Slashdot Asks: What Books Are You Reading This Month? 259
An anonymous reader writes: Hey fellow Slashdot readers, what are some books you're reading right now, and intend to pick up later this month? Also if you would be so kind, what are some good new-ish novels (fiction / non-fiction) you recommend? Thanks!
The Expanse Novels (Score:4, Interesting)
Leviathan Wakes
Caliban's War
Abaddon's Gate
Cibola Burn
Nemesis Games
All in the last month. Can't put them down.
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i'll summarize
bland uninteresting characters
decent first half of the book
the second half is almost always about space zombies, attacking the enemy base or shutting off alien tech
long and repetitive like the 20 chapters of frodo walking around mordor tired and thirsty
stupid plot holes to get the characters in the right places for the finale
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At this point I'm on the first. (Bought the first three in a box set from AMZN.)
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Corey's a pretty good writer, and I literally just ate through all the books one after the other.
My list for the last month or so is a bit odd. I re-read Pride And Prejudice because I felt like it for no particular reason. Working on Red Mars right now, a bit preachy at points, but all-in-all not that bad. Should be done this weekend, and then I plan on turning to Becky Chamber's second book "A Closed and Common Orbit", really enjoyed her first book. I've got John Scalzie's The Ghost Brigades to read (loved
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Corey is a pseudonym for two writers in collaboration :)
Classics (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Classics (Score:4, Informative)
I'm trying to read some classic Western literature to see what thought processes led to current Western culture.
You would probably find The Geography of Thought interesting.
What like what I intend to read? (Score:3)
Now your making me feel bad for not having time to read books something more important always seems to turn up. Darn you real life, youtube and netflix!
I hate dialup so much but I often think I'd get more done of that was still my only option.
(Re)reading the "Jack Reacher" novels by Lee Child (Score:2)
I have them all on my Kindle, so I've been plowing through them. Next after that are the 'Caine Riordan' SF novels by Charles Gannon.
The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution (Score:4, Interesting)
Due to my concerns that the American middle class is being decimated...
Currently reading:
The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic
Review [goodreads.com]
Previously read (related):
Why Nations Fail
Review [goodreads.com]
Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It
Review [goodreads.com]
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (Score:3)
Currently reading "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes.
Spike Milligan's "Adolph Hitler: My part in his (Score:2)
downfall" Discovered the first book at a used bookstore and just get the whole set that I'm reading through.
Very, very funny with a lot of heart (it wasn't a very easy war for him) - you can see a lot of the "Goons" in the books.
If you see any of the books, like British Comedy, read them.
The God Delusion (Score:4, Insightful)
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You should now listen to the classic debate between Bahnsen and Stein:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Calling something you don't like (or maybe don't understand?) ridiculous and insanity is not an argument against it; it's just an opinion. I agree that it is a real shame that the Bahnsen/Martin debate never happened. But for anyone interested in theism/atheism, you've got to engage with this debate, or you haven't fully explored the topic.
The Book of Mormon (touches atheism, other topics) (Score:2)
As a Mormon, you generally try and study The Book of Mormon daily - even if only for a few minutes - because inspiring words make you consider new concepts each time you read it.
Fact or fiction, its stories surprisingly give the reader philosophical nuggets that are very relevant today, like some of the ones I threw together below (book chapter#):
* Old debates between Atheism vs. Christianity focuses on many of the same, general core ideas as they do today (Alma 30)
* While rehabilitating prisoners is th
Honest answer (Score:4, Interesting)
The internet has screwed up my text-based attention span so much, I'm not sure I could even finish a normal length book anymore.
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I've been making an effort to Read The Fucking Article before commenting, but this time there isn't one! So I'm currently reading nothing. Bah.
Irresistible (Rise of Addictive technology) (Score:2)
Nerdy Rock Books (Score:3)
"Opal: Advanced Cutting and Setting" by Paul B. Downing
"Gem Identification Made Easy" by Antoinette Matlins and A.C. Bonanno
"Creative Gold- and Silversmithing" by Sharr Choate and Bonnie Cecil De May
And a bunch of loose gemstone faceting diagrams (several of which have failed to render properly in GemCAD so I'm quite sure their angles and indexes are off) including the famous Lone Star Cut.
Refractive Index is a fun thing to play with if you know what you're doing.
"A Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind" (Score:4, Informative)
A Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind: Survival techniques for staying sane
By Emily Reynolds, formerly a writer at Wired magazine in the UK.
Not an easy read at times, but has +5 insightful bits on how to deal with mental illness, ours or our friends'.
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forgot:
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Yellow Kite (22 Feb. 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1473635632
ISBN-13: 978-1473635630
Striking Thoughts (Score:3)
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and ... (Score:3)
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How was that? The title seemed promising, but I tried starting it once and didn't make it very far. It seemed kind of dry for a book about extraordinary delusions and madness. Wondering if I should give it another shot.
Collapsing Empire (Score:2)
Read "Collapsing Empire" by John Scaltzi.
The invisibles (Score:2)
So far it feels like a comic version of "illuminatus"
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Re-reading Stranger in a Strange Land (Score:3)
30 years after I first read it.
Previous to that I read Canterbury Tales. There is something about old stuff that seems to make it better than most modern {pulp} fiction.
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I'm reading (Score:3)
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these (Score:3)
The Age of Wonder
Sapiens
The Long Earth/Long War
Yes, Please
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I too am reading "Sapiens : A Brief History of Humankind". Hard book to put down.
Also: "The Discovers", "Feeling Good", "A Short History of Nearly Everything", and "Warplanes to Alaska".
I'm reading "Slow News Day" (Score:3)
Applied Combinatorics (Score:3)
Fred S. Roberts, Barry Tesman: Applied Combinatorics, CRC Press, Special Indian Edition (way cheaper and good quality).
This book is awesome, just like all other books by Roberts. Unfortunately, I can only read it for learning some basics and taking a look the many examples, as I lack the time to really work through it. :/
Change agent (Score:3)
I'll buy Change Agent when it is published on the 18th. The author [wikipedia.org] is an IT guy, which means his books are also heavily IT influenced. I really liked the other novels he already published.
O'Neill - The High Frontier, Sawyer - Flashforward (Score:2)
I'm currently reading
* Gerard K. O'Neill - The High Frontier. A classic on space colonization (non-fiction), 3rd edition (c) 2000. Boy, have we missed out on possibilities...
* Robert J. Sawyer - Flashforward (c) 1999. This is the base from which the TV series was built. Quite good scifi.
I've got several more scifi books in the pipeline, by Kim Stanley Robinson, Greg Bear, Alastair Reynolds, Neal Asher, Peter F. Hamilton.
I also intend to read-read the classic sagas from ancient
An eclectic mix (Score:2)
Talking to Crazy: How to Deal with the Irrational and Impossible People in Your Life by Mark Goulston
.
On Deck ---
The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran by Robert Spencer
A Burglar's Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh
D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944 by Holger Eckhertz
Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed by Jason L. Riley
Confluence (Linesman book 3) by S. K. Dunstall
The Liberation (The Alchemy Wars Book 3) by Ian Tregillis
Fi
lots of things (Score:3)
- The Four Pillars of Investing. Good begginer-to-mid-level book in investing. Slightly dated, because it came out in '02 and is aware of the dot-com bust but not the real estate one. I think the author has an updated book, but I don't think the principles will have changed much.
- The Divide (beta read). A space opera about a war between spacefaring races. Only available on BetaBooks.co, through their beta reader pool. Looking forward to seeing this one in print.
- A Crash Course in Python - just refreshing some python programming skills
- Just finished an audiobook on Brahms, his life and music.
- Just starting an audiobook on Mindfulness.
- I'm also obsessively re-reading my third novel, Stranger and Better, which is due out in the next month, just to catch final edits. Coming of age at Oberlin College, engaging in an impossible search for the meaning of life.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
my list (Score:3)
Across the River and Into the Trees - Ernest Hemingway
Shadow of the Giant - Orson Card
God Mining Boomtown People of White Oaks, Lincoln County New Mexico Territory - Roberta Haldane
Just a few (Score:3)
Adams - Dirk Gently 1 & 2
Plato - The Republic
Milton - Paradise Lost
With my kids:
Snicket - A Series of Unfortunate Events
Milne - Winnie the Pooh
Grahame - The Wind in the WIllows
F.I.A.S.C.O. (Score:3)
This is about the financial derivative blowup in the 90s.
The Pile (Score:2)
Current
Empire Game, Charles Stross
Next ups:
For we are many (book 2 of Bobiverse) by Dennis Taylor
Change Agent, Daniel Saurez
Min
Just a few (Score:2)
I am working my way through Terry Prachet's Diskworld series. It has been quite some time since I read most of them.
If you want some fun the "Don't tell my parents I am a super villain" series by Richard Roberts is a quick funny series more directed towards middle school and high school age readers.
$50 dollar knife by Wayne Goddard since ....well... Making knives
Adding in some classic literature such as Moby Dick (Herman Melville) and Jules Verne 20000 leagues under the sea and Journey to the center of
Fun space opera (Score:2)
Well, actually, despite featuring the highly technologically advanced Commonwealth from other books, Peter F. Hamilton's "Night Without Stars" is mostly set in a 1950's equivalent totalitarian regime. I'm enjoying it.
A bit of history (Score:2)
High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glenn Frankel.
I'd heard of the Hollywood blacklist but I had no idea of the number of lives it affected. And an interesting read also if you're a fan of "High Noon".
Doing a re-read of Weber's "Safehold" series... (Score:2)
. . . .prior to reading Book 9, "At the Sign of Triumph"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Currently on top of the pile (Score:2)
I add more books before I finish the ones already in the hopper. Right now, though, I'm reading Into the Cannibal's Pot [amzn.to], a rather harrowing look at post-apartheid South Africa and how it's on track to become the next Zimbabwe.
After an incident at work with some of our switches where we "fixed" a problem by swapping capacitors between boards rather than just swap in a working switch and configure it, I figured maybe a CCNA might be useful, so I've also been going through the study guide [amzn.to] for the first of two
just started (Score:2)
This Month (Score:2)
The Homing - John Saul (not his best work)
Alastair Reynolds (Score:2)
Starship Grifters and Aye Robot (Score:2)
Hilariously funny. Every bit as good as the Hitchhiker's Guide series:
https://www.amazon.com/Starshi... [amazon.com]
https://www.amazon.com/Robot-N... [amazon.com]
Recommendations: 4 fiction and 2 non- (Score:2)
Also, Hugo-winner "Downbelow Station" by C. J. Cherryh, just because.
Recently finished the two books, so far, in a series starting with "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss - excellent fantasy. Am eagerly awaiting the next one.
Last month I enjoyed read
Non fiction (Score:2)
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Mistborn + my own book (Score:2)
I'm currently reading Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series for the first time.
I'm also writing my own science fiction series, it's a cheerful post-apocalyptic hard sci-fi adventure. With explosions.
The first book is free here: fixerbook.net [fixerbook.net]
The Dark Forest (Score:2)
Current:
The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu, translated to English by Joel Martinsen (10% done, so far excellent)
Recent:
the Dark Tower cycle (all), Stephen King
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson
Speak, Louisa Hall (I recommend this one highly)
The Annihilation Score, Charles Stross (recommended)
Up next:
My annual trip through The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and probably The Children of Hurin and a few other of Christopher Tolkien's contributions to his father's legacy.
My list (Score:2)
Recent reads I enjoyed and would read again:
Non-fiction:
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We Are Bob (Score:2)
I am currently rereading the excellent sci-fi book "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" in preparation for the sequel "For We Are Many" to be released on April 18th. It is a story about a computer programmer and sci-fi fan (like many of us here) who pays to have his body frozen when he dies. He then wakes up far in the future to find that his consciousness has been placed in a computer which is to be sent out in space in a self-replicating probe. This is easily one of the best sci-fi books that I have ever read.
Same book I've been reading for the past year... (Score:2)
The Medical and Surgical Uses of Electricity, 1896 (Score:3)
At 10% in, the author has spent dozens of pages describing what they knew then about magnetism, basic electric principles, Ohm's law (they use "C" for current!), the properties of batteries, how they are made/work, and the common chemistries of the time period. So far, this is all for doctors so they can use the information and make/maintain their batteries to treat their patients! I like the undistracted perspective of it all and am filling my decades-old electronic knowledge with stuff I've never thought about before.
The upcoming medical chapters should be interesting to this armchair doctor too, as I am not quick to dismiss the ideas/experiments of brilliant men just because time has moved forward.
A book for all citizens (Score:2)
I had already read "Censoring Science" (2008) by Mark Bowen and "The Republican Ware on Science" (2005) by Chris Mooney, but Otto's new book is so much broader, detailed, encompassing, historical, philosophical, up-to-date, and forward-looking, that it is hands down a must read for all citizens, and not just of the United States. Tho
Walter John Williams (Score:2)
The Ambassador of Progress.
Current fiction reading (Score:2)
Wolfe's Claw of the Conciliator (may give up on it)
Pratchett's Interesting Times
Nonfiction R Us (Score:2)
Now:
"Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead" - Hod Lipson & Melba Kurman. Terrific so far. Rich with tech details.
Next:
"American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care, and What to Do About It" - Jennifer Stisa Granick. 1984 has arrived. Time to face the enema.
"Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History" - Stephen Jay Gould. I once visited the Shale in the rain. It made many thousands of 100 million year old fossils clearly visible. An amazing experience.
"Reclaim
Eichmann in Jerusalem. (Score:2)
This is the book that famously coined the phrase "The Banality of Evil".
Adolf Eichmann was the Nazi SS Lt. Colonel who was in charge of "evacuating" Jews from Germany and the occupied territories to concentration camps. For five years after the war he lived under various assumed names in Germany, before emigrating to Argentina.
In 1957 Mossad was alerted to his presence in Buenos Aires, and in May of 1960 agents kidnapped Eichmann and brought him to Jerusalem to stand trial.
The book an Hannah Arendt's repor
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure (Score:2)
I'm reading "Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley" [amzn.to] by Antonio Garcia Martinez. The author and his two engineers leave the startup they worked at to create a startup at Y Combinator to create a better version of the Digg toolbar (remember toolbars?) for Google advertisers in 2010. I'm at the part where they get served with an intellectual property lawsuit, as one of the engineers wrote half of the code base at old startup. Fun times.
I doubt this book will replace Startup: A Sil [amzn.to]
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Score:2)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: nice fiction. I didn't watch the movie, preferred the book, as I restarted to read printed books this year before several years in digital readers.
I was forced to rent a different house (the previous owner asked the house for his daughter), and for some days, due the new house being a totally new building, I had no Internet, phone (just mobile) TV, and even electric power. It was the best that happened for me in years. We got so calm, mainly the kids. The current
Haven't Had Time (Score:2)
I haven't had time to read any books since I've been spending my free time writing my second book.
I'd recommend my first book - Defenders of Shadow and Light: Ghost Thief [ghostthiefnovel.com]. Then again, I'll admit I'm biased. You can download the first three chapters for free from my website.
Daniel Suarez, misc (Score:2)
Daniel Suarez avoids the worst of the ridiculous tech miracles and puts together pretty good stories.
The lesser-known earlier Dan Brown books can be interesting (Deception Point, Digital Fortress).
Not recent: I really enjoyed Rama years ago and have been trying to read Rama II but never seem to get very far (Arthur C. Clarke). I highly recommend reading all four Odyssey books. 2001 is almost exactly like the film, so just watch the flick. 2010, again, if you want to skip the book, the film covers it pretty
Dark Territory (Score:2)
Next two on my list are:
Current Reading List (Score:2)
- Homo Deus (DONE) ... and some more (on current list)
- The Soul of a Machine (Nearly Done)
- Godel, Escher, Bach (re-reading)
- The Mind's I
- The Third Reich at War (Nearly Done)
- The Algebraic Mind
- Binti (ScienceFiction Novel)
- The Character of Physical Law
- Feynman Lectures I
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions (DONE)
If you can get hold of it, I always suggest 'The Dispossessed' as a SciFi-Novel.
That's actually my current reading list
A Confederacy of Dunces (Score:2)
This months reading list? (Score:2)
For expanding knowledge at Work:
Compiler Design and Construction
Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools
Knowledge and Representation
Introduction to Quantum Computers
Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, Fourth Edition
Situated Cognition: On Human Knowledge and Computer Representations (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives)
Principles of Semantic Network
I recommend (Score:2)
I recommend several of the books by Michael McCloskey [amazon.com]
I am reading the first book in the Parker Interstellar Travels series, Trilisk Ruins. It is currently available for free on Amazon. I am already planning on buying the whole set as soon as I finish this one.
Michael Anderle (Score:2)
"Never Submit" (Kutherian Gambit book 15)
"Nomad's Fury" [with Craig Martelle]
The Job Pirate (Score:2)
The Job Pirate, by Brandon Christopher
Flynn (Score:2)
Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp books are thrillers that are hard to put down. I used to feel bad about reading Pendleton's Executioner series because of all the violence, but they don't hold a candle to Flynn's gore.
Keith Laumer: Bolo (emotional stories about tanks) and some Retief stories. The Great Time Machine Hoax, The Undefeated, and Galactic Odyssey. Fast reads, much in the line of Laumer's emphasis on self-improvement and moral action.
I started Plutarch's Lives over 20 years ago and I'd like to finish it s
Free books at Project Gutenberg (Score:3)
If a book isn't currently copyrighted, you might be able to get a free copy of it at Project Gutenberg [gutenberg.org].
5 books (Score:3)
What's it like. Not a magic fantasy fan myself so I like to only read great books in that genere.
in the last month I read:
1) THe Girl on the Train.
Yet another novel with "the Girl" in the title. But this one holds up because of the superb point of view telling from not one but three unreliable selfish narrators, the good prose, and a reasonable intrigue. The characters are distinct and well drawn, people's personalities come across.
2) Red Shirts. After the grim Girl on the Train, I went
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What's it like. Not a magic fantasy fan myself so I like to only read great books in that genere.
Not the OP, but I've also read the three books in the series. It's light and funny, moderately silly. There's a technological explanation for the magic that may make the book entertaining for slashdot geeks, even those who don't go in for pure fantasy. It's more like computer-generated superpowers put into an artificial fantasy setting, really.
If you're on the fence, the Amazon preview can be your friend. You'll know within the first few chapters if it's for you.
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Gah, I can't quote properly.
Also, I'm reminded for the fortieth time I need to read Redshirts.
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And I'm trying to read the Hitchhikers Guide series of books. Starting on #1 when the neighborhood pool opens up.
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Starting on #1 when the neighborhood pool opens up.
Book pool? Or swimming pool?
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"indoor veggie growing" == Best.Explanation.Ever.
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Is the Notre Dam bigger than the Hoover Dam?
Either way, I don't give a dam.
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by Neal Stephenson. And maybe Expanse #5 -- erm, Nemesis Games.
I started Seveneves a week or two ago, and am maybe 25% through. It's the first Stephenson I've read (I know, I know) and is quite good. So far, highly recommended. I was hooked by the first line:
Read the first chapter here [nealstephenson.com].
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I've also been reading Seveneves and found it to be one of the worst books I've ever read. I'm about 40% through and its going to be one of the very few books I don't bother finishing. Its amazing that he managed to make a global catastrophe this boring.
In general I've found his novels to be disappointing given how popular they are. Snow Crash was mediocre, Anathem was bad and Seveneves is terrible.
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The first part of the book is great. The last part sucked. (in my very humble opinion). My favorite books of his are The Diamond Age and Reamde.
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I loved that whole sextet. #2 is fantastic. #3 extremely good. The trilogy of books 4-6 slightly less so (too many characters, just too long for the payoff), but still really good, and if you're left tantalized by all the mysteries after the first 3 you'll want to read them, too.
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If you wanted to know more about a religion and that religion is based on a book, reading that book seems like an excellent place to start.
I'd go even farther.
Read the Bible! Witches, talking donkeys, genocide, slaves (how to buy and acceptable beating of), rape (how to do it right), gods, devils, angels and one zombie. It also tells you things like how it's bad to murder and steal, in case you haven's already wo
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