I'm about half-way through "Behind Deep Blue", the accidental story of the Deep Blue, the first computer chess machine to get good enough to beat the world's best human chess players.  It's written by the engineer who led the team (Feng-hsiung Hsu).

Although there is a lot of hardware engineering that I don't understand, and very little discussion of AI, which i would have really appreciated, it's still very enjoyable reading and is one of those books that makes you want to go out and tackle an interesting scientific/engineering problem.  Lot's of discussion of the human emotions and misteps behind the race to build the world's best computer chess hardware.

Recently finished Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories, an anthology edited by John Joseph Adams.

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Recently finished Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories, an anthology edited by John Joseph Adams.

Damn, damn, damn, 40hz! I got to have it now.

Harlan Ellison is a minor deity. However he's just starting to become eclipsed. I Have No Mouth is fading just a little to 1984 and Fahrenheit 451.

Tech is doing just fine when we can use it. It's Government and Corps that are deadly today.

Currently reading: a tale etched in blood and hard black pencil by Christopher Brookmyre, one of his free-standing novels (i.e., not part of a series).

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Finished it now.  I was expecting an exuberantly rude story like his first novel, Quite Ugly One Morning, but this is different.  Lots of schoolboy bad language and scatology, but cleverly constructed and well written.
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Synopsis:

We could tell you about the bodies. We could tell you their names, where they were found, the state they were in. We could tell you about the suspects too, the evidence, the investigators; join a few dots, even throw you a motive. But what would be the point? You’re going to make your own assumptions anyway. After all, you know these people, don’t you? You went to school with them. We all did. Granted, that was twenty years ago, but how much does anybody really change? Exactly. So if you really knew them then, you’ll already have all the answers. If you really knew them then…

Put on your uniform and line up in an orderly fashion for the funniest and most accurate trip back to the classroom you are likely to read, as well as a murder mystery like nothing that has gone before it. Forget the forensics: only once you’ve been through school with this painfully believable cast of characters will you be equipped to work out what really happened decades later. Even then, you’ll probably guess wrong and be made to stand in the corner.

Just finished Neal Stephenson's Anathem.  Whew!  What a read!  I found the pacing a bit slow at some points, but overall it's very good:  intellectually stimulating, and a book that you cannot read on auto-pilot, not if you want to appreciate it. 

Now I've downloaded the Kindle version of K.C. May's first book in The Kinshield Legacy.  At over 600-pages in the paperback edition, I figure I got a steal with a 99 cent download ($1.05 final charge).  Compare that to the $11+ price on Amazon for the paperback.

Just finished rereading Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki. I try to reread it at least once every few years, both for pleasure and for the new insights it provides.

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Amazon has a pretty good description of what it's about:

With over one million copies sold fifty years after its first printing, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones has inspired countless lives. Hailed as the most profound religious philosophy ever, this far reaching system of aesthetics truly tackles the question: What is Zen?

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones has been sharing wisdom and enlightenment with readers since 1957. An inspirational four-books-in-one volume at your fingertips, this collection of Zen and pre-Zen writings includes: 101 Zen Stories, a collection of tales that recount actual experiences of Chinese and Japanese Zen teachers over a period of more than five centuries; The Gateless Gate, the famous thirteenth century collection of Zen koans; Ten Bulls, a twelfth century commentary on the stages of awareness leading to enlightenment; and Centering, a 4,000 year-old teaching from India that some consider to be the roots of Zen. ..

About the Author

Paul Reps was the author of several books of poems and prose inspired by Zen, including Zen Telegrams.

Nyogen Senzaki, an internationally renowned Buddhist scholar, was a homeless monk studying and wandering the land from monastery to monastery. His wandering eventually brought him to the United States, where he lived for over 50 years.

I first read this book the summer before the start of my freshman year in high school.

My grandmother had a house on Cape Cod that she occasionally rented out during the summer to friends and people with 'good references.'  

In keeping with one of the many traditions of Cape Cod "summer house" residence, her guests often left behind whatever books they read while on vacation. Over the years, my grandmother's house (by the beach rather than "over the meadow and through the woods") acquired a fairly large library of abandoned paperbacks and inexpensive hardcovers that spanned the gamut of reading interests.

Her living room had a wall of bookshelves on either side of a built-in fireplace. When she first bought the house, these shelves mostly held knick-knacks and her antique Sandwich Glass collection. As the years went by, the books gradually crowded out her collectibles, forcing her to finally move them to a locked (to keep out the books!) curio cabinet she bought specifically to house them.

Most of the books were the usual "summer fare" light espionage, murder mystery, 'bodice-ripper', horror, and (rarely) fantasy & sci-fi titles. But hidden within this collection of literary trash were a few dozen real gems such as The Hobbit and Frank L. Baum's complete collection of 14 illustrated Oz Books in hardcover.

One day, while rummaging, I found a slim little book wedged between and half hidden by a couple of large craft books. It was Zen Flesh Zen Bones. I started reading it, and got hooked before I got less than ten pages into it. And while it may sound trite, I can honestly say this little book changed the course of my entire life - and set me off on a spiritual adventure that's continued to this day.

Dynamite little book.

Read it!

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Cautionary note: This book will change you.

The interesting thing about Zen, and it's way of looking at the world, is that it will change you. And it will do it without your doing anything other than becoming aware of what Zen teaches.

No need for rituals (although there are ritual practices if you want them) or complex rules of ethics (Zen is both ethical and moral - yet it paradoxically professes no creed or moral dogma).

Just read through this book and you'll find your perceptions and beliefs changing in many subtle ways - whether you agree or disagree with what you read. Not that there's anything to really disagree with since Zen doesn't espouse any specific beliefs or doctrines. It simply asks you to become consciously aware of what you think of as yourself and the world around you.

Then, once you've reached that level of awareness - look both inward and beyond. (Note: see the Ten Bulls for one roadmap of how to get there!)

What comes next will both amaze and delight you - even if you'll never be able to actually put into words what you've discovered.

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40hz, i live for recommendations like this.. thanks, ordering..

I'm glad to hear that. Hope you enjoy your journey.

As T.S. Elliot so nicely put it:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.


That pretty much sums up what Zen's all about..

Onward!

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P.S. If you're interested in a detailed 'operator's manual' after you finish ZFZB, check out Philip Kapleau's
 Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment.

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This is THE "first book" if you want to start putting some of ZFZB into actual practice.

Unless, of course, you're already half-enlightened. 

In which case Centering or The 112 Sutras (included in ZFZB) is all you'll need. 

I just finished The Omega Point, by Whitley Streiber.  Pretty entertaining.

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I've read the first 5 books in that series.  Is the one you're reading #6, skwire?

Nope, it's Book 5, I see.  I guess I've only read the first four...

Yep, it's the fifth.  Huge book, too...over 1000 pages.

I've read "The Scar".  Loved it!