books books books

[thebosma]

Having fun isn’t hard
When you’ve got a library card

[Xamnam]

Jan 28, 2019 8:35:05 GMT -6 scoots said:

It's free right now if you have Amazon Prime and a Kindle app (which is also free).

Thanks for the heads up!

[ten15]

Just finished this:


About a woman who went from growing up in a remote area of Idaho with survivalist Mormon parents (no school, no birth certificates, no doctors) who left her family to go to school. Was an interesting read.

[Tweet]

Also on my list!

[sick2b]

[alady]

Just finished:


In the middle of:


Just started:

[sthubbins]

I've been listening to the audiobook of "Winesburg, Ohio" sporadically in my car for several months. It's ridiculously good and I don't want to finish it.

[Pale Hose]

:: pokes head in. looks left, looks right ::

[Pale Hose]

So I started reading this on my flights home, and holy shit I am impressed. Weir is such a good writer, I can't believe this is his first novel. Also, I now realize how much Hollywood whitewashed the film. I don't like it as much knowing that.

[Deleted]

Feb 24, 2019 13:43:33 GMT -6 Pale Hose said:

So I started reading this on my flights home, and holy shit I am impressed. Weir is such a good writer, I can't believe this is his first novel. Also, I now realize how much Hollywood whitewashed the film. I don't like it as much knowing that.

IMO He’s a pretty terrible writer. He’s popular because he writes for a very specific subset: men who don’t enjoy reading typically and who dislike detailed prose. While that may make his works appealing to people who don’t want to put in the time or effort to read “serious” works it makes his writing pretty cookie-cuttered. He’s basically written himself into a rut where all of his works now are going to have really bland manly jokes and loads of random explanations of Mythbuster like scientific methods. In college so many of my engineering friends gushed over The Martian and it’s likely because they’d never read anything else (I’m not making some biased assumption about engineering majors here, they literally told me they had never read another book).

The Martian worked because he only had to write about one person essentially. His next book shows the massive lack of writing ability he has and book is sexist and has so many terrible characterizations of women. It’s also clear that he only made his main character a female and a Muslim to try and seem cultured but his inability to write from these perspectives negates any of that. The man cannot write women at all; most of his prose and dialogue comes off as parody they’re so bad:

www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/entertainment/books/the-5-worst-scenes-from-andy-weirs-new-book-artemis/2017/11/30/49017944-c896-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html

www.google.com/amp/s/www.avclub.com/the-follow-up-to-the-martian-should-be-shot-into-space-1820231886/amp

[Pale Hose]

Feb 24, 2019 14:17:36 GMT -6 @bitteorca said:

Feb 24, 2019 13:43:33 GMT -6 Pale Hose said:

So I started reading this on my flights home, and holy shit I am impressed. Weir is such a good writer, I can't believe this is his first novel. Also, I now realize how much Hollywood whitewashed the film. I don't like it as much knowing that.

IMO He’s a pretty terrible writer. He’s popular because he writes for a very specific subset: men who don’t enjoy reading typically and who dislike detailed prose. While that may make his works appealing to people who don’t want to put in the time or effort to read “serious” works it makes his writing pretty cookie-cuttered. He’s basically written himself into a rut where all of his works now are going to have really bland manly jokes and loads of random explanations of Mythbuster like scientific methods. In college so many of my engineering friends gushed over The Martian and it’s likely because they’d never read anything else (I’m not making some biased assumption about engineering majors here, they literally told me they had never read another book).

The Martian worked because he only had to write about one person essentially. His next book shows the massive lack of writing ability he has and book is sexist and has so many terrible characterizations of women. It’s also clear that he only made his main character a female and a Muslim to try and seem cultured but his inability to write from these perspectives negates any of that. The man cannot write women at all; most of his prose and dialogue comes off as parody they’re so bad:

www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/entertainment/books/the-5-worst-scenes-from-andy-weirs-new-book-artemis/2017/11/30/49017944-c896-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html

www.google.com/amp/s/www.avclub.com/the-follow-up-to-the-martian-should-be-shot-into-space-1820231886/amp

I have not read Artemis so cannot comment on that, but the Martian was not written for a "very specific subset", and certainly not the one you described. He writes what he knows, but does so in a way that doesn't come off as nerdy or boring (and I assume a lot of his own personality is reflected in Watney). Not all writing needs to be "serious works", sometimes it's okay to just sit back and enjoy some good old fashioned fiction.

[sick2b]

Has anyone read Rorty's 1998 book "Achieving our country"?

[Tweet]

Hey what a fun read.

In what was also a fun read I finished Sarah Kendzior’s “the view from flyover country” last week, which is an essay collection about how middle America fell apart between 2012-2015 and ultimately helped trump get elected. Good stuff

[Deleted]

[thebosma]

Wow everyone’s reading some heavy shit. I bought a foxtrot book because I remember liking Foxtrot as a kid and wow Foxtrot is not good. I also bought a couple of Chomsky books that I’m gonna dig into soon.

[Tweet]

Mar 14, 2019 19:38:50 GMT -6 scoots said:

Still cracks me up that they refer to it as “the troubles”

I took a class on the history of the conflict in school, was fascinating reading first hand accounts of it all

[sthubbins]

A couple years ago I downloaded the audiobook of Wolf in White Van and I'm now getting around to listening to it.

[Tweet]

Mar 14, 2019 19:55:19 GMT -6 sthubbins said:

A couple years ago I downloaded the audiobook of Wolf in White Van and I'm now getting around to listening to it.

I gave my girlfriend my copy to read and she loved it. Let me/us know what you think

[andrewvb]

Picturing tweet laughing in class at “the troubles”

[jazzpolice]

[thebosma]

How is it? All I know is it got some praise from Stiglitz which usually means I find it at least partially interesting.

[jazzpolice]

It's very good. Although it left me wanting to do something actionable without really having any idea what that would look like.

[thebosma]

Mar 15, 2019 13:43:56 GMT -6 jazzpolice said:

It's very good. Although it left me wanting to do something actionable without really having any idea what that would look like.

If you haven’t read “The Wealth of Humans” and have even a passing interest in economics (if you have a degree in it and I’m recommending this to you imma feel like a real dumbass), I’d highly recommend it. It ends each segment with practical suggestions policy wise to fill the gaps that are left between knowing about a problem and taking actual action.

It’s also not very long.

[jazzpolice]

I can barely spell economix. Thanks for the recommendation, I will check it out.

[thebosma]

It’s really good and very accessible even if you don’t have a broad knowledge on the topic.

[Pale Hose]

Reading this for the first time. Apt Pupil is way more fucked up than I was anticipating.

[zircona1]

Mar 23, 2019 13:22:34 GMT -6 Pale Hose said:

Reading this for the first time. Apt Pupil is way more fucked up than I was anticipating.

The movie version of Apt Pupil has a really disappointing ending. (Bryan Singer directed it, FWIW)

[Pale Hose]

Mar 23, 2019 13:31:51 GMT -6 zircona1 said:

Mar 23, 2019 13:22:34 GMT -6 Pale Hose said:

Reading this for the first time. Apt Pupil is way more fucked up than I was anticipating.

The movie version of Apt Pupil has a really disappointing ending. (Bryan Singer directed it, FWIW)

That's really disappointing to hear, but I feel obligated to watch it anyway.

[zircona1]

The performances are good, at least.

[Deleted]