Books
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I buy most books now in second-hand bookshops, on jumble sales, in antiquarian bookshops...
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." (DNA)
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I wanted to buy some good books for reading on the beach during my holiday and looked on amazon. What a disappointment... the site now so much rely on what you have already bought to propose you with new books, that you have to navigate at least 5 minutes and look at 50 different things (from children book to cooking books via Mongolian literature) to get the engine eventually be original in its choices. X| That's sad and new to me, since I had some good catches in the past... So, do you have any good recommendations ? What do you currently read ?
I think I've only read one book for normal people - The Beach, the rest have always has a technical lean, so no idea personally what's good. A bloke in the pub told me recently that 'Touching the Void' is apparantly a cracking read. Its the one about cutting the rope your mate's hanging on.
Regards, Rob Philpott.
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Yes, I did not want to bother with cookies and such, but I guess there is no other choice. I hope that is is sufficient, since I suspect them to make books propositions based on IP adresses...
Cookie Care: if you're not using FireFox or SeaMonkey, you ought to: they allow you to set your cookies to be Session-only - allows you to work and, at the same time, start out fresh and clean whenever you reopen you browser. But - do not forget to get rid of the 'Flash Cookies' [Better Privacy plugin for both of above]. And if they still are weird enough to do you via the IP address, then get any of several proxy server plugins to do you shopping and then use a regular connection at buying-time.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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I wanted to buy some good books for reading on the beach during my holiday and looked on amazon. What a disappointment... the site now so much rely on what you have already bought to propose you with new books, that you have to navigate at least 5 minutes and look at 50 different things (from children book to cooking books via Mongolian literature) to get the engine eventually be original in its choices. X| That's sad and new to me, since I had some good catches in the past... So, do you have any good recommendations ? What do you currently read ?
What's your preference? For SciFi, anything by Peter David is great, especially his "Star Trek: New Frontier" series. "Star Trek: The Q-Continuum" is also a great read. Myself, I have a library of math books that keeps growing and keeps me entertained. My LibraryThing[^]
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I wanted to buy some good books for reading on the beach during my holiday and looked on amazon. What a disappointment... the site now so much rely on what you have already bought to propose you with new books, that you have to navigate at least 5 minutes and look at 50 different things (from children book to cooking books via Mongolian literature) to get the engine eventually be original in its choices. X| That's sad and new to me, since I had some good catches in the past... So, do you have any good recommendations ? What do you currently read ?
I read whatever my dad buys cos he both reads and buys a lot. Currently on The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second in the Millennium trilogy by Steig Larsson and they are extraordinarily good IMHO. There is a reason he died straight after finishing them, cos he clearly did a deal with something evil to write that well.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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I read whatever my dad buys cos he both reads and buys a lot. Currently on The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second in the Millennium trilogy by Steig Larsson and they are extraordinarily good IMHO. There is a reason he died straight after finishing them, cos he clearly did a deal with something evil to write that well.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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I'm currently reading "Wisdom of Crowds" and "2001 a Space Odyssey". Last couple of months I mainly read classics like "Lolita", "Catch 22" and some crap written by local politicians. As for new books, I'm planning to catch up with new "Wheel of Time" books soon. The problem is that it's been ages since I read that series and I don't feel like going through all eleven books again to refresh my memory.
Giraffes are not real.
I got to book 9 in the wheel of time, after going back and starting again from book 1 at least 3 times, before I decided I wasn't picking up any more of them until the series was done. Then the fecker went and died before he finished them! FFS! I believe someone is finishing off the last couple of books, is it 13 or 14 now? As for going through all 11 books again, wasn't there 1 or 2 in there that you could skip completely (8 or 9 I think)?
Pete
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I wanted to buy some good books for reading on the beach during my holiday and looked on amazon. What a disappointment... the site now so much rely on what you have already bought to propose you with new books, that you have to navigate at least 5 minutes and look at 50 different things (from children book to cooking books via Mongolian literature) to get the engine eventually be original in its choices. X| That's sad and new to me, since I had some good catches in the past... So, do you have any good recommendations ? What do you currently read ?
I've just finished reading "The art of racing in the rain" by Garth Stein. If you where ever curious about what a dog thinks about its owner, this is the book.
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The CP newsletter, printed out.
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together. Manfred R. Bihy: "Looks as if OP is learning resistant."
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What's your preference? For SciFi, anything by Peter David is great, especially his "Star Trek: New Frontier" series. "Star Trek: The Q-Continuum" is also a great read. Myself, I have a library of math books that keeps growing and keeps me entertained. My LibraryThing[^]
Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
For SciFi, anything by Peter David is great, especially his "Star Trek: New Frontier" series. "Star Trek: The Q-Continuum" is also a great read.
I'm not really trying to be snide, but are there really Star Trek books that don't suck royally? Can they be put up against serious sci-fi? And listen, I'm a huge Star Trek fan, but the few books I've dared to try (and they had come with good recommendations) wouldn't be worthy to wear a Charmin label. For comparison, the latest sci-fi I've read have been Mote In God's Eye (Pournelle/Niven) and Pandora's Star/Judas Unleashed by Peter F. Hamilton (finishing it up now). If there are honest to goodness GOOD Star Trek books out there, I'd be willing to try them. The same goes for Star Wars... I've tried the supposed best of those books (at least at the time): the Zahn trilogy and Shadow of the Empire, but to me they just came off as so much fan wanking.
And sometimes when you're on, you're really f***ing on And your friends they sing along and they love you But the lows are so extreme that the good seems f***ing cheap And it teases you for weeks in its absence Rilo Kiley - "A Better Son/Daughter"
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I read whatever my dad buys cos he both reads and buys a lot. Currently on The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second in the Millennium trilogy by Steig Larsson and they are extraordinarily good IMHO. There is a reason he died straight after finishing them, cos he clearly did a deal with something evil to write that well.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
ChrisElston wrote:
There is a reason he died straight after finishing them, cos he clearly did a deal with something evil to write that well.
I thoroughly enjoyed the books. But the English translation I read (it's the popular (or only?) translation, at least in the US) felt like it was a bad translation. I keep wondering if it was done before it got popular, and if maybe someone could take a second crack at the translation. Or maybe it was just poorly written to begin with. Compelling stories, but the "writing" left a lot to be desired.
And sometimes when you're on, you're really f***ing on And your friends they sing along and they love you But the lows are so extreme that the good seems f***ing cheap And it teases you for weeks in its absence Rilo Kiley - "A Better Son/Daughter"
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Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
For SciFi, anything by Peter David is great, especially his "Star Trek: New Frontier" series. "Star Trek: The Q-Continuum" is also a great read.
I'm not really trying to be snide, but are there really Star Trek books that don't suck royally? Can they be put up against serious sci-fi? And listen, I'm a huge Star Trek fan, but the few books I've dared to try (and they had come with good recommendations) wouldn't be worthy to wear a Charmin label. For comparison, the latest sci-fi I've read have been Mote In God's Eye (Pournelle/Niven) and Pandora's Star/Judas Unleashed by Peter F. Hamilton (finishing it up now). If there are honest to goodness GOOD Star Trek books out there, I'd be willing to try them. The same goes for Star Wars... I've tried the supposed best of those books (at least at the time): the Zahn trilogy and Shadow of the Empire, but to me they just came off as so much fan wanking.
And sometimes when you're on, you're really f***ing on And your friends they sing along and they love you But the lows are so extreme that the good seems f***ing cheap And it teases you for weeks in its absence Rilo Kiley - "A Better Son/Daughter"
I agree. Aside from the other ST book I mentioned, Peter David is the only ST author I read. He's also a comic-book, TV, and movie writer[^], so I highly recommend him. If you want to try one of his novels, read Q-Squared. It touches on ST:TOS, but is in the ST:TNG world.
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I wanted to buy some good books for reading on the beach during my holiday and looked on amazon. What a disappointment... the site now so much rely on what you have already bought to propose you with new books, that you have to navigate at least 5 minutes and look at 50 different things (from children book to cooking books via Mongolian literature) to get the engine eventually be original in its choices. X| That's sad and new to me, since I had some good catches in the past... So, do you have any good recommendations ? What do you currently read ?
Ha! My wife, my son, and I all use the same Amazon account, so all sorts of stuff comes up as "suggestions". Fortunately I don't go to Amazon to browse, I go to order a particular book (or album) so I ignore all that crap -- I'd prefer to be able to disable it. http://www.amazon.com/Smoking-Frog-Lives-Pete-Goodman/dp/098213911X/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1[^] http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310044083&sr=1-1[^] http://www.amazon.com/Most-Complex-Machine-Computers-Computing/dp/1568810547/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310044144&sr=1-1[^] P.S. This is next: http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Turing-Through-Historic-Computability/dp/0470229055/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310044236&sr=8-1[^]
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I got to book 9 in the wheel of time, after going back and starting again from book 1 at least 3 times, before I decided I wasn't picking up any more of them until the series was done. Then the fecker went and died before he finished them! FFS! I believe someone is finishing off the last couple of books, is it 13 or 14 now? As for going through all 11 books again, wasn't there 1 or 2 in there that you could skip completely (8 or 9 I think)?
Pete
Yes, someone named Brandon Sanderson, allegedly after Jordans widow requested him personally to finish the series. Book 12 and 13 are already published and he's now working on the final one. He claims that he rereads the entire series from scratch at least two times for every book he adds to the series. One time before he starts writing and one time after he finished the first draft of the manuscript. Apparently you barely notice it's written by someone else.
Giraffes are not real.
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I wanted to buy some good books for reading on the beach during my holiday and looked on amazon. What a disappointment... the site now so much rely on what you have already bought to propose you with new books, that you have to navigate at least 5 minutes and look at 50 different things (from children book to cooking books via Mongolian literature) to get the engine eventually be original in its choices. X| That's sad and new to me, since I had some good catches in the past... So, do you have any good recommendations ? What do you currently read ?
I'm in trouble then, I recent started using Amazon for books and some other things. I'm getting my first 2 orders next week. I guess now the filtering by my past orders starts :(
"I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. " — Hunter S. Thompson
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I agree. Aside from the other ST book I mentioned, Peter David is the only ST author I read. He's also a comic-book, TV, and movie writer[^], so I highly recommend him. If you want to try one of his novels, read Q-Squared. It touches on ST:TOS, but is in the ST:TNG world.
Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
I agree. Aside from the other ST book I mentioned, Peter David is the only ST author I read.
I might have to dip my toe into that pool then, thanks. :)
And sometimes when you're on, you're really f***ing on And your friends they sing along and they love you But the lows are so extreme that the good seems f***ing cheap And it teases you for weeks in its absence Rilo Kiley - "A Better Son/Daughter"
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Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
For SciFi, anything by Peter David is great, especially his "Star Trek: New Frontier" series. "Star Trek: The Q-Continuum" is also a great read.
I'm not really trying to be snide, but are there really Star Trek books that don't suck royally? Can they be put up against serious sci-fi? And listen, I'm a huge Star Trek fan, but the few books I've dared to try (and they had come with good recommendations) wouldn't be worthy to wear a Charmin label. For comparison, the latest sci-fi I've read have been Mote In God's Eye (Pournelle/Niven) and Pandora's Star/Judas Unleashed by Peter F. Hamilton (finishing it up now). If there are honest to goodness GOOD Star Trek books out there, I'd be willing to try them. The same goes for Star Wars... I've tried the supposed best of those books (at least at the time): the Zahn trilogy and Shadow of the Empire, but to me they just came off as so much fan wanking.
And sometimes when you're on, you're really f***ing on And your friends they sing along and they love you But the lows are so extreme that the good seems f***ing cheap And it teases you for weeks in its absence Rilo Kiley - "A Better Son/Daughter"
I found Micheal Stackpole good, he has written for the Star wars series (xwing amongst others), not sure about Star Trek
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
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Yes, someone named Brandon Sanderson, allegedly after Jordans widow requested him personally to finish the series. Book 12 and 13 are already published and he's now working on the final one. He claims that he rereads the entire series from scratch at least two times for every book he adds to the series. One time before he starts writing and one time after he finished the first draft of the manuscript. Apparently you barely notice it's written by someone else.
Giraffes are not real.
0bx wrote:
He claims that he rereads the entire series from scratch at least two times for every book
seriously? sure he'd spend more time reading the other books than writing the new ones.
Pete
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I've just finished reading "The art of racing in the rain" by Garth Stein. If you where ever curious about what a dog thinks about its owner, this is the book.
Looks good, I just ordered it.
Pete
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I wanted to buy some good books for reading on the beach during my holiday and looked on amazon. What a disappointment... the site now so much rely on what you have already bought to propose you with new books, that you have to navigate at least 5 minutes and look at 50 different things (from children book to cooking books via Mongolian literature) to get the engine eventually be original in its choices. X| That's sad and new to me, since I had some good catches in the past... So, do you have any good recommendations ? What do you currently read ?
I don't see it mentioned, and I haven't read them myself, but have you read the Game of Thrones stuff by George RR Martin? If they're mking TV out of it they can't be bad.
Pete
