Finished The Unpersuadables: Adventures With the Enemies of Science a few days ago, and it is definitely one of the best books (by a journalist) I've ever read. The arguments aren't too substantial (especially the chapter about climate denial), but the book is really an exploration of how people come to hold crazy beliefs. It's way more useful than any formal book on 'bias.'
Which book are you reading now? Volume XI
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Snerk
Smeghead
Currently reading The World of Ice & Fire by Linda Antonsson, Elio M. García Jr., George R.R. Martin. Highly entertaining read about the lore and history of Westeros and Essos.
Just finished Thornlost and Windowwall by Melanie Rawn. Fantasy novels in a series I started years ago, and hadn't gotten around to following up on until recently. Nicely written fantasies. Different than what's usually done in fantasy. Nice reads.
Titan is the bio of John D Rockefeller and is excellent. I was surprised how he earned his fortune.
Awkright: sci fi and it looks to be the start of a series.
Awkright: sci fi and it looks to be the start of a series.
Just started Crichton's Airframe.
Zkribbler
Deity
I'm reading the fake Seinfeld 9/11 episode. It's humor is very uneven, sometimes great, sometimes falling flat.
Ajidica
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I finished Peter Heather's The Goths over the weekend. I was skeptical given how often Heather veered into "UKIP Approved!" territory with his The Fall of the Roman Empire where he explicitly says "Immigrants caused the fall of the Roman Empire" but I was rather surprised with The Goths. (Perhaps the lesson is that he should be kept as far away from writing popular history as possible.) The archaeological and narrative evidence was woven together well without about as few unsupported logic leaps as one can when dealing with Iron Age Central Europe (or as one person on this forum put it: "It is a pre-modern material culture in Outer Europe. Everything comes with a massive asterisk next to it.") .
He also spent significant amounts of time on the establishment of Visigothic Spain; the power struggles between Theoderic the Amal, Theoderic Strabo, and the Emperor Zeno; Ostrogothic Italy, and Justinian's Gothic Wars. I highly recommend it if you have a basic background on the fall of the Roman Empire as it spends time on areas that are far too often glossed over.
Thanks for the recommendation Dachs!
I'm trying to decide between David Kysaston's Austerity Britain: Tales of a New Jerusalem or Time of Contempt from The Witcher series.
He also spent significant amounts of time on the establishment of Visigothic Spain; the power struggles between Theoderic the Amal, Theoderic Strabo, and the Emperor Zeno; Ostrogothic Italy, and Justinian's Gothic Wars. I highly recommend it if you have a basic background on the fall of the Roman Empire as it spends time on areas that are far too often glossed over.
Thanks for the recommendation Dachs!
I'm trying to decide between David Kysaston's Austerity Britain: Tales of a New Jerusalem or Time of Contempt from The Witcher series.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
As part of a self-improvement regiment I have forced reading time into my life again and have been going through book 4 of the Hyperion Cantos, The Rise of Endymion, By Dan Simmons.
It took me over a year to get to book 4 (yeah, I know), and this one's 800 pages or something like that. I'm already on page 90 though, the story is really drawing me in. All the epic space opera elements from the previous 3 books are sort of beginning to come together in a way I so far wasn't expecting. It's all very epic and large-scale and giant sci-fi concepts are all smashing into each other. Or at least it seems like they're about to. I'm not sure if this story is for everyone, and some Christians might be offended (the Catholic church plays a large part in the overarching story) but the characters are very well written and the story is interesting and multi-layered. There's elements of cyberpunk, like I said a lot of elements of large-scale space opera, a lot of adventure, human drama, and it's very hard to say but for now let's go with "maybe a bit fantasy". I will report back when I'm done reading this
It took me over a year to get to book 4 (yeah, I know), and this one's 800 pages or something like that. I'm already on page 90 though, the story is really drawing me in. All the epic space opera elements from the previous 3 books are sort of beginning to come together in a way I so far wasn't expecting. It's all very epic and large-scale and giant sci-fi concepts are all smashing into each other. Or at least it seems like they're about to. I'm not sure if this story is for everyone, and some Christians might be offended (the Catholic church plays a large part in the overarching story) but the characters are very well written and the story is interesting and multi-layered. There's elements of cyberpunk, like I said a lot of elements of large-scale space opera, a lot of adventure, human drama, and it's very hard to say but for now let's go with "maybe a bit fantasy". I will report back when I'm done reading this
sophie
Break My Heart
The Goths are Heather's specialty, so I would certainly hope his book on the Goths was good.
SS-18 ICBM
Oscillator
Been a while. New Developments in Biological and Chemical Terrorism Countermeasures, edited by Ronald Kendall, Steven Presley, and Seshadri Ramkumar. Some background, recent ricin research, anti-cholera phage display, and protective fibrous substrates. An interesting peek.
What Should Armies Do? Armed Forces and Civil Security by John Clarke looks at activities armed forces do in support of civil authorities, i.e. operations other than war. Basically, in an age of declining threats and budgets, the military may find new purpose as a support to civilian authorities. The book makes recommendations for more flexible forces to do these tasks, and cautions against making these tasks routine (e.g. it may be fine for soldiers to guard high-profile events, but they probably should not guard these venues every time).
What Should Armies Do? Armed Forces and Civil Security by John Clarke looks at activities armed forces do in support of civil authorities, i.e. operations other than war. Basically, in an age of declining threats and budgets, the military may find new purpose as a support to civilian authorities. The book makes recommendations for more flexible forces to do these tasks, and cautions against making these tasks routine (e.g. it may be fine for soldiers to guard high-profile events, but they probably should not guard these venues every time).
I recently finished Peter Watts Blindsight and Echopraxia.
Blindsight has an Alien Encounter theme. Some alien have sent mysterious drones to cover Earth but do little harm ("taking our picture" as someone called it). A different entity has now entered the solar system and a ship named Theseus is sent out investigate. The captain of the ship is a vampire and takes on the task with gloves off. The crew is plain human and do what they're told, constantly worried that the vampire will give in to his urges and have one of them as snack. The alien is quite alien, it's certainly not a human with green skin.
I'd say this is hard sci-fi. There's a notes and references part in the end of the book, where the writer discusses the science (100 or so named reports) he's been inspired by. There's also a credible back story to how vampires started walking on earth again. As I write this I just found "Taming Yesterday's Nightmares for a Better Tomorrow" so there you go
. Watts favourite theme seem to be consciousness and neurology. The world is dystopian, close to collapse due to progress in these areas and biological warfare released to the wild. Unfortunately there's precious little information about the world, I would have enjoyed an exposition here and there.
Echopraxia is a sidequel to Blindsight, taking place closer to Earth. The elements are similar to that of Blindsight. It's more of the same really although I enjoyed it anyway. Both are recommended but Blindsight is the better one.
Blindsight has an Alien Encounter theme. Some alien have sent mysterious drones to cover Earth but do little harm ("taking our picture" as someone called it). A different entity has now entered the solar system and a ship named Theseus is sent out investigate. The captain of the ship is a vampire and takes on the task with gloves off. The crew is plain human and do what they're told, constantly worried that the vampire will give in to his urges and have one of them as snack. The alien is quite alien, it's certainly not a human with green skin.
I'd say this is hard sci-fi. There's a notes and references part in the end of the book, where the writer discusses the science (100 or so named reports) he's been inspired by. There's also a credible back story to how vampires started walking on earth again. As I write this I just found "Taming Yesterday's Nightmares for a Better Tomorrow" so there you go
. Watts favourite theme seem to be consciousness and neurology. The world is dystopian, close to collapse due to progress in these areas and biological warfare released to the wild. Unfortunately there's precious little information about the world, I would have enjoyed an exposition here and there.Echopraxia is a sidequel to Blindsight, taking place closer to Earth. The elements are similar to that of Blindsight. It's more of the same really although I enjoyed it anyway. Both are recommended but Blindsight is the better one.
Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
vampire?
stfoskey12
Emperor of Foskania
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
It's about the oldest science fiction book that's not set several centuries into the future that doesn't feel too dated.
It's about the oldest science fiction book that's not set several centuries into the future that doesn't feel too dated.
Paul in Saudi
Emperor
The Chronicles of Doctor Gibbleflotz, I needed a break from the Bush biography.
Zkribbler
Deity
End the Depression Now by Paul Krugman 
I writing a high fantasy/comedy, and one of the subplots is an economy that tracks the Crash 0f 2008. After I got several chapters into it, I realized that for a successful ending, I was going to have to come up with a quick, effective, and hopefully comical way of resolving the Crash so that everyone can live happily ever after.
I writing a high fantasy/comedy, and one of the subplots is an economy that tracks the Crash 0f 2008. After I got several chapters into it, I realized that for a successful ending, I was going to have to come up with a quick, effective, and hopefully comical way of resolving the Crash so that everyone can live happily ever after.
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
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