What geeky nerd books are you reading? - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

mcsluggo · 05-29-2008, 09:09 AM

The Harry Potter discussion continues to trundle along... but since the supply of new material has been cut off (assuming Ms Rowling sticks to her word) attention must surely turn elsewhere, eventually .... (no?)

so what OTHER geekfest, alternate universe series are people enjoying?

Back as a kid I loved the middle earth, Narnia, Foundation, Shanara, ringworld, etc.. etc... etc...... series, but I very rarely read fiction these days. I am afraid having to read for work, and surfing the web have largely substituted in for that

One series that I have read, and liked, are the "Song of Ice and Fire" books by George RR Martin ("A Game of Thrones" was the first book in what I believe he is now claiming will eventually be a 7 book series-- 4 have been released to-date)

I would recommend this series, I think it is definately worth reading...

anything else good out there that people can recommend?

mcsluggo · 05-29-2008, 09:13 AM

note, this is pure geekfest fluff! no suggesting biographies like
"The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory"

...or or other serious stuff, as good as those may be (and for the record, "the last lion..." is EXCELLENT!)

u2sarajevo · 05-29-2008, 09:23 AM

I am currently reading the Twilight series. I had specific reasons for reading the first book. I checked out Twilight from the library which ended up being my doom because at the end of the book they put in the first chapter of the 2nd book (New Moon). I read that and got sucked in. So now I am so far into it (halfway through the 3rd installment - Eclipse) I have to have the payoff, right? The last installment will be released in August. The books would be great to me if she(the author) wouldn't try and sell us on the romance of 2, out of the 3, main characters. We get it. Let it go. They love each other..... yippee. I just roll my eyes when those parts show up (which, admittedly - and thankfully - get fewer and fewer as the series rolls along).

So what is the attraction you ask? The author has created a fascinating alternate reality world where Vampires and Werewolves exist. And THAT is what has me hooked.

But do I recommend it? It would be hard for me to say yes because whether you would enjoy it would depend on your ability to shut off the vomit inducing love trists. I guess girls enjoy that stuff?

Underdog · 05-29-2008, 09:41 AM

I'm reading 'World War Z' by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks' son) - it's about a global zombie invasion and how the world governments try to deal with it... It's pretty kick-ass so far and delivers all the social commentary you'd expect from the zombie genre, but does a much better job of conveying a feeling of terror than any movie can...

Usually Lurkin · 05-29-2008, 09:46 AM

Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition
by Umberto Eco.

So far, it's some essays on language and cognition. I haven't gotten to the zombies part, yet, but the opening chapter is about different ways of being.

nikeball · 05-29-2008, 10:28 AM

Current Fantasy Series in my Queue:
1. Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan) - A LOOOOONG series. I am currently on book 5 out of 12
2. Inheritance (Christopher Paolini) - Dragons, Secret Powers, Elves

But my favorite other world books has to be Ender's Game & Ender's Shadow

mcsluggo · 05-30-2008, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by u2sarajevo

I am currently reading the Twilight series. I had specific reasons for reading the first book. I checked out Twilight from the library which ended up being my doom because at the end of the book they put in the first chapter of the 2nd book (New Moon). I read that and got sucked in. So now I am so far into it (halfway through the 3rd installment - Eclipse) I have to have the payoff, right? The last installment will be released in August. The books would be great to me if she(the author) wouldn't try and sell us on the romance of 2, out of the 3, main characters. We get it. Let it go. They love each other..... yippee. I just roll my eyes when those parts show up (which, admittedly - and thankfully - get fewer and fewer as the series rolls along).

So what is the attraction you ask? The author has created a fascinating alternate reality world where Vampires and Werewolves exist. And THAT is what has me hooked.

But do I recommend it? It would be hard for me to say yes because whether you would enjoy it would depend on your ability to shut off the vomit inducing love trists. I guess girls enjoy that stuff?

hard to beat THAT ringing endorsement!

I will head to the library and try out whichever of "ender's game" and "world War z" are easier to find! (let ye gods make my decision for me)

I really would recomend the "gme of thhrones" series it is very interesting.(although I have tried a couple of other short stories by mr martin, and hated them) It basically is an allegory for the war of the roses in an alternate world that for the most part isn't TOO out there from our own, but there certainly are differences (there are dragns, for instance). THere are seven provinces in an english shaped continent (although apparently much bigger than england) and with the fall of the dynastic family that had ruled the land, a bunch of pretenders to the throne set up their own feifdoms, and try to take the whole cabana. it is told from different points of view for each chapter, some of whom are true movers and shakers, and some who are just plebes. I think he has used over 20 p-o-v characters by now, and he is perfectly willing to to kill them off at the end of their chapter... keeps you on your toes. I think these books are really well done.

mcsluggo · 05-30-2008, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Usually Lurkin

Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition
by Umberto Eco.

So far, it's some essays on language and cognition. I haven't gotten to the zombies part, yet, but the opening chapter is about different ways of being.

eco wrote "the name of the rose" right?

are there really zombies? or is it historical fiction?

Murphy3 · 05-30-2008, 10:13 AM

I'm reading "The Lord of Isles" by David Drake...

Usually Lurkin · 05-30-2008, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcsluggo

eco wrote "the name of the rose" right?

are there really zombies? or is it historical fiction?

yeah, he's written a few novels. But he's written a lot more, I think, on philosophy of language kinda stuff. THere's no zombies in this one - I was just saying it's a different kind of nerd book. A couple of my favorite geeky nerd questions that he's asked are: If you make a map that is 1:1 scale in every way (so that 1 mile in the real world is 1 mile on the map, and a 7 foot green tree in the real world is a 7 foot green tree on the map), is it still a map? and: If I hand copy the book "Moby Dick" word for word onto my own paper, can I then tell people that I wrote "Moby Dick"?

mcsluggo · 05-30-2008, 10:43 AM

that was the idea I got from the title... (but I wanted to make sure)

geeky, no doubt!! but not what I am looking for here (I am looking for star trek convention geeky, rather than wonkish geeky... I get far too much wonkish geeky in my actual work)

mcsluggo · 05-30-2008, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murphy3

I'm reading "The Lord of Isles" by David Drake...

whatis it about? is it good?

I wasn't very clear in my title or my first post.... but I am actually looking for reccomendations on future readings My wife has been going on a reading tear lately, and has rightfully begun to ridicule my lame attempts to claim that surfing sports and porn pages on the web is filling a similar literary function for me...

Murphy3 · 05-30-2008, 12:11 PM

not sure yet..just started. I'll let you know once I'm a couple of hundred pages in. It's in the mold of a Lord of the Rings or somesuch. I'll let you know in the future whether or not it sucks

Smiles · 05-30-2008, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcsluggo

geeky, no doubt!! but not what I am looking for here (I am looking for star trek convention geeky, rather than wonkish geeky... I get far too much wonkish geeky in my actual work)

Bummer. And I got so excited when I saw the thread title.

Where will I ever find a forum to share my thoughts on "The origins, intelligence, behavior, and stratagems of Felis silvestris catus"?

Usually Lurkin · 05-30-2008, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiles

Bummer. And I got so excited when I saw the thread title.

Where will I ever find a forum to share my thoughts on "The origins, intelligence, behavior, and stratagems of Felis silvestris catus"?

well, I wanna hear about that. Sounds like a good opportunity for a thread hijack!

mcsluggo · 05-30-2008, 03:46 PM

careful there... y'all will have a hard time out-geeking the economist/statistician if push comes to shove in these areas

(don't MAKE me break out my dissertation!)

nikeball · 06-11-2008, 12:42 AM

u2..are you reading Dune right now?

I see from your avatar status that you might be..

Evilmav2 · 06-11-2008, 01:18 AM

I just finished S.M. Stirling's, 'The Protector's War', and sometime soon I'll probably pick up the hardcover edition of it's sequel, 'A Meeting at Corvallis'...

u2sarajevo · 06-11-2008, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikeball

u2..are you reading Dune right now?

I see from your avatar status that you might be..

Yeah... I was working on some of the boxes in the garage last week and found my old trilogy copies. I had just finished the last of the released Twilight series books and was GOING to read Children of Hurin, but decided I'd let Herberts world please me for a bit. Such an awesome series.

MavsX · 06-11-2008, 06:52 AM

i got nothin

Underdog · 06-11-2008, 10:42 AM

Here's a snippet of 'World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War' (Max Brooks) - the social commentary in this book is wonderful...

This is part of a story someone tells about the beginning of the American invasion:

Quote:

We were in the living room; my father was learning to load his new rifle while mom finished nailing up the windows. You couldn't find a channel with anything but zombie news, either live images, or recorded footage from Yonkers. Looking back, I still can't believe how unprofessional the news media was. So much spin, so few hard facts. All those digestible sound bites from an army of "experts" all contradicting one another, all trying to seem more "shocking" and "in depth" than the last one. It was all so confusing, nobody seemed to know what to do. The only thing any of them could agree on was that all private citizens should "go north." Because the living dead freeze solid, extreme cold is our only hope. That's all we heard. No more instructions on where to head north, what to bring with us, how to survive, just that damn catchphrase you'd hear from every talking head, or just crawling over and over across the bottom of the T.V. "Go north. Go north. Go north."

Kinda reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina...

(and the Americans don't have it nearly as bad as most countries in this book, but what else is new?)

Flacolaco · 06-11-2008, 10:50 AM

lol. The media sucks even in Zombie books.

(what happened next? did some senator from louisiana start claiming the zombies were 'victims' and tax dollars were needed to help feed their zombie children?

)

Underdog · 06-11-2008, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flacolaco

lol. The media sucks even in Zombie books.

(what happened next? did some senator from louisiana start claiming the zombies were 'victims' and tax dollars were needed to help feed their zombie children?

)

lol - it really wasn't too far from that, actually...

MavsX · 06-11-2008, 03:17 PM

my girlfriend read harry potter...all 7 books, back to back...all of them in a row! It was like 3.5 months of living alone. Kinda nice though i guess. haha

wmbwinn · 06-11-2008, 09:16 PM

I read a ton of books all the time. But, I will admit that the last five books I read (this month, part of last month) are:
Reloading for Shotgunners, 4th Edition
Modern Reloading, Second Edition
Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading
The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions
Cartridges of the World, 11th Edition

Not exactly fantasy stuff here to the minds of most, but the idea of making/loading my own cartridges is better than fantasy. Its applied creativity and a lot of fun...

LonghornDub · 06-11-2008, 10:56 PM

I'm not a big fantasy genre guy, but I just wanted to chime in and mention how much I miss reading for pleasure sometimes.

Underdog · 06-12-2008, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProdigyDub

I'm not a big fantasy genre guy, but I just wanted to chime in and mention how much I miss reading for pleasure sometimes.

I used to miss "reading for pleasure" until I realized that I had supplanted it with "banging my hot girlfriend!"

mcsluggo · 06-12-2008, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Underdog

I used to miss "reading for pleasure" until I realized that I had supplanted it with "banging my hot girlfriend!"

Of course, we all realize that in your case "banging my hot girlfriend" is a website...

so you are saying you have replaced "reading for pleasure" with "surfing for PLEASURE"

Smiles · 06-15-2008, 09:52 PM

It's not fantasy, but "The Mold In Dr. Florey's Coat" (the story of the penicillin miracle) is pretty cool. I'm working over a text on behavioral endocrinology too. It's nothing special, but has some new info I hadn't heard/read before.

nikeball · 07-27-2008, 03:58 AM

In the past couple of weeks I have finished reading...

The Once and Future King by TH White --- satirical portrayal of King Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, and Camelot. I loved it. It is actually pretty famous and taught in middle school through high school (has a sparknote guide).

I also read Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur Clarke. It was a Nebula and Hugo award winner.

When I choose my books from the Sci-Fi & Fantasy genre..I usually only pick books that are Nebula / Hugo winners. They usually do not disappoint and there is a good reason why they won those awards.

I also read Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Not in the nerd section but a pretty moving book. Another good & fast read.

-- U2...I bought Dune Messiah recently..at half price books..is that worth reading? I read and heard that after the initial book, Dune, the writing drops off and is not as nearly as good.

nikeball · 08-17-2008, 11:48 PM

This weekend...I read for the first time...

"Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Maguire..which the Broadway musical is based off of.
2.5 out of 5 stars.

"Jurassic Park" by Crichton...3.5 out of 5. Much better than the movie, very quick read.

Next I will read "Dune Messiah" -- book 2 in the Dune series by Herbert...before tackling the longer & tougher books such as Ulysses by Joyce and Atlas Shrugged by Rand.

u2sarajevo · 08-18-2008, 06:27 AM

nike... I missed that question of yours. But I absolutely think you should read the first 3 books (Messiah, then Children of Dune). That is the original trilogy. I still have my paperbacks that claimed it was a trilogy tale. So for me, it will always be a trilogy.

Speaking of Trilogies, I am reading McCarthy's Border Trilogy. It's a nice change of pace from the other material I have read from him.

Zaknaf3in · 08-18-2008, 07:04 AM

If you like fantasy, I'm totally with the author of this thread - you have to read the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R. Martin.

IMO, up to it's current state, it's the best fantasy series I've ever read - and yes, that includes LotR. If that's still the case when he finished the series - don't know.
Every really good story needs a good ending first, so we'll see. I started the series 8 years ago, and I'm still constantly checking the relevant websites for information about release dates etc. . If you are into fantasy - get it.
To describe it further, it's not like your usual "get the next UBER-sword"/"the next evil UBER-mage to fight with" etc. fantasy. A lot of politics, schemes and so on.
The title "Game of Thrones" describes it very good - a lot of players, trying to pull the right thread to move the puppet in their direction. VERY limited usage of magic, dragons etc..

Aside of it, I have read all Discworld novels, and some AD&D stuff by R.A. Salvatore.
The last (fantasy) thing I read, was the whole "Malazan: Book of the Fallen" series by Erikson, which has its good and weak sides. A simply huge story, and I hope the author still has an overview. If you try it, don't be disappointed if you don't get everything the first book covers - the next books will reward you for every strand of story you didn't understand.

nikeball · 09-10-2008, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by u2sarajevo

nike... I missed that question of yours. But I absolutely think you should read the first 3 books (Messiah, then Children of Dune). That is the original trilogy. I still have my paperbacks that claimed it was a trilogy tale. So for me, it will always be a trilogy.

Speaking of Trilogies, I am reading McCarthy's Border Trilogy. It's a nice change of pace from the other material I have read from him.

Finished Dune Messiah a couple of weeks ago...definitely not as good as book 1. I will read Children this month or next.

I am reading Ringworld right now...supposedly the concept of what HALO the video game is based off of..

MavsX · 09-10-2008, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Underdog

I used to miss "reading for pleasure" until I realized that I had supplanted it with "banging my hot girlfriend!"

you lie

nikeball · 09-22-2008, 10:37 AM

mcsluggo · 09-22-2008, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Underdog

I used to miss "reading for pleasure" until I realized that I had supplanted it with "wanking on the internet, pretending she was MY hot girlfriend!"

fixed

Murphy3 · 09-22-2008, 11:17 AM

Based on your recommendation, I'll try it out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaknaf3in

If you like fantasy, I'm totally with the author of this thread - you have to read the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R. Martin.

IMO, up to it's current state, it's the best fantasy series I've ever read - and yes, that includes LotR. If that's still the case when he finished the series - don't know.
Every really good story needs a good ending first, so we'll see. I started the series 8 years ago, and I'm still constantly checking the relevant websites for information about release dates etc. . If you are into fantasy - get it.
To describe it further, it's not like your usual "get the next UBER-sword"/"the next evil UBER-mage to fight with" etc. fantasy. A lot of politics, schemes and so on.
The title "Game of Thrones" describes it very good - a lot of players, trying to pull the right thread to move the puppet in their direction. VERY limited usage of magic, dragons etc..

Aside of it, I have read all Discworld novels, and some AD&D stuff by R.A. Salvatore.
The last (fantasy) thing I read, was the whole "Malazan: Book of the Fallen" series by Erikson, which has its good and weak sides. A simply huge story, and I hope the author still has an overview. If you try it, don't be disappointed if you don't get everything the first book covers - the next books will reward you for every strand of story you didn't understand.

Ummmmm Ok · 09-22-2008, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikeball

i know, waiting for the cheaper softback version at half price books. I am so cheap

rmacomic · 09-22-2008, 10:06 PM

I am currently reading and re-reading The Zombie Survival Guide, and World War Z by Max Brooks. Both are brilliant. As a HUUUUUUUUUUGE fan of the zombie genre, I am enjoying these books.

They were written by Max Brooks, son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, and are just the epitome of the genre.

I would suggest them to anyone. TZSG is a tongue in cheek guide to all things zombie, this book is great because it never brakes character, It is a survival guide to a zombie attack and never give the reader that nudge and wink. Which makes it so funny.

WWZ is brilliant follow up.

WWZ is one of the best books I have read in a long time, it is a first person retelling of the world and the US after a major zombie uprising. Written in a fresh way, the plot is told by a series of first person accounts of the events of the Zombie War. It is rare that a book can do so in a workable way, not only does WWZ succeed, it is being made into a movie in the same vein. It points out that no matter what your politics, when the dead rise and eat you, humanity will always come first. Republican, Democrat, when you are fooooooood, politics don't matter.

It is not only a great fictional read, but also a brilliant look at the world after apocalypse.

edit: I didn't see UnderDogs post, still these are great books.

edit 2: after rereading this thread i realize how late to the ball I am on Max Brooks. Great writer, Great books.