What are you reading now?

[postjack]

yeah altered carbon rocks!

in other news school be fuckin up my readin

[en480c4]

Just read Apathy and Other Small Victories and thought it was fantastic. I LOL'd.

[Hopstretch]

J.M. Coetzee -- Slow Man

The local printing actually has the following blurb on the cover: "Another exemplary tale of suffering."

[Dusty Chalk]

Just read Apathy and Other Small Victories and thought it was fantastic. I LOL'd.

That looks awesome, going to read it.

[en480c4]

That looks awesome, going to read it.

It really was a hell of an entertaining read. There were just some classic moments.

[blessingx]

Dawkins has come up in conversation a few times lately, so...

[Dusty Chalk]

The Nymphos of Rocky Flats by Mario Acevedo & Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan

[diebenkorn]

It really was a hell of an entertaining read. There were just some classic moments.

I gave that to one of my friends after I read it and he said he could relate to their relationship and then preceded to tell me he has been through worse with women and no more questions were asked.

It is great read.

[blessingx]

is that your first Dawkins?

Have seen him speak, read much online and buzzed around his forums, but yeah this is the first book. Have Greatest Show on Earth also but haven't gotten to it yet. Have any recommendations? Have to get to Harris' and Hitchens' latest too. Kinda back to a New Atheists mood lately.

[Voltron]

is that your first Dawkins?

Does this count?

[boomana]

Upon the recommendation of a friend:

So far, it's not interesting me much, but I'm only four chapters in, so I'll give it a bit longer.

[jvlgato]

is that your first Dawkins?

I've also read The Selfish Gene, which was his classic and a very interesting read.

But he couldn't take down a rim like Chocolate Thunder could!!!!!!!!

[postjack]

hah

i didn't care for Perdido Street Station. i might give Mieville another shot, down the road.

i've finally been reading Quicksilver and, a couple hundred pages equivalent in (on my Kindle), i love it. no big surprise, that.

I loved "The City and the City". real different then his usual stuff, more noir. not everyone was a fan.

in terms of his New Crobozun stuff, The Scar is the best. more adventure then PSS and IC. I consider a lot of his stuff to be very beautiful and highly creative, but not much in the plot department. maybe that's not totally fair. I guess I mean it's not very engaging reading. maybe because I like characters and his stuff isn't very character driven.

[MoonShine]

In a similar mode as well...

Most of my in-laws are into some sort of shenanigans or another. I have a sister in-law who actually believes she is being abducted by aliens while she sleeps. One of her spirit guides (the dolphin perhaps?) told her so.

[Dusty Chalk]

You know, some time in the future, when we actually have flying cars, and easily live past a hundred, and have abolished poverty, illness, and depression, we're going to look back on this era as the dark ages.

[MoonShine]

If.

[Dusty Chalk]

I'm optimistic like that. I mean, what's the alternative?

[The Monkey]

Just finished The Big Short. Liked it. Wish I had gone to business school.

[jpelg]

Lawyers always want to go to business school, and MBA's want to be lawyers. Whassup wit dat?

Lately, I wish I had become a plumber.

[MoonShine]

I'm optimistic like that. I mean, what's the alternative?

True. I am probably the most optimistic person I know but on this issue I think the fatal combination of ignorance and greed will doom the human experiment to failure I fear.

Our ability to kill/destroy/despoil on massive scales is far outpacing any type of humanitarian evolution that may or may not be happening.

Something needs to happen. Something big. Something to change the mindset and bring us together as Earthlings.

At the risk of sounding like one of my kooky in-laws.... the one thing I hope for, the one thing I really hope occurs in my lifetime that has the potential to save us is CONTACT.

Assuming, of course, that they don't just show up and harvest all of our water or iron or something.

Hyperspace bypass anyone?

[Dusty Chalk]

I have a feeling it won't happen -- lack of faster-than-light travel, and all. (Not even going to address the question of whether or not there is life on other planets, I just think it's moot for them, just like it is for us.)

I think we're just procrastinators. I mean, at a racial level. When we realize we're going to run out of oil, or accidentally killed one too many key species in the food chain, or accidentally opened the hole in the ozone layer too wide, it is my belief that then we'll finally do something about it. It'll be almost too little too late, but there will be enough survivors to continue.

[MoonShine]

Yes an actual visit is unlikely. I would settle for detecting signals of an alien intelligence.

I think it would do 2 critical things: flick a psychological switch that would reduce many of the divisions that are now important to many people and erode the human centric arrogance that is still at the core of many religions.

[Dusty Chalk]

You'd be surprised -- I've long since come to the conclusion that I don't understand what goes into the minds of many people (religion, hate, etc.). I would have thought that a lot of that would have gotten burned off long ago, but it seems to just keep the momentum without any sign of neither damping/friction/slowing down, nor of what force is keeping it in motion.

[Dusty Chalk]

Oh, and PS (on topic) I'm reading Broken Angels right now, and one of the characters (Hand) just did a facepalm. Win!

[Dusty Chalk]

Finished Nymphos...; started Tales of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong. Already several stories in. Dig!