What book(s) are you reading right now?

[SMOGZINN]

I just started 'Player of Games' by Iain M Banks. Just started it this morning (in audiobook form). It is my first foray into The Culture series. So far I find the Culture fascinating and the main character, Gurgeh, boring.

 

[disappoint]

The book mentions various researchers as for example Benjamin Libet. And what he discovered was and still is quite controversial.

I will just use the wiki :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Libet



About the writer of the book
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ap_Dijksterhuis

The delay between the readiness potential and the conscious thought and act turned out to be 800 milliseconds. So 800 milliseconds before you are planning to do something, you where already coming to that. the consciousness always lives in the past so it seems.

FMRI scans have proven that this is true.

 

[William Gaatjes]

FMRI scans have proven that this is true.

Interesting. Do you by any chance have some links ?
It makes me think of how time is relative to our consious mind. The conscious mind has a tick counter to be able to determine what was and what is. The uncouscious mind has not. Makes me think of dreaming about events that takes hours in reality can happen in 10 minutes of sleep.

 

[pyonir]

I'm with you on a lot of the paranormal type stuff ...

I can't suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy a lot of it ..

Fantasy, if done well, is in a different universe with different laws ... so I am a bit more flexible there ...

Yep...I have trouble with suspending my disbelief too. That's one of the reasons I read so much non-fiction. Though I'm trying to read more fiction here and there and do enjoy some of it. I stick to cyberpunk, dystopian, apocalypse type stuff (more realistic the better) for the most part, with some other things mixed in.

 

[Pheran]

If someone has similar SciFi about human fighting other species, space battles and whatever that someone can pick up and understand, feel free to PM me names of authors. I have a stupid hard time in SciFi to find books I like, I've hated every book I've tried from Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons which are apparently the 'top scifi authors'.

It sounds like you might like some military sci-fi, try:

David Weber - Honor Harrington series
John Scalzi - Old Man's War (and sequels)
Robert Heinlein - Starship Troopers
Lois McMaster Bujold - Vorkosigan Saga

 

[JamesV]

Asimov The Complete Robot

The first story in this collection is only three pages long and more memorable than complete novels I've read. I'm truly in awe of his writing.

@Feneant2

Humans fighting other species is your only desirable story?

Try Anne Mccaffrey's Planet Pirates - if you don't like that, try another genre, because you are mistaken that you like sci-fi.

 

[disappoint]

Interesting. Do you by any chance have some links ?
It makes me think of how time is relative to our consious mind. The conscious mind has a tick counter to be able to determine what was and what is. The uncouscious mind has not. Makes me think of dreaming about events that takes hours in reality can happen in 10 minutes of sleep.

Nope sorry no links. As for the ticker maybe it just seems that way to you. Some people can wake up on time without an alarm clock daily. So it seems their subconscious does have a working clock. I know I've woken up just minutes before my alarm clock was set to go off and thought: How did I DO that?

 

[Feneant2]

It sounds like you might like some military sci-fi, try:

David Weber - Honor Harrington series
John Scalzi - Old Man's War (and sequels)
Robert Heinlein - Starship Troopers
Lois McMaster Bujold - Vorkosigan Saga

Right you are, I like military sci-fi because they tend to keep those easier to understand. Otherwise you end up with made up locals, name, languages, etc. which I end up not liking.

On an unrelated note I remember reading a book some years ago which was about how mankind invented a cheap type space engine that anyone could do in their garage. The book was about a guy in his pickup truck traveling around space. It made no sense but I still thought it was a much better book than any Arthur C. Clarke book I've read.

your recommendations are actually spot on. I own the first 4-5 books of David Weber's Safehold series so I'll check out this one. I actually read Old Man's War this past summer (loved it) and Starship Troopers I just finished during the holiday so I'll make a point to check the 2 other series.

 

[Feneant2]

@Feneant2

Humans fighting other species is your only desirable story?

Try Anne Mccaffrey's Planet Pirates - if you don't like that, try another genre, because you are mistaken that you like sci-fi.

I'll check that out, but I think it's more that I hate classic sci-fi. I google these 'top SciFi books' and the newest book on the list is from 1957 or something. I tried a bunch from the lists and just can't get into them.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Nope sorry no links. As for the ticker maybe it just seems that way to you. Some people can wake up on time without an alarm clock daily. So it seems their subconscious does have a working clock. I know I've woken up just minutes before my alarm clock was set to go off and thought: How did I DO that?

I already found some links. This one being the most easy one to find :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience_of_free_will


About the sleep.
You have a point about the subconscious clock. But you can test if that is always the case by going to bed later and by going to bed earlier. You will notice it is just the amount of hours that you need for a sleep cycle.
I too wake up minutes before my alarm clock goes off, but only when i sleep in between 7.5 and 8 hours, like going to bed early. Any less and i will always be woken up by my alarm clock. More hours will make me wake up way early when i am fully rested. Which is the case after sleeping 4 or 5 days in a row 7,5 to 8 hours.
It is just that my internal clock is set to a sleep cycle of about 3.75 hours. I need two of those sleep cycles to be fully rested for the day.

I am sure you also have a sleep cycle between 3.5 hours and 4 hours.
A sleep cycle being a deep sleep + REM sleep.

Strange thing is, i can have a REM sleep in just a few minutes of sleep.
But i forget it quickly. When i had deep sleep as well, i can remember my dreams pretty well, i can even see in front of me what occurred. Or wake up in a REM sleep while dreaming, go to the toilet and go back to sleep and continue dreaming. As if i pressed pause.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Right you are, I like military sci-fi because they tend to keep those easier to understand. Otherwise you end up with made up locals, name, languages, etc. which I end up not liking.

On an unrelated note I remember reading a book some years ago which was about how mankind invented a cheap type space engine that anyone could do in their garage. The book was about a guy in his pickup truck traveling around space. It made no sense but I still thought it was a much better book than any Arthur C. Clarke book I've read.

your recommendations are actually spot on. I own the first 4-5 books of David Weber's Safehold series so I'll check out this one. I actually read Old Man's War this past summer (loved it) and Starship Troopers I just finished during the holiday so I'll make a point to check the 2 other series.

Another series you might enjoy is the The Ware Tetralogy by Rudy Rucker. If you follow the link the author has put the full text of all four books on his website. The books are kind of cyberpunk and deal with how society deals with rapid technology changes.

(Note: This is not shady, the copyright holder has chosen to release all four books under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No-Derivative License.)

 

[tynopik]

Right you are, I like military sci-fi because they tend to keep those easier to understand. Otherwise you end up with made up locals, name, languages, etc. which I end up not liking.

On an unrelated note I remember reading a book some years ago which was about how mankind invented a cheap type space engine that anyone could do in their garage. The book was about a guy in his pickup truck traveling around space. It made no sense but I still thought it was a much better book than any Arthur C. Clarke book I've read.

your recommendations are actually spot on. I own the first 4-5 books of David Weber's Safehold series so I'll check out this one. I actually read Old Man's War this past summer (loved it) and Starship Troopers I just finished during the holiday so I'll make a point to check the 2 other series.

what you're looking for is Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell

but definitely do Honor Harrington

also Kris Longknife by Mike Shepherd

semi-related: Destroyermen by Taylor Andersen

 

[Pheran]

your recommendations are actually spot on. I own the first 4-5 books of David Weber's Safehold series so I'll check out this one. I actually read Old Man's War this past summer (loved it) and Starship Troopers I just finished during the holiday so I'll make a point to check the 2 other series.

If you already like Weber, also check out the Dahak trilogy, which is really fun. The whole thing is collected in an omnibus called Empire from the Ashes.

 

[mrrman]

Smoke it like a pro....for my new green egg smoker

 

[cbrunny]

Worming my way through the Foundation series. Finished Prelude and Forward, partway through Foundation. So far, Prelude is the best of the three but I have a ways to go through Foundation.

 

[clamum]

Just started the first book of the Wool (Omnibus) series, based on recommendations from this thread, on Audible tonight. I pretty much only use Audible when I'm driving in my car, and I don't drive nearly as much as I did since I moved a few minutes away from work. Anyway it's got my attention so far; looking forward to it!

 

[pyonir]

Just started the first book of the Wool (Omnibus) series, based on recommendations from this thread, on Audible tonight. I pretty much only use Audible when I'm driving in my car, and I don't drive nearly as much as I did since I moved a few minutes away from work. Anyway it's got my attention so far; looking forward to it!

:thumbsup:

I like Sand a bit more than Wool but I love them both.

For me, I'm just finishing up Nick Frost's memoir. It's really good...as a memoir. Even if he wasn't famous it would still be a good read. I guess he ends it at the start of filming for the series Spaced which I didn't know but I'm fine with.

 

[clamum]

As for actual reading and not listening, I've been reading The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin. I'm about 35%-40% of the way through, I believe. Interesting book so far though all the Russian names can get a little confusing. But I like it. In it, I'm at the point where he's just become the President of Russia so I think it'll pick up some steam now.

 

[Pheran]

Still making my way through Malazan, this thing is nuts, it has an even larger scope than Game of Thrones. I just finished finished book 4 (House of Chains) and I will now be reading a novella (The Healthy Dead) since I'm following the "ultimate reading order". I am enjoying it though, even though there's so much going on that it can be a bit challenging to follow at times.

 

[clamum]

Finished The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin a little bit ago. I thought it was an excellent book and sheds some light on the man, though nothing in it really surprised me about him. Still, I recommend it.

So I just got With Our Backs to Berlin: The German Army in Retreat 1945 for Kindle since it's been on my Amazon Wishlist for awhile. I REQUIRE HISTORY

 

[Muse]

Am reading Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall. He's a journalist, it's a fascinating study of the research and history of human notions of sleep, an area that occupies 25-35% of our time (humans, but pretty much all animals sleep too), but the true nature of which remained to a great extent a complete mystery until the latter 20th century. I highly recommend this book!

Next on my reading plate is Enduring Courage: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed by John F. Ross. It comes highly recommended.

 

[disappoint]

I'm currently reading "My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson" by Sidney Rosen. It's a great book so far.

 

[pyonir]

Just finishing up We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. For how much praise this book got/gets it was entirely underwhelming. Too verbose (a 400 page book could have easily been pared down to ~250-300 just getting rid of tangents and unimportant details and info), and quite boring. Maybe you need to be a parent to "get" it or something. After reading this and The Girl on the Train because of how much acclaim they get, I think I'm going to give up reading books that get so much attention. Girl was pretty poor too, IMO.

 

[Kaido]

Food Lab by Kenji. It's fantastic & is actually very readable.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Joyland by Steven King
Just finished the book and it was ok. It is a short 288 page murder mystery / coming of age story with a dash of the supernatural set in an amusement park in the early 70s.