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On January 19 2013 03:18 sam!zdat wrote:Show nested quote +On January 18 2013 21:42 YoucriedWolf wrote:
Starship troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
Okay/10
A whole book just to make five pages worth of (interesting) philosophical points. I don't know if you had to do that man..
I still have Stranger in a Strange Land so I will give Heinlein another shot through that at some point since he's considered so important. You'll find SIASL to be a much different style. You should also read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, after that you can probably leave ol Robert Heinlein alone.
Sorry, but I want to suggest that Time Enough for Love is a great, underrated Heinlein book and deserves to be checked out. Even though it kinda goes off the rails at the end, most of the book is fantastic, including a section focused on life on a frontier world - a sort of mixture of sci-fi ideas and frontier western fiction. This particular section really hits the heartstrings in a mature way by its completion and I'd recommend it to anybody who is looking for literary quality in science fiction.
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^Fair enough, that's one of the middling Heinlein novels that's not unbearable. "Friday" is also pretty good. At all costs avoid "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls"
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On January 19 2013 09:48 farvacola wrote:Show nested quote +On January 19 2013 08:15 itkovian wrote:
Just got Ulysses. I saw at the top of a lot of "top 100" lists, and I've never read anything by Joyce before so I figured I should go at it. Looks dense though, and long... I highly recommend you warm up for Ulysses with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man or Dubliners, ideally both. That is not to say that you cannot read Ulysses straight up, only that the odds of finishing the book and being satisfied with your read through improve dramatically with at least some prior familiarity in regards to Joyce's prose.
Interesting, thanks for the suggestion. Maybe I'll swing by the book store and pick one of them up. If I were to chose just one, which would you suggest?
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On January 20 2013 07:40 itkovian wrote:Show nested quote +On January 19 2013 09:48 farvacola wrote:On January 19 2013 08:15 itkovian wrote:
Just got Ulysses. I saw at the top of a lot of "top 100" lists, and I've never read anything by Joyce before so I figured I should go at it. Looks dense though, and long... I highly recommend you warm up for Ulysses with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man or Dubliners, ideally both. That is not to say that you cannot read Ulysses straight up, only that the odds of finishing the book and being satisfied with your read through improve dramatically with at least some prior familiarity in regards to Joyce's prose. Interesting, thanks for the suggestion. Maybe I'll swing by the book store and pick one of them up. If I were to chose just one, which would you suggest?
Well, with Ulysses in mind, I would definitely opt for Portrait of the Young Artist, as it is a singular novel and is a far better primer in Joyce's style of indirect free speech than Dubliners, which is a collection of short stories that, while certainly excellent, does not prepare a reader for Joyce's more difficult writing the way his other works do. In any case, enjoy, Joyce is one of my favorites.
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I finished this around the fourth or so, amazing book even though it's quite condensed from his 3 volume set: ![[image loading]](http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100070250/a-short-history-byzantium-john-julius-norwich-paperback-cover-art.jpg)
I'm about to finish this book, another good book though I disagree with a few of the points he makes: ![[image loading]](http://www.dclibrary.org/sites/all/files/styles/large/public/cicero.jpg)
AND I GOT THIS WITH MY CHRISTMAS MONEY. ONLY $350 OMGOMGOMGOMG I'M SO EXCITED: ![[image loading]](http://www.zamorabookshop.com/userimages/000_0644(2).JPG)
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Philadelphia, PA10406 Posts
A witty and accessible collection of arguments that show how walkable downtowns are part of the answer to nearly every urban planning problem faced by US cities. I wish every politician would read this. And every traffic engineer, but then again, traffic engineers should all be arrested anyway.
Ever since I read Katherine Boo's legendary New Yorker article Opening Night, I've been a huge fan of her narrative journalism. She spent several years living in a Mumbai Slum, and this book is her final work. It's won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book award, and probably rivaled Hilary Mantel for how many end of the year top 10 lists it was on. Can't wait to read this.
This book showed up on quite a few top ten lists. It's really heavy, so I'll probably plod through this when I have more time, but David Hackett Fischer is a great historian, and I'm really interested to read his discussion of how the US and New Zealand came to have such different societies. As an American, I'm always curious how my country ended up going in such a weird direction in many political and sociological spheres, and I hope this book can shed some light on that. I have high hopes!
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Best historians I've ever come across by a solid margin. Started with Roussean & Revolution - highly recommend it. If the prospect of the whole series, or randomly reading one in a series is too unappealing, you can easily google up the pdf for the "Lessons of History" book which is an aside analysis of what history is and what is to be learned from it. Only read a few chapters of that so far, busy reading The Age of Reason now. Might wet your appetite, though. I wasn't really big on history until I started reading from the Durants.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Hj49ma5.jpg)
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Is behemoth from Franze Neumann worth it for its content or is it just for historiographic purposes ?
Not sure if i'm willing to invest the time in it.
And does someone have a good read on the republic of Weimar, in english or french, sadly I can't read german (and that sucks qq)
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You want just a history of Weimar? All of the early Frankfurt School work is about the Weimar republic, but it's critique not a historical presentation. I recommend Siegfried Kracauer "The Salaried Masses" as an introduction to this type of stuff, it's really accessible and interesting.
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On January 20 2013 08:23 sam!zdat wrote:
You want just a history of Weimar? All of the early Frankfurt School work is about the Weimar republic, but it's critique not a historical presentation. I recommend Siegfried Kracauer "The Salaried Masses" as an introduction to this type of stuff, it's really accessible and interesting.
yeah if it's possible to get something different from the Frankfurt School it'd be cool, i've dealt a bit with it but I'd rather have some later work, especially after the 70's if possible.
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Hmm, I'm not really sure then, sorry 
I can recommend a really cool novel from the period, though: Irmgard Keun, "The Artificial Silk Girl"
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On January 20 2013 08:05 tree.hugger wrote:A witty and accessible collection of arguments that show how walkable downtowns are part of the answer to nearly every urban planning problem faced by US cities. I wish every politician would read this. And every traffic engineer, but then again, traffic engineers should all be arrested anyway. Ever since I read Katherine Boo's legendary New Yorker article Opening Night, I've been a huge fan of her narrative journalism. She spent several years living in a Mumbai Slum, and this book is her final work. It's won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book award, and probably rivaled Hilary Mantel for how many end of the year top 10 lists it was on. Can't wait to read this. This book showed up on quite a few top ten lists. It's really heavy, so I'll probably plod through this when I have more time, but David Hackett Fischer is a great historian, and I'm really interested to read his discussion of how the US and New Zealand came to have such different societies. As an American, I'm always curious how my country ended up going in such a weird direction in many political and sociological spheres, and I hope this book can shed some light on that. I have high hopes!
Thanks for such a beautifully formatted post! I have Behind the Beautiful Forever on my bucket list, I'll move it up a few spots as a result of your post. Let us know how you liked it after you finish reading it.
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United Kingdom2102 Posts
On January 20 2013 07:59 hpty603 wrote:AND I GOT THIS WITH MY CHRISTMAS MONEY. ONLY $350 OMGOMGOMGOMG I'M SO EXCITED:
For the love of god please can you put those volumes in order! 
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On January 20 2013 08:05 tree.hugger wrote:A witty and accessible collection of arguments that show how walkable downtowns are part of the answer to nearly every urban planning problem faced by US cities. I wish every politician would read this. And every traffic engineer, but then again, traffic engineers should all be arrested anyway. Ever since I read Katherine Boo's legendary New Yorker article Opening Night, I've been a huge fan of her narrative journalism. She spent several years living in a Mumbai Slum, and this book is her final work. It's won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book award, and probably rivaled Hilary Mantel for how many end of the year top 10 lists it was on. Can't wait to read this. This book showed up on quite a few top ten lists. It's really heavy, so I'll probably plod through this when I have more time, but David Hackett Fischer is a great historian, and I'm really interested to read his discussion of how the US and New Zealand came to have such different societies. As an American, I'm always curious how my country ended up going in such a weird direction in many political and sociological spheres, and I hope this book can shed some light on that. I have high hopes!
Put the first and third on my list, many thanks for 'em!
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On January 20 2013 23:28 Deleuze wrote:Show nested quote +On January 20 2013 07:59 hpty603 wrote:
AND I GOT THIS WITH MY CHRISTMAS MONEY. ONLY $350 OMGOMGOMGOMG I'M SO EXCITED: -img- For the love of god please can you put those volumes in order!
Hah, it's just a picture I got online. Trust me, mine are in order otherwise it would make me itchy
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Just finished: 10 minute tougness (training for spartan race and tough mudder 
This is pretty decent. The principles can be applied into any part of life, not just sport. I just started applying them, though. I will see in 5 months if they work or not
![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512NMhjZDnL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Almost finished: The power of Now
This book is amazing. I would strongly recommend it to anyone.
![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41H398NYsbL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
Next read: Loosing my virginity
I hear this is fun read about interesting guy. Looking forward to it.
![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SxyEnz31L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)
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Endymion - Dan Simmons
A let down, after two of my favorite books of all time (Hyperion cantos). I didn't feel it for this one. More hocus pocus less sci-fi. Less of everything actually.. I hope he has something grand planned for the ending of this series as I will be reading that too.
And I gotta tell you, after all this dissapointing sci-fi reading (namely 1100 pages worth of Peter Hamilton) I'm starting to see Giorgio Tsoukalos face everytime I read the word architects.
"Rise of Endymion" is better than Endymion, not terrific mind you, but better.
Peter Hamilton : I'm assuming you're talking about rambling void?
Judas Unchained was decent, so ofc one would guess that the void series would be similar... but no.
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Read this a while ago
![[image loading]](http://mmogamerchick.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/hard-magic.jpg)
I guess it reminds me the most of the Dresden series but takes place in a bit more original universe and maybe has a bit more serious tone. I really liked it. It is not often I stumble upon one of those books that gets hard to quit reading when you really should to go to sleep, but this is one of them. I like how in made me really care about all the characters and their individual stories and motivations. If you like the urban fantasy or noir kind of stories I suggest giving it a try
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I just finished + Show Spoiler + and not sure where to go next..
Am I the only person in the world who refuses to read Game of Thrones until it's actually finished? I ended up reading parts of the WoT 3 or more times to refresh before reading the any new books that came out. Mind you I enjoyed them but I'm not sure I want to devote as much time to GoT. I think I will just wait until they are complete.
So I think I'll read this for now:
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/Damned_Palahniuk.jpg)
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EPT![[image loading]](http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780374285814_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)
![[image loading]](http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781400067558_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)
![[image loading]](http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9780199832705_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/A_Memory_of_Light_cover.jpg)
