Jump to content
Science Forums

So what is everyone reading?


Tormod

Recommended Posts

Disgrace - by JM Coeztee. Started reading it yesterday to figure out why this guy's the first person ever to win the Booker Prize twice, and believe you me, it's that good.
Okay, said I, if Boerseun thinks it is that good, I will take a gander at it. Googled it. Amazon dot Com let me read the first two chapters. Wow. :) It is that good. It is mesmerizing. How does Coeztee do it? Except for the word "uxoriously", he used the same words as I do. But his writing is like a precisely focused laser beam, compared to my sputtering candle flame.

 

Uxoriously. :doh:

 

Thanks, Boerseun!!!!!!!!! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Hmmm...I don't know if I'm cut out for Vonnegut. I'm so close to the end, but trudging along. It's only a mild curiousity that keeps me going.

 

In the meantime, I picked up Digital Fortress by Dan Brown and read it in a day. That was a page turner and a very cool read (if a bit dated now) for those interested in computer security at an NSA level.

 

Looking up Coeztee now...

 

I've finally rediscovered my passion for reading books of the paper kind. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where Our Food Comes From by Gary Paul Nabhan. Retraces the travels of a plant pathologist, Nikolay Vavilov, who revolutionized farming and crop breeding. Gives "food for thought" on why biodiversity, preservation of breeds and species, mixed crop cultures and diverse farming methods, and local agricultural are so important to having healthy, well-fed people and diverse cultures. It's difficult to genetically engineer entirely new genes even with the best of technology and know-how to fight pests, disease, or environmental challenges, so it provides a compelling argument on why we should strive to preserve and develop as many crop varieties as possible, from which resilience and genetic treasures come.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally getting around to reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, again.

 

I read it many, many years ago, but found the "Uncut Version" in a bookshop over the weekend. I can't remember the one I read years ago being this fat! Quite a bit more flesh to this story (a good two/three hundred pages, by the looks of it) than the first one.

 

Humans raised by Martians only to get back to a totally alien (to them, at least) Earth? You betcha. Got me some readin' to do!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Umberto Eco is awesome! Spine-tingling, brain-warping awesome!

He's in the same league as Gabriel Garcia Marquez (100 Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Love in the Time of Cholera)

 

I'm nearly finished reading the latter, Love in the Time of Cholera. Amazingly marvelous. Marvelously amazing.

 

The Name of the Rose was done into a movie some 10 or 20 years ago. Starring Sean Connery. It was a pretty good movie, but totally lacked the genius, the warped comedy, the historical intensity of the book's author. It was like they made the movie from the Cliff's Notes of the Reader's Digest Condensed Version of all the odd numbered chapters of the original book.

 

Still, it starred Sean Connery, so it couldn't really be "bad". :hihi:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got "I am a Strange Loop" -- read half of it. Can't remember why I quit. :)

 

i'm about 1/3 through, and have every intention to finish. :read: but, i know you and doug well enough to suggest that you got far enough to get an idea that doug might be suggesting that the territory is a map. :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...