What book(s) are you reading right now?

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BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,127
1,604
126
Hadn't heard of it until your post, but I looked it up and added it to my "to read" list. Thanks :thumbsup:

I generally have an appreciation of the vulgar, the crude, the tasteless, and the dark, but, this was a bit off the scale. I love habaneros, and ocassionally dabble in ghost chilis, but this was pure capsaicin extract.

I'm reading Revelation Space now, not very far in, but so far so good. I've not read anything else by Reynalds so thought the first novel was where to begin.
 

pyonir

Lifer
Dec 18, 2001
40,856
311
126
I generally have an appreciation of the vulgar, the crude, the tasteless, and the dark, but, this was a bit off the scale. I love habaneros, and ocassionally dabble in ghost chilis, but this was pure capsaicin extract.

And that's why I'm intrigued. I'll report back once I've started it, but it'll be a while yet (few weeks at least).

As for me, I'm currently reading Unstoppable by Bill Nye (yes, the science guy). It's decent so far...it's about climate change and solutions to such.

Also reading Them by Jon Ronson. Love Ronson's writing.
 

highland145

Lifer
Oct 12, 2009
43,551
5,961
136
I generally have an appreciation of the vulgar, the crude, the tasteless, and the dark, but, this was a bit off the scale. I love habaneros, and ocassionally dabble in ghost chilis, but this was pure capsaicin extract.

I'm reading Revelation Space now, not very far in, but so far so good. I've not read anything else by Reynalds so thought the first novel was where to begin.
Andrew Vachss.
 

Pheran

Diamond Member
Apr 26, 2001
5,849
48
91
I'm reading Revelation Space now, not very far in, but so far so good. I've not read anything else by Reynalds so thought the first novel was where to begin.

I love Reynolds, the Revelation Space universe is fantastic. I found the ending of the last book to be disappointing, but the whole thing is still absolutely worth reading.
 

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,127
1,604
126
And that's why I'm intrigued. I'll report back once I've started it, but it'll be a while yet (few weeks at least).

As for me, I'm currently reading Unstoppable by Bill Nye (yes, the science guy). It's decent so far...it's about climate change and solutions to such.

Also reading Them by Jon Ronson. Love Ronson's writing.

I tend to crawl through most books, little by little at night. I think I spent a whole month working down the pages to The Brothers Karamazov.

Bill Nye is cool!
 

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,127
1,604
126
Andrew Vachss.

Thanks, I will have to check something out, any favorites?
I have read nothing by Andrew Vachss before, but I'm always looking for interesting stuff to some day read. Seems like he has amassed quite a portfolio!
 

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,127
1,604
126
I love Reynolds, the Revelation Space universe is fantastic. I found the ending of the last book to be disappointing, but the whole thing is still absolutely worth reading.

I have heard so much greatness about Reynolds, so far I am really liking Revelation Space, I've picked up Redemption Ark to watch in the near future. Endings don't make or break the story for me.
 

pyonir

Lifer
Dec 18, 2001
40,856
311
126
I tend to crawl through most books, little by little at night. I think I spent a whole month working down the pages to The Brothers Karamazov.

Bill Nye is cool!

I'm the opposite, I read quite a bit (sometimes so much so it keeps me up too late at night).

The Nye book is pretty cool...he goes into a *lot* of detail about how the technology works for such things as solar panels, wind turbines and electric cars. Really interesting stuff. He gets into the chemistry of things (like electricity itself) but it's written pretty basic so a somewhat science illiterate person like me can understand it. lol He has another one called Undeniable about evolution that I've added to my (long) list of books to read.
 

highland145

Lifer
Oct 12, 2009
43,551
5,961
136
Thanks, I will have to check something out, any favorites?
I have read nothing by Andrew Vachss before, but I'm always looking for interesting stuff to some day read. Seems like he has amassed quite a portfolio!
The Burke series. Sorry for the delay.


The Short Drop...Matthew Fitzsimmons.


Kindle unlimited is getting a workout.
 

pyonir

Lifer
Dec 18, 2001
40,856
311
126
I generally have an appreciation of the vulgar, the crude, the tasteless, and the dark, but, this was a bit off the scale. I love habaneros, and ocassionally dabble in ghost chilis, but this was pure capsaicin extract.

Just finished The Girl Next Door. Maybe I'm too desensitized from reading graphic non-fiction...or I was expecting much worse, but it wasn't that bad for me. I can see how it would bother some though...are you a parent? I'm not, so that also may have something to do with it. Note: I know it's based on a true story...but it is still a fictionalized telling of that story.

If you want to read some non-fiction that is comparable (or worse), let me know. LOL. Starting with any biography of Albert Fish will probably help you decide if you'd like to read more.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,255
403
126
I recently re-read The first book of the Borrowed World series. When I originally bought it last summer it was the only book in the series, IIRC. It was decent if you like the prepper-type-SHTF stories. I then saw there was a second book, Ashes of the Unspeakable, so I picked that one up too. Decent like the first one though I'm pretty sure it switched from first person to third person storytelling. Maybe I'm wrong; I'll have to check.

Anyway, only took a couple weeks to read those so then I picked up Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941-1945. I'm not too far into it yet but it seems good so far. The author seems a little apologetic of the Soviet Union's excesses but maybe he's just trying to put things into context. I'll have to reserve my opinion until I read more. I've also read this book is actually based mostly off a mini-series so I'll have to find that too.

Oh, almost forgot. Before those two prepper books I read SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper by Howard Wasdin. Good book about a guy who worked up into Team Six and participated in the Battle of Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down). I definitely recommend it if that sort of stuff sounds interesting.
 

Arcadio

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2007
5,637
24
81
I'm currently re-reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
 

Feneant2

Golden Member
May 26, 2004
1,418
30
91
I read a few SciFi books since the holidays that I really enjoyed barring in mind my options are limited as these are from the library.

The Star Cross - Raymond L. Weil - I thought this was a good read, only took me a few days. Reviews say it's aimed at juveniles but I liked it anyways because you don't get lost in the details and having to remember the names of a dozen different species, planets, etc. he kept it in English so it's easy to read without having to go back constantly

Jack Campbell - The Lost Stars books: Tarnished Knights and Perilous Shield. I would have enjoyed this more if I'd read the previous series I'm sure but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

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'.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,844
8,309
136
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'.
If you haven't read Robert Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters" give it a go. It may have been my first Scifi book ever. I think I've read it about 3 times. I doubt that it's aged badly. Heinlein would definitely be considered in the top tier of Scifi authors, a brilliant man.
 

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,127
1,604
126
Just finished The Girl Next Door. Maybe I'm too desensitized from reading graphic non-fiction...or I was expecting much worse, but it wasn't that bad for me. I can see how it would bother some though...are you a parent? I'm not, so that also may have something to do with it. Note: I know it's based on a true story...but it is still a fictionalized telling of that story.

If you want to read some non-fiction that is comparable (or worse), let me know. LOL. Starting with any biography of Albert Fish will probably help you decide if you'd like to read more.

I dunno, I just dont like "torture" type stuff. I'm OK with really weird and disturbing stuff, but torture not so much. I am not a parent. As far as Albert Fish goes, I learned enough about him from songs by the band Macabre.

I like disturbing type stuff, Blood Meridian and Blindness were two of my favorites... very dark, but, rapery torture family is just a bit much for me.
 

pyonir

Lifer
Dec 18, 2001
40,856
311
126
I dunno, I just dont like "torture" type stuff. I'm OK with really weird and disturbing stuff, but torture not so much. I am not a parent. As far as Albert Fish goes, I learned enough about him from songs by the band Macabre.

I like disturbing type stuff, Blood Meridian and Blindness were two of my favorites... very dark, but, rapery torture family is just a bit much for me.

I can understand that. I don't like paranormal/fantasy stuff at all. Psychological terror and just insanity I'm alright with...but I have zero interest in ghost stories and the like. Aliens (more or less) is another area I have no interest in.
 

ringtail

Golden Member
Mar 10, 2012
1,030
34
91
1493, uncovering the new world Columbus created, Charles C. Mann. Copyright 2011 by author, pub by Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 978-0-307-26572-2.

Charles C. Mann is absolutely brilliant. He weaves together all sorts of threads from anthropology, zoology, botany, world travels, known history, etc. to reveal new revelations about where we came from, and how our society came to be.

HOWEVER, frankly I liked his other book, 1491, New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (ISBN 1-4000-4006-x) a lot better than 1493. I just re-read
1491 a 3rd time.
For me, 1493 got a bit tedious.

If you decide to read the earlier (better, recommended) book, 1491, then seek a later revision than my ISBN points to. I read the original, but in interviews the author said he later went back and completely re-wrote sections based on information new to him, that he hadn't been aware of when he wrote the first edition. I didn't yet see the later edition(s).
 

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,127
1,604
126
I can understand that. I don't like paranormal/fantasy stuff at all. Psychological terror and just insanity I'm alright with...but I have zero interest in ghost stories and the like. Aliens (more or less) is another area I have no interest in.

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 ...
 
May 11, 2008
20,058
1,291
126
A book from Ap Dijksterhuis (a Dutch social psychologist at Radboud University Nijmegen) called "The smart Unconscious".

I just finished it. For as far as i know it is only available in dutch.
 
May 11, 2008
20,058
1,291
126
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

This work soon crossed into an investigation into human consciousness; his most famous experiment was meant to demonstrate that the unconscious electrical processes in the brain called Bereitschaftspotential (or readiness potential) discovered by Lüder Deecke and Hans Helmut Kornhuber in 1964[3] precede conscious decisions to perform volitional, spontaneous acts, implying that unconscious neuronal processes precede and potentially cause volitional acts which are retrospectively felt to be consciously motivated by the subject. The experiment has caused controversy not only because it challenges the belief in free will, but also due to a criticism of its implicit assumptions[citation needed]. It has also inspired further study of the neuroscience of free will.

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.
 
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