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Finished reading The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould and J.P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy. ITs drat good if you have any interest in economy or finance especially of post civil war America. Its historical and somewhat biographical because it does go in depth about the lives of key players of the American economy. How they were brought up what kinda of jobs they did before they became basically millionaires before there were any millionaires. A lot of the chapters focus something specific, there is one chapter that is entirely about interchangeable parts becoming a key feature for any product being manufactured and how they made it possible with all the technical details. If you want to know the foundations of a supereconomy of how industrialization changed the game and how America despite just coming out of a brutal civil war somehow surpassed Britain's manpower with raw innovation and drive this book is for you.
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Apr 10, 2017 21:01
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chernobyl kinsman posted:this is such a comically bad title that im continually amazed by the fact that its real Still not my all time favorite "Sherlock Holmes The Mouth of Horror: It does no good to scream; it's going to eat you anyway!" or is Kindle Unlimited cheating?
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Apr 10, 2017 21:28
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Keep the Aspidistra Flying. I loved it and my binge-reading of Orwell continues.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:35
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Forging Hephaestus Fun take on the Superhero genre. I liked a bunch of the powers the author came up with, and am excited to see where the series goes. 4/5 overall. 20/36.
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Apr 11, 2017 17:29
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On the Origin of Species I've been trying to consume more valuable/important works lately in terms of books/media and since this was given to me in the last year I decided it was indecent of me to have it on my living room bookcase if I wasn't going to read it. Going in, I was expecting my takeaway of this to be that it was basically review of what we know from general education growing up and the post-secondary science courses I've previously taken. I was pleasantly surprised to find this to be written in argumentative prose, essentially as a persuasive essay which communicated enough of his character and, at times, inklings of the world he occupied (published initially in 1859) to add some much-needed flavor to what is otherwise a fairly dry subject. Much time was given to predicting the arguments of those who would dismiss his theory and he tackles some of these 'difficulties' of his theory with fantastic impartiality. Darwin positions himself throughout the work in such a delicate manner as to make it clear that peer-review was as present in 19th-century academia as it is today. It was great also to hear his arguments about surrounding topics, not least geology with regard to fossiliferous records, issues in distinguishing species vs varieties, etc. If you're at all interested in understanding natural selection beyond what you'd get from a modern high school education, or just enjoy period writing, I would recommend giving this a read. The style of writing is sometimes obtrusive but if you're not book-hopping around you'll fall into its tempo fairly readily. Overall, I was pleased to receive the argument for natural selection from the agent of its conception and was willing to force myself through a few dry spots for the gems of reasoning that are well seeded throughout the work.
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Apr 12, 2017 09:03
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VelociBacon posted:On the Origin of Species You should read The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee. There are 2-3 chapters on Darwin's life and adventures, and it's awesome. That book is filled with great stories, history, and science.
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Apr 12, 2017 12:27
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Franchescanado posted:You should read The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee. There are 2-3 chapters on Darwin's life and adventures, and it's awesome. That book is filled with great stories, history, and science. Cool I'll jot that down. I'll probably relapse into a space opera or something next but after that I'll check it out.
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Apr 12, 2017 12:56
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Franchescanado posted:You should read The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee. There are 2-3 chapters on Darwin's life and adventures, and it's awesome. That book is filled with great stories, history, and science. Or any of the collections of essays by Steven J. Gould for that matter
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Apr 12, 2017 15:02
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Bilirubin posted:Or any of the collections of essays by Steven J. Gould for that matter I looked him up (Stephen Jay Gould), any that you would recommend first?
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Apr 12, 2017 15:11
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Just finished Growing Up Dead in Texas and my mind is sorta blown.
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Apr 12, 2017 22:53
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Franchescanado posted:I looked him up (Stephen Jay Gould), any that you would recommend first? Ever Since Darwin is the start of his run but you can't really go badly with any. Bully for Brontosaurus is another. Note, this recommendation does NOT include Ontogeny and Phylogeny, which is a classic early work in Evo-Devo but is very technical and demanding. Similar for his big book The Structure of Evolutionary Theory which is magnificent but is the capstone on his research career and isn't written with the general public in mind.
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Apr 13, 2017 01:53
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That said, I think everybody who likes or is interested in evolution or paleontology should read Wonderful Life.
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Apr 13, 2017 02:01
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I just finished Dubliners and it was basically like treasure
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Apr 14, 2017 01:11
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I finished Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor last night and it was so good. I'm still reeling from it a little, I think.
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Apr 14, 2017 11:54
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The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. Advertised as "An exciting new epic space opera!" but a more accurate description would be "A prologue to maybe an exciting new epic space opera" given that 75% of the book is people talking and very little actually happens. Season to taste with libertarian masturbation about how religion and government are scams to keep the masses in line, complete with the founders of the setting's government and religion explicitly creating them to be such and every subsequent ruler of both being in on the scam, and of course all the characters of note are fabulously wealthy and influential. All the time spent fleshing out characters is also kind of wasted, given that if you're familiar with sci-fi space feudalism stories you know all these characters already. The only weird thing that sticks out to me about this book is how multiple characters spontaneously note that it's completely okay to be gay and no one would mind if the empress married a woman, but every character is straight and only ruminates on same-sex attraction to confirm that no they're straight.
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Apr 16, 2017 00:47
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Cythereal posted:The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. Advertised as "An exciting new epic space opera!" but a more accurate description would be "A prologue to maybe an exciting new epic space opera" given that 75% of the book is people talking and very little actually happens. I didn't love it, but I didn't mind reading it, either. The thing that kept bothering me was despite being hundreds and hundreds of years in the future, their computer and weapons technology is basically what we have now, just in space.
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Apr 16, 2017 15:27
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Heroes Die by Matthew Stover. As good as I was led to believe.
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Apr 17, 2017 00:59
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Robot Wendigo posted:Heroes Die by Matthew Stover. As good as I was led to believe. How good were you led to believe?
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Apr 17, 2017 02:00
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At Swim-Two-Birds Completely at a loss to figure out how I feel about it. Somewhat like my brain has been wrung out like a wet rag, I don't know how else to put it.
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Apr 17, 2017 02:14
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Wizard of Earthsea I do really love the matter-of-fact style of prose, it's much better than I was expecting given that I was approaching this as YA fiction. Still it took me a long time to get invested in the story, I think if I had read this as a kid I would have finished it in two sittings. I read a lot of lovely fantasy then and I'm realising a lot of what I read was heavily influenced by these books. It was compelling enough in the second half that I'll probably continue with the series, just not straight away.
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Apr 17, 2017 14:48
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A human heart posted:How good were you led to believe? I was going by recommendations from the Science Fiction thread, which were all glowingly positive. My only experience with Stover had been with his Revenge of the Sith novelization, which I found to be better than it had to be.
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Apr 17, 2017 18:36
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A human heart posted:How good were you led to believe? Somewhere between 2666 and Savage Detectives
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Apr 17, 2017 19:50
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Just read a few good books while I was on vacation: The Library at Mount Char Great dark modern fantasy with a terrible blurb on the back - I went in expecting young adult Harry Potter knock off, instead got people being murdered, resurrected so they could be murdered again, roasted alive, murdered harder...you get the idea. Built an interesting world while leaving it vague enough to not get in the reader's way with details that weren't as cool as you imagined. Would recommend, fairly quick read. 4/5. Children of Time Sci-fi, space spiders meet humans (reminded me of Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge, which you should read if you like sci-fi, just by virtue of the spiders). Interesting biologically-based technology, a bit heavy handed on pushing the "humans are stupid assholes" point. Author probably could have cut 30 pages out of the middle and used those to wrap up the end a little more satisfactorily, but a solidly written fun read overall. 4/5 if I'm being slightly generous, 3/5 if I remember that he cobbled parts of this out of ideas from Vinge and Alistair Reynolds books. Phantoms in the Brain Interesting anecdotes by a neuroscientist about how our brains work, reasonably well written and the stories add some fun to an educational read.
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Apr 18, 2017 03:07
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Just finished Dirk Gently. I am a huge HHG fan so I came in with high expectations and was disappointed. It just didn't seem to hold a candle to the Hitchhiker books in any way. It wasn't bad, and if I had read it first I probably would've liked it. The e-book I bought has the sequel as well but I'm going to hold off on reading it for a bit.
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Apr 18, 2017 05:37
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Robot Wendigo posted:I was going by recommendations from the Science Fiction thread, which were all glowingly positive. One hundred thousand retards can't be wrong
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Apr 18, 2017 09:51
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General Battuta posted:Somewhere between 2666 and Savage Detectives I tried reading 2666 and couldn't get past the first 2nd section. Can someone explain the appeal of this novel? Am I the only one who thinks its incredibly over rated. I get the themes and the sense of dread its going for, but it kinda just....sucks. What am I missing?
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Apr 18, 2017 14:28
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why did i read three loving volumes of danielewski's the familiar. what did i think was going to happen, here
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Apr 18, 2017 15:23
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TommyGun85 posted:I tried reading 2666 and couldn't get past the first 2nd section. Can someone explain the appeal of this novel? Am I the only one who thinks its incredibly over rated. I get the themes and the sense of dread its going for, but it kinda just....sucks. Are you sure you "get the themes" of a thousand page novel of which you read the first 200 pages
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Apr 18, 2017 15:32
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Fork of Unknown Origins posted:Just finished Dirk Gently. I am a huge HHG fan so I came in with high expectations and was disappointed. It just didn't seem to hold a candle to the Hitchhiker books in any way. It wasn't bad, and if I had read it first I probably would've liked it. The e-book I bought has the sequel as well but I'm going to hold off on reading it for a bit. Lots of people - including myself - have the same reaction to Dirk Gently. But over time it's grown on me while Hitchhikers has faded badly. The humour is less rib-digging "get it!" and more subtle and clever.
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Apr 18, 2017 15:45
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Ras Het posted:Are you sure you "get the themes" of a thousand page novel of which you read the first 200 pages yes im sure, thank you for asking.
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Apr 18, 2017 17:13
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chernobyl kinsman posted:why did i read three loving volumes of danielewski's the familiar. what did i think was going to happen, here I read the first and thought it was interestig and have the next two sitting on my shelf. are they not worth it? I figured the whole thig would be cancelled before he got through all 27 and that it was just a big marketing ploy.
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Apr 18, 2017 17:16
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I just read The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break and really enjoyed it. Basically The Minotaur (of mythology) now works as a line cook in a restaurant in South Carolina. It kind of reminded me of Tom Robbins mixed with Erskine Caldwell, two of my favorite writers. It is an honest but not over-dramatic look at the south and modern day masculinity. It is a quick, easy read that I highly recommend.
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Apr 18, 2017 17:51
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chernobyl kinsman posted:why did i read three loving volumes of danielewski's the familiar. what did i think was going to happen, here I could barely get 50 pages in, it is the worst trash I've read in years.
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Apr 18, 2017 18:21
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A human heart posted:One hundred thousand retards can't be wrong So you don't want to borrow my copy? Robot Wendigo fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Apr 19, 2017 |
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Apr 19, 2017 01:15
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hahaha drat! I've gotta say, the last two pages in this thread have been great! 
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Apr 19, 2017 01:47
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TommyGun85 posted:I read the first and thought it was interestig and have the next two sitting on my shelf. are they not worth it? I figured the whole thig would be cancelled before he got through all 27 and that it was just a big marketing ploy. they all suck. every chapter sucks in a unique way and each volume somehow sucks more than the sum of its parts.
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Apr 19, 2017 01:52
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Just finished Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and other stories. The dialogue really kept these stories humming, and strongly rooted in place and time. Bookended by stories of couples hunting in Kenya, this collection is an interesting exploration of what it meant to be a man 100 years ago. Loved it!
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Apr 19, 2017 05:07
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chernobyl kinsman posted:they all suck. every chapter sucks in a unique way and each volume somehow sucks more than the sum of its parts. I've finished the first two and just don't feel like I can go on with the series. As was stated, it's hard to determine how much of MZD's motivation is experimentation with the form vs. marketing/profit. I just can't justify plopping down $15 27 times. The characters and slowly-forming plot are mostly interesting and the graphical aspect is neat too. The Narcons in Book 1 were especially fascinating. Apparently Book 5 is the finale of "Season 1" and my pretentiousness limit has been breached so I'm likely done with it.
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Apr 19, 2017 17:21
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Apr 20, 2017 03:36
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...go on
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Apr 20, 2017 06:14
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