What are You Reading Right now?

In addition to the PKD Reader I just started this...



I saw this in the theater as a kid, it was my introduction to Star Trek and I loved it. I've never really gotten into reading Star Trek the way I do Star Wars, there is enough material I've never felt the urge and there still is some I haven't seen like the bulk of Voyager, all of Enterprise and the new one. I think I read one TOS novel years ago but that's it. I decided to read this one for old time's sake and it's pretty good. It expands on a few things like Kirk's relationship with Carol Marcus over the years and she plays a part in the story. It also discusses the disappearance of the Organians (the pacifists from Errand Of Mercy who forced a peace on the Federation and Klingons) trying to explain why they don't interfere in the events of the film.

 

Black Panther comics.

 

I am currently reading



Nothing like a good film making book.

I have read a few star wars books lately. Lost Stars was the only one I liked. Bloodline, Lords of the Sith and the aftermath trilogy I did not like much at all.

 

Anybody checked out the new Stephen King book? I'm curious to hear how it is as I'm not sure if I want to read it now or later.

 

Finished House of Chains last night. Not sure which book I want to read next. Midnight Tides, The Wolf of Oren-Yo, or A Thousand Pieces of You...?

 

Once in awhile I pick up an old college math textbook and try to solve for x.

Keeps me sane.

 

About to start here in a few minutes, I'm guessing some people here have read it but I never have. I enjoyed the Foundation Trilogy so when I saw this on sale in the bookstore I thought I'd give it a go.

 

Catching up on my WH40k reading list:


This one is short, the next one will be Salamander.

 

"The Gods Themselves" was very interesting and enjoyable. It's broken into 3 parts with a different cast of characters in each (though all centered around the same events), with the first 2 being much more interesting than the last in my opinion.

Now I'm reading...



Really great book and Collins is absolutely hilarious. I'm not sure I've ever laughed so hard reading a book except for maybe something by Stephen King, whose sense of humor I've always loved. However in his books you can be laughing one minute and squirming the next as somebody gets raped by a demon. I'm pretty sure there were no demon rapes on Apollo 11 but we'll see. Currently I'm in the years between Gemini 10 and Apollo 11.

 

Decided to ignore the previous ideas I mentioned and head straight into the latest Expanse novel.

 

I've been reading a bunch of "classic" books, so far I've read Treasure Island, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and King Solomon's Mines and I loved all 3 (though 20,000 Leagues had some fat that could have been trimmed to make it a better read). Now I'm reading Moby Dick and I absolutely hate it, its one of those books that everybody raves about but I'm 450 pages in and its utter nonsense. A solid 200 pages could probably be cut and have no negative effect on the story, mainly because there are massive chunks of the book that have nothing to do with the story. After Moby Dick I have Tarzan of the Apes, The Jungle Books, and The Picture of Dorian Gray lined up.

 

I haven't read 20,000 Leagues since I was a kid but I was considering reading it again. I can't even remember if I liked it but I enjoyed the ride at Disney World. Similarly I haven't read Moby Dick since I was in elementary school, I've thought about reading it again but whenever I get the urge I just throw in Star Trek II.

 

I can definitely say that watching Wrath of Khan is a much better use of your time.

 

Currently reading two books:

Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett


And Quantum, The Great Debate (this one is the third time reading it - I just LOVE this book!)


As I mentioned, I LOVE Quantum. It's right up there with my other favorite. A Short History of Nearly Everything.


(I rip off dust covers - hate them, but the actual book is a lovely cream and blue - you can see it a bit at the bottom...I also prefer the non-illustrated version).

Though there are errors in Bryson's book (because of information not yet known at the time he wrote it...though I think he released it with an update later at least once), the combination of Bryson and Kumar's books is a very powerful one-two punch because they are of similar form in that they work topically chronologically and from the angle of biopic history so that the reader learns why someone was thinking what they were and what the context of their work was, and therefore, the reader can follow a train of thought through humanity rather more easily and watch it naturally evolve one step at a time from the ground up rather than trying to approach it form a top-down method usually found in every text book or classroom environment. Kumar's Quantum picks up basically where Bryson leaves off, as Bryson doesn't dig deep into the Quantum age and sticks mostly to the superficial layers of it and departs at, more or less, 'that brings us to now' aaand, fin!

And that's where Kumar comes in, because you can read Bryson as everything before the Quantum era that lead to the Quantum era, and Kumar as everything in the Quantum era that lead to the Quantum era (that sounds confusing, but it means how the quantum era became the quantum era exactly).

I keep wanting to take the mammoth task of combining the two books into a two volume tome, but to-date, it is more just a regular want with no progress...maybe one day.



Anywhoo....Reaper Man is also pretty good.
I wouldn't rank it way up there on the Pratchett scale, but it's pretty good.
Mort is slightly better, as is the Lost Continent, but I'd place it about on par with Eric. I very rarely am provoked to armchair edit Pratchett, but in this case, I do feel like Reaper Man would make more sense, tonally, before Mort rather than after Mort. Reaper Man coming after Mort seems a bit disjointed like some things were just forgotten or are ignored. If the order was flipped some of the motives for the behaviors in Mort would make sense as well.
I wish I had read them in reverse, even though they are properly listed as Mort and then Reaper Man, but...oh well.

Still a pretty good book.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

To be honest the only reason I've even considered reading Moby Dick again are the Wrath Of Khan connections. But Shatner trumps whales... and whalers, as seen in Star Trek IV.

 

I decided to split the difference (poorly) between reading Moby Dick again or watching Wrath Of Khan again by reading the Wrath Of Khan novelization. I'd been planning to get to it and all this talk got me to go ahead and read it. It's interesting though not that great so far and at times somewhat bizarre.

One of the more interesting parts of the book, and a pretty long one (considering it's not a very long book) is something that wasn't shown in the film. Which is what happened when Kahn arrived at Regula 1 and killed everybody. In the book Kahn's followers aren't 100% on board with his craziness, when he first kills somebody his people are as upset at the other scientists. Kahn's sidekick Joachim is begging him not to kill people unnecessarily and to just use the Ceti Eels (which they brought with them) to find out where they took Genesis but Kahn goes off the deep end and just wants to kill people and basically screws himself in that regard. Joachim is actually in tears and is apologizing to the scientists. Prior to this we're treated to a long and not-too-entertaining backstory for two of the ill-fated scientists. Presumably just so we'd care when they died. I didn't. Those guys have more "screen" time (or whatever you call it in a book, page time?) than most of the main characters so far.

Also Saavik and Peter Preston are really expanded. With Saavik it's understandable and interesting giving her a great backstory. Peter Preston on the other hand is now 14 for some reason and has a crush on Saavik who is his math tutor. And after his little defensive spat at Kirk during the inspection (which Kirk found funny and wasn't angry about) his "uncle Montgomery" basically treats him like he murdered a prostitute. And speaking of Scott, holy crap he is written terribly. Here's a Scotty line when talking some trash about Peter's sister: "That sister o' thine has just missed being thrown in the brig more times than thy computer can count! I'd not take thy sister as a model, mister, if ye know what's good for ye!". Da fuh?

 

Rereading a favorite of mine.....how to do the "end of the world apocalypse" the right way......anyone else ever read this?