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Topic: what are you reading now? (Read 6165 times) |
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Mermaid
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what are you reading now?
« on: 2005-09-23 12:42:05 » |
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my current read >
Angels & Insects by AS Byatt
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679751343/103-7640427-8772635?v=glance
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Byatt revisits the Victorian landscape of Possession in these two fluid and intricate novellas.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This work consists of two novellas set in the mid-19th century. The first, "Morpho Eugenia," is a Gothic fable that explores the multiple themes of earthly paradise and Darwin's theories of breeding and sexuality. There is an implied parallel between insect and human society throughout. The hero, a poor, scholarly entomologist, is taken into a wealthy Victorian family. His life and loves, particularly for the daughter Eugenia and the eponymous species of butterfly, comprise this tale. The second novella, "The Conjugal Angel," is reminiscent of Possession ( LJ 11/1/90), Byatt's 1990 Booker Prize winner for fiction, wherein poetry is woven into the narrative. Here, the poem is Tennyson's "In Memoriam , " written to mourn the death of Tennyson's friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who was engaged to the poet's sister Emily--a main character here. This is a philosophical ghost story, bizarre and comic, but since assorted mediums meet real characters, it is difficult to relate to any of them. These novellas will attract attention due to the fame of their author, but they will appeal to a very limited audience. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/92.
- Patricia C. Heaney, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.
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Cassidy McGurk
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http://www.isec.info/ get me out of here!
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Re:what are you reading now?
« Reply #1 on: 2005-09-23 16:53:48 » |
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Brick Lane - Monica Ali
although you can usually check my current reading on my intermittently live blog
http://irvken.homelinux.net/blog (shameless plug)
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I must remember to change this sig regularly
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DJ dAndroid
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Ballet Mechanique
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Re:what are you reading now?
« Reply #5 on: 2006-01-09 13:05:27 » |
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I am plowing steadily through 'We want some too' Underground desire and the reinvention of mass culture by Hal Niedzviecki.
At the same time fiction-wise, currently I'm re-reading 'Survivor' by Chuck Palahniuk. (Definitely my fav. author!)
After that I will begin 'Prozac Highway by Persimmon Blackbridge. I'm looking forward to it.
I just realized there's a trend there, subcultural, outsider... something. ;)
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Shouldn't robots have the same right as humans to have gender and express their sexuality?
_Clayton Bailey_
http://www.claytonbailey.com/monrobot.htm
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Drakeo Vortex
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Re:what are you reading now?
« Reply #6 on: 2006-04-12 10:04:02 » |
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I just finished More than Human by Ramez Naam
now I'm reading Building Biotech by Yali Freidman
oh and by the way I'm a civilian finally now
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David Lucifer
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Enlighten me.
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Re:what are you reading now?
« Reply #7 on: 2006-04-23 15:07:07 » |
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Welcome back, Drakeo 
I recently finished Altered Carbon (kind of a guilty pleasure).
Now reading Dennett's latest Breaking The Spell. Excellent so far, will likely end up on the CoV must-read list. Dennett acknowledges that defining religion is problematic but had to pick something for purposes of discussion. The definition he chose would exclude the CoV:
Quote:| Tentatively, I propose to define religions as social systems whose participants avow belief in a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought. This is, of course, a circuitous way of articulating the idea that a religion without God or gods is like a vertabrate without a backbone. |
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ifort
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I'm a llama!
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Re:what are you reading now?
« Reply #8 on: 2006-10-04 12:23:25 » |
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Ventus. It's reminicient of Vinge's work by theme, but style differs greatly.
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Spread virulent skepticism.
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Mermaid
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Re:what are you reading now?
« Reply #9 on: 2006-10-17 01:56:44 » |
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Vellum: The Book of All Hours ( http://www.amazon.com/Vellum-Book-Hours-Hal-Duncan/dp/0345487311 ) by Hal Duncan.
whoa! hal duncan's first novel weaving and mapping many different realities. the narrative is a little disorienting, but one would soon learn to enjoy it after learning how to meander through it all..a homage to moorcock's multiverse, apparently...
give it a read!
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David Lucifer
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Enlighten me.
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Re:what are you reading now?
« Reply #10 on: 2006-11-05 15:35:37 » |
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A week ago today in the delivery room I finished Douglas Coupland's JPod. The characterization as Microserf 2.0 is apt and I enjoyed both a lot.
Most recently read Best Software Writing I edited by Joel Spolsky. Good mix of essays here, some insightful, some quite funny. Of interest to anyone involved in the software industry.
Just started The God Delusion.
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ComradeSmack
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Only the Educated are Free
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Re:what are you reading now?
« Reply #11 on: 2007-01-26 09:59:42 » |
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Currently Reading: Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
It's one of those books that I never got around to reading before. The joyful Christfest brought that book to me.
In Queue: Quantum Theory by SomeGuy
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Scientia Potentia Est
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Blunderov
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"We think in generalities, we live in details"
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Re:what are you reading now?
« Reply #12 on: 2007-01-26 11:53:17 » |
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Quote from: ComradeSmack on 2007-01-26 09:59:42
...It's one of those books that I never got around to reading before... |
[Blunderov] Same here with Thomas Hobbes "Of Man". I tend to be reading more than one book at a time and I have two others on the go a the moment; "Hannibal" by Thomas Harris and "The Philosophy of Punk" by Craig O'Hara.
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Blunderov
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"We think in generalities, we live in details"
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Re:what are you reading now?
« Reply #14 on: 2007-03-12 04:21:45 » |
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[Blunderov] "The God Delusion" and now this: "The Fabric of Reality" by David Deutsch. My cup runneth over.
http://www.qubit.org/people/david/FabricOfReality/FoRReviews.html#Adams
Reviews of The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch
How much can our four deepest theories of the world explain?
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Review copies are now available.
Here is a selection of reviews and other comments.
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Douglas Adams (novelist, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
Belgravia
Prof Sir Michael Berry FRS (Physics, University of Bristol)
Dr Harvey Brown (Philosophy, Oxford University)
Julian Brown (New Scientist)
Ken Campbell (author and columnist, The Guardian)
Prof David Conway (Jewish Chronicle)
Prof Richard Dawkins (Oxford University, author of The Selfish Gene)
Prof Paul Davies (Natural Philosophy, University of Adelaide)
Prof Bryce DeWitt (Relativity, University of Texas at Austin)
Jerry Glover (New Moon)
John Gribbin (The Sunday Times)
James P Hogan (novelist, author of Inherit the Stars)
Kirkus Reviews
Prof Peter T. Landsberg (Nature)
Dr Michael Lockwood (Philosophy, Oxford University)
Prof Jan Narveson (Philosophy, University of Waterloo, Canada)
Matthew Parris (author and columnist, The Times)
Dr Ray Percival (The Critical Café)
Publishers Weekly
Tim Radford (The Guardian)
Dr Enrico Rodrigo (Physics, University of Arizona)
Gilbert Taylor (The Booklist)
Prof Frank Tipler (Physics and Mathematics, Tulane University)
Prof Frank Wilczek (Physics Today)
Lynn Yarris (San Jose Mercury News)
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Douglas Adams
"A tremendously exciting book. Deutsch argues that we are much closer to A Theory of Everything than we realise - we just have to take a deep breath and face up to the embarrassingly enormous implications of the theories we already have. What prevents us from seeing this is the same thing that prevented us from seeing that the earth orbits the sun - sheer incredulity."
Belgravia
"Stunning philosophical work by a quantum physicist, who plays across the major theories of our time - and comes to some startling conclusions."
Prof Sir Michael Berry FRS
"Deutsch writes with great clarity, and his unifying philosophy is expressed persuasively and with a great deal of good sense."
Dr Harvey Brown
"The Fabric of Reality is a vibrant and eloquent defence of four pivotal modern themes in natural philosophy, marshalled by a thinker of unusual originality and insight. No philosopher ... with interests in the nature of scientific rationality, quantum theory, consciousness, time or ... evolution can afford to ignore the synthesis offered in this important and timely book."
Julian Brown
"...his writing crackles with originality ... this is an awesome book." (New Scientist March 22 1997)
Ken Campbell
"Great news left on my answer machine. David Deutsch has finished his book and it's called The Fabric of Reality and ... it comes out early next year. A pity it's not out for Christmas because then I would give it to everyone I know and they could stop thinking I'm mad, or at least know who I got it from. Because yes, it will have all about the multiverse in it." (The Guardian October 4 1996.)
Prof David Conway
"...nothing less than a tour de force." (Jewish Chronicle August 8 1997)
Prof Richard Dawkins
" the real universe has a genuinely deep and disturbing strangeness, which I shall be trying, yet again, to fathom, with the help of two iconoclastic young physicists: David Deutsch on The Fabric of Reality ... and Lee Smolin on The Life of the Cosmos..." (The Sunday Times, Summer Reading June 22 1997)
Prof Paul Davies
"David Deutsch is one of Britain's most original thinkers. In this major work he confronts the deepest questions of existence head-on, challenging traditional notions of reality with a new world view that interweaves physics, computing and philosophy. I haven't been so inspired since reading Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach."
Prof Bryce DeWitt
"This is a book that should be of at least as much interest to specialists as to the general reader. It has to be read slowly, in many sittings...."
Jerry Glover
"...never less than fascinating." (New Moon June 1 1997)
John Gribbin
"Deutsch offers the best justification for this seemingly wild idea [the many-universes interpretation] that I have ever read ... Deutsch has a wild story to tell, he mostly tells it with great clarity, and he provides neat synopses at the end of each chapter to keep you up to date with the story so far. This is a book to be read for an inspiring one-man view of what science is all about, and an insight into the questions that need to be addressed in the next century." (The Sunday Times April 6 1997.)
James P Hogan
"Popular belief has it that science-fiction visionaries of today paint pictures of where science fact will be exploring tomorrow. The truth is more often the other way around. David Deutsch's book contains more than enough in the way of new, fascinating, and in many cases stupefying insights to the underlying realities and meaning of our existence to inspire the best of science fiction for the next fifty years. ... A "must" read for those who have been experiencing a growing conviction that there's a lot more to science than many scientists seem to think there is."
Kirkus Reviews
"...worth the work for anyone interested in the thought processes of a scientist on the leading edge of his discipline." (Kirkus Reviews June 1 1997)
Prof Peter T. Landsberg
"Knowledgeable, fiercely outspoken and quite partisan, David Deutsch aims to introduce us to his view of reality ... This is a highly stimulating book, full of ideas and spurring us on to greater efforts of imagination." (Nature July 10 1997)
Dr Michael Lockwood
"The Fabric of Reality is a marvellously exhilarating read. By drawing out the consequences of our most fundamental theories, Deutsch opens up, for the reader, astonishing new vistas; and gives us reason for thinking that intelligent life, so far from being merely a 'scum' that occasionally forms on the surface of insignificant planets, is destined to take centre stage in the evolving cosmic drama."
Prof Jan Narveson
"The Fabric of Reality is a fascinating, highly readable, and wonderfully well-informed book about the world we live in. It will challenge and intrigue the philosopher of science and the intelligent layman alike. Deutsch, a physicist at Oxford, ranges over the fundamentals of contemporary physical science with a master's touch, illuminating, intriguing, and even inspiring as he goes. It is remarkable how well he is able to communicate what is often pretty arcane stuff to readers with little background knowledge or mathematical expertise. His book is a model of how these things ought to be done, as well as being probably the very best book of its type today."
Matthew Parris
"David Deutsch tackles a difficult subject with beautiful clarity. Writing with a careful simplicity which bespeaks deep consideration for his reader, he merits comparison as a stylist with Bertrand Russell. If it is possible for the untrained mind to embrace what Deutsch describes in The Fabric of Reality, then no better description will be found."
Dr Ray Percival
Written by one of the pioneering thinkers into quantum computation and cosmology, this is a breathtaking perspective on current science, deftly welding together ideas in quantum physics, computation, evolution, and the philosophy of science (epistemology). If you are untrained in any of these areas, this is the book I recommend highly. (The Critical Café September 5, 1997)
Publishers Weekly
"...Deutsch provides a model of reality that is as provocative as it is complex ... an intellectually stimulating read for the science-literate and motivated lay person ... The author exhibits not only a thorough knowledge of his subject matter but a genuine desire to draw the reader into the complexities, paradoxes and possibilities surrounding quantum physics. In a particularly effective manner, each chapter begins by outlining basic scientific history or concepts before delving into the complex, and ends with a glossary and summary, both invaluable tools for the lay reader. In a field where scientific inquiry challenges not only our imagination but basic assumptions about our physical world, this volume provides the essential information needed for future debates..." (Publishers Weekly July 7, 1997)
Tim Radford
"...dazzling" (The Guardian June 19, 1997)
Dr Enrico Rodrigo
"This is the finest popular work that I've read so far. ... I am bowled over by the incredible clarity, the carefully crafted sentences, the brilliant arguments, the way in which objections ... are dealt with as soon as they arise in the reader's mind ..."
Gilbert Taylor
"In the library of physics for laypeople, Deutsch's book is unique ... the confidence with which he presents his views, and the absence of condescension in his style, accesses nonscientists to his seemingly alien world(s)." (The Booklist July 1997)
Prof Frank Tipler
"The Fabric of Reality is the most important book in the philosophy of science to be published since Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery appeared in the 1930's."
Frank Wilczek
"Deutsch is someone to be taken seriously ... he has made significant original contributions to the theory of quantum computing, and shows a broad command of an amazing range of material. He also writes clearly and forcefully. Moreover, his attempt at metaphysics in this book is based on sharp insights from physics and other branches of intellectual endeavour. Whereas most scientists, I think, find that much contemporary philosophy is quite alien and remote from their concerns, this book is different." (Physics World June 1997)
Lynn Yarris
"amazingly enough, it is Deutsch's idea - one he has harbored since childhood, he says - to truly understand "everything" that is known. Even more amazing is how close he seems to have come and how well he explains it to the rest of us." (San Jose Mercury News, October 12, 1997)
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