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What books are you reading?
mouser:
I just finished Gallistel's "Memory and the Computational Brain"; not as good a read as Organization of Action/Learning but kind of an important book for neuroscientists to read. Well at least the first and last chapters, which argue forcefully that current models of computation and memory in the brain are lacking fundamental properties of agile explicit representation and manipulation of symbols.
Now i need to pick another book..
f0dder:
erotic Western thriller-zridling (February 17, 2010, 11:09 PM)
--- End quote ---
"Erotic western" and "western thriller" don't compute! :)
steeladept:
kyrathaba - I see you have the same taste in books I do, though I haven't read either of those. I HAVE read a great many of Piers Anthony's works as well as all of the Honor Harrington series of David Weber's. Another author I really like if you are interested is Dennis McKiernen (his last name may not be spelled right). Also, my wife, who is a more avid recreational reader than myself, really likes Elizabeth Moon. They are not authors of Space/Future fantasy like the two books you mentioned, but they are traditional fantasy instead. Still you may want to look at those authors and see if they interest you as well. If you like Piers Anthony, another series I really like if you haven't read them yet is the Apprentice Adept series. It is a cross-over series of fantasy books - both traditional and sci-fi/future fantasy. Well written and very entertaining.
As for books I am currently reading, well I am mostly reading work-related whitepapers so I rarely read books anymore. If I had to say one, though, it would have to be Terry Pratchett's Soul Music. And I just finished reading the last Harry Potter book, so that series is done. :D
Darwin:
Haven't posted in a while. This is what I can remeber from the past month:
Just finished "The Neck of the Giraffe" by Francis Hitchings, which was very disappointing, primarily because its treatment of evolutionary theory is VERY uneven - in places I got the impression he hadn't a clue about what he is writing about (natural selection) and yet in others I thought he did a reasonable job of presenting the concepts (genetics). I am currently reading Richard Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth", which is better. Next up are "The Humans Who Went Extinct: Why Neanderthals died out and we survived" by Clive Finlayson and "The Calculus Lifesaver" by Adrian Banner. Prior to "The Neck of the Giraffe", I read "North America's great ape, the Sasquatch : a wildlife biologist looks at the continent's most misunderstood large mammal" by John A. Bindernagel (his grandsons are in my sons' classes at school) and "Sasquatch : legend meets science" by Jeff Meldrum. I found the last quite disappointing. Bindernagel's book didn't get preachy or try to "convert" the reader to the cause, he simply stated at the outset that he was making the assumption that Big Foot/Sasquatches are real and presented a discussion and interpretation of the evidence. Meldrum's book was almost evangelical in its presentation of the evidence and anecdotes, which I found annoying. I remain very skeptical about the existence of sasquatches, but enjoy reading about them.
The last fiction that I read were: "Through Black Spruce" by Joseph Boyden (excellent), Michael Connelley's penultimate effort, "The Scarecrow" (very good), and "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card - one of my all time favourites. I have a P.D. James novel queued up for a read courtesy of my mother, but I don't know the title.
EDIT: added links
EDIT 2: added a missing link ;D
kyrathaba:
Steeladept, thanks for the suggestions. I read the Apprentice Adept series years ago, but wouldn't mind a re-read. Here are some more authors I've enjoyed:
Fred Saberhagen
Troy Denning
Raymond E. Feist
David Eddings
China Mieville
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