Dune Messiah - the second book of Frank Herbert's Dune series. I have started this book a few times over the years, but never finished it, I don't think. I want to go back and finish this whole series. Dune is one of my favorite books.
Casino - Nicolas Pilleggi's nonfiction examination of organized crime in a Los Vegas casino. Really interesting stuff. I like the movie - a lot - but the book has way, way more detail.
Head First Java - thanks, Brian. I'm trying to learn Java so I can make more than 95K a year.
Also thanks to Art for the sweet book on game design he got me off of my wishlist. Thanks, Art! You are again the most generous Killoggian.
boson [email] said at 1:47 PM 01-17-2007: Audacity of Hope - Barak Obama. Its decent so far. The dude's a great writer, amazing idealistic, but very convincing.
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami. I've been "reading" this book forever... currently I'm in no mood for meandering surrealistic explorations of modern japanese and pop culture so this might stay unread for a while.
some O'Reily book on Python. If I weren't so busy doing other programming stuff I'd be messing around w/ this more.
boson [email] said at 3:36 PM 01-17-2007: stuff for work like forta.com, ray.camdenfamily.com... videogame blogs like joystiq or gamesetwatch... dailykos and crooksandliars... bunch of other stupid shit.
noah [email] said at 2:21 PM 01-17-2007: “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins. A bit too New World Order-y, but an interesting autobiography and explanation on how the “have’s” legally exploit the “have-nots” economically in return for political allegiance.
Just finished “You Shall Know Our Velocity” by Dave Eggers. Guess I am a sucker for worldwide adventure stories.
Next “Diarios De Motocicleta” Someone once told me that a good trick in learning a new language is to try and read foreign novels. (Specifically ones where you already know the plot) I’ll let you know if it helps.
noah [email] said at 2:25 PM 01-17-2007: “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins. A bit too New World Order-y, but an interesting autobiography and explanation on how the “have’s” legally exploit the “have-nots” economically in return for political allegiance.
Just finished “You Shall Know Our Velocity” by Dave Eggers. Guess I am a sucker for worldwide adventure stories.
Next “Diarios De Motocicleta” Someone once told me that a good trick in learning a new language is to try and read foreign novels. (Specifically ones where you already know the plot) I’ll let you know if it helps.
loren [email] said at 3:27 PM 01-17-2007: Velocity was good. A decent read. His other book Work of Staggering Genius or whatever it's titled isn't too bad either... I liked it better in fact.
loren [email] said at 3:25 PM 01-17-2007: Dharma Bums but Kerouac - about 70 pages in and it's not grabbing me. It's the first Kerouac i've ever read. His writting style just seems so juvenile and random and pompous.
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan - Haven't cracked it yet but looking forward to it.
Walden by Thoreau - Was awesome for about 100 pages, and then it started to get insanely boring. I don't know if I'll be able to finish this one. It's puts me to sleep after 3 pages every time... which is what i've been using it for... a sleep aid.
woody [email] said at 6:31 PM 01-17-2007: Kerouac is one where the phenomenon of his book is way more interesting to me than the book. I read On The Road and it was ok at best. But trying to frame it in the culture of the time and understand why it had the impact it did, that's fascinating. And his "scroll" manuscript is touring this year, that would be interesting to see.
I found Pirsig's "Zen" was not the same. It was way more relevant and made me think about a lot of different things.
myriam [email] said at 6:41 PM 01-17-2007: Walden drove me nuts. I suppose if I didn't know the history and conceit of the whole thing, it wouldn't have. Same way I felt about Emerson. I find it hard to like a piece of writing if I don't respect the author, at least in some small, perverse way.
myriam [email] said at 3:03 AM 01-18-2007: well the fact that he like ate dinner in town with his friend and stuff and was like not far from actual civilization during the whole thing... plus details about his personal life, etcetera. I don't have a lot of respect for the transcendentalists, although they espoused some good (albeit a bit self-righteous) causes.
dave [email] said at 3:47 PM 01-17-2007: In Cold Blood - Wow, the movie with PSH was good but Capote's writing itself is fantastic.
Little Children - Just finished it. It's by Tom Perrotta who wrote Election, that was a movie. I couldn't put it down and burned through it in a day or so. Great ride up, let down a bit at the end.
Audacity of Hope - Was a gift. Not to badly written, but not to enthralling either. On maybe the second chapter.
Moby Dick - I've had this on my bookstand for about a year. I've just made it out of port. Waiting with baited breath for the tales of whale rendering.
myriam [email] said at 6:43 PM 01-17-2007: I truly enjoyed In Cold Blood--the writing itself as well the reading between the lines of it--but then when I saw the movie afterwords, I totally just didn't even finish it. I love PSH and he was great, but the movie kind of just didn't compare, story-wise. I'm glad the screenwriter specifically focused on Capote--and not really at all on the murder itself--which made the picture interesting and gave me some needed background on the person of Capote himself, but... I just found the movie boring from about 1/2 way through.
myriam [email] said at 10:33 PM 01-17-2007: No--I think I would enjoy that. I guess I kept looking for the murder in "Capote", and obviously it's not about that, which makes sense and I agree, but... it was not really thrilling to me.
dave [email] said at 1:13 PM 01-18-2007: agreed. what a brilliant way to film it, from the perspective of Capote struggling to create a "nonfiction" novel.
rick [email] said at 4:44 PM 01-17-2007: The Yuletide has left me laden with books, a few of which are (normally I would not try reading more than one book at a time .. . )
myriam [email] said at 6:46 PM 01-17-2007: I am reading "Life of Pi" which my mother lent to me. I have picked over this book countless times in bookstores in the past year, and probably would never have read it had it not been placed in my hands at a time when I have nothing else to read. It is surprisingly enjoyable, in fact I am loving it! I had this idea that it would be bad post-modern self-concious fiction--Dharma and Greg-like--but it isn't, it's just well-written and interesting. So that's nice. I like surprises.
I just finished "The Time-Traveler's Wife" before this and enjoyed it too. Not as "good" of a book but well-written and highly enjoyable love-story. Also set literally where Meredith lives in Chicago so that made it a bit more compelling.
Not sure what I'm starting next. Perhaps "Theories Manifestoes of 20th Century Architecture", perhaps some more Alain de Botton. (Anyone read his Love book, or his Philosophy book?)
brandonA [email] said at 8:38 PM 01-17-2007: I read The Time Traveler's Wife, but didn't like it much - great concept, but the execution is a little boring.
but then I was probably put off by it's being more 'chick book' than sci-fi.
myriam [email] said at 10:30 PM 01-17-2007: Ha ha ha, someone should have warned you that it's not really sci-fi at all--the time-travelling is completely incidental.
john [email] said at 7:13 PM 01-17-2007: "The Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Running" by sportsworkout.com. Great strenght building and endurance programs and tips for those who like to run. I'm putting together a running/weight training plan for the whole year.
brandonA [email] said at 8:37 PM 01-17-2007: just finished this week:
Penultimate Truth - PK Dick
Ring - K Suzuki
Hirohito + the making of modern japan - H Bix
next up:
A book of Roger Zelazny short stories
Amulet of Samarkand -J Stroud
art [email] said at 4:46 PM 01-18-2007: Across the Sea of Suns by Gregory Benford. Book two of his six book Galactic Center Series. I like all of his books and just discovered this series from the 1980s. The science is a little dated but a great read.
josh [email] said at 2:06 AM 02-05-2007: I finished Dune Messiah (liked it alot though it was not as epic or as good as Dune) and Casino (great). Started Black Mass, about the Irish mob and their connections to the FBI (supposedly part of the inspiration for the departed's script).
