What are you reading?

guy07 · Post by **guy07** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:30 am

The Origin of Species ...still. -_-;
This ones a tough read. I need a dictionary every other page, lol. I'm starting to think Darwin had a pigeon fetish ...

krzT · Post by **krzT** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:52 pm

Orwell wrote:
krzT wrote:Fundamentals of Corporate Finance: 8th Edition

If you don't want to read it, I'd gladly take if off your hands. It sounds quite (droll) informative for a primer.

My reading has fallen quite a bit recently I'd say, instead of any real books lately it's been science mags and The Economist.

As for finding places to buy books cheap, I've gotten good service from www.abebooks.com and many old books I'd never find elsewhere for a dollar.

I'd gladly sell it to you if I could, but unfortunately I need it for my class. =/ I actually recommend A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel. Pretty much has the same information but is much more colloquial and not so textbook-y.

Sukunai · Post by **Sukunai** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:01 am

Sadly nothing from Dune series, it finished with Sandworms of Dune

Nothing from Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, it finished too

I only have one book left to go on Brooks Shanara legacy (not out yet).

Currently re reading Terraforming Earth, a great futuristic scifi by Jack Williamson.

In non fiction I'm reading The Ragged Rugged Warriors by Martin Caiden (early war Pacific air war WW2).

I'm in a spot where I will soon be bereft of a lot of my youth's great works as they will have finally been totally and completely accomplished.

Likely will transition to buying books from the Osprey publishers, inexpensive, and informative and they cover almost any military time period.

Mithroch · Post by **Mithroch** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:07 am

Sukunai wrote:Sadly nothing from Dune series, it finished with Sandworms of Dune

Brian Herbert is the worst thing to happen to his father's legacy (other than Frank's death). Frank gave his readers a little credit for being intelligent... Brian thinks he needs to spell everything out, waisting pages (and my time) over explaining what's going on. His characters are unimaginative (with the exception of perhaps Erasmus) and really... I feel nothing for them. I slogged through all of the Prelude to Dune... and the first two Legends of Dune before I gave up. My buddy stayed the course... but he assures me I did the right thing by stopping.

Jerry Holkins sums up my feelings well here http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/10/15/

Coffee 54 · Post by **Coffee 54** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:57 am

Mithroch wrote:
Sukunai wrote:Sadly nothing from Dune series, it finished with Sandworms of Dune
Brian Herbert is the worst thing to happen to his father's legacy (other than Frank's death). Frank gave his readers a little credit for being intelligent... Brian thinks he needs to spell everything out, waisting pages (and my time) over explaining what's going on. His characters are unimaginative (with the exception of perhaps Erasmus) and really... I feel nothing for them. I slogged through all of the Prelude to Dune... and the first two Legends of Dune before I gave up. My buddy stayed the course... but he assures me I did the right thing by stopping.

Jerry Holkins sums up my feelings well here http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/10/15/

I actually stopped after God Emperor of Dune. I know there were two more books by Frank, but Emperor was a good stopping point and I didn't feel up to starting a new story arc. Especially knowing it wouldn't be finished by the original author.

A little more on topic, I think the next books on my list are the Foundation prequels Prelude and Forward.

aesling · Post by **aesling** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 2:28 pm

Sukunai wrote:Nothing from Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, it finished too

Man, that's another one that should have ended ages ago. I really enjoyed the first book, but sadly none of the sequels lived up to the promise it showed. It got really preachy after a while too.

Mithroch · Post by **Mithroch** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:23 pm

Coffee 54 wrote:
Mithroch wrote:
Sukunai wrote:Sadly nothing from Dune series, it finished with Sandworms of Dune
Brian Herbert is the worst thing to happen to his father's legacy (other than Frank's death). Frank gave his readers a little credit for being intelligent... Brian thinks he needs to spell everything out, waisting pages (and my time) over explaining what's going on. His characters are unimaginative (with the exception of perhaps Erasmus) and really... I feel nothing for them. I slogged through all of the Prelude to Dune... and the first two Legends of Dune before I gave up. My buddy stayed the course... but he assures me I did the right thing by stopping.

Jerry Holkins sums up my feelings well here http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/10/15/
I actually stopped after God Emperor of Dune. I know there were two more books by Frank, but Emperor was a good stopping point and I didn't feel up to starting a new story arc. Especially knowing it wouldn't be finished by the original author.

I don't know... Heretics of Dune was pretty darn good. A few of my friends list that as their favorite... though I think I like the original Dune the best.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:46 pm

Gha! Really odd post convergences. Brian Herbert took on more of the style of his partner Kevin Anderson while cashing in on the Dune cash cow. Anderson wrote a lot of mass market sci-fi geared towards teens (like the Star Wars books Ileia is apparently fawning over) and in that market, anything requiring any thinking skills is very bad. The plot twists and uncomfortable writing style of the House series and the Jihad series seemed to me to have merged with the style of Frank Herbert himself in Hunters and Sandworms - which is the only shred of evidence Brian Herbert has for his claim that the whole machine war thing was in his father's plan and that Seaworms and plagues were the intended end-game.

I find it odd I didn't see this thread sooner. Especially since I packed up all my 1st / 2nd printing Dune books a few hours ago and donated a box full of Star Wars books that had been collecting dust on my shelfs for 10 years (around 30 of what i now know to be 200). As has come up before, I'm somewhat into Dune... my handle and all...

godix · Post by **godix** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 12:09 am

I loaned a friend at work Watchmen about 10 months ago and he finally got around to returning it today (wasn't his fault, I quit for 8 of those 10 months) so I'm rereading that then V for Vendetta at work. At home I decided for some old school kiddie books so it's Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series to be followed by Madeline L'engle's A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I tend to go in phases of a certain style/genre for awhile.

Ileia · Post by **Ileia** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 12:42 am

BasharOfTheAges wrote:Anderson wrote a lot of mass market sci-fi geared towards teens (like the Star Wars books Ileia is apparently fawning over) and in that market, anything requiring any thinking skills is very bad.

The only thing I've ever fawned over by him was the "Tales From" anthologies, but he didn't actually write those all himself, he just "edited" what a bunch of other authors did. Most of what he did was the "Young Jedi Knight" books, and yeah, they were geared towards teens. Like, 13 year olds. And for your information, I've never read them. So nya.

I keep trying to have them moved to the Young Adult section where I work, but they keep putting the things back in Science Fiction!