The Book Thread

[Konrad]

Been reading more of Blindsight's Peter Watts stuff. Read all the "Rifter" series. Not for the faint of heart and I think he stretches a bit to shock on occasion, and it gets really, really dense. Surgically altered personalities on top of free-evolving internet lifeforms, on top of the neuro-chemical ethical enhancers (and inhibitors) and not one but two end all life as we know it superbugs, and he throws out terms like "Ichthyoplankton" left and right. But really good stuff. He has a backlist here http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm. I just started going through the short stories.

[Konrad]

A quick run down of my autumn reading. Utterly un-gaming related, but if you want to read one of the finest examples of the written word, Toni Morrison's "Beloved". So good I opened it back up to page one and started reading it again mere moments after thinking, "Wow." Third time in my life I've done that.
Followed that up with "Snow Falling on Cedars". A murder mystery/trial drama, but it's really about Japanese Americans and WW2. Good stuff for us Japanified expats.
3/4 of the way through "The Book Thief". A life-during-war-time story, narrated by Death. A bit like The Diary of Anne Frank by Terry Pratchet, at times. Sort of bouncy and scattered with lots of quick cuts, asides and spoilers. It's a bit tiring to read at first. (Death as a narrator has a habit of telling you when characters die well before hand. And he admits it. Very honestly.) But once it settles down, (or you settle in) a great read.

[Primarch]

I've mainly been sticking to non-fiction recently. I just finished Tank War by Mark Urban, a biography of the 5th battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment (5thRTR) during WW2. I'm currently halfway through a book called The March to Kandahar about the British army in Afghanistan and after that I have a book on the Anglo-Zulu war on my book shelf. So much history, so little time.

[ashmie]

My Autumn reading currently looks like this

IT Stephen King
Monstrous Aftermath, W H Pugmire
Shelley a biography by Richard Holmes
The adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Lady slings the booze, Spider Robinson
Preacher volume 2

Enjoying the cool weather and nodding off a lot.

Hooray for the book thread.

[job]

Reading the short stories of The Adventures of General Gerard, the hussar of the Conflans. Fun read by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that gets you in the mood for painting hussars.

[ashmie]

Recommend by MiJ.
It took a day to read and is absolutely worth your while guys.
This is a cracking read for anyone who has traveled, lived abroad in an ex pat community or with danger.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Going-Solo-Roa ... 014134671X

Going Solo is a memoir by Roald Dahl, first published by Jonathan Cape in London in 1986. It is a continuation of his autobiography describing his childhood, Boy. It tells about his voyage to Africa, describing the various strange people he meets. He was on a boat heading towards Dar es Salaam for his new job working for Shell Oil. He eventually joined the war as a squadron pilot in the Royal Air Force, flying the Tiger Moth, Gloster Gladiator, and Hawker Hurricane. He was one of the last Allied pilots to withdraw from Greece during the German invasion, taking part in the air Battle of Athens on 20 April 1941. After Greece fell to the Nazis, he went to the Middle East to fight Vichy French pilots after staying for a brief time in Alexandria, Egypt.

[Konrad]

Been doing quit a bit of reading this summer. Latest was "Tales of the Dying Earth" by Jack Vance. Imagine the Gene Wolfe "Books of the New Urth" stories (Earth in the Impossibly far future, science is magic, magic is science) written by Robert E. Howard in a really silly mood with a big thesaurus at hand. You can tell in influenced D&D, as spells are "memorized" to lock the power in the magicians mind, and once spoken the power is spent. There are Ioun Stones, and "The Excellent Prismatic Spray", as more examples. Good stuff for game geeks.
Also picked up some Batman comics at the International Center Library. Death in the Family and Hush...meh..... nothing compares to "The Dark Knight Returns". Also got this silly little comic called "Empowered". It's....the Tick with boobs? Very tongue in cheek, poking fun at all the standard superhero conventions.

[Primarch]

I've finished off a few books so far this summer, but all have been non-fiction.
I'd recommend Empire by Niall Fergusson, it's a look at how the British Empire was formed, why it evolved the way it did, it's numerous flaws and what it got right in the process. The book begins by acknowledging that the modern, liberalist view (that I personally disagree with) is that Imperialism is a bad thing, and it certainly doesn't pull any punches when it comes to looking at all the awful things the British did. However, it is also quick to point out all of the benefits that the British Empire brought with it when it colonized a country (or outright took over in a few cases). For anyone with an interest in history it is well worth a read. The writer knows his stuff and presents it in an interesting and informative way.

[Spevna]

I've finished off a few books so far this summer, but all have been non-fiction.
I'd recommend Empire by Niall Fergusson, it's a look at how the British Empire was formed, why it evolved the way it did, it's numerous flaws and what it got right in the process. The book begins by acknowledging that the modern, liberalist view (that I personally disagree with) is that Imperialism is a bad thing, and it certainly doesn't pull any punches when it comes to looking at all the awful things the British did. However, it is also quick to point out all of the benefits that the British Empire brought with it when it colonized a country (or outright took over in a few cases). For anyone with an interest in history it is well worth a read. The writer knows his stuff and presents it in an interesting and informative way.

I'll look out for that.

I don't want to take this off on a tangent but I have to ask. Are you saying that imperialism (expansion of borders through colonization/military force/ any other means) is a good thing, or that it is a justifiable/understandable thing?

*the definition of imperialism is there just to make sure we are on the same page when it comes to how we define it.

[YellowStreak]

I'm just picked up and started on 'A Dorset Rifleman', edited by Eileen Hathaway. I'm sure some of you have probably already read it, it's the expanded diary of Rifleman Harris of the 95th during the Peninsular War.