Now Reading

Donald Norman - The Psychology of Everyday Things

pretty hilarious and interesting look at why supposedly simple everyday objects puzzle us, and the history of bad design

  On 4/9/2012 at 4:06 AM, verticalhold said:

Donald Norman - The Psychology of Everyday Things

 

 

pretty hilarious and interesting look at why supposedly simple everyday objects puzzle us, and the history of bad design

this does sound like good laugh

Here's the next book ya'll should be reading.

Or this:

No no no, this isn't about what we should be reading. It is about what you currently are reading. Unless you are reading those books at the same time of course.

Altough I did hear some things mentioned about The Master and Margarita lately. Sounds interesting. Might check it out. Lovely book cover by the way.

'The Magic Mountain' is supposedly amazing but long winded. I put it up their with 'Ulysses' as one of my old man books that I will read later in life.

  On 4/8/2012 at 8:02 PM, feltcher said:

Currently reading Moebius' "The Incal" which I should have done years ago, its great.

cheaaaaaa

  On 4/9/2012 at 11:45 PM, triachus said:

No no no, this isn't about what we should be reading. It is about what you currently are reading. Unless you are reading those books at the same time of course.

Altough I did hear some things mentioned about The Master and Margarita lately. Sounds interesting. Might check it out. Lovely book cover by the way.

I started this thread, sir! I'll do as I damn well please But, yeah recently finished TMAM and I'll tell you that it's one of the greatest things I've ever read. It made Bulgakov into my favorite Russian author, and that's saying a lot considering Tolstoy/Dostoevsky

  On 4/9/2012 at 11:52 PM, Atop said:

'The Magic Mountain' is supposedly amazing but long winded. I put it up their with 'Ulysses' as one of my old man books that I will read later in life.

I'm 200 pages into this and yeah it's going to be a long ride. Again, like the Bulgakov book, if you're into magical realism, this might be up your alley. A good book to read in your twilight years as it mostly grapples with themes of death and time (although it's sexy at times too!)

just got this

  On 4/8/2012 at 8:00 PM, lifeforce said:

Been getting into HP Lovecraft recently. Currently reading his 'The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories' which I got from the local library.

Short stories which are chilling and atmospheric. Proper horror stuff. I highly recommend it.

There's a great text adventure called Anchorhead inspired by Lovecraft. Very atmospheric. There are a whole bunch of text adventures out there that are just as well written as good books.

Here's a review of Anchorhead. I would suggest at least trying it; it's like walking around in a Lovecraft novel.

Has anyone read 'The Selfish Gene' (Dawkins)? It's on sale at the moment and I'm wondering whether to add it to my 'to read' list?

  On 4/10/2012 at 7:50 AM, gmanyo said:

  On 4/8/2012 at 8:00 PM, lifeforce said:

Been getting into HP Lovecraft recently. Currently reading his 'The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories' which I got from the local library.

Short stories which are chilling and atmospheric. Proper horror stuff. I highly recommend it.

 

There's a great text adventure called Anchorhead inspired by Lovecraft. Very atmospheric. There are a whole bunch of text adventures out there that are just as well written as good books.

 

Here's a review of Anchorhead. I would suggest at least trying it; it's like walking around in a Lovecraft novel.

Cheers mate, I'll check that out. Looks like my kind of thing. Used to love text adventures way back in the 80's on my Spectrum. Didn't know they were still around.

I don't want to derail this thread about book reading so if you like, another thread could be started to discuss this further.

enlightening and terribly frustrating, like all good science i guess.

i am reading the best short stories of jack london

  On 4/10/2012 at 12:43 PM, spratters said:

Has anyone read 'The Selfish Gene' (Dawkins)? It's on sale at the moment and I'm wondering whether to add it to my 'to read' list?

Yes. Definitely worth a read if you're interested in evolutionary biology. It's a little problematic in places (and IIRC Dawkins discusses some issues in the forward of the 30th anniversary edition) and it won't cover new ground if you've already studied that area, but it's pretty good for what it is.

  On 4/10/2012 at 6:30 PM, eugene said:

 

enlightening and terribly frustrating, like all good science i guess.

huh. so my friend nate (SiV for all you people who remember) released an EP called the same title as the book, and I thought it was a stupid title. I guess not entirely his fault though.

edit: finished Kafka on the Shore, and while I should probably read something respectable like Infinite Jest or Pale Fire, I actually want to read this book, The Riddle of the Traveling Skull, by Stephen Keeler.

"Harry Stephen Keeler — to some, an overlooked genius; to others, the Ed Wood of detective fiction. The Riddle of the Traveling Skull is perhaps his best-loved work. The adventure begins when a poem and a mysterious handbag lead a man to the grave of Legga, the Human Spider — and things just get stranger from there."

Ender's Game

  On 4/10/2012 at 2:28 AM, Alfred E. Neuman said:

  On 4/9/2012 at 11:45 PM, triachus said:

I did hear some things mentioned about The Master and Margarita lately. Sounds interesting. Might check it out. Lovely book cover by the way.

 

I started this thread, sir! I'll do as I damn well please But, yeah recently finished TMAM and I'll tell you that it's one of the greatest things I've ever read. It made Bulgakov into my favorite Russian author, and that's saying a lot considering Tolstoy/Dostoevsky

The Master and Margarita was great. So many references that I'm sure I didn't get. The Pontius Pilate sections were where I felt I had to really focus more to understand what was happening.

Russian books make me wish I could read Russian.

Currently reading

A Separate Reality - Carlos Castaneda

omg i just found an english copy of this

  On 4/13/2012 at 4:30 PM, usagi said:

still Gibson. finished Pattern Recognition, my second readthrough. first time was way back in uni days. got a lot more out of it this time round.

 

moving on to Spook Country (also a second readthrough) and then Zero History, before going backwards to the Sprawl Trilogy of which I've only read Neuromancer.

i thought virtual light was one of his better reads (corny though enjoyably so in a gibson-way).

also,

i wanted to emphasize how awesome john fowler's The Magus is. a beautiful labyrinthic story with Old-Greek-inspired pseudo-mythological aspects interwoven with interesting takes on psychoanalysis. it's also intruiging from a literary viewpoint, in that it goes deeply into the "i versus me" and "writer versus narrator" minefield --though all done very tastefully.