What book are you reading right now?

[Raymond]

Right now, reading Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. The book came out in 1979, just when I went to university for the second time and all the intellectual types seemed to have a copy to carry around the streets. Don't know how many of them actually read it though.

However, I love Escher' paradoxical artworks and the book seeks to draw connections between those, Bach's musical fugues and Gödel's incompleteness theorem - mathematics which I stumbled across during work developing formally provable secure computing systems for handling sensitive data.

I said stumbled across and it has to be said complex mathematical constructs are uhm, not something I find second nature, so to speak. But Hofstadter promises that deep mathematical understanding is not required so we shall see . . .

Only a little way into the book and so far it looks like Hofstadter intends to have fun playing with fairly abstract ideas. I'll read along as long as I'm still having fun too.

 

[Adamc]

If you like dystopian novels, I recommend the William R. Forstchen trilogy "One Second After" "One Year After" and "The Final Day". They are about a EMP attack. Forstchen is a very interesting man and his books are real page turners IMHO.

Good recommendation @46th Georgia; I will check it out.
Tks
Ads.

 

[Mikey]

Good recommendation @46th Georgia; I will check it out.
Tks
Ads.

3 new books coming to my local library
Thanks !!

 

[46th Georgia]

3 new books coming to my local library
Thanks !!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. I found the scenarios very believable.

 

[cycleranger]

A old collection of Phillip Jose Farmer short stories.

 

[Raymond]

Erebus: the story of a ship by Michael Palin. I'm well into the book now and it's a great read, well-written with an abundance of human interest, historical detail and Palin's own experiences as a TV globe-trotter.

Palin was interested in the disappearance of two Royal Navy ships and their crews in 1848. HMS Erebus and Terror were sent on an Arctic expedition to try and sail the North West passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific but they never returned and the disappearance of the expedition is one of the great sea-faring mysteries. The wreck of Erebus was found in 2014.

Palin's book covers the entire history of the ship from its launch - early career patrolling the Mediterranean and a series of expeditions to the Antarctic where James Clark Ross made important geographical discoveries. The expedition also did valuable work in botany, natural history and mapping the Earth's magnetic field.

I've just got to the setting out on the ill-fated final mission with Sir John Franklin in command . . .

 

[Paleomechanic]

Erebus: the story of a ship by Michael Palin. I'm well into the book now and it's a great read, well-written with an abundance of human interest, historical detail and Palin's own experiences as a TV globe-trotter.

Palin was interested in the disappearance of two Royal Navy ships and their crews in 1848. HMS Erebus and Terror were sent on an Arctic expedition to try and sail the North West passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific but they never returned and the disappearance of the expedition is one of the great sea-faring mysteries. The wreck of Erebus was found in 2014.

Palin's book covers the entire history of the ship from its launch - early career patrolling the Mediterranean and a series of expeditions to the Antarctic where James Clark Ross made important geographical discoveries. The expedition also did valuable work in botany, natural history and mapping the Earth's magnetic field.

I've just got to the setting out on the ill-fated final mission with Sir John Franklin in command . . .

Thats neat ! One of of team members here, before starting with us, dove the wreck as part of an initial hull survey team.
He was very impressed with the condition and preservation of both hulls!
Clear but brutally cold dive environment he says.
I’ll have to mention this book to him
Thanks for sharing!

 

[JesseeS]

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

 

[DogBunny]

Just finished "Shuggie Bain." About a small boy growing up in a brutal 1980s Glasgow, Scotland, with his alcoholic mother. Highly lauded, won one award, was short-listed for several others. It was engrossing, but I'm pretty sure "Shuggie Bain" is the most depressing novel ever written. The publisher has my permission to put that on the dust jacket.

 

[cycleranger]

The Big Time by Fritz Leiber. (1958) Hugo award winner.
Still on an ancient sci-fi kick.
Some of this old stuff is very dated now, particularly the dialogue and depictions of women.
Oh and apparently in the far future everyone still smokes.

 

[nighthog]

pretty sure "Shuggie Bain" is the most depressing novel ever written.

A strong contender for that award is Angela's Ashes. Great book, but sooooooo bleak.

 

[Bewarethemoon]

On this at the moment…



Daniel.

 

[toglhot]

That's a particularly good book for hotting up older two strokes. I used that one as a guide back in the early 80s for a couple of two strokes I had.

View attachment 236157

Daniel.

 

[Adamc]

I love a biography me.
Currently reading this:

So far so good. Its about the formation of the band The Smiths.

 

[Mikey]

If you like dystopian novels, I recommend the William R. Forstchen trilogy "One Second After" "One Year After" and "The Final Day". They are about a EMP attack. Forstchen is a very interesting man and his books are real page turners IMHO.

Just read those all
But the local library didn't get me the first until I read the 2nd and 3rd
Anyway good read

 

[Raymond]

Still struggling through Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter but it's on the back burner, so to speak.

For lighter reading, have picked up a copy of Bill Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on returning to America after twenty years away. For them not familiar with Bryson, he's a journalist, grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and after travelling in Europe as a young man he married an English woman and settled in Britain. Where he has made a living from telling us Brits about ourselves from the perspective of an American.

He moved back to New Hampshire around the late '90s and the Notes on returning to America are based on a weekly newspaper column he penned for the Mail on Sunday's magazine supplement. So the book reads as a series of short essays on diverse topics; full of humorous observations and his unfailing sense of the ridiculous.

Very easy to read. And Yes, Mrs would confirm that the book really is laugh-out-loud funny.

 

[Adamc]

Still struggling through Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter but it's on the back burner, so to speak.

For lighter reading, have picked up a copy of Bill Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on returning to America after twenty years away. For them not familiar with Bryson, he's a journalist, grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and after travelling in Europe as a young man he married an English woman and settled in Britain. Where he has made a living from telling us Brits about ourselves from the perspective of an American.

He moved back to New Hampshire around the late '90s and the Notes on returning to America are based on a weekly newspaper column he penned for the Mail on Sunday's magazine supplement. So the book reads as a series of short essays on diverse topics; full of humorous observations and his unfailing sense of the ridiculous.

Very easy to read. And Yes, Mrs would confirm that the book really is laugh-out-loud funny.

Bill Bryson is always a good read.

 

[gggGary]

Blood and Ruins (the last imperial war) by Richard Overy
WWII; lead up, the war, aftermath, in encyclopedic detail.
um Putin, Ukraine, Oops!
Took me two library renewals to plow through it, and it was getting really blurry reading on the last third, but if you decide you really want to understand world politics, this would be a good foundation. World wide brutality would be a three word synopsis.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/books/blood-and-ruins-richard-overy.html

 

[Mailman]

Just a personal self observation, my reading habits have really changed. I used to read the morning newspaper religiously. But that paper turned into a mere shadow of its former self and now I get all of my reading news through online sources.
During my working years, I was also a voracious reader of books. I averaged 2-3 per week, but since I retired 5 1/2 years ago that came to a screeching halt, and I couldn’t tell you why. I still spend hours of my day reading, but I mostly spend my time chasing random thoughts down rabbit holes. I’ll get interested about some thing or subject and before you know it, I’m researching it like I’ve got a term paper to write. In a way it feels luxuriant to have the time to pursue idle curiosities.
And don’t get me started about getting lost watching YouTube videos…..did you know it’s actually very relaxing watching a cobbler re sole a boot?

 

[jetmechmarty]

Just a personal self observation, my reading habits have really changed. I used to read the morning newspaper religiously. But that paper turned into a mere shadow of its former self and now I get all of my reading news through online sources.
During my working years, I was also a voracious reader of books. I averaged 2-3 per week, but since I retired 5 1/2 years ago that came to a screeching halt, and I couldn’t tell you why. I still spend hours of my day reading, but I mostly spend my time chasing random thoughts down rabbit holes. I’ll get interested about some thing or subject and before you know it, I’m researching it like I’ve got a term paper to write. In a way it feels luxuriant to have the time to pursue idle curiosities.
And don’t get me started about getting lost watching YouTube videos…..did you know it’s actually very relaxing watching a cobbler re sole a boot?

Dude! You are not alone. Right down to the cobbler!