Yeah , strange and unusual, I always liked apple beer and revolvers ...Originally Posted by Root
I thought "The Devil, Memnoch" was an excellent read; I have tried some of her other novels and not been a big fan.
"The journalist is one who separates the wheat from the chaff, and then prints the chaff." - Adlai Stevenson
“I tell you that virtue does not come from money: but from virtue comes money and all other good things to man, both to the individual and to the state.” - Socrates
Flowers for Algernon
Original short story:
http://www.sdfo.org/gj/stories/flowersforalgernon.pdf
Expanded long story form:
https://archive.org/stream/FlowersFo...ernon_djvu.txt
This book will make you grateful for what you have, and encourage you to find your full potential as a human being. It will touch your heart
Last edited by DevilsAdvocate; 08-12-2015 at 11:52 PM.
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Last edited by specsaregood; 05-18-2016 at 07:36 AM.
I agree. Also, he has a sci-fi series too whose name escapes me. It's pretty good, but nowhere near as thought-provoking as Wool. Good fluff sci-fi, though, if you're into that.
Neal Stephenson has a new book out... Seveneves. Haven't read it yet, but he's usually pretty solid.
This book takes place in the future with familiar themes like the War on Drugs and a massive Surveillance State. What's interesting to me is how the main character is squarely in the middle of all this and working with both sides as a Narc.
Not all of the novel is really serious though, it does deal with some odd, quirky, irreverent characters.
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Last edited by specsaregood; 05-18-2016 at 07:36 AM.
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Last edited by specsaregood; 05-18-2016 at 07:36 AM.
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Last edited by specsaregood; 05-18-2016 at 07:36 AM.
How'd this thread get this far without anyone mentioning Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?
Are we assuming everyone read those already?
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Last edited by specsaregood; 05-18-2016 at 07:36 AM.
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Last edited by specsaregood; 05-18-2016 at 07:37 AM.
Depends. If you are in the mood to drop something hallucinogenic and join a religious hippy commune, read Stranger and live the life. May you never thirst!
OTOH, If you are in a rebellious mood and want to read about Libertarians bailing earth and colonizing the moon, then dropping rocks on our home planet in response to governmental attempts at coercion, then read Moon.
-t
Last edited by tangent4ronpaul; 09-05-2015 at 12:06 AM.
This one is good to. If the title sounds familiar, Spielberg bastardized it for one of his movies.
If you have a Kindle or Nook, you could probably just get the short story by itself. I think there might be a free PDF floating around on Google to.
Like the movie, this story deals with a concept of Pre-Crime, but it is handled much differently. I wish the movie had followed this story, it would have been more interesting and a more controversial story.
Last edited by VIDEODROME; 09-05-2015 at 12:42 AM.
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Last edited by specsaregood; 05-18-2016 at 07:37 AM.
It's coming:This one is good to. If the title sounds familiar, Spielberg bastardized it for one of his movies.
If you have a Kindle or Nook, you could probably just get the short story by itself. I think there might be a free PDF floating around on Google to.
Like the movie, this story deals with a concept of Pre-Crime, but it is handled much differently. I wish the movie had followed this story, it would have been more interesting and a more controversial story.
http://betanews.com/2015/09/07/minor...-analytics-qa/
worse yet, CPS is already using it in some states.
-t
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Last edited by specsaregood; 05-18-2016 at 07:37 AM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_WakesLeviathan Wakes is a 2011 science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. It is the first book in the Expanse series, followed by Caliban's War, Abaddon's Gate, Cibola Burn, and Nemesis Games.
The Expanse is a series of science fiction novels by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. The first novel, Leviathan Wakes, was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2012.[1]
As of 2015, The Expanse consists of five main novels and four shorter works (two prequel short stories, one prequel novella and one novella set between Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate). Four more novels are planned,[2] as well as three more novellas. The series is being adapted for television by the Syfy Network, also under the title of The Expanse.
Wow, a new book to read (the last in this series) and a SyFy Network series. Happy day.
I'm pretty psyched about Cormac McCarthy's new book, 30 years in the making!
http://www.crossmap.com/blogs/cormac...passenger-6744
http://www.newsweek.com/cormac-mccarthy-new-book-363027The first word I remember hearing from Cormac McCarthy's newest novel The Passenger was the name Plato. Read by Caitlin Lorraine McShea, the line was classic McCarthy: a mixture of philosophy, science, and dare I say, theological teasing-all beautifully writ.
[...]
The book may be in two volumes (or in one volume with two parts). Excerpts were read from volume 2 on this evening.
One of the characters is a woman, possibly institutionalized. Her father was a Los Alamos scientist. Both-sibling and father-are brilliant. The daughter is also a musician.
There is much allusion to mathematics and insanity, with references to Gödel and other masterful minds.
Wallach first heard about “The New Orleans novel,” as he refers to it, when it was confirmed publicly in 2009, during a rare interview that McCarthy gave with The Wall Street Journal:
“It's mostly set in New Orleans around 1980. It has to do with a brother and sister. When the book opens she's already committed suicide, and it's about how he deals with it. She's an interesting girl.”
Rumors circulated over the succeeding years. McCarthy hinted at the novel in an interview he gave for The Counselor, a film he wrote for director Ridley Scott in 2013. But the book seemed to be stuck in limbo. Wallach speculates—having spoken to people close to the author—that the story was becoming mired in its own complexity.
Now that the book has been presented in public, it would seem that McCarthy has resolved whatever dissatisfied him.
Based on the idea of natural rights, government secures those rights to the individual by strictly negative intervention, making justice costless and easy of access; and beyond that it does not go. The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
--Albert J. Nock
read this earlier this year, meh. despite many of my acquaintances liking Stephenson, I can't say I've really enjoyed any of his books.
Shogun remains near the top of my surprising good reads this decade. I decided to make my way through the authors entire Asian saga. I really liked Tai-pan, and Gai-jin was a decent followup to those 2. King Rat is up next, which looks like it is going to be a good one.
I'd suggest a book but I don't read.
"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."
Calvin Coolidge
Man, I really enjoyed this series. I can't even pick which of the books is my favorite.
But I think it would have to be the final book in the series: Whirlwind https://smile.amazon.com/Whirlwind-A.../dp/B07HB8W225
I'm just guessing, but I think it did a good job of capturing the havoc a population must endure when caught up in the middle of a revolution. It gave me some insights into Iran that I never expected.
The Bible
I've read Shogun at least three or four times over the years. It's one of my favorites.
For some reason, though, I've never gotten around to reading any of Clavell's other novels.
I really should do something about that ...
You really should (they are long, but darn good). I decided to read them in Chronological Order rather than publication order. However, if you wanted to read one without committing to the series, King Rat is stand alone and a great read.
Looks like it's time to re-read Shogun (again).
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