What are you reading now?

[MoonShine]

So ... What is dark matter/energy? In a few sentences. Thanks!

Dark matter is a hypothesized form of matter particle that does not reflect or emit electromagnetic radiation. The existence of dark matter is inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter, such as stars and galaxies.

A small percentage of the gravitational effects observed are from visible matter (some estimates are as low as 4% of total gravitational effects). The remaining 96% is presumed to result from dark matter or dark energy or Reks' bong.

[jvlgato]

So when Reks' bong makes people see wild things and lose track of time, they're not actually hallucinating? They literally ARE tunneling through a wormhole, into a different dimension of space/time, and are really seeing those things?

That's like, so cool, man!

[MoonShine]

After developing a backlog of audiobooks I decided to put my Audible account on hold for 3 months so the credits will stop racking up.

I had to use the 4 credits I already had though:

Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum follows New York City's first forensic scientists to discover a fascinating Jazz Age story of chemistry and detection, poison and murder.

[Voltron]

Just started Clash of Kings, the second book of the Game of Thrones series. Happy to be reading something I haven't already seen on TV. A little suspense doesn't hurt.

[catscratch]

Finished A Dance with Dragons. It's pretty much book 4, part 2. Compared to the first 3 GRRM got a bit better at describing internal monologue and his prose remains accomplished as ever, but in terms of plotting aDwD is pretty fail. It does pick up towards the end, but only just, and ends, unsurprisingly, on a cliffhanger. The series is badly in need of a good editor, and although there still are occasional flashes of brilliance the inspiration has definitely gone out of the books, and it feels like GRRM really has no idea where he's going with the story nor how to resolve the myriad subplots that he's dragged his characters into.

Atmospherically successful; story-wise, a mess.

A lot have complained about the whole Mereen subplot; I thought it illustrated well the idea that when conquerors settle down over time they become the conquered. It's an interesting historical concept but the chapters are dragged out far too much and padded with too much filler.

The same applies to Jon's chapters, an interesting point of view character with a pretty good story happening around him but padded with too much useless filler. We really don't need to know the exact names and composition of every single wildling company to go through the Wall. The end of Jon's storyline is... frustrating more than surprising.

Tyrion's chapters were wasted, which is a shame since it's goddamn Tyrion. The whole romance fiction parody (with Penny) was creepy and unnecessary.

Asha's POV felt out of character and quickly bogged down - literally. Theon's POV was really well written I thought, though it did get repetitive towards the end. Still, a good character study. Quentyn's POV was totally irrelevant and could have easily been ommitted, but Barristan's POV was pretty well done though we've already seen that character archetype done over and over again. Ditto for Davos, the character is boring but the peripheral characters and story remains interesting as always. Arya's story shouldn't have even been there, it's a small part of what promises to be a long training sequence and it's not something that should be doled out piecemeal otherwise it just feels like a waste of time, because nothing major ever gets accomplished or resolved.

The action finally picks up towards then end, but before anything gets a chance to be resolved the book just sort of ends. Totally fail when it comes to building or resolving tension.

Edited July 20, 2011 by catscratch

[guzziguy]

With the Old Breed by E. B. Sledge. A grunt's view of combat on Peliliu and Okinawa in WWII.

Edited July 20, 2011 by guzziguy

[GPH]

On Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals

[Dusty Chalk]

Finished Cheat the Grave -- outstanding. She's surprised me twice, hard, in the last two books, doing things that I've never witnessed in other authors. Not quite Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire good, but still very good. But if you're bothered by nitpicks, stay away -- there are some huge ones. To me, it's worth the ride.

About to start The Neon Graveyard: The Final Sign of the Zodiac.

Finished this. Yeah, that was definitely worth the ride. Also started and finished Spellbound by Kelley Armstron -- YARGH, I hate fucking cliffhangers. Uh...spoiler alert.

Started The Loving Dead -- for porn, this is hilarious. Or, another way to look at it -- for a comedy, this is impressively explicit.

[MoonShine]

[blessingx]

0

Suppose to be great. Is it? Which reminds me I really gotta get to The Invention of Air too.

[MoonShine]

2 chapters in, so far so good. Not great yet but off to a decent start.

[Voltron]

Storm of Swords, Game of Thrones book three.

[acidbasement]

I'm halfway though For the Win by Cory Doctorow. It's an interesting look inside the world of gaming and gold farming in MMORPGs. While it's a work of fiction, and a very entertaining one at that, it's also quite educational for me, as someone who is completely outside that world. Highly recommended.

[Salt Peanuts]

Speedliter's Handbook

Figure it's about time I get better understanding of the damn 430EX II I've had for over an year.

Edited August 26, 2011 by Salt Peanuts

[Hopstretch]

China Miéville -- Kraken

Edited August 26, 2011 by Hopstretch

[postjack]

Just finished rereading Game of Thrones. Much better then when I was a teenager, which usually isn't the case with fantasy. Psyched to watch the series now.

[postjack]

i hate to spoil the show for you, but there is a throne and people play a game.

so you are saying the royal type people play the game of thrones while the little type people just get caught up in the violence? bullshit!!

[Hysteria~]

Reading through this series for the 3rd time. It's fun to learn/notice new details about a book every time you re-read it.

[Salt Peanuts]

Re-started reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell again. The first time around, I just couldn't deal with the huge hardcover book. This time, I have it on my Kindle so hopefully, I'll actually finish it.

[blessingx]

Currently alternating between:

What to Expect When You're Expecting

Husband-Coached Childbirth

The Official Lamaze Guide

[blessingx]

Steve Jobs

[Voltron]

How is that supposed to help you learn 'bout birthin' babies?

[blessingx]

Hey, someone needs to be setup to replace Jobs! And you're not the only one that seems suspect of my 1 out of 4 recent books choice. She hasn't said anything out loud yet though.

Okin's Justice, Gender, and the Family up next. With a daughter on the way my minuscule feminist reading history needs to be corrected.

[The Monkey]

Steve Jobs

Me too. Although for some reason I ordered the hard cover not anticipating that it would be available as an...iBook.

[blessingx]

Funny thing is the iBook eBook had a bunch of formatting issues. Email reportedly went out this morning requesting readers to redownload. So maybe you made the right choice. I'm a traitor. Kindle eBook here.

Have to admit besides interest in Jobs and Apple, fun to be reading about houses and garages blocks away from my relatively new residence.