Hm, not much activity last week. I'm happy to switch to bi-weekly if this is too often for people.
I got a lot of good horror suggestions! Went used book shopping while my family was in town and got a dirt cheap version of Ancillary Sword so working on that now. I'm on the waiting list in the library for just about every comic suggested by bfv and rd95 so expect to see more of those popping up too.
Just a few chapters into "Rendezvous with Rama" by A.C. Clarke (I recently enjoyed "Childhood's End" so I thought I'd read a few more of Clarke's better-known works). So far, it's pretty good, although kinda cringe-worthy when he talks about how distracting women's breasts can be in zero gravity. Nerd :-)
Thanks for this - I'll come back to it once I've finished.
I have read 'Eon' (love Greg Bear, esp. 'Blood Music'), but it's been a long long time.
Heh - I did a quick search and found the passage I was referring to - here it is :Some women, Commander Norton had decided long ago, should not be allowed aboard ship; weightlessness did things to their breasts that were too damn distracting. It was bad enough when they were motionless; but when they started to move, and sympathetic vibrations set in, it was more than any warm-blooded male should be asked to take. He was quite sure that at least one serious space accident had been caused by acute crew distraction, after the transit of a well-upholstered lady officer through the control cabin.
Agreed - but you have to admit, it's very old-school to talk about the jiggliness of a "well-upholstered lady officer".
Hm, maybe some more lurkers like me will begin participating. I just started Part 2 of The Island of the Colorblind, about Lytico-Bodig disease in Guam. The end notes in an Oliver Sacks book are better than many books.Hm, not much activity last week.
"Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction" by Samir Okasha Surprisingly deep book, while being very readable and very short. I knew for a long time that all the things humanity calls "science" are divided between "real science" and "collecting post stamps", and being mathematician by education I've always suspected that the only member of the "real science" club is mathematics. Now, after finishing most of the book, I'm convinced it's exactly like that! Also I'm reading "The frigate Pallada" by Ivan Goncharov, which is basically a collection of very entertaining letters from an established writer traveling around the world to his friends; the time period is the middle of the 19th century. The letters are full of wit and are written in wonderful language (disclaimer: I have no idea if English translation is any good -- I read it in Russian as it is my mother tongue). Goncharov follows the idea that he should write primarily about his own impressions, not about facts which can be found in encyclopaedia, and it makes his travel log extremely interesting.
https://hubski.com/tag?id=weeklybooksthread&time=all Been going strong since I started, personal initiative is not the question :) Books take days to read while songs are a few minutes. If the average hubsker doesn't have anything new to add each week it might be better for me to space it out. I'd rather higher trafficked threads biweeekly then half the interest each week, mostly because I think its cool when people interact and discuss them together / support each other. But one week doesn't make a pattern, I'll wait a bit before I switch it up. I'm also open to ideas if people have suggestions!
"Choose Yourself - Be happy, make millions, live the dream" - James Altucher Friends of mine and I are looking at building a new business, so while we are in the brainstorming stage, we are consuming a lot of input from a wide range of sources. This book is ... well ... it is what it is. Call it "millenial self-help", or whatever. But what I like about it is this feeling of energy. A feeling of forward momentum. The writing is very conversational. Like you are sitting across the table from the guy, having a chat over beers. But the chatty nature of the writing is, I think, premeditated and calculated, rather than a symptom or circumstance of writing without an editor. It isn't genuine. It's a sales pitch. The funny thing is that this book isn't selling anything. (In fact, if you send him an email he'll send you the book itself for free.) I think that he is just so honestly a salesperson, he doesn't know how to have a genuine conversation. It's a funny read. I'm looking forward to finishing it.
If it makes you feel better, I'm reading the 7 Habits of Effective People right now, and Choose Yourself is on my list of business books to read as well. What do you think I should send in my email?
I'm not sure you want to be on his mailing list, so I wouldn't send him anything. Just read the book. He has some interesting "idea generator" ideas, but you need to read through the first parts of the book to get them, in context, and get something valuable from the ideas he presents. It's all context. And it is a fun read. Light, quick, conversational. Read it. Should be a bit of freshness after 7 Habits. I also make sure to pick up a Seth Godin book any time I see one, flip to any page, and read for two or three pages. He is so consistently refreshing, eye-opening, and clearly spoken, that it would be hard to NOT get anything from his books. I see them on friends shelves, pick one up, read a couple of pages, and they offer to loan it to me. "Nah.. thanks. I've read it. Just like reminding myself of how he writes and his clarity of expression."
I'm re-reading 7 Habits for the second time. Can't really criticise the main points, but he throws in a lot of (repetitive) chaff too. The first read I think I was more malleable to a lot of those extras, but this time I'm a bit more critical and take a much higher level view. Still, it's a great book and very much better than the shelves full self-help dross. I'm enjoying it again. Plenty in there to think about.
Ding! I think you have nailed it here. I'm 3/4 of the way through the book, and am just scanning pages now that I have his pattern figured out. But I agreed to read it, so I will finish it. Can't have a conversation with the guy that recommended it if I don't, right?
Lately I'm traveling and have been relying on my library card and Overdrive to read, but my card expired and they won't let me renew over email :/ So I'm stuck with public domain books for the time being. Any recommendations would be very welcome! I just started Leaves of Grass.
Oooooh! Shiny!! I've had this tab open in my browser for a week now, waiting for the right time to open it up and play with Picbreeder. Might be another interesting approach to creating images from iterative code and human interaction.
Picbreeder is neat! Because propagating is what tabs are for, see also EndlessForms.
Its taken me two different trips to two different comic shops, but I'm almost done filling in the gaps in my Valiant TPB collection. I'm working on catching up tonight, starting out with re-reading all five current trades of Shadowman. rinx, I can't wait to hear how your trip into the world of comics goes. I'd love to see what you think of what you read, what you like and don't like. Hopefully you'll have fun. :)