Fun Stuff > ENJOY
What are you currently reading?
evilQuälgeist:
Andrzej Sapkowski's "Die Dame vom See" the last book of the witcher series
//Edit: Oh and Pact, how could I forget that?
Dalillama:
I'm having a go at Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century, with George Macdonald Fraser's McAuslan for light entertainment. Also Bujold's Paladin of Souls (Sequel to Curse of Chalion), when all I've got with me is my phone.
SubaruStephen:
--- Quote from: Akima on 21 Sep 2014, 19:08 ---I just finished The Martian by Andy Weir. I made a mental note to buy this book once it came out for the Kindle on the basis of the huge tick given to it by Howard Taylor in his blog, and frankly I was very disappointed. Fundamentally the problem is that the author completely failed to make me care about his protagonist.
(click to show/hide)The technical challenges are well done, but the author conveys no sense of doubt that they will be overcome, or fear that the carboard-cutout plucky hero will not come through in the end. One of the other characters in the book sums up the protagonist as "a problem solver", and quite frankly he is presented as nothing else. There is a rather jarring change from the first-person point-of-view of the hero to third-person views of mission-control, NASA personel, Chinese rocket-scientists etc. This is done to show off more neat problem-solving stuff (and it was nice to see Chinese people both actively involved in the plot (Joss Whedon and Peter Hyams please note) and not simply as yellow-peril villains (Tom Clancy and any number of other Western writers in pretty much every genre ever)), but it blows any sense of the hero's isolation out of the airlock.
I was really looking forward to this book, because I'm so tired of lazy science-fiction that might as well have Harry Potter waving his wand in the engine-room, but the author's complete failure to engage me emotionally relegates it to second-rate in my opinion.
--- End quote ---
I just started this one (didn't click on the spoiler button).
celticgeek:
I have just finished "Simple Dreams - A Musical Memoir" by Linda Ronstadt. An interesting look at her influences and her music, with comments on the music scene of her time.
Also just finished "The Pluto Files" by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. A very fun look at the demotion of Poor Poor Pitiful Planet Pluto. (Apologies to Linda and Warren Zevon.)
ev4n:
I read the latest Dresden Files book last night. It's been something like 14 books, and Dresden seems to be to be in more and more trouble with every book. I don't know if that's a credit to the writer, or the opposite.
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