What have you read lately?

[Klarkie8]

Crime and punishment

I tried to read this whole book for a month, and some motherfucker told me the ending...

Still didn't read the whole book tho.

[Sprony]

It's great for references @FMPONE. 

Also, @Minos, I've been wanting to buy some Philip K Dick books for a while now. Purely based on the many movies that reference his work. Is it similar or are the adaptations really different?

[blackdog]

I have been thinking of getting the ereader for plain novels, and leave shelf space and money for higher quality prints like comic volumes or artists book like the one you got @Sprony

[Minos]

Those are books that I read in the past 3 years or so, some of them were audiobooks that I listened at work

Sprony: Though I haven't read A Scanner Darkly, I think that's the movie that captures his work the best imo. At least the feeling of what it is like to read one of his novels.

By the way, here's a really cool series that talks about a bunch of sci-fi authors (Philip K, Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke, Asimov, etc...)  and their major works: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2091018/

[blackdog]

Gosh, a bit scary to read Scanner Darkly captures his narrative at best ? 

I read Ubik in Italian, then Scanner Darkly (and Do Androids…?) and Svanner was so difficult for me. Was one of the first novels I read in native English but man it's trippy… I mean was really making me feel disoriented, so if that was intentional he fully achieved, but still such a hard read that I didn't really found entertaining.

I remember finding the full talk (I might even have created the playlist) but in this bit PKD suggests we live in the Matrix

 

[ZZZ]

"Mentes Perigosas" (translated as "Dangerous Minds"). It's about how to identify psychopaths. Now I want to read "Almost a psychopath".

The reason for reading those is that I found myself in a forum where the admin does certain things that are similar to what a psychopath would do. No, he is very very far from being one, but there was a day that somebody joked about psychopaths and he admitted that he was, in fact, compared to one in life.

[Minos]

Roman Lives by Plutarch. This is a compilation of biographies of interesting Roman figures. This book has been a blast to read, Plutarch focuses more on the personality, vices and virtues of the person instead of just describing historical events. It feels very personal and is a fun light read. Hard to believe it was written almost 2 thousand years, it feels very contemporary, but that could be in part thanks to the great translation. It's very interesting to discover how the Romans viewed reality too, definitely very differently than we do.

If you have never heard of Sulla look him up. What an interesting fella.

[blackdog]

I meant to post weeks ago, but I have finally finished IT.

I bought it right away after the trailer of the new movie came out, and was my intention to read it before the movie was in cinemas -- which at 1300+ pages meant 12 ppd-- unfortunately I was disciplined for very short time and read only on my weekly commute to my gf and when on holiday so took me almost exactly 1 year 

I'm not sure why it is so revered, basically as the best book by King. I like the structure, jumping between present and past, but I can't say I was captivated as much as other books of King. In general I always preferred his short stories tbh, while reading I was mentally thinking of all the content that I was finding padding that detracted from suspense. It got very good when the story had progressed, but I found the ending quite underwhelming. I struggled to picture it very much and just find the reveal jarring toward what you think IT is.

One thing I can say, it brought me back to my high-school days when I read several of King's books (which convinced me to take a stab at writing myself).

Edited July 24, 2018 by blackdog

[cyberjunkie]

I've taken to reading over the past couple of years, and I haven't read as much, ever in my life, than I have over the past 3-4 months. I'm getting better at it, I'm better focused.

 

What I'm currently reading is Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou (link). It's about the startup, Theranos and all the madness that started from the power and money hungry CEO, Elizabeth Holmes and her partner, Ramesh (Sunny) Balwani. It's a scam, and it's built on hype, lies, intimidation and more. It's really something!

 

These are some of the other books I've read recently -
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain (link) - a good read for introverts, for us to relate to, and for extroverts to introspect on

 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (link) - Fictional book, a sad and funny tale about a loner with a big heart, who led a tough life and sticks to his moral code.

 

Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik (link) - just takes a photographs  and talks about interesting objects and matter they're made of. Really simplifies and makes science fun.

 

Here is my Goodreads handle. Do add!

Edited July 27, 2018 by cyberjunkie

[DocRock10]

This is a book I wrote.  It's about a hide and seek game played with rifles.

It's gotten pretty good reviews on Amazon.  Check it out.

The audible version of the book is read by Kenny James.  He is the guy who does the voice of Bowser from Nintendo's Super Mario Bros video game series.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LNU0TCA

 

[Minos]

I recently got into comics again when I got the Jodorowsky/Moebius bundle on Humble bundle. IPad + YACReader is an amazing setup, very easy to use and everything looks so crisp!

I'm now going over the complete X-Men Age of Apocalypse. It's been a blast to go over this in one go... very dark and gloomy series, love it  The art is very hit or miss, some stories look awesome, while others look like something out of Deviant art  But the writing is very consistent and top notch all around!

And great news: There's a new Spawn series coming out next week, the first one since the original series debuted almost 30 years ago   Pre-orders already broke half a million. Incredible to see Todd McFarlane dominating even after all these years  

[ZZZ]

https://www.amazon.com/Ego-Enemy-Ryan-Holiday/dp/1591847818

I really need to read this.

[-HP-]

12 hours ago, 0kelvin said:

https://www.amazon.com/Ego-Enemy-Ryan-Holiday/dp/1591847818

I really need to read this.

Yeap. This is one of my favs. I call this book the modern reinterpretation of Marcus Aurelius Meditations.

[blackdog]

@Minos dunno if you’ve seen it, but Keanu boy is launching a comic book. Think got funded on Kickstarter… you should easily find it.

I’m more interested in the Batman stand-alone series. Top of my list there would be the one that inspired the new film, Long Halloween, and the Gotham by Gaskight.

[ZZZ]

So I read half of this book "Ego is the enemy".

I can't stop noticing that this book is talking about the core issue of almost every mental disorder. Specially the case of personality disorders. Ego is the main issue of narcissistic personality disorder. Everything about it is about ego.

About real life, this book has a lot of examples that tell you not how to be successful. Rather, what is required to be successful. All the discussion in it can be applied to families, companies, admission exams, politics, everything. Some parts of it resonate quite well with the lessons that I've learned with Mark Rosewater in his talk about mistakes made while making Magic.

I have a feeling that almost everything that I read in this book I have already read elsewhere. If you ever read about athletes, great leaders and stories of successful companies, most if not all ideas in this book are not new.