The patrician took a sip of his beer. 'I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect never will again, but one day when I was a young boy in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I'm sure you will agree, and even as I watched the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to us all to become his moral superior.'
In other news, I got as a present a book by our former prime minister Dries van Agt, Een schreeuw om recht (A cry for justice). Van Agt was a typical Christian Democrat when he was in power: more pro-Israeli that most Israelis. Now he has discovered and taken up the Palestinian cause with even more enthusiasm than even Jimmy Carter. And of course now all of a sudden it turns out he always was an anti-semite, at least that's what he is called by the press. I haven't started it yet, but I will soon.
- One day too long: top secret site 85 and the bombing of North Vietnam by Timothy Castle
- The Drunkard's walk: how randomness rules our lives by Leonard Mlodinow
After those, I'll probably read another Dresden book (I just discovered Jim Butcher this year), then I have 3-4 samples on the Kindle that I'll probably end up buying.
Just finished The Drunkard's Walk. This book was a lot better than I expected it to be. Helps the reader to put probability and statistics in perspective, and was an interesting treatise on how big of a role chance plays in our lives.
I know. I was totally surprised and fooled by that development. The rest of the books in the series are pretty good but nothing else got to me like that did.
Am reading Pratchett's Nightwatch now and thinking about starting A Beautiful Mind when I'm done. Anyone read it? Is it good? I haven't seen the movie but I have a vague idea what it is about.
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Don't pray in my school and I won't think in your church.
Just finished Ender's Game, science fiction by Orson Scott Card, very good. Couldn't stop reading. Now I just started Speaker for the Dead which is sort of a sequel but seems to be a completely different kind of book.
I mentioned upthread that I wanted to check otu some of Crowley's other work after reading Little, Big. This is the beginning of his Aegypt Cycle. So far it has the same quirky disregard for a plot that goes somewhere as Little, Big, but without the engaging characters to distract the reader from the fact that nothing is happening.
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"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
Just finished Ender's Game, science fiction by Orson Scott Card, very good. Couldn't stop reading. Now I just started Speaker for the Dead which is sort of a sequel but seems to be a completely different kind of book.
Yeah, it totally is. You have Ender as boy wonder in the first book, then Ender as adult wonder in the second. I liked Ender better in Speaker but a whole bunch of people--possibly those who got turned on to Game back when it first came out--prefer him in kid form.
I've been avoiding this thread, because I haven't any time to read anything for myself these days. But I was lurking because I wanted to remember what it was like to be excited about reading about that wasn't complusary...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deadlokd
Am reading Pratchett's Nightwatch now and thinking about starting A Beautiful Mind when I'm done. Anyone read it? Is it good? I haven't seen the movie but I have a vague idea what it is about.
I read A Beautiful Mind a few years back. It was really quite facinating, but nothing at all like the film. The book is a faithful biography of Nash, the film dramatized things a great deal and made up stuff wholesale to make it a more compelling story. I enjoyed it but I really like biographies.
I finished Pratchett's Unseen Academicals this morning. Typically good Pratchett, in that I'll have to give it a second read to fully appreciate and love it. I always get my money's worth out of Sir Pratchett!
In other literary news, I tried to read the library's copy of A Game of Thrones but OMG, the boring! However, I did pick up another little number called Jack the Bodiless, which is only boring in spots and that I plan to finish.
I finished Pratchett's Unseen Academicals this morning. Typically good Pratchett, in that I'll have to give it a second read to fully appreciate and love it. I always get my money's worth out of Sir Pratchett!
Hehe, I do that too.
Btw:
I figured out pretty much right away that Nutt was an orc. It was probably the only fantasy species he never used before.
The Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt, by Brian Fagan. I've just started it, but just learned that there is an updated and revised version, which is NOT the one I have.
Oh, what to do, what to do... I'm not generally a re-reader, so I may just stop reading this copy and get the newer version.
Yay! I went to high school with Tana. She was one of my best friends and single-handedly got me through Chemistry IB HL. We still talk regularly.
You should tell her that I am looking for the third book about Sam! I was very glad to have picked up The Likeness at the airport, because it was absorbing.
Just finished Ender's Game, science fiction by Orson Scott Card, very good. Couldn't stop reading. Now I just started Speaker for the Dead which is sort of a sequel but seems to be a completely different kind of book.
Re: What are you reading?
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