Figure we might as well have a book club since we seem to have every other kind of review thread, might as well have a constructive one.

The Singularity is Near by Raymond Kurzweil

10 Years ago, Raymond Kurzweil published the book The Age of Spiritual Machines which basically predicted the future of artificial intelligence and hypothesized that eventually AI would become capable if not more capable than human cognition.

The Singularity is Near is basically a revision of those predictions or rather the next issue of his predictions, the jist of which states that eventually humans will be able to transcend biological boundaries via technology/machines. Very interesting read, especially if you're a fan of ghost in the shell.

here are some of the books i've read recently ( I go to the local friends alcove)

Icon by Fredric Forsyth comes highly recommended

as does Pillars Of the Earth by Ken Follett

one of my favorite books of all time is the rogue warriors secrets for success applying a commandos principals to the business world by Richard Marcinko
Snow Crash by Neal Stevenson also owns you

it was a short read but Pigments of the Imagination by Reese Simmons is wonderful, I for one would love to snail mail someone my copy just so they could read it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdTXvY6sk5Y <-- watch me for the promo, be sure to post thoughts!



other books that I've read recently that are in my general vicinity as I posted are

Patriot Games Tom Clancy
the Cassandra compact Philip Shelby riding Robert Ludlums coattails
the lions of lucerne by brad thor
Dreamland: retribution Jim Deflice riding Dale Browns coattails
Dreamland: Satans same as above
Shadows of steel: by Dale Brown
Stone Cold by David Daldacci
The Master Sniper by Stephen Hunter
Star Trek TNG: (i'm a voyager fan kthnkx) Dyson Sphere by Charles Pellegrino (any relation to the water?) and George Zebrowski
Star Trek: Spocks World Diane Duane

I also read the tales of beetle bard which is the next "installment" in harry potter, it fell apart after the 2nd short story.

the book I'm reading next is Mario Puzo's The Sicilian

These books with the exception of pillars are around 400 pages, so they take me just shy of 4 hours to read cover to cover

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Recent reads:
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Schrödinger's Cat trilogy

Read one of these two, they are nearly the same book in style (though the former is better) and will fuck your mind sideways.
I think I read some other stuff through my text books but in comparison they were shit :p

Oh yeah, I occasionally read this book that digidesign put out that teaches use of the 003 pro tools hardware

when my buddy lets me =/ (he reads it as well)

and

Not had much time for reading lately, although Lady X and I will sometimes take long walks with an audio book, iPod knock-off, and two pairs of blue-tooth headphones - cuz we like to look like the freaks we are.

Lately we've just been catching up on Anne Rice we missed out on - being the poor excuse for old school goffs that we are. "Pandora" and "Blood and Gold" amongst the most recent, and "Blackwood Farm". I highly recommend "Blood and Gold" - I've actually never been a huge fan of the Vampire Chronicles, but that one was just choice, made more so by recent political events, and Marius was really the only one of those damned vampires I could ever relate to. "Blackwood Farm", also good - although a bit more of a porno.

When she's not around, I've been listening to various TC audio courses on my nightly constitutions, but also to some sci-fi stuff that she wouldn't really appreciate. I've also started a bit on Anne Rice's more recent work: "Christ out of Egypt" - but not gotten far enough into to judge if she's finally lost what was left of her mind or not. It'll be interesting to see how her view on Christ has evolved since "Memnoch the Devil" - in which her approach was really rather novel.


Brings to mind two books I've read/listened to recently. I'm not a huge Star Trek fan - although like most of us here, I'm sure, I've seen enough TNG and the rest to the degree where I can actually detect the consistency in Jordie's techno babble (much to my chagrin).

I nonetheless picked up an audio book by William Shatner, "Preserver" - which I must say is f*cking HILARIOUS! The story is kinda dull, typical "Gene Roddenberry's wastebasket" stuff - but it's one of those cross-plots that places Ye Old Star Trek, Voyager, TNG, DS9 (etc. etc.) all in the same setting - and with Shatner doing all of the voices, you get a real feel for just how much he hates who! Sulu is done with such a lovely dripping sarcasm, as is Picard - and the whole book is just like one long standup routine. "Dark Victory" promises to be more of the same, although I've not cracked it open yet.

Before Junni Kokki arrived, Diane Duane's "So You Want to be a Wizard" was our "bathroom book". It's more or less a children's book, but it's still somewhat engaging with an array of cute and original ideas. Not so much so that I'd pick up the second book - especially given the description of being essentially the same epic, except underwater. Still, Duane's childlike imagination might add an interesting enough spin on Star Trek, that'd I'd be willing to pickup "Spock's World".

Once in awhile I'll pick up a book and just devour it in a single evening… Oddly enough, usually the book isn't that good - it's just one that reads so smoothly that I forget to stop. I did this with Loren Estleman's "Whiskey River" fairly recently - which wasn't so bad. I've also done it with Michael Crichton's "Andromeda Strain" (which sux, however classic), and Dean Koontz's "Sole Survivor", which was fairly good, and thus far the only crap I can stand from that bloody Elvis freak… Save maybe "Dragon Tears" which took longer to finish, and wasn't nearly as good - but the entire chapter written from the dog's perspective, in which everything was described by sent, made it worth it, for the lolz, if nothing else.

Junni Kokki's going slow… I guess I need more fiber in my diet. Lady X is ahead of me, judging by her bookmark - although we've both seen the series, so there's no real opportunity for spoiling it until we get to the second book and find out what happened to unicorn boy.
_________________
"Life is wasted on the living." - Lestat
Thothie

I've read andromeda strain, sole survivor and dragon tears

passable fair

another winner is the fist of god by Fredric Forsyth

/win


ROFL

more books I've recently read (after searching my room)

The Marching Season, Daniel Silva
The Tin Collectors, Stepheen J. Cannel
The nemesis mission, Dean Ing
The Prometheus, Deception, Robert Ludlum
The Body Farm, Patrica Cornwell
Star Wars The Paradise Snare <--
Star Wars The Hut gambit <--- (han solo trilogy that gives his backstory)
Star Wars Rebel Dawn <---
Executive Power, Vince Flynn (it was good)
Inside Delta Force, Eric L. Haney (great)
(everything below was read since last post
The Sicilian, Mario Puzo (godfather prequel, good but anticlimactic)
Perfect Dark Second Point, Greg Rucka
The Fools Run, John Sanford
A call to Arms mechwarrior dark ages battletech, Loren L. Coleman

and I have 3 more books on deck

I have a copy of the PHP bible by Converse, etc. on my desk. Boring shit, also needed for werkz... May I call this shit a book? Seems like a McGeekforum compendium.... Indeed, not much time or energy for read anything I like. Lately I read the people's eyes and in the pages of the life. Nevertheless I have read only a few books over and over again, and every time they are better/different if you know what I mean.

"The World as Will and Representation"
"On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason"
"On Vision and Colors"
...
...
by Arthur Schopenhauer. <-- My sensei

And several about respectful parenting e.g: "Cómo hablar para que sus hijos le escuchen y cómo escuchar para que sus hijos le hablen" by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish or "Bésame Mucho" by Carlos González <-- awesome book, awesome people, children happy, a lot of work... So many books, so little time...

"Twelve Proofs of God's Inexistence" by Sébastien Faure; "La conquista del pan" by Piotr Kropotkin and I also enjoy the writtings of Bakunin <-- All these are basics for taktical anarko sektz

Now in a more chilling mood (rofl), and for read it once:

"Neuromante", "Virtual Light", etc. by William Gibson <--Dark cyberpunk novels, still very good and entertained.

The ones by Ursula K. Leguin, are also good if you like the Tolkien-kinda style, my favorite "sixlogy" is thefirst one, and specially the fisrt book "A Wizard of Earthsea", the dragon in that story is awesome.

Now if you are as jew as me, check this site: http://gigapedia.com/ <-- TONS of free books, a paradise like, lets say, farenheit 451?

I personally enjoy the fantasy/sci-fi genre, so most of my readings come from that area. Haven't had much time to read lately, but these are what I have been reading/enjoying.

Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan- Long ass books, about 11 out now and about 1k pages each. 12th is coming out soonish when the new author finishes. Great series of fantasy. A bit slow, but it is full of politics and all the usual fantasy flavor to make it a good read.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin- Only 4 books out at the moment, but still some of the best fantasy I have read yet. It has a more mature theme to it, which I quite enjoyed. Doesn't follow the usual Tolkien races, but focuses mainly on the human element. There are of course some mythical creatures, which are all badass in their own. Highly recommend.

Dune- Butlerian Jihad Trilogy by Brian Herbert- The only books I have read by Frank Herbert's son, and I enjoyed them almost as much as the originals. Gets pretty far-fetched at times, but still an entertaining read.

Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien- Absolutely great. Taken from one of the stories from the Similiarion(Reccomend to any Lord of the Rings fans), it is Tolkien at his finest. Similiarion is all the mythology and back stories to the LOTR universe, really helps you appreciate the visionary Tolkien was to create such a mythology by himself.

I'm pretty sure there are others, I just need to look through my collection. I might start some of the books Thoth reccommended, we usually shared similar tastes in our entertainment. And TAK, although I enjoyed Voyager, I am still a TNG guy.

i really really really want hardcopies of these books, i can't fucking read .txt files of RAW forever, i just want to cozy up on a chair/couch and get mindfucked by it. So i still haven't read past the first 10 pages worth :/

recently? i loved them all
rational mysticism - john horgan
neuromancer - william gibson
mind wide open: your brain and the neuroscience of everyday life - stephen johnson
little brother - cory doctorov

currently reading
power vs. force: the hidden determinants of human behavior - david hawkins
train your mind, change your brain: how a new science reveals our extraordinary potential to transform ourselves - sharon begley
the celestine prophecy - james redfield (pdf ewww)
you are being lied to: the disinformation guide to media distortion, historical whitewashes and cultural myths (pdf ewww)
quantum psychology - robert anton wilson (pdf ewww)

Dune- Butlerian Jihad Trilogy by Brian Herbert- The only books I have read by Frank Herbert's son, and I enjoyed them almost as much as the originals. Gets pretty far-fetched at times, but still an entertaining read.


^^ dune is a winner

my buddy is a fan of LOTR universe and he say that really enjoys "the fall of numenor"

just got the illuminatus trilogy, schrodinger's cat trilogy, and prometheus rising with a $25 amazon gift card, fuck yeah!

Oh god... I just googled prometheus rising. MUST BUY, brb.