So what is everyone reading?

[Pyrotex]

I found an old hardback on my shelf that I didn't know I had. John Brunner's Total Eclipse. What the hell, so I started reading it.

 

I had forgotten how literate Brunner was. He was an excellent writer, with a flair for words and metaphors. He was even good at characterization. And in this one, he was brilliant at MYSTERY.

 

Mankind has one and only one starship, capable of trucking 10 people and their supplies. After visiting a dozen disapointing star systems, they found a planet around Sigma Draconis that had ruins. An incredible techno civilization had lived there 100,000 years ago. They lived for 3,000 years and then went completely extinct. There was no war, no natural disaster.

 

Thirty people have been dumped on the planet to solve the mystery. What happened to the Draconians? And they don't have forever to solve it, because Earth isn't doing too well, and that one and only starship may not return.

 

Perhaps the reason for the Draconian extinction may help save Earth from a similar fate. And then again, maybe not! :fly:

[Monomer]

I found an old hardback on my shelf that I didn't know I had. John Brunner's Total Eclipse. What the hell, so I started reading it.

 

I had forgotten how literate Brunner was. He was an excellent writer, with a flair for words and metaphors. He was even good at characterization. And in this one, he was brilliant at MYSTERY.

 

Mankind has one and only one starship, capable of trucking 10 people and their supplies. After visiting a dozen disapointing star systems, they found a planet around Sigma Draconis that had ruins. An incredible techno civilization had lived there 100,000 years ago. They lived for 3,000 years and then went completely extinct. There was no war, no natural disaster.

 

Thirty people have been dumped on the planet to solve the mystery. What happened to the Draconians? And they don't have forever to solve it, because Earth isn't doing too well, and that one and only starship may not return.

 

Perhaps the reason for the Draconian extinction may help save Earth from a similar fate. And then again, maybe not! :fly:

 

That sounds interesting Pyrotex. I'm always on the lookout for a really engaging book so maybe this one will be next on the list.

 

I've just started reading Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 by Charles Murray.

[asimon2008]

I'm about to read The Lost Book of Enki for my Brit Lit class.

[Jet2]

[sPIN] http://www.amazon.com/Spin-Robert-Charles-Wilson/dp/076534825X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219930960&sr=1-1

 

Sheer imagination? I think it's quite fascinating.

[Nitack]

Physics for Future Presidents

Saw it first here on the homepage as news.

 

So far, really digging the book. He is breaking down a lot of heavy material into scenarios and examples that anyone can understand. Just got through the terrorism part (first few chapters), now getting into the chapter i am really interested in, Energy.

[Pyrotex]

I'm still trying to read through "Our Undiscovered Universe" -- of which I was given a free $60 copy in return for a review.

 

Painful. The first two chapters are more philosophy than physics, but garrishly decorated with esoteric equations, like 1 cubed divided by infinity cubed. And that equation is supposed to define the structure of the Universe.

 

God, this kind of pseudo-scientific babble makes my head hurt. More than that--it makes my heart hurt to realize that many of my fellow human beings want so desparately to live in a fantasy world that requires no great effort or intellect to understand. So, I plod on one page at a time. What a waste.

[Buffy]

God, this kind of pseudo-scientific babble makes my head hurt.

I've been working my way through Penrose's "Road to Reality" and although it looks intimidating (1000 pages in paperback with lots of math!), its actually quite delightful.

 

My daughter is starting Algebra this week, and I held up the book, holding the first 8 chapters (about 150 pages) and said to her, "you could save your time, just this part will take you all the way through the next 7 years of high school and college math..."

 

He *tries* to make it all simple, but of course you do need at least some memory of algebra to have it make sense. The thing I've loved the most is for those of us who've actually *taken* all this math, he's got this wonderful storyline that makes it all hang together (around complex numbers no less): that's always been one of my main complaints about the atrocious way that math has always been taught! They never tell you how all the pieces fit together! :cheer:

 

You could even gleen from this book why [imath]1^3=1[/imath], something that's apparently not obvious to the "author" of the "book" that Pyro is torturing himself by reading! :evil:

 

I haven't gotten to the Physics section yet, but I doubt I'll see him dividing by infinity.... :rolleyes:

 

No doubt there are some who, when confronted with a line of mathematical symbols, however simply presented, can see only the stern face of a parent or teacher who tried to force into them a non-comprehending parrot-like apparent competence--a duty, and a duty alone--and no hint of the magic or beauty of the subject might be allowed to come through, :phones:

Buffy

[Tormod]

Amazon.com: City at the End of Time: Greg Bear: Books http://www.amazon.com/City-End-Time-Greg-Bear/dp/0345448391/

 

Not sure if I like it or not. Too long...and a strange mix of SF and Fantasy.

[Tormod]

I recently finished this. A strange, sad and funnily twisted story.

 

Amazon.com: Saturn's Children: Charles Stross: Books http://www.amazon.com/Saturns-Children-Charles-Stross/dp/0441015948/

[Pyrotex]

Had to take a "comic book" break from the Undiscovered Stupiverse.

So, at [Advertisement Alert] Half-Price Books [/Advertisement Alert] I picked up a paperback copy of "After the Black Death -- A Social History of Early Modern Europe".

Looks scrumptious! :) I'll let you know.

[Pyrotex]

I misplaced my "black death" book. Frak!

 

So, I'm reading "The Flying Sorcerers" by David Gerrold and Larry Niven

 

It's hilarious. A middle-aged, pudgy scientist from Earth has landed his small egg-shaped shuttle on the surface of a bizarre planet. It orbits chaotically between two suns along with about 2 dozen other planets and moons. The whole system is in the middle of a huge dust nebula, so the natives of the planet cannot see the stars.

 

Yes, inhabitants. Living in a world where nothing is predictable. Not the suns, not the moons, not the length of the day or the weather or even the level of the ocean. Nothing is predictable except for one thing: if you cross one of the local witch doctors, you're in for the ride of your life!!!!!

 

Highly recommended.

[Jay-qu]

I will start reading "House of Leaves" tonight.

 

Has anyone else read it, what did you think?

[Karnuvap]

Crikey there are 41 pages to this thread!

I haven't been through them all and so I have no idea if some of these have been mentioned before: (I think there ought to be at least two threads from here)

Non-Fiction: Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos. I'm still on the early sections about basic relativity and quantum phenomena at the moment but I am expecting he'll get around to string theory soon enough.

Fiction: Greg Bear, City at the End of Time. I don't normally read 'hard' SF as such but it had a good review and so I thought I'd give it a try. It is a little heavy going in places but I like the atmosphere that it creates in the Earth scenes. I have just finished William Gibson's Spook Country. This was sometimes difficult to keep track of who we were dealing with in each chapter but, once you get into it, it is a good old spy story (i.e. a story about old spies).

[Tormod]

Amazon.com: Anathem: Neal Stephenson: Books http://www.amazon.com/Anathem-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0061474096/

[Tormod]

Fiction: Greg Bear, City at the End of Time. I don't normally read 'hard' SF as such but it had a good review and so I thought I'd give it a try. It is a little heavy going in places but I like the atmosphere that it creates in the Earth scenes.

 

Oh how I hate that book. I struggled through it simply because I love Greg Bear's writing. But this one was too far-fetched even for him...

 

I have just finished William Gibson's Spook Country.

 

I like most of his books. Spook Country was cool.

[Pyrotex]

While stuck in Huntsville, Tx, with no electricity, and nothing to do, I read a book I found: The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan, first book in the Wheel of Time series.

 

It was fantasy. It was a cross between Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, and Grimm fairy tales. It was 815 pages. It was tedious. It was formulaic. It was positively dreadful.

 

I will not be reading any more Robert Jordan in this lifetime. (his or mine)

[Karnuvap]

I definitely avoid the Fantasy end of Science Fiction. In fact, I hate the way that they are grouped together. I prefer my fiction to be almost real either taking technology to its extremes as in Gibson's work or, at a pinch, exploring what would happen if teleporting or time travel were possible. But save me from the faeries and dragons please!