What Are You Reading?

[devnulljp]

I've been reading Finnegan's Wake off and on for 10 years...
Ulysses though is a masterpiece -- just bought it again and will start re-re-re-rereading it.

Just finished this, which is a wonderful book. Strong intelligent lady.

[HereticPride]

Imperial Bedrooms-Bret Easton Ellis

My favorite he's done in a looooong time.

[cloudscapes]

almost finished the Science in the Capital trilogy (kim stanley robinson)
climate change, politics, science, zoology, buddhism, tibet

dunno what I'll read next

[blicero]

anyone got any recommended non-fiction? don't really feel like reading fiction books, although i do fancy having a go at dune

[phantasmagorovich]

anyone got any recommended non-fiction? don't really feel like reading fiction books, although i do fancy having a go at dune

Hard to recommend if you don't say what you're interested in. I always enjoy Richard Sennet's books.

[blicero]

anyone got any recommended non-fiction? don't really feel like reading fiction books, although i do fancy having a go at dune

Hard to recommend if you don't say what you're interested in. I always enjoy Richard Sennet's books.

haha yeah that would've been an idea. thing is i'm really not sure what i'm into. i guess that's why you've got to go to book shops and just browse. that's how i ended up reading battle royale when i was like 12, i just saw the cover and had to get it. turned out to be a pretty great book too; the films not nearly as good.

richard sennet does actually sound quite interesting, i have my sociology exam next week so I probably should've discovered him sooner...

[Dr. Lubenfinger]

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (Re-read for research)
The Anarchist Cookbook – William Powell (Re-read)

[smile_man]

I just read Jpod, too fucking good.

[cloudscapes]

starting Perdido Street Station

from wiki

Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is an eccentric scientist living in the city of New Crobuzon with his Khepri girlfriend Lin. While Lin, an artist, is commissioned to create a sculpture of mob boss Mr. Motley, Isaac is offered a unique challenge. He is approached by the garuda Yagharek, who asks for the restoration of his wings which were cut off by his tribe as punishment for a crime that he claims has no human equivalent. Isaac is sparked by the seemingly impossible nature of the task, and gathers all manners of flying beasts to study in his lab - including a multicolored, unidentifiable larva gathered through illicit means. Once Isaac learns that the caterpillar only eats a hallucinogenic drug called "dreamshit", he begins to feed it, unwittingly stimulating its metamorphosis into an incredibly dangerous, hypnotic and monstrously large butterfly-like insect, a slake-moth, that feeds off the dreams of sentient beings, leaving them as catatonic vegetables. Later, it is revealed that dreamshit is in fact the "milk" of a fully-grown dream slake-moth, and that four other such creatures have been sold to Mr. Motley, a hideously Remade crime boss, and "milked" to produce the drug. When the fifth larva transforms and escapes, it frees its brethren, and together they plague the citizens of New Crobuzon until Isaac can find a way to stop them.

[spacelordmother]

anyone got any recommended non-fiction? don't really feel like reading fiction books, although i do fancy having a go at dune

DO EET! I just finished Dune after procrastinating reading it for far too long. It is most excellent and the movie does not do it justice at all. I have heard good things about the SciFi channel's version though so I may need to give that a viewing.

[phantasmagorovich]

starting Perdido Street Station

A-freaking-mazing book! Good choice.

After reading a 'good' book that took forever to read now I'm at "Pushing Ice" from Alastair Roberts. Which is a Space opera and does what it does well. Just that the characters seem terribly shallow.

[phantasmagorovich]

Ken MacLeod - The Star Faction

until now: wow

[mutmoo]

1984

[devnulljp]

anyone got any recommended non-fiction? don't really feel like reading fiction books, although i do fancy having a go at dune

I have a hard time justifying reading fiction (I know I know, I'm a philistine who doesn't appreciate literature... ), as time is a pretty rare commodity. I read a lot of pop-sci and biographical/historical non-fiction.

Depends what you're interested in I guess -- although I'm a molecular biologist and it's kinda my thing, I really think everyone should read the Selfish Gene (don't be put off by the title).
Dan Dennet's Consciousness Explained is great.
Guns Germs and Steel? (you mentioned sociology right? That's kinda relevant).
Anything by Richard Feynman -- his autobiographies are fascinating.

[metalmariachi]

Liberty and tyranny by Mark Levin.

MM