So what is everyone reading?

[Buffy]

Okay, back on topic:

 

They (or their co/ghost-authors), can't write like Naomi Wolf but these two are much more interesting than "Promiscuities":

 

Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale" and

"Traci Lords: Underneath It All"

 

Down boys, not much sex here that isn't depressing. You will only like these books if you like Naomi....

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[pgrmdave]

I'm reading:

Ringworld, by Larry Niven

Six Easy Pieces - lectures by Feynman

Dialogues of Plato

[TeleMad]

The three top books in my reading queue are:

 

Birth of the Chess Queen, a History, by Marilyn Yalom. A feminist view of European chess history.

The Unending Mystery, a Journey through Labyriths and Mazes, by David Willis McCullogh. A Christmas present from Beccareb

Turned Chessmen, for collectors, players and woodworkers, by Mike Darlow

 

1. e4

[Tormod]

1. e4

 

Good idea. Do we need a chess thread now?

[TeleMad]

Good idea. Do we need a chess thread now?

 

The problem with playing chess in a non OTB setting is that the other player could use a chess-playing program. The one I have is about 5 years old and cost only about $20, but it is rated ~2500. I was really good when I was playing in chess tournaments, but I was never that good. And by now I imagine they're probably much stronger. So even at my best, I couldn't beat someone who had no problem with getting a little help from a program, and I doubt anyone else - other than maybe Kasparov (is he still world champion) - could either. Computers ruined the game of chess in a sense.

 

But despite all of that, I'd still play a game if someone else wanted to.

[zadojla]

1. e4

 

Sorry, Telemad! This is not the venue for a chess game! (Although 1. e4 implies you're my kind of guy.)

 

I rarely play regular chess. I am most interested in chess variants. Check out http://www.chessvariants.org to see the kind of thing I'm talking about.

 

One advantage of chess variants is that there are not terribly strong programs to play them. The best general program is probably Zillions of Games, http://www.zillions-of-games.com/

[little cloud]

I don't have more than 200 books and I've read each at least twice, including a Time magazine entirely dedicated to astronauts and images of Earth from space and a 1-inch thick book of outer space pictures and tons of information about each. I love it!

 

Robinson Crusoe is great, too, if you can survive the first two chapters ( ;) ).

And, yes, I read my textbooks. I'm desperate because I've read most of the books in our local library!! ;)

[TeleMad]

I rarely play regular chess. I am most interested in chess variants. Check out http://www.chessvariants.org to see the kind of thing I'm talking about..

 

I've played a couple variations of chess, though I don't know their names and didn't care for them as much as I did the real game. The variation I liked best was just like normal chess, with 2 games being played between 4 players: the difference is that when a player captures an oponent's piece on one board, instead of its simply being out of play, s/he hands it to his partner on the other board, who can place it anywhere on his own board he wants when it's his move.

 

But like I said, I was more of a regular chess player. I made it to candidate master in correspondence chess - before computers could compete with humans - and also was in the top 10% of US chess players in OTB play. But that was years ago. Had to give chess up for an education: no on can serve two masters :-)

[zadojla]

snip...the difference is that when a player captures an oponent's piece on one board, instead of its simply being out of play, s/he hands it to his partner on the other board, who can place it anywhere on his own board he wants when it's his move.

That's usually called Bughouse.

 

But like I said, I was more of a regular chess player. I made it to candidate master in correspondence chess - before computers could compete with humans - and also was in the top 10% of US chess players in OTB play. But that was years ago. Had to give chess up for an education: no on can serve two masters :-)

I never achieved anything significant chess-wise. The cynic might say I like variants because I wasn't good at FIDE chess. I just never had the patience and drive to acquire the book learning.

[Amidala]

I'm reading a lovely book about/on the Irish: "The truth about the Irish" by Terry Eagleton. Beautifully written. And in the meantime re-re-re-reading "Dune" (including the prequels: "House Atreides" and "House Harkonnen", though i couldn't get hold of "House Corrino"). Frank Herbert's books are an inexhaustible source of "food for thought". Or is it the Sci-Fi fan in me talking?

[Queso]

i'm currently reading Your Mind. this book seems to never end! and i love how unpredictable it is.

[Tormod]

]Or is it the Sci-Fi fan in me talking?[/font]

 

Of course it is! :cup:

 

Welcome to our forums!

[alxian]

just completed ender series by orson scott card.. AAA reading material very inspiring. they will be making a movie of it next year i think.

[Tormod]

just completed ender series by orson scott card.. AAA reading material very inspiring. they will be making a movie of it next year i think.

 

I liked that series too, although I found it a bit tedious after about 5 books. I never finished the last one.

[dagaz]

Am currently reading Life:an unauthorised biography by Richard Fortey. Have picked it up twice before, but this time I've gotten hooked by it. The first chapter was a bit of a struggle to stay with it, but after that it becomes very informative and well-written.

[Tormod]

I have read Fortey's "The Earth" and also found it a bit tough to get into. He is an excellent writer but about halfway I started dropping out and never actually finished the book.

 

The parts where he explain how the Hawaiian volcanoes move was really educational stuff.

[dagaz]

Forgot to mention the last book I read - Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, author of the The Poisonwood Bible. She trained in Biology before becoming an author and the book starts with a wildlife ecologist who lives and works in a semi-remote area of forest. It has two other intertwining stories, all with an environmental bent, and brings it all together at the end. It was entertaining and in places even informative (always good for a fiction book), but a little bit preachy in places.