Now Reading

[Danny O Flannagin]

^^funnily enough, Finally finished The Tin Drum and now reading:

 

Does he always write in a kinda disjointed mindfuck kinda way? the cover looks a bit odd...

[goffer]

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield .... brother recommended it, it's a nice read. Helped me get through this years watmm compilation.

[KovalainenFanBoy]

Reading Slaughter House Five again, last time i read it i was in junior high so im definitely picking up a lot more than my first first read. Completely forgot what the unifying point of the book is, it sometimes seems like there is no point

 

I'm reading that for the first time. I'm trying to read books in their original languages now, but I already buy music, videogames, technology and basically everything online, so it's a pain in the ass that I have to pay p&p and wait for books to arrive too.

 

Anyways, I'm reading it in spanish. I don't like reading translations, but I don't think much will be lost in it

[hello spiral]

 

^^funnily enough, Finally finished The Tin Drum and now reading:

 

Does he always write in a kinda disjointed mindfuck kinda way? the cover looks a bit odd...

 

 

If by that you mean an informal, conversational tone which goes off on many tangents then yes.

 

I think my favorite is still Breakfast of Champions, but that's the first of his I read.

 

Timequake is pretty awesome too.

[auxien]

I started a book club with some friends recently, we read Bradbury's The Illustrated Man recently, and are currently reading Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Both enjoyable, but I'm new to Gaiman so I'm getting used to the style a bit.

 

For school I just finished William Beckford's Vathek and Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot. Salem's Lot wasn't bad, just too long for my tastes. Vathek was interesting and weird, basically a morality tale wrapped in trying to be in an 'Oriental' style. Fucking 18th century writers.

[Guest Iain C]

 

Οιμοι

[Sprillian]

Breakfast of Champions. Very enjoyable. Appears it's going to be one of those books you want to be able to read for the first time over and over. What's not to love in a book that has an author's illustration of an arsehole by page five?

[Guest Jimmy McMessageboard]

^^funnily enough, Finally finished The Tin Drum and now reading:

 

 

loved this.was my first vonnegut. after i went through all his books i went back to reread it and it didnt manage to hold my attention.

[Guest Jimmy McMessageboard]

I finished under the dome. flew through it. king said he was trying to write a full paced book and it sure was. not entirely satisfying but very enjoyable and hard to put down

 

in my head barbie looked like this:

 

 

but in the tv show he looks like this apparentely:

 

 

harumpf

[Plarkreluke Banloboh]

Currently enjoying The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee by Stewart Lee Allen. Sort of a sarcasticlly told travelogue, it's a refreshingly light and breezy read by comparison as I'm also reading Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind. I'm taking reflective notes on just about every line, otherwise it too easily goes in one eye and out the other. It's worth all the extra effort though, I think I'll apply this technique to Kant's Critique of Judgement next.. if I ever finish this one... ;)

[Guest Jimmy McMessageboard]

Watmm Book Club anyone?

[hello spiral]

 

^^funnily enough, Finally finished The Tin Drum and now reading:

 

 

loved this.was my first vonnegut. after i went through all his books i went back to reread it and it didnt manage to hold my attention.

 

 

I'm still having trouble actually starting this, I blame the recent acquisition of an iphone.

I usually get at least 3 hours reading time a day. an hour to and from work and my lunch break, but my commutes are now spent playing with my new toy.

 

I may just reread American Psycho for the umpteenth time.

[auxien]

Watmm Book Club anyone?

 

Depending what types of books and such, I'd be down. I'm getting a little experience with this one, and it's enjoyable getting other people's perspectives.

[baph]

Watmm Book Club anyone?

No one can withstand that much Cormac/Lovecraft/Dick. No one.

[Danny O Flannagin]

 

What's not to love in a book that has an author's illustration of an arsehole by page five?

 

"breakfast of champions", eh? I do like a good arse in the morn, oh aye.

 

 

Watmm Book Club anyone?

No one can withstand that much Cormac/Lovecraft/Dick. No one.

 

 

as much as I hate to admit it, there is such a thing as too much Dick.

 

I'd be in for a Watmm bookclub. Anyways, starting Blood Meridian by Cormac, library's only letting me have it for 20 days and im busy all the time with work and school so im trying to find time to get through it by the return date

[zkom]

 

What's not to love in a book that has an author's illustration of an arsehole by page five?

 

"breakfast of champions", eh? I do like a good arse in the morn, oh aye.

 

 

Watmm Book Club anyone?

No one can withstand that much Cormac/Lovecraft/Dick. No one.

 

 

as much as I hate to admit it, there is such a thing as too much Dick.

 

 

On page 744 of the Exegesis..

[apriorion]

Recently finished reading The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway, Flow My Tears... by Dick, Human Knowledge by Russell, Dune by Herbert, Ubik by Dick, The Problems of Philosophy by Russell, A Clockwork Orange by Burgess, and Never Let Me Go by Ishiguru.

 

Now reading The Evolution of Logic by Hart, (revisiting) Foundation and Empire by Asimov, and various epistemology articles (for work).

[VIII]

i'm reading the Shadow & Claw omnibus. found via a chatroom recommendation a few years ago

 

it's one of the best i've read in the genre. before this, I read A Game of Thrones, and tbh I prefer Shadow & Claw. everything is better, including the prose

 

im going to try and tackle A Song of Ice and Fire after this series. i've invested enough time in the first book, and tv series to not find out what happens

[VIII]

Recently finished reading The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway, Flow My Tears... by Dick, Human Knowledge by Russell, Dune by Herbert, Ubik by Dick, The Problems of Philosophy by Russell, A Clockwork Orange by Burgess, and Never Let Me Go by Ishiguru.

 

Now reading The Evolution of Logic by Hart, (revisiting) Foundation and Empire by Asimov, and various epistemology articles (for work).

I think with so much surveillance data being gathered and stored by the world governments, they will eventually be able to use it to predict the future like in Asimov's psychohistory concept

[vamos scorcho]

Undoubtably. The singularity is no joke even if it doesn't happen the way k says it will.

[Adieu]

Simulacra and Simulation. Seems to have a lot of interesting thoughts. I will probably read it twice to feel satisfied with it. I picked it up, because SR4 referenced Baudrillard in the Zimmerman thread.

 

You can read it here if you like.

 

https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf

[jeremymacgregor87]

Simulacra and Simulation. Seems to have a lot of interesting thoughts. I will probably read it twice to feel satisfied with it. I picked it up, because SR4 referenced Baudrillard in the Zimmerman thread.

 

You can read it here if you like.

 

https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf

YES

 

Baudrillard is the man. Check out Passwords if you're interested in more, it outlines a lot of his key concepts - i don't always follow what he's saying but he is phwao

[Adieu]

 

Simulacra and Simulation. Seems to have a lot of interesting thoughts. I will probably read it twice to feel satisfied with it. I picked it up, because SR4 referenced Baudrillard in the Zimmerman thread.

 

You can read it here if you like.

 

https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf

YES

 

Baudrillard is the man. Check out Passwords if you're interested in more, it outlines a lot of his key concepts - i don't always follow what he's saying but he is phwao

 

 

Yeah, he sort of goes on tangents with obscure analogies sometimes. I also think the translations might be a bit odd. Definitely one of those books that it helps to be next to a computer to reference things. It is rewarding to read nonetheless. I think I still like more straight forward stuff like Nietzsche and Thoreau, but only time will tell.

[apriorion]

 

Recently finished reading The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway, Flow My Tears... by Dick, Human Knowledge by Russell, Dune by Herbert, Ubik by Dick, The Problems of Philosophy by Russell, A Clockwork Orange by Burgess, and Never Let Me Go by Ishiguru.

 

Now reading The Evolution of Logic by Hart, (revisiting) Foundation and Empire by Asimov, and various epistemology articles (for work).

I think with so much surveillance data being gathered and stored by the world governments, they will eventually be able to use it to predict the future like in Asimov's psychohistory concept

 

Yeah, I've been thinking that the notion of psychohistory isn't so far fetched after all. The last time I read this trilogy was about 18 years ago, and when I read it then, I thought the idea was implausible: that someone could mathematically calculate the deterministic behavior of the group without predicting any individual's behavior. I guess that's somewhat different than using our online and telephone data, since that is building off of the behavior of individuals. But something like psychohistory seems possible.

[VIII]

I guess that's somewhat different than using our online and telephone data, since that is building off of the behavior of individuals.

I can't find exactly what The Foundation used data-wise to feed into the "psychohistorical equations." But iirc it was made up of population data. PRISM and w/e other giant government databases seem like the perfect way to derive statistical information that can predict things.