What're you reading these days?

[Fifthfiend]

For recommendations, discussions, and generalized chit-chat. Fiction and non-fiction welcome.

If it becomes too much about any particular topic, I might split that out into another thread or something.

Just finished reading the Atrocity Archives (http://www.amazon.com/Atrocity-Archives-Charles-Stross/dp/B000HT2P1G/sr=8-1/qid=1159915536/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-3476350-6878411?ie=UTF8&s=books). I felt kind of conned, I was promised Dilbert meets Cthulhu, then a hundred pages in it suddenly turns into Tom Clancy meets Cthulhu. And I mean, fuck Tom Clancy.

Naw I mean it was okay, for Tom Clancy meets Cthulhu, but I would've much prefered the other direction.

[Satan's Onion]

I'm working my way through Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything--really engagingly written nonfiction about what we know about various aspects of the Universe, and how we came to know it. Bryson really is very good at making these sorts of subjects not only lucid and easy to follow but downright entertaining. Eventually I also want to buckle down and get into Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos--I've started that book I dunno how many times, but I never have finished it (shame on me, I know), so all I remember from it are the various Simpsons analogies :p ...

[Azisien]

Eventually I also want to buckle down and get into Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos--I've started that book I dunno how many times, but I never have finished it (shame on me, I know), so all I remember from it are the various Simpsons analogies :p ...

It really is quite a neat book, though I enjoyed The Elegant Universe more. The draw of Fabric was that, if you've come out of EU knowing about M Theory and such, you get to spend the whole book giggling about the speculations and expectations of TOP TOP TOP of the line physics. Very cool.

[Tiako]

I am reading Colleen McCoullogh's The Grass Crown. A very good book for Roman history buffs about the later career of Marius and Sulla, Mithridates, and the Social war. Really, if you are familiar with any of those, you will probably like her books a great deal. Or, if you are just interested in how people lived back the you will like it. But some familiarity is recommended (By familiarity, I mean "Do you know who Gaius Julius Caesar is?).

[Muffin Mage]

At the moment, I'm sitting on part of Cicero's De Oratione and all of Erasmus of Rotterdam's Praise of Folly in favor of freakin' Redemption of Althalus.

I fail at life.

[gurusloth]

Just finished Greg Rucka's A Gentleman's Game, now I'm starting R.A. Salvatore's Spearwielder's Tale trilogy, compiled.

[Toast]

I just finished Thud by Terry Pratchett and the Pliocene Exile saga by Julian May. I'm going to be starting next on some Robert A. Heinlein that sounded interesting and Jane Lindskold's Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls.

[DavidG]

At the moment, The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan and Earth, Air, Fire and Custard by Tom Holt.

My attention span is erratic at best, so I tend to usually have two or three "current" books at any time. :sweatdrop

[Tiako]

At the moment, I'm sitting on part of Cicero's De Oratione and all of Erasmus of Rotterdam's Praise of Folly in favor of freakin' Redemption of Althalus.

I fail at life.
Don't feel bad. In addition to historical fiction, I am also reading Voltaire and Machiavelli.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

The Dark Tower... again!!
Yes, I am quite mad.:D

[Captain Hat]

I just finished reading through TRANSMETROPOLITAN again.

Awesome comic series.

Also reading Ringworld Throne again (on my way through the series) and The Algebraist by Iain M Banks.

[Shishio]

The Year's Best Horror anthology. (Forget what year.) Making Comics, and various other comics.

[P-Sleazy]

Just finished reading As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner and The Coal Tattoo by Silas House. Tattoo was half decent and Dying was crap in a hat. Both for English 102.

Now We're reading The Virgin Suicides which so far is very good. Very good movie of it too.

[Death by Stabbing]

I just finished reading Plum Island by Nelson DeMille. It was one of the best books I had ever read I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud while reading a book so much...if ever...It was double-ly funny because the main chracter is very similar to me...

Now I'm probably going to finish Timothy Zahn's Star Wars Survivor's Quest (my copy is signed by the author) or I'll finish T.H. White's Once and Future King...actually I'll probably do King first because it's the school library's and they don't let you take them out for that long...like only 2 weeks and I've almost had it a week without reading that much...

so that's the deal there...

DBS

[Muffin Mage]

Don't feel bad. In addition to historical fiction, I am also reading Voltaire and Machiavelli.
So? I've been meaning to read Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes for a year or so now. And God help me when I get around to the Canterbury Tales.

All of this for the hell of it.

I win.

[Fifthfiend]

Tattoo was half decent and Dying was crap in a hat.

I actually sort of liked As I Lay Dying. Although I liked it at the same time as I thought it was, well, crap in a hat.

I liked the whole 'layers of consciousness' idea on a conceptual level, it's just at the level of actually having to work out what in the hell is going on, it doesn't actually facilitate things.

[Nietz]

You guys are so gonna laugh at me...

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

I've been meaning to read it for some time now, but only began now that I finally found one in the original English (I'm Portuguese speaking, but I've been pretty much only reading books in English lately).

Other than that, I picked up on my beloved science fiction again. I just finished Arthur Clarke's The Light of Other Days, and William Gibson's Virtual Light (and soon intend to read the rest of his Sprawl and Bridge trilogies as well as Pattern Recognition) and will go next to Dan Simmons' Hyperion.

I'm also reading some short histories from Osamu Dazai and The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi by Nagaru Tanigawa (wich spawned the all-so-popular anime), but since my Japanese ain't so good, those are taking some time.

[Magus]

You guys are so gonna laugh at me...

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

Don't feel bad, I'm a native English speaker and I just got around to reading it two weeks ago. I've been meaning to read it for three years or so but never got around to it.

So, what did I think of this book that pretty much everyone has read at one time or another, and beloved by so many people? I thought it was as pointless as The Great Gatsby but far more entertaining. I hate the Great Gatsby, but I enjoyed The Catcher In The Rye quite a bit.

Oh, and I can't quite get it clear whether or not the main character of Catcher In The Rye is dying of a terminal disease or not. I think he's dying of tuberculosis or asthma, what with his talk of always being shortwinded and writing the book while he's in the hospital. I just couldn't quite get this clear in my head. I know it's probably supposed to be ambiguous or something.

Oh, and I read Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan, which piqued my interest in what I thought was a failing series, and I tried to read State of Fear by Michael Crichton, but I couldn't get past the first one hundred pages of so.

State of Fear is a dissertation on why global warming is false, disguised (poorly) as a thriller. It is so boring I quit reading it, and I think I have never done that with any other book in the past five years, especially by Michael Crichton. Seriously, pick it up for a lesson on how not to write a novel. It even had detailed apendices going on and on about all the proof against global warming, and FOOT NOTES, for goodness sakes. I hate hippies, too, MC, but if I wrote a novel about it it would be far better. I'm not a big fan of Tom Clancy, but the hippies plot to destroy the human race in Rainbow Six was way better than these hippies' plot to destroy the human race (and at the same time convince them that global warming is real, when of course it is FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE rammed into my head with a sledge hammer by Michael Crichton over and over and over with paragraphs of facts and graphs and data sheets and character dialogue). I hope MC goes back to his normal science-fictiony self with whatever his next novel is.

Seriously, it actually takes on the facets of propaganda. This lawyer is part of a case to sue the American government for rising water levels (this is probably the only clever thing MC came up with, cause with people suing McDonald's over their obesity I could see this happening), but apparently they think it's a really shaky shot at best. The propaganda starts here, because MC contends that it's not shaky because suing the American government over rising water levels sounds pretty ridiculous, but because, of course, there is scads of detailed proof against global warming and guess what you're going be told what it is for five chapters. The lawyer is all like "but everyone KNOWS global warming is real" and his fellows is like "no, the defenders are going to use THIS GRAPH to disprove it".

I hate MC. He did stuff like that in Jurassic Park to explain how genetics work (and a little bit of how chaos theory works, gah), but it was thrown into the middle of an exciting plot about people escaping from cloned dinosaurs. This novel gets bogged down in the neverending details of why global warming is false and it's thrown into the middle of a really boring plot about hippies using a TIDAL-WAVE MACHINE TO CAUSE FLOODING OF COASTAL CITIES TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL. I simply don't care, MC. I just don't care about all the evidence against global warming. I care less now than I ever did thanks to you. I don't believe acting around the belief that it is real is quite as bad as acting around the belief that eugenics is real, either. I don't think belief in race superiority is on quite the same level as belief in global warming as affecting the future of mankind, MC.

[Satan's Onion]

Oh, and I can't quite get it clear whether or not the main character of Catcher In The Rye is dying of a terminal disease or not. I think he's dying of tuberculosis or asthma, what with his talk of always being shortwinded and writing the book while he's in the hospital. I just couldn't quite get this clear in my head. I know it's probably supposed to be ambiguous or something.

I always thought Holden ended up in a nuthouse. I mean, he is pretty fuckin' whiny, so if he tried to off himself and got sent away to the enchanted kingdom, I wouldn't be too shocked. (Note: I'm not actually so callous towards people with legitimate mental problems. But, every single time I opened up this book for school, Holden Caulfield made me wanna punch him. And I just bet I could kick his ass, too. Whiny fucker.)

[Nietz]

So, what did I think of this book that pretty much everyone has read at one time or another, and beloved by so many people? I thought it was as pointless as The Great Gatsby but far more entertaining. I hate the Great Gatsby, but I enjoyed The Catcher In The Rye quite a bit.

I can say I'm enjoying it so far. You know you always hear that this book is the next best thing to Shakespeare and stuff, but most of my friends had told me it was just dumb and pretentious. It is a good book, I think, but not the big life lesson it's often portrayed as (and I, for one, don't feel yet like shooting rock stars).
I also thought of Gatsby as pretty pointless, but I it seemed to me like it was supposed to be pointless, like that was Fitzgerald point in it. I kind of liked it, but not too much. As for The Catcher, I'm still not sure if Salinger is actually trying to get a point across, and if he actually manages to do so. Let's see how it turns out.

[Tiako]

Catcher in the Rye is a great book as long as it remains unexamined. But when it is examined, you realize all the hypocrisies with Holden an how annoying he is, and it kind of ruined it for me despite Salinger's impeccably good writing.

And unlike most time people say that examining a book ruins it, this time it is reasonably legitimate, because I read the book before I had to and then in school. I loved it before, and don't love it now.

As a side note (spoilers) I think Holden was with a psychiatrist when he wrote that. He didn't seem far enough gone by far to be in a nuthouse, and he really seemed like he only had a bad flu. End spoilers.

[Darth SS]

I'm currently reading Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin.

It's very slow to start, but it's turning out to be a half-decent book.

[Muffin Mage]

Story-wise, I felt like that was pretty weak. But I liked it because, God help me, I'm a sucker for clever word play.

[BlackMageGirl!]

I'm currently delving into manga books such as:
Nana by Ai Yazawa
Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya
Hanazakari no Kimitachi by Hisaya Nakajo and..
Red River by Chie Shinohara

(Yes I AM reading all these books at once. I tend to wander from series to series very easily. @@; )

[Jeneralissimo]

Personally, I think all Faulkner is crap in a hat. My friend Sean and I get in frequent arguments over that. He took a whole class of Faulkner. I would have died.

Personally, I am almost finished Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian. I kinda started Anne Perry's Slaves of Obsession, since Historian is way too big to lug around on the bus, but I'll probably have to read the beginning again because I have no clue what's going on yet. I definitely think that I will reach my goal of fifty books for the year. I will probably go a little bit over.

[Muffin Mage]

God, only 50 books in a year? I've been slow this year. I think I passed there in September.

And Faulkner is better than you and your friends and your mother's dog. This is established fact.

[Mondt]

As I Lay Dying by William FaulknerThat's the "My mother is a fish" book, isn't it?

I'm reading one of the Forgotten Realms books, Forsaken House in the Last Mythal set. It'd be the first book. I'm really slow on reading these days, finishing, what, 2-3 a year. =p

[Jeneralissimo]

That's the "My mother is a fish" book, isn't it?

That's the only thing I remember either.

God, only 50 books in a year? I've been slow this year. I think I passed there in September.

School messed me up. And then, when I was finally done with school, I got a textbook from work. Grr. My coworkers think I'm crazy when I say I'm gonna read 50 books this year.

[Fifthfiend]

On the non-fictive track, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (http://www.amazon.com/Dying-Win-Strategic-Suicide-Terrorism/dp/1400063175) has been pretty thought-provoking thus far. Pape is pretty exhaustive in showing how a lot of what's accepted as common knowledge on the subject is pretty strongly contradicted by the actual available data.

I also started on a book whose jacket bills it as "Hard Scifi". Apparently in this context "Hard" translates to "Not even trying to make any of this shit make sense, not even a little."

[Skyshot]

I'm currently working through three books:

The Art of War (http://www.kimsoft.com/polwar.htm), by Sun Tzu. Lots of additional commentary on that website. Excellent read.

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. This is for my Brit Lit class. Any time the monster is talking, the book is fascinating. Any time anyone else is talking, I can barely keep from skimming it. As for its status as a "scary book," it's scary in the sense Dracula was scary: Every single major character seems to belong to the Eidetic Memory Club. And it's weirder in this one -- the monster manages to remember every word and detail of his life in perfect chronological order, including a framed flashback. Then, Frankenstein remembers perfectly every word he heard, and repeats it to the captain, who himself remembers every word, and writes it all down in a letter to his sister. Now is it just me, or is that just kind of creepy in its own way?

Don't Waste Your Life, by John Piper. It's quite good (although I prefer Philip Yancey to Piper), but not for discussing here.

[Nathan_Rahl]

I just finished reading Chainfire by Terry Goodkind. It's a great book if you've read the first eight books. I can't wait to getmy sticky fingers on the last book. At the moment I'm reading A Clockwork Orange for school and that's about it.

[Satan's Onion]

Just read Grant Naylor's Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, Doug Naylor's Last Human, and Rob Grant's Backwards. Normally novelizations of television shows suck, but these are really good--proper novels with unique plots that don't really borrow that much from the original TV scripts, and proper fleshed-out characters. (And yes, the ending of Last Human made me cry, but that's only 'cos I like Arnold Rimmer. It's a bit weird, I think, that Rimmer dies--well, his light bee is destroyed--in both Backwards and Last Human, altho' his death's a bit moot by the ending to the former, and it means such a lot in the end of the latter.)

[Daven]

Just read Grant Naylor's Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, Doug Naylor's Last Human, and Rob Grant's Backwards. Normally novelizations of television shows suck, but these are really good--proper novels with unique plots that don't really borrow that much from the original TV scripts, and proper fleshed-out characters. (And yes, the ending of Last Human made me cry, but that's only 'cos I like Arnold Rimmer. It's a bit weird, I think, that Rimmer dies--well, his light bee is destroyed--in both Backwards and Last Human, altho' his death's a bit moot by the ending to the former, and it means such a lot in the end of the latter.)

Those Red Dwarf books were truly amazing. Anyway, I'm reading through my back-issues of 52.

[Fifthfiend]

Anyway, I'm reading through my back-issues of 52.

You know I can't say for certain that cyanide would be less painful, but it would certainly have to be more cost-effective.

[EVILNess]

Umm... hmm...

I recently read the novelization of Serenity, and the comics that take place before the movie. I reccomend them if you enjoyed the movie.

I finally broke down and read the other Herbert Dune books. I am thinking of reading the Machine crusade and the Bertliam (sp?) Jihad, but I may save those for laters.

I recently purchased the second book in the Chainfire Triology, Phantom. I Haven't started it yet.

I also recently had my yearly rereading of probably my most favorite book of all time. The Hobbit, not a very unique favorite book, but oh well. BILBO IS MY HERO.

I also have recently borrowed the first two Girl Genius collections from a buddy, and very much enjoy them.

There is more, but thats enough for now.

Also is 52 that bad? I haven't read a DC comic in a while, but a lot of people say that its there shining star of hope. (Which to me doesn't say much.)

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

The Darkness That Comes Before The Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker. I found it randomly at the library and my booky sense kicked in so I had to check it out.

So far it hasn't disappointed.

[Aerozord]

*holds up Japanese Rave Master* Personally I am suprised how much of this is in english. And all for only 100 yen.

And no I cant understand it, I just use it for reading practice and to look at the funny funny pictures.

FYI in english the title says RAVE the groove adventure.

now say it with me, groove adventure

[notasfatasmike]

I'm reading the novelization of Dawn of the Dead in German. I found it at a nerd store here in Austria and had to purchase it, as Dawn of the Dead (Romero version, obviously) is one of my favorite movies of all time.

[Fifthfiend]

Also is 52 that bad? I haven't read a DC comic in a while, but a lot of people say that its there shining star of hope. (Which to me doesn't say much.)

Basically my view is it is the bridge between their awful previous event and their awful current status quo, and as such there's not a whole lot of point indulging in alternate hypotheses about what's to be found between points A and B.

Which basically is all to say I haven't actually read the book, but I hate it anyway.

[Tiako]

Well, I'm working my way through Oliver Twist. Dickens is certainly an excellent writer, but I absolutely hate the character of Oliver. Pip was so much better it isn't even funny. I'm also still working on Discourses on Livy, which may be better than The Prince.

Luckily, it isn't all old stuff. I am still enjoying historical fiction, and i would love some suggestions for fantasy books.

[ZERO.]

Right now I just finished a book called The Giver.

Im going to read the rest of the book series.

[Toast]

Just started the Book of Morgaine by C. J. Cherryh. I'm only a hundred pages into the first book, but it's really good so far.

[Kei-Kun]

I finished rereading the Wheel of Time series a few weeks ago (sans Knife of Dreams) and I decided yesterday to burn through the Dune series again (my first rereading of said series). Book one is finished after roughly 28 hours (not of reading, probably only 10 hours of reading) and after I finish the series, a rereading of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow is on the agenda. I've read Ender's Game so many times, I think I've got it memorized >.>

[notasfatasmike]

Some nice choices there. the Dune series is my favorite sci-fi series (so long as we pretend the new prequels don't exist...I own most of them, sadly). I've only read Ender's Game and Speaker of the Dead from that series, but I loved both of them.

[Gascmark de Leone]

I've been rereading some Micheal Chrichton. This is not for the weak, mind you. His first book, The Andromeda Strain, is almost competely devoid of all action whatsoever until the end, where the lab almost gets destroyed in an atomic detonation, and a guy has to crawl up a tube to get to the reactor to stop it, while being shot by lethal darts. It's interesting, but you've just got to like that sort of thing.

[Gascmark de Leone]

Oh, and I have read Ender's Game. It's a pretty damn good book. The sequels really could have used a little less philosophy, though. Only, scratch out a little and make it a lot.

[Magus]

I'm reading The Bastard by John Jakes. It's good but it's such a tremendously corny American history fiction novel.

"ZOMG TEH RICH PEOPLE HAVE BEATEN ME OUT OF MY INHERITANCE, I, THE POOR BASTARD OF THE NOBLEMAN. THE POOR ARE DOWNTRODDEN, ABUSED, AND DESTROYED BY THE RICH! WHAT ANSWER COULD THERE POSSIBLY BE--AH, HELLO BEN FRANKLIN! REALLY?! AMERICA?! I'M THERE!"

It's good, but yeah. Little corny but hey, this is John Jakes, who is apparently an American legend, I can give him a chance! Adventure romance is always good anyway, it might as well be all about America's origins, a very romantic time. I'll finish this one and then get into The Rebels (all about The Revolutionary War).

[Gascmark de Leone]

The Giver.... I read that in 6th grade. That was a strange little book. There was a series? Tell me more.

[Kitana Paladine]

I finally broke down and read the other Herbert Dune books. I am thinking of reading the Machine crusade and the Bertliam (sp?) Jihad, but I may save those for laters.

Oooh, be careful with Butlerian Jihad, Machine Crusade and Battle of Corrin... I haven't finished Machine Crusade(book two of that trilogy) but they made me wanna kill Brian Herbert...The way he finished Butlerian Jihad made me scream, because at that point I had no idea it was a trilogy and didn't have the other books...

Part of me wants to finish Machine Crusade just so I can start Battle of Corrin to find out exactly what a Harkonnen did to get an Atreidies to have him banished for treason.

Back on topic... I'm currently re-reading the Black Jewel trilogy by Anne Bishop. Gods above and below, I need to stop reading those books...

[Fifthfiend]

Gascmark - please stop double posting. If you have something to add after you've posted, just edit it in to your last post.

EDIT:

Just like this!

[Muffin Mage]

Reading Gates of Fire at the moment. Historical fiction about the battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield. Seems a bit pretentious and far fetched, but the writing style is good and it seems like he's actually done some research. The classics nerd in me approves.

[Magus]

I too wish to know if The Giver was part of a series of novels.

[Karenaide]

Um...Pendragon, looking for the second book in my library. I seriously reccomend it! ROCK ON!

[Gascmark de Leone]

I will try to stop double posting. It's a bad habit of mine.

By the way, I think that The Giver, whilst still being a good book, seems a little like a watered down clone of 1984, only with a happier ending. I think. I still don't know if Jonas was having a hallucination or not at the end.

[Satan's Onion]

I think you learn pretty well how The Giver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver) turns out in later books (I think the "sequels", for Jonas isn't more than an incidental character in the other two), Gathering Blue and Messenger.

[Magus]

The Giver is very different from 1984, because the people do live in a utopia. However, they have lost their basic human emotions that come from life experience. So it's not quite the same as 1984 (it's quite clear from the first page in 1984 that Winston is living in a fascist nightmare that isn't utopic in the least).

[Aerozord]

I wasn't a fan of the Giver. Mostly because I hate open ended endings. Also I am a science nerd so I kept applying said science to the book and it just didn't work. Not that its a bad book, I just didn't enjoy reading it. That and it was for school, so I got homework attached to it

[Axl]

I always thought that The Giver trilogy was negative closure. It felt more like Gathering Blue and The Messenger are their own little 2-book series and The Giver is a loosely connected prequel.

The ending to messenger just brings up feelings of WTH? to me.

[bass_virus]

I just finished reading Bram Stroker's "Dracula". Which is quite hard to read since it goes from a fantastic story of them trying to hunt down the Count, to the people sitting around and talking about how much they love their spouses. Right now i'm reading Lewis Black's autobiography "Nothing's Sacred".

[Gascmark de Leone]

Well, I don't think I'd count Gathering Blue as a continuation of The Giver.

And as for my referal to it being like 1984, I was being a little broad, I'll admit, but both of those worlds creep me out. The masses in both like being enslaved (whether they know it or not).

Oh, and I read this short story by Stephen King about a doctor who is stranded on an island with a knife, a couple pounds of cocaine, and a knife. The doctor then goes to eat himself piece by piece. Extreme horror crap.

[Inbred Chocobo]

I'm currently half way into Blue Adept. Which is book two in the series "The Apprentice Adept" by Piers Anthony. I must say I enjoy book the books. Niether of them outstanding, but not a bad read to pass some time. Though from my understanding a lot of Piers' work is hit and miss most of the time.

[Marn of Mayhem]

Bertrand Russel's Problems of philosophy. Well, I'm not sure that's the exact translation. It's not a bad book, it's got some interesting points regarding matter. I've only read 2 chapters so far off of it.

[maj225]

Prey by Micheal Crichton !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fifthfiend]

Prey by Micheal Crichton !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was the one where his wife was a cheating whore because technology is Satan, right?

No wait my bad, that was every single Michael Crichton book ever.

[Tydeus]

I just finished Annals of Imperial Rome by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, as translated by Michael Grant. It holds up well, despite being 2,000 years old. :P

Seriously, though, I read it for fun, no school requirement or anything. I am that boring. And power-mad (if you like the idea of being Emperor, you'll love this book!). Roman history really is amazing though. I mean, the political decisions these people made, two millennia ago, continue to influence us today. Think about that. Pretty incredible, huh? It's not like their ideas got passed down to us by the written word, even -- they were just so powerful, that their actions still influence our lives, directly.

Great stuff. Germanicus, in particular, a badass -- too bad he died of illness after wars with the Chausci in Germany.

[Gascmark de Leone]

Hey, lay off ol' MC, ya hear?

I'm reading the Samuel B. Griffith translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Freaking rocks.

[Muffin Mage]

Prey by Micheal Crichton !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have used your exclamation point quotia for the rest of your life.

At the moment, I'm reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, which is completely freaking awesome, and also a few books on Greek music theory.

[Magus]

That was the one where his wife was a cheating whore because technology is Satan, right?

No wait my bad, that was every single Michael Crichton book ever.

It's the one where everyone dies because technology is Satan, which is also every single Michael Crichton book ever. This time it's maverick nanomachines that devour people's cells, and they fly around in a large horde of black specks. I won't say anymore because it may be spoiling the book, BUT, a lot of people die like in all the other books, BUT this time it's not dinosaurs.

And I'll comment again on how State of Fear was the most depressingly boring book I've ever read yet again.

[Fifthfiend]

It's the one where everyone dies because technology is Satan, which is also every single Michael Crichton book ever. This time it's maverick nanomachines that devour people's cells, and they fly around in a large horde of black specks. I won't say anymore because it may be spoiling the book, BUT, a lot of people die like in all the other books, BUT this time it's not dinosaurs.

You left out the part where his wife was a cheating whore.

What I liked best in that book was first they make you think the wife is a cheating whore, then they make you think the wife's been replaced by cheating whore nanomachines, then they finally reveal that his cheating whore wife was cheating on him with the nanomachines.

Hey, lay off ol' MC, ya hear?

Would that be the MC who likes pretending Global Warming doesn't exist, or the MC who responds to unflattering articles on such by turning their authors into tiny-dicked baby-rapists (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/books/14cric.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin)?

That's sort of a trick question, by the way.

[Gascmark de Leone]

Yeah, global warming exists. A whole .3 degrees.

RUN! RUN AWAY FROM THE MELTING ICEBURGS! BUY A HYBRID OR SUFFER FROM THE HELLISH HEAT! Oh, wait, global warming causes extreme cold. RUN FROM THE FREEZE! No, the latest scientific study says that it causes heating. RUN AWAY!

And so on. It's a never ending cycle. I, personally, have never felt the summers get hotter or colder. How 'bout you freak out about better things. Like this killer drought in Nebraska and the Midwest. I'm more worried about that than wether or not the polar bears will have a place to live.

[Fifthfiend]

Yeah, global warming exists. A whole .3 degrees.

RUN! RUN AWAY FROM THE MELTING ICEBURGS! BUY A HYBRID OR SUFFER FROM THE HELLISH HEAT! Oh, wait, global warming causes extreme cold. RUN FROM THE FREEZE! No, the latest scientific study says that it causes heating. RUN AWAY!

And so on. It's a never ending cycle. I, personally, have never felt the summers get hotter or colder. How 'bout you freak out about better things. Like this killer drought in Nebraska and the Midwest. I'm more worried about that than wether or not the polar bears will have a place to live.

Oh man, the irony is delicious.

[Gascmark de Leone]

I doubt the drought is caused by global warming. We get them every couple of decades. The last big one was in the 30's, known as the dust bowl. Sorry to burst your bubble.

[Fifthfiend]

I, personally, have never felt the summers get hotter or colder. How 'bout you freak out about better things. Like this killer drought in Nebraska and the Midwest.

I repeat - delicious.

...Also, on an unrelated note - your sig is like, double-plus huge. Please cut, as per the rules.

[Satan's Onion]

...
Would that be the MC who likes pretending Global Warming doesn't exist, or the MC who responds to unflattering articles on such by turning their authors into tiny-dicked baby-rapists (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/books/14cric.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin)?

That's sort of a trick question, by the way.

Jeebus, Mary, Joseph and some shepherds, fifth, until I read that I'd thought you were simply indulging in your inimitable brand of exaggeration.

Oh well. Baby rape. With a small dick. Nice to see satire isn't dead, then. In spite of things like this.

[UberYoshi]

Holy crap... I never thought about that. Where are the polar bears gonna live? The great north is supposed to be gone by 2040 so my guess some process of evolution will take place... or theyll drown. hmm does that mean the penguins are gonna move more down south.(SICK GONNA GET A PET PENGUIN!)

ANYWAYS Just finished reading the book "The Game" by Jeff Rovin and I have to say, This was a GREAT book. Definite Fav. Only down is I wish it was longer:gonk:

[Krylo]

I hearby declare this thread a global warming and exclamation point f...

Hey, wait a minute.

This isn't off topic and it's at 75 goddamn posts.

Fuck it. I declare this thread closed.