📚 The book lovers thread


  • FoxDev

    Continuing the discussion from YAIB (Yet Another Infiniscroll Bug):

    @HardwareGeek said:

    I really don't want to sound like Jeff, and I've certainly done my share to derail the topic, but this is a bug report, one of the few things on here that are meant to be taken somewhat seriously. Do you think we could switch (shunt) the literary discussion, spelling pedantry, etc. to another track? Just in case somebody actually wants to discuss the bug.

    well i guess we need a topic of our own....

    BIBLIOPHILES AND BIBLIOVORES! UNITE! (and conquer the world! mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha)


  • BINNED

    Status: Started reading the Hitchhiker's Guide again.



  • So, my recommendation is to pretend the sixth H2G2 book wasn't a thing and that Jasper Fforde - after the marvellous Thursday Next series - should have done it instead.

    I actually don't read nearly as much as I used to, though I do read and reread H2G2 regularly.

    Trying to decide if I should re-read Ender's Game or The Redemption of Althalus next before picking a random book from my list of things I haven't read yet.


  • BINNED

    Did anyone else read the entire Wheel of Time series?



  • @Arantor said:

    I actually don't read nearly as much as I used to

    This, sadly. About the only things I read these days are TDWTF and how-to books for a hobby that I have been thinking about turning into a business, maybe, someday.



  • We have a thread about technology books:
    http://what.thedailywtf.com/t/requesting-good-books-for-my-summer-vacation/1421
    Which also includes some nice sci-fi books.



  • @antiquarian said:

    Did anyone else read the entire Wheel of Time series?

    I keep hearing about it, never actually dared to try.



  • @HardwareGeek said:

    This, sadly. About the only things I read these days are TDWTF and how-to books for a hobby that I have been thinking about turning into a business, maybe, someday.

    Yup, though I'm actively making time for writing, which may end up yielding time for reading as well.


  • BINNED

    Let's just say that if you do, @royal_poet won't be seeing much of you for a few months.



  • Last book I read was ~150 pages, read it in one sitting, in under half an hour.



  • @antiquarian said:

    Let's just say that if you do, @royal_poet won't be seeing much of you for a few months.

    I don't think it will suck me in that badly, not that I'd be allowed to be sucked in that badly anyway.


  • BINNED

    In that case you can expect to finish the series in years instead of months.



  • @antiquarian said:

    In that case you can expect to finish the series in years instead of months.

    At my current pace, it would be years anyway. Getting my brain to book speed is hard.


  • FoxDev

    @Arantor said:

    Getting my brain to book speed is hard.

    -singing-

    🎵 Just put one foot in front of the other 🎶

    :-D



  • Yes. Although books around 10 or 11 were kinda dull... at least things picked up towards the end.

    I've never read the prequel novel, though. New Spring or whatever it was called.



  • @antiquarian said:

    Did anyone else read the entire Wheel of Time series?

    I failed to read the WoT series. I decided to stop when I started wanting evil to win because good was being spectacularly dumb.


  • BINNED

    @powerlord said:

    I've never read the prequel novel, though. New Spring or whatever it was called.

    I actually read that one first. I know, Doing It Wrong, yadda yadda yadda....


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Arantor said:

    The Redemption of Althalus

    You could read literally any of his books and it's the same one.

    I had to give up on the Elder Gods halfway through book 3 because I was tired of reading the same story again.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @antiquarian said:

    Did anyone else read the entire Wheel of Time series?

    Yup.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @powerlord said:

    at least things picked up towards the end.

    And then the last one got mired in molasses. The last half of the book could've been cut into fifths and four of those thrown away.



  • @FrostCat said:

    You could read literally any of his books and it's the same one.

    I had to give up on the Elder Gods halfway through book 3 because I was tired of reading the same story again.

    So the other books involve time travel do they? Or, more accurately, fake time travel?

    Also, Regina's Song totally pisses on your theory.



  • These days, I'm re-reading the Honor Harrington series.

    I've only read books 7-13 once and I just got book 14, so I figured I'd re-read the entire series before reading the new one.

    Then I got sidetracked and started reading the Discworld books about Moist von Lipwig.



  • @powerlord said:

    Then I got sidetracked and started reading the Discworld books about Moist von Lipwig.

    I read that as "Discoworld"

    That place sounds horrible.



  • @chubertdev said:

    I read that as "Discoworld"

    You aren't the only one.



  • @chubertdev said:

    I read that as "Discoworld"

    That place sounds horrible.

    I almost typoed it that way in the original post but I fixed it before posting.

    Anyway, the Discoworld (see, did it again, but this time I'm not fixing it) books are pretty funny.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Arantor said:

    So the other books involve time travel do they? Or, more accurately, fake time travel?

    That's one plot point in one part of the book. Beyond that, you know perfectly well it's all the same characters and essentially the same plot.

    @Arantor said:

    Also, Regina's Song totally pisses on your theory.

    Well. I guess I found some books you really like. :) Congrats on finding the one that maybe doesn't fit the mold--I never read that one.



  • No, time travel is a major plot point on multiple occasions.

    As for Regina's Song... you'd swear it wasn't an Eddings book. It's borderline horror, in fact.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Arantor said:

    time travel is a major plot point on multiple occasions.

    "Let's pretend something happened differently than it did, to stop someone else pretending it happened a third way and changing people's memories." Or maybe they pretended it happened the original way, whichever.

    The point is that the Sparhawk books kept giving me deja vu, and this one even more so but it was bearable, and by the time I got halfway through book 3 of the Elder Gods, I just couldn't bear to read any more.

    @Arantor said:

    As for Regina's Song

    I read the Wikipedia entry, yes.



  • I read Althalus first ;) Also I tried to read The Elenium but fuck was it dull. Althalus may be similar at times but it lacks the military precision and detail of something like The Diamond Throne.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    If you read the Belgariad/Mallorean and then the Elenium series, you'll see what I mean.

    Ditto Althalus--all the characters are basically the same from one book to the next.



  • I tried to read the Belgariad too. Guess what happened with that 😆

    I don't doubt what you're saying. I just never got far enough into them to find out - and Althalus being a one shot book made it doable to read without dying of boredom.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    If I had Althalus in front of me I could almost tell you for every character, who their equivalents in the other three series are. I mean, same physical description, same accents and catchphrases, same people bicker with each other.



  • This wouldn't surprise me, though you seem to think I actually care at this point 😛


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Arantor said:

    you seem to think I actually care at this point

    And yet you keep replying!



  • Kerouac's "The Subterraneans" and Mann's "The Magic Mountain" are still on the "will read when given enough time" list. Aside from that, I pirated a few excerpts of Windows Internals, let's see if it's worth it to buy the dead tree thing.



  • @FrostCat said:

    And yet you keep replying!

    Learned that one from the best.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place



  • I just finished World War Z it's very good. Really recommend it. Now I'm reading this book "The target" which seems to be about an old guy in death row.


  • Garbage Person

    I am a sci-fi slut. Specifically, I get off on space opera and military sf.

    I do most of my "reading" in recent years via Audible audiobooks. a 6-day-a-week 80-mile-each-way commute will do that.

    Prominent series I can think of off the top of my head:
    Honor Harrington (though I kinda stalled out around book 10 or 11 or 12 or something).
    Christopher Nuttall's Ark Royal (recent read. Conceptually, it's virtually identical to something I wanted to write one day)
    Iain M Banks's Culture novels
    Evan Currie's Odyssey One novels (Want more!)
    Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth universe (WANT MORE AND AM GETTING MORE!)
    Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet and spinoffs
    Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen (highly recomended, not my usual - basically "WW2 military assets get dumped into an alternate earth populated by furries, evil lizards, and catholic-aztecs and modernize warfare"
    Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns (and now Saga of Shadows)
    B.V. Larson's Undying Mercenaries - "Space marines shoot alien of the week" meets "critical thinking, morality and ethics"
    B.V. Larson's Star Force - "Space marines shoot robots" meets "drama and intrigue"
    David Brin's Uplift Saga
    David Weber's Safehold series (I just about burst my spleen every time a new one shows up)
    John Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata series - "Space marines!" meet "Prolific author!"
    John Ringo's Troy Rising series (DESPERATELY WANT MORE)

    Standout recommendation:
    Michael Flynn's Firestar trilogy - I cannot recommend this more. It's a near-future, semihard story of the world being dragged kicking and screeming by one wealthy businesswoman into being serious about space and all the societal ramifications of that. I am literally in love with the characters. It's set over an entire lifetime so you see the big picture of people's entire lives. There's a one-off forth book called The Wreck of the River of Stars set in the far future of the main series that's also a really awesome character piece.

    My audible queue:
    Alastair Reynolds - Blue Remembered Earth (starting off slow. Not sure if I'm going to make it)
    Peter F. Hamilton - The Abyss Beyond Dreams (Commonwealth spinoff!)



  • @Weng said:

    I am a sci-fi slut. Specifically, I get off on space opera and military sf.

    Same here. I practically grew up on the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels (F*** you, Disney). I also loved anything written by Timothy Zahn: the Conqueror Trilogy, his Star Wars stuff, short stories and one-off novels, etc. I read a bit of David Drake and David Weber and didn't care much for them at the time, probably need to try again though since it's been 10 - 15 years.

    I can't remember the author's or books' names, but there was one series I liked about a space ensign and his adventures, eventually leading up to becoming President of whatever government. The only really specific things I can remember are the phrase "Laser weapons are kind of like tits on a boar: standard issue, but useless", and how they started testing their FTL drives (called N-Wave I think) without moving, calling it "caterwauling", and that doing so attracted giant space amoebas that wanted to kill everything. I also remember someone calling the series "Horatio Hornblower In Space".

    Harry Turtledove had some interesting stuff too, not quite traditional sci-fi though. He liked alternate history. One series was about World War II being interrupted by an alien invasion, and another series where some men went back in time and gave the Confederate States AK-47's so they won the Civil War. The civil war line got really interesting, the Confederates eventually got over slavery and became the good guys. When WWI rolled around the USA joined the Central Powers and the CSA joined the Allies.

    Currently I'm reading through BattleTech, though at a severely slow pace due to life and other distractions. It's how Michael A. Stackpole got his start before doing Star Wars novels (F*** you, Disney). I took a break to read The Hobbit, which I'm nearly done with and then I think the next novel on my list is the one where Hans Davion nearly gets replaced with some kind of evil clone.


  • Garbage Person

    I won't do Expanded Universe. Like, literally "won't". It's a can of worms that I have no interest in opening.

    Have been meaning to do the Turtledove alternate histories. I'm running short on my usual material at Audible (I generally blow through ~5 credits per month plus one or two purchased titles), so I'll probably start soon.



  • @Weng said:

    It's a can of worms that I have no interest in opening.

    It really didn't become a can of worms until the prequel movies came out. Despite George Lucas having nominal control over the EU team and their storylines, he still managed to royally mess up consistency especially with the Clone Wars timeline. The team managed to retcon a bunch of stuff and kind of fixed the situation, but then the Disney thing happened. I can't imagine how the 20-year veterans of the EU feel about having all their work thrown away.

    I've had several other people (not Star Wars readers, mind you) try to point out all the inconsistencies and stuff. Yeah, there are several, including a few big ones, but somehow they always bring out things that involve stories I've literally never heard of despite owning like 90% of the EU in paperback (as of 2003-ish, or whenever the New Jedi Order wrapped up). I blame shoulder aliens.

    Oh yeah, I just remembered the canonization of certain video games created a mess too. Now there are like 25 different people who originally stole the first Death Star plans.



  • When I was a kid I read this book and I really really liked it:

    It's a bit like a fantasy version of the HHGTTG, for children.

    But I no longer read much, sadly.


  • Garbage Person

    You were a kid in 1999? Christ I feel old....

    I have a saying: 'No real people were born after 1989'. It primarily comes out when a friend is lamenting the fact that they are unable to fully understand and connect with their (younger - we're the 85-89 crop) romantic interest.



  • @Weng said:

    I have a saying: 'No real people were born after 1989'.

    Yay, I'm barely a real person! (1988)

    It scares me when I meet people who have already graduated college and then find out they were born in the 90's. Somehow that just feels totally unpossible to my inner psyche, like they couldn't possibly be older than 10 - 12. I don't think I'm fully equipped to deal with the passing of time.



  • @mott555 said:

    Same here. I practically grew up on the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels (F*** you, Disney). I also loved anything written by Timothy Zahn: the Conqueror Trilogy, his Star Wars stuff, short stories and one-off novels, etc. I read a bit of David Drake and David Weber and didn't care much for them at the time, probably need to try again though since it's been 10 - 15 years.

    I've only read one of the Thrawn books, I wasn't impressed. I liked the Wraith Squadron books better.



  • @mott555 said:

    Yay, I'm barely a real person! (1988)

    It scares me when I meet people who have already graduated college and then find out they were born in the 90's. Somehow that just feels totally unpossible to my inner psyche, like they couldn't possibly be older than 10 - 12. I don't think I'm fully equipped to deal with the passing of time.

    My friend was going to his political science class (he went back to college), and he overheard a young'n in his class ask, "What was Clinton impeached for?"


  • Garbage Person

    So us late-80's folk are technically in what the media and sociologists like to call the Millennial generational cohort. They're fucking wrong. There are really two cohorts involved here: Those of us who were growing up at the dawn of the information age, and those who were born with all the groundwork laid. That cutoff is RIGHT at 1990. Think about it. Born in 1990? Windows 9x was already out when they were starting school. They were 11 when Windows XP came out. 11 year olds are basically crystallizing their reality and forming the basis of their permanent personality. Broadband and cellular phones were pervasive by the time they hit their teens. Smart phones hit big when they turned 18. Tablets when they could drink.

    Those of us born in the 80's? We have practical experience and memories of the bad old times. Our formative experiences all happened JUST BEFORE major revolutions. So we're more grounded and cynical. Those of us who were INTO tech at the time? Even moreso.



  • Yeah, as an 84er, I get lumped in with the millenials. It should be determined by whether or not Win95 was out the first time that you used a computer.

    My first computer was a 386 with Win 3.11, no mouse, and a Turbo button, and I liked it.



  • @chubertdev said:

    It should be determined by whether or not Win95 was out the first time that you used a computer.

    Even Win98 was out when I did, but I still spent good three years fiddling with DOS and Turbo buttons. And I still have mad QBasic skills.


Log in to reply