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Your current read?


Guest Jake Wifebeater

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I think Austen is particularly hard to read because excruciatingly small amounts of information are related in very dense passages. How can someone brought up in a Nintendo era seriously entertain the prospect of wading through six or seven pages devoted to Mr Whatever's handwriting and how it reminds one of his disposition and character etc etc...Fantastic detail Love - expertly scripted - but I could've rolled through three shark attacks, a bank robbery and an unwanted pregnancy by now!

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Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. It was recommended to me, and given the picture it was based on I thought it was going to be some philosophy book about mankinds place in the universe.

Turned out it kinda was, but at the same time it's a pretty fascinating account of mankind's recent(ish) forays into space, focusing on the Voyager missions and what they uncovered about Saturn and the outer planets. Gave me a new interest in astronomy, particularly given that some of the projects he briefly mentions (while they're in their infancy) are now coming about and I'm happily keeping track of nowadays :)

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I think we can all agree that Silas Marner was shit and someone needs to punch George Eliot in the face.

/ tangent!

Agreed. But then, we both suffered through the same higher english class. You, me, and fadgin found a better use of our time organising mix tape swaps!

Currently reading Alan Warner's new novel 'The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven', which is fantastically written...very much a Warner novel whilst being miles apart from his previous works.

I've got me a summer reading list with a few Austen novels on there. :up:

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Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. It was recommended to me, and given the picture it was based on I thought it was going to be some philosophy book about mankinds place in the universe.

I was in the Moorings bar once and got someone noticed my 'Hail Satan' tattoo and misread it thinking it said 'Hail Sagan' which prompted quite an good discussion about Carl Sagan and his work. Which in turn prompted me to read the above book also.

Funny how things happen like that.

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Just finished:

Mobster (a biography of John Gotti)

Five Families - a history of the New York Mafia

Donnie Brasco

*this was the tail end of a mafia phase*

Tishomingo Blues - Elmore Leonard (this was a re-read but it's bloody good)

Broken Skin - Stuart McBride... best line ever:

"I don't like people smoking in my flat"

"Well I don't like people wanking off my constables at gunpoint"... or approx dialogue to that effect.

Currently on:

EVP and New Dimensions - Alexander MacRae

A History of American Muscle Cars

Recently abandoned:

The Goldilocks Principle (pile of shite)

Mr Majestic (pish poor effort from Elmore Leonard)

About to start:

Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, MD: Volume 1

Stick - Elmore Leonard

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I was in the Moorings bar once and got someone noticed my 'Hail Satan' tattoo and misread it thinking it said 'Hail Sagan' which prompted quite an good discussion about Carl Sagan and his work. Which in turn prompted me to read the above book also.

Funny how things happen like that.

Fantastic reason to get into Sagan :D

I have no idea why I was recommended Pale Blue Dot, as the bulk of literature discussions I had had with the guy who recommended it were Second World War/History books, and hardly the future science/astronomy stuff that Sagan writes about. Good call, though, on his part - certainly gave me a new found interest in astronomy.

Cassini-Huygens Project - Sagan touches upon it in Pale Blue Dot. It's wonderful to have constant updates nowadays for such things :)

Speaking of which, After the Reich by Giles McDonogh is my current read. Spent enough time reading about Germany going to war, may as well find out what happened after.

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I think Austen is particularly hard to read because excruciatingly small amounts of information are related in very dense passages. How can someone brought up in a Nintendo era seriously entertain the prospect of wading through six or seven pages devoted to Mr Whatever's handwriting and how it reminds one of his disposition and character etc etc...Fantastic detail Love - expertly scripted - but I could've rolled through three shark attacks, a bank robbery and an unwanted pregnancy by now!

o_O

I hope you're joking.

Seriously.

During my mind numbingly boring week handing out gowns for the RGU graduations I was also reading Birthday Stories which was edited by and includes a short story by Haruki Murakami. Very light reading, mere fluff really but some really beautiful short stories in there. Especially one about a boy being told his god mother's version of the Emperor's New Clothes, only in this version he has no skin. Bizarre but ace.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Recently read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It's much better than the film, which I didn't like; admittedly, a view heavily tainted by the legions of moronic, petty drug-users pledging their allegiance to it from the depths of pissed stained second-hand sofas at five in the morning when I just want to get some sleep...

Also read 'The Rum Diary' by HST, which is even better than Fear and Loathing!

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I am working through an old box of Warhammer books that I had from years ago when I was working on a computer game design for a project with Games Workshop. Most amusing, hack, slash, blast, liquify! I had forgotten how mad they were in the area of uber violence with completely manic fast paced "storylines". hehe.

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Reminds me of the time I tried reading 'Rogue States' by the very man...

While there are indeed similarities - both examine the failings of US foreign policy and the terrible terror and abuses that have ensued as a result, this new tome looks in detail at the often outrageous double standards as demonstrated by the allied powers, and in particular the United States.

Rogue States was also as I recall a collection of essays, this book is not, and was I think published some years ago.

Did you have some difficulty in reading it?

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Guest Steven Dedalus
I am working through an old box of Warhammer books that I had from years ago when I was working on a computer game design for a project with Games Workshop. Most amusing, hack, slash, blast, liquify! I had forgotten how mad they were in the area of uber violence with completely manic fast paced "storylines". hehe.

Ha ha! I just dipped into "Deathwing" cos an old friend found it in his house recently...

It's the stuff dreams are made out of surely!

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