What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Questions on how we spend our money and our time - consumer goods and services, home and vehicle, leisure and recreational activities
Locked
User avatar
VictoriaF
Posts: 20122
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:27 am
Location: Black Swan Lake

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by VictoriaF »

Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain : The Science of Neuroeconomics by Paul W. Glimcher.

Victoria
Inventor of the Bogleheads Secret Handshake | Winner of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. | Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)
galectin
Posts: 316
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2011 12:57 pm

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by galectin »

Since folks are on a Heinlein streak, I just finished The Cat Who Could Walk Through Walls. I don't recommend it as it brings characters from other books together and doesn't seem to come to a coherent finish. But, don't read it unless you have read the Lazarus Long books and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Ricola
Posts: 966
Joined: Sat Apr 26, 2008 10:38 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Ricola »

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

Enjoyable journey into understanding the life of Kim Philby.
User avatar
Lon
Posts: 550
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:25 pm
Location: California & Mapua, New Zealand
Contact:

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Lon »

Grant by Jean Edward Smith A great read for History Buffs
Gnirk
Posts: 1740
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 3:11 am
Location: South Puget Sound

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Gnirk »

The Boys in the Boat.
WhyNotUs
Posts: 2610
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 11:38 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by WhyNotUs »

Just finished Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation, just started Charles Mann's 1491.
I own the next hot stock- VTSAX
User avatar
nisiprius
Advisory Board
Posts: 52216
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:33 am
Location: The terrestrial, globular, planetary hunk of matter, flattened at the poles, is my abode.--O. Henry

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by nisiprius »

Valuethinker wrote:On Juveniles, my favourites are: ...
- Time for the Stars (that might be my very favourite, it certainly felt the most 'grown up')
LOVED that one when I was in my teens and liked it a lot when I read it again. Even having re-read it the only thing I actually remember from it is the fascinating concept and working out of the idea of twins, in instantaneous telepathic communication, needing to deal with time dilation effects...
Podkayne of Mars is the difficult one and still hotly debated. It's got a bit of 'Friday' and the short story 'Gulf' in it. RAH's view of women is what riles people up in this one. It would be too painful to read it again-- avoid spoilers if you are going to read it.
Hated it when I first read it and hated it when I re-read it a few years ago.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

nisiprius wrote:
Valuethinker wrote:On Juveniles, my favourites are: ...
- Time for the Stars (that might be my very favourite, it certainly felt the most 'grown up')
LOVED that one when I was in my teens and liked it a lot when I read it again. Even having re-read it the only thing I actually remember from it is the fascinating concept and working out of the idea of twins, in instantaneous telepathic communication, needing to deal with time dilation effects...
For me it was about the relationship between 2 brothers, and how that changes as one of them (on Earth) ages much faster than the one travelling near the speed of light. That, and very Heinleinian reflections about the sacrifices that explorers make. He's quite capable of snuffing out your favourite character-- that was something I had never encountered before in literature.
Podkayne of Mars is the difficult one and still hotly debated. It's got a bit of 'Friday' and the short story 'Gulf' in it. RAH's view of women is what riles people up in this one. It would be too painful to read it again-- avoid spoilers if you are going to read it.
Hated it when I first read it and hated it when I re-read it a few years ago.
[/quote]

I am not sure it justifies the opprobium it receives (whereas Farnham's Freehold probably does). It's a tragedy and RAH's own opinions (I learned much later) about what makes it a tragedy are not exactly Politically Correct (but might, in terms of the story, be right).

Connie Willis did Light Raid, which I think took on the same scenario (resourceful girl caught in the middle of murderous politics) rather better.

The one that was well regarded that I really found disappointing was 'Glory Road'. It wasn't a good SF novel and it wasn't a good Sword and Sorcery novel. I think there was quite a deliberate satire of Edgar Rice Burroughs buried in there.

SF writers have always had it in for Fantasy writers. Fantasy was the 'junior' form, and then in the 1970s about it took off to the point where it is now much larger (if we include sub genres like vampires) than SF. Partly because SF struggled to appeal to women, but Fantasy has a much stronger female readership. Also because Fantasy can be quite 'twee' (both suffer from cliche overload) and not 'serious'.

I wondered therefore whether Heinlein was trying to prove that he could do Fantasy, and at the same time take it down. As he was the master of Science Fiction it wasn't too convincing for me.

For an author who mostly wrote fantasy, but fantasy which was sometimes almost SF, Roger Zelazny I thought was without peer (Lord of Light, This Immortal, Doorways in the Sand are all 'SF' novels, but the former in particular is also really fantasy). Some of his early short stories (Rose for Ecclesiates) are also SF, ditto Damnation Alley (a good book, but not a good movie, he disavowed it).
Retired1809
Posts: 509
Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2007 3:11 pm
Location: North Carolina, USA

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Retired1809 »

"The Walk" by Richard Paul Evans

And the next four in the series.

A week ago, I noticed "The Walk" in a display at my public library. It sounded like just what I needed at the time. I finished it within 24 hours and then discovered that the author had written four more books in the series. It's about the experiences one man had upon losing his wife, his home, his business.... basically everything. Something told him to walk as far away from his home (Seattle) as he could without leaving the continental US, so he decided to walk from Seattle to Key West, Florida. It's the people he meets along the way who made the book.

I heartily recommend the whole series which I finished last night, less than a week after I discovered the first book. :D
Bungo
Posts: 1138
Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2011 11:28 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Bungo »

Just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. One of the finest novels I've read over the past few years; a solid 9/10. I read The Remains of the Day around 25 years ago and recall it was excellent, but I was very disappointed with The Unconsoled (~1995) and had avoided the author since then. After reading many positive reviews I decided to give the new one a go (to the extent that a ten year old novel can be considered new, anyway; I find that in my mid 40s, almost anything that has occurred in the past 10-15 years seems relatively new :D ). I was not disappointed.

Now reading Still Life by Louise Penny.
chaz
Posts: 13604
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:44 pm

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"Rough Weather" by Robert Parker.
Chaz | | “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen | | http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
User avatar
nisiprius
Advisory Board
Posts: 52216
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:33 am
Location: The terrestrial, globular, planetary hunk of matter, flattened at the poles, is my abode.--O. Henry

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by nisiprius »

Just finished The Little White Bird, by J. M. Barrie, author of "Peter Pan."

It is truly sui generis, quite bizarre, unlike anything else I've ever read before except "Peter Pan" (the novel) itself. It is very very hard to describe. A very long section of it was later published as a book in itself under the title Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, and if you only know the other Peter Pan you may find this one interesting. It is not the same Peter Pan. Or is it?
...he plays exactly as real children play. At least he thinks so, and it is one of the pathetic things about him that he often plays quite wrongly.

You see, he had no one to tell him how children really play, for the fairies were all more or less in hiding until dusk, and so know nothing, and though the birds pretended that they could tell him a great deal, when the time for telling came, it was wonderful how little they really knew.

...Peter had to find out many things for himself. He often played ships at the Round Pond, but his ship was only a hoop which he had found on the grass. Of course, he had never seen a hoop, and he wondered what you play at with them, and decided that you play at pretending they are boats. This hoop always sank at once, but he waded in for it, and sometimes he dragged it gleefully round the rim of the pond, and he was quite proud to think that he had discovered what boys do with hoops.

Another time, when he found a child's pail, he thought it was for sitting in, and he sat so hard in it that he could scarcely get out of it.

Do you pity Peter Pan for making these mistakes? If so, I think it rather silly of you. What I mean is that, of course, one must pity him now and then, but to pity him all the time would be impertinence. He thought he had the most splendid time in the Gardens, and to think you have it is almost quite as good as really to have it.
The novel, if it is a novel, is disturbing in places in ways that can only be described as "creepy:"

"It was a scheme conceived in a flash, and ever since relentlessly pursued, to burrow under Mary's influence with the boy, expose her to him in all her vagaries, take him utterly from her and make him mine."

BUT...

there is a chapter, "The Inconsiderate Waiter," in which the narrator takes the stance of being furious at a waiter in his club, for being insufficiently attentive to him and for acting above his station. We learn that The waiter is distracted by his wife's being seriously ill. The narrator tells us how he give the man and his wife assistance, financial and otherwise, while continuing to narrate in tones of upper-class fury at the waiter's social presumption:

"How dare you, William?"
"Oh, sir, to do that for me! May God bl—"
"William."

In other words, there are so many layers of irony that you start to wonder if the creepiness in other parts is an ironic pose--or whether it's a clever disguise for the real creepiness--or whether you're _supposed_ to regard the narrator as a monster, and to project that onto the author would be like assuming that Edgar Allan Poe really bricked people up inside walls.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
User avatar
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95696
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by LadyGeek »

Podkayne of Mars, by Robert A. Heinlein.

A 1950's era male science fiction author attempts to write a first-person narrative of an adolescent teenage girl. Stereotypical male perspectives circa 1950 result. Meh.
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
User avatar
heartwood
Posts: 2700
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2013 12:40 pm

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by heartwood »

Slogging through The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert A. Heinlein. I'm just into book two: A Rabble in Arms
User avatar
ruralavalon
Posts: 26353
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:29 am
Location: Illinois

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by ruralavalon »

A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, by James E Seaver. Twelve year old Mary Jemison's family was killed and she was made a captive in western Pennsylvania in 1755, during the French and Indian War (aka the Seven Years War). At Fort Pitt she was sold to two Seneca sisters, lived in Ohio and was later adopted into that tribe, eventually settling in western New York. Gives a narrative of her life in that tribe through the 1820's.

Passenger to Frankfurt, by Agatha Christie. A spy thriller, mot a murder mystery. Fog diverts a plane to a different airport, a chance encounter with a young woman, and a plot to take over the world.

Endless Night, by Agatha Christie. Young man meets beautiful young woman, she turns out to be fabulously wealthy, they marry and build their dream house in the English countryside. What is wrong with this picture?

Evil Under the Sun, by Agatha Christie. Poirot is on vacation at an Island resort hotel in Cornwall.

Deep Risk, by William Bernstein. Deep risk is the risk of permanent loss of real capital. Potential causes include both prolonged severe inflation and prolonged severe deflation, but the former is more likely. The antidotes include a globally diversified stock portfolio, a tilt toward value stocks, and individual TIPS laddered in a tax sheltered account (or an inflation adjusted fixed annuity).

Land of Big Rivers; French & Indian Illinois, 1699-1778, by M. J. Morgan. History and pre-history of the "American Bottoms", a narrow strip of bottomland about 60 miles long on the east bank of the Mississippi River opposite present-day St. Louis. Here the Mississippi River is joined by the Missouri, Illinois and Kaskaskia Rivers. Probably interesting only if you are from the area.
"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein | Wiki article link: Bogleheads® investment philosophy
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

LadyGeek wrote:Podkayne of Mars, by Robert A. Heinlein.

A 1950's era male science fiction author attempts to write a first-person narrative of an adolescent teenage girl. Stereotypical male perspectives circa 1950 result. Meh.
Along with Farnham's Freehold, his most controversial work.

I think that it's a more subtle novel than it first appears. But not an easy one. I know what RAH wrote about it (or at least a choice line) but that has to wait until you have finished it. I am not sure we don't project when we read that novel- -but I've never been a teenage girl.

To some extent it was the 'last' Heinlein juvenile. Although Have Space Suit Will Travel is widely lauded as that (and one of his best, if not the best-- I must admit I have other favourites).

The two novels which do the 'teenage girl in a Heinlein world' well that I know of are Rite of Passage (Alexi Panshin) and Light Raid (Connie Willis). I liked The Rolling Stones for that reason, too-- it's a more lighthearted take on Podkayne of Mars I think. I *think* Poddie's annoying little brother is meant to be RAH, himself.

I am impressed you have gone full blast at Heinlein. If you have read his short fiction including all of The Past Through Tomorrow, the 'big 4': Star Ship Troopers, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Double Star, Stranger in a Strange Land (overated in my view that last one) and the 11 (?) juveniles plus The Puppet Masters, then you've had the best of him.

He doesn't get marks as a stylist, but actually I think his style is one of his best defining points. 'He stormed out. The door dilated shut behind him'. As a reader it takes a doubletake to remember that doors don't dilate. There's a description of a fight in 'Time Enough for Love' (the pioneer sequence) which, again, is perfect RAH. That, and the exquisite first chapter of Starship Troopers, which takes you right into a first person view of a future war, and is a scene Hollywood has been trying to remake again, and again. (most recently with Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise).
Last edited by Valuethinker on Sat Aug 16, 2014 11:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

heartwood wrote:Slogging through The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert A. Heinlein. I'm just into book two: A Rabble in Arms

Once you get through the narrator's language (Heinlein's take on what a Russian-American penal colony on the moon would talk like) I found it to be one of the most imaginative and gripping SF novels I have read. That much of it now seems cliched is because Heinlein invented those cliches. The scenario of rebellious penal space colony standing off overwhelming Imperialist Earth has been written so many times, now, that it's hard to remember that it ever seemed fresh.

(Paul McCauley is doing a good job on a fresh take in his 'The Cool War' series).

There is always the problem in Heinlein as to whom is the RAH voice. Arguably Professor Bernardo de la Paz. In his later novels RAH was too concerned on having the message delivered. (That is Alexi Panshin's argument, and I am broadly in accord). However in TMIAHM I don't think it is too obtrusive.
gkaplan
Posts: 7034
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 7:34 pm
Location: Portland, Oregon

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by gkaplan »

I'm a little over a third through Death of a Fool by Ngaio Marsh. It's not one of her better efforts, in my opinion.
Gordon
User avatar
nisiprius
Advisory Board
Posts: 52216
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:33 am
Location: The terrestrial, globular, planetary hunk of matter, flattened at the poles, is my abode.--O. Henry

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by nisiprius »

ruralavalon wrote:A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, by James E Seaver. Twelve year old Mary Jemison's family was killed and she was made a captive in western Pennsylvania in 1755, during the French and Indian War (aka the Seven Years War). At Fort Pitt she was sold to two Seneca sisters, lived in Ohio and was later adopted into that tribe, eventually settling in western New York. Gives a narrative of her life in that tribe through the 1820's.
Interesting, as we recently visited Letchworth State Park and recommend the park highly. I didn't think I would actually be likely to read that book, though, so I didn't buy it. I take it you are finding it interesting? Maybe I should reconsider. Letchworth State Park was a real stumble-upon, we were looking ahead to the next stop and something in that part of the state was about right, and my wife says "I wonder what this is? It's an awfully thick line on the map." All the other state parks just had little tent symbols, but this one had a thick line surrounding 15 miles or so of real estate...
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
galectin
Posts: 316
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2011 12:57 pm

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by galectin »

I just finished re-reading The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny.

It is a good and enjoyable example of Zelazny in his "First Person Smart Alec" mode. I read that term somewhere and found it apt for his writing, which I am a big fan of.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

galectin wrote:I just finished re-reading The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny.

It is a good and enjoyable example of Zelazny in his "First Person Smart Alec" mode. I read that term somewhere and found it apt for his writing, which I am a big fan of.
By coincidence I was just dipping into Guns of Avalon (Gollancz here, as part of its 'Fantasy Masterworks' series, did the first 6 in one volume). When I first read these, after the first 3, I had to wait for him to finish them and publish-- I remember the agony of waiting very well.

People talk about Game of Thrones, but for me Nine Princes in Amber does the intrigue, and Glenn Cook's The Black Company (and The Dread Empire) do the military stuff. Arguably Zelazny never did particularly strong and memorable female characters.

What I am finding interesting is that Corwin's personality does develop. Right now he is just bitter and twisted in his rivalry with his brother, Eric (having someone blind you can do that to you ;-)) and obsessed with victory. As he assumes the de facto rulership of Avalon, that will change. And of course the plot thickens all around him: Brand, Dara etc. Having read the series before the reader is now in the advantage of knowing where Corwin is going wrong. That makes the appreciation of his situation and personality more acute.

There is that interesting duality, which Michael Moorcock used at times in Elric: the Courts of Chaos are about chaos, but are orderly, and the Princes of Amber spend their time killing each other.

I agree re how Zelazny wrote. First person, and the main character had both superior powers and a smart alec approach. This Immortal for example.

I really like Lord of Light, I think it is his best. And Doorways in the Sand (the idea of being a perpetual student was appealing at that time in my life ;-)).

The second half of the Avalon series, that he wrote later, never worked for me-- I think most thought it inferior. I remember being highly unsatisfied with the resolution. I think, commercially, like Arthur Conan Doyle with the later Sherlock Holmes, he was just forced to write it.

I do recommend his late novella 'A Night in Lonesome October' for everything that we remember Zelazny for.
User avatar
market timer
Posts: 6535
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2007 1:42 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by market timer »

COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE
By Haruki Murakami
Translated by Philip Gabriel
386 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. $25.95.

Latest Murakami novel. I read just about everything he writes.
User avatar
oldzey
Posts: 1743
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2014 8:38 pm
Location: Land of Lincoln

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by oldzey »

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle.

Rereading Poor Richard's Almanack by that well-known Savant, Dr. Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia.
"The broker said the stock was 'poised to move.' Silly me, I thought he meant up." ― Randy Thurman
User avatar
Ged
Posts: 3945
Joined: Mon May 13, 2013 1:48 pm
Location: Roke

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Ged »

Valuethinker wrote: I really like Lord of Light, I think it is his best.
There was an attempt to make a movie from Lord of Light, however it didn't make it into production. The remnants did service as the basis for the sham movie in Argo.

Nine Princes in Amber served as the basis for a popular game system - to me that speaks well of the quality of the universe Zelazny constructed. I read the whole series but felt rather dissatisfied because the first book in the series was so well done that it left me expecting more.

Slightly off topic - there is a sf film festival at the Lincoln Center featuring 11 European (sorta) sf films I've never seen. One of them is based on Lem's first novel Hospital of The Transfiguration. All seem to be available on DVD (maybe not English though).

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/au ... n-new-york

News came out today that Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice got the Hugo. It seems to qualify addition to my reading list on two counts - Space Opera and winner of both Hugo and Nebula. So I will be reading this when I finish Windup Girl.

It's nice that there seem to be some quality fresh faces writing sf now.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

Ged wrote:
Valuethinker wrote: I really like Lord of Light, I think it is his best.
There was an attempt to make a movie from Lord of Light, however it didn't make it into production. The remnants did service as the basis for the sham movie in Argo.
Hah! Goes to show how much Hollywood twists novels around. The Third Man is better as a movie (I think Graham Green wrote the novel having written the screenplay?). The Big Sleep is more satisfying as a movie in some ways, but lacks the depth of the novel-- the movie makes Eddie Mars the only villain. Bladerunner I would say the movie (The Director's Cut) is more satisfying than the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which I have only heard in a BBC audio adaptation) but I am so immersed in the movie before the novel that my judgement is questionable.
Nine Princes in Amber served as the basis for a popular game system - to me that speaks well of the quality of the universe Zelazny constructed. I read the whole series but felt rather dissatisfied because the first book in the series was so well done that it left me expecting more.
My mother said, once, how it had been to read Lord of the Rings, waiting a whole year for each volume to come out. I was that way with 9 Princes in Amber, so I don't really know how to rate 1 novel against another-- they blend together in my mind.
Slightly off topic - there is a sf film festival at the Lincoln Center featuring 11 European (sorta) sf films I've never seen. One of them is based on Lem's first novel Hospital of The Transfiguration. All seem to be available on DVD (maybe not English though).

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/au ... n-new-york
Thank you. The London SciFi Con was on, but I don't have the time at the moment for such diversions.
News came out today that Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice got the Hugo. It seems to qualify addition to my reading list on two counts - Space Opera and winner of both Hugo and Nebula. So I will be reading this when I finish Windup Girl.

It's nice that there seem to be some quality fresh faces writing sf now.
In an environment where becoming a (new) fulltime SF writer is basically impossible-- you have to have a day job. If you look at the rate at which Charlie Stross turns out books (and quality suffers for it, I think)...

I picked up Adam Christopher's Empire State totally at random in a book shop. But that happens less and less now. There are fewer bookshops, and they carry fewer books. The 'backlist' just doesn't sell like it did. Amazon filtering is good for more of the same, but not for new discoveries. Forbidden Planet chain has a good selection but they don't love books (vs models, graphic novels etc.) and it's not a great atmosphere.

Thank you for the recommendations.
User avatar
Ged
Posts: 3945
Joined: Mon May 13, 2013 1:48 pm
Location: Roke

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Ged »

Valuethinker wrote: My mother said, once, how it had been to read Lord of the Rings, waiting a whole year for each volume to come out. I was that way with 9 Princes in Amber, so I don't really know how to rate 1 novel against another-- they blend together in my mind.
I ran into LOTR as a teenager in a used bookshop that had a large scifi section. The Ballantine paperbacks showed up there. Unfortunately the copies I bought have long since fallen apart. I did manage to snag a copy of the original artwork by Barbara Remington in the form of a poster from Ebay. It's fantastic.

http://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/wiw ... gton+Mural

My wife, then as a young girl living in Chile was passed a copy of WH Auden's NY Times review of The Fellowship of The Ring. By that time it had been published completely. She was able to get her parents to order a boxed set from England which we still have. First Edition Unwin and Allen, 10th impression. Interesting to think, next year is the 60th anniversary of her ownership of these books.

The NYT has a great online archive of articles on the LOTR including that review.

http://www.nytimes.com/specials/adverti ... index.html

Reading these it's amazing how unpolished the text was. It's full of typos and so forth. For example the word elfin appears in many places where elvish should.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

Ged wrote:
Valuethinker wrote: My mother said, once, how it had been to read Lord of the Rings, waiting a whole year for each volume to come out. I was that way with 9 Princes in Amber, so I don't really know how to rate 1 novel against another-- they blend together in my mind.
I ran into LOTR as a teenager in a used bookshop that had a large scifi section. The Ballantine paperbacks showed up there. Unfortunately the copies I bought have long since fallen apart. I did manage to snag a copy of the original artwork by Barbara Remington in the form of a poster from Ebay. It's fantastic.

http://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/wiw ... gton+Mural

My wife, then as a young girl living in Chile was passed a copy of WH Auden's NY Times review of The Fellowship of The Ring. By that time it had been published completely. She was able to get her parents to order a boxed set from England which we still have. First Edition Unwin and Allen, 10th impression. Interesting to think, next year is the 60th anniversary of her ownership of these books.

The NYT has a great online archive of articles on the LOTR including that review.

http://www.nytimes.com/specials/adverti ... index.html

Reading these it's amazing how unpolished the text was. It's full of typos and so forth. For example the word elfin appears in many places where elvish should.
Thank you for those memories.

LOTR is now so cliched, has in a sense become its own cliche, in terms of what has come since it, not to mention the movies, and it is now so much part of our cultural heritage that it's hard to remember what it must have felt like when it came out. How fresh, new, innovative.

When there are *thousands* of dragons, dwarves, elves, swords & sorcery quest novels, not to mention Dungeons & Dragons Role Playing Games and all its ilk, it's just hard to remember what LOTR was. I know of few (any?) fantasy novels so artfully and fully constructed (down to language).

Lord of Light I am unsure there is a movie in it (if Japanese Manga couldn't do Lensman, how could it do LOL?). What there is, though, is such a splendid retelling of Indian mythos as if implemented by western science and technology.

What amazed me was that Zelazny even managed to work in some of the Buddha's philosophical lessons. And yet the main character does it with such total cynicism, and in the process appears to achieve his own Enlightenment.

There is a line there somewhere, about the rebels, the ordinary humans co-opted into the war as soldiers : 'Yet they faced the real death (ie no reincarnation via an electronic personality transference on the wheel of Karma)..'

'Yet they faced the real death. And still they fought the Gods'.
chaz
Posts: 13604
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:44 pm

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

Just finished "Killer" by Jonathan Kellerman. Excellent.
Last edited by chaz on Mon Aug 18, 2014 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Chaz | | “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen | | http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
User avatar
Chan_va
Posts: 870
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 6:15 pm

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Chan_va »

Been on a bit of an exploration book kick lately.

Read "Travels in the interior districts of Africa" by Mungo Park. Free on the kindle. Great read as an adventure, but also as a look into the heart of the slave trade.
User avatar
Ged
Posts: 3945
Joined: Mon May 13, 2013 1:48 pm
Location: Roke

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Ged »

Valuethinker wrote: Lord of Light I am unsure there is a movie in it (if Japanese Manga couldn't do Lensman, how could it do LOL?). What there is, though, is such a splendid retelling of Indian mythos as if implemented by western science and technology.
I despaired of ever getting an acceptable movie from Lord of the Rings. I scoffed publicly and frequently when New Line announced they were funding Jackson's project.

Since then I don't say anything about what can be made into a movie and what cannot. Crow is not at all palatable.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

Ged wrote:
Valuethinker wrote: Lord of Light I am unsure there is a movie in it (if Japanese Manga couldn't do Lensman, how could it do LOL?). What there is, though, is such a splendid retelling of Indian mythos as if implemented by western science and technology.
I despaired of ever getting an acceptable movie from Lord of the Rings. I scoffed publicly and frequently when New Line announced they were funding Jackson's project.

Since then I don't say anything about what can be made into a movie and what cannot. Crow is not at all palatable.
After Ralph Bakshi failed at it, I thought it still only could be done as an animated film. And that it was too complex a story for a non-fan audience.

And yet it did work. Partly because CGI is now so good. But also the director (if you saw his 'Heavenly Creatures' which is a pretty gripping tragedy, you can see the beginnings of the elements that made it work).

The only problem is now people go to NZ and discover it doesn't look *quite* as good as it does in the movie ;-).

Generally Hollywood's score with fantasy and sci fi written works is worse not better. If you strip out the Verhoeven ones (Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Robocop) which are all, in fact, satires, most especially.

The standalone (2001, Terminator, Alien, Forbidden Planet, Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing (the second one)) generally worked better. The Thing was a John W Campbell short story, though.
User avatar
ruralavalon
Posts: 26353
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:29 am
Location: Illinois

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by ruralavalon »

nisiprius wrote:
ruralavalon wrote:A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, by James E Seaver. Twelve year old Mary Jemison's family was killed and she was made a captive in western Pennsylvania in 1755, during the French and Indian War (aka the Seven Years War). At Fort Pitt she was sold to two Seneca sisters, lived in Ohio and was later adopted into that tribe, eventually settling in western New York. Gives a narrative of her life in that tribe through the 1820's.
Interesting, as we recently visited Letchworth State Park and recommend the park highly. I didn't think I would actually be likely to read that book, though, so I didn't buy it. I take it you are finding it interesting? Maybe I should reconsider. Letchworth State Park was a real stumble-upon, we were looking ahead to the next stop and something in that part of the state was about right, and my wife says "I wonder what this is? It's an awfully thick line on the map." All the other state parks just had little tent symbols, but this one had a thick line surrounding 15 miles or so of real estate...
I had no idea there was a "Letchworth State Park" or a memorial to Mary Jemison there. I did find the book interesting, like many other first-hand captive accounts the story debunks myths about the frontier in the Old Northwest. Perhaps it is interesting only if you are from the area, I have lived in Illinois almost all my life and my father's family lived many generations in Ohio.
"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein | Wiki article link: Bogleheads® investment philosophy
User avatar
nisiprius
Advisory Board
Posts: 52216
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:33 am
Location: The terrestrial, globular, planetary hunk of matter, flattened at the poles, is my abode.--O. Henry

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by nisiprius »

ruralavalon wrote:
nisiprius wrote:
ruralavalon wrote:A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, by James E Seaver. Twelve year old Mary Jemison's family was killed and she was made a captive in western Pennsylvania in 1755, during the French and Indian War (aka the Seven Years War). At Fort Pitt she was sold to two Seneca sisters, lived in Ohio and was later adopted into that tribe, eventually settling in western New York. Gives a narrative of her life in that tribe through the 1820's.
Interesting, as we recently visited Letchworth State Park and recommend the park highly. I didn't think I would actually be likely to read that book, though, so I didn't buy it. I take it you are finding it interesting? Maybe I should reconsider. Letchworth State Park was a real stumble-upon, we were looking ahead to the next stop and something in that part of the state was about right, and my wife says "I wonder what this is? It's an awfully thick line on the map." All the other state parks just had little tent symbols, but this one had a thick line surrounding 15 miles or so of real estate...
I had no idea there was a "Letchworth State Park" or a memorial to Mary Jemison there. I did find the book interesting, like many other first-hand captive accounts the story debunks myths about the frontier in the Old Northwest. Perhaps it is interesting only if you are from the area, I have lived in Illinois almost all my life and my father's family lived many generations in Ohio.
Well, it is a delightful state park with three beautiful waterfalls, an amazing number of scenic views, and a little museum that's well worth spending an hour in.

There is a "Council Grounds" with a statue of Mary Jemison, although there are not actually any reliable likenesses of her. One painting of her as an elderly woman was made, after her death, from descriptions made by people who'd known her. There is also a cabin, a reconstruction of hers. But at any rate you can visit the land where she lived for many years.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
chaz
Posts: 13604
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:44 pm

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

Starting "Lullaby" by Ace Atkins.
Chaz | | “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen | | http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
User avatar
Ged
Posts: 3945
Joined: Mon May 13, 2013 1:48 pm
Location: Roke

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Ged »

Valuethinker wrote: Generally Hollywood's score with fantasy and sci fi written works is worse not better. If you strip out the Verhoeven ones (Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Robocop) which are all, in fact, satires, most especially.

The standalone (2001, Terminator, Alien, Forbidden Planet, Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing (the second one)) generally worked better. The Thing was a John W Campbell short story, though.
2001 and Day the Earth Stood Still are nominally based on short stories too, however the connection is very tenuous and could arguably called insignificant. The Thing's connection to Who Goes There is much stronger.

The best sci-fi movies I've watched in the past few years have been stand-alone works by Shane Carruth.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

Ged wrote:
Valuethinker wrote: Generally Hollywood's score with fantasy and sci fi written works is worse not better. If you strip out the Verhoeven ones (Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Robocop) which are all, in fact, satires, most especially.

The standalone (2001, Terminator, Alien, Forbidden Planet, Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing (the second one)) generally worked better. The Thing was a John W Campbell short story, though.
2001 and Day the Earth Stood Still are nominally based on short stories too, however the connection is very tenuous and could arguably called insignificant. The Thing's connection to Who Goes There is much stronger.
And the second The Thing (the John Carpenter remake) the more so? Closer to the original story? 2001 I knew about The Sentinel, but I didn't know about The Day The Earth Stood Still (story/ author?).

The best sci-fi movies I've watched in the past few years have been stand-alone works by Shane Carruth.[/quote]

IMDB says 2 movies, one of which is 'Primer' the one that looks very science fictional? Has he done any others.

Gattacca was just superb I thought 'There is no gene for the human spirit'. The scene where he has to cross the road spoke so directly to me-- and Uma Thurman's incomprehension.

A long tradition of films shot in Orange County. The City Hall/ Kolp's command centre in 'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes' is Orange County Civic Center. The launch centre of Gattacca is the OC library. And Philip K Dick's papers are kept there.

I would add 'A Scanner Darkly'. The ending is perhaps unsatisfactory (that's probably a direct lift from the novel). However the set up, and particularly Robert Downey Jr.... Bob Arctor is a policeman undercover, and the drug dealer he is spying on is ... Bob Arctor.
User avatar
nisiprius
Advisory Board
Posts: 52216
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:33 am
Location: The terrestrial, globular, planetary hunk of matter, flattened at the poles, is my abode.--O. Henry

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by nisiprius »

Piers Dudgeon, Neverland: J. M. Barrie, the Du Mauriers and the Dark Side of “Peter Pan.” Skimming and skipping, and trying to maintain some critical/skeptical distance, as the book is controversial and Dudgeon goes way too far in the direction of speculation although he seems to label it clearly, and to be reasonably careful about citing his evidence for his guesses.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
User avatar
seeshells
Posts: 179
Joined: Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:43 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by seeshells »

Business Adventures:Twelve Classic Tales from Wall Street, by JBrooks.<I do not know Valuethinker>
Last edited by seeshells on Tue Aug 19, 2014 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

seeshells wrote:Business Adventures:Twelve Classic Tales from Wall Street, by JBrooks.
Brooks had an old fashioned style, but an absolute classic.

Wasn't Warren Buffett recommending this the other day?
Ricola
Posts: 966
Joined: Sat Apr 26, 2008 10:38 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Ricola »

Operation Shakespeare: The True Story of an Elite International Sting by John Shiffman

A behinds the scenes look at the hidden arms trade business.
User avatar
Ged
Posts: 3945
Joined: Mon May 13, 2013 1:48 pm
Location: Roke

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Ged »

Ged wrote: 2001 and Day the Earth Stood Still are nominally based on short stories too, however the connection is very tenuous and could arguably called insignificant. The Thing's connection to Who Goes There is much stronger.
Valuethinker wrote:And the second The Thing (the John Carpenter remake) the more so? Closer to the original story? 2001 I knew about The Sentinel, but I didn't know about The Day The Earth Stood Still (story/ author?).
I don't remember the details of the first adaptation of the the Thing well enough to say if it was closer.

The original story for The Day The Earth Stood Still is Fairwell To The Master by Harry Bates. I actually read it only a couple of years ago; it's in a collection "The Golden Years of Science Fiction" ed Asimov and Martin Greenberg which I got by trolling EBay for old SF anthologies. Really it's only interesting because it served as a basis for a classic movie. The writing is quite tedious.
Valuethinker wrote:IMDB says 2 movies, one of which is 'Primer' the one that looks very science fictional? Has he done any others.
He's done Primer and Upstream Color. Both are very much sci-fi. Extremely creative and intellectually challenging. Not mainstream at all. Upstream Color is based on the effect an exotic parasite that has a 3-stage lifecycle one stage of which is in humans on the lives of the people who carry it. The parasite enables metaphysical connections between its hosts. There is a third script titled 'A Topiary'. I don't know if it will get made into a movie or not; it was written 9 years ago. In any case I am hoping for more of his work.
Valuethinker wrote:And Philip K Dick's papers are kept there.
I am still amazed Ursula LeGuin and PK Dick were in the same high school class.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49035
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by Valuethinker »

Ged wrote:
Ged wrote: 2001 and Day the Earth Stood Still are nominally based on short stories too, however the connection is very tenuous and could arguably called insignificant. The Thing's connection to Who Goes There is much stronger.
Valuethinker wrote:And the second The Thing (the John Carpenter remake) the more so? Closer to the original story? 2001 I knew about The Sentinel, but I didn't know about The Day The Earth Stood Still (story/ author?).
I don't remember the details of the first adaptation of the the Thing well enough to say if it was closer.

What makes The Thing terrifying is its ability to duplicate human beings. Imitate them perfectly. That is I think in the JW Campbell story but not in the original adaptation. John Carpenter revived it I believe.

The John Carpenter version has a touch of the excellent graphic novel 'The Mountains of Madness' based on the HP Lovecraft story. Revived my faith in graphic novels (for cost and space reasons, it's not a habit I cultivate, but there are some good ones). Antarctica as a proxy for man on the outer limits, beset by something totally alien. Lovecraft had a fascination with the Antarctic, and a morbid fear of extreme cold.

(on Graphic Novels, I would add the noirish detective stories 'Blacksad' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksad )
The original story for The Day The Earth Stood Still is Fairwell To The Master by Harry Bates. I actually read it only a couple of years ago; it's in a collection "The Golden Years of Science Fiction" ed Asimov and Martin Greenberg which I got by trolling EBay for old SF anthologies. Really it's only interesting because it served as a basis for a classic movie. The writing is quite tedious.
Thank you.
Valuethinker wrote:IMDB says 2 movies, one of which is 'Primer' the one that looks very science fictional? Has he done any others.
He's done Primer and Upstream Color. Both are very much sci-fi. Extremely creative and intellectually challenging. Not mainstream at all. Upstream Color is based on the effect an exotic parasite that has a 3-stage lifecycle one stage of which is in humans on the lives of the people who carry it. The parasite enables metaphysical connections between its hosts. There is a third script titled 'A Topiary'. I don't know if it will get made into a movie or not; it was written 9 years ago. In any case I am hoping for more of his work.
Again, thank you.
Valuethinker wrote:And Philip K Dick's papers are kept there.
I am still amazed Ursula LeGuin and PK Dick were in the same high school class.
[/quote]

Perhaps something in the place and time created what we might call 'modernist' science fiction? Something like Steampunk is clearly 'post modernist' ie quite knowing about what it is doing about the future, an in joke we are supposed to get. In the way that Canary Wharf in London mixes Georgian and Victorian and Ancient Egyptian styles (to unimpressive effect). Whereas Dick/ Ballard/ Leguin (more tangentially) are taking the original SF concept to its limit.
jebmke
Posts: 25476
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 2:44 pm
Location: Delmarva Peninsula

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by jebmke »

Just finished The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly.

Starting The Heist by Daniel Silva.
Don't trust me, look it up. https://www.irs.gov/forms-instructions-and-publications
chaz
Posts: 13604
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:44 pm

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

jebmke wrote:Just finished The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly.

Starting The Heist by Daniel Silva.
Two excellent authors.
Chaz | | “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen | | http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
WiscSooner
Posts: 56
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 1:29 pm

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by WiscSooner »

"The Son" by Jo Nesbo. Highly recommend!
User avatar
BigFoot48
Posts: 3115
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:47 am
Location: Arizona

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by BigFoot48 »

Just finished The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. I thought it was excellent, with an interesting look at an energy-challenged, gene-splicing future set in Thailand.
Retired | Two-time in top-10 in Bogleheads S&P500 contest; 18-time loser
gkaplan
Posts: 7034
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 7:34 pm
Location: Portland, Oregon

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by gkaplan »

I am about one hundred pages into W is for Wasted. I figure in about five years we'll know what Sue Grafton will be writing after "Z" is for ....

W is for Wasted takes place in 1988. It seems to me that A is for Alibi also took place in 1988.
Gordon
User avatar
ruralavalon
Posts: 26353
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:29 am
Location: Illinois

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by ruralavalon »

The Grand Design, by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. I can't say that I understand them. But they seem to say that M-theory: (1) predicts multiple universes created out of nothing; (2) its the only candidate for a "complete theory of the universe"; (3) but its "yet to be proved" as a "model of a universe that creates itself"; and (4) seems to depend on renormalization by manipulating data, which "manipulations sound like that sort of thing that got you a flunking grade on a school math exam" and "renormalization is indeed, as it sounds, mathematically dubious". I must have missed something. I didn't even get what the "M" stands for.
"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein | Wiki article link: Bogleheads® investment philosophy
chaz
Posts: 13604
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:44 pm

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by chaz »

"Bad Love" by Jonathan Kellerman.
Chaz | | “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen | | http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
User avatar
nisiprius
Advisory Board
Posts: 52216
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:33 am
Location: The terrestrial, globular, planetary hunk of matter, flattened at the poles, is my abode.--O. Henry

Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part V

Post by nisiprius »

Halfway through the play, The Admirable Crichton, by J. M. Barrie.

Finished Piers Dudgeon, J.M. Barrie, the Du Mauriers, and the Dark Side of "Peter Pan". Probably only read about 2/3 of it though as I did a lot of skipping and skimming--I have never read anything by Daphne Du Maurier and wasn't that interested in those parts of the book. It was pretty good and so much of the "dark" things he relates are obviously buttressed by hard evidence.

Barrie found a will that said "What I wd like wd be if Jenny wd come to Mary & that the two together wd be looking after the boys & the house," Mary being the boy's nanny and Jenny her sister. Barrie transcribed the will by hand and sent it to the boys' grandmother--writing "Jimmy" (i.e. himself) instead of "Jenny." Whoa.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
Locked