Which book are you reading now? Volume XIV

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Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey.

If you're looking to read the moralistic navel-gazing of a misogynistic, ageist, ableist, racist, borderline sociopathic man, this is the book for you. You will be regaled with stories about how Edward Abbey believes he's connected to nature (as he caves in a rabbit's skull with a rock), is better than those imprisoned by their "wheelchairs"—Abbey's way of referring to people who drive cars—despite causing damage to nature himself, and that he has a real grasp on the intricacies of humanity (all the while saying he will "let" disabled people use the National Parks in his desired utopia, that children will be outright banned, and making comparisons that somehow always portray women as being conquests of men).

He also has an interlude where he compares Muslims to animals ruled by instinct.

I can honestly say there was never a moment during this book that I felt Abbey would be a nice person to know. Memoirs don't need to be about nice people, but it fails the "interesting" test too. It really is just antiquated ramblings of a man upset about everything that isn't catered to him.

This is a dreadful book written by a dreadful personality.
 
Synsensa said:
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey.

If you're looking to read the moralistic navel-gazing of a misogynistic, ageist, ableist, racist, borderline sociopathic man, this is the book for you. You will be regaled with stories about how Edward Abbey believes he's connected to nature (as he caves in a rabbit's skull with a rock), is better than those imprisoned by their "wheelchairs"—Abbey's way of referring to people who drive cars—despite causing damage to nature himself, and that he has a real grasp on the intricacies of humanity (all the while saying he will "let" disabled people use the National Parks in his desired utopia, that children will be outright banned, and making comparisons that somehow always portray women as being conquests of men).

He also has an interlude where he compares Muslims to animals ruled by instinct.

I can honestly say there was never a moment during this book that I felt Abbey would be a nice person to know. Memoirs don't need to be about nice people, but it fails the "interesting" test too. It really is just antiquated ramblings of a man upset about everything that isn't catered to him.

This is a dreadful book written by a dreadful personality.
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Did you have to read this book in a professional setting?
 
hobbsyoyo said:
Did you have to read this book in a professional setting?
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Research. :(

I mean, it still served its purpose. It wasn't substance I was after. But the substance was real bad, folks.

At one point he talks about how he wants to explore every mile of the park, that he feels some innate ownership over it. It's his to do with as he pleases. He says it is "much like how a man feels about a beautiful woman."

bro what
 
Traitorfish said:
Yes. The scholarly consensus on the matter is, the author solemnly explains, "lol dunno".
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Based on this alone I am inclined to think that the book was written at least moderately seriously. It's tempting to just take the coincidence and run away with it as History Channel normally does.
 
Traitorfish said:
9780008339050.jpg


Finished/starting.
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I wonder how different the book you read is from this one? UK vs US version?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062060872
 
IIRC some people were wanting something about John Carter of Mars and others were wanting some Conan. though not really a book, rather a novelette from a 1951 pulp, 'The Black Amazon of Mars' covers both, just go to Gutenberg and search for the title and it will give you the option of all formats

The novel will start with Stark (Conan type hero) escorting a mortally wounded martian towards his home, but he fails, the martian dies before they get there and Stark is captured by the followers of 'The Black Amazon of Mars'.
Grimly Eric John Stark slogged toward that ancient Martian city—with every step he cursed the talisman of Ban Cruach that flamed in his blood-stained belt. Behind him screamed the hordes of Ciaran, hungering for that magic jewel—ahead lay the dread abode of the Ice Creatures—at his side stalked the whispering spectre of Ban Cruach, urging him on to a battle Stark knew he must lose!
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It's for sale on https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Amazon-Mars-Other-Tales/dp/1434406016

But Gutenberg is cheaper.

forgot to mention, Baen Books has her tales, w/no passwords and all formats.
 
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Finished up Veiled Empire by Nathan Garrison. I'd rate it 2/5. Apparently it was the author's first published work. The author showed quite a bit of skill in introducing the reader to a fantasy world with a lot of unique terms and concepts without the "As you know, the mierothi are the blah blah blah" type dialogue or infodumps at the reader. The author also committed one of my cardinal sins in worldbuilding - creating unique names for days/hours/minutes without it being relevant to the story or the real-world equivalent isn't immediately apparent.* The plot moved along well enough and the author introduced a few interesting concepts on leadership and magic, but nothing particularly stood out to me. Characterization was particularly poor, with characters switching sides at the drop of a hat or previously set-up conflicts (such as between a bandit king and a evil sorcerer) never getting resolved because neither character ended up near each other at the climax despite both finding themselves on the same side.
Apparently the book is part of a series, which goes some way toward explaining the large number of plot threads unresolved at the end of the book. If I see the other books in a used bookstore for a dollar or two I'd pick them up.

In many ways, the book feels like an account of a well-run D&D campaign. The author avoids many pitfalls of fantasy novels (too much exposition, bad sex scenes) but falls into other pitfalls, such as making main characters ridiculously powerful, unclear power levels between characters, and no sense of scale. It was an enjoyable enough read but no need to seek it out.


Starting on Shrine of the Desert Mage by Stephen Goldin. It is set in an Arabian Nights style world and based on the first two chapters, the author does a good job of creating that blend of fate, kings, thief, and morals. Let's hope the author can keep it up.
EDIT: My that was a quick read! Fun book but (un?)fortunately it is part of a series, so the entire book was just setup for several more adventures. Now I need to decide if it is worth it to track down sequels to a rather obscure 80s fantasy novel.

*For an acceptable example, in John Varley's Gaea trilogy, time is measured by the rev, the time it takes Gaea to make one revolution about its axis, and is a little over one hour. Every other time is measured with metric prefixes so it isn't that bad. For real-world equivalent being obvious, Farscape has 'arns' for hours and 'microts' for either seconds or minutes.
 
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I won't be able to finish Babylon's Ashes, the book after Nemesis Games, on time. I have about three hours left on my loan and half of the book left to go. I've honestly found the book really disappointing after the previous one. Not terrible, but I struggle to care about anything that's going on. The weird obsession over

Spoiler :
Pa's marriage


is extremely uncompelling and rather boring. Maybe it'll become relevant in the second half of the book when it's my turn in the queue again. This should be relatively soon. I already placed a hold on it and I'm #2 in line, so there's just the one person ahead of me. But for real, after Nemesis Games, this sucks in comparison.

In the meantime, I'll probably finish Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab. Started reading it months ago, never finished, and I've been waiting ever since to be able to borrow it again.
 
Are the chips supposed to be that colour? They look like they've been sitting in vinegar for an hour.
 
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Computer Age Statistical Inference by Bradley Efron and Trevor Hastie is mainly about the mathematical tools behind the development of data science. From the roots of statistical inference in the 19th century, it goes through the rise of modern statistics in the 20th century, and ends in 2016 with the new subdisciplines enabled by growing computational prowess. Much is made of the distinction between algorithms and inference, with the conclusion that the former is currently outstripping the latter. Connections are made between the main schools of frequentism, Fisherianism, and Bayesianism. Highly technical material is covered in chapter endnotes. The book admits that it is more illustrative than comprehensive, not covering concepts such as asymptotics and decision theory.
 
Arakhor said:
Are the chips supposed to be that colour? They look like they've been sitting in vinegar for an hour.
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Kumaras are sweet potatoes rather than potatoes.
 
Takhisis said:
Kumaras are sweet potatoes rather than potatoes.
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Sweet potato fries are very popular in the US. I get them regularly. Well, I used to get them regularly anyway.
 
A couple of weeks (months?) back, along with Sanjeev Bhaskar's India (which I finished on Saturday), I borrowed Merde Actually (by "Paul West") from one of my colleagues. Finally started reading it over the weekend, so I'm only a couple of chapters in, but it's pretty funny so far (despite the fact that I haven't read the previous book, A Year in the Merde).
 
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First half of it was good, but the second half...I dunno…..seems a little too scripted/formulaic.

I wont give more details because I know people are behind me in the series.
 
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