[September] What are you reading?

Hjorimir · Sep 3, 2009

I'm reading Eclipse Phase and trying to wrap my head around the setting as a whole. So far, I like what I'm seeing.

RangerWickett · Sep 3, 2009

Hjorimir said:
I'm reading Eclipse Phase and trying to wrap my head around the setting as a whole. So far, I like what I'm seeing.

I decided to read Altered Carbon specifically because it was suggested for Eclipse Phase. I think it gives a good idea of how the setting could work, since it's obviously a major inspiration for the designers.

Jack7 · Sep 3, 2009

Non-fiction:

The Travels of Marco Polo - I read this as a kid, now I'm re-reading it and finding it even far more fascinating than the first time I read it. I've got an old copy version translated from the Italian but still preserving many of the original terms. I also got an unabridged copy of the book on tape and have been listening to that. Polo was a brilliant explorer and gets far too little credit for his actual achievements and observations.

The Codex of Archimedes - I started reading this because of the work of translation regarding the Palimpsest. But to my great amazement and enjoyment it had extracts from the newly discovered Method sections and it had an analysis of some of Archimedes's methods for measuring infinity as a geometric principle. This gave me an idea for one of my own equations. I've been working on a mathematical formula for the resolution of infinity for about ten years now. When I read of what Archimedes was doing it suddenly struck me that I could achieve a result by approaching the problem as a geometric, rather than a theoretical one. Then I was able to finish my equation. Or one of them, because my original equation has led to suspect that there are three different types of infinity. Once I run the equation through numerous tests and try and examine the intermix of every variable to my satisfaction then I'll seek to publish it. I'm also gonna write the equation in a simple, ordinary language version, and in a more standardized, mathematically symbolic version. But this book was extremely helpful as the inspiration for helping me look at the problem in a very different light. I highly recommend it.

The Survivors Club - A very useful book about human factors in survival situations. I found the equation on "luck" {λ(E) = ∆(E) x [1-pr(E)] = ∆(E) x pr(not-E)} to be a fascinating way of looking at good fortune not as a matter of chance, but as a matter of risk. It even gave me some ideas about "Fortune" as both a matter of "enterprise-risk" and as one of "game and/or speculated-risk"

Fiction

I just finished the Dresden novel Dead Beat and now I'm reading Turn Coat. I like both books but I think I'm liking Turn Coat so much because of the situation where Dresden is secretly investigating the Council (something he should have done long ago) and because of the situation with Morgan.

Black Hand - This excellent little detective novel speculates on the Mafia operating in Victorian London rather than in Sicily or America. It is quite good and reminds me a lot of Arthur Conan Doyle, but more informal and looser in style, especially narrative style and point of view.

The Daughter of Time - This is a really interesting book I'm listening to on CD about a Scotland Yard dick who is up in the hospital. To keep himself from getting bored during his recovery he examines portraits of people and decides to investigate the case involving Richard the III. It is written in a really wordy, snooty sort of English style, but the story and detective work are pretty fascinating. I'm not very far into it yet but it is very good. It will be interesting to see what conclusions the main character draws about who killed the Princes, assuming of course they were killed.

Soon, with my daughters (as part of their homeschooling) I'm gonna start re-reading the Great Books of the Western World, but this time from beginning to end. One book a month or so. That will be part of my non-fiction studies, and part of their general education.

olla86 · Sep 9, 2009

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jonesy · Sep 10, 2009

Einsohns's Copyeditors Handbook, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, and Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces.

S. Baldrick · Sep 10, 2009

Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

Jack7 · Sep 10, 2009

I liked that,

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

and that,

Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces

and that:

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

I just finally finished Rough Weather by Bob Parker. I was really hesitant at first because in the first place I didn't know how he could possibly hold a candle to Jesse Stone as far as being a Dick. And secondly my father used to always watch Spencer for Hire which I'm pretty sure was based on the Spencer Novels, because of what I remember about Hawk. I tried watching the show a couple of times but just didn't think Spence in the show was much of a Dick at all. And didn't care for Hawk much either.

But after reading Rough Weather I gotta say that he's nearly as sharp as Stone (in the books) and all of the supporting characters are very interesting, even though Spencer's girlfriend is just a sort of amalgamated precursor to Stone's wife and girlfriends in the Stone books. In the books Stone is a good Dick too, and he's written like most of Parker's male characters. Which means he's written good and sharp and he reveals more about what he knows by what he don't say than by what he does. So he actually comes across as knowing what he's doing as a PI. Hawk was very different in the book too. He was amusing and he was good at what he did. I like fellas who are good at what they do.

I'm gonna get a bunch more Spencer books cause this one interested me. See if they are as good in the long run and overall as Stone. That'll be hard to top, but this one wasn't bad I thought. Not bad at all.

drothgery · Sep 11, 2009

Rereading Rober Jordan's Wheel of Time for the first time in years because the next book, or part 1 of the last book, (by Brandon Sanderson, working from Jordan's notes and outline) comes out in two months. I used to go through the sereis at least annually, but The Path of Daggers (book 8, which clearly needed another edit cycle) and Crossroads of Twilight (book 10, where nothing happens) made me stop doing that.

Crothian · Sep 12, 2009

I read Gravity's Rainbow. Complex book.

S. Baldrick · Sep 13, 2009

Agents of Light and Darkness by Simon R. Green

[September] What are you reading?

Hjorimir

Adventurer

RangerWickett

Legend

Jack7

First Post

olla86

First Post

jonesy

A Wicked Kendragon

S. Baldrick

Explorer

Jack7

First Post

drothgery

First Post

Crothian

First Post

S. Baldrick

Explorer

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