What Are You Reading?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

blah blah blah

Basically, you're dismissing anyone who criticizes her fiction writing/characterization as illiterates who haven't read her books and anyone who disagrees with her views as narrowminded.

[finisherr]

dude, i don't think anyone's opinion about an author is worth anything if he or she hasn't read anything. that isn't so ridiculous is it? everyone's entitled to their opinions, but if you haven't read anything and you're mouthing off about her, then, well...you know what you are...

[finisherr]

Person A "Have you ever seen Breathless by Godard. It's amazing! Everyone says it's amazing so why would I think otherwise!"

Person B "Have you even seen Breathless?"

Person A "No, but take my word for it! It's black and white and directed by Godard, so it's great!"

[BareKnuckleRoo]

everyone's entitled to their opinions, but if you haven't read anything and you're mouthing off about her

Except that doesn't seem to be happening here (at least I've read her stuff, thought her writing style is quite dull, mostly consists of using her characters as personal soapboxes or more like bullhorns), so I'm not sure why you're bringing it up.

[Randorama]

Finisherr:

I read an introduction to her philosophy. Stopped after 40 pages or so, as none of his basic claims survive a minimal checking of the relevant facts.

For instance, the idea that "human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception" is non-sense: thousands of scientific research has proven the exact opposite.

The rest is even more embarassing, to anyone who has bothered to read more books than her works. Have you?

If you like her romances and believe into her claims, that's fine, but please do not bother verifying whether she has ever said anything which is

a. Consistent with facts;
b. not a rip-off of previous work;

Thank you.

[finisherr]

Finisherr:

I read an introduction to her philosophy. Stopped after 40 pages or so, as none of his basic claims survive a minimal checking of the relevant facts.

For instance, the idea that "human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception" is non-sense: thousands of scientific research has proven the exact opposite.

The rest is even more embarassing, to anyone who has bothered to read more books than her works. Have you?

If you like her romances and believe into her claims, that's fine, but please do not bother verifying whether she has ever said anything which is

a. Consistent with facts;
b. not a rip-off of previous work;

Thank you.

She writes good stories with interesting characters and has some interesting things to express, some with which I agree. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Like I said previously, people have extremely volatile reactions to her. I'm not surprised by all the bickering (though some of you have valid points). It's kind of awesome. I also like that about her. She's pretty punk rock in that way. It's kind of like "I'm going to do this thing here and it's gonna be interesting and it's going to piss a lot of you off but I don't care anyway!" I love that.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, I caused quite the shirtsmot here. The interesting thing (maybe not the value) about Rand, and extremists in general, is that the extremist case often clarifies issues for people. Unfortunately, many people don't get that there is a distinction between extremism in examples (reductio ad absurdum is very useful) and extremism in personality, which is not a defining characteristic of intellectual usefulness. There is also a difference between using extreme cases usefully, and trying to bend reality to fit a theory (too many doctrines to count fit here; I've even seen it in some followers of David Hume, the original skeptic).

It is a shame that sometimes the extremist is the most interesting character and has interesting stories to tell, so that centrists and other people with good ideas are considered boring.

[blackoak]

Someone in my book club chose The Philosophy of Selfishness a couple years back. Even those without a background in philosophy thought it was nonsense. I think the girl chose it because she liked The Fountainhead, actually... personally I can't imagine reading one of her novels and not finding it shot through with her silly/dangerous ideas, unless she's just writing pulp.

[opt2not]

I'm rockin' the forth book of the A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series, A Feast for Crows. The first three books were pretty awesome, this one feels more like filler, and is a bit of a grind because it gives all the back story of the characters you aren't so attached to.

Still good though, just a bit of a slower read.

[RNGmaster]

I'm rockin' the forth book of the A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series, A Feast for Crows. The first three books were pretty awesome, this one feels more like filler, and is a bit of a grind because it gives all the back story of the characters you aren't so attached to.

Still good though, just a bit of a slower read.

AFFC is not as bad as many people say it is. There's some great stuff (the Greyjoys play a major role), but the Brienne chapters are almost uniformly terrible.

I'm on A Dance with Dragons, but admittedly enjoying Snow Crash so much more that I don't want to stop reading it. Very intellectual, complex, and thought-provoking. The writing style just oozes humor and style - it's like nothing I've ever read.

[CMoon]

Finished Lem's Memoirs found in a bathtub, which is a black comedy take on cold war espionage. A few moments of brilliance but not on the same level as Futurological congress.

[mesh control]

Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I'll actually try to finish this one...

[Ed Oscuro]

Finished Lem's Memoirs found in a bathtub, which is a black comedy take on cold war espionage. A few moments of brilliance but not on the same level as Futurological congress.

I have a copy of that - I started it years ago, didn't get too far in though.

I decided to start "Moral Man, Immoral Society" again. Plenty of other books too.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Finished Lem's Memoirs found in a bathtub, which is a black comedy take on cold war espionage. A few moments of brilliance but not on the same level as Futurological congress.

Started reading Memoirs... as a kid (the years or extensive SF & fantasy reading), didn't finish 'em, then came back to those years later and they worked for me. Still, The Cyberiad is where it's at. NOTHING else (as far as I can tell) comes near.

[blackoak]

Memoirs is one of the few Lem works I didn't really care for. If you liked The Cyberiad, I would recommend the Pirx volumes and A Perfect Vacuum (probably in my top 3 after Solaris and His Master's Voice).

[Moniker]

After chancing upon Ringworld, I've been reading a ton of Larry Niven (& Co.). Really good plots and pacing for hard science fiction. Also just picked up most of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series dirt cheap at a secondhand bookstore. Looking forward to those. Sadly Lem's main stuff doesn't seem to be on Kindle, and I keep forgetting to pick up paper copies when I go to bookstores.

[Vexorg]

Recently I've started picking up the Discworld books again since I figured out I can check the E-books out from the local library on my Kindle. I read a bunch of them a few years back, but haven't kept up with the newer ones. Currently, I'm starting again with Going Postal.

[Acid King]

Just finished the Book of the New Sun. I didn't enjoy the latter two books as much as the first two, so it took me a long time to get through them, especially Citadel of the Autarch. Now I have a couple going at once.

The New Jim Crow - Just started this one and have only gotten through the intro. The author's central thesis is that the drug war and criminal justice system has taken over where Jim Crow left off in terms of racially stratifying the United States. Minorities are incarcerated at far higher rates for drug crimes than whites are, despite whites representing a majority of drug users and sellers. Criminals, much like blacks under Jim Crow, have their voting rights taken away and can be legally barred from employment. Hence... the New Jim Crow.

Unequal Under the Law - Details how racial and ethnic minorities have been targeted by drug-related propaganda and law enforcement. Some astounding tidbits from times past... Here's a choice tidbit from Collier's Weekly circa 1908.

The primitive Negro field hand, a web of strong, sudden impulses, good and bad, comes into town or settlement on Saturday afternoon and pays his fifty cents for a pint of Mr. Levy's gin. He absorbs not only its toxic heat, but absorbs also the suggestions, subtly conveyed, that it contains aphrodisiacs. He sits in the road or in the alley at the height of his debauch, looking at that obscene picture of a white woman on the label, drinking in the invitation which it carries. And the comes---opportunity. There follows the hideous episode of the rope or the stake

Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal - Joel Salatin, famously profiled in the Omnivore's Dilemma, details the problems of running a small farm while burdened with regulations aimed at, and written by, big agribusiness. He tends to get off topic, there is a good deal of libertarian political ranting, but there's a lot of interesting anecdotes about his dealings with regulators and how difficult it can be to do something as basic as growing and selling food. For example, he can't legally slaughter his own cattle because he's not allowed to build an abattoir on his farm. He has to send it out to a slaughterhouse where it is slaughtered and shipped back to him. Only he's not allowed to sell his meat because it left the farm and came back as a "value added product". In order to sell the meat himself, he would have to get licensed for a retail location, which would involve a significant amount of renovation to his property. Worth a read if you're interested in local food production, but his politics may well put a lot of people off.

[CMoon]

Started reading Sagan's Demon Haunted World today.

[sjewkestheloon]

Reading Nabokov's Lolita which is pretty fucking hilarious! The erotic writing is incredibly tame considering the reputation of the book, more limp langour than hot romp. Sometimes his prose is a bit TOO precise, lacking the spontenaiety requried to make it flow effortlessly.

After that it's on to Roberto Bolano - Antwerp and then PK Dick - Transmigration of Timothy Archer.

Good reading times.

[CMoon]

I'm glad your able to keep the fiction thing going. I still have some fiction I want to read, but it is so easy to side tracked and then suddenly I'm reading non-fic again.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Just finished the Book of the New Sun. I didn't enjoy the latter two books as much as the first two, so it took me a long time to get through them, especially Citadel of the Autarch.

The Urth of the New Sun is practically the fifth volume. Actually Moby Dick I'm reading right now reminds me of it. No kidding.

[GaijinPunch]

Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I'll actually try to finish this one...

Verdict? I don't read much, and it's usually non-fiction. I don't think I've picked up anything like that since Universe in a Nutshell (which I don't even think I finished. Hard back -- big committment).

I just finished reading The Hobbit. Took me a while... slow reader, plus busy. Will try to read one more book before the year is out.

[MX7]

Upon recommendation, I'm about to start Stephen King's The Dark Tower.

Recently finished up a lucky run of great science fiction - The Alchemy of Stone (brilliant feminist sci fi), Glasshouse (brilliant, mind/gender bending sci fi), The Mount (I'd recommend this to anyone - partially a treatment of dominant/submissive, but really an in-depth examination of will, belief, and adolescent development), and Oryx and Crake (post-apocalyptic biopunk - almost great, but not quite; very entertaining, however).

Going to have to check these out. I'm a big fan of feminist/genderbending scifi, and I've only read the Atwood here. If you haven't already read them, I would recomend Dawn by Octavia Butler and The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter.

Currently reading Neuromancer by William Gibson. Annoyed I didn't read it earlier. Broadly noirish, but the prose is just perfect. Absolutely everything is a similacrum, and facinating details about the setting are thrown away in an almost perverse manner. This is how scifi should be written.

[NTSC-J]

I went on a reading binge starting about a month ago and finished:

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
How it Ends: From You to the Universe by Chris Impey
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
The Portable Atheist edited by Christopher Hitchens
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

and I just started 荒野の戦士　―　グイン・サガ (2) by Kurimoto Kaoru. Had a real theme going the past month, so I needed a change of pace.

[blackoak]

How is Guin Saga so far? I've been thinking about checking it out, but the Hideyuki Kikuchi Vampire Hunter D novels were so bad, I've been generally put off...

[mesh control]

Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I'll actually try to finish this one...

Verdict? I don't read much, and it's usually non-fiction. I don't think I've picked up anything like that since Universe in a Nutshell (which I don't even think I finished. Hard back -- big committment)

So far, I like it. I'm only 100 pages in and NDT covers a good amount of ground and uses simple imagery, but a lot of this seems like I've read it or heard it somewhere before. I would reccomend it to people who don't know too much about space. Im hoping the book picks up into some astrophysics topics soon. Since I can't go to school ATM, I'm trying to educate myself before I do head off somewhere.

[NTSC-J]

How is Guin Saga so far? I've been thinking about checking it out, but the Hideyuki Kikuchi Vampire Hunter D novels were so bad, I've been generally put off...

It's ok. I think it started in the late 70's, so it feels a bit dated and cliched, but I haven't read any fantasy novels since Robert Jordan books in junior high, so it has a nostalgic appeal for me. Plus I like the language practice and the fact that it's such a huge story, I want to see how it develops over the decades (and abruptly ends with the author's passing).

[GaijinPunch]

So far, I like it. I'm only 100 pages in and NDT covers a good amount of ground and uses simple imagery, but a lot of this seems like I've read it or heard it somewhere before. I would reccomend it to people who don't know too much about space. Im hoping the book picks up into some astrophysics topics soon. Since I can't go to school ATM, I'm trying to educate myself before I do head off somewhere.

While I know he has a doctorate, he always seems more like a space/future enthusiast than a scientist, which is probably his selling point. I'll put this one on my list.

[mesh control]

Digested about 30 pages today and it's really starting to pick up. I think it's worth a read. I still need to finish Cosmos.