What are you reading now?

Black Hills by Dan Simmons. Same guy that wrote that The Terror. This one is about the life of a Lakota man who has the ghost of General Custer rattling around in his head, as well as the ability to take in people's past and future by touching them. It's very weird, very sad, but interesting nonetheless.

Duke said:

tuna55 said:

Audio books for this time-strapped dude.

 

Micro - Michael Crichton - Intruiging and surprising story, but you have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit. 

The lost world - Michael Crichton - eh, it was decent. He really skips important scientific items.

Micro was actually written by someone else after Crichton's death, from prep work and a draft left behind.  I don't think I read that one.  I used to be an avid Crichton fan in the '90s but I kind of gave up after a while.  I think the last one I read was about the nanobots that got out of control. Prey?  I forget.  He's at his best when he stays away from the excessively technological masturbation.

I once heard someone describe his work as "hardcover screenplays", and that's pretty accurate.  It is clear that a lot of his stuff was written just to be something he could sell the movie rights to.

Moby Dick - Wow there are a lot of words to say not a lot of things. I'm not done with this one yet.

I tried to read Moby-Dick and just couldn't get through it.  It is rare that I abandon a book without finishing.  So. Many. WORDS.  All the words.  I'm amazed there were any left to write anything else with after Melville was done.  Watch the 1956 Gregory Peck movie instead.  John Huston and Ray Bradbury wrote the adaptation and managed to get all the essential stuff in without saying it 8 times in 6 slightly different ways.

 

I think you are describing Micro actually. It's a bit more confusing than that. Sort of a thriller, but the attempts to appeal to science had me balking. I didn't know he didn't write it. That actually makes me feel a bit better, because I decided that I couldn't handle any more of his stuff if he was going to play that fast and that loose with engineering.

And yes, Moby Dick. I could write 1000 pages about it. No I couldn't. I am an engineer, and was trained to be concise. I could write, probably, 100 words about it and say everything needed.

In reply to tuna55 :

No, actually, it is Prey.  In Prey they don't actually miniaturize anything big, they just unleash a self-replicating nanobot that swarms and takes over the facility.  It was pretty mediocre.

I also got pretty tired of Crichton's casual sexism.

Duke said:

In reply to tuna55 :

No, actually, it is Prey.  In Prey they don't actually miniaturize anything big, they just unleash a self-replicating nanobot that swarms and takes over the facility.  It was pretty mediocre.

 

Really? Dang it's like nearly the same book then but a slightly different antagonist.

So I have to thank Jay Leno for this. I read his column in a recent Hagerty magazine issue and it sounded interesting. I spent my entire career in manufacturing. First as a machinist/fabricator. Then as a Manufacturing Engineer in the machine tool business, then in industrial sales and marketing in the machine tool and dimensional metrology business. Accuracy, precision, and tolerances ... that was my life. So this book is right up my alley. I'm on page 50 and I'm loving it.

(And the company I spent most of my career with was one of the pioneers of industrial metrology and machine tools in the Industrial Revolution and beyond in the USA, so I consider myself very fortunate).

Dozens of research papers on resin/epoxy longevity and durability.  Kill me now, please.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

That sounds exciting! 

It's certainly something.

I gave up trying to decipher the various statements by the "experts" on boating forums and wanted to look into which coating will last longest, why, and all that for myself.   Shoulda just bought the wife leather thigh-high boots and a crop.

tuna55 said:

Audio books for this time-strapped dude.

 

Micro - Michael Crichton - Intruiging and surprising story, but you have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit. 

The lost world - Michael Crichton - eh, it was decent. He really skips important scientific items.

The lost world - Authur Conan Doyle - better. Not wonderful. He plays fast and loose with logic. Good ending.

Moby Dick - Wow there are a lot of words to say not a lot of things. I'm not done with this one yet.

I'm willing to cut Michael Chrichton (or any author really) some slack when their novel is published posthumously.

Do you have Audible?  Some good free books on there right now.

Recent stuff I read:

Andromeda Strain by Michael Chrichton - Good.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke - Excellent.

Death By Blackhole - Neil deGrasse Tyson - Good.

In progress:

Great Classic Science Fiction-Eight Unabridged Stories

Upcoming Shortlist (please stop me if any of these are terrible):

1984 by George Orwell

Titan by Ron Chernow

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Body by Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

For online listening I've been using Libby, it ties to your library card so no cost but a 21 day loan time.

Just finished Altered Carbon series again.

As far as audio, I can recommend the audio production of Neil Gaiman's Sandman that's available on Audible. 

I use Hoopla, same deal with the library.

The Body, huh?  I'm a Bryson fan, but I don't think I've read that one.  I'll have to look it up.  A Short History Of Nearly Everything is very good, but a little flatter than typical Bryson work.

Reading the latest Dresden Files book.  About halfway through it.

Damn you, Jim Butcher.

I finished the book.  I would like to reiterate my statement, but for completely different reasons.

Just picked up the new Cormoran Strike novel by J.K. Rowling (aka "Kenneth Galbraith") from the library.  It's LONG.  I'll keep youse all posted. 

stroker said:

Just picked up the new Cormoran Strike novel by J.K. Rowling (aka "Kenneth Galbraith") from the library.  It's LONG.  I'll keep youse all posted. 

I've liked them so far. Have it on hold on Libby

Just finished Forging A President: How The Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt by William Hazelgrove. Pretty good. Its funny how looking back on Teddy Roosevelt he seems like an absolute madman, but even during the era, all the accounts of people he met all say that nobody knew what to make of him and thought he was nuts back then too.

Based on Gary's advice above I just finished "The Perfectionists" by Simon Winchester.

A very interesting read. The march of machinists from accuracy of 1/10" to 10 to the 36th power.  I enjoyed it a lot.

Now, currently digging into "The Scientists" by John Gribbin.   So much I didn't know about the march of science since the Dark Ages to present day.  Enjoying it today.  It's interesting to learn all the background of so many stories that are usually glossed over in one sentence.

Just finished the new Mitch Rapp novel "Total Power" by "Vince Flynn".  

Meh.

Mr_Asa said:

I finished the book.  I would like to reiterate my statement, but for completely different reasons.

I finished Peace Talks and really haven't been in a hurry to get the latest ones.

Im when the characters were.....likable

Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:

Mr_Asa said:

I finished the book.  I would like to reiterate my statement, but for completely different reasons.

I finished Peace Talks and really haven't been in a hurry to get the latest ones.

 

Im when the characters were.....likable

You will probably both love and hate Battle Ground which came out a couple weeks ago. It wraps up the Peace Talks conflict (at least for now) and leaves a lot open for follow up stories. There are some great and some gut wrenching moments. I'm *so* glad it came out so close to Peace Talks. Not sure when the next one is due though. My understanding is that JB has plans for the story arc to go through ~23 books. But Peace Talks / Battle Ground feels like it was one story that was just too big to fit into a single book. 

I agree about the likability; there are some epically cool scenes with the Little Folk, the Svartelves, and others. But Harry is in a bigger & more dangerous world and will have to step up to be a player in this larger stage. 

In reply to Greg Smith (Forum Supporter) :

Apparently autocorrect took out the "miss" part for  whatever reason.

But....Michael isn't a great character anymore, Murphy isn't great, Butters isn't great......I can go on.

I get that Butcher wants to make it gritty but I also don't want to read books that I have to grimace thru several times. Why would I read a book with characters I hate? I love the series, even watched the awful TV show, but man.......he's losing me

Butters is cool and getting better. 

Michael, would be good to see more of, but I think that may be coming. 

Murphy... you'll have to make your own decision. 

And some of the others take unexpected turns.  I wouldn't judge Pace Talks as a standalone; you really need to read both books as a set.

I get the feeling this is a gritty season, but the overall arc will end well

In reply to Greg Smith (Forum Supporter) :

I don't know, there's character growth and then theres shoehorning -a-character-into-a-role. I think butters is the last one.

Keeping it vague so I don't have any spoilers