Humpty Dumpty in Oakland by Philip K. Dick
Sometimes a little bit of fiction is nice over the usual technical / theory books one might read :)
What are you reading?
71–80 of 222 posts
Re: What are you reading?
#72Starship Troopers.
Began and finished off 1984 after all the hubbub about it recently on HN.
Re: What are you reading?
#73McMafia by Misha Glenny. Interesting read on globalization and organized crime as circumstances have materialized since the end of the Cold War.
You'd probably also be interested in the book Rogue Economics by Napoleoni. It discusses how the money from illicit activities are flowing around the world.
Re: What are you reading?
#74Founders At Work, On Lisp, SICP, Idoru, The Art of Racing In the Rain (Garth Stein)
Re: What are you reading?
#75Finished Amusing Ourselves to Death a week ago, now reading Cryptonomicon.
Re: What are you reading?
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
For a time, I considered this my bible. But it's too idealistic, and goes a long way on some fairly iffy assumptions. It's still compelling as hell, though.
Ayn Rand was a philosopher. And like most philosophers, she started out with some good ideas and over applied them to everything in life, which leads to some scary conclusions. My favorite Rand book was Anthem. It was short and therefore didn't have space to extrapolate Rand's ideas to their scary conclusion. I just finished reading Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. It is just as long and pompous as Atlas Shrugged, but…
What's interesting is that Ayn Rand thought Victor Hugo was the best novelist ever. She also thought that the philosophy in Les Miserables was at odds with his "sense of life".
Re: What are you reading?
#77The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt
Finished "Ghost" last week -- nice book! Not as good as his first one, but well-written. You know there's a third book in the series too, right? Not as good as the first two, but good. What impressed me most about this author was after writing three books, he hung up the series. He said that was it, not going any father. I gotta admire that. Most Sci-Fi Authors with a good series have to beat the thing to death befor…
Well, he did follow it up with Zoe's Tale, a fourth book. And there's also Jane's Diary or some other book that is tangentially related to the main trilogy.
Re: What are you reading?
#78Making of the Atomic Bomb
Re: What are you reading?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ayn Rand was a philosopher. And like most philosophers, she started out with some good ideas and over applied them to everything in life, which leads to some scary conclusions. My favorite Rand book was Anthem. It was short and therefore didn't have space to extrapolate Rand's ideas to their scary conclusion. I just finished reading Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. It is just as long and pompous as Atlas Shrugged, but…
I once listened to a 80-hour overview of the world's great philosophers, given by modern professors. What amazed me was how many of them came up with a good idea that was new and revolutionary -- and then spent the rest of their life taking the damn thing too far. I guess great people fall so much in love with their great ideas that it never occurs to them that the most important piece is finding the boundaries for w…
>I guess great people fall so much in love with their great ideas that it never occurs to them that the most important piece is finding the boundaries for where their work applies and where it does not.
Well said.
I think many ("normal") people would benefit from listening to this, but more importantly, by practicing it.
Re: What are you reading?
#80I just finished The Brothers Karamazov. It was excellent.