Anxiously awaiting the final verdict. I have Audible credits to burn.

**BRENT**

I'm boycotting anything related to the movie until I finish the (audio)book.

Good luck with that.

Good luck with that.

 

I'm over halfway through the 10hrs already and have a work trip (driving) this week that'll probably allow me to get through the rest comfortably so I should be ok.

Did you get to the part where...

 

 

Did you get to the part where...

Dick.

 

(See, I can't put a smiley face on that, because that gives it an entirely different meaning, although I do say it in jest.)

 

(And no, I'm not trying to change the subject....or am I?)

I'm over halfway through the 10hrs already and have a work trip (driving) this week that'll probably allow me to get through the rest comfortably so I should be ok.

No, I'm just making fun of my whole "NO SPOILERS!!!1! (rage face)" thing.

 

But you're right, I wasn't thinking that you'd finish the book that quickly, so...never mind.

History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History - Dana Lindaman and Kyle Ward.

Thanks for the suggestion Claire.

Finally finished Christopher Moore's Lamb -- that was fantastic, I knew it'd be good, but I didn't realize it'd be that good.

 

Now on to the next Jim Butcher/Dresden Files novel.  Hopefully by the time I finish that, there will be another October Daye...I also need some Tim Powers...

Re-reading Maupin's Tales of the City series. Still a very fun read.

Anna Madrigal...

Finished this piece of Schiit last night:

 

 

Jason's book is pretty darn good. Better than it has any right to be. I really enjoyed reading it. Jason is a decent writer and he is a natural at sharing his experiences in and out of the audio world.

 

I'd heartily recommend this one. 4/5.

 

 

 

Can't say it has me interested in his sci-fi books though 

Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman

Edited August 3, 201510 yr by blessingx

Just finished Armada by Ernest Cline. It's no Ready Player One, but it wasn't, to me, as bad as the critics have been saying, even if

it's a bit derivative.

**BRENT**

Ditto, Agree.

And The Martian. Enjoyed. Liked the sarcastic tone of our eponymous hero.

Will be interesting to see how it translates to the big screen. Just as well they can't capture the smell(s)

I hated Ready Player One, so I imagine Armada would make me shit blood.  Hard pass.

 

 

I'm reading The Janissary Tree to get in the Istanbul spirit.  Awesome book so far, featuring a eunuch detective and a lot of impotent descriptions of young Circassian sex slaves.  My boss recommended it!

Edited August 5, 201510 yr by Sherwood

This NYT article on "giga-coasters" is pretty damn awesome:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/08/17/travel/17Coasters.html

Edited August 17, 201510 yr by TMoney

I hated Ready Player One...

...the hell?  I thought everyone loved that book (including me, not even a gamer).  Not saying you're wrong, just curious what you found off-putting.  Did you hate Snowcrash?

Me:  just finished Changes by Jim Butcher (Dresden files) -- unholy carp!  That one...

Also finished first installment of Indexing: Reflections by Seanan McGuire.  Also started The Skies Discrowned / An Epitaph in Rust by Tim Powers.

Edited August 17, 201510 yr by Dusty Chalk

Heh. RPO was great. Armada was pretty good, about to read Snow crash for the third time, as that's the book this chick is finishing before she starts on the copy of Ender's Game I gave her last week. I'll then have my 8th or 9th go-round with Ender, perhaps doing the whole 13 books, or whatever it's up to now.

**BRENT**

...the hell?  I thought everyone loved that book (including me, not even a gamer).  Not saying you're wrong, just curious what you found off-putting.  Did you hate Snowcrash?

I'm the only person I know who did not like it, but oh man did I not like it.  The whole thing felt like he was reading through back issues of How to be Cool: For Dads! in the morning, then banging out a few dozen pages every night.  I am not an MMO player any longer, but I once was, and none of it rang true. Just like Twilight fulfilled little girls' dream of some day falling in love with a sexy vampire, RPO fulfills boys' dreams of conquering the world and getting in shape by playing lots of video games.  

Snowcrash is delightful, absurd, and a real favorite.  Stephenson has a gift that Cline does not have.  That said, the MMO world Stephenson describes in Reamde is a little closer to what I think RPO could have been.

Been through a few SF books this summer:

Neal Stephenson - Seveneves -hell yeah orbital mechanics. LOVED this book, loved its epic scope, even if the long explanatory hard science parts of the books were really long, even for Neal Stephnson

Neal Stephenson - Reamde - surprised I hadn't read this yet, really enjoyable read, really a breeze to read after Seveneves. I felt like the final scene could have been shortened by a hundred pages or so but overall it was great fun.

Kim Stanley Robinson - Aurora - do you like generation ships? do you like AI? do you not care that much about character development? check this shit out then. I thoroughly enjoyed it, epic scope, lots of hard science, great narrator.

And I'm just starting Ready Player One now. Enjoying it so far, think its going to be fun.

Neal Stephenson - Reamde - surprised I hadn't read this yet, really enjoyable read, really a breeze to read after Seveneves. I felt like the final scene could have been shortened by a hundred pages or so but overall it was great fun.

 

Yup.  But he does that.  Two people -- to whom I lent the book -- stopped in the same place:  at the beginning of the last act or so, which isn't anywhere near the end.  One person I convinced to finish it, and the other I couldn't.

Yup.  But he does that.  Two people -- to whom I lent the book -- stopped in the same place:  at the beginning of the last act or so, which isn't anywhere near the end.  One person I convinced to finish it, and the other I couldn't.

Sounds like exactly where I stopped   I finished Seveneves and Anathem and came back, though.  Better that than make progress in Baroque...

Edited August 26, 201510 yr by Sherwood

I'm really enjoying the Tim Powers.  I really enjoy being shown the hero tropes from the perspective of the would-be hero, whose thoughts don't match at all what we would think of from a Jason Statham or an Ahnold character.

If I Stay by Gayle Foreman.  Not sure if it's because I'm a dad, or if I'm in menopause, or what, but this book wrecked me.  And I read it over the course of the last 4.5 hrs. 

Just read the sequel, where she went by Gayle Foreman.  That's a great thing about YA fiction.  It's not a long read.