what are you reading?

[zip accident]

Someone on the OotS forums mentiioned Worm:

https://parahumans.wordpress.com/catego ... tion/1-01/

It's very, very, long. It's slow to read because it's white text on a dark blue ground, but even so it has to be much longer than "A song of Ice and Fire". I'm not sure it's good, but it kept me reading, as most books do.

Then the same guy started writing Pact:

https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/201 ... bonds-1-1/

So far it's not as long as Worm, but he's not finished yet.

[Darkflame]

Just finished "Dodger"

I think its probably Prachetts best non-Discworld book. Nothing amazing, but a solid tale with lots of interesting bits.
You can sort of tell he got fascinated by old London and did a load of research.

[noodles]

Have begun "Masters of Doom" about the rise of Carmack and Romero.

Great stuff about their early struggles. Weird how a graphics nut like Carmack doesn't realise the potential of an Amiga and dump his Apple IIGS by 87.

[NorthWay]

"Before the crash: early video game history"

Very mixed bag, but still worth it.

[Governmentyard]

Reading the second of the "Ender's Shadow" series of books. Fuck knows what it's called. Shadow of the Hegemon? It's the post-Ender's-Game one form Bean's perspective.

I've always been encouraged by how little of Card's bullshit infiltrates the main line of Ender books, but this one is taking the piss a bit, most offensively his shtick about how having children is the best thing ever. Lays it on with a trowel at one point. Maybe it is for people who have children but get fucked, you know? Also Achilles is a bit of a shoehorning. I'll stick with 'em because the overall quality of the series has remained high, but it's tough going. Can't wait until I'm done.

[NorthWay]

"Before the crash: early video game history"

Very mixed bag, but still worth it.

So I realized I had finished reading it now. I was jumping back and forth, picking the best bits first and then there were no pickings left.
Very mixed bag content wise, though fairly good writing all over. Some of it a bit academic and "uppity"(?), but I guess game history study is a thing too. If you know your retro you should recognize some of the writers.

And I'm still amazed that Activision was sued by Magnavox over the Channel F patents. Yep, hardware VS software and they won over what I would call copyright and not a part that was patentable.
Not sure if it is a print-on-demand book. Anyone know what they look like?

[zip accident]

Peter Singer: Marx A very short introduction.

I don't like Singer's philosophy in general, but he's on form here.

Hegel apparently thought the universe was a mind, and all lesser minds were reflectioins of it (my paraphrase, and possibly thus my misunderstanding), and the dialectic was the mind, unaware it was one, fighting itself. Then Marx came along and bent that, so it was History as Teleology that was going to fight itxself and unite humankind.

Um, I've oversimplified. It's a short book, read it.

[supermario]

"The Moscow Option: An Alternative Second World War" by David Downing.

Presents slightly different ways in which the WWII could have played out if different decisions were made by different key people (mostly German). Only read about 50 pages but it's a good read.

[gribbles]

I'll leave this here.

From one of our own. And it's a corker.




http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ghost-Andre ... 1784623008

[Mark]

I recently read Pride And Prejudice to get another classic under my belt. It was OK, I guess. Not really my cup of tea (too few dragons for starters), but perfectly readable.

Then I read 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, which I enjoyed a lot. I'd have loved it as a kid, I think. A few too many long lists of observed fish, but other than that good fun.

Next up was John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat. I hadn't read any Steinbeck before so didn't know what to expect, but ended up tearing through it in 3 sessions. It's a simple tale of a group of drunken layabouts sharing a house in Monterey at the start of the 20th century, and is mainly about them trying to get hold of large quantities of wine, drinking large quantities of wine, and then fighting (after drinking large quantities of wine). I'll definitely look into reading some more of his stuff in the near future.

[VNVObit]

Finished Charles Stross's Neptunes's Brood which was really enjoyable

Currently working my way through the first book of the Witchers trilogy (The Blood of Elves). Doesn't feel too different to a medieval europe (with dwarves, elves and various monsters) so is probably closer to Song of Fire and Ice than Lord of The Rings. Will probably pick up the rest of the trilogy soon (though not sure I'll finish before the game comes out ).

[zip accident]

Currently working my way through the first book of the Witchers trilogy

Trilogy?

There are at least five, and two books of related short stories.

You can't get them all here yet, but the Polish versions are long in the tooth. I suspect the delay is some sort of marketing scheme, release one per game. If that's the plan, it stands a very real risk of going all the way down the pan when one of the games turns out to be naf.

[gravy]

Haven't read much in the way of fiction for a long time so decided to have a go with some literary chewing gum, The Martian, about a astronaut stranded on Mars trying to do all they can to survive in the hope of being rescued.

And it's pretty good, the science is pretty hard and that's kind of helpful as a weening step from the technical and science stuff I've been gorging on of late

The books nice and cheap on Amazon right now, it's a rollicking page turner and worth picking up before Ridley Scott ruins it with the film adaptation next year

[(o)(o)]

[Mark]

Just finished Ella Minnow Pea* by Mark Dunn, which was a really fun read. It's about an island where the guy who claimed to have come up with the line "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" lived. The island revere him and have a sign with it written on displayed in the town. One day one of the letters falls off and the council decree that this means that letter shouldn't be used any more. Then more letters start to fall...

The book is written as a series of correspondences between various people, so as more letters get banned they start having to rename things, and make do with the letters they have left.



*L, M, N, O, P