Pleasure reading

Started by icecream-guy, March 25, 2016, 07:51:16 AM

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icecream-guy

March 25, 2016, 07:51:16 AM Last Edit: March 25, 2016, 11:09:43 AM by ristau5741
Anyone reading anything good for pleasure lately.  I've been taking a break from the TSHOOT.  I downloaded an audio book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse and have been listening to it during my commutes,  interesting book about a guy trying to achieve enlightenment. almost done so looking for ideas for another audio book. probably should get back to the TSHOOT.

:professorcat:

My Moral Fibers have been cut.

SimonV

#1
March 25, 2016, 08:02:38 AM
I'm reading the Game of Thrones books, currently at the second book of the third episode, and loving it! Much more detailed than the series. Also some audiobook by Philip K Dick...

routerdork

#2
March 25, 2016, 08:32:39 AM
I've been reading The Lone Survivor.
"The thing about quotes on the internet is that you cannot confirm their validity." -Abraham Lincoln

Reggle

#3
March 25, 2016, 08:49:31 AM
Tales of the Ketty Jay series, by Chris Wooding. First book in the series: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6285903-retribution-falls

It's steampunk, pirates, airships, zombies, alcoholism, gunfights, skirmishes, good one-liners, ... I absolutely love it, it 'reads' like an action movie.

deanwebb

#4
March 25, 2016, 11:42:01 AM
Siddhartha was a great book, I'm glad I read it. PK Dick is also one of my favorite authors, great suggestions here.

I recently finished Hugh Thompson's "The Plateau Effect." Really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. It's a business book I chose to read before it was thrust upon me.

For sci-fi, I strongly recommend John Haldeman's "The Forever War." Strongly strongly strongly recommend it. As in really really strongly recommend.

Kurt Vonnegut's "Player Piano", although written back in the 50s, is a dystopian fiction that seems like it predicted the best what we have going on today. I will also recommend PK Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (aka Blade Runner). Really good novel about what it means to be truly human - more than just a Turing test result.

"Command and Control: The Damascus Incident" is non-fiction, and it will scare the bejabers out of you as it discusses mishaps involving nuclear weapons.

I'm looking at getting some books about shipwrecks in the age of sail: "Island of the Lost" by Druett and "Batavia's Graveyard" by Dash. Dash is a good writer, and I made the choice after reading articles he wrote on Bouvet Island and Clipperton Island. The first was an interesting mystery about the most remote island in the world and the second about a lighthouse keeper that went batguano insane and took over a tiny island colony.

As for "Island of the Lost", it's about two different shipwrecks that happened at the same time on an island some distance from New Zealand. One group went all Lord of the Flies and the other kept its act together and managed to be a true team. I like non-fiction that's well-researched, so these are what's on my shopping list to get next.

And if you haven't read "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," you need to drop everything and do so NOW.
Take a baseball bat and trash all the routers, shout out "IT'S A NETWORK PROBLEM NOW, SUCKERS!" and then peel out of the parking lot in your Ferrari.
"The world could perish if people only worked on things that were easy to handle." -- Vladimir Savchenko
Вопросы есть? Вопросов нет! | BCEB: Belkin Certified Expert Baffler | "Plan B is Plan A with an element of panic." -- John Clarke
Accounting is architecture, remember that!
Air gaps are high-latency Internet connections.

dlots

#5
March 25, 2016, 01:14:34 PM
reading the mercy thompson series, along with it's sister series alpha and omega

Also starting the 1st grave on the right (1st in a set of books)

SimonV

#6
March 25, 2016, 02:10:32 PM
Quote from: deanwebb on March 25, 2016, 11:42:01 AM
PK Dick is also one of my favorite authors

Well, seems like we have the same taste in literature then :) Been reading most of the major PKD ones in the last year. If you haven't read them yet, I would also recommend Ubik and Second Variety, although the last one is more of a short story. The book I'm listening to is The Man in the High Castle, and I noticed they also turned it into a TV show now.

Will check the others you've mentioned and add to my reading list. But first I have to finish the Song of Fire and Ice series, before the new season starts  :mrgreen:

mmcgurty

#7
March 26, 2016, 04:16:17 PM
The last pleasure book I read was "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline.  I intend to read "The Martian" by Andy Weir one of these days after seeing the movie and my wife telling me the movie didn't cover 1/4 of the stuff he dealt with in the book.

deanwebb

#8
March 26, 2016, 04:19:56 PM
My friends have given high marks to "The Martian." I've started on "Island of the Lost." Cool stuff about the Age of Sail in there.
Take a baseball bat and trash all the routers, shout out "IT'S A NETWORK PROBLEM NOW, SUCKERS!" and then peel out of the parking lot in your Ferrari.
"The world could perish if people only worked on things that were easy to handle." -- Vladimir Savchenko
Вопросы есть? Вопросов нет! | BCEB: Belkin Certified Expert Baffler | "Plan B is Plan A with an element of panic." -- John Clarke
Accounting is architecture, remember that!
Air gaps are high-latency Internet connections.

LynK

#9
March 30, 2016, 07:58:22 AM
Here is the first book of a huge series of books (around ~190). It is like lord of the rings meets conan kinda sorta.


Very good series. This will keep anyone busy for years.

Dragonlance - Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Sys Admin: "You have a stuck route"
            Me: "You have an incorrect Default Gateway"

EOS

#10
March 30, 2016, 08:08:28 AM
Quote from: routerdork on March 25, 2016, 08:32:39 AM
I've been reading The Lone Survivor.

@routerdork

House to House by David Bellavia is a really good memoir, if you like those...

routerdork

#11
March 30, 2016, 08:24:23 AM
Quote from: EOS on March 30, 2016, 08:08:28 AM
Quote from: routerdork on March 25, 2016, 08:32:39 AM
I've been reading The Lone Survivor.

@routerdork

House to House by David Bellavia is a really good memoir, if you like those...
I added it to my Amazon list. I've got a couple more on the shelf up next that are about a friend of mine and the team he was with.

Also forgot about another one I picked up a few months ago. It's called Fatal System Error. It's supposedly to be about Barrett Lyon. Evidently he was one of the first cybersecurity guys and an early pioneer in tracking DoS. He started a few companies founded on DoS and the most recent one was acquired by F5, where I learned about the book.
"The thing about quotes on the internet is that you cannot confirm their validity." -Abraham Lincoln

EOS

#12
March 30, 2016, 10:04:34 AM
Pass along the titles and I'll add 'em to my list!

routerdork

#13
March 30, 2016, 11:38:30 AM
Quote from: EOS on March 30, 2016, 10:04:34 AM
Pass along the titles and I'll add 'em to my list!
Unfortunately they aren't first-hand accounts. My friend wasn't an a SEAL but he was a Comms guy for them.

Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six
Betrayed: The Shocking True Story of Extortion 17 as told by a Navy SEAL's Father
"The thing about quotes on the internet is that you cannot confirm their validity." -Abraham Lincoln

wintermute000

#14
March 31, 2016, 12:11:19 AM
I've had the entire Expanse (James A Corey) trilogy lined up for 2 years already, as well as Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, as well as around 4 Neal Stephenson novels, and Stephen King's Dark Tower.

Gotta read them all before TV spoils everything....

Unfortunately, stupid networking books / reddit / my spiderweb of RSS feeds keeps me more than busy 99% of the time :(
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