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What are you reading? (February 2012)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
Cryptic much?
CF does say that although neuroscience can tell us a great deal, at this point, coming to any hard conclusions is premature. As you say, it's 'hardly settled science'. She just warns against using as yet partially understood science to reinforce gender stereotypes - as science has been doing for hundreds of years.
But reading one book doesn't give me much ground on which to argue, so I'll stop there. Unless you want to say where I can read about this evidence?
On a related note, I now need something else to read and can't decide between Market Forces by Richard Morgan, Dark Eden by Chris Beckett, Embassytown by China Mieville, and Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. I should probably just read them all, in alphabetical order...
It's hard to go wrong with his award winning novels:
The Man in the High Castle - Alternate history about life in an occupied America where the Allies lost WWII and the US is split between Japan and Germany. Hugo Award for Best Novel 1963.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - A TV star winds up in an alternate police state reality where he's no longer famous (which wrecks havoc on his identity) and informants are everywhere. John W. Campbell Award for Best Novel 1975.
A Scanner Darkly - A man who is both a heavy drug user and an anonymous narc takes a drug that causes his personalities to split in a dystopian future Orange County. British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel 1978.
Alternately, you can snag the Library of American compilation Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of the 1960s, which contains The Man In The High Castle, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which was very loosely adapted as Blade Runner), The Three Sitmata of Palmer Eldrich, and Ubik.
FnordChan
I love Library of America collections and picked this one up real cheap. Great collection.
Thanks for the info Fnord! I figured I'd ask instead of blindly choosing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? as a starting point.
Thanks for the John le Carre advice from earlier in the thread, too. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy had a long wait at the library thanks to the movie, so I'm picking up The Spy Who Came in from the Cold in the meantime.
You could certainly do worse than to start there, and if you can get hold of the first Library of America volume it'll be included. Otherwise, I'd say start with one of the other three that I mentioned. Either way, you've got some wonderfully paranoid writing to look forward to!
I've never read The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (though I can vouch for the movie version being top notch), so I'll be looking forward to hearing what you thought of it.
FnordChan
Finished up The Crippled God, which I might add was a tad disappointing. I felt like he missed all sorts of loose ends. Basically, he pulled a Lost. But like Stephen King says, some mysteries are better when they're left unexplained.
So now I'm delving back into the world of Drizzt. I used to love these books 5~ years ago but now that I'm reading them again I'm missing the more mature subject matter and great writing. But they're short as hell and I want to get to the newer series where he skips ahead 20+ years.
Sorry, not my intent, just didn't want to go into a derail.
That's fair enough. And when I say "hardly settled science," I really mean "armed camps on both sides."When I was studying cog sci, I had profs and TAs from both the hard-wiring and the tabula rasa sides, and it could get pretty nasty. From what I've read and seen, I suspect the hard-wiring people are at least partly right, and there's a substantial nature component in how human beings turn out. Though I do agree that that in no way justifies ignoring the nurture component--and people who invoke evolutionary psychology in gender arguments are almost always doing it wrong.
If you want to read more, you might try Pinker. In particular, The Blank Slate. Pinker's more of a pop science guy, but he's pretty accessible.
It crossed my mind to remove the 'to no' from my line 'little to no evidence' but for some mad reason left it in, which I probably shouldn't have.
Thanks for the suggestion of Pinker. I've looked into reading him before but don't recall what decided me against it. I'll have another look.
Just finished 1Q84 and Reamde in the last few days, need something light and breezy now to chase both of those.
Really enjoyed Reamde especially, would have liked
, but that's a little niggle. Great book.
Not sure how I feel about 1Q84 yet, the
broke it a bit for me but it is still a compelling read.
Really enjoyed Reamde especially, would have liked
an epilogue on T'Rain and Egdod
Not sure how I feel about 1Q84 yet, the
little people
The local library has a few copies of the Library of America collection available, so added it to the queue. I've heard good things on all 4 books from different people.
I guess not knowing where to start with an author because they have so many good books is never a bad problem.
It seems to be near the top of a lot of all time mystery lists, so I figure it's worth a read. I'll let you know! Picking it up this weekend.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
You're... really not going to convince me on this one. I've tried, trust me. Hell, I'm going to start in on both a short story AND an essay collection of his in a week or two because I really, really want to be wrong, really really want to find something in the man's writing worth admiring. But thus far, I haven't, and if the few peeks into the books I've taken are any indication...
Yeah, same here. Been eyeing it for a long time. Seems right up my alley, we'll see how it goes.
I think this is a perfect one - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0071UF8YU/?tag=neogaf0e-20 - omnibus of all of his Dying Earth novels. They aren't terribly long individually, so it all adds up basically to one meaty novel.
And that price is actually quite good since it's a nice trade paperback.
finowns
Member
I read those. I want Jack + Rione not Desanj(sp?) I dislike her/hope she dies. I got such a Star Trek vibe from the latest book especially the last couple chapters; liking where its heading story wise looking forward to the new book in May.
PS..If only the author was a better writer he has a good imagination just relies on cliche a little to much.
Maklershed
Member
It's so awesome you can't contain yourself and you pee a little every time you pick up the book?
I thought American Gods was crap and stopped after 100 pages, which I really don't like doing with books.
You should read Stardust - excellent book. My GF loved it, and she doesn't read many books (also, she enjoyed Neverwhere but I haven't read that myself).
Finished with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (don't know why it took this long to start!), and am currently reading:
Liking it so far, and the only thing that gives away the time it was written is when Ish is thinking aboutQuite surprised when it said that, but I suppose that is because it was written 60 years ago.living like a king with the 'negroes' serving him.
i'm about halfway through neverwhere and am enjoying it. I'll pick up Stardust as well. How was Do Androids Dream...? Thats on my wishlist as well, i'm almost going down the sci-fi/fantasy list and picking out books i've missed. Kinda in that mood lately.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
I'll give it a shot, though my backlog is so incredibly long that I can't guarantee I'll even remember it by the time that I actually have time for it.
I need to read this novel that a FB friend of mine just finished, then I'm moving on to books by Loren Eiseley (who I've perused/read a few essays of and is fantastic), then a bunch of literary classics, and that's not to even mention the stuff that I need to read for a class that I'm in, etc...
Oxigen_Waste
Banned
I'm utterly amazed at how good this is... I mean, I know it's a book I've always missed out on 'til now, but I just had no idea how good it was. This is probably up there with Stranger in a strange land, dune, foundation and ender's game as best sci fi thing I've ever read.
A-MAZING!
TestMonkey
Member
I think so. Be forewarned that this is the most advanced fantasy out there. No kid gloves. The first book just throws you into the action. A kid is talking to a guy overlooking a slum with a weird name who are approached by a woman who was known by one name but is now known by another. A few hundred pages later you find out why this is relevant. A few books later you find out why this is important. Expect no clear explanations about anything. The few explanations that are thrown in are always from the POV of the character you're currently trailing and a conflicting explanation might come up later from a different character's POV. Which one is correct? Both. Neither.
And the characters. There are hundreds of characters to remember. Some skip books. I've not read anything else outside the series just because I want to keep as much of it together as possible. Make sure you get everything else you want to read out of the way and put aside a year or so to dedicate to the series.
It's the most rewarding fantasy series I've ever read and just sticking with it is a noteworthy achievement. I highly recommend it.
UnlovedJew
Member
Yes. The beginning was hard to push myself through. The book really picks up after Kvothe's family is killed. It becomes an amazing journey onwards. The sequel is even better.
I love technobabble a whole fucking lot, but sometimes I find Hamilton's work to be too over the top.
Witchfinder General
punched Wheelchair Mike
I'm utterly amazed at how good this is... I mean, I know it's a book I've always missed out on 'til now, but I just had no idea how good it was. This is probably up there with Stranger in a strange land, dune, foundation and ender's game as best sci fi thing I've ever read.
A-MAZING!
Have you read The Count of Monte Cristo? Because TSMD is a sci-fi re-interpretation of it and is even better with Dumas book as context.
Oxigen_Waste
Banned
Sure. Fucking masterpiece, it is... though I must say it's the only Dumas novel I could actually engage with, the others just seem vulgar in comparison.
And yeah, I did sense the thematic similarities all the way through.
I'm utterly amazed at how good this is... I mean, I know it's a book I've always missed out on 'til now, but I just had no idea how good it was. This is probably up there with Stranger in a strange land, dune, foundation and ender's game as best sci fi thing I've ever read.
A-MAZING!
Yes, this book is truly fantastic. I don't hear it mentioned enough in talk of sci-fi classics. I liked it a whole lot more than The Forever War, which gets a lot more buzz around here.
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
are you saying there's a DFW essay in here?
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
I think he's saying that if I hate DFW, this book is for me.
At least, that was my interpretation.
And if that's the case, it goes on my list, because man...
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
your loss!
Oxigen_Waste
Banned
I'm not a huge fan of the Forever War, but I actually quite liked it. Brilliant piece of writing, imo.
This, however... is a sci-fi masterpiece. Is Bester a one hit wonder or are there any other worthy works from him?
No, just that it is stupendously fine critical prose. Of a sort and standard of which, I grant, DFW was incapable - though I have no beef with the man or his memory.
Googlebooks, that benevolent monster, has copied large sections of it.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id...ce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
will look it over, thanks!
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Started on some Sci-Fi since I'm usually only a Fantasy guy. Audio booked Slaughter House 5 and The Forever War, both are very good. Got a bunch of other books to get though.
Previous to that I went through all the ASOIAF books again.
Previous to that I went through all the ASOIAF books again.
The_Hitcher89
Member
Clash of Kings. Pretty good so far, not as addictive (if that's the right word) as Game of Thrones as yet.
Easystride
Member
I'm about 50% through Sanderson's "Warbreaker," and I am struggling to find the motivation to finish it.
Is it not good? :O
I bought it after reading and enjoying the Mistborn trilogy, but haven't started reading it yet.
I'm currently reading Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, which I've been meaning to get around to for a while.
Neffarias_Bredd
Member
Anyone read the Legend of Drizzt books? Worth it?
Easystride
Member
I liked the first 30% or so, but it has really been dragging for the last 15%, and I am having difficulties liking any of the characters outside of Denth. Even though I am only half way through, I think that it is still worth reading if you have already bought it. If I didn't have such a large backlog of books that I wanted to read, it wouldn't be so bad.
The first six are pretty good, especially Homeland. Worth a look, at least.
Enthusiastically seconded! For anyone who loves The Stars My Destination, they should consider The Demolished Man to be crucial reading.
FnordChan, still slowly working on 2666
Oxigen_Waste
Banned
Demolished man it is, then.
Bill Murray
Banned
Demolished Man is the shit. Really dug it the first time I read it. Not too long either, read it in an afternoon iirc.
Anyway, still plowing through the Lost Fleet series. Was surprised to learn a new one is on the way, I'm on 5 right now and starting to get a little irritated with it, but they probably weren't designed to be read back to back with so much shit being hammered and repeated over and over. And the main character s a little too boy-scoutish for my tastes, but eh, it's still been a pretty fun ride and I'd still recommend them.
Anyway, still plowing through the Lost Fleet series. Was surprised to learn a new one is on the way, I'm on 5 right now and starting to get a little irritated with it, but they probably weren't designed to be read back to back with so much shit being hammered and repeated over and over. And the main character s a little too boy-scoutish for my tastes, but eh, it's still been a pretty fun ride and I'd still recommend them.
I just finished reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? this morning, I enjoyed it a lot. It is certainly worthy of the praise that it gets.
My girlfriend keeps nagging me to read Stardust by Neil Gaiman because I liked the movie so much, so I guess that's next in line for me.
My girlfriend keeps nagging me to read Stardust by Neil Gaiman because I liked the movie so much, so I guess that's next in line for me.
I liked Stardust a lot. It might be my favorite prose work of Neil Gaiman's.
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
Just finished The Magus by Fowles. Intresting book but all times present is the feeling that it's more intresting that good. It does however succeed in having a protagonist who's not very likeable despite him being sympathetic.
And I've started to re-read Steinbeck's East of Eden. Felt it was time to read it again. It's one of the few great books I've read and every page reminds me of it.
And I've started to re-read Steinbeck's East of Eden. Felt it was time to read it again. It's one of the few great books I've read and every page reminds me of it.