I'm reading this book, Zeitoun because my college is making all the incoming freshman read it. Good lord does this thing suck. Stay away from it at all costs.
I'm reading this book, Zeitoun because my college is making all the incoming freshman read it. Good lord does this thing suck. Stay away from it at all costs.
What is up with colleges always having shitty book selections for incoming freshmen? They gave us Tree of Red Stars. It was also pretty bad.
If I were in charge, the incoming freshmen would have to read The Darkness that Comes Before.
Just about finished Simon Barnes' The Meaning of Sport. It is somewhere inbetween an autobiographic and a philopsopical look at why people love sport and what makes certain sports stars stand out from the crowd. A good read for anybody interested in sport, pretty easy going as well.
I have just ordered the Prince of Nothing from Amazon as well with the view of having it as the book start with on my travels to America next month.
Finished up Ready Player One. It shares a lot with Snow Crash (super cool online world and all that) without being anywhere near as wanky. He doesn't waste any time telling you how cool the characters are, they just do are and get on with the interesting bits. And in non-specific, mildy spoilery bits: Ernest Cline clearly knows how giant robots are meant to be piloted, BY SHOUTING.
I ordered my copy 2 days ago, not expecting it to arrive for at least a week. I don't usually get excited over books but damn if I don't want to read it right now.
About 3/4 of the way through "Carte Blanc", the new James Bond novel written by Jeffery Deaver. It requires detaching oneself from the previous Bond novels, but after that, is an excellent 21st century re-boot of the franchise.
I ordered my copy 2 days ago, not expecting it to arrive for at least a week. I don't usually get excited over books but damn if I don't want to read it right now.
Local library had it the day it came out (which rather surprised me), but I didn't pick it up until Saturday. I'd forgotten how quickly those pagey things go by when I'm actually reading (as opposed to reading between classes).
As a college freshmen I got assigned the worst of the worst books: Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. She sets out to conduct an "experiment" where she will take a series of minimum wage jobs over a long period of time. She is very up front about the fact that her goal is to prove it is too low and that life will be too hard (confirmation bias much?) Throughout the "experiment" she gave up several times, and cheated by withdrawing extra money from her personal savings several times as well, most notably to purchase pot that she could smoke to help her get by. In the end, she declares her findings valid, and gospel. What. The. Fuck.
As a college freshmen I got assigned the worst of the worst books: Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. She sets out to conduct an "experiment" where she will take a series of minimum wage jobs over a long period of time. She is very up front about the fact that her goal is to prove it is too low and that life will be too hard (confirmation bias much?) Throughout the "experiment" she gave up several times, and cheated by withdrawing extra money from her personal savings several times as well, most notably to purchase pot that she could smoke to help her get by. In the end, she declares her findings valid, and gospel. What. The. Fuck.
While that book does sound like bullshit, the thesis is correct. Minimum wage isn't enough to live on.
As a college freshmen I got assigned the worst of the worst books: Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.
I had to read this in high school. My thoughts were pretty much the same. I refused to take part in any of the discussions because I would've just raged.
I JUST got in the mail the graphic novel version of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" famously illustrated by Bernie Wrightson. I originally got it just for the art, but by reading the intro which was done by Stephen King, I'm going to take the time to read through this behemoth.
I read through Amazon that it was 250+ Pages, but I didn't expect it to be 12 inches tall and 8 inches wide. @_@
I just finished reading The Help. I mentioned in a previous post that my wife and I are now going to start alternating picking books and having both of us read them. Mini book club if you will. This book was waaaaay outside of what I would normally read (sci-fi and fantasy) but was enjoyable. You may recognize it from the recent box office release, which I'm convinced must be crap b/c I dont' see it as an easy story to adapt to the big screen.
I'm not really good at critiquing books, so I won't get into the details, but overall it was not written like crap, had proper pacing to not make me want to stop reading, and managed to make a very serious topic (race relations in a time of violent segregation) into a very humorous tale at time, which impressed me. Reading the author bio in the back, the woman who wrote it actually grew up in Mississippi during the time period the book was set, in a house with black servants, so she's got the cred to write some educated fiction of that era.
Finished eye, ear and arm. Now re-reading Warrior Prophet. Bought "The Name of the Wind" because the author, Patrick Rothfuss, wrote the introduction to the newest Penny Arcade volume and seemed like a cool dude.
I just now got around to finishing Tongues of Serpents in the Temeraire series. Australian dragons work like giant trapdoor spiders. Should have been obvious, really.
Finished eye, ear and arm. Now re-reading Warrior Prophet. Bought "The Name of the Wind" because the author, Patrick Rothfuss, wrote the introduction to the newest Penny Arcade volume and seemed like a cool dude.
The Name of the Wind is loooooong and not complete. Very much an opposite tone and story to anything by R. Scott Bakker too. I hope you have fun with it, and I'd love to hear a geek bite.
Nearly at the end of many books but at present I stand to wrap up Ian. M. Banks's Matter, China Mieville's Kraken, William Gibson's Nuromancer and Bram Stokers Dracula.
Ready Player One is on my list. A friend pointed it out to me when I mentioned one of my current projects. Kinda wish this was the book club book so I could follow along for once (just finished Foundation, the ear/knee/tooth isn't on my priorities list yet).
Ready Player One is on my list. A friend pointed it out to me when I mentioned one of my current projects. Kinda wish this was the book club book so I could follow along for once (just finished Foundation, the ear/knee/tooth isn't on my priorities list yet).
I would also hope that RP1 is a book club book sometime during the next 12 months. I want to know if its just me who fucking loved it
I'll have to see, for me it's being added to the long list of similar sci-fi to read. Neuromancer. Snow Crash. Deamon. Ender's Game. And then some philosophy on top of all that.
Comments
Edit: Yeah... Wow, I'm in. What a great writer. Purchasing now.
If I were in charge, the incoming freshmen would have to read The Darkness that Comes Before.
I have just ordered the Prince of Nothing from Amazon as well with the view of having it as the book start with on my travels to America next month.
And in non-specific, mildy spoilery bits: Ernest Cline clearly knows how giant robots are meant to be piloted, BY SHOUTING.
I read through Amazon that it was 250+ Pages, but I didn't expect it to be 12 inches tall and 8 inches wide. @_@
Read it.
Finished it.
LOVED it.
I'm not really good at critiquing books, so I won't get into the details, but overall it was not written like crap, had proper pacing to not make me want to stop reading, and managed to make a very serious topic (race relations in a time of violent segregation) into a very humorous tale at time, which impressed me. Reading the author bio in the back, the woman who wrote it actually grew up in Mississippi during the time period the book was set, in a house with black servants, so she's got the cred to write some educated fiction of that era.