Books
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I first read this about 5 years ago, it was amusing but mainly aimed at Americans.
5 years on it has become more relevant in the UK, and it appears that I am whiter than I thought and many of the people I read on social media are extremely white, even those who aren't.
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Reading The Martian.
Fan-goddamn-tastic. Almost impossible to put down. VERY hard sci-fi, meaning lots of sci. It is set in a near future manned mission to Mars, and it's all about the ingenuity of an astronaut who gets stranded on The Red Planet. Shifts between gallows-humor imbued journal entries and narrative from varied perspectives.
HIGHLY recommended.
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Yeah, the film won't be able to match some of the scientific detail, but I look forward to it–read it @Graeme ; outstanding even for non-SF people.
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Read it!
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Just finished Dune Messiah, finally. I've been reading it off and on for several months. It's a very different book than Dune, and I can understand why opinions on it are sharply divided. 329 pages, and the first 310 or so were largely un-enjoyable. But then the ending was somehow right; so much so that now I don't know what I think about the book.
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I'm currently reading "Black Like Me", which I know is required reading in many schools in the US but I only became aware of last November. Amazingly it hadn't even been in print in the UK until a few years ago.
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Glad you enjoyed, I thought you would!
Currently reading a very strange novel called Radix by A A Attanasio. It takes place in a remote dystopian future where cosmic events have exposed the planet to radiation that changes the planet in odd ways. I'm still on the fence in terms of how much I like it, but the writer is really good. Has such a deep vocabulary that I've had to go to the dictionary a couple of times.
I know of this writer from a killer Arthurian cycle he wrote. In it, spirits and gods are represented very creatively as scientific entities, artifacts of electromagnetic energy who live on the Tree of Life, which is the polar energy that causes the Aurora Borealus. A very imaginative and skilled writer.
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Just picked up New York Hardcore by Tony Rettman, looking forward to reading it all. It's also made me go back and listen to music I haven't heard for a while which is good too.
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Rest In Peace, Rincewind….
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thanks and goodby terry!
his television documentary on the subject of assisted suicide (quite heavy stuff!):
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnu340_terry-pratchett-choosing-to-die_shortfilms
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There used to be a sci-fi and fantasy bookshop in Lancaster (UK not CA) run by a gentleman named Pete. It was officially called Interstellar Master Traders, though it never had a sign outside.
The shop was tiny, but absolutely rammed with stock. Here's a picture of the old premises.
Anyway, back in the late eighties or early nineties, a friend of mine called Guy would occasionally skip college to spend an afternoon chatting with Pete. One time he was there, and Pete was heckling him for being a fan of Terry Pratchett…
Turns out the other person in the shop was Terry. He was an old friend of Pete's, and Guy said he has good memories of that day.
Oh, and Joe Abercrombie grew up in Lancaster, and used to visit Pete's shop. No, I didn't know him.
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just started reading seriously this year. so far this year i've read:
1Q84 - Murakami (first half awesome, 2nd sucked)
Norwegian Wood - Murakami (was pretty good, but defeinitely would have liked it better had i read it when i was 20)
Slaughterhouse 5 - Vonnegut (loved it, one of my favorites)
Breakfast of Champions - Vonnegut (hated it)
The Rum Diary - Hunter S Thompson (loved it, one of my favorites)
Inherent Vice - Thomas Pynchon (funny, but didnt get the point of the book and was very confusing)
Reign In Blood - DX Ferris (wasnt well written, but learned a lot about Def Jam, Rick Rubin and Slayer \m/)
The Road - Cormac McCarthy (jesus…)finishing up Fear and Loathing right now
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Reading The Martian.
Fan-goddamn-tastic. Almost impossible to put down. VERY hard sci-fi, meaning lots of sci. It is set in a near future manned mission to Mars, and it's all about the ingenuity of an astronaut who gets stranded on The Red Planet. Shifts between gallows-humor imbued journal entries and narrative from varied perspectives.
HIGHLY recommended.
So great to hear you enjoyed it! (said the man from Del Rey….)
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