The book thread

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_GT_ said:
I agree. Donaldson is very engaging and pulls you along the the storyline, often at speed. It is his harrowing themes of perversion in some series that I find exhausting. Tolkien tells a great tale, but often gets lost painting out the scene, the set piece battle or contextual history. Ok if you like the detail.
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I get that, and it's probably I dont read in a very structured way. I will often skip bits. Donaldson is dark but he doesn't offend my sensibilities in the way say Heinlein does. His fascism and tales of incest just piss me off.I read a lot of his books because he can write but no more.
 
Bokonon_ said:
I have started reading Tigana and am far enough in to know I will be working my way through his books for a while.
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Ichabod Noodle introduced me to G G Kay and I particularly like the historical fiction/fantasy mash up more than his straight fantasy.

The overwhelming endorsement of SPQR has prompted me to seek it out.
 

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Just felt like dropping a quote from a Cats Cradle in here

" Beware of the man who studies hard to learn something, learns it and finds himself no wiser than before.
Bokonon says he is murderously resentful of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way."
 
Throwing in a book recommendation

Sapiers by Yuval Noah Harari

One of the better books I've read of late.

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100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?

In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, paleontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come?

Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future.
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Just finished reading "Fall of Giants" by Ken Follet. Excellent Historical fiction, set aeound WW1. He also wrote "Pillars of the Earth" which was a historical fiction novel mainly about the building of a cathedral at the time of the Plantagenet kings, and a series on the ABC.This actually introduced me to him although he seems well known.
If you like James Michener the style is similar to me.
 
Bokonon_ said:
Just finished reading "Fall of Giants" by Ken Follet. Excellent Historical fiction, set aeound WW1. He also wrote "Pillars of the Earth" which was a historical fiction novel mainly about the building of a cathedral at the time of the Plantagenet kings, and a series on the ABC.This actually introduced me to him although he seems well known.
If you like James Michener the style is similar to me.
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Both excellent books though one needs a title change ;)
 
Gigantic said:
Throwing in a book recommendation

Sapiers by Yuval Noah Harari

One of the better books I've read of late.

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The reservation came through - 60 pages in and it's already pretty fascinating. Nothing fundamentally new to me so far, but it's always interesting to see it tied together in a narrative.
 
dlanod said:
The reservation came through - 60 pages in and it's already pretty fascinating. Nothing fundamentally new to me so far, but it's always interesting to see it tied together in a narrative.
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I bought it on my kindle, 11% in and thoroughly enjoying it, his style reminds me a little of Bryson in that he can distil a concept into relate-able language, but without the whimsical
 
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Just finished reading this. Probably related to it because Menindee was my escape from the world until tjecotton growers ****ed the darling. I've been to coopers creek as well.
It's kind of funny in a tragic sort of way. Great read. You wouldn't think a rugger forward would be a good author but he is.
The stupidity is classic, and reminds me of "Collapse" by Jared Diamond in a truly weird mind association.
 

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coniglio_number1 said:
Gone on a big splurge and bought the deluxe slipcase editions of Tolkien’s works

Haven’t started fall of Gondolin or history of middle earth(looks bloody intimidating)
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Would love to do that with the Hobbit and LOTR being my favourite books. Have no chance timewise.

Give us an update on your thoughts as you go.
 
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