Read any good books lately? Rate them here

[downbeatplumb]

Still working my way, reluctantly through the last Terry Pratchett book.  Knowing it's the end of the line makes me take big gaps between reading chapters.  

I galloped through it. I found it not as polished as most of his work but then he probably hadn't finished fiddling. I would rather his last book had been a watch book as his Tiffany Aching books were always my least favourite of the discworld books.

[Ravenshire]

I really need to get back to the Discworld books. I'm not even a quarter of the way through them yet, but they're so much fun.

Just finished the second book of the "Low Town" series, "Tomorrow, the Killing" by Daniel Polansky. Very different from typical fantasy fare. Bogart would have no problem playing the main character. Not as good as the first in the series, "The Straight Razor Cure" or, "Low Town" in the States, but still quite good.

[Ravenshire]

Ack! Gonna have to run through the Mistborn audio books again this week. Just got "Shadows of Self!"

[Clueless Morgan]

That's a great emoji


I am listening to the Great Courses lecture by Steven Novella called "Your Deceptive Mind" (5 stars) and was planning on doing WWZ on audiobook after that, but I went to preview it and it's in German!?!?! WTF Audible. I'm sure glad I ALWAYS preview the book before I download it!

So I'm thinking I'll get The Martian on audio instead...

Never read the Discworld book, nor Mistborn, but have heard they're both good.

[Ravenshire]

That's a great emoji

Feel free to copypasta. I got it from the good folks over at Landover Baptist.

I am listening to the Great Courses lecture by Steven Novella called "Your Deceptive Mind" (5 stars) and was planning on doing WWZ on audiobook after that, but I went to preview it and it's in German!?!?!  WTF Audible.  I'm sure glad I ALWAYS preview the book before I download it!

So I'm thinking I'll get The Martian on audio instead...

Never read the Discworld book, nor Mistborn, but have heard they're both good.

You must read Mistborn! Truly fantastic fantasy.

[Clueless Morgan]

You must read Mistborn! Truly fantastic fantasy.

Is Mistborn the one that's basically premised as "what would've happened if the Dark Lord had won"? I can't remember which Sanderson book that's the descriptor for, but it's always been associated with Mistborn for me...

[Ravenshire]

More like "What would happen if people rebelled against evil creator gawd."

[Mudhammam]

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius was excellent. Imagine Richard Dawkin's Unweaving the Rainbow, except that instead the author is a 6th-century prison inmate awaiting execution on a charge of conspiracy against the king, and his source of awe and wonder is limited to the doctrines of Plato rather than the discoveries of Newton. Also, unlike Dawkins' blend of poetry and prose, all of Boethius' inspired words are his own (prison was a long ways off from his library). The book is superb on its own merits, and even more so given the conditions in which it was composed - Boethius' attitude is no less admirable than Socrates' in both the Crito and Phaedo.

Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume. This belongs on every sceptic's bookshelf. It explains the basis for the empiricist approach, the correspondence theory of truth, contains Hume's charges brought against the validity of inductive reasoning, a good discussion of necessity and liberty, the excellent section "Of Miracles," a mock speech by Epicurus, and a look at how the ancient Pyrrhonics differed from the more moderate Academics.

Currently reading Abelard and Heloise: The Letters and Other Writings... Love it so far. What a scandal! What a story!

[Ravenshire]

I re-read (listened) the "Mistborn" books, including "The Alloy of Law." Really glad I included that one even though I was expecting "Shadows of Self" to be a new series more closely related to the events in the original trilogy. Turns out that, despite Sanderson's early claims that "Alloy" was a one-off story, "Shadows" is it's sequel with a third on the way. "Shadows" has been pretty good so far. A better story than "Alloy" actually with more references to the original trilogy, but not quite as good as the original. Still, a pretty good book from Sanderson beats the crap out of "great" books by most of the popular author these days.

Also recently finished the "Low Town" series. Imagine Philip Marlowe in a fantasy world setting. Both the setting and the writing style are very dark, chilling in places, but I still can't recommend them enough.

I've also managed to muscle through the gag reflex on three more of the "Wheel of Time" books. I'm closing in on the Sanderson books in that series. If not for wanting to read those, I would have given up on this tripe long ago. I still can't figure out how Robert Jordan convinced a publisher to allow him to crap out a new addition to an overly long, poorly imagined series every year or two. I have high hopes for the final three in the series, but Jordan's story could have, and should have, been told in a series of 4-6 books. He milked it for everything he could, started thread after thread and left his legacy unfinished. The sad part is, the seeds of a great story are there. Jordan just drowned them with purple prose and unnecessary side plots.

[Ravenshire]

Finished the "Nigh Angel" trilogy by Brent Weeks today at work. Very good sword and sorcery type Fantasy. Looking forward to reading his "Lightbringer Trilogy" trilogy in the not too distant future.