Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I missed a day, and said fuck it.

[LMNO]

Heh.  I missed a few.  My daily required totals went from 1600 words a day to 2000.

But Mrs LMNO is actually encouraging me, so i persevere.

[BADGE OF HONOR]

Here are some interesting bits from Anathem.

Sline: (1) In Fluccish of the late Praxic Age and early Reconstitution, a slang word formed by the truncation of baseline, which is a Praxic commercial bullshytt term.  It appears to be a noun that turned into an adjective meaning "common" or "widely shared".  (2) A noun denoting an extramurous person with no special education, skills, aspirations, or hope of acquiring same.  (3) Derogatory term for stupid or uncouth person, esp. one who takes pride in those very qualities.  Note: this sense is deprecated because it implies that a sline is a sline because of inherent personal shortcomings or perverse choices; sense (2) is preferred because it does not convey any such implication.
-The Dictionary, 4th Edition, A.R. 3000.

Protas, the greatest fid of Thelenes, had climbed to the top of a mountain near Ethras and looked down upon the plain that nourished the city-state and observed the shadows of the clouds, and compared their shapes.  He had had his famous upsight that while the shapes of the shadows endeniably answered to those of the clouds, the latter were infinitely more complex and more perfectly realized than the former, which were distorted not only by the loss of spatial dimensions but also by being projected onto terrain that was of irregular shape.  Hiking back down, he had extended his upsight by noting that the mountain seemed to have a different shape every time he turned around to look back at it, even though he knew it had but one absolute form and that these seeming changes were mere figments of his shifting points of view.  From there he had moved on to his greatest upsight of all, which was that these two observations--the one concerning the clouds, the other concerning the mountain--were themselves both shadows cast into his mind by the same greater, unifying idea.  Returning to the Periklyne he had proclaimed his doctrine that all the things we thought we knew were shadows of more perfect things in a higher world.

[BADGE OF HONOR]

I think it's so slow to start because you have to learn about 20 new words before things start making sense.  Fortunately there is a glossary in the back.  Also a large chunk of mathy stuff that I'm not interested in.

[Iason Ouabache]

"Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution" by Karl W. Giberson.

[Manta Obscura]

"Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution" by Karl W. Giberson.

From the first and only page:

"Don't be a dumbass who believes that all of the land-bound animals in the world were within walking distance of a crazy desert-dwelling boat-builder. The End."

[Iason Ouabache]

"Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution" by Karl W. Giberson.

From the first and only page:

"Don't be a dumbass who believes that all of the land-bound animals in the world were within walking distance of a crazy desert-dwelling boat-builder. The End."

Yeah, that's the basic idea but he fleshes it out quite a bit.  The intro section where he talks about going from a hardcore Young Earth Creationists in high school to a Theistic Evolutionist after just 2 years of college was really interesting.  It's really strange having your entire worldview tossed on its head in such a short time.

[Sister_Gothique]

Just finished:
   Black Sun Rising-C.S. Friedman
   The Black Company-Glen Cook

Starting back up on Through The Looking Glass (forgot who does it...most likely Ringo). I'm trying to muscle through it for a friend who wants me to read it. ech

[Cain]

George RR Martin - A Storm of Swords (third Fire and Ice novel.  Requires more unexpected deaths).
The Routledge Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism

[Eve]

  Twilight. Because I can get it free from work, and because I apparently hate myself a lot. Looks as though I'll be done with it before dinner.

[Cainad (dec.)]

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.

What happens if all humans suddenly disappeared off the planet but left everything else intact? Read to find out!

[Iason Ouabache]

Twilight. Because I can get it free from work, and because I apparently hate myself a lot. Looks as though I'll be done with it before dinner.

The Wife went through the entire series in a little over a week. She loved it, but that wasn't too surprising.  Her reading habits are like that of a teenage girl.

[BADGE OF HONOR]

George RR Martin - A Storm of Swords (third Fire and Ice novel.  Requires more unexpected deaths).
The Routledge Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism

I started the first George RR Martin book and I tossed by page 100, there was already too much incest, pedophilia, and rape for me to handle.  No wonder nerds like it so much.

[Cainad (dec.)]

George RR Martin - A Storm of Swords (third Fire and Ice novel.  Requires more unexpected deaths).
The Routledge Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism

I started the first George RR Martin book and I tossed by page 100, there was already too much incest, pedophilia, and rape for me to handle.  No wonder nerds like it so much.

[shadowfurry23]

Myths to Live By - Joseph Campbell

I've had the damn thing laying around for years, finally getting around to reading it.  Neat stuff.