CWF Readers Club

[eMTe]

Im reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson and I very like it. The concept is quite different from other popular books - Bryson focuses as much on the current state of scientific knowledge about Earth and Universe as on the history of researches and conflicts between scientists, presented in an overtly humorous way. So if you need something a bit lighter than books by Kaku or Hawking, but giving you even wider spectrum on human knowledge (book is not only about cosmology, but also about chemistry, paleontology, geology and Bryson clearly states in many places that we still know less about what lies under our feet than what happened in space billions years ago) it is good choice for late evenings.

[Zyx]

Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. It's a massive 900 page book and it's just the first book of a trilogy. It goes through European history in the Baroque time. Lots of historial sci-fi and history of finance.

Have I mentioned I recently started to read the second book?

I know now more about the barbary corsairs in the 1600s and French navy financing than I never thought I'd need to know.

[Scythe]

I've been reading the majority of Robert E. Howard's work: All the Conan stories, Solomon Kane, King Kull, the crusader stories... the originals of course, not the ones that were edited so later authors could more easily expand on them. The writing is so vital, it's like nothing else I've read, whether it's chopping of limbs, location descriptions or fantastic creatures. It's pulp of course, but pulp with zest!

Shame he was such a momma's boy...

[eMTe]

I finished The Fire Engine That Disappeared, fifth novel by Sjowall/Wahloo team and I repeat what I said earlier, or maybe I didnt say it on these boards: if you want to read only best of the best Scandinavian crime novels - throw all your Mankells through the window and go borrow or buy Martin Beck series. Period!

[Zyx]

I started to read (well, listen as it's an audiobook) the first Mass Effect book. No literary merits, but easy fun that gives some back story to Saren and Captain Anderson. At least the first book is quite predictable when it goes through all the different things of the Mass Effect universe but without adding anything new substantial as not to be out of sync with the games.

I quickly plowed through half of the book while reading Stephenson is really, really exhausting. Each page is full of references to different wars, ship or sword types, royalties, clothing items or other esoteric stuff of the 17th century. And unlike the Mass Effect book, Stephenson doesn't spell each turn of the plot out but leaves a lot the reader to figure out.

[eMTe]

Let's see what I am reading... The Laughing Policeman by Sjowall/Wahloo team, The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe, third part of his New Sun tetralogy, The Difference Engine, Magician of Lublin, Death in Jericho by renowned British criminal writer Colin Dexter, An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy by Roger Scruton and several philosophy and sociology books by Polish authors.

I almost finished the first one though.

[Chroelle]

I am dying on Neil Gaimans American Gods. Sorry - I expected so much of it, but it has been lying on my night-table for close to half a year, and still I feel no urge to pick it up and read on. It simply got too complicated for me...
I need a new book, but luckily Pratchett published at least one book (soon two) since I last read him.

EDIT: Just went to check and the man published 2 books - the one I expected was alrady published - BUT he also published a book I never even heard he was working on - The long earth!

[eMTe]

I finished Arnaldur Indriðason's "Myrin". Indriðason is definitely not "Icelandic Mankell" (we also had one Polish Mankell and now we have even a few) and isnt as skilled in creating believable character and interesting plot. But he did his homework and if the already worn-off formula "tired policeman fighting baddies and midlife crisis" doesnt discourage you - it's quite a good book.

[Chroelle]

Well I stumbled on a booksale the other day, and found Neil Gaimans Neverwhere but in Danish - which I think might make it more possible to read after a long day. I tend to only find time to read now, when I am off to bed, and reading small letters in a foreign language at that point tends to keep me at reading 5 pages tops in one go, before my eyes starts closing on me. But Neverwhere is still in the beginning, and so far it has seemed to be ok, so I read on and will let you know more when I get into it for real.

I also bought a book by a Danish writer about the cold war, and how pictures were used as propagande. It sounds pretty exciting and it is the first non-fiction book I am digging into since I studied to become a social educator. Kind of looking forward to it. If that tickles me right, then my dad has a whole collection of books I want to dig into. Lots about WWII and also some about the Norhtamerican civil war- which I always found to be an interesting topic.

[eMTe]

You seem to read a lot of sf and/or fantasy books, guys. Recently, we received a book by Robert Heinlein, to be precise - this one. I wonder if you ever read Heinlein books and you can tell me what to expect if I decide to read it, because all I know about this writer is that he lived and is considered "one of the greatest".

[Scythe]

I need to stop reading girlie books.... How do I get sold on these anyway?

[Scythe]

Just finished reading actor Lance Henriksen's memoirs in Not bad for a human. I haven't laughed this loud or this hard in a very long time. The stories this man can tell are out of this world. Man, the Oliver Reed story still has me laughing... Few actors can boast of having been in this many sucky movies, and still tried to make the best of it.

[eMTe]

Well, I took a great book from bookstore today - "Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions" by Walter Burkert. It's a complex book, wrote by a man who is an expert on old cults, especially Greek, but the number of interesting facts is so huge that you can just open it on random page and start reading - you wont be disappointed. For example he explains why deity is often depicted as an eye or named "watcher" in many religions. He claims that it is the primeval instinct/fear turned into religion - animals (including humans) avoid eye contact with another animal, because when something watches us and sees us it also means that it is a potential aggressor or a competitor for food. He also searches for similarities between primates' hierarchy (they compete for better [higher] branch on tree) and our inclination for putting people on pedestals and placing deity as something existing "up there" (be it mountain or sky). Truly exciting book.

[eMTe]

I am reading one of the book belonging to the collection of stories known as "Judge Dee Mysteries". Call you Google friend to help you find more about it if you're interested in crime novels. So far I really enjoy it. It's an odd mixture of Name of the Rose, traditional detective novels and Chinese medieval culture, mixed up by the Dutch orientalist who found the original XVIII-century stories featuring Judge Dee in a bookstore in China and decided to write his own ones. Well, would be, because he was writing his stories during 50-ies and 60-ies, far before Eco wrote his novel, but Judge Dee bears similarities to William of Baskerville.

[Chroelle]

Well I stumbled on a booksale the other day, and found Neil Gaimans Neverwhere but in Danish - which I think might make it more possible to read after a long day. I tend to only find time to read now, when I am off to bed, and reading small letters in a foreign language at that point tends to keep me at reading 5 pages tops in one go, before my eyes starts closing on me. But Neverwhere is still in the beginning, and so far it has seemed to be ok, so I read on and will let you know more when I get into it for real.

I also bought a book by a Danish writer about the cold war, and how pictures were used as propagande. It sounds pretty exciting and it is the first non-fiction book I am digging into since I studied to become a social educator. Kind of looking forward to it. If that tickles me right, then my dad has a whole collection of books I want to dig into. Lots about WWII and also some about the Norhtamerican civil war- which I always found to be an interesting topic.

Neverwhere was great and made me want to read more of Neil Gaiman. Has some great views on society, which is the thing I love about Terry Pratchett, but I need to find another author to fill in the (small) holes between his releases.

The Danish book about the cold war images and how everyday pictures were manipulated towards displaying communism as something bad, nuclear missiles as something good and the American way as something obtainable, was a GREAT subject. Unfortunately the subject found an immensly boring author to tell the story. He seemed to wander off along entangled boring stories, and skipping the good ones too fast. So I followed his lead and skipped it fast...

Now I am digging into a book I got a year or two back by my half-bigbrother. I am sure some of you heard of it, asit has already become a movie ... Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I have yet to hit the 100 page mark, but I was into this book from page 1 - heck sentence 1. First three sentences goes:
"How about a teakettle? What if the spout opened and closed when the steam came out, so it would become a mouth, and it could whistle pretty melodies, or do Shakespear, or just crack up with me. I could invent a teakettle that reads in Dad's voice, so I could fall asleep..."

The book is about a 9 year old that lost his dad in the World Trade Center attacks. There are so many unspoken things in the book, and so much child-like thinking that turns into his own little emotional prison, and it is so clear that noone ever will have a chance of knowing or understanding him. It is gripping without being lump in throat-ish, but simply an extreme insight into the world of sorrow. RECOMMENDED! And I am gonna go see the movie.

[Zyx]

Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. It's a massive 900 page book and it's just the first book of a trilogy. It goes through European history in the Baroque time. Lots of historial sci-fi and history of finance.

Have I mentioned I recently started to read the second book?

I know now more about the barbary corsairs in the 1600s and French navy financing than I never thought I'd need to know.

Third, and last, book. Now I know more about different kind of swords than I never wanted to know. Also, actual science fiction in the form of a computer.

[Zyx]

A while ago Bruce Schneier offered signed copies of his latest book, Liars & Outliers, so as a fan of his work, I just had to get one. It arrived today in the mail and let's just say that I was not disappointed.... the dedication was encrypted.

[eMTe]

Looks like the book definitely worth reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Internet-Thinking ... 0415775167

[Scythe]

I politely and respectfully disagree.

[Zyx]

A while ago Bruce Schneier offered signed copies of his latest book, Liars & Outliers, so as a fan of his work, I just had to get one. It arrived today in the mail and let's just say that I was not disappointed.... the dedication was encrypted.

Finally got around to read the book during Christmas. There was one condition in getting the signed copy, everyone who took on the offer were asked to write a review of the book. (The books were also sold at a discount, but delivery from the US meant that I ended up paying more than if I had bought it from Amazon UK for example. I bought it for the signature...)

The the full review is here, but I really enjoyed the book and its multi-disciplinary take on trust and security in the society. It's an easy read and doesn't require any prior knowledge of the field, which was a bit of a bummer for me, because there wasn't that much new for me.