Author Topic: What books are you reading? (Read 1,140,538 times)

mouser · « **on:** October 17, 2009, 03:03 AM »

Thought it might be nice to have a thread where we could talk about what books we are reading and share thoughts and recommendations, etc.

This week I finally started going through Chris Bishop's "Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning":
http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Recognition-Learning-Information-Statistics/dp/0387310738

So far i'm really liking it, though its more heavy on math and lacking in higher-level discussion than i would like.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #1 on:** October 17, 2009, 03:54 AM »

Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience
Ginette Paris

and

The Guards
Ken Bruen

invenit · « **Reply #2 on:** October 17, 2009, 04:05 AM »

"Beginning the Linux Command Line" by Sander van Vugt http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Linux-Command-Line-Sander/dp/1430218894/ref=sr_1_1/182-1397475-4247438?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255751554&sr=8-1

Scott Granneman's "Linux Phrasebook" wet my appetite, and Sander's book gets under the hood without being overwhelming.

40hz · « **Reply #3 on:** October 17, 2009, 04:10 AM »

This week I'm rereading Gerald M. Weinberg's Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Getting and Giving Advice Successfully for about the 20th time. Excellent commentary and insight into the oftentimes paradoxical world of expert advice. More than a book, it's a collection of usable tools.

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tanis424 · « **Reply #4 on:** October 17, 2009, 05:36 AM »

They're all much too high brow.

Just got the latest Discworld novel - Unseen Academicals.

CleverCat · « **Reply #5 on:** October 17, 2009, 06:25 AM »

Audio Books as I can't hold a 'real' book...

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4wd · « **Reply #6 on:** October 17, 2009, 06:40 AM »

In between atm, but just finished part 3 of Dean Koontz's take on Frankenstein:

Dead and Alive

And looking forward to the continuing saga of Jack West in 4 days:

CleverCat · « **Reply #7 on:** October 17, 2009, 07:05 AM »

Dean Koontz is an amazing writer - I've read his books (when I could hold them)...

He has a style second to none!

Deozaan · « **Reply #8 on:** October 17, 2009, 07:49 AM »

I don't know how great of a site this is, but I have family and friends on http://www.goodreads.com/ which is a site that does exactly what this thread is for.

You can list the books you've read, write reviews, put books in your "to-read" list, display which book(s) you're currently reading.

I just signed up on it yesterday, but haven't spent the time to thoroughly go through it yet.

bluesear · « **Reply #9 on:** October 17, 2009, 08:36 AM »

Interesting topic!
I like reading books about linguistics. Hope for more.

4wd · « **Reply #10 on:** October 17, 2009, 09:01 AM »

Quote from: CleverCat on October 17, 2009, 07:05 AM

Dean Koontz is an amazing writer - I've read his books (when I could hold them)...

He has a style second to none!

I have to agree, (naturally), his recent Frankenstein trilogy is more reminiscent of his earlier style, IMHO, which I preferred more than his later "romance adventures", eg. Dark Rivers of the Heart, Lightning, etc. Although he does throw some really good ones in from time-to-time, eg. The Taking, Seize the Night, Fear Nothing.

Richard Laymon is good for "what if coincidence...." type of novels but for pure non-stop action from virtually page one, it's got to be Matthew Reilly

Bond, (James Bond), is a nancy boy compared to Scarecrow, (Captain Shane Schofield), and Huntsman, (Jack West Jr)

40hz · « **Reply #11 on:** October 17, 2009, 12:37 PM »

Quote from: tanis424 on October 17, 2009, 05:36 AM

They're all much too high brow.

Just got the latest Discworld novel - Unseen Academicals.

Don't let what I'm currently reading fool you. I'm nowhere near that high brow.

(I'm also a big Pratchette fan. I've read everything he's written - and I'm always on the lookout for the next Discworld installment. Great books, all of them.

)

For recreational reading, I just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind.

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Love, civil war, mystery, and books (including a secret library of forgotten and "lost" works) - plus a mysterious dead author, whose works of strange fiction are being systematically hunted down and destroyed by a sinister figure.

A plot summary doesn't do it justice. A friend handed it to me when I asked her what it was about and told to me read a little of it instead.

I was hooked after I got about 3 pages into it.

International bestseller.(And for once, deservedly so.) Truly awesome book.

tanis424 · « **Reply #12 on:** October 17, 2009, 01:24 PM »

Quote from: 40hz on October 17, 2009, 12:37 PM

For recreational reading, I just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind.

Sounds interesting, added to my "to read" list.

I've recently been reading the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich - 15 books so far with several novellas too. No need to bring your brain for these, just sheer fun at the expense of Stephanie Plum and an amazing cast of characters, including her Grandmother who's described as "a soup chicken wearing a tracksuit".

Darwin · « **Reply #13 on:** October 17, 2009, 03:35 PM »

Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog (translated from the French). It's early days yet and I haven't yet decided if I like it...

I haven't read an academic book in about six months

I quit my PhD program in January and haven't had much desire since

I have a huge backlog of books that I purchased prior to that and have not yet read. Maybe after I get through this novel and revisit some of them...

zridling · « **Reply #14 on:** October 18, 2009, 02:43 PM »

Philosophy and Chess stuff.

David Ray Griffin -- Whitehead's Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy

Alexander Alekhine -- My Best Games of Chess, 1908-1937

TucknDar · « **Reply #15 on:** October 18, 2009, 05:32 PM »

Currently "Battle Royale" and a few books on childhood in relation to my studies.

I've got a huge list of books (fiction) that I want to get through, too... looking forward to next summer when my studies will be over

gpetrant · « **Reply #16 on:** October 21, 2009, 12:16 PM »

(I started it back in 2002. Unfortunately, I can't seem to motivate myself to finish it...and I'm also dealing with self-esteem issues too, now that I've put on a lot of weight. Hopefully, no one will spoil the ending for me. It's the ~~trip~~ journey that counts, not the denistation

.)

PPLandry · « **Reply #17 on:** October 21, 2009, 01:19 PM »

Quote from: 40hz on October 17, 2009, 12:37 PM

For recreational reading, I just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind.

+1 for Zafon's book. Great suspense in beautiful Barcelona!

Currently reading Michel Folco trilogy: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_loup_est_un_loup

rjbull · « **Reply #18 on:** November 08, 2009, 04:09 PM »

Quote from: tanis424 on October 17, 2009, 01:24 PM

I've recently been reading the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich - 15

I gave up on those when they all began to seem the same - off-sage hot sex and on-stage comfort food...

rjbull · « **Reply #19 on:** November 08, 2009, 04:23 PM »

Currently reading Kate Elliot's "Traitors' Gate," third in her Crossroads series. She's a good fantasist, but this one isn't to my mind as good as her earlier Crown of Stars sequence. Before finding that one, I'd begun to think that fantasies set in pseudo-Mediaeval pseudo-North European milieus were, however enjoyable, using a paint-by-numbers public domain background. Crown of Stars changed my view on that. She used the very early Middle Ages, and made it grittily real, rather than starting from unconsidered hand-me-down retellings of Arthurian legend. The marvellous inverted version of Christianity is fascinating and the character development is excellent.

Darwin · « **Reply #20 on:** November 08, 2009, 05:01 PM »

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tomos · « **Reply #21 on:** November 08, 2009, 09:58 PM »

Quote from: Darwin on November 08, 2009, 05:01 PM

(see attachment in previous post)

Can you give us a summary when you're done

Darwin · « **Reply #22 on:** November 08, 2009, 10:04 PM »

Sure - it's about the theory of games and its application to evolution

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #23 on:** November 09, 2009, 01:48 PM »

Crush · « **Reply #24 on:** November 09, 2009, 02:46 PM »

I´m now a proud owner of the full Game Programming Gems Series and some other interesting things like Game Programming AI by Example or Physics for Game Developers. It´s so much material that I can´t work through within the next year.