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What book(s) are you reading right now?

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igor_kavinski said:
No offense but is there a fear deep down that you might get affected by what you read?

There's trashy novels and poorly written books that don't deserve anyone's attention.

You may not agree with everything the bible says (and I would recommend the Jefferson one too) but I would be surprised if you don't agree with a single thing the bible says. There's goodness in religious books but unfortunately, it is overshadowed by stuff taken out of context or whatever was the norm when those books were written (or revealed) and people of those times did not have that much aversion to some of the disturbing or controversial notions. Remember, once upon a time, it was pretty normal for a caveman to hit a cave woman on the head and take her as his slave/property.
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I have no deep fear of reading anything but I'd be a fool to read what doesn't interest me.

I have no interest in trying to find gems in the Bible. Like Alan Watts said, the Bible should be set aside a while to let all the bugaboo nonsense subside and maybe it could be looked at with fresh eyes.
 
So I finished Blade of Dream (The Kithamar Trilogy Book 2) on Sunday.
It's the second book in the trilogy. I think it read a lot easier than the first, but after completion I thought back and felt like not a whole lot actually took place in the book. Easy read but after finishing felt like that's all that moved in the story? Eh Ok. I'll read the last one, but hoping for more out of it.

Started The Will of Many by James Islington, I think I can read almost anything this guy writes after devouring the The Licanius Trilogy.
 
After several years I finally finished all 8 books of the Dark Tower series. It really was a struggle to get through at times. Now that it's done I can't say I'm not somewhat disappointed. It wasn't bad, just unsatisfying at the end.
 
sactoking said:
After several years I finally finished all 8 books of the Dark Tower series. It really was a struggle to get through at times. Now that it's done I can't say I'm not somewhat disappointed. It wasn't bad, just unsatisfying at the end.
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Were you satisfied with the overall series?

I love King's books like It, and The Stand, among others, but I tried and struggled with The Dark Tower. Haven't been able to finish.
 
I enjoyed The Stand, I read the unabridged version several times even as a teen. Dark Tower... I dunno. Honestly, it felt like a collection of short stories featuring the same characters than it did a cohesive novel series. I don't want to get too far into it because spoilers but it certainly didn't feel like King's Lord of the Rings epic equivalent to me, despite what he may have claimed.
 
Just finished Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Fascinating book. Great use of sci Fi as a canvas from which to examine the human condition with. Great characters.
 
Been on a tear lately, just finished Last Days of the Incas about the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire as well as The Broken Spears which is a native account of the conquest of the Aztec Empire. Just started Open Veins of Latin America which is a very interesting read about the exploitation of Latin America by Western Civilization in the last 5 centuries.
 
RPD said:
Oh I'm on book 2 of the Mistborn, I really enjoy Brandon Sanderson's writing.
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This guy at my last bookclub meeting said he was a fantasy genre whore and he said that series is S-tier, that the author is phenomenal. One of the best he's ever read. I have book one ready to go. Glad to hear random endorsements of it.

After I finish the Left Hand of Darkness, by Le Guin, for a different book club meeting soon.

As far as the Silo series, overall excellent. The second book, Shift, was one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read period. Absolute brilliance.
 
MrSquished said:
This guy at my last bookclub meeting said he was a fantasy genre whore and he said that series is S-tier, that the author is phenomenal. One of the best he's ever read. I have book one ready to go. Glad to hear random endorsements of it.

After I finish the Left Hand of Darkness, by Le Guin, for a different book club meeting soon.

As far as the Silo series, overall excellent. The second book, Shift, was one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read period. Absolute brilliance.
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Well I am up to speed on his Stormlight series and really enjoyed it so I tend to follow authors I like. I did read/hear that this series is considered some what of a classic, even if it's relatively new to the literary world.

Another author I love is James Islington, I'm all in on his new series after finishing the Will of the Many and his first trilogy is fantastic imo the Licanius Trilogy.

All this while waiting for my faux leather cover of Esrahaddon to finish that trilogy by Michael Sullivan.

Shit guess I'm a bit of a whore myself....
 
RPD said:
Well I am up to speed on his Stormlight series and really enjoyed it so I tend to follow authors I like. I did read/hear that this series is considered some what of a classic, even if it's relatively new to the literary world.

Another author I love is James Islington, I'm all in on his new series after finishing the Will of the Many and his first trilogy is fantastic imo the Licanius Trilogy.

All this while waiting for my faux leather cover of Esrahaddon to finish that trilogy by Michael Sullivan.

Shit guess I'm a bit of a whore myself....
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I have rather enjoyed most of Sandersons books as well and Michael Sullivans world also.

While I cant say I actually read much these days as I pretty much only listen to audio books my last listen that I just finished was Preceptor by Terry Mancour. The spellmonger series is one of my favourites these days.
 
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BudAshes said:
I used to read a book every couple weeks. Now I can't remember the last book I read :confused2:
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-I've been reading the same couple books for the last year or so. Just make it about half way through a book and then just lose interest.

I used to be a voracious reader in my youth and I've really started slacking off here in middle age. I'm just at a point where I either have to or want to *do* something physical, rather than sit and read a book.

Somewhat ironically, I actually read more than ever now, its just shorter blips of stuff on my smartphone or contracts at work and such.
 
The Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Men
by Colonel James Churchward . . . in 1926

Supposedly there once was a huge island continent in the Pacific, back in the before time, from which human civilization originated (e.g Garden of Eden). Traces (megalithic ruins /artifacts) of said civilization (or it's colonies) are found in Central America and the Pacific islands. Too bad the island sank.

Mu = Lemuria
 
RPD said:
I've also heard that, why is it always like that 😕
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Every series is different, but for the Mistborn series, the first one was mostly high fantasy, with an absolutely unique magic system, and the followup felt like a completely different genre.

The followup series, I read the first two books, and it's a completely different feel. It's more like a western mixed in with some mystery. I may try to pick it up again, and finish the followup 4-book series.
 
akugami said:
Every series is different, but for the Mistborn series, the first one was mostly high fantasy, with an absolutely unique magic system, and the followup felt like a completely different genre.

The followup series, I read the first two books, and it's a completely different feel. It's more like a western mixed in with some mystery. I may try to pick it up again, and finish the followup 4-book series.
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My understanding is that there are 2 more trilogies planned. One will be set in the early computer age and the other will be in the future, in a space opera.
 
I am still reading this book. And it is very interesting to find out that the microbiome, how important it is to us... That knowledge is known at least since the 1930s and in Germany at least. According to this book. The technique of transplanting harvested bacteria from healthy strong people to other people was used back then.
Now we can luckily just buy bottles with probiotic pills filled with bacteria that are good for us in a symbiotic way.
Those bacteria are grown and selected in a factory.

It is als interesting to read that during the Weimar era and after the first world war, Germany was cut of many raw materials (to prevent building a war machine)and so there was a lot of research in Germany to be able to make whatever they wanted like for example from coal. Like gasoline or gas. Think discoveries + inventions like the Fischer–Tropsch process.
A lot of research was going on in the world and of course there was still trading and sharing of knowlegde between Germany and the other countries.
But the inflation, poverty and the extreme lifestyles and the disapprovals where the basis to why NSDAP rose in power.

As a sidenote :
Since i was a little kid, i always had to hear that the food i consume has nothing to do with my health. Obviously that is not true , especially since i was a premature born baby from 7 months. And that the microbiome has no influence on our lives. And as i got older, i noticed so many people live in a fantasy world that is truly made up based on lies and fantasy. The microbiome is very important and also the state of our digestive systems. Just read up on the importance of the duodenum and the pancreas for example.

Another example is the idiotic idea that we get autoimmune diseases because we are too clean.
I still have to hear that this day and age here in the Netherlands.
Or that you have to eat rotten food to get stronger.
Crazy people, surely crazy people.

Why auto immune diseases happen, that can be read in the phage thread @ higly technical.




William Gaatjes said:
"Blitzed" from Norman Ohler.

It is about the widespread use of drugs during nazi Germany like pervitin which is basically crystal meth AKA Methamphetamine. Think "Breaking Bad".
And how Hitler also was empowered by drugs.
If i remember correctly, adolf hitler was trained by theatrical people to perform to give his speeches and presentations a lot more oompf , kind of like having had a mediatraining...
Add the stimulating drugs to make him more emotional in a weird motivating way...

Als add the invention of the magnetic tape "Magnetophon Audio Tape Recorder" around 1935 and AC-bias for magnetic tape around 1940 so that he could give his presentation without sound distortion everywhere in Germany at roughly the same time without the need of a wireless radiosetup and that would make him at the time even more powerful.

In reality, in those days and before 1800-1900 and beyond , a lot of drugs was for a short time widely and legally available in the western world. Only after all mishaps because of substance abuse by people who are no longer sane enough to use it responsible, most drugs became illegal.
But that is the caveat with drugs, it does affect your mental processes and with the sad parts, the dissapointing parts and the cruel parts of everyday life going on as time happens, you might make wrong decisions. And those decisions can result in dramatic events...
Something to think about.

Anyway, it is a good book and also focuses on Pervitin. A meth pil that was even advertised for the public , for housewives, for every day men...
And Hitler was once a human but life and disease happened and perhaps drugs also happened. Making him and his gathering as they where...

Fun fact is that one of the chapters is called : "High Hitler". Imagine that in "Allo allo" style : "High Hitlah !"
Or : "Sieg High !"

The magnetic tape part has nothing to do with the book but it explains his media power hitler had at that time.
Excert from the article about the origin of magnetic tape :

"
Joining AEG and BASF in 1938, the Reichs-Rundfunkgesellschaft (RRG) became the third branch of the Magnetophon R&D effort. Starting in 1940, the RRG successfully applied AC-bias to the new recording technology. RRG engineer Walter Weber discovered the AC-bias application through a combination of systematic research and a bit of luck. Weber was not the first to apply AC bias to magnetic recording, although he evidently had no knowledge of the earlier work. The engineer’s success was due to his ability to recognize immediately the practical value of his discovery and to use it to improve the Magnetophon’s recording quality.

Weber had been experimenting with phase-cancellation circuits in an attempt to reduce the distortion and noise of DC-bias recordings. An amplifier in a test set-up went into oscillation, accidentally creating an AC-bias current in the record circuit. It took some systematic engineering detective work before Weber found what had happened and could recreate the phenomenon.
"
Magnetic moments in magnetic tape have hysteresis. This hysteresis causes distortion when you record sound as analog information directly. And the AC-Bias is a way to record audio without the hysteresis of the magnetic moments in the magnetic tape to influence the information : In this case the analog audio.

www.nytimes.com

High on Hitler and Meth: Book Says Nazis Were Fueled by Drugs (Published 2016)

A German writer tells how he unearthed a startling fact about the Third Reich for his best-selling book, “Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany.”
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

‘Pilot’s Salt’: The Third Reich Kept Its Soldiers Alert With Meth

For a while, the stuff seemed to be “the ideal war drug.”
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com

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Just got JFK's Profiles in Courage from my local library. The contrast with Trump... Anything Trump says that is coherent English was provided him by a servant. 😉
 
I'm reading the following sci-fi series on my Kindle.

Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson
Frontlines by Marko Kloos
Junkyard Pirate by Jamie McFarlane
Undying Mercenaries by B. V. Larson
First Colony by Ken Lozito
The Spiral wars by Joel Shepard
 
I'm reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.
I liked some of the Amazon series and wanted to read the source material.

It's ok. Not exceptional. It almost seems like it was written specifically for teenagers. Very little exposition as to why some things are the way they are, why some characters are evil. A bunch of people who grew up together suddenly acting based on base impulses such as pride or jealousy, when there is every reason to work toward shared goals and unite.
And the 'heroic' character just seems to be strong enough to overcome anything, with the bad guys only surviving though deception.

I'm on book three of twelve. It may get better. So far it's ok to read for half an hour before bed. I would recommend it if you like fantasy settings, want to explore a new world with lots of lore, or you like the Amazon series and want to see what the source material is about.
 
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