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Post by berkley on May 12, 2015 3:20:01 GMT -5
Way behind, but just to mention a couple of the books I've read recently that I think might interest some people here:
The Descent of Man - Charles Darwin Darwin deliberately didn't say much about human evolution in The Origin of Species, fearing, accurately, that just the idea of evolution itself would be controversy enough to deal with. So it wasn't until around ten years later that he came out with Descent of Man.
As with Origin, much the content consists of Darwin providing example after example to support his ideas, so for many chapters - especially the big middle section on sexual selection - a casual reader might prefer to skip to the summary at the end and then browse through the body of the chapter to see the evidence. But I found it rewarding to read it all straight through from start to finish - I often felt like I was reading an episode of Wild Kingdom!
But for me the most impressive part of the book was earlier on when Darwin makes his case for considering human beings as a species of animal among other species of animals, in the course of which he discusses some of the aspects of human nature that were then and are still today often brought up as things that distinguish humanity from the rest of "creation". His explanation of morality, in particular, was stunning in its clarity and I think has not been improved upon in the 150 years or so since.
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Post by gothos on May 15, 2015 17:48:50 GMT -5
I don't remember if I ever finished Lt. Gullivar Jones, His Vacation. Gullivar appeared in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2. I reread the original Gullivar novel a year or two ago. It lacks the action-packed approach of Burroughs, or even Thomas & Kane. The approach feels more in the ironic mode of Swift than anything.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 17, 2015 16:35:23 GMT -5
Project Pope by Clifford Simak c. 1981 I LOVE the cover.. it totally grabbed me, and then I saw it was Clifford Simak, and I couldn't resist. The story revolves around to lost souls of sorts, one, Tennyson, a Doctor on the run from a political upheaval on his planet, the other, Jill, a reporter looking for the story of her life. They both go to End of Nothing, a planet were a colony of robots and humans that are trying to find the one true religion.. the one robots can get behind. Their city is call Vatican, but they're not necessarily Christian, but they did start out that way 1000 years ago. They also have people called listeners, who are some sort of telepaths who 'visit' other worlds, other times, even other galaxies, to get information. The information is fed into the Pope, a super computer, to analyze and find the ultimate truth. Sounds like a great premise, right? Sadly, it falls flat about 1/2 way through. They start with a conflict... is knowledge the path to faith, or is faith the path to knowledge? The conflict comes to a head when one of the Listeners things she finds Heaven, but then is thrown out when she tries to go back. Sadly, the interesting philosphy that's promised never really gets discussed much.. instead, we get a murder, some interesting yet ultimately not that important aliens, and the story ends rather abruptly without much resolution.
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Post by berkley on May 18, 2015 3:14:25 GMT -5
The other book I meant to mention that made a big impression on me recently was A Void, Gilbert Adair's English translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition. I'd put off reading this for years. While curious as to how the writer and translator would manage the self-imposed constraint of not using the letter "e" for an entire novel, I half-suspected that it would be nothing more than just a curiosity, a clever gimmick, without substance beyond that.
I was wrong: there's much more going on in this book than just a gimmick - which I now wish I hadn't known about beforehand, because I imagine it must have unfolded to its first readers in a very different way than it does now that we almost inevitably know about the restriction in advance. If anyone out there, like me, has been thinking about giving this (in)famous book a try, I encourage them to go for it. I'll be reading more Perec in translation in the near future.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 18, 2015 10:16:23 GMT -5
Somebody Owes Me Money by Donald Westlake Cab Driver Chet Conway gets a tip on a horse that pays off in a big way. But when he goes to collect his bookie is dead and he's in the middle of a gang war. So he and the victim's sister set out to find the real murderer...mostly to save Chet's life. Entertaining light noir from Westlake written in 1969 and then picked up by Hard Case Crime.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 18, 2015 10:18:55 GMT -5
Chicken Fat by Will Elder This is a short collection of rejected gags, rejected strip proposals, doodles and sketches by one of the original Mad-Men. It's short and kind of lightweight, but there's a lot to like here. Any bit of Elder's art is always worthwhile.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 18, 2015 10:31:48 GMT -5
Wool by Hugh Howey The self-published short story that resulted in the internet SF phenomenon. I'd resisted this for quite a while. But the initial short story, at least, is quite good. Set in a dystopian future the people of the Silo's lives are constrained by their ability to live within the Silo. The outer world is toxic. In order to procreate you must win a lottery. If you break the law, you're sent to cleaning. Cleaners are sent into the outside with wool to clean the build-up off the camera's that show what conditions are like outside. It's a trip from which they don't return...but everyone sent out actually does clean. The story is centered on Holsten, the Sheriff, whose wife "voluntarily" went to cleaning three years before. Now Holsten is ready to go. And while I was convinced the ending was going to go as it seemed too...Howey threw one that sunk out of the strike-zone at the last minute. Which was good. It's a short story. But I cared about the characters...or at least Holsten and his wife. And I'm intrigued where it's all going. So I'll read the next story, novella length...and hope it's as good.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 18, 2015 18:11:50 GMT -5
I haven't heard of Wool at all... what sort of phenomenon? I admit to being mostly oblivious to that sort of thing... this board is the closest thing I do to social media.
That Noir one has a great cover... I'd totally pick that up if I saw it!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 18, 2015 20:14:21 GMT -5
I haven't heard of Wool at all... what sort of phenomenon? I admit to being mostly oblivious to that sort of thing... this board is the closest thing I do to social media. That Noir one has a great cover... I'd totally pick that up if I saw it! Huge self-published SF hit. He sold the original short story on the Kindle Store and the sales were phenomenal and lead to him publishing more and eventually selling print rights while retaining all electronic sales rights. It's been optioned for a film with Ridley Scott attached at one time (not sure if he still is).
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 19, 2015 6:36:48 GMT -5
Ahhh... I don't do e-books, so that's probably why I didn't come across it. Sounds pretty good, though.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 23, 2015 8:49:50 GMT -5
Stardust by Robert Parker
I was in the mood for a detective book, and this happened to be sitting in the book swap at the train station... it's a Spenser novel (which had a TV show in the... late 80s? early 90s?). It's set in Boston, almost obtrusively so, with long descriptions of which street people walk down and such, as if the author wants to prove he did his research. Considering this is a long running series (I think there are at least 30 of them), seems a bit much. The plot is Spenser is hired to protect and out of control TV star (think Lindsay Lohan, but set in 1989 or so), who seems to be getting stalked. Things turn up a notch when her stunt double is killed. It all works out in the end, though.
Not a bad book.. definitely satisfied my desire for a PI story, but not great either. It was shockingly unimportant to any of the characters when a murder happened, and the investigate was kinda easy, but it had a few fun moments, and the relationship between Spenser and his Psychologist girlfriend is really fun.
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 26, 2015 10:50:59 GMT -5
I'm in dire need of a reading boost. I'm currently reading a book of short-stories by Robert E. Howard titled "Sword Woman and other Historical Adventures." I'm averaging about a short-story a week, which is only about 30 pages or so. I want to read at least that much a DAY. Maybe this is just unrealistic given that I'm dividing my leisure time between Netflix, games, comics, etc.?
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 26, 2015 11:25:48 GMT -5
Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell. This is the first book by Cornwell that I've read. And I read it partly because it's well reviewed and is a stand-alone novel. The novel follows Nicholas Hook, an archer who has been outlawed in his home, but finds a place with Henry V's army that invades France in 1415. It's a Hobbesian view of life in the the late middle ages. The battles are grim and gritty. Life is grim and gritty. The people are by and large grim and gritty. There isn't a lot of fun happening anywhere in Hook's life. And I guess maybe that is realistic. The book is interesting and the battle scenes are excellent. The down-side is that most of the characters are paper-thin and the "intercession" of Saint's Crispin and Crispinian is a bit problematic, though they are definitely open to interpretation But the book was enjoyable enough that I'll pursue more by Cornwell. So in that, it definitely did its job. I really did like that overall the fighting men...particularly the archers had no real idea why there were fighting, beyond the fact that the King wanted them too and God was on their side.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 26, 2015 11:28:52 GMT -5
I'm in dire need of a reading boost. I'm currently reading a book of short-stories by Robert E. Howard titled "Sword Woman and other Historical Adventures." I'm averaging about a short-story a week, which is only about 30 pages or so. I want to read at least that much a DAY. Maybe this is just unrealistic given that I'm dividing my leisure time between Netflix, games, comics, etc.? I go through periods of "reader's block." Sometimes it's prose. Currently it's comics. Though I'm not reading as much prose as usual either. I am spending a ton of time on Europa Universalis 4...which is weird, because I've only ever liked like maybe 5 computer/video games in my life. There's no one answer. Sometimes something new and exciting will cause the breakthrough. The Martian did that for me recently. Sometimes it's revisiting something you love. Fahrenheit 451 will almost always do it. Sometimes you just have to ride the wave.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 26, 2015 11:45:26 GMT -5
I've read a fair amount of Cornwell... it's really about what time period you're interested in.
His most famous stuff is the Sharpe series... that's like 20+ novels and covers late 18th century/early 19th century Britain.. alot of the earlier ones are set in India... there's a couple mostly at sea, then there's a bunch with Napleon as the bad guy. The ones I've read are pretty fun and stand alone just fine.
He's got an American Civil War series but I've never read that one.
The series of his I liked the most is the one about the founding of the English Monarchy.. it's collectively called 'The Saxon Tales'... the 8th book just came out. I read the first 4, I think, and really enjoyed the 1st 3. He's got quest for the Holy Grail book too, if you're into that sorta thing.
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