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The Evolution of God by Wright. I've Read a little of it. It sounded promising from the reviews I read and for the most part is an interesting read. But it seems like every chapter gets about 8/10 of the way to where it was going in a scholarly fashion and then abruptly launches into very shallow and emotional apologetics. It's just like reading or listening to Shelby Spong.
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Jan 2, 2010 15:46
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Fahrenheit 451. I've had it sitting around for a while after I got a whole bunch of books from a Borders closing down sale. Some how I never read this during my teenage years where I read 1984 a couple of times as a Brave New World. It's more "sci-fi" than I thought it would be, with robot dogs and what not. I'm enjoying it, some of the prose bothers me. It's hard to say, but reading some of the descriptions of the appearance of people or settings makes me almost roll my eyes.
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Aug 24, 2013 01:02
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World War Z. I like a lot of post apocalyptic fiction (Riddley Walker, I am Legend, Alas Babylon, etc) but don't normally read anything from the fedora canon. But I'll give anything a chance. About half way through, I don't like it overall. A lot of the in-character writing isn't convincing, it's quite hamfisted in its social commentary. Between the two it comes off as kind of patronising.
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May 6, 2014 08:56
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Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery, Henry Marsh I like this a lot so far, it's a memoir from a British neurosurgeon. Very direct and clear prose, doesn't come across as self-aggrandising or overly dramatic.
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Dec 19, 2014 01:42
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DroneRiff posted:Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh It's a really engrossing read.
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Mar 30, 2016 00:48
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Silo by Hugh Howey. I'm very underwhelmed by it, maybe my expectations were too high given how well it's been reviewed, not just by internet forum types that praise shite like World War Z and Ready Player One but professional reviewers too. It just seems pretty uneven, I guess being written episodically, tied together and then completed as a novel doesn't help. The premise and writing are good, but the the dialogue and characterisation came across really amateur to me. Really the premise is strong and I see how that's drawn people to it. I think it's a shame it wasn't written as a novel throughout and had a narrative that didn't rely on writing in the voice of different characters.
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Mar 30, 2016 01:17
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Shift by Hugh Howey Second part of the 'Wool' books. Definitely seems better written than the first part which started out as short stories as I understand it. Being familiar with the world already and the revelations from the previous book it's actually quite compelling to learn more of the history through this narrative split between two timelines. That being said I think it's a little blunt, i.e. a Southern Senator who lives a long time named Thurman. I liked the 20th century technology in a far future post apocalypse setting from the first book, so I'm skeptical about all these more fantastic sci-fi elements that the 2nd part introduces like nanorobot warfare and cryostasis.
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Jul 8, 2016 01:49
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A Wizard of Earthsea Been playing a lot of RPGs lately and have been reading a lot of dystopian fiction so I thought I'd change it up and have a go at some of the 'fantasy canon' I didn't read as a teenager. I'm maybe 1/3rd of the way through and it's not grabbing me. I think if I'd picked this book up at 12 I'd have read it in two sittings. The subject matter is pretty typical of young adult fantasy but the prose is quite formal in the way it's written, seems almost too formal and adult for a story about a teenager with magic powers going to wizard school.
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Mar 7, 2017 15:06
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The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars by Michael E. Mann. Quite compelling so far, it's by the scientist at the centre of the 'hockey stick' climate reconstructions from tree rings, ice cores, sediments, etc and the East Anglia hacking incident. It's a reasonable length about 450 pages but it isn't too dry with technical detail or lengthy backstories of every scientists mentioned. I'm learning something every chapter. I like the writing, it reads well. A lot of these culture war type books can have a smug/snarky tone which I don't like even if I'm sympathetic to the writer's viewpoint. Thankfully this isn't the case here. Not as far as I've read at least.
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Apr 20, 2017 03:56
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I liked A History of God, but drat it's hard to read in paperback. Tiny text, large chapters, very few paragraph breaks. Good for getting perspective though. Started Rabbit by Patricia Williams (Ms Pat). It's the coauthored autobiography of Ms Pat who is a comedian that's been doing the rounds on a few different podcasts like Marc Maron's. She grew up in poverty with an alcoholic mother, was molested as a child, pregnant at 12, dealt drugs, abusive relationships, etc. It's pretty folky kind of story telling and even with all the horrific poo poo in there it's quite an entertaining read. If you've heard Ms Pat on podcasts before you'll know what to expect.
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Sep 1, 2017 06:53
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Cosmic Creepers posted:Have had James Scott's Against the Grain gathering dust on my Kindle for a few months now, so now is as good a time as any to pick it up. Haven't really got extensive knowledge about the history of early civilizations, so it'll be an interesting read for sure. The subject matter interests me, though I'm wary that it's going to be a contrarian primitivism/anarchy circle jerk.
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Jan 24, 2018 06:55
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Just reached the big jump in time in The Passage by Justin Cronin. There were a few moments early on that read like pulp sci-fi and I was a bit concerned, but very much enjoying it at the moment.
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Jun 27, 2018 03:53
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