I get so many books out of Tech's library over the course of a semester. I have 4 out right now, Spacetime and Geometry, Gödel's Proof, From Frege to Gödel, and the Poetic Edda.
[QUOTE=Bytecry;32083652]Just got
[img]http://www.all-art.org/literature/english/lawrence/Untitled-56.jpg[/img]
I hope this was worth the buy.[/QUOTE]
Is it me, or is George Orwell extremely depressing and pessimestic.[sp]In 1984 an animal farm, good not only didn't win, it never even had a possibility of winning.[/sp]
[QUOTE=Snake7;32098944]Is it me, or is George Orwell extremely depressing and pessimestic.[sp]In 1984 an animal farm, good not only didn't win, it never even had a possibility of winning.[/sp][/QUOTE]
well he grew up watching the beautiful idea of socialism and communal effort raped by Stalinism and being buried for good. He was a huge advocate of socialism, but Stalinism pretty much made it looked fucked beyond recognition for the rest of the world.
I've finished Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, I'm starting Xenocide I never thought I'd like these books so much.
Currently working my way through The Stand by Steven King.
Pretty good so far.
Thinking about reading "Crooked Little Vein" by Warren Ellis.
Is it any good?
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;32097887]Done reading A Fire Upon the Deep. Much better than I originally thought.
Now that I'm done with the fiction I'm reading:
[IMG]http://pic.leech.it/i/a42a2/a1ee171biologywit.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
That's my bio textbook this year
:geno:
[img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4egvgaQGf0g/ST49AxEfF1I/AAAAAAAABN4/AbzrKe__imE/s400/The+Last+Wish.jpg[/img]
Just got this. I loved the second game, and I've heard the books (which the game is based off) are really good too.
[QUOTE=Bytecry;32083652]Just got
[img]http://www.all-art.org/literature/english/lawrence/Untitled-56.jpg[/img]
I hope this was worth the buy.[/QUOTE]
You should also read up on this.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/BraveNewWorld_FirstEdition.jpg[/img]
Anyone here read Jeff Long books? I checked out The Descent and Deeper last year and The Descent is probably my favorite adventure novel right now. Maybe it's just my vivid imagination, but the book paints a beautiful image about the massive cave network all over the planet.
Currently reading Year Zero from the same author.
[QUOTE=Dopey Trout;31943177]Such a good book. It got me back into reading again.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/87/PerdidoStreetStation(1stEd).jpg[/img]
Currently about halfway through Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. I'd been slacking off for a while but I picked up the pace again since going on holiday. Both of the books of his I've read have been fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed UnLunDun also[/QUOTE]
I read that while on holiday because a bunch of friends raved about it. Was okay I guess, but overall I was unimpressed.
Finished Rendezvous With Rama a few weeks ago and thought the ending was really neat.
[img]http://andscifi.com/storage/rendezvous%20rama%20clarke.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1300601418274[/img]
Currently reading A Fire Upon The Deep. Pack minds are an interesting concept.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep.bookcover.jpg[/img]
[editline]4th September 2011[/editline]
Also fuck I have Surface Detail and I really want to read it but I should finish AFUTD first.
[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;32101434]I've finished Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, I'm starting Xenocide I never thought I'd like these books so much.[/QUOTE]
In some ways I wish I could not like Ender's Game. It's a good book, but Card's a crazy bastard.
[QUOTE=Zombii;32105623]That's my bio textbook this year
:geno:[/QUOTE]
Well someday I have to learn biology.
[QUOTE=Snake7;32098944]Is it me, or is George Orwell extremely depressing and pessimestic.[sp]In 1984 an animal farm, good not only didn't win, it never even had a possibility of winning.[/sp][/QUOTE]
I thought the ending of 1984 was pretty optimistic. Winston learns to appreciate what he has despite not everything being perfect. I think that's advice that everyone should take.
[QUOTE=pie_is_good;32111502]I thought the ending of 1984 was pretty optimistic. Winston learns to appreciate what he has despite not everything being perfect. I think that's advice that everyone should take.[/QUOTE]
[sp]He learns to appreciate it because of the fact that his spirit and soul have been crushed, he's probably been tortured and he can no longer be with the woman he loves. How is that a happy ending?[/sp]
[QUOTE=pie_is_good;32111502]I thought the ending of 1984 was pretty optimistic. Winston learns to appreciate what he has despite not everything being perfect. I think that's advice that everyone should take.[/QUOTE]
[sp]No, he's brainwashed to love a system he hated, through torture.[/sp]
[IMG]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oQ66WRy%2BL.jpg[/IMG]
I've always been more into the historical books,rather than fiction
[QUOTE=Negrul1;32110977]In some ways I wish I could not like Ender's Game. It's a good book, but Card's a crazy bastard.[/QUOTE]Oh wow I wondered what you meant by that so I looked him up. Holy shit, no wonder every planet the books talk about is deeply religious or something.
Currently reading this book
[img]http://ruthlessculture.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/battle_royale.jpg[/img]
It's about a junior high school class that gets thrown out onto an island with weapons and is forced to fight to the death by the government.
[editline]4th September 2011[/editline]
It's interesting to say the least, and it manages to stay vastly different from the hunger games as well, which is rather surprising for a book of that theme.
[QUOTE=pie_is_good;32111502]I thought the ending of 1984 was pretty optimistic. Winston learns to appreciate what he has despite not everything being perfect. I think that's advice that everyone should take.[/QUOTE]
You pretty much misunderstood the entire book if that's your understanding of it.
[QUOTE=Mr. Smartass;32115990]
It's interesting, to say the least, and it manages to stay vastly different from the hunger games as well, which is surprising.[/QUOTE]
Is it as awesome as the film?
[QUOTE=myalt22;32116587]Is it as awesome as the film?[/QUOTE]
I haven't watched it yet, I like to read the book before watching the movie.
[QUOTE=myalt22;32116587]Is it as awesome as the film?[/QUOTE]
The film is amazing
Just finished up the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot for my college reading. For a non-fiction book it really has a great story. If you're interested in HeLa cells or cell culture history mixed with a tale of family hardship, it's worth picking up.
[IMG]http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2010/03/08/henriettalacksx.jpg[/IMG]
Basically, Skloot tells her story of uncovering the history of the donor of the cell line known as HeLa, one of the most successful cell culture lines in history. Skloot describes both the family's hardship with her mother mother's life and knowing that her cells were being spread throughout the world, and her own of getting to know the family and talk to them.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/yrik2.png[/IMG]
I'm rereading this and I love it even more than the first read through.
It takes place near the end of WWII and I can't really make a summary of the plot because it's so winding and there's a billion subplots but I'll do my best. It mostly follows an American G.I. named Tyrone Slothrop who's stationed in London, England and the plot kicks off when it becomes apparent that a map of his sexual encounters across London matches up to the location of German V-2 rocket attacks. You can tell by then it's not a normal war novel. Imagine a war novel taken on just about every drug ever, but mostly LSD. Just for a warning it's not an easy novel to get into because it breaks just about every rule of plot and loves to digress into other side plots like for example the sad story of a sentient lightbulb named Byron and the giant blob that seems to be attacking London, but people don't really seem to mind. Thomas Pynchon is a great writer and from the first couple paragraphs I was hooked.
[quote]A SCREAMING COMES ACROSS THE SKY. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.
It is too late. The Evacuation still proceeds, but it's all theatre. There are no lights inside the cars. No light anywhere. Above him lift girders old as an iron queen, and glass somewhere far above that would let the light of day through. But it's night. He's afraid of the way the glass will fall - soon - it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace. But coming down in total blackout, without one glint of light, only great invisible crashing.
Inside the carriage, which is built on several levels, he sits in velveteen darkness, with nothing to smoke, feeling metal nearer and farther rub and connect, steam escaping in puffs, a vibration in the carriage's frame, a poising, an uneasiness, all the others pressed in around, feeble ones, second sheep, all out of luck and time: drunks, old veterans still in shock from ordnance 20 years obsolete, hustlers in city clothes, derelicts, exhausted women with more children than it seems could belong to anyone, stacked about among the rest of the things to be carried out to salvation. Only the nearer faces are visible at all, and at that only as half-silvered images in a view finder, green-stained VIP faces remembered behind bulletproof windows speeding through the city. ...[/quote]
Also this artist called Zak Smith decided to make an illustration for what happens on every page of the book and I believe he does a good job of capturing the novel's mood.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/JJroD.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/slQme.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/fkLGU.jpg[/IMG]
[url]http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/zak_smith/title.htm[/url]
If you like weird books with a great atmosphere this will be right up your alley.
So I'm looking to start reading some David Foster Wallace. has anyone here read any, and if you have, how bad is the whole 'footnotes and endnotes' thing, because I've heard varying reports of how annoying it is.
[QUOTE=strayebyrd;32130884]So I'm looking to start reading some David Foster Wallace. has anyone here read any, and if you have, how bad is the whole 'footnotes and endnotes' thing, because I've heard varying reports of how annoying it is.[/QUOTE]
I've read Infinite Jest and using two bookmarks helps a ton with the footnotes thing.
[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;32113170]Oh wow I wondered what you meant by that so I looked him up. Holy shit, no wonder every planet the books talk about is deeply religious or something.[/QUOTE]
You could tell his conservative viewpoints bleed through a little in Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, but as soon as you hit Xenocide its like BAM.
Can anyone recommend some good SciFi along the lines of Iain M Banks, Alastair Reynolds and Vernor Vinge?
Just started The Dark Tower VII yesterday. I [i]know[/i] I was in for a good ride when I picked up The Gunslinger.
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