What are you filthy heathens reading atm?

Delirium

New book I picked up that might be of interest to some of you. The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science

Will Storr was in the tropical north of Australia, excavating fossils with a celebrity creationist, when he asked himself a simple question. Why don’t facts work? Why, that is, did the obviously intelligent man beside him sincerely believe in Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden and a six-thousand-year-old Earth, in spite of the evidence against them?

It was the start of a journey that would lead Storr all over the world – from Texas to Warsaw to the Outer Hebrides – meeting an extraordinary cast of modern heretics whom he tries his best to understand. He goes on a tour of Holocaust sites with David Irving and a band of neo-Nazis, experiences his own murder during ‘past life regression’ hypnosis, discusses the looming One World Government with iconic climate sceptic Lord Monckton and investigates the tragic life and death of a woman who believed her parents were high priests in a baby-eating cult.

Using a unique mix of highly personal memoir, investigative journalism and the latest research from neuroscience and experimental psychology, Storr reveals how the stories we tell ourselves about the world invisibly shape our beliefs, and how the neurological ‘hero maker’ inside us all can so easily lead to self-deception, toxic partisanship and science denial.

swampgas

koth wrote: »

New book I picked up that might be of interest to some of you. The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science

Sounds interesting, will check it out. Currently reading the Daemon books by Daniel Suarez.

Tim Robbins

This is such a good idea for a thread I suggest we split it into two for fact and fiction. I'd love to easily figure out what history, economic, political, technology books some brainey posters here are reading. This thread is already 27 pages long.

I am reading a book about scala at the moment. It is a software language. Pretty tough going.

The Mad Hatter

I left my copy of The Master and Margarita in a friend's house a couple of weeks ago, so I've more or less doubled down on the Song of Ice and Fire series - I'm currently about a third of the way through book three: A Storm of Swords.

Lingua Franca

Is this your first time reading them? Slow down to GRR Martin's pace!

The Mad Hatter

Lingua Franca wrote: »

Is this your first time reading them? Slow down to GRR Martin's pace!

Yup - I've heard they come out slowly alright, but if book 6 hadn't arrived when I finish book 5, I'll just switch to something else.

Lingua Franca

I might have another go at them myself, the last one will be a loooong time coming.

Gbear

Reading Salman Rushdie's biography "Joseph Anton".

Good so far.

94Conor

I'm re-reading "The Colour of Magic". I'll be finished it by tonight and then I plan to finish off "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson.

kylith

Lingua Franca wrote: »

Is this your first time reading them? Slow down to GRR Martin's pace!

I'd love to, but I just can't stretch one book to last me 3 years!

Tin Foil Hat

The Angel of the Streetlamps, by Sean Moncrieff.
A very atheistic view of modern Ireland, and a very, very good read.

MagicMarker

Shogun.

The first half of this book is incredible, it just sucks you right in. But there's been a serious drop in quality since then. I'm tempted to just pack it it, which would be a shame after 800 pages or so...

Turtwig

kylith wrote: »

I'd love to, but I just can't stretch one book to last me 3 years!

Not to be pedantic or anything but you'd actually need to stretch one book to last you six years.

keane2097

Anybody read Perdido Street Station by China Mieville?

Started it last night and a couple of chapters in am finding it very weird indeed, but strangely compelling!

robindch

MagicMarker wrote: »

Shogun.

Did you ever see the telly version from the early 80's? It was hot stuff back then and hadn't aged as badly as a lot of other things when I watched it again a few years back.

Turtwig

Arghh! My kindle is refusing to charge!

World might as well end now.

SebBerkovich

Charlie Brooker's
I Can Make You Hate!

works a treat

Dades

Just finished Greg Bear's "The Forge of God". Pretty good, if a bit lacking in character development.

Will read the next book alright, but in the interim I've started Ursula Le Guin's "Lathe of Heaven".

SF FTW

Jernal wrote: »

Arghh! My kindle is refusing to charge!

Call Amazon (like with a telephone device). My bet is they'll have a new one in the post to you ASAP.

kylith

Not what I'm reading at the moment, but a book I picked up at a market at the weekend. I was passing a stall when a beautiful leatherbound book caught my eye, there were even a few ribbon bookmarks. I picked it up, thinking 'please don't be a bible'. Well, it wasn't a bible; it was a priest's handbook with all the masses for the year there in English and Latin. In the end I couldn't resist buying it, how often do you come across a priest's missal? Plus it'll look great on my shelf. OH think's I've gone a bit potty to be buying religious paraphernalia.

Bannasidhe

Jernal wrote: »

Arghh! My kindle is refusing to charge!

World might as well end now.

Had the exact same problem. Amazon advised rebooting laptop with kindle still plugged into it. It Worked!

MagicMarker

Started American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

It's weird, but in an epically fascinating way.

Turtwig

Pheww! Crisis averted, rang Amazon, it turns out I just had to reboot the Kindle. But here's the strange bit, my Kindle is about two years old but unless I'm mistaken she was offering to send me out a replacement one for free?

A part of me, was thinking, "Well that right page turning button is rather loose. . . "
Anyways,

Happy Jernal is happy.:)

Bannasidhe

Jernal wrote: »

Pheww! Crisis averted, rang Amazon, it turns out I just had to reboot the Kindle. But here's the strange bit, my Kindle is about two years old but unless I'm mistaken she was offering to send me out a replacement one for free?

A part of me, was thinking, "Well that right page turning button is rather loose. . . "
Anyways,

Happy Jernal is happy.:)

Yeah - I was thinking the same when I rang them with same problem.

Dades

Amazon's policy is to ensure that people have fully functioning Kindles at all times. I've had two replaced, no questions asked.

They can't sell you books if your Kindle is broken!

I miss my page-turning-buttons since I went touchscreen.

ShooterSF

On book 3 of the Hitchhikers trilogy. Don't know why it took me this long to sit down with the whole set. Adams' manipulation of the English language is marvellous.

keane2097

ShooterSF wrote: »

On book 3 of the Hitchhikers trilogy. Don't know why it took me this long to sit down with the whole set. Adams' manipulation of the English language is marvellous.

Personally thought the original radio show was streets ahead of the books, although the books are still great of course.

swampgas

Finished Daemon and Freedom by Daniel Suarez - excellent - so moved onto Kill Decision. 80% into it (yes, another Kindle owner here), and I have to say it's a bit unnerving - it's a bit too believable for comfort!

Cabaal

Reading man made god, author seriously needs to read it herself.

Awful repetition of points she clearly has issues with, don't get me wrong it's interesting but the repetition of points gets tiring when she does it 5-6 times

Dades

keane2097 wrote: »

Personally thought the original radio show was streets ahead of the books, although the books are still great of course.

That to me is like saying, well, a good teleplay is better than a good book. They're different mediums!

(This isn't the first time I've had this discussion with 'purists' - in fact I think one of them is known here )

Hotblack Desiato

Meant to say I finally got round to reading His Grace Is Displeased the weekend before last. It's easy enough to polish off in a few hours.

The only thing that was a surprise to me was the furore about 'mixed athletics'. It helps a lot when reading to have some prior knowledge of stuff like the Mother and Child Scheme as there is zero historical context provided. The Constitution chapter is heavy going but interesting. The as-near-as-it-gets-to-juicy stuff (Censorship) is right at the end.

Came away from it with the sense that, even at what we regard as the height of RCC power in Ireland in the 50s and 60s, it was still deeply deeply paranoid - and it seems McQuaid was quite aware that his church's position could not long withstand the ravages of the modern world i.e. an educated populace able to communicate with each other with ever increasing ease

He was quite suspicious of Vatican II and it's no surprise really in hindsight that Paul VI did his best to kill it with benign neglect, JPII and Benedict were openly hostile to it.
I had to laugh when what started out as ecumenism ended up within a couple of years with McQuaid holding masses for 'Church Unity Week' i.e. Protestants, this is your chance to convert back to the one true church!!! but - how sad, and how pathetic.