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"Treasure Island," Robert Louis Stevenson. Came with my smartphone. It's really a very entertaining read, so far.

I just finished reading "The Origins of Totalitarianism" by Hannah Arendt. Im deciding to go a little light now and started reading the original James Bond books by Ian Fleming.

Deranged, by Harold Schecter.

A slightly sensationalist telling of the story of Albert Fish, rich in details. *vomits*

I'm reading Cloud Atlas, after the movie previews got me interested in the books. It's a fantastic novel, one of the best I've read this year. I had slightly spoiled myself on some of the general plot details before reading the book, but that actually helped me to really appreciate the connections between the stories.

Abraham Lincoln, vampire hunter.

Not as funny as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Kanastrous wrote:"Treasure Island," Robert Louis Stevenson. Came with my smartphone. It's really a very entertaining read, so far.

Never read it before? If you ever wondered where a ton of the biggest misconceptions about pirates are rooted, look no further.

Aside from work-related reading, like Topology and Geometry of 3-Manifolds by Thurston*, Methods of Modern Mathematical Physics by Reed and Simon, Fourier Series and Integrals by Dym and McKean ...

The Great Divergence by Pomeranz and The Glorious Appearing by LaHaye and Jenkins have been our regular read-aloud books. I'll let you all guess which one is for thought provocation and which one is for lulz.

* May he rest in peace

Queen of Wands by John Ringo. I have to say that Ringo writes comedy gold, and I'll read everything that he writes.

I finished Cloud Atlas. I think that's the best novel I've read this year. I'm tempted to re-read it right away.

Aside from that, I've got Stealth of Nations to read. It's about the "shadow economy" in many countries, and particularly in the Developing World.

Just finished Jurassic Park for that thread in SLAM. On to The Lost World.

I've got the e-book for Jurassic Park on hold, and I'm going to give it a re-read myself.

Over the past 2.5 days:
Read and finished: ""Johannes Cabal (2): The Detective". Verdict: Awesome-funny and damn fine good. (Just like the first).
"Fear To Tread"- James Swallow, Warhammer 40K, Horus Heresy - Damn good. Avoids the boring ass crap some other books fall for (I'm looking at YOU, Lion El Johnson), and it's a right crackling read.
Re-Read: Äurelian"by Adrian Dembsky Bowden.

Now reading (50%) "Feyvre Dream"By George R.R Martin. Mark Twain+Heart of Darkness+Tom Sawyer+Vampires+Martin brutalizing characters. Not bad so far, albeit not amazing. Martin's prose is typically fun, and i've been meaning to get around to it.

Run, Swim, Throw, Cheat: The science behind drugs in sport Started reading it at the bookstore, couldn't put it down, bought it and spent the next few days studying it and thinking about it. Part 3 of the book raises some interesting questions, caffeine has performance enhancing benefits is legal yet other similar drugs are banned. Why? Yeah...

Just finished HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean.

A great book about the Murmansk/Archangelsk convoys, excelling in its description of the bitter fight and cold. It might be the best work of MacLean, even better than the Guns of Navarone.

Thanas wrote:Just finished HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean.

A great book about the Murmansk/Archangelsk convoys, excelling in its description of the bitter fight and cold. It might be the best work of MacLean, even better than the Guns of Navarone.

McLean's best books IMO are Where Eagles Dare and Ice Station Zebra. HMS Ulysees is noticeably different (but still good) given how obviously it reflects his time in the Navy and the general anger towards the institution.

Dalton wrote:I've been told not to bother after Warlord of Mars. Is that accurate?

More or less. The first three are a true trilogy, ending on cliffhangers, picking back up immediately after, and telling a fairly coherent story. After that, things feel more like spinoffs, and IMO the quality of the writing declines a bit too.

Darth Nostril wrote:Try here http://arthursbookshelf.com/sci-fi/smith-ee/smithee.htm
Kiss goodbye to your social life.

You asshole

Set aside Lensman for now for some Cory Doctorow - Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom. Intriguing so far, and I sense a lot of cues from Stephenson.

thejester wrote:

Thanas wrote:Just finished HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean.

A great book about the Murmansk/Archangelsk convoys, excelling in its description of the bitter fight and cold. It might be the best work of MacLean, even better than the Guns of Navarone.

McLean's best books IMO are Where Eagles Dare and Ice Station Zebra. HMS Ulysees is noticeably different (but still good) given how obviously it reflects his time in the Navy and the general anger towards the institution.

Haven't read zebra, but Eagles suspended my disbelief too much with the whole commando raid into a German castle stuff.

re-reading my tomb kings army book, and reading the fifth elephant, sybil is trying to get sam to take a hint about something...

Third of the way into Peter F Hamilton Great North Road, by the time I finish it Iain M Banks The Hydrogen Sonata will have autodownloaded

A bit more than a third of the way through Shadowrun's 'Finding Your Own Truth' and going through 'Working on the Railroad' by Brian Solomon.

Just hit the final third of 'Shadows of Treachery' the latest Horus Heresy book. Really enjoyed the internal monologue of Dorn and his fears. Was also very chuffed to find most of the book is an IDB Night Lords novella.

Darth Nostril wrote:Third of the way into Peter F Hamilton Great North Road, by the time I finish it Iain M Banks The Hydrogen Sonata will have autodownloaded

Doesn't come out here until the 9th. I'm reading Hippocrates' Shadow, by David H. Newman, M.D.

I'm reading The Industrial Revolution in World History, by Peter Stearns. It's pretty fascinating so far, and definitely a book I have to read slowly while savoring it.

Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. I'm not very far into it but it's surprisingly readable so far, although keeping track of the characters is a bit tricky with all those lengthy Russian names to cope with.