NationStates Jolt Archive

To begin:

I'm reading Memoirs of a Geisha. Very well written and well researched. But, boy, I would never want to be a geisha. It's incredibly competitive and cut-throat, not at all glamorous.

I'm also reading Worldwired by Elizabeth Bear. It's third in a trilogy that starts with Hammered and continues with Scardown. Good scifi. with a really grim view of the future.

Of course waiting for Office to come out, but in the meantime, currently reading Hegemony & Socialist Strategy by Ernesto Laclau... (a little light reading between semesters)

I'm reading Tu by Patricia Grace. It's about 3 brothers in the 28th Maori Battalion in the second world war. Every second chapter is the older brother talking about his life as a Maori in the big city, while every other chapter is about the youngest brother at the battle of Monte Cassino.

It's quite well written, a huge amount of research went into it. The auther had several family members in the 28th and managed to get hold of a lot of dairies and things to help with the book.

The Da Vinci Code for the 2nd time. It's kinda lost it's edge cos I know what's gonna happen, but tis still a great book, can't wait for the filum :)

A leg to stand on ~ Oliver Sacks

And it's good... though i'm too near the begining to comment further.

I just read 1984, and i gotta say,it was just incredible. Scary as hell, too, because it all seems so possible, and a lot of the evil big government things described are already happening

The Other Side of Israel, by Susan Nathan, concerning the author's experiences as a Jew in an Arab town within Israel.

It is decently written and mildly interesting, but not a particularly great book, unless one is interested in the subject matter.

"What are you reading right now? What do you think of it?"

"Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground," by Robert D. Kaplan.

The book gives an accurate view of how the various American military advisors and special operations people function in a wide variety of countries and regions. The author, a veteran correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, was given unprecedented access to American personnel at work in Yemen, Colombia, Mongolia, The Philippines, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and Iraq, as well as Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Currently reading alot of healthcare policy texts, but then again, I am working on research for my thesis. Nothing particular, but each interesting in their own way. Big difference between even neighboring states.

Biko by Donald Woods. Highly recommended.

I'm currently reading "The Ethics of Liberty" by Murray Rothbard. I highly recommend it especially to any libertarians and anarchists, but also to anyone who is interested in a moral/legal system that respects all individual rights without crumbling under corruption or chaos. Very good, though I do disagree with his conclusion (that anarchy is the solution), I agree with the premise to his argument (that government is a force and often times a criminal force at that). Thumbs up!

A Feast For Crows, by George R.R. Martin. Best [relatively] new high fantasy series out there. It sorta sucks that this particular installment lacks updates on some of my favorite characters, though.

I just read 1984, and i gotta say,it was just incredible. Scary as hell, too, because it all seems so possible, and a lot of the evil big government things described are already happening

You should read Brave New World ~ Aldous Huxley, i personally prefer it to 1984. Which reminds me i'm also currently reading Mao: The untold Story, Battle Royale, The Life of Pi and After Many A Summer Dies the Swan, by Jung Chiang, Koushun Takami, Yann Martel, Aldous Huxley respectively.

I'm currently reading "The Ethics of Liberty" by Murray Rothbard. I highly recommend it especially to any libertarians and anarchists, but also to anyone who is interested in a moral/legal system that respects all individual rights without crumbling under corruption or chaos. Very good, though I do disagree with his conclusion (that anarchy is the solution), I agree with the premise to his argument (that government is a force and often times a criminal force at that). Thumbs up!


This sounds like a good read, but i am questioning the conclusion, the author is promoting all out anarchy?? Wondering if the author is using a bit of sarcasm, as anarchy is really never the solution...at least not a reasonable one.

Many things:

Teach yourself Perl in 21 days.
A manager asked me too for training his newbies *sigh* He thinks its great and it's pretty mediocre.

The Concise Guide to DNS and Bind.
Not bad.

Mountain Gorillas. Three Decades of REsearch at Karisoke
A book of essays printed over the years. Not bad if you are into behavior, eating and breeding habits.

Test prep crap for windows certification crap.

Just about to start: Team of Rivals : The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Also have the potter book waiting....

Many many more.......

nothing. and its great!

i hate my lack of reading skillz :headbang:
there's a stack of books about yay high on my bedside table i've tried to read, if that counts :(

the Bible. its ok. but a bit boring at parts

nothing. and its great!

i hate my lack of reading skillz :headbang:
there's a stack of books about yay high on my bedside table i've tried to read, if that counts :(

I have to say i can never understand it when people cannot read perfectly, it's like not being able to walk, i just cant wrap my way around not being able to do it.

I have to say i can never understand it when people cannot read perfectly, it's like not being able to walk, i just cant wrap my way around not being able to do it.
its not that i can't read: i can read fine, it just takes a lot of concentration and effort... more than its worth [now that i don't have to read for school/uni]. i'm dyslexic and have irlen's syndrome (always sounds worse than it is lol), so reading any more than a couple of pages at a time of a decently complex book (ie. not harry potter, heh) gives me mondo headaches, eye strain and has made me fall asleep...

i mean gormenghast by peake... that one had me nodding off within about 5 words of opening the covers :p


but then everyone's different

its not that i can't read: i can read fine, it just takes a lot of concentration and effort... more than its worth. i'm dyslexic and have irlen's syndrome (always sounds worse than it is lol), so reading any more than a couple of pages at a time of a decently complex book (ie. not harry potter, heh) gives me mondo headaches, eye strain and has made me fall asleep...

i mean gormenghast by peake... that one had me nodding off within about 5 words of opening the covers :p


but then everyone's different
My brothers dyslexic and like i say, i can't understand it.

However...

GORMENGHAST ! You must read it, get someone to read ti to you, learn braille, buy it on audio tape have it injected introveniously... all of th above anything, it must be read, by order of the Queen, and more importantly Fenix [Science] !

Just finished A Clash of Kings, book two of Song of Ice and Fire. Anyone who likes their fantasy buy this series now!

Also reading

Book Eleven of the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Again I recommend the series but wait until its finished.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Interesting, and applies to more areas of life then you'd think.

Various miniature wargames magazines.

The Sabbath Worlds Crusade. Wargames background book. Highly entertaining if you like that kind of thing.

Gettysburg. Fascinating breakdown of one of the most pivotal battles in the American Civil War told from both sides.

Gods of Ancient Eygpt. Ok, filled with tonnes of useless trivia.

I just started "The Swarm" by Frank Schätzing (German author) today and so far it's a good read and very promising.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060813261/ref=pd_bbs_null_1/103-9263913-7079059?v=glance&n=283155

The book I read over Christmas was "The Perpetual Night" by Ilkka Remes (Finnish author). Don't know if it is available in English, I read it in German ;)

Oh, and the other book I'm also reading right now is "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. Very interesting!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076790818X/qid=1135825002/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9263913-7079059?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

This sounds like a good read, but i am questioning the conclusion, the author is promoting all out anarchy?? Wondering if the author is using a bit of sarcasm, as anarchy is really never the solution...at least not a reasonable one.

To answer your first question, yes. The author does advocate anarchy as a desired goal. Most of this comes from his utter contempt for the coercive nature of government. Rothbard is a pretty well-known economist and anarcho-capitalist, so he is not being sarcastic, but rather advocating a reasonable approach to anarchy. I don't think that his idea is a bad one persay, but simply unreasonable to achieve. Unlike communism, I think Rothbard's anarchism based on natural law is a desirable ideal, if not just as unreasonable to fulfill.

I guess the thing to keep in mind is that anarchy does not mean chaos, no rules or laws. It just means the absence of a central legitimized force that we call "government", with its monopoly over the use of force (military, police, etc). Anarchism has existed on Earth before, so this is not a new concept. An example of an anarchist society would be Medieval Iceland before it was conquered and made into a monarchy.

My brothers dyslexic and like i say, i can't understand it.

However...

GORMENGHAST ! You must read it, get someone to read ti to you, learn braille, buy it on audio tape have it injected introveniously... all of th above anything, it must be read, by order of the Queen, and more importantly Fenix [Science] !
meh, i suppose it would be odd to understand... like how i don't really 'get' colour blindness.

but i fully intend to read it.... sometime. i saw the bbc adaptation and that was great, and my mum loves the book too. maybe an audiobook thing would be a good idea, thanks! :)

A Random Walk Down Wall Street
-Burton G. Malkiel

Have to for my bloody finance exam.

Thats a good analogy actually. It's hard to imagine not having an involuntary action.

As for the BBC adaption, i have that on DVD next to me at this very moment. I don't know if its on audio, but if it isn't its a crime, a crime i tell you !

Someone has to say it beacuase no one has.

This thread.

And I think you guys read good stuff

Ta Da !

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/1066626/ref=br_dp_bl_4/202-7918842-7549419

There are very few things amazon doesn't have it turns out :P Even if one of them is the dreamstone on DVD which i want so badly :'(, VHS would do.

At the moment, I'm reading textbooks. Which sucks, so I'm doing some really light fiction reading - go go Terry Pratchett books!

I just finished Terry Pratchett's "THUD!" and it was fantastic. Exploding Cabbages.

Also, it came with "Where's My Cow?", a children's book about a children's book read every night at 6 sharp in "THUD!", because some things are important.

I'm reading this thread right now...and unfortunately, it makes for poor reading at best.

I'm reading this thread right now...and unfortunately, it makes for poor reading at best.
Get ye hence, someone already made that joke and yours was less adorable, far less ! Go before i set the dogs on you.

Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. Very interesting stuff.

"The Book of Lights" by Chaim Potok.

I'm almost half way through and I hate to say it, but this may end up being the first Potok book I don't like. But I still have hope that something will finally happen. Anything. Even a little character development would be fine. Sigh.

"Without Mercy" by Jack Higgins and "Roughing It" by Mark Twain (A good suggestion from another NSer)

Both are pretty good.

"Eragon" soft fantasy...not interesting...not boring

"Eragon" soft fantasy...not interesting...not boring


I think my son read that one. I think he was killing time between new Harry Potter and Series of Unfortunate Events.

Over the holiday weekend (4 days of people - fffftt) when I wasn't climbing the Tree, I read the first 4 "Potter" books. I must say I couldn't get into it untill Crookshanks arrived. I'm planning to read the other two this weekend if I don't hit the catnip too hard.

Moderan by David R Bunch.
If you like that sort of pretentious '60s sf, it's great.

Im reading 4 books Endurance by Alfred Lansing, a book about the hardships that a group of antarctic explorers that plan to cross the continent, but there ship gets stuck in ice and sunk, and how they survive.

I am also reading ( but at the time of this post I have finished) Dan Browns Angels & Demons a book that deals with conspiracy and such in the catholic curch, and a wee bit of science thrown in.

I am re-reading The Legened of the Jade Phoenix Trilogy by Robert Thurston a book set in the world of the battletech games (Mechwarrior) and it follows the life of a young clasmens journy through training, combat, and finally death.

Finally I just started Digital Fortress also by Dan Brown, that appears to be about some uber encryption that has multiple solutions, and renders all the technology that the NSA has useless, and the NSA's attemps to find it before it falls into more sinnister hands.

Over the holiday weekend (4 days of people - fffftt) when I wasn't climbing the Tree, I read the first 4 "Potter" books. I must say I couldn't get into it untill Crookshanks arrived. I'm planning to read the other two this weekend if I don't hit the catnip too hard.


You do some serious speed reading, huh?

The Da Vinci Code for the 2nd time. It's kinda lost it's edge cos I know what's gonna happen, but tis still a great book, can't wait for the filum :)

I hear Tom Hanks is going to star as Langdon with Ian McKellen (Gandalf) as Jacques Sauniere

Im reading 4 books Endurance by Alfred Lansing, a book about the hardships that a group of antarctic explorers that plan to cross the continent, but there ship gets stuck in ice and sunk, and how they survive.

I am also reading ( but at the time of this post I have finished) Dan Browns Angels & Demons a book that deals with conspiracy and such in the catholic curch, and a wee bit of science thrown in.

I am re-reading The Legened of the Jade Phoenix Trilogy by Robert Thurston a book set in the world of the battletech games (Mechwarrior) and it follows the life of a young clasmens journy through training, combat, and finally death.

Finally I just started Digital Fortress also by Dan Brown, that appears to be about some uber encryption that has multiple solutions, and renders all the technology that the NSA has useless, and the NSA's attemps to find it before it falls into more sinnister hands.

I read Endurance this passed summer-it was great! Talk about overcoming hopelessness! Left me wondering what penquins tastse like.

I also read Angels and Demons earlier this year. It gave some great details of the Vatican.

You do some serious speed reading, huh?
Sorcerer's Stone took me just under 4 hours of comfortable reading.

Goblet of fire took almost 8, but I had tinsel to destroy.

I hear Tom Hanks is going to star as Langdon with Ian McKellen (Gandalf) as Jacques Sauniere


I think Tom Hanks is good for the part. I dont see an Englishman playing Sauniere- I was picturing more that French actor from "Ronin".

Sorcerer's Stone took me just under 4 hours of comfortable reading.

Goblet of fire took almost 8, but I had tinsel to destroy.


Thats pretty good.

And-I've seen the end results of a cat playing with tinsel.

The Da Vinci Code for the 2nd time. It's kinda lost it's edge cos I know what's gonna happen, but tis still a great book, can't wait for the filum :)Film adaptions is a two-sided sword

"The master an Margerita" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679760806/ref=pd_bbs_null_1/002-3792332-3777602?v=glance&n=283155), a Russian novel. Kind of surreal, but very original and highly entertaining. Imagine the devil arriving in Moscow in the 1930s....

And I started on Norman Mailer's The nacked and the dead" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312265050/qid=1135896722/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-3792332-3777602?s=books&v=glance&n=283155). Not quite my kind of book, though. But I thought I'd go for a classic again...

"The master an Margerita" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679760806/ref=pd_bbs_null_1/002-3792332-3777602?v=glance&n=283155), a Russian novel. Kind of surreal, but very original and highly entertaining. Imagine the devil arriving in Moscow in the 1930s....

And I started on Norman Mailer's The nacked and the dead" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312265050/qid=1135896722/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-3792332-3777602?s=books&v=glance&n=283155). Not quite my kind of book, though. But I thought I'd go for a classic again...


You might like "I,Lucifer" by Glen Duncan. A story told from the devil's point of view.

Thats pretty good.

And-I've seen the end results of a cat playing with tinsel.
My end results were annoyingly painful. But at least my box got cleaned out afterward.

I learned Tree Decoration from the Masters:

http://www.fluffytails.ca/christmas.asp

That little cardboard shelf is perfect for reading if you get the book under a lightbulb.

You might like "I,Lucifer" by Glen Duncan. A story told from the devil's point of view.
For Love of Evil from Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series is good for that too.

Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchet, one of the discworld novels

pop history trash


goldhagen: hitlers willing executioneers

Sun Tzu's The Art of War, translated by Samuel B. Griffith. Its interesting to flip through now and again.

I'm also reading Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. Its interesting as a light read about Genghis Khan and the Mongols and it explains more of the benefits of Genghis Khan and the Mongols in an attempt to make the Mongols more than just bloodthirsty conquerors. The book is very well researched, in my opinion.

"1491" A study of American Indian Culture before Columbus. Very Good.