14 replies to this topic

[Reno]

What are some good books you've read lately?

Right now I'm reading a real good pre-Christianity russian fiction. I normally try and find authors that like to right in series. It's real nice when I can find a good book and then follow it up with a few good sequels.

C.J Cherryh
Rusalka

Edited by Reno, 13 July 2010 - 09:48 PM.

[James Cain]

Fiction? I'm a huge fan of the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.

[aLurker]

This summer I've been reading books mostly by Gibson, Dawkins and Hitchens. Now I'm reading Feeling good by Burns. Psychotherapy book dealing with how your thoughts interfere with your mood. I'm only halfway through but I'd already recommend it based on the first half. Self-help and psychology books generally have a bad track record for me when it comes to real world applications but I've found that the advice in this book actually works surprisingly well so far.

[aLurker]

Fiction? I'm a huge fan of the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.

I'm a little ashamed to say I haven't read Foundation yet. I definitely have to do that soon.
I'll also give a nod to another great sci-fi classic: Neuromancer by Gibson.

[gregandbeaker]

What are some good books you've read lately?

Right now I'm reading a real good pre-Christianity russian fiction. I normally try and find authors that like to right in series. It's real nice when I can find a good book and then follow it up with a few good sequels.

C.J Cherryh
Rusalka

The last book I read that I really enjoyed was "The Black Swan - The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Nassim Taleb. Not fiction but fascinating stuff.

[Reno]

I'm a little ashamed to say I haven't read Foundation yet. I definitely have to do that soon.
I'll also give a nod to another great sci-fi classic: Neuromancer by Gibson.

Yeah, I read neuromancer a few months back. It was suggested to me at the time by a good friend. It's definitely a deep little book. I could see why it was so ahead of its time. There were moments i needed to reread sections just to keep track of what was going on.

Another good one from the early years of cyberpunk is Islands in the Net by bruce sterling. For me it was much easier to follow then neuromancer, and just as good.

Edited by Reno, 13 July 2010 - 11:59 PM.

[gregandbeaker]

Yeah, I read neuromancer a few months back. It was suggested to me at the time by a good friend. It's definitely a deep little book. I could see why it was so ahead of its time. There were moments i needed to reread sections just to keep track of what was going on.

Another good one from the early years of cyberpunk is Islands in the Net by bruce sterling. For me it was much easier to follow then neuromancer, and just as good.

My favorite by Gibson is Pattern Recognition. My favorite by Sterling is Heavy Weather. Both worth reading!

[Reno]

This is probably one of my favorite books of all time. It started me on the Ringworld series, which I think is probably one of the best scifi series I've ever read. It's an old book. I have my dad's old version from the 70s. But, if you don't have it you can go to amazon and probably pick it up used for a quarter.

In "Protector," this thesis is demonstrated by the appearance of the first alien species to contact humanity: the Pak. We learn that Earth was a failed Pak colony; homo habilis is the Pak breeder stage. At about middle age, homo habilis was supposed to eat a certain plant that would trigger the change to the sexless, armored, highly intelligent protectors. Pak protectors have other notable traits as well, some of which may come as a surprise to those used to more traditional tales of immortality.

Edited by Reno, 04 August 2010 - 02:42 PM.

[Reno]

This is another favorite of mine. You can't be a heroin with multiple personalities.

The spaces between space are full of dragons. The colonists on Guera went mad--one of the plague of mutations that affected all human colonies and drove Earth back from the stars--but their controlled madness meant that they and they alone could cope with hyperspace, could ask the Earth humans they and other new human species hate for past betrayal back into space. But a virus is infecting the human-machine interfaces by which they live and stay sane, and Earth's racists are the prime suspects. Meanwhile, Jamisia, the subject of endless experiments and host to a myriad of alternate personalities, flees Earth's bloody corporate politics in pursuit of safe haven--and everyone wants a piece of her. The hacker known as Phoenix just wants revenge on the makers of the virus for the death of friends.

C.S. Friedman's galaxy full of altered humanities and vicious politics has room in it for tenderness and honor; this is a satisfying space opera because it is full of characters, some of whom will do the right thing. She is good on what stays the same when things change--the austere, mad, security expert Masada and the sweet slob Phoenix are recognizable types, but attractively individualized. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

[Athanasios]

I am mostly a non-fiction reader but my favorite fiction so far:

Favorite Fiction Classics:
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Dubliners - James Joyce
Remembrance of Things Past - Marcel Proust

Favorite SciFi:
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
Dune - Frank Herbert

Favorite Fiction Series:
Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan

Edited by Athanasios, 07 August 2010 - 01:51 AM.

[Reno]

I'll admit that I am mostly a fiction reader, but I do read nonfictions that people swear by.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) is a good one suggested to my a long time few years back by an old professor of mine. I've lent it out several times.

[Athanasios]

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! is a good one suggested to my a long time few years back by an old professor of mine. I've lent it out several times.

I liked it as well. I have tried reading some others on/by Feynman but found that Surely You're Joking was the highlight. I would recommend checking out youtube interviews and such, though.

[Reno]

, sorry about that last post. It was pretty early this morning when it was posted. Normally I'm more clear than that.

[Athanasios]

Some good non-fiction that may interest people at ImmInst:

The Engines of Our Ingenuity - John H. Lienhard
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life - Nick Lane
Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes Us Human - MattRidley

[MindSparks]

This summer I read A Brief History of Time by Hawking and What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. I am planning on reading either a Dawkins, King, Kurzweil, or Kaku book next.