ThunderPeel2001

Books, books, books...

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If you're looking for something good to read in the vein of cyberpunk but not actually cyberpunk, just a very well imagined sci-fi novel, I suggest The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. The author is Finnish, but wrote the book in English. Surprisingly the writing doesn't suffer at all (I'm sure he got excellent editorial assistance). I'm not saying that if you like Gibson, you'll like this, because I never liked Gibson much.

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You might enjoy the Baroque Cycle of books from Neal Stephenson.

And if you like those, you'd probably like his Anathem, though it's sci-fi. Even if you don't like the Baroque Cycle, you might like The Diamond Age, which is a terrific sci-fi book. Snow Crash is also good, though it has a damned weird plot. Lovely cyberpunk concepts from the early nineties. He predicted people walking around as huge cocks in virtual life games.

And if you like all that, you might like Cryptonomicon, which is interesting but you need to understand cryptography to understand the book :x

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Snow Crash is also good, though it has a damned weird plot. Lovely cyberpunk concepts from the early nineties. He predicted people walking around as huge cocks in virtual life games.

Ha. We've all had this conversation before, or at least some of us have.

http://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4365&page=41#1012

It seems a popular book, but I found it difficult to read (see link for reasons why).

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I've been reading a ton of comics recently, most notably Green lantern, Geoff Johns is a fantastic writer, quickly making GL one of my favourite heroes. All star superman is next.

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Currently reading Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?. DON'T SPOIL THE ENDING FOR ME!

Seriously though, I've already learned so fucking much about Islam, and the difference between a tiny minority of psychopathic, hardcore nutjobs (who actually go against their own religion in loads of different ways -- including attacking fellow Muslims who aren't "hardcore" enough for them). I also understand why people in the Middle East (not Muslims, most of which live in Asia folks, not the Middle East) might actually like Osama bin Laden. Between their fucked up dictatorship governments and shitty US foreign policy, he was someone who was actually doing something for them... even if it had the complete opposite effect, was actually just mindless violence, and really made life worse for lots of people.

Nice to finally be educated on some of this stuff. I'm sure there's lots more I don't understand yet, but hey, I'm only on Chapter 3.

Edited by ThunderPeel2001

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If you finish the book and still find yourself unsure about things, feel free to ask me. I was raised in the Islamic faith, and while I can't answer *all* of your questions, I could probably shed some light on a lot of things.

Finished Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy today.

Brilliantly funny book. Started on the tenth year anniversary of Douglas Adams's death, finished on my birthday at 2 am. That makes me all ticklish for some reason.

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I discovered that Belgian comic XIII recently. Worth a read, fo' sho'

Now you can play the FPS!

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Finished Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy today.

Brilliantly funny book. Started on the tenth year anniversary of Douglas Adams's death, finished on my birthday at 2 am. That makes me all ticklish for some reason.

Four of the other novels in Hitchhiker's trilogy are totally worth a read as well. You probably guessed as much already, though.

I have read through the books two or three times now. The first time I knew next to nothing about the author. The fact that Adam's was an environmental activist, "radical atheist" and technology enthusiast revealed an extra layer to me on a subsequent read-through that was, for the most parts, completely hidden to me when I first read the books at the age of 16 or something.

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Four of the other novels in Hitchhiker's trilogy are totally worth a read as well. You probably guessed as much already, though.

I have read through the books two or three times now. The first time I knew next to nothing about the author. The fact that Adam's was an environmental activist, "radical atheist" and technology enthusiast revealed an extra layer to me on a subsequent read-through that was, for the most parts, completely hidden to me when I first read the books at the age of 16 or something.

Yeah, I'd totally recommend everything written by Adams, and if you liked the book, I highly recommend buying the radio series.

Look out for: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (I know Jake likes this)

The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul

Last Chance to See

The Salmon of Doubt

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Oh yes. The Dirk Gently books are excellent as well! Haven't checked the others yet unfortunately.

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Oh yes. The Dirk Gently books are excellent as well! Haven't checked the others yet unfortunately.

The radio series and the first two Hitch-Hikers books were his best work (although the radio series was apparently largely helped by John Lloyd, especially the later episodes). Then it kind of starts going downhill. The last HH book is almost by an entirely different author, and isn't very funny (Adams acknowledged that it was written during a "bad year" in his life).

Also, I find the Dirk Gently books to be vastly overrated, and nowhere near as funny or clever as they think they are.

Still, as with all of his lacklustre work, bad Adams is still working checking out.

Also: Last Chance to See is supposed to be amazing (non fiction) and The Salmon of Doubt is also a great read (his last unfinished work -- which felt a lot more like a return to form -- with some great essays and other random things thrown in).

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The radio series and the first two Hitch-Hikers books were his best work (although the radio series was apparently largely helped by John Lloyd, especially the later episodes). Then it kind of starts going downhill. The last HH book is almost by an entirely different author, and isn't very funny (Adams acknowledged that it was written during a "bad year" in his life).

I actually found the shift in tone in the last book (and to some extend, the one before that, if my memory serves me right) very interesting. It gave me the feeling that Dent has finally become completely and utterly tired of being the punching bag of life and desperately tries to escape it all by standing perfectly still. The ending of the series is strangely bittersweet to be sure.

Also, I find the Dirk Gently books to be vastly overrated, and nowhere near as funny or clever as they think they are.

Still, as with all of his lacklustre work, bad Adams is still working checking out.

The Dirk Gently books are no on par with Hitchhiker's books, but I think they are still very entertaining and often quite clever. Holistic Detective Agency is the better one of the two by far, in my opinion.

Also: Last Chance to See is supposed to be amazing (non fiction) and The Salmon of Doubt is also a great read (his last unfinished work -- which felt a lot more like a return to form -- with some great essays and other random things thrown in).

The BBC series (with Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine) made me want to read Last Chance to See but somewhere along the way I forgot to do so. I guess I'll be including that into my next Amazon order.

BTW. I may have asked this already at some point, but has read And Another Thing...? Does it have any merit?

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I actually found the shift in tone in the last book (and to some extend, the one before that, if my memory serves me right) very interesting. It gave me the feeling that Dent has finally become completely and utterly tired of being the punching bag of life and desperately tries to escape it all by standing perfectly still. The ending of the series is strangely bittersweet to be sure.

The Dirk Gently books are no on par with Hitchhiker's books, but I think they are still very entertaining and often quite clever. Holistic Detective Agency is the better one of the two by far, in my opinion.

The BBC series (with Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine) made me want to read Last Chance to See but somewhere along the way I forgot to do so. I guess I'll be including that into my next Amazon order.

BTW. I may have asked this already at some point, but has read And Another Thing...? Does it have any merit?

I have. I even have mine signed by the author and everything!

On the whole, it is good. It does have a very Adams' style humour to it, but it lacks the downtime that the original HHG had. It is funny, and it works, but it's a more exaggerated Adamsian style, as opposed to the real DA's more subdued, yet still hilarious, work.

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I actually found the shift in tone in the last book (and to some extend, the one before that, if my memory serves me right) very interesting. It gave me the feeling that Dent has finally become completely and utterly tired of being the punching bag of life and desperately tries to escape it all by standing perfectly still. The ending of the series is strangely bittersweet to be sure.

Sure, it's not a bad book, but it doesn't really fit in with the other HH books. If you read it first, or completely separately from the other books, it's still pretty good. I remember really enjoying it when I went back and read it by itself years later. But it's very different to the other books and doesn't really fit in the series if you read them in order. (That said, books 3 and 4 have serious problems, too.)

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Personally I think the Dirk Gently books are underrated and the first one may even be cleverer than H2G2. Less funny, but incredibly well plotted. If you re-read that book you will see that it truly is holistic - every last detail ties back to the central mystery, even the ones the characters don't notice.

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Personally I think the Dirk Gently books are underrated and the first one may even be cleverer than H2G2. Less funny, but incredibly well plotted. If you re-read that book you will see that it truly is holistic - every last detail ties back to the central mystery, even the ones the characters don't notice.

I have to read those again; I remember some funny stuff (

a guy displaying data as flock of birds and the girl reciting the market value from the day before

) but very little about the story themselves

Slightly interesting anecdote, I actually bought those two books because of the cover in the French edition - at that time I didn't know who Adams was and what he had done.

dirkfoliosf.jpg

Also, apparently, there was a pilot of a BBC series lead by Stephen Mangan? :erm:

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Personally I think the Dirk Gently books are underrated and the first one may even be cleverer than H2G2. Less funny, but incredibly well plotted. If you re-read that book you will see that it truly is holistic - every last detail ties back to the central mystery, even the ones the characters don't notice.

Well maybe I'll give them another go. I just found them to be quite boring to read, but maybe I wasn't paying complete attention. Adams also did Starship Titantic: The Video Game! But that wasn't very good either (although it had some funny ideas and moments).

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Slightly interesting anecdote, I actually bought those two books because of the cover in the French edition - at that time I didn't know who Adams was and what he had done.

dirkfoliosf.jpg

I can see why! Those are very nice.

Interesting titles as well.

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Also, apparently, there was a pilot of a BBC series lead by Stephen Mangan? :erm:

Yes there was. Very good it was, too. Even if it only partially, minimally, slightly related to Adams' DG.

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Started reading Jared Diamond's influential Guns, Germs and Steel. I saw the documentary last year, so the content of the book is largely known to me. However, there's much more granularity and case studies involved, which is very interesting. Can't say much more about it yet, except that I read it with Diamond's solemn voice in my head all the time.

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Finally picked up news book after clinging to Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 for about 2 months - I'm not sure I actually finished it, since I read it non-linearly, picking up chapters randomly while on the john or on my way to work. It's a great, great book and it bolstered my appreciation for Thompson's journalism : the presentation of hard facts weaved with strong personal opinions - that are advertised as so - really appeals to me because it's the most honest approach I've encountered so far. This embraced subjectivity provides the rare opportunity to understand where the author comes from while taking some distance from the material.

Anyway, after reading Chris' tweet about The Witch of Portobello and accepting the fact that the build times of my current project aren't going to get shorter, I picked Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. Maybe I didn't get it, but to me it looked like it was either a very, very naive story or a pretty unimaginative exercise in the fable genre. A few episodes and peripeties are very well put together (

the boy who turned into the Wind, the Golden Pan, the crystal maker

) and Coelho's has a real talent for creating strong settings in a few sentences; but overall, it felt very shallow and empty.

Recently, I read an anthology of Oscar Wilde's Short Stories which features very smart and fresh explorations of the genre (like The Devoted Friend, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime or The Birthday of the Infanta); so maybe The Alchemist simply suffers from the comparison and is actually OK. Actually, I'd recommend heavily this anthology : aside a few bigot stories (mainly from A House of Pomegranates), it's very interesting and original!

I'm not giving up on it yet, but I'd like suggestion on which of Coehlo's book to read next.

I'm currently halfway through George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, and I am happily rediscovering his tremendous style. He really nails down human and landscape portraits (

the chapter introducing the first hoodlum of the bunch, has a terrifying shift of tone in the middle and it turned my guts inside out

), and so far, his depiction of derelict Paris is anti-sensational and yet truly compelling. It doesn't hurt that his use of French vocabulary and expressions is spot-on.

The only thing that bugs me is that I don't know how much of it is romanced or time-compressed since things falls into place in a very nice way (I'll get to that once I'm done reading); but that's a minor point : I haven't had such a nice time reading description of low jobs since Zola's Le Ventre de Paris.

Edited by vimes

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Very interesting! Makes me want to read a lot of the things you've talked about. I don't understand this, though...

Recently, I read a anthology of Oscar Wilde's Short Stories which feature very smart and fresh exploration of the genre (like The Devoted Friend, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime or The Birthday of the Infanta); so maybe it just suffers from the comparison and is actually ok. Actually, I'd recommend heavily this anthology : aside a few bigot stories (mainly from A House of Pomegranates), it's very interesting and original!

What are "bigot stories"?

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What are "bigot stories"?

Mmmm, bigot is apparently a false friend in French.

I meant to describe fables whose moral call to strong religious motifs; motifs which seem to be there because the author is expected to end on a religious note, rather than because the story requires it.

(i.e. The Selfish Giant or The Young King)

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