BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

[ric]

Finished the Prince by Machiavelli. It's amazing AMAZING (but sort of not) just how all his cynical presumptions about how people act and perceive things etc mostly stand the test of time and the dude sugar coats nothing except the religious garbage to stay proper for the times

Into red seas under red skies or whatever the title of the second Locke lamora book is

@combo
since its some behind the scenes garbage I will avoid it. Product over method is my preferred role as audience

[ChaMerZ]

Finished the Prince by Machiavelli. It's amazing AMAZING (but sort of not) just how all his cynical presumptions about how people act and perceive things etc mostly stand the test of time and the dude sugar coats nothing except the religious garbage to stay proper for the times

Into red seas under red skies or whatever the title of the second Locke lamora book is

@combo
since its some behind the scenes garbage I will avoid it. Product over method is my preferred role as audience

is it really? The Prince is definitely essential reading, but I'm always leery of reading early rennaisance material because god knows how many editions, renditions and dilutions it has gone through.

give me a rating on the 10 scale. if it's a 9 and above, i swear i'm putting it on my to-read-next list.

right now i'm reading the time of the dragons, by anne eckert rotholz. it's about a norwegian family leaving in the far east around the time WW2 broke out. it's kind of not what i'm used to readidng generally (i.e. romantic) but i'm trying to expand my reading horizons a little bit.

i want to read a non-fiction book next, so let me know how good that Prince is, because I have to read that, everyone has to read that, i'm just not sure when i should.

[ric]

@ChamerZ
I wouldn't rate it a 9 unless you're into politics or history or political philosophy (I read it because it's supposedly teh Bestist) but really a chapter for example about how to get away with doing cruel stuff is interesting. Massaged? I mean sursui don't know. He's implicitly talking about the nature of human beings I mean no matter how massaged that is that stuff survives as I'm sure the stuff the Greeks put out about politics is somewhat massaged but the ideas are subject to source material scrutiny and still live on. In sum I'm not super worried about it. It's about what's underneath what he's talking about. It really does read almost like a satire. But also considering that capitalism is like feudalism in a lot of ways and his take on how the classes interact is really not that far off at all and is really pretty goddamn relevant

[ChaMerZ]

@ric

I see. I'm putting it on my to-read-next list.

I was going to read the Jim Morisson biography but I'll read Machiavelli's magnum opus first. If you are a bibliophile or a wide reader, there are certain books you just have to read and The Prince is one of them. It's one of the most influential books of all time. It pretty much birthed political science / philosophy etc.

[Combo7]

@combo
since its some behind the scenes garbage I will avoid it. Product over method is my preferred role as audience

That's not what it is though.

From its product page on Amazon:

THE NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN HISTORY OF WESTEROS AND THE LANDS BEYOND • WITH HUNDREDS OF PAGES OF ALL-NEW MATERIAL FROM GEORGE R. R. MARTIN

If the past is prologue, then George R. R. Martin’s masterwork—the most inventive and entertaining fantasy saga of our time—warrants one hell of an introduction. At long last, it has arrived with The World of Ice & Fire.

This lavishly illustrated volume is a comprehensive history of the Seven Kingdoms, providing vividly constructed accounts of the epic battles, bitter rivalries, and daring rebellions that lead to the events of A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s Game of Thrones. In a collaboration that’s been years in the making, Martin has teamed with Elio M. García, Jr., and Linda Antonsson, the founders of the renowned fan site Westeros.org—perhaps the only people who know this world almost as well as its visionary creator.

Collected here is all the accumulated knowledge, scholarly speculation, and inherited folk tales of maesters and septons, maegi and singers, including

• full-color artwork and maps, with more than 170 original pieces
• full family trees for Houses Stark, Lannister, and Targaryen
• in-depth explorations of the history and culture of Westeros
• 100% all-new material, more than half of which Martin wrote specifically for this book

The definitive companion piece to George R. R. Martin’s dazzlingly conceived universe, The World of Ice & Fire is indeed proof that the pen is mightier than a storm of swords.

[ric]

@combo
oh sweet. short stories and shit. im totally down. I will purchase this but I'm not sure when I'm gonna read it. good look though boss highly appreciated

[Combo7]

I'd like to read it but it's been so long since I read the main series that I've forgotten what the hell is going on, and I'd likely be completely lost if I tried to get back into the GoT world.

[ric]

just finished red seas under red skies. was good book.

not sure what I'm onto next. I'm thinking blood meridian

@combo
reread that shit all at one time when the next one comes out. start with the new thing as it looks like a book full of histories

[ChaMerZ]

predictably irrational by dan arielly

[ChaMerZ]

predictably irrational by dan arielly

^^ Really good book. It will fukk with your head. I finished it a while ago, and I still think about it from time to time.

[Krook]

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

My kid borrowed it so i red it in the shitter..it's cool

[ChaMerZ]

So I finally finished 'the time of the dragons'. It was an interesting enough book. It gives an inside look into how the Kempetai (Japanese Gestapo) operated during WW2. Also, it gave a more intimate, personalized conception of the Marshall Plan, as it affected Japan after the war.

But that's just the history. The actual characters I found to be quite dry and boring. Also, story telling wise, there were a lot of flaws IMO. The book would have been infinitely more interesting if the author had not decided to give away important plot points early. There was no feeling of mystery, thus rendering the entire plot uninteresting and predictable.

[Echo Leader]

Been a while since I posted in this thread so got a few updates...

Finally finished Journey to the End of the Night on a flight out to Vegas. Thought it was ok. The last 100 pages or so were great but it seemed to take forever to get there. I kinda want to read Death on the Installment Plan at some point but Journey... left me pretty lukewarm on Celine.

Also finished Carsick by John Waters about a month ago. Enjoyed it almost as much as Role Models. Well-written and very wacky, I'd recommend Waters' books to anyone who's enjoyed the man's films...they're great. Burned through some popcorn novels as well; Crichton's Sphere and Andy Weir's The Martian. The latter was randomly given to me in a Dallas airport while waiting for a connecting flight. I usually don't dig on those kinds of novels but I really enjoyed it. Pretty well-written and ultimately a pretty satisfying narrative. Check it out before they make the movie.

Just started this:



I've only ever read The Wall (I typically like to start with short story collections if possible when I've never read a certain author before), loved it. Diggin' on Troubled Sleep so far but only 80 pages or so in...so we'll see.

[ChaMerZ]

Sphere is straight piff

I am reading a collection of Greg Egan's short stories atm

[Kid That's Lifeless]

OysterBooks, any of you guys fucking with it? I just signed up for a 30-day trial and dig it a bunch so far. Usually avoid e-readers, but shit's dope.

[Yohan]

I'm currently finishing the last Game of Thrones book and though I still have a few other books queued, it's a pretty long wait for Winds of Winter. I'm looking for some replacement fantasy in the mean time, preferably in the same mold but as long as it's well written I'm down. Suggestions?

[Combo7]

You could read the Song of Ice and Fire novellas that Martin wrote.

[907]

Read a bunch of stuff on the beach in Mexico, some memoirs, some fiction, bunch of different shit. My favorite was Amy Poehler's book, best was probably Inherent Vice. Mindy Kaling's book was pretty funny too, as were both of Justin Halpern's(the shit my dad says guy). Read two Elmre Leonard joints, but didn't love either of them.

[drizzle]

I'm currently finishing the last Game of Thrones book and though I still have a few other books queued, it's a pretty long wait for Winds of Winter. I'm looking for some replacement fantasy in the mean time, preferably in the same mold but as long as it's well written I'm down. Suggestions?

I keep meaning to try The Once And Future King, which routinely gets compared to the Thrones books because it supposedly takes a more grounded and character-driven approach to fantasy (as opposed to stuff like Tolkien and the Conan stories that are more unchecked exercises of whatever magical ideas the writer could put on page). That book also occasionally gets named as the best fantasy novel ever so there's gotta be something there...

[ChaMerZ]

started reading karl popper's book on indeterminism and stopped 10% through. it's deep and definitely not something you read for leisure. will jump back on it, during the spring or something.

[darkwingduck]

http://io9.com/the-weirdest-spy-action- ... 1685259336" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
check this shit out...I gotta get up on these.

[drizzle]

that's interesting, good looks

i recently found a really weird old paperback at my GF's parents house, the plot on the back cover was basically something 'a warewolf employed by the OSS infiltrates Nazis to prevent them from creating a nuclear superman' or some such. It blew my mind and I was trying to figure out if it was supposed to be satirical or they really meant it. I think they really meant it.

[TheBigSleep]

Started reading Karl Popper's book on Indeterminism and stopped ten percent through. It's deep and definitely not something you read for leisure. Will jump back on it, during the spring or something.

Pussy.

[ChaMerZ]

Started reading Karl Popper's book on Indeterminism and stopped ten percent through. It's deep and definitely not something you read for leisure. Will jump back on it, during the spring or something.

Pussy.

i didn't pussy out. i just want to read it when i'm in the correct frame of mind. i need time to unpack and process all the content in there. it's a lot to deal with.

[Random Sample]

testing

[Kace]

Started reading Karl Popper's book on Indeterminism and stopped ten percent through. It's deep and definitely not something you read for leisure. Will jump back on it, during the spring or something.

Pussy.

Popper is for fags.

[ChaMerZ]

Started reading Karl Popper's book on Indeterminism and stopped ten percent through. It's deep and definitely not something you read for leisure. Will jump back on it, during the spring or something.

Pussy.

Popper is for fags.

[zappy]

Started reading Karl Popper's book on Indeterminism and stopped ten percent through. It's deep and definitely not something you read for leisure. Will jump back on it, during the spring or something.

Pussy.

Popper is for fags.

dont hate on falsificationism

[zappy]

I'm currently finishing the last Game of Thrones book and though I still have a few other books queued, it's a pretty long wait for Winds of Winter. I'm looking for some replacement fantasy in the mean time, preferably in the same mold but as long as it's well written I'm down. Suggestions?

the malazan book of the fallen (which is not a book, but a ten book series) by steven erickson.

i'm on book 9 now, first read through, might be one of my favorite fantasy series.

it's pretty unorthodox when it comes to plot development, it seems like for the first three or four books each book has a new main character who you havent met before, but as you read, they all get spun together.

cannot recommend this series enough, and i'm not even done with it.

[drizzle]

RIP Terry Pratchett, dude was a phenomenal satirist