Now Reading

Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor

I'm restarting

Toute l'histoire du monde

bourdain's kitchen confidential. not bad

Kitchen Confidential is fucking great. Like Fear & Loathing: Catering Edition.

Still reading Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. Took a long break half-way and read a bunch of Graphic Novels, wasn't in a bookreading place.

Dived back in now and still enjoying the hell out of it 530 pages in.

Will def check out more Stephenson after this, maybe one of his scifi books.

I'm currently reading Stephenson's Quicksilver. It's pretty heavy going, definitely not a page turner, been at it for months and have finished three other books in the process (it's only book one of three as well, I hope the rest of them manage to pick up the pace a bit). It's really interesting though, and the characters are good, just a shame it's not better written.

I wish Neal Stephenson would just write nonfiction..

Bought volumes 2 and 3 of the Dune series. Dis gun be great.

reading since yesterday ...Alberto Moravia - The Conformist

A World Undone (ww1 history)

Just finished it up and found it pretty enjoyable. Kean made a book that is accessible to anyone regardless of how much of a background they may or may not have with respect to Chemistry. Each chapter incorporates the different elements that constitute the periodic table and takes a quick look at their (often curious) behavior, usually telling tales that inform you not only about the element itself but also of the men and women who discovered or exploited it and its historical significance. Some of the stuff is just quirky, like learning how the metal Gallium (similar in appearance to aluminum but with a low melting point just below your body temperature) was sometimes formed into spoons as a dinner party prank among fellow scientists, how ingesting colloidal silver leaves people with a rare condition called Argyria that results in permanently blue skin, why Aluminum was at one point more coveted than Gold among the royal elite, or how the longest word in our language can be found in Chemical Abstracts

etc. But it also gets into more significant matters as well. Fritz Haber, a man who won a nobel prize for developing a method which allowed for the fixation of Nitrogen and saved countless people worldwide from starvation, only to become a war criminal shortly thereafter, whose chemical weaponry and research would tear apart his family and lead to many horrific deaths ( later even including his own relatives in nazi gas chambers). Gilbert N. Lewis, a man who did so much for modern Chemistry but received so little recognition as a result of politics and temperament. How a British serial killer employed the use of Thallium to destroy his victims (which the CIA purportedly planned to use to take out Castro). As well as a look into some of the discoveries and personalities involved in the Manhattan project, and hundreds of other stories. Definitely an interesting and engaging read in my opinion.

8/10

Don DeLillo's Running Dog. Good good. Bought it used for 3 USD.

^Great book there

Just picked up Inverted World by Christopher Priest from the library.

^read that last year, great book!

On the last 100 pages of Cryptonomicon now and thinking about what to read next.

I try and take it in turns between heavy books and more pulpy fare so I'm thinking either Clive Barker's Galilee or the first Necroscope by Brian Lumley (I recently scored all 5 of them for £1).

The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K Dick.

Freaking amazing

The Short Stories of Philip K Dick

Just finished Metro 2033, you can tell he had a lot of fun doing the worldbuilding for it. Made me glad to be able to go out for a nice walk whenever I fancy it. Haven't played the game.

Currently reading through Exodus by Leon Uris, got it as part of a charity shop bargain haul before Christmas. It's basically about the foundation of the state of Israel, and although it's a touch biased on the Israeli side it's a good read, if a bit dated. Mildly educational too, which is nice.

I've been sitting on the last few bits of Ligotti's Noctuary because I'm not sure what I'm going to start next. Loved this collection, and will definitely be delving into more Ligotti later, just need something else for a while...

Received a very good condition hardcover of Mason & Dixon by Pynchon, despite being nearly twenty years old, very heavy but beautiful. I'm a complete convert to his work, looking forward to plowing through it.

Was checking out my bookshelves randomly, decided by chance to read this :

Almost finished with this, really loved City of Thieves and this doesn't dissapoint :

I remember staring covetously at these as a kid when they were sitting in wire wrack at my local corner shop.

Scored them in a charity shop for about a quid.

wonderful covers, bet their shit though.

haha yeah pretty much. Enjoyably shit though.

  On 4/5/2015 at 12:16 PM, hello spiral said:

Still reading Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. Took a long break half-way and read a bunch of Graphic Novels, wasn't in a bookreading place.

 

Dived back in now and still enjoying the hell out of it 530 pages in.

 

Will def check out more Stephenson after this, maybe one of his scifi books.

Cryptonomicon was awesome, never finished it but gotta re read some time..

currently The Martian by Andy Weir... Engineer stranded on Mars improvises survival. Cast Away vs. Gravity is actually an apt summary and this sounds terrible, but the book is well nerdy and this makes it enjoyable.

Everybody that wants to read the Martian better hurry up before the movie is out.

srsly that movie is bound to be so horrible