What are you reading?

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by Snowlilly, Aug 21, 2012.

  1. Miss Chicken

    Miss Chicken Little three legged cat with attitude Admiral

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    This book is on my Wish List. I will be interested in your opinion of it once your have finished.

    I am halfway through The Ice Limit by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. A very strange meteorite has been discovered on a subarctic island and a billionaire sends a team to acquire it for his museum. Very interesting so far.
     
  2. Maestro

    Maestro Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I thought it was really good. The first chunk of our hero's time on Mars is so long that I was a bit jarred when they switched to Earth's view of the situation. However, Weir wove things together pretty well. The third act was pretty rushed, and I think he could have done a better job with the Commander's remorse about having to leave a crew member behind. Overall, if I were to give it a "star" rating, it would be 4/5. Maybe even 4.5/5.

    The science stuff shouldn't scare you off. I got a "C" in the astronomy course I took in college to meet my science requirement, and I recalled just enough of that to understanding the basic physics in the story.

    Yeah, 4.5/5.
     
  3. Smellincoffee

    Smellincoffee Commodore Commodore

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    Heart of Dixie
    I'll Take My Stand: the Southern Agrarians, various authors.

    Oh, and The Martian is outstanding -- easily one of the funniest books I've read, but the laughs are combined with really detailed science.
     
  4. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Northern Ontario, Canada

    Picked it up for my Birthday, but I've yet to read it, but I've heard it's very good from many people. Looking forward to diving into it :)
     
  5. thestrangequark

    thestrangequark Admiral Admiral

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    Brooklyn thestrangequark
    I haven't been in this thread in ages and actually popped in to post about this book! I quite like it, and I especially like the science and technical aspect. It's a detailed and precise account of problem-solving, and actually reminds me a lot of two of my childhood favorites, Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain, except the wilderness is Mars.

    Miss Chicken, I'd recommend it.
     
  6. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well, finally finished The Terror by Dan Simmons last night. Took me quite awhile before I really got into it, as it starts off slow. It wasn't until I was about midway through it that I really started feeling invested in it.

    Next up: The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Laganski.
     
  7. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Star Trek Enterprise: Tower of Babel
     
  8. mari

    mari Captain Captain

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    Dec 8, 2009
    Still working through Looking Backward. I've been very tired lately (yay last month of pregnancy!) and I think the only reason I'm following the book at all is because I've already read it.

    Wool, The Martian, and Hyperbole and a Half are on my Amazon wish list. Not sure what I'm actually going to buy, and what I might leave on the list for my mother to get for my birthday in May. I guess it depends on how much time I have to read after the kid arrives. Also that lean-in book, but since I plan on that being an ironic read, I'll probably get it from the library this weekend.
     
  9. bbailey861

    bbailey861 Admiral Admiral

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    Kingston, ON Canada
    eBay for Dummies. I have bought a lot over the years but have never tried selling anything. I am considering giving it a shot.
     
  10. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    Congratulations. :bolian: Sounds like we'll have another bookworm in the world. [​IMG]
     
  11. Miss Chicken

    Miss Chicken Little three legged cat with attitude Admiral

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    Howrah, Hobart, Tasmania
    Have just finished Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. I really enjoyed it and plan to read either The Drowned Cities or The Windup Girl next month.

    I have just started Hidden Moon by James Church. It is the second of the Inspector 0 series which are set in North Korea.
     
  12. trekkiedane

    trekkiedane Admiral Admiral

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    Getting there -but slowly.
    Took me some time, but after having dragged myself through the first two volumes and still not having read anything but a build-up to some ending that might (or not?) come in the fourth volume of this novel I am finished with it -and, sorry 'bout this, I actually pity the people who find this long-winded fantasy-novel in several volumes even remotely enjoyable :shrug:

    Meanwhile...
    I've Read one or two more of the Revelation Space-books -Which I also didn't find very satisfying, not even if they actually did have plot-twists that were able to surprise me every now and then.

    I did, however, enjoy the Manifold Trilogy.

    I also enjoyed the (only a bit silly) Greg Egan novel; Quarantine.

    The Reeves-Stevens' Memory Prime didn't have any big surprises in the plot, but I found it a very enjoyable read (well... they do write Star Trek very well :bolian: ).

    Yesterday I finished Colossus.
    (The technology in the novel isn't as bad as it looked in the film!)
    I think I might have read it when I was a kid, shortly after watching the film for the first time I suppose, but this time I noticed so many more interesting things; as a kid I didn't know that the year the book was released also was the year the SAGE computer network was finished ... And if anyone here have read it: did you also think the primary characters drink a bit too much whiskey? -I sit here, the day after, with a strange sense that there wasn't a page in Colossus where someone didn't gulp down a glass of Scotch. :rommie: (Currently reading: The Fall of Colossus.)

    What else? -Oh yeah; I did get a bit further in Hogg, which I still find a somewhat hard read... the rape-scenes really get to me in a bad way. But at least it got me started on some of Delanys SciFi. :rommie: (currently reading: Nova.)
     
  13. C. Cole-Chakotay

    C. Cole-Chakotay Commodore Commodore

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    I just finished Sunrise by Mike Mullin. It's book 3 of the Ashfall trilogy. I'm planning on starting The Selection series by Kiera Cass next. :)
     
  14. thestrangequark

    thestrangequark Admiral Admiral

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    I pity everyone who doesn't share my exact taste in literature. You poor, poor, pitiful souls. I can think of no worse agony than not sharing my opinions and tastes. Maybe I shall start a charity.

    I finished The Martian and really enjoyed it. I liked the detail in the descriptions of how the on-the-fly engineering feats were accomplished, and the fact that staying alive ultimately just worked out to the numbers in a closed system: there's only so much water, air, and caloric energy available -- you know how to make more, but there are only so many molecules to be broken apart and recombined in so many ways -- you're a consumer, and before long what you must consume is going to run out. It was a cool book.

    This weekend I read Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work, by Tim Gunn of Project Runway fame. It was a hot mess of trashy fun. I also read His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. Also a lot of trashy fun, but of a different kind. Drags in the Napoleonic War, how could that not be a romp! Don't know what I'm going to read next. I may return to the Matthew Corbett series and read the third book. I put it off because the second book, The Queen of Bedlam gave me nightmares, and the third book is called Mr. Slaughter, so I thought I'd take a break from those.
     
  15. Ghost07

    Ghost07 Vice Admiral In Memoriam

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    upstate NY
    I've decided to re-read some of my Nora Roberts trilogies...first up, the seven signs trilogy...nice and spooky.
     
  16. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm currently reading Letters From the Earth by Mark Twain. Every time I read this book, it reminds me of how brilliant Twain was, and how prescient he could be regarding not only society's development, but how often we would fail to learn our lessons only to repeat them again.
     
  17. lurok

    lurok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Lost in the EU expanse with a nice cup of tea
    On a re-reading binge, so just finished Shelley's Frankenstein, and currently Fahrenheit 451. Paradise Lost next...
     
  18. trekkiedane

    trekkiedane Admiral Admiral

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    Getting there -but slowly.
    :guffaw:


    Touché.
     
  19. Maestro

    Maestro Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm now back to the original Bond books, reading them in the Griswold/Chancellor Chronology. Not sure where the three continuations (of the original series) books go.
     
  20. Kirby

    Kirby Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'm all over the place right now. I'm in various stages of: The Hunger Games, The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson, The Pin Drop Principle for work, and The Striker by Clive Cussler. I also just ordered The Androids Dream by Jon Scalzi, and a book on baseball statistics from Amazon.