Book Club: "The Diceman" - Luke Rhinehart / "Fooled by Randomness" - Nicholas T

LuckyLloyd

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pgodkin

Do audio books count???? :P



**note** i cant read

RichieLawlor

This is a good list

LuckyLloyd

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RasTa

I nominate http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/444204/Frankenstein/Product.html

If it hasn't being read by everyone

strewelpeter

Don't know whether to suggest books I've already read, books I'm intending to read or books I'd like to re read.
One of each

Novel The Leopard

Novel The Diceman

Non Fiction Journey to the Ants

opr

+1 for The Diceman to start.

Opr

strewelpeter

RichieLawlor wrote: »

This is a good list

One side is a good list the other side is horrible
Ayn Rancid and L Ron Conman WTF?

Trippie

ye +1 to the diceman, was going to start it this week anyway.

aodea

anybody intrested in doing this with poker books as sure that it would have something to do with the poker forum.

read diceman in oz its a good book.

How are we going to decide on specific books?

FWIW I agree about Frankenstein. It's an amazing read and not at all what you might expect.

Personally I think "A Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley would be a great book to start on. Some real meat to get into there.

Have never read Diceman but given its rep I'd go for that either.

5starpool

I think that to decide on a book ye should takie it in turns to name a book, and create a list of people that name them in turn. I likely won't be reading many of them so I'm not going on any list if ye decide to do it that way.

dangerousdavid

The Diceman for me, i'm currently 1/3rd way through it though. Does that mean I am cheating?

Icarus152

Ditto,The Diceman

Should we have a 1 week lead time to allow the peeps to order the book online? Some of the online shops have a book club deal, iirc.

cooker3

Yeah I'll back the diceman. I nearly bought it a month ago but relented. This gives me the excuse to right a wrong (hopefully)

Hectorjelly

The Diceman is a good book to read when you are a teenager. Whatever you do, don't read the sequel, its appalling.

fatguy

I'm gonna jump the gun and order the Diceman, coz I want to read it anyway.

djsctt

+1 for The Diceman, was about to start it anyway...

Are we settled then that the Diceman is the book?

LuckyLloyd

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Icarus152

Ordered,€8.70 or so on Book Depository

Ste05

Well I ordered The Diceman there, not sure I'll get it read in time, but it sounds good and it's seldom this forum's recommendations are off.

Icarus152 wrote: »

Ordered,€8.70 or so on Book Depository

I bought it for GBP£4 (incl 3.96 delivery) from amazon in the marketplace used section. Hopefully it'll be OK. Although that bookdepository site looks pretty amazing too.

Jesus Wept

Amazingly, I've read this book, I guess that was the only way I was going to be part of the book club, de-fault, de-fault, de-fault!

YULETIRED

when do the reviews start? Some have read already.


+1 on Doms suggestion for book selection

Icarus152

Are we saying the reviews should begin in 30 days?

Maybe select the next book in 3 weeks so we can be reading it while we discuss this one.

Imposter

RichieLawlor wrote: »

This is a good list

Some really good books on that list!
Of the ones i've read on it all of them were good.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Would it be worth having two books in any one month? Just because it is inevitable that someone will have read one of the books. There wouldn't be an expectation of reading both, but there would be one main book and another ancilliary book.

Like Dom's idea of a list of participants who take turns in recommending books.

EDIT: Just ordered it. Also ordered a much-needed time management book:

Getting Things Done by David Allen. Seems to be the time management book with the best recommendations.

btw this is my current amazon list of books i'm interested in ...

hotspur

Captain Obvious wrote: »

Would it be worth having two books in any one month? Just because it is inevitable that someone will have read one of the books. There wouldn't be an expectation of reading both, but there would be one main book and another ancilliary book.

Like Dom's idea of a list of participants who take turns in recommending books.

Was just about to suggest that. Also I think perhaps we ought to agree on some structural issues. I think there should be an element of choice and voting on the books and also categories. Just having people recommend a book in order might lead to a run of types of books some won't want to read.

I would put forward something like this -

We create a list of interested people which may be added to at will. Each person creates a list of between 3 and 5 books that they have already read. If possible at least one should be a good book which is related to an area that they have some expertise in or they are very familiar with. So for example I would probably choose one psychology book and one philosophy book. At least one book should be a work of fiction.

We should make a pact not to choose pretentiously or try to impress anyone with our choices but be as genuine as possible (I will be recommending a tiny book by a Simpsons writer). We choose one person per 3 weeks and vote via thanks on their books until we have 2 options of which we will all read one, or both for those inclined (nobody will kick you out of the club if you choose to read others under your bedcovers with a torch).

Since we are going to be ordering we should set up a bookdepository (cheapest) affiliate so that someone can make money and we can do something with that money. I don't know how much that will work out at so we can decide whether we give it to charity, play a tourney, buy someone into a tourney, stick it on a horse or whatever when we figure out the kind of amount.

Um, I guess that's enough structurifying out for me for now. I'll go with whatever consensus can be reached obv.

edit: it might not be a terrible idea to extend idea and the chosen books to a circle of friends if anyone wanted to extend their discussions beyond here.

fatguy

Since we are going to be ordering we should set up a bookdepository (cheapest) affiliate so that someone can make money and we can do something with that money. I don't know how much that will work out at so we can decide whether we give it to charity, play a tourney, buy someone into a tourney, stick it on a horse or whatever when we figure out the kind of amount.

Interesting. Rakeback on books!

Icarus152

hotspur wrote: »

edit: it might not be a terrible idea to extend idea and the chosen books to a circle of friends if anyone wanted to extend their discussions beyond here.

I had to look this word up.

Samoa Joe

+1 on the two books suggestion.

I have already read the diceman and I am sure that this will be the case with others. If we had 2 books on the go then there would be a better chance of people taking part in this as the probability of anyone having read the 2 choices will be slim.

Lao Lao

hotspur wrote: »

.

(I will be recommending a tiny book by a Simpsons writer)

There goes one of my suggestions :rolleyes:

ditpoker

despite asking several cousins of mine i cant find it on audiobook. i'm out.

although mickste did mention World War Z to me and Lloyd and a few of my cousins had that on audio... so thats a recommendation rate there!

NickyOD

Nice idea. Have the diceman book, will bump it to the top of the queue now.

AdMMM

I'll order this now. Have to second "A Brave New World" as well though.

Lafortezza

I like hotspurs idea about having a bit more of a structure. Personally I will probably just scan this thread for recommended titles and read whatever I buy at my own pace. There's a good sticky of recommended books in the Literature forum, here.
There's also been a couple of threads of books suggestions on 2+2, one, two, three. Very USA biased obv but I've picked up a few recommended books after a quick scan of them on Amazon.

fatguy

I would suggest that the people who've already read The Dice Man should vote on the second book.

YULETIRED

fatguy wrote: »

I would suggest that the people who've already read The Dice Man should vote on the second book.

Good point, the Black and Tans by Richard Bennet was enjoyable, a well known book that was excellent is Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafron. Q&A was good also , Slumdog Millionaire was based on this book.

lafortezza

lafortezza wrote: »

I like hotspurs idea about having a bit more of a structure.

I agree. Perhaps we should select 5 posters who will rotate the selection.

For example; Poster 1 chooses 1 month then Poster 2 the next. Everyone agrees on the posters and it's their choice then.

eagle eye

I don't know if I really want to get involved in this, I read an awful lot but don't usually bother discussing anything much. I will however keep an eye on whats been read, I have a nice selection of audio books and ebooks from cousins. Not a real fan of the audio books myself, I like the actual reading of them maybe ever moreso than the content sometimes.

LuckyLloyd

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Samoa Joe

My 5 choices

James Frey - Bright shiny morning
James Frey - A million little pieces
Yann Martel - Life of Pi
Howard Marks - Mr.Nice
David Peace - The damned Utd

When buying books I normally go to play.com and click on the new and used price you normally get it cheaper there than the price listed on play and the delivery is free.

TommyGunne

The Diceman is a quality book. Really interesting, and there a lot of small details in it that I really like in terms of accuracy to detail and insight. Really cleverly written. Its actually the origins of VanDice's SN also.

Would really like to read A Brave New World as well, so I'd third that. I'd second Life of Pi also as an interesting read, as I would Mr. Nice (not as good, but an OK light read.)

If anyone here hasn't read Fooled by Randomness, I would highly recommend it. Inverting the Pyramid is great for anyone interested in soccer, but not really suitable here. Can't really fault any of the more modern classics like Catcher in the Rye, The Sound and The Fury, Catch22 (lots of meh reviews, but I like it), Keep The Aspidistras Flying (my fave Orwell book, and there's a lot of competition!) etc etc etc. My favourite book of all time is actually a book of short stories though, called "For Esme - With Love and Squalor", by Salinger. Would highly recommend.

Also, I wish there was a possibility of a veto, as I'd veto any Malcolm Gladwell selection.

Sirtoyou

pgodkin wrote: »

Do audio books count???? :P



**note** i cant read

You got a link for the software that transfers boards to audio please?:D

zuroph

I'd like to recommend this one

Wreck

How much do we get if we win? And who are we shipping the $$$ too?

LuckyLloyd

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Tight Ted

I dunno if anyone else has recommended it, but you just HAVE to read atomised by Michel Houellebecq. Best book I've ever read, it'll change your life.

Icarus152

Wreck wrote: »

How much do we get if we win? And who are we shipping the $$$ too?

If we win the competion we should give the money to a boards charitee.

Wreck

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

What?

ah it was just a (bad) joke.

BobSloane

Nice idea. Although I read only 1-2 books per year I look forward to giving this a go(and probably bumping the diceman thread around next January:rolleyes:)

Lol at reading two books per month. I mentioned it to the dog as a joke and he hasn't stopped barking since