What are you reading?

[geonuc]

Alwyn Scarth's La Catastrophe, about the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelee; it's well-illustrated and well-written. Having read and enjoyed his Vesuvius: A Biography as well, I recommend his work to anyone interested in volcanology ([cough]DGavin[cough]).

Thanks, I may add that one to my reading list.

[Doodler]

Rise Like Lions, Star Trek novel covering the fate of the Mirror Universe.

[schlaugh]

Finished The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carre, now reading Steven King's 11/22/63, a kind of time travel book. The title is a major clue to the main plot line. It's a good summer read; fast and breezy so far.

[Gillianren]

Ah, Twilight fanfic with the names changed!

[Paul Beardsley]

Ah, Twilight fanfic with the names changed!

Yes, that's what I think every time someone mentions it.

I also find the neologism "mummy porn" amusingly apt.

[Gillianren]

When it's literally true, what else are you going to think?

[HenrikOlsen]

Ah, Twilight fanfic with the names changed!

I'm still more likely to read that than the originals.

[Solfe]

I am back to short stories. Yesterday I read Digital to Analogue. I am not sure what I think of it.

[Noclevername]

Ah, Twilight fanfic with the names changed!

Isn't "Twilight fanfic" redundant? ; )

[Gillianren]

No. While it's only true in the strictest sense, the characters in Twilight are technically originally. The Fifty Shades of Grey books were literally written initially as fanfic--the characters had the names of the Twilight characters. They were changed for the sake of publication.

I, however, am reading The Wisdom of Big Bird and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch, by Caroll Spinney. (With J. Milligan.) My copy is one of my prized possessions, because it is signed!

[Swift]

I've read a couple of Shaun Tan books lately. I first became acquainted with him from his short animated film The Lost Thing. Last year my wife got me his book The Arrival which I absolutely love. It is a short story, told completely pictorially, of an immigrant in a strange new land, the people he meets, and their stories, and what it is like to adjust. It sounds like something you couldn't do it pictorially, especially in a whimsical but beautiful style, but I found the book absolutely stunning; I was actually in tears by the end of it.

Recently, she got me two more books by him, The Red Tree, which is a very sweet child's book about dealing with sadness, and The Bird King and Other Sketches which is sort of a "behind the scenes" look. He talks about how he works, how he comes up with ideas, etc. and shows off lots of sketches, some fairly complete, some very much not so, that outline these various points and ideas. If and when you become a fan of his, this is a must have book.

[Gillianren]

The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You'll Never Read, by Stuart Kelly. Apparently, he was a completist as a child; children often are. And then he discovered that he could never have the complete works of certain authors, and he's been studying lost works ever since.

[Cougar]

The Book of Universes by John Barrow, 2011. Which is odd, because Brian Greene just wrote The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos (2011), a very similar book exploring the different kinds of universes currently under investigation. Did you know that one idea being taken semi-seriously has our universe and all of its creatures as an elaborate computer-type program crafted by some advanced civilization? Well, look at the advancement of our computer capability. Where will it be in 500 years? Intelligent life somewhere in the universe may have evolved half a billion years before we did. Our entire universe might just be running on one of their laptops.

A common theme was the multiverse. Greene ran through about 8 kinds, and then he ended it better than I thought he would. Barrow... wasn't restricted to 8, and seemed to leave nobody out. But he spent an inordinate time with the anthropic issue - of course that's one thing the multiverse solves. I guess he's a capable writer (though I did notice a number of grammatical mistakes). But he referenced his work with Tipler a couple of times. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that this was before Tipler went off the deep end, as Sean Carroll put it. In any case, I'm not running out to pick up any of his other dozens of books, though.

My next, a change of pace: Joyce Carol Oates, A Fair Maiden (2009).

[starcanuck64]

Super Fuel by Richard Martin.

It's about the possibilities offered by Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactors for providing baseload electric production in the future.

[HenrikOlsen]

Super Fuel by Richard Martin.

It's about the possibilities offered by Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactors for providing baseload electric production in the future.

"Liquid-Fluoride", now them's words to conjure up nightmares.
I don't mind the thorium nearly as much.

[Scriitor]

Project Orion by George Dyson. I'm also waiting on a copy of The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage to arrive.

[ToSeek]

Project Orion by George Dyson.

I read that one a year or so ago. It was pretty cool.

[schlaugh]

I took a break from 11/22/63 and read the final volume in the Quest for Karla Trilogy, Smiley's People. In the introduction of the newest edition, John le Carre' said he had originally envisioned " a scad" of books involving George Smiley going toe to toe with Karla. But over time le Carre' found his writing methods had changed and that he wanted to write about younger characters and edged away from writing a long series. In any event, especially after le Carre' went to the combat zones of southeast Asia in the 1970s and saw the violence there, Smiley and Karla had become excess baggage in a changing world.

[Gillianren]

The Book of Lost Books has so far covered Sappho without a single reference to even the Island of Lesbos and repeated the untruth about Aeschylus and the turtle. Still, it's amusing enough.

[starcanuck64]

"Liquid-Fluoride", now them's words to conjure up nightmares.
I don't mind the thorium nearly as much.

I haven't got to the climax yet, but the suspense is killing me.

[Tinaa]

My brain is fried from proofreading and changing last year's handbooks. I have to then correct them on the computer. I am reading some of the older Star Trek books. Easy, relaxing and fun.

[Solfe]

I just started David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. I love his style so far.

[crosscountry]

I'm a little over halfway through "The Wind and The Willows." I'm enjoying it as much as I did the animated movie as a kid.

I'm also working my way through the entire Sherlock Holmes stories but taking breaks in between. I was reading "The Illustrated Man" but put it down a few weeks ago to concentrate on the others.

[ToSeek]

Reading two books about astronomers' first attempts at measuring the transits of Venus, in 1761 and 1769:

The Day the World Discovered the Sun, by Mark Anderson.

Chasing Venus, by Andrea Wulf.

Finished the first one and am about halfway through the second, which so far I prefer for having the easier-to-follow narrative. (Anderson jumps around among three different 1769 expeditions.) They're both as much travelogue/adventure story as science given how much they had to go through to get to suitable locations - particularly in 1761, when most of Europe was at war.

[Extravoice]

For my vacation reading, I picked-up a copy of Year Zero: A Novel by Robert Reid.

It's a fun, easy read...perfect for the beach.
It's been compared to the Hitchilker's Guide books. It has a similar tone, but doesn't rise to that level IMHO.

The cultural references are humorous, but I suspect they will make the book seem outdated pretty quickly.
So, read it while the jokes are hot. :-)

[TJMac]

I happened to go by a small "Murder-Mystery" bookstore yesterday. It is having a going out of business sale, all books 75% off.

A mysterious force compelled me to enter. HA! Even though the shelves have been well picked over, I discovered an almost complete set of Travis McGee novels, by the incomparable John McDonald. I left them there. Really, I did. I walked around the store, found a John Sanford book I haven't read yet. Discovered a box of junk sci-fi books that was really and truly junk. Decided to check out, and realized as I got to the counter, that I had accidentally picked up that stack of Travis McGee books! What the...?

At any rate, at roughly 50 cents apiece, I guess I did ok on over a dozen books.

I expect to be buried in the life aboard the Busted Flush for a few days now.

(I know that these are re-readable.)

TJ

[Gillianren]

I brought Galileo's Daughter to faire, but I didn't get much reading done.

[Buttercup]

An 11-story graphic novel Psychiatric Tales by Darryl Cunningham. A former psychiatric nursing assistant seeking to enlighten regarding these matters; encourage compassion, etc. I worked 3 years at a psychiatric hospital, have transcribed psych reports from med/surg hospital psych wards, and have read lots of psychology.

This is a heart-felt, compassionate book. Much of the topic material very familiar to me. Definite recommended reading for newbies.

[schlaugh]

Finally finished 11/22/63 (850 pages - yoinks. I was building up biceps trying to read in bed.) Interesting premise (with some hand waving about messing with time streams) and a pretty good read. Now starting The Long Earth by Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett. I have a potato ready to go.

[ToSeek]

Finishing up The Idea Factory, a history of Bell Labs. Best part might have been the realization of all the technological wizardry involved in making a phone call, connecting to a selected destination, and getting the voice across - and then doing this millions of times over, all at the same time.