FWIS3

I think I have about four books going right now, mostly history and politics and crap. I need to get back into a novel soon as a healthy break.

I'm reading the Iron Druid series. Quite entertaining, lighthearted fantasy based in current time line. For some reason I have dropped the heavy stuff for a bit.

Morrolan wrote:I'm reading the Iron Druid series. Quite entertaining, lighthearted fantasy based in current time line. For some reason I have dropped the heavy stuff for a bit.

I liked the Iron Druid series... ain't nothing wrong with brain candy... Iron Druid, Stephanie Plum and Harry Dresden are my brain candies of choice... the rest of the time, I tend to go with politics, history and philosophy... and cook books... I'm a glutton for cook books...

I'm reading the Mortal Instruments series. It's for young adults, but I'm finding it enjoyable all the same.

brite wrote:

Morrolan wrote:I'm reading the Iron Druid series. Quite entertaining, lighthearted fantasy based in current time line. For some reason I have dropped the heavy stuff for a bit.

I liked the Iron Druid series... ain't nothing wrong with brain candy... Iron Druid, Stephanie Plum and Harry Dresden are my brain candies of choice... the rest of the time, I tend to go with politics, history and philosophy... and cook books... I'm a glutton for cook books...

Add C.E. Murphy's Walker Papers series, and anything by Simon R. Green to this list for me.

Hap wrote:Add C.E. Murphy's Walker Papers series, and anything by Simon R. Green to this list for me.

Green, the new master of the completely over the top swashbuckling space opera? Yeah, I dig him, too...

Currently I have two going, "To Tuva or Bust!" about Feynman's dream of visiting the nation of Tuva, and "Cloud Atlas." Which I started like months ago but stopped and am now trying to get back into.

Reading:

- Linux Kernel Development, Third Edition by Robert Love. I will make myself a kernel developer some day dammit! Watch this space!

- Revelation Space (are you listening TSC?). Wasn't able to get into it the first time, this time I'm finding it quite brilliant.

On hold:

- Drood by Dan Simmons. Not yet sure what to make of it; I like the unreliable narrator, and I like his flawed (if not necessarily reliable) portrayal of Dickens, but it's long and I haven't gotten that far yet. So far though it's been a marked improvement over the bardolatry of Ilium and the irritating cop-outs of Summer of Night.

Waiting for the right time:

- Transition (Iain M. Banks). I have no idea what to expect of this. OTOH, Banks seemed to me for a while to be suffering symptoms of burnout in the Culture universe; I have hopes that a fresh universe might bring some improvements.

Finished re-reading Inside The Third Reich by Albert Speer.

Currently been struggling to find reading time, but slowly making my way through The French Connection by Robin Moore. The case study that was the basis for the film. I'm shocked I tell you to find there are no car chases in the book.

Once I finish reading it, I'll watch the film and it's sequel, yet again.

"Moonshot" by Slayton and Shepard. There's actually to other writers/biographers that did the writing but I don't recall their names. So far I'm not really thrilled, it's not really a biography, just kind of hypey rehashed stuff that I already know. But I'll keep going.

On deck: "Clockwork Angels" by Neil Peart and Kevin J. Anderson

Rommie wrote:Currently I have two going, "To Tuva or Bust!" about Feynman's dream of visiting the nation of Tuva, and "Cloud Atlas." Which I started like months ago but stopped and am now trying to get back into.

I loved reading about Feynman's Tuva adventure.

If you want over the top space opera... Try the Honor Harrington series, by David Drake... think of it... a female Horatio Hornblower.... it's awesome... And I blame Fisher...

I'm currently reading "Service manual", written by two different authors yet both have a very similar style and format.
Both are a really hard read and require you to purchase the app so you can have a truly unique interactive experience.

They have created a world where there are numerous special, almost magical things that one needs to move forward through the chapters but barely describes them. The reader is expected to have a very creative and vivid imagination when trying to reconstruct and deconstruct the function of these magical devices or purchase the things as plugin's specific to each app version and there are so many different versions it is daunting.

The first part is obviously written by a Japanese author who is un-named. The series is called "Isuzu Rodeo".
Overall its a very serious book though its still an interesting tale of extreme space utilisation and bad engineering but has many quite comical chapters.

The second part is called, "Dodge Dakota", a far more comical story than the first. Its hard to tell if the designers of the app had a wild sense of humour or the author was a satirical genius who has yet to make his mark in this fascinating genre.
How could he not be, its a story about American ingenuity gone wrong in a modern fast paced world but the author is obviously Chinese.

I personally don't recommend either and both come with highly expensive apps that are prone to faults and require frequent updates or they fail to perform as advertised. Both apps needed far more development before being released on the unsuspecting public.
My suspicion is that management decided to cut costs then proceeded to slash funding on basic sanity checks creating apps that have little internal consistency and are non intuitive. To offset this, they spent funds on flashy covers that lure the reader into thinking they are getting something they are not.

One wonders if the following old joke was based on a real live person, who went on to be an app designer:

A gynecologist decided he wanted to learn about cars and enrolled himself into a automotive mechanics course.
He worked hard and his teacher was very supportive.
His final exam was to replace the pistons on a Ford F100.
After a days work the car was running with new pistons and he passed with 120%
He questioned the result, as he knew the exam was not graded.
His teacher explained that he got 100% because he did everything perfectly.
He got the bonus 20% because he did it all though the exhaust pipe.

i just started Escape from Camp 14, which is the story of a North Korean man born in one of the country's concentration camps.

incredible.

FZR1KG wrote:I'm currently reading "Service manual", written by two different authors yet both have a very similar style and format.
Both are a really hard read and require you to purchase the app so you can have a truly unique interactive experience.

They have created a world where there are numerous special, almost magical things that one needs to move forward through the chapters but barely describes them. The reader is expected to have a very creative and vivid imagination when trying to reconstruct and deconstruct the function of these magical devices or purchase the things as plugin's specific to each app version and there are so many different versions it is daunting.

The first part is obviously written by a Japanese author who is un-named. The series is called "Isuzu Rodeo".
Overall its a very serious book though its still an interesting tale of extreme space utilisation and bad engineering but has many quite comical chapters.

The second part is called, "Dodge Dakota", a far more comical story than the first. Its hard to tell if the designers of the app had a wild sense of humour or the author was a satirical genius who has yet to make his mark in this fascinating genre.
How could he not be, its a story about American ingenuity gone wrong in a modern fast paced world but the author is obviously Chinese.

I personally don't recommend either and both come with highly expensive apps that are prone to faults and require frequent updates or they fail to perform as advertised. Both apps needed far more development before being released on the unsuspecting public.
My suspicion is that management decided to cut costs then proceeded to slash funding on basic sanity checks creating apps that have little internal consistency and are non intuitive. To offset this, they spent funds on flashy covers that lure the reader into thinking they are getting something they are not.

One wonders if the following old joke was based on a real live person, who went on to be an app designer:

A gynecologist decided he wanted to learn about cars and enrolled himself into a automotive mechanics course.
He worked hard and his teacher was very supportive.
His final exam was to replace the pistons on a Ford F100.
After a days work the car was running with new pistons and he passed with 120%
He questioned the result, as he knew the exam was not graded.
His teacher explained that he got 100% because he did everything perfectly.
He got the bonus 20% because he did it all though the exhaust pipe.

- So sorry Honey. Sounds like you're having a real struggle. Thank goodness you have the "vivid imagination" required.

Well, at least someone got my sarcastic post

At the moment, I'm reading FWIS. It's a little disjointed and chaotic.

FZR1KG wrote:Well, at least someone got my sarcastic post

She was the only one willing to comment on it.

Falstaff wrote:At the moment, I'm reading FWIS. It's a little disjointed and chaotic.

Only a little? Guess we'll have to try harder.

Pretty When She Dies

A decent vampire novel, by Rhiannon Frater

Morrolan wrote:i just started Escape from Camp 14, which is the story of a North Korean man born in one of the country's concentration camps.

incredible.

I read that one- incredible indeed, mainly because you realize how there are people still there but there's nothing we can really do about it that I can think of at least.

There's two other interesting North Korea books btw that I've read, "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" is another memoir that takes place in a prison camp (tho that guy was "lucky" enough to only be sentenced for 20 years due to his grandfather's transgression, so he later defected and told the tale) and easier to get ahold of is "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" where someone did a bunch of exit interviews with defectors and got their day-to-day stories. For some reason I find anything I can read about North Korea to be fascinating.

Falstaff wrote:At the moment, I'm reading FWIS. It's a little disjointed and chaotic.

You should have seen the old board! rofl

FZR1KG wrote:

Falstaff wrote:At the moment, I'm reading FWIS. It's a little disjointed and chaotic.

You should have seen the old board! rofl

We have not yet begun to derail threads! Give us another week or two to run her in... and then you will see some serious derailment! LMAO

Rommie wrote:Currently I have two going, "To Tuva or Bust!" about Feynman's dream of visiting the nation of Tuva, and "Cloud Atlas." Which I started like months ago but stopped and am now trying to get back into.

to tuva or bust was wonderful. feynman was a terrific writer.

FZR1KG wrote:Well, at least someone got my sarcastic post

you have time for sarcastic posts with such a long list of tasks to complete?!