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

40hz · « **Reply #500 on:** December 03, 2013, 09:54 PM »

Quote from: superboyac on December 03, 2013, 09:09 PM

ok...40hz...what is the source of that awesome Cthulhu illustration?

Google!

I've seen it called either Office Space Cthulhu or "Chtulhu wants you to use a spell check."

superboyac · « **Reply #501 on:** December 03, 2013, 10:36 PM »

Quote from: 40hz on December 03, 2013, 09:54 PM

Office Space Cthulhu

Hmm...I'd like to know who the artist is, it's a really nice piece of art.

[edit]
Ah! You can see it on the bottom if you zoom in. Michael Dashow.

more...
He's great!
http://www.michaeldashow.com/illustration.html

40hz · « **Reply #502 on:** December 04, 2013, 03:05 PM »

Black Wings of Cthulhu - 21 Tales of Lovecraftian Horror edited by S.T. Joshi.

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kyrathaba · « **Reply #503 on:** December 08, 2013, 10:40 PM »

"Do I Bother You At Night?" by Troy Ratliff.

panzer · « **Reply #504 on:** December 17, 2013, 09:36 AM »

Free for limited time:
http://www.thelostwordsbooks.com/2013/12/14/holiday-gifts-free-books/#more

mouser · « **Reply #505 on:** December 17, 2013, 06:44 PM »

For those of you into the Cthulhu mythos, there is a really good new board game set in that world, Eldritch Horror:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146021/eldritch-horror
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Redhat · « **Reply #506 on:** December 17, 2013, 08:11 PM »

I don't know how much non-fiction is appreciated around here, but I'm just starting this...

Civilisation - Niall Ferguson

Quote

Winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize 2013 Niall Ferguson's Civilization: The Six Killer Apps of Western Power is a vital, brilliant look at the winning tools of power. In 1412, Europe was a miserable backwater ravaged by plague, bad sanitation and incessant war, while the Orient was home to dazzling civilizations. So how did the West come to dominate the Rest? In this vital, brilliant book, selected as a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year, Niall Ferguson reveals the 'killer applications' that did it: competition - How Europe's small, piratical states built modern capitalism; science - How innovation gave the West the military edge; property rights - How the laws of private property built the United States; medicine - How colonialism transformed the world's health; the consumer society - How shopping made the industrial revolution; and the work ethic - How Western religious ideas brought it all together. But has the West now lost its monopoly on these six things? Or is this the end of Western ascendancy? "A dazzling history of Western ideas ...epic". (Economist). "Vivid and fascinating". (Daily Telegraph). "Superb ...brings history alive ...dazzling".

http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/business/civilization-the-six-killer-apps-of,niall-ferguson-9780141044583

tomos · « **Reply #507 on:** December 17, 2013, 09:58 PM »

Quote from: Redhat on December 17, 2013, 08:11 PM

Civilisation - Niall Ferguson

sounds very interesting - would be great to hear what you think of it when you get through it!

kyrathaba · « **Reply #508 on:** December 17, 2013, 10:53 PM »

I played Cthulhu some in college. Loved it.

panzer · « **Reply #509 on:** December 28, 2013, 08:18 AM »

Moyes: Me Before You
Boyne: The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket

kyrathaba · « **Reply #510 on:** December 28, 2013, 03:35 PM »

I'm reading Tagged: The Apocalypse, by Joseph Chiron. Actually, proofreading it.

40hz · « **Reply #511 on:** February 28, 2014, 09:51 PM »

Looks like Meg Russof's book How I Live Now, which I previously recommended here, is coming to the screen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSaxm68PPT4

Be interesting to see how closely it follows the book - no that there's any reason why it can't. The movie Elizabeth looks a little healthier than I imagined the book character to be. (In the book, she doesn't care to eat beyond absolute necessity for two reasons: (1) it drives her parents crazy; (2) she "kinda likes" the sensation of feeling very hungry.)

Could be worth seeing...

kyrathaba · « **Reply #512 on:** March 01, 2014, 04:03 AM »

I recently read "Irrefutable Proof" by Abby Vandiver. I don't recommend it.

I'm currently reading The Towers of the Sunset by L. E. Modesett, Jr.

skwire · « **Reply #513 on:** March 01, 2014, 04:24 AM »

Quote from: kyrathaba on March 01, 2014, 04:03 AM

I'm currently reading The Towers of the Sunset by L. E. Modesett, Jr.

Nice! I loved The Saga of Recluce series. Wonderful books.

mouser · « **Reply #514 on:** March 01, 2014, 04:59 AM »

Just finishing up: "Biological Learning and Control: How the Brain Builds Representations, Predicts Events, and Makes Decisions" By Reza Shadmehr and Sandro Mussa-Ivaldi

Not as good as I hoped from the table of contents -- nothing really new. At least it moves the ball forward slightly in terms of identifying control topics that need addressing.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/biological-learning-and-control

skwire · « **Reply #515 on:** March 01, 2014, 05:41 AM »

Quote from: mouser on March 01, 2014, 04:59 AM

Just finishing up: "Biological Learning and Control: How the Brain Builds Representations, Predicts Events, and Makes Decisions" By Reza Shadmehr and Sandro Mussa-Ivaldi

So, mouser, when are you going to graduate from reading kiddie books and get into some good sci-fi or fantasy?

mouser · « **Reply #516 on:** March 04, 2014, 06:00 PM »

I'm happy to be done with "How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed" by Ray Kurzweil

You can file this one away as another famous narcissist with money getting more famous with a self-indulgent book that is mostly empty of insight and full of self promotion. Blech. Terrible.

40hz · « **Reply #517 on:** March 04, 2014, 07:27 PM »

Quote from: mouser on March 04, 2014, 06:00 PM

I'm happy to be done with "How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed" by Ray Kurzweil

You can file this one away as another famous narcissist with money getting more famous with a self-indulgent book that is mostly empty of insight and full of self promotion. Blech. Terrible.

Blech?

Terrible?

You're far too kind. For some reason the phrase "sucks out loud" keeps popping into my head every time I think back on reading that book.

40hz · « **Reply #518 on:** March 04, 2014, 07:54 PM »

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: And the Beginning of the Modern World by Thomas Cahill.

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x16wda · « **Reply #519 on:** March 05, 2014, 03:06 AM »

Just reread The Demolished Man (Alfred Bester)... it was shorter than I remembered. Next will be The Werewolf Principle (Clifford Simak) and then Neuromancer (William Gibson), and then the Ray Feist series that starts with Magician: Apprentice and runs through A Darkness At Sethanon.

(I had a hankering to reread Neuromancer, and stumbled across a box of oldies in the attic. Treasure -- it also contained some of my Dad's old Ace Doubles that me and my brothers found in his attic lo these many years ago!)

After these I'll start a Neal Stephenson series (Quicksilver is book 1)... I was looking for Snow Crash but found this instead.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #520 on:** March 05, 2014, 09:59 AM »

Quote from: 40hz on March 04, 2014, 07:27 PM

Quote from: mouser on March 04, 2014, 06:00 PM
I'm happy to be done with "How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed" by Ray Kurzweil

You can file this one away as another famous narcissist with money getting more famous with a self-indulgent book that is mostly empty of insight and full of self promotion. Blech. Terrible.

Blech?

Terrible?

You're far too kind. For some reason the phrase "sucks out loud" keeps popping into my head every time I think back on reading that book.

I dunno. Even books that "repeat" stuff have value for me. Let's say you begin to suspect that it's like that ... then just skim it. Then you can just learn the few new nuances. Going sideways this is the true key to that old "Library vs Purchase" discussion - you borrow the Kurzweil book, make your ten pages of new notes, and then give it back. For a really good book, you buy it because you plan to want to look at it for a long time!

mouser · « **Reply #521 on:** March 07, 2014, 03:29 PM »

Just finished Les Valiant's book "Probably Approximately Correct: Nature’s Algorithms for Learning and Prospering in a Complex World".
Sorry to say, another crap book almost devoid of useful content. Could be boiled down to a 5 page paper without loss.

Valiant's past contribution to machine learning was a useful way of formalizing some guarantees about a class of "Probably, Approximately Correct (PAC)" algorithms. His attempt at branding that as a theory of intelligence falls painfully short.

allen · « **Reply #522 on:** March 07, 2014, 09:24 PM »

Just finished Tread Lightly: Form, Footwear, and the Quest for Injury-Free Running, it was pretty interesting. Although it was rather inconclusive, it did dispel some things I'd taken for granted.

I may not finish The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing -- there's a ton of great info in here, but he's extraordinarily long winded and repetitive and I'm starting to think I've gleaned all I'm gonna... as with your book there mouser, I feel like it could have been boiled down to a few pages. (Actually, it has. By the same author. )

Finally, I'm reading Ancillary Justice and it's a bit mind blowing. I haven't enjoyed a sci-fi book so much in a very long time.

Vurbal · « **Reply #523 on:** March 07, 2014, 10:02 PM »

Quote from: mouser on March 07, 2014, 03:29 PM

Valiant's past contribution to machine learning was a useful way of formalizing some guarantees about a class of "Probably, Approximately Correct (PAC)" algorithms. His attempt at branding that as a theory of intelligence falls painfully short.

Intelligence is such a difficult thing to put your finger on. In a lot of ways I think I understand it better than most so-called experts, as if there really was such a thing. The problem is I can't really explain what I think I've figured out for the same reason I was able to figure it out - because it's so complex.

mouser · « **Reply #524 on:** March 13, 2014, 09:37 PM »

Just finished "The Code Book" by Simon Singh:

Good stuff. Gives a nice history of cryptography up to the present.