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Last post Author Topic: What books are you reading?  (Read 676722 times)

MilesAhead

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #600 on: October 05, 2015, 02:58 PM »


The Forever War

It looks like they may finally be making a movie from it.

I am only 30 or 40 pages in.  But the writing style is fine and the plot does not lag.  It may bother some people that the future dates used in the story have gone by and we still don't have faster than light space travel.  It doesn't bother me.  It is a novel after all.  I don't see that the dates matter.

Edit:  But it may be part of the genius of H.G. Wells that his hero in The Time Machine traveled way into the future like 80,000 years A.D. or something like that.  It will take a long time for the critics to complain about the future date arriving and the predictions being off the mark.  Also Wells has the advantage of being dead.  Much easier to maintain a deaf ear with that strategy.  ;)
« Last Edit: October 05, 2015, 03:03 PM by MilesAhead »

f0dder

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #601 on: October 05, 2015, 03:22 PM »
It looks like they may finally be making a movie from it.
I hope they don't - it's a pretty good book, no reason to screw it up with a bad teal-and-orange Hollywood crapover :)
- carpe noctem

MilesAhead

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #602 on: October 05, 2015, 05:51 PM »
It looks like they may finally be making a movie from it.
I hope they don't - it's a pretty good book, no reason to screw it up with a bad teal-and-orange Hollywood crapover :)

Yeah.  Once in awhile they surprise me with a decent adaptation.  But not often enough.  :)

That reminds me when I saw Ayn Rand at Ford Hall Forum in Boston.  She took questions from the audience after her lecture.  The person asked about the status of the rights to Atlas Shrugged.  She answered "safely in my possession."  Of course that got a round of applause and cheers.  I watched the first third of the Shrugged movie trilogy.  I won't bother with the rest.  Other than money changing hands I did not see the point of making that flick.  A puppet show would have done a better job of conveying the ideas.  And I always hated puppet shows.  :)


panzer

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #603 on: October 21, 2015, 03:14 AM »
If anyone is interested:
Dedoimedo is giving his books for free:
http://www.thelostwo...7/more-free-books-2/

MilesAhead

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #604 on: October 21, 2015, 07:58 AM »
Dedoimedo

I get "server not found" on that link.


ewemoa

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #605 on: October 21, 2015, 08:11 AM »

MilesAhead

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #606 on: October 21, 2015, 08:23 AM »
http://www.thelostwo...7/more-free-books-2/

FWIW, the above worked from here.

Looks like some DNS lookup issues on the WiFi.  This link works for me now but I have the same error from another link in a PM on DC.  Weird.  :)

panzer

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #607 on: October 27, 2015, 06:00 AM »

mouser

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #608 on: November 07, 2015, 05:17 PM »
Philosophy of Set Theory:
Thin stuff, not for the faint of heart; some good sections but mostly confusing.
Screenshot - 11_7_2015 , 5_11_53 PM.png

Labyrinth of Thought: A History of Set Theory:
Very hard to get purchase here without a better background in the history of the math.
Screenshot - 11_7_2015 , 5_11_45 PM.png

Surfing Uncertainty, Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind:
Just started it but so far it's excellent.
Screenshot - 11_7_2015 , 5_12_48 PM.png

More Than Two: A practical guide to ethical polyamory
Interesting and very nicely written; useful for getting a perspective on an alternate lifestyle
Screenshot - 11_7_2015 , 5_12_41 PM.png

panzer

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #609 on: November 11, 2015, 03:16 AM »





MilesAhead

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #610 on: November 12, 2015, 07:00 AM »
I have found another Sci Fi author with a series of novels that I enjoy.

The Joe Haldeman novels I have read:

Forever War
Accidental Time Machine
Camouflage

I just finished Camouflage.  I will go to the library later today for yet another Haldeman novel.  :Thmbsup:


panzer

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #611 on: November 30, 2015, 10:29 AM »

MilesAhead

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #612 on: November 30, 2015, 12:16 PM »
I just finished reading Faster Than Light by John Lucas again.

It may have been written for high school students judging by the humor.  But I enjoyed it.  The "exit interview" on the first page got me hooked.  If you hate the first couple of pages move on because the whole story is done in the same style.  :)

40hz

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #613 on: November 30, 2015, 01:59 PM »
Mike Hernandez's classic Database Design for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design Still the single best book on the topic of relational database design AFAIC. Now in its 3rd edition. I'm reading it to see what's changed since the previous two editions - both of which I own and read. :

rdbms.jpg

And purely for recreation, Haven Kimmel's A Girl Named Zippy. One of the best coming of age autobiographical essays ever. There isn't a page without at least one funny anecdote of quotable sentence on it.

zippy.jpg


panzer

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #614 on: December 01, 2015, 04:49 AM »

Renegade

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #615 on: December 14, 2015, 09:57 PM »
Mike Hernandez's classic Database Design for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design Still the single best book on the topic of relational database design AFAIC. Now in its 3rd edition. I'm reading it to see what's changed since the previous two editions - both of which I own and read. :

[ Invalid Attachment ]


Hey, please do report back on anything interesting.

I was doing some data work for someone recently, and was screaming inside about how awful the data was. This stuff should have been in the 6th normal form and it was in the 2nd.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

MilesAhead

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #616 on: December 15, 2015, 06:49 AM »
Back with Joe Haldeman.  The first of the Mars trilogy


MilesAhead

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Joe Haldeman Mars Trilogy v. 2
« Reply #617 on: December 17, 2015, 04:14 PM »
Volume 2 of Joe Haldeman's Mars Bound trilogy


Renegade

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #618 on: December 18, 2015, 12:51 AM »
Volume 2 of Joe Haldeman's Mars Bound trilogy

Damn! You're either a VERY fast reader or you have a lot of time on your hands!

Then again, I did read a fiction book a few months ago, and it was quite quick to get through. (I think I posted it above.) About all of my reading is technical, and it takes me a while to get through it. :(
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

MilesAhead

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #619 on: December 18, 2015, 06:45 AM »
Damn! You're either a VERY fast reader or you have a lot of time on your hands!

Slow reader with lots of time  :)
These are only @275 pp or so.  A good size for the suitcase.  Even hardback isn't too heavy to drag.  :)


tomos

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #621 on: December 26, 2015, 12:55 PM »
Free e-books if anyone is interested:
@panzer,
I cross posted your links to a Free eBooks thread
Tom

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #622 on: December 26, 2015, 01:34 PM »
I'm just after finishing Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue The Untold History of English by John McWhorter (amazon link).

The main topic is the evolution of English grammar -- the way he writes suggests he's proposing theories that are not generally accepted. Writing style a bit odd at times, but I got used to it. Well worth reading imo :up:

Two main points are that, compared to Proto-Germanic, (the ancestor of all Germanic languages) and also to other modern Germanic languages:

English gained from the native Celtic languages:
  • what he describes as a meaningless 'do', e.g. why do we use the word 'do'? Apparently unknown almost anywhere else in the world apart from the native Celtic languages (he quotes Welsh & Cornish)
  • we also gained the phrasing: I am writing -- instead of I write as in other Germanic languages e.g. ich schreibe

and English lost via the Vikings (more info below):
  • loads of suffixes (especially with verbs, but also nouns)
  • nouns having gender
  • most reflexive verbs -- e.g. the German ich erinnere mich translates to I remember. Remnants in English are e.g. I behave myself
  • hither / tither / man (now one/you) / some prefixes / etc.
  • using the 'be' verb to make a past tense of action verbs -- a remnant of same from Jane Austen: I am so glad we are got acquainted
The Viking theory involve a huge influx of adults who learned the language fairly poorly and passed this on to their kids. A different but comparable modern example being when immigrants want to give their children the new language, and they haven't already learned it well themselves, the children tend to learn a simplified version of same.
Tom

Attronarch

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #623 on: January 20, 2016, 08:59 AM »
Just finished:



Currently reading:


mouser

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Re: What books are you reading?
« Reply #624 on: February 11, 2016, 11:14 PM »
Decided to try to refresh some of my high-school and college math skills.  Read a couple of very lightweight intro books on statistics.. next up is some calculus.