Author Topic: What books are you reading? (Read 737611 times)

40hz · « **Reply #425 on:** May 01, 2013, 07:29 AM »

Book 3 throws all of that out. Suddenly, it's omniscient third person narration with countless points of view, few of which are familiar characters from the previous books. What started as survival horror is now a mashup of government conspiracy, tactical shooter and science fiction. Yeah, there's aliens in it now.
-allen (April 30, 2013, 10:17 PM)

Things like that make me wonder if the same author actually wrote it. Some publishers have this bad habit of convincing authors to franchise their name, and then supply a small team of writers to finish a series or write the half dozen sequels that follow the first two. $:-\$

kyrathaba · « **Reply #426 on:** May 01, 2013, 07:31 AM »

There ought to be a law mandating disclosure when this is done.

40hz · « **Reply #427 on:** May 01, 2013, 07:39 AM »

There ought to be a law mandating disclosure when this is done.
-kyrathaba (May 01, 2013, 07:31 AM)

Should - but there probably never will be. The institution of 'ghostwriter' is too well established and understood that any attempt to characterize the practice as misleading, or a form of false advertising, would probably be dismissed as "unnecessary and excessive government regulation" by our enlightened legislatures.

Unless, of course, Amazon and/or B&N objected to the practice - since those two are rapidly becoming the gatekeepers and de facto arbiters of the 'printed' word in North America.

mouser · « **Reply #428 on:** May 01, 2013, 07:50 AM »

Just read a couple of books on Django in my ongoing quest to design the next best web framework..

kyrathaba · « **Reply #429 on:** May 01, 2013, 08:00 AM »

Keep it up, mouser. Considering the mass adoption of Screenshot Captor, I believe you could do it. Man, what a LOT of work, though...

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #430 on:** May 01, 2013, 08:18 AM »

Just read a couple of books on Django in my ongoing quest to design the next best web framework..
-mouser (May 01, 2013, 07:50 AM)

Maybe these guys can help!

http://www.bbc.co.uk.../technology-22249490

40hz · « **Reply #431 on:** May 01, 2013, 08:48 AM »

Just read a couple of books on Django in my ongoing quest to design the next best web framework..
-mouser (May 01, 2013, 07:50 AM)

Maybe these guys can help!

http://www.bbc.co.uk.../technology-22249490

-TaoPhoenix (May 01, 2013, 08:18 AM)

^What's up with these Google AdSense robot pseudo-posts in the forums?

Something new DoCo is doing?

UPDATE:

Oops! Never mind. Just found the other thread discussing it.

I skipped reading it earlier because I personally despise most things Google.

tomos · « **Reply #432 on:** May 01, 2013, 09:00 AM »

^What's up with these Google AdSense robot pseudo-posts in the forums?

Something new DoCo is doing?
-40hz (May 01, 2013, 08:48 AM)

see Google ad test
doesnt seem to be going very well... (scroll down to the screenshots)

mouser · « **Reply #433 on:** May 06, 2013, 12:35 PM »

Reading SQL Antipatterns:

41ou7ExQndL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_SX240_SY320_CR,0,0,240,320_SH20_OU01_.jpg

Nice to read discussions of lots of dilemnas in database design, and a good balanced discussion of when you might bend the "good practice" rules, and why you might not want to..

My only dissapointment is there are no good solutions to many of these dilemmas (at least using an sql RDBMS), as I was hoping to discover

40hz · « **Reply #434 on:** May 06, 2013, 01:41 PM »

@mouser - Thx for finding that book!

I love SQL. Well...ok...maybe not love it. But I find it fun and very useful.

The real problem with SQL is "it is what it is" IMHO. Cobb had a design that proved inefficient to implement in all of it's mathematical majesty. So what we have for RDBMS systems is a compromise between his concept and our needing to do some useful things with it - but without getting needlessly bogged down in too much mathematic purity. SQL, by virtue of the fact it works with with the RDBMS model, inherits that same problem.

Maybe someday we'll have a better database model (and query language), and books like SQL Antipatterns won't be necessary any more. But I doubt it since they have yet to find a single database model that is a perfect fit for every case.

Now excuse me. I gotta go get me a copy of this book.

Tuxman · « **Reply #435 on:** May 06, 2013, 07:13 PM »

I just started to read the Discworld series. Boring stuff, but I still need to find something better... my favorite authors are slow these days.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #436 on:** May 06, 2013, 09:24 PM »

I'm on book 8 of the 10-book Abyssal Plague series. Quite good, overall.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #437 on:** May 08, 2013, 11:29 AM »

I'm on the last book of the aforementioned Abyssal Plague series. Discovered I'd reported the reading-order in error. Here is the corrected reading-order:

40hz · « **Reply #438 on:** May 08, 2013, 12:43 PM »

C.S. Lewis. This time out I'm working through all his non-fiction titles. Again.

Awesome writer even if you don't agree with his philosophical and theological positions.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #439 on:** May 08, 2013, 09:54 PM »

+1 re Lewis.

4wd · « **Reply #440 on:** May 08, 2013, 11:32 PM »

Just finished all 14 books of Andy McNab' Nick Stone series, now onto Flashforward by Robert Sawyer.

41eL1vf1y1L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-52,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

Question for all you book nuts, anyone know where I can get ebook versions of L. P. Davies'^w novels?

My dad has most of his in hardcover, so I can always go nick them, but I'd like to read them again, (it's some of the best sci-fi I've read), on my phone rather than cart a book around.

Actually, I should nick them anyway before they end up in an Op Shop. $:-\$

kyrathaba · « **Reply #441 on:** May 09, 2013, 05:40 PM »

@40hz: There's a new biography of C. S. Lewis out by Alister McGrath.

http://www.thethoughtfulchristian.com/Products/9781613753798/c-s-lewis--a-life-eccentric-genius-reluctant-prophet.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/C-S-Lewis-Eccentric-Reluctant/dp/1414339356/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368139172&sr=8-1&keywords=eccentric+genius+reluctant+prophet

40hz · « **Reply #442 on:** May 09, 2013, 07:34 PM »

@k - thx for the heads up on on that new bio. Looks really good!

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #443 on:** May 13, 2013, 12:55 PM »

From Pilgrim's recent post:

I was a prolific reader in those days and I very soon exhausted our own library, fortunately the Abbot gave me a special dispensation to go into the local town every couple of weeks to use the public library.

He considered me to be quite studious but it wasn't strictly true. In one of our unused storerooms I had found a big old copy of a commentary on the bible, you know the sort of thing, leather cover and a clasp to prevent it coming open. I cleaned it up and carried it everywhere but what he didn't know was that I had hollowed it out and used to use it for storing books by authors like Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, and D.H. Lawrence, none of whom were on the order's list of required reading.

My visits to the public library carried on for some time but they sadly came to an end when I took out this young librarian.
-pilgrim (May 13, 2013, 11:44 AM)

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #444 on:** May 13, 2013, 12:57 PM »

Meanwhile I'm reading a few Maupassant short stories this week/month.

dspelley · « **Reply #445 on:** May 13, 2013, 08:15 PM »

Burglars Can't Be Choosers

First in the entertaining Bernie Rhodenbarrr "Burglar" series.

Burglars_can't_be_choosers.jpg

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #446 on:** June 04, 2013, 08:49 PM »

Learning made fun:
"I am a bug" - notes on software development and other tech activities.

http://www.amibug.com/iamabug/p01.html

Because:
1. Adorable pictures for the "Executive Summary" when you are too tired to think.
2. Nice "pop-up" explanations for when you can feel like reading actual ... words! (gasp!) But still broad enough for non-programmers like me!
3. Give it to a child without the software stuff - the power of subversive learning: priceless!

kyrathaba · « **Reply #447 on:** June 05, 2013, 07:43 AM »

Finished the 10-book Abyssal Plague series, and since then have read all 10 T. H. Lain books, ending with The Death Ray.

40hz · « **Reply #448 on:** June 05, 2013, 11:05 AM »

Just finished Clive Barker's Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium - a series of six short stories released as individual chapters packaged with an action figure. I thank my friend Mike for letting me borrow his collection (sans figures) to read.

If you're a fan of Clive Barker, or just curious to delve into more of the vision that produced the Cenobites and the Hellraiser universe, this is a disturbing addition to the corpus.

Cautionary note: Mssr. Barker has both a vision, and a very good descriptive handle, on a dark realm of absolute evil and those that call it home. Clive's bad guys go well beyond the baddest of the bad. We are talking stark satanic evil here. Not for the faint hearted or those who are easily shocked. I'm fairly hardheaded when it comes to fiction since I know it's just a story. But some of Clive's scenes and concepts even I found to be more than a little disturbing. Reader discretion advised.

Here's an excerpt from the first book. It deals with a character called Agonistes. It is implied (though never stated) that Agonistes is the creator of the Cenobites found in Hellraiser. Those who follow the Hellraiser series will probably recognize him/her/it as the enigmatic creature the Cenobites call The Engineer.

app103 · « **Reply #449 on:** June 05, 2013, 03:03 PM »

I am reading the Connie Francis autobiography "Who's Sorry Now?" which I am not sure why I even own it, but I can't get rid of it to make room on my bookshelf for something else until I have read it, so I am. So far, I'd rate it as a great cure for insomnia, with more fluff than my pillow.