1)The Passage, Justin Cronin
2)Dark Matter, Michelle Paver
3)The Death of Grass, John Christopher
4)The Bed I Made, Lucie Whitehouse
5)Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane

No problem!

Already read this year:

1) A Short History Of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson. (re-read because 2 people mentioned it lead them away from their respective religions)
2) First Life - David Attenborough and Matt Kaplan
3) Wonders of the Solar System - Brian Cox

Currently reading
4) Emperor The Gods of War - Conn Iggulden. (reread)

4 in 17 days - I should be on for 80+ books at this rate!

Spearthrower wrote:
3) Wonders of the Solar System - Brian Cox

Read this in December, I found it quite good and informative. Have not seen the BBC documentary, yet. There is also a kind of sequel, which will be called "Wonders of the Universe" and have already pre-ordered it.

Darkchilde wrote:

Spearthrower wrote:
3) Wonders of the Solar System - Brian Cox

Read this in December, I found it quite good and informative. Have not seen the BBC documentary, yet. There is also a kind of sequel, which will be called "Wonders of the Universe" and have already pre-ordered it.

Really not a fan of Brian Cox at all. I just find him so irritating. When he comes on the TV screen and starts speaking, I want to punch him in the face. Am I the only person who feels that way about him? Plus people going on all the time about how he's SO smart and one of the most respected physicists. Please, give me a break: yeah, he's pretty smart, he's not in the top league by any means. Did you know he can't speak any French even though he lives in France for much of the year for work on CERN and is supposedly super-smart? I dunno, think he's hugely over-rated imo.

1. The Portable Atheist - Hitchens/Assorted others
2. The Moral Landscape - Sam Harris
3. The Emperor of All Maladies - Siddartha Mukherjee

1. Nobody's Boy - Hector Malot
2. The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Frederich Engels with Introduction by A.J.P. Taylor

Hollis wrote:

Darkchilde wrote:

Spearthrower wrote:
3) Wonders of the Solar System - Brian Cox

Read this in December, I found it quite good and informative. Have not seen the BBC documentary, yet. There is also a kind of sequel, which will be called "Wonders of the Universe" and have already pre-ordered it.

Really not a fan of Brian Cox at all. I just find him so irritating. When he comes on the TV screen and starts speaking, I want to punch him in the face. Am I the only person who feels that way about him?

I never really have that feeling about anyone unless they are a really nasty person. Perhaps it's his inability to stop smiling that disturbs you so?

Hollis wrote:Plus people going on all the time about how he's SO smart and one of the most respected physicists. Please, give me a break: yeah, he's pretty smart, he's not in the top league by any means. Did you know he can't speak any French even though he lives in France for much of the year for work on CERN and is supposedly super-smart? I dunno, think he's hugely over-rated imo.

Your sentences don't seem to compute. He's not one of the most respected physicists but he works at CERN on the most expensive physics experiment ever conducted? I think that automatically garners a large degree of respect in the field.

He doesn't speak French so he's not super-smart? CERN's a multinational company and has a vast number of languages being used on a daily basis, and almost certainly they use English as their operating language so that everyone can communicate with each other. CERN is almost a country unto itself; I doubt that Cox ever needs to leave the site.

For me, I don't this his personality is relevant when it comes to his scientific prowess, but it might affect his ability to popularise science. Then again, he seems to be doing a sterling job of that. Ultimately, you can't please all of the people all of the time, I guess.


Anyway, I shall look forward to Wonders of the Universe as the Solar System didn't offer that much new for me, although the book was better than the vids in terms of information. There were a couple of minor errors in the book which did disappoint me though.

A question: what is the best way of adding new books, do I edit my initial post or quote it and add new ones or ... ?

Anyway, here goes:

1. Sean B. Carroll: Endless Forms Most Beautiful - A good intro to evo-devo for non-biologists, I really enjoyed it.
2. Roland Mortier: L'Originalité
3. Robin Hobb: Fool's Fate

Working my way through
4. Machado de Assis: 50 contos - Brilliant short stories, some of the wittiest and best-written I've ever read. "The Alienist" is a must-read! I'm preparing a selection of his stories to publish in Slovenian translation.

A bunch of papers, book chapters, short stories, not to mention forum posts, pity these don't count ...

I quote my first post to add the most recent entries then remove the quote tags - and I bold the most recent too.

Audiobooks in italics
1. Nobody's Boy - Hector Malot
2. The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Frederich Engels with Introduction by A.J.P. Taylor
3. Anthem - Ayn Rand

Alright, count me in.

1) Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot (first time, wonderful book)
2) Drew Karpyshyn - Mass Effect: Retribution (quite enjoyable, though not as captivating as the games)

And more in the making (well, reading)


One thing about the rules though:

Darkchilde wrote:
2. A book must be about 50 pages

50 pages? Really? I can't think of any book I read that had only 50 pages. All of them come close to 200 at the very least, some of them have 1000 and more...

Oh, and I'm guessing medical textbooks don't count, right?

Lizard_King wrote:
One thing about the rules though:

Darkchilde wrote:
2. A book must be about 50 pages

50 pages? Really? I can't think of any book I read that had only 50 pages. All of them come close to 200 at the very least, some of them have 1000 and more...

Same here. We seem to be choosing the wrong kind of books.

Oh, and I'm guessing medical textbooks don't count, right?

They're books.

Lizard_King wrote:One thing about the rules though:

Darkchilde wrote:
2. A book must be about 50 pages

50 pages? Really? I can't think of any book I read that had only 50 pages. All of them come close to 200 at the very least, some of them have 1000 and more...

Oh, and I'm guessing medical textbooks don't count, right?

LOL, will correct that. Most of teh books I read are over 200 pages too...

Lizard_King wrote:Oh, and I'm guessing medical textbooks don't count, right?

Thick as fuck!

natselrox wrote:

Lizard_King wrote:Oh, and I'm guessing medical textbooks don't count, right?

Thick as fuck!

If you are reading them for your university degree, no, they do not count. Otherwise I would have counted my University textbooks too... and my Japanese textbooks and whatnot! I would be able to get another 10 books in there. Have you seen the Physics textbooks? Or the Maths ones?

natselrox wrote:

Lizard_King wrote:Oh, and I'm guessing medical textbooks don't count, right?

Thick as fuck!

Maybe we get a reward if we manage to read something like Harrison's Internal Medicine cover to cover, all 3500 pages...

katja z wrote:
Same here. We seem to be choosing the wrong kind of books.

The bigger the better, right?

Darkchilde wrote:

Lizard_King wrote:[snip]

LOL, will correct that. Most of teh books I read are over 200 pages too...

Well, there's no hurry. Come to think of it, the weekly newspaper I pretend to read every now and then has about 70 pages. Maybe I'll just get a subscription and thus have already 52 more "books" for my list....

Lizard_King wrote:

natselrox wrote:

Lizard_King wrote:Oh, and I'm guessing medical textbooks don't count, right?

Thick as fuck!

Maybe we get a reward if we manage to read something like Harrison's Internal Medicine cover to cover, all 3500 pages...

My dad's orthopaedic texts (Campbell et al) can beat Harrison's hands down. Light rays deviate around them.

I am including books like 'The Surrendered Wife' and books on BDSM so why not so long as it's reading and 50 pages long?

natselrox wrote:

Lizard_King wrote:

natselrox wrote:

Thick as fuck!

Maybe we get a reward if we manage to read something like Harrison's Internal Medicine cover to cover, all 3500 pages...

My dad's orthopaedic texts (Campbell et al) can beat Harrison's hands down. Light rays deviate around them.

In our library, there is a textbook about sexual cannibalism (whatever that may be). Rays of strangeness deviate around that one... And no, I'm not gonna read it.

EquivoKate wrote:I am including books like 'The Surrendered Wife' and books on BDSM so why not so long as it's reading and 50 pages long?

Sounds... interesting. Probably.

;)

Audiobooks in italics
1,PG Wodehouse ‘Damsel in Distress’
2,Edith Wharton ‘House of Mirth’
3.Charles Taylor’Modern Social Imaginaries’
4,Rachel Bussel ‘Men on Top’
5.The Brothers Karamatsov Fydor Dostoevsky
6.PG Wodehouse ’Quick Service’

or
AUDIOBOOKS
1.PG Wodehouse'Damsel in Distress'
2.Edith Wharton 'House of Mirth'
3.The Brothers Karamatsov Fydor Dostoevsky 892 pages 1.5GB Librivox Audiobook

BOOKS
4.Charles Taylor'Modern Social Imaginaries'
5.Rachel Bussel 'Men on Top'
6.PG Wodehouse'Quick Service'