much (Score:2)
It is summer, between the boat, mowing the lawn, projects, and just playing with the dog, I won't be in very much except for work.
However I do plan on using some books [lindsaybks.com] as reference materials for various scientific expiriments. (get the full paper catalog, a lot of the good stuff isn't shown online). Someone in my neighborhood should make his own transisters for instance.
Although every one in a while there is a lazy rainy night when I wish I has some books to read, I do most of my reading in winter.
summer? (Score:1)
On my list (Score:1)
Fields of Writing ed. by Comley et al. Short stories and essays. I like collections like this because you can pick it up and read one or two when you have time. Norton Anthologies are good for this too.
Uplift: The Bra in America by Jane Farrell-Beck. Discusses the bra from social, engineering, and historical viewpoints.
The Cartoon Guide to Physics and any others of the "Cartoon Guide to..." series, illustrated by Larry Gonick. Very good at distilling tough concepts into digestible but interesting bits.
The new Harry Potter book was on my list, but it's not coming out for a while yet. Blah.
Some recent picks (Score:2)
My Reading List (Score:1)
Dragonlance Chronicles (I read this one a few years ago and keep meaning to reread it)
The Tale of Genji (working on this one now... its two volumes and really slow reading but I hope to get it done by the end of summer)
Thinking In C++ (trying to refresh my brain for class next fall)
Redwall (my girlfriend recommended this series so I'm trying it out to see what I think)
The Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket (another recommendation by my girlfriend)
The Professional Chef (trying to expand my skills beyond computers)
Just in Case (Score:2)
FM 21-76
Reprint of Department of the Army Field Manual
US ARMY SURVIVAL MANUAL
Here's a quote from Chapter 4, Field Expedient Weapons and Tools:
"You can make another type of sling club by putting sand or a rock in a sock. This type of weapon, however, is a one-shot deal."
It'll make for good reading on some foreign beach(head).
Manga, punk, and other stuff (Score:1)
Chobits is incredibly good, especially for the computer geeks. Go check it out!
Besides that, I'm currently reading Ben Weasel's "Punk is a Four Letter Word" [hopeandnonthings.com]. Very good stuff so far.
And, hopefully, I'd like to pick up some "Learning Japanese" books this summer, if I get a chance to, as well as going through my Perl books to continue teaching myself that. Good times.
My list (Score:1)
1) How the Irish Saved Civilisation
2) The Gifts of the Jews
3) Desire of the Evelasting Hills
These books give a good history of the Judeo-Christian religions, from a human perspective. Cahill really knows how to bring historical figures to life and make them seem like the humans they were.
Also,
4) A New Kind of Science, Stephen Wolfram
Yeah, it's geeky, but I intend to finish it by 2004.
5) Japan's War
A history of the Japanese industrial build up and the Japanese perspective on World War II.
6) Intermediate Welsh
A language I've been trying to master for a while.
7) The Sokal Hoax
A physicist submits a post-modernist deconstruction of quantum physics as a joke, and it get published. A collection of the essays and editorials that followed.
Buzx
Adventavit Asinus Pulcher et Fortissimus
Re:My list (Score:2)
A history of the Japanese industrial build up and the Japanese perspective on World War II.
This is a great book. A good companion to it is embracing defeat by dowers, which deals with post war japan.
I guess i should chime in here:
Hamlet
King Lear
Fall of the Roman Empire
The rise and fall of the third Reich
Choke
More stupid poll topics to come.... (Score:1)
What's on Your Summer 2002 Movie List?
What's on Your Summer 2002 Beer List?
What's on your Summer 2002 Computer Game list?
What insects could bight your bottom this summer 2002?
Will Lyme disease factor in your 2002 Summer reading list?
C'mon guys, this ain't news, it ain't even newsworthy. Just go to a big bookstore (or even amazon) and wander around. Books are like religions -- they are pretty much all the same anyway.
peace
--Pete
Re:More stupid poll topics to come.... (Score:2)
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Score:2)
Impressive and inspiring book so far (I'm 3 chapters into it). This is written in the first person, in his own words (naturally), and was edited after his death.
here [indigo.ca] and here [amazon.com]
The links are free of referrals. The Indigo.ca link doesn't have popups and prices are in CAN$.
Discussing Reading (Score:2)
SF/Fantasy - http://www.sffworld.org/forums/ [sffworld.org]
NY Times Book Forums(all sorts of genres) - http://www.nytimes.com/books/forums/ [nytimes.com]
etc.... I'm sure a Google search can get you in touch with people who'd like to investigate and critique books with you. Slashdot just doesn't seem like the place for good literary discussion.
study .. (Score:2)
i hate having exam in summer, but its the last
Science fiction books... (Score:2)
I recommend:
Be sure to take a look at the The Internet Top 100 SF/Fantasy List [clark.net] for more recommendations
Re:Science fiction books... (Score:2)
Because I'm a geek who likes his stories to have a little bite I'd suggest 'Stranger In A Strange Land' above Starship Troopers.
I'd also add 'Wizards First Rule' + sequels by Terry Goodkind.
Re:Science fiction books... (Score:2)
I haven't read that book, so I can't recommend it. It IS on my "to-read" queue [I have a copy], though.
The Scarlet Letter... (Score:2)
I take a very right wing, Christian fundementalist view on things. The story is about a Puritan village, and the story probably doesn't potray the Puritan religion very well in the eyes of today's world, however, I felt that it wasn't about the religion as much as it was about how people behave. It almost appears to be about social science.
Now that I've studied political science and economics on my own, it would be interesting to reread the story to see if I could glean some deeper messages and principles out of it.
things to read (Score:2)
Other books - I'd recommend all the 'Spenser' books by Robert B. Parker. These are the books that the tv series and tv movies were based on, and if you liked them, you'll be pleased to know these are the same, only much better. It's interesting to start reading them at the beginning (started in the 70's!), and read them all the way through to the most recent one. Interesting character changes.
And, what else, oh, Peter Mayle's 'Provence' books - starting with 'A Year in Provence'. He's got some other related books that are enjoyable, too. Don't take them as gospel on what Provence is like (from what I hear), but they're still very enjoyable.
Sorry, no links today.
My reading list (Score:2)
Linked: The New Science of Networks [amazon.com]
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants,... [amazon.com]
A New Kind of Science [amazon.com]
Letters to a Young Contrarian [amazon.com]
Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will... [amazon.com]
Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of... [amazon.com]
I have already read linked. i liked it alot however it gets repeative at times...
Decent mix (Score:2)
The Stand -- Stephen King
Hearts in Atlantis -- Stephen King
1984 -- George Orwell
Band of Brothers -- Stephen Ambrose
I'd like to fit in some more classics, but I'm rather indecisive.
cluetrain manifesto (Score:2)
All Hail the Annual Library Book Sale (Score:2)
Well, alright, the last couple I didn't find at the library sale, but I was caught up in that UL. Anyway, there is some heavy stuff and some light stuff in there, some stuff I've been wanting to read for a while, and some stuff that just lept off the table at me. But the point I wanted to bring up is what a great place a library sale is to pick up an ecclectic stack of reading material. I paid like five bucks for everything I got, and what the hey, the library benefits.
Virtual Machine Design and Implementation (Score:2)
Why? Because I think custom VMs are the next big mealticket, and I want in on the ground floor. Also.. it teaches you how to write compilers, assemblers, and what not.. so it'll be fun anyway.
Mmmm, books (Score:2)
First, hearty agreement with the person who recommended "Fast Food Nation". It's not as much of a gross-out as "The Jungle" was, though there's a bit of that too. It's more about the culture of fast food. Packed with fun trivia! Did you know Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald? They didn't keep him because he was too fat.
I recently finished "War and Peace". It's a *great* book. Took me a *long* time to read, but I really enjoyed every bit of it. Truly a pleasure, and not at all what I expected. Give it a shot!
I am almost finished with "Guns, Germs and Steel". It describes how different people in different locations on earth came to develop the technologies that they did. The author argues convincingly that more advanced cultures owe their success to location, location, location. Specifically, the availability of domesticable plants and large animals drove the development of agriculture, and agriculture led to more advanced societies.
I'm listening to "The Orchid Thief" on audio. It's pretty good. The stories of Victorian orchid hunters are more interesting than the modern storyline, IMHO.
On my "to read" pile are "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" and Ian Rankin's "Dead Souls". "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" is sort of a chick book, I think. It's about a girl who feels suffocated with her life. I've just heard good things about Ian Rankin. I'm not usually into mysteries but i thought I'd give it a try.
Ummm (Score:2)
Non geeky, non SciFi? What does that leave? Jackie Collins?
Oh, history. If you want a nice blend of popular history and entertainment, try Nathaniel's Nutmeg, a fascinating story about the 17th century spice trade. And no, that's NOT geeky, it says a lot about humanity's ability to commit truly horrendous acts on each other for seemingly trivial things.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140292608/ qid=1023903130/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-2433064-31240 52 [amazon.com]
Re:Bible, anyone? (Score:1)
Re:Bible, anyone? (Score:1)
figures in the history of American government (and
one of the most tireless self-promoters) you might take anything he says about the 20th century
with a grain of salt.
Re:Bible, anyone? (Score:1)
As most of the book covers the events prior to the 20th Century, there isn't much historical contamination that he can invect into it. His analysis has a very Realpolitik bent to it, that much can be acknowledged without starting a Kissinger flamewar.
Re:Bible, anyone? (Score:1)
Re:Bible, anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)
None of the translations do justice to the interplay of commentators on the subjects discussed. There are also 38 seperate books in just the Babylonian Talmud, not including the Jerusalem Talmud, and most Jewish Scholars would agree that studying a page would take at least half an hour (in an english translation) and this would be without any commentaries that explain the reasoning behind the logic, and what the actual law derived from the text is, since is is rarely obvious based on the text of the talmud itself. There are just under 3000 pages of talmud (front and back, otherwise about 600 pages, obviously.) Perhaps you would be better off reading a book written in english about modern Orthodox Judaism, and would like to suggest some authors:
Aryeh Kaplan
Akiva Tatz (Especailly "A Thinking Jewish Teenager's Guide to Life)
And for lighter reading, Hanoch Teller's Books