Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Darth Cupcake]

I really wanna pick up Colbert's book. It looks snazzy.

Currently, though, I am reading Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. Loaned to me by my sister, who wanted me to read Cryptonomicon but could not find her copy, so I'm getting started on this first.

[LMNO]

Snow Crash is an easier read, TBH.


Zodiac is pretty good, too.

And The Diamond Age is very cool.

[Cain]

Also Quicksilver, even if it does take forever to read.

I'm a seriously fast reader and pretty much know about many of the topics he touched on, at least in the first third of the book, and even then it took a good couple of months to do.

[That One Guy]

Cain is right about the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, System of the World) - it's excellent and incredibly well written, but so dense that it just takes a long time to get through it all. Admittedly, it's a great journey of a series, but it just has so much going on that it takes time to get through it all. I still think it's his best writing to date, well worth the time if you have any interest at all in the Enlightenment phase of western europe.

Zodiac has a TON of local Boston flavor too now that you're living in the land of the bean. It's a pretty quick read and a lot of fun in addition to addressing practical environmental activism (and, yes, some eco-terrorism).

[LMNO]

The baroque cycle bored the piss out of me.

Just one opinion.

[Cain]

Depends where it was in the story.  The stuff on the ship was dull, I agree.

Also, I have both the Diamond Age and Snow Crash in e-book formats.

[That One Guy]

Meh - I happen to really enjoy long, meandering historical fiction. The Baroque Cycle certainly wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I sure enjoy it. As always, YMMV 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I just started reading Godel, Escher, Bach. It seems pretty interesting so far.

[Cain]

Also, I'm on the sixth Wheel of Time book and Just and Unjust Wars (4th ed) by Michael Walzer.

The second is a very good read.  Some of the old timers around here might know of Walzer from his anti-Vietnam days...but this book is pretty much the modern, moral arguement for and against war.  Its an easy read, but philosophically and historically complex in its subject matter, a mix I really like.

[LMNO]

I'm finally reading the Black Swan.


Everyone I know will be getting it for the holidays.

[rygD]

D-Cup,
I really like everything I have read by Stephenson so far.  I have yet to read some of his older stuff and nonfiction.  You may want to check out In the Beginning...was the Command Line.  It is a bit dated, but still interesting.  Also there is to be a miniseries made of Diamond Age.  I am hoping for the best with that (it seems it will have George Clooney involved as a producer).


el minnow,
It sounds like a decent read.  I will make sure to at least flip through it should I come across it anytime soon.  How does Taleb write?  There are many books I have never finished due to getting bored with the writing style of the author.

[Cain]

I've read extracts from In The Beginning.... and intend to buy it sometime in the new year.  Looks very promising.

Also, reading Networks, Terrorism and Global Insurgency, edited by Robert J Bunker.  ECH, you should probably pick this up.  Its kind of a cross between the Global Guerrillas stuff and Robert Greene.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm about halfway through The Golden Compass, and it really is good.

[Epistemologicus Boobicon]

I'm reading How To Fart On Your Nuts (And Other Practical Time-Savers) by Lars Jugnuts. I highly recommend it.

[Mother John Frumm]

I just ordered "Black Swan", I'm looking forward to reading it.