What have you been reading lately?

Error message

Deprecated function: implode(): Passing glue string after array is deprecated. Swap the parameters in drupal_get_feeds() (line 394 of /var/www/pied-piper.ermarian.net/includes/common.inc).

Pages

AuthorTopic: What have you been reading lately?
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #550
I finished reading A Taste of Magic which Andre Norton wrote the outline for and Jean Rabe finished. It is a classic revenge story with the blood oath, village gets destroyed, heroine swears oath to get the killer. The difference is that this has a slight twist, instead of a brother against brother, it is brother against sister in the end and the evil ruler is the empress not the emperor. It makes the story kind of interesting. The magic in the story is the magic of taste and tracking.

--------------------
Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.

Add your one star vote to my tally.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Canned
Member # 8014
Profile #551
I'm only on the 5th Harry Potter book.
Also, who here hasn't finished/read the series in which I am reading.

--------------------
Don't judge a sentence until you know all the words.
Muffins n' Hell|Muffins n' Hell: The Muffins Are Back Again
Muffins n' Hell: The End is Near
Not in your shed -We are sort of done. Helpful criticism is welcome.
Everyone, just call me Iffy. Please.

Be grateful you have your unsellabe trowels -Goldenking

Just so you know, I am working on Muffins n' Hell the scenario.
Posts: 1799 | Registered: Sunday, February 4 2007 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 7887
Profile #552
As of late I just went through The Great Gatsby again. I've also just got to work on the Halo novels.
Posts: 22 | Registered: Thursday, January 11 2007 08:00
Agent
Member # 4574
Profile #553
Edgar Allan Poe.

--------------------
"I'm happy I'm the mentally disturbed person I am." -Nioca
"Yes, Iffy is a demon." -Iffy
Posts: 1186 | Registered: Friday, June 18 2004 07:00
BANNED
Member # 10021
Profile #554
I have never read a single Harry Potter and never will. (Despite the imense frustration from my girlfreind.) Right know I plan to start up the second Dune novel when a oppurtunity presents itself.

--------------------
When I close my eyes at night I see David Bowie.

PLAY AVERNUM 1!!!!!!!!!!!
Posts: 157 | Registered: Saturday, August 25 2007 07:00
Infiltrator
Member # 10578
Profile Homepage #555
I am currently reading Robert Fagles' translation of The Iliad, by Homer. I'm also writing a paper on it, so I must stop Interwebbing and Spiderwebbing for now. *grumbles*

--------------------
Love is the movement.
Posts: 432 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2007 07:00
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
Profile #556
SPOILER!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Watch out for that horse.

--------------------
Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed.
Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00
Infiltrator
Member # 10578
Profile Homepage #557
Actually, the Iliad ends with the burial of Hector. You have to read other sources for the rest of the story.

Add: I finished my paper on Hector! Finally! *sigh of relief*

[ Thursday, October 25, 2007 12:33: Message edited by: Taliesin ]

--------------------
Love is the movement.
Posts: 432 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2007 07:00
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #558
The rest of the story?

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
Profile #559
quote:
Originally written by Taliesin:

Actually, the Iliad ends with the burial of Hector.
Guess I just pulled a Homer.

--------------------
Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed.
Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00
? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
Profile #560
*facepalm*

--------------------
Synergy, et al - "I don't get it."

Argon - "I'm at a loss for words..."
Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
Infiltrator
Member # 4248
Profile #561
I finished Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick a while ago. Now I'm reading random TV tropes from the appropriate wiki.

--------------------
Life is a neverending carneval where everyone has multiple costumes. I just hope mine are pleasing to the eye.
Posts: 617 | Registered: Tuesday, April 13 2004 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 5545
Profile Homepage #562
I've been enjoying our AP Lit assigned book, Sophie's World, enough to forgo reading a book of my own. It's effectively a history of philosophy, and although the plot is a bit weak the historic aspects of the novel entirely make up for it.

--------------------
Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est.
Posts: 344 | Registered: Friday, February 25 2005 08:00
Infiltrator
Member # 5567
Profile Homepage #563
Ringworld, by Larry Niven. Best sci-fi novel I've ever read.

--------------------
How many shapers are there?
Why is Drypeak controlled by Zakary?
Why is Barzahl a Guardian?
How does the Geneforge work?
What's as small as nothing?
Why am I asking stupid questions?
--------------------------------
Shaper teacher : "DON'T TOUCH THAT!"
BOOM!!
apprentice :*little voice* "Sorry..."
---------------------------
Travian The Roost
Do you know what is the answer to the greatest question ever? It's here.

I like the French. They always go ^^. It's even infectious, if you catch the joke ^^ .
Posts: 576 | Registered: Wednesday, March 2 2005 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #564
I have acquired the complete (fiction) works of the famously prolific Isaac Asimov.

This is going to take some time... some very enjoyable time. :)

--------------------
The Noble and Ancient Order of Polaris - We're Not Yet Dead.
EncyclopediaBlades ForgeArchivesStatsRSS (This Topic / Forum) • BlogNaNoWriMo
Did-chat thentagoespyet jumund fori is jus, hat onlime gly nertan ne gethen Firyoubbit 'obio.'
Decorum deserves a whole line of my signature, and an entry in your bookmarks.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Shaper
Member # 3442
Profile Homepage #565
The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart.

--------------------
Nikki's Nook - La maison de mon rêve?
Posts: 2864 | Registered: Monday, September 8 2003 07:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 3171
Profile Homepage #566
I bet Ive skimmed over someone and missed it but has anyone read any of Chris Bunch's series? I've read both of his stand alone book and am considering buying one of his series (You can buy them for like $4 a book so why not) and was wondering if anyone had read them and could give me an opinion?
Posts: 776 | Registered: Friday, July 4 2003 07:00
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #567
I finished reading Our American King by David Lozell Martin, oil has run out, and the country has collapsed, the super rich have formed themselves into armed gated communities. The story begins with a starving university professor and a woman convincing a man he should be king. They succeed and it turns into a left leaning political farce, where if you have joined the king you wear string on your left hand. There are a lot of moments thrown in. The most dangerous marauders wear shower hats and wedding gowns and are called Patagonians. The Canadians are America's worst enemies. It gets more ridiculous from there. A light read that is at moments too serious.

--------------------
Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.

Add your one star vote to my tally.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #568
Asimov was an awesome feller.

quote:
In “The Martian Way,” [...] I had my heroes approach Saturn and actually enter the ring system. In doing so I very carefully described the rings, making use of observations from Earth’s surface to do so.

Now, from Earth’s surface, some 800 million miles from Saturn, we see the rings as solid and unbroken except for the black line of the Cassini division that seems to separate them into two rings. The portion of the rings closest to Saturn is considerably dimmer than the rest of the ring system, and that portion is usually considered a third ring (the so-called “crepe ring.”) And that was how I described the rings as seen by my space-travelers in the story.

Yet it stands to reason (at least, now it stands to reason) that if we could see the ring system from a nearer distance, we would see greater detail. We would see divisions—places where fewer particles were in orbit so that we would see dimmer lines separating brighter lines—divisions that would simply not be seen at great distances. Earth’s surface telescopes would just blur them out and record only the thickest of the dim lines—the Cassini division.

The closer we would get, the more numerous and the thinner the bright lines would get as visibility became clearer and clearer, until, when we were as close as we could get and still see all the rings, the rings would look like a grooved record—which is what they do look like.

Suppose I had figured this out in 1952 and had described the rings in that fashion. Even if I had missed such things as shadowy “spokes” in the ring, and “braided” rings, things that were absolutely unpredictable, it would have been great if I had imagined the fine divisions. That was an easy deduction to make and if I had described the rings in that fashion then, as soon as those rings had been probed I would have announced that I had anticipated what they had discovered. (You think that modesty would have held me back? Don’t be an idiot!)

How great that would have been! As it is, my failure to see this marks me down as not very bright, and that is there, for all to see, in “The Martian Way.” To be sure, no astronomer saw the truth about the rings in 1952, but what of that? An astronomer is only an astronomer and his vision is naturally limited. I am a science fiction writer and more is expected of me.


--------------------
The Noble and Ancient Order of Polaris - We're Not Yet Dead.
EncyclopediaBlades ForgeArchivesStatsRSS (This Topic / Forum) • BlogNaNoWriMo
Did-chat thentagoespyet jumund fori is jus, hat onlime gly nertan ne gethen Firyoubbit 'obio.'
Decorum deserves a whole line of my signature, and an entry in your bookmarks.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Too Sexy for my Title
Member # 5654
Profile #569
I just finished reading I'll be seeing you by Mary H. Clark. I didn't think it'd like it, and some parts were too obvious. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
Posts: 1035 | Registered: Friday, April 1 2005 08:00
Guardian
Member # 6670
Profile Homepage #570
The Fabric of Reality, by David Deutsch.

Aaand I'm about to start my take-home midterm on it (well, two smaller essays on it due by Tuesday), so if anyone wants to wax poetic about Popperian epistemology, the relationship between the Church-Turing hypothesis and quantum physics, or Dawkins' theories on replicators and memes, now's the time to do so. ;)

--------------------
The Matrix: Massively Multiplayer Solipsism
Posts: 1509 | Registered: Tuesday, January 10 2006 08:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #571
quote:
Originally written by Dintiradan:

The Fabric of Reality, by David Deutsch.
I'm not sure how much of it is the book itself and how much is Wikipedia, but that book looks pretty terrible. Then again, I'm of the opinion that Popper is the most overrated philosopher of science of the 20th century, so I would say that.

--------------------
The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
Profile #572
I expect you'll have to take the book a bit seriously for your midterm, but for after the Kool-Aid wears off, you should keep in mind that David Deutsch's role in quantum information research is a fittingly paradoxical superposition of grand old man and goofy mascot. Whatever he says about the fabric of reality (I have not read the book myself) should be taken with a grain of salt.

His technical contributions are solid, though by no means towering. I think his best known achievement is the construction of one of the handful of quantum algorithms that solves a problem faster than any classical algorithm can. Unfortunately the problem that Deutsch's algorithm solves is a simple and artificial one with no known practical relevance. And it has not even yet yielded, to my knowledge, any significant broader insight into the power of quantum algorithms.

Deutsch has been a life-long crusader for the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Overall this view is not really popular among physicists, though there are always a few folks who flaunt it to prove their tough-mindedness or something. I find it myself to be an absurdly huge violation of Occam's Razor: walnuts are observed to shatter spontaneously, so we postulate an undetectable sledgehammer.

There are also some serious technical issues with MWI. Firstly, parsing the components of a quantum state into alternate 'worlds' implies a preferred choice of basis in state space. Re-writing a particle's position space wave function in momentum space, for instance, would totally reshuffle the worlds. So MWI needs somehow to introduce a preferred basis structure into quantum mechanics.

It then needs an axiom to state that superpositions in this basis are experienced as probabilistic alternatives. MWI rhetoric likes to sweep this last step under the rug, treating it as though it were obvious in light of some 'natural' theory of consciousness or something. However you want to spin it, though, in formal logic an additional axiom is required here, or one simply cannot derive conclusions that agree with observations.

When its preferred basis and probabilistic alternative axioms are made explicit, MWI seems to me to be logically identical to the standard Copenhagen interpretation, with its axioms about measurement and wave function collapse. So I don't see that MWI represents any logical reduction whatever. And in that case its many worlds are simply the undetectable sledgehammer.

--------------------
Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed.
Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00
Warrior
Member # 7254
Profile Homepage #573
The Children of Húrin, by, well... The One Author.
Posts: 73 | Registered: Monday, June 26 2006 07:00
Guardian
Member # 5360
Profile #574
Dan Simmons' Hyperion, Endymion, and Ilium series.

--------------------
Fear us, mortals, but never envy, for though we burn with power, our fuel is our sorrows.
Posts: 1636 | Registered: Wednesday, January 5 2005 08:00

Pages