Whatcha' readin'?

[Zkribbler]

I've gone to a three-book practice: One book by my bedside , one in the car so it's available for waiting rooms, restaurants, etc. an an audio book to listen to while I'm commuting.


Bed book: Three Musketeers (I seen lots of movie versions, but I've never read the book. It's good. )

Car book: Lord of the Rings. (I haven't read it since I was an undergraduate. I was pretty unsophiticated then so I'm giving it another go.)

Audio book: Gods & Generals by Jeff Shaara.



I just finished an audiobook The American General, a play about Benedict Arnold and my recent car book was The Colour of Magic

[Ramo]

Just got You Suck by Christopher Moore (sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends)

[Lonestar]

Just got done with the Space Wolf Omnibus, am starting the new Star Wars novel Allegiance

[Meticulous Man]

"Där vi en gång gått" by Kjell Westö, a novel about the generation that took part in the Finnish Civil War. Great book but it will probably never be translated into English. It also earned Westö last year's Finlandia prize (which has nothing to do with the vodka).

[Ninot]

6 different histories of the Crusades, for an essay I need to write by Tuesday.

[civman2000]

Mathematics Made Difficult, by Carl Linderholm. Pure brilliance.

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by civman2000
Mathematics Made Difficult, by Carl Linderholm. Pure brilliance.

Great title! What's it about?

[Drake Tungsten]

I'm dividing time between The Right Nation, The Elusive Quest for Growth and 大和路寺寺の昔話し.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by civman2000
Mathematics Made Difficult, by Carl Linderholm. Pure brilliance.

brilliant title.

[Pekka]

I'm loving that title as well, give us some kind of description fo the book

I'm reading some book about mapping the cyberspace. It's mostly for work though.

[civman2000]

Originally posted by VetLegion


Great title! What's it about?

Ostensibly, it's an introduction to basic mathematics (starting from arithmetic) based on category theory. But it is filled with all sorts of jokes and puns and bizarre funny pseudophilosophical discussions. Here's my favorite part of what I've read so far:

It is not at all obvious why people are so fond of writing numbers to base ten; in other words, why do they not use some other system such as the binary or duodecimal base? One explanation is that in former times, when such customs became fixed, people were not so terribly broad-minded and tolerant as they have lately become. Those of us lucky enough to have twelve fingers, instead of being praised for our cleverness and admired for our piano playing, were shunned--despised--rejected. We became pariahs and outcasts. No one would give us so much as the time of day. Now it was we, the twelve-fingered supermen, who naturally counted by the duodecimal system. When we wrote the numbers, they began: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, X, E, 10, 11, ... (Note that the last few are commonly pronounced "ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen" by you starfish--as we call you among ourselves; and you write them differently.) Only in the last few decades--or duodecades, it is roughly the same thing--have we been able to lift the veil with any degree of safety. Now we are beginning to come out into the open, and the more broad-minded of you starfish are beginning to admit that we are infinitely superior to you, and deserve to take over. By the end of the century it is my own private opinion, which I seldom dare to reveal publicly, that those of you who do not knuckle under will be ruthlessly exterminated. We have already disposed of grosses and grosses of the most virulent decimalists.

[Sirotnikov]

Undeclared War by Moshe Tamir about the Israeli guerilla tactics in Lebanon between 1994-2000.

Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays by Steven Hawking.

Stalin by Edward Radzinskii

[DaShi]

I'm currently reading How to Cook Zkribbler. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys cooking and Zkribbler.

[Nostromo]

I always read a lot of stuff at the same time. Now, its mainly novels.

Norman Mailer, Harlot's ghost

Stendhal, Le rouge et le noir

Louis Calaferte, La mécanique des femmes (basically a compendium of little scenes where naughty women talk dirty)

Choderlos de Laclos, Dangerous liaisons.

Nelly Arcand, Folle.

[Fake Boris]

I've been reading the Ethics by Spinoza. It's taking all my time.