What book is on your nightstand? Readers!

[TANSTAAFB]

I also liked Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by same author. Check it!

Have you checked out the show on BBC? I like it but not what I imagined while reading the books. The Long, Dark, Tea-Time of the Soul is also a Dirk Gently book

 

[passedpawn]

Have you checked out the show on BBC? I like it but not what I imagined while reading the books. The Long, Dark, Tea-Time of the Soul is also a Dirk Gently book

No I didn't. I've never enjoyed the british comedy shows. I don't even like Monty Python

 

[TANSTAAFB]

No I didn't. I've never enjoyed the british comedy shows. I don't even like Monty Python

Have you been to the doctor to have that checked out? [emoji87] [emoji86] [emoji85] [emoji12]
I won't say you'll like it, but it's VERY different and weird and wonderful. Give it a couple of episodes and if it's not for you, cest la vie!

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Shrugged and Les Mis were the two books I was influenced by the most. Read both of them a couple of times.

If you get through it and want another similar, The Fountainhead is at least as good (IMO). Shorter, too

Atlas Shrugged is one of those books where I hate to have to tell someone "oh, the first 600 pages or so are mostly character development, but it gets better once you get through that."

The Fountainhead is definitely better in that regard.

I don't quite understand why people say that Ayn Rand is a great author, though. She seems to be a pretty terrible novelist. Her characters are wooden, two-dimensional caricatures, and that's the protagonists. The villains are laughable. And that's to say nothing of her strange rape fetish.

People read Atlas for the ideas, not for the quality of the writing.

I prefer Heinlein as an author.

 

[passedpawn]

Atlas Shrugged is one of those books where I hate to have to tell someone "oh, the first 600 pages or so are mostly character development, but it gets better once you get through that."

The Fountainhead is definitely better in that regard.

I don't quite understand why people say that Ayn Rand is a great author, though. She seems to be a pretty terrible novelist. Her characters are wooden, two-dimensional caricatures, and that's the protagonists. The villains are laughable. And that's to say nothing of her strange rape fetish.

People read Atlas for the ideas, not for the quality of the writing.

I prefer Heinlein as an author.

100% agreed. I do wonder about Rand. The female characters are weird, with some odd sexual stuff going on. And the male characters are either Übermensch or looters, without much in between.

Best to read something FAR left right afterwards

 

[user 246304]

I mentioned it earlier but I'm really enjoying it - been on my shelf for years but it's a long read and I'm generally more interested in WWII than WWI history. Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War. Awesome read about the accession of Wilhelm II to the crown (some of the history before that, as context), the events, personalities (e.g., succession of Chancellors under Wilhelm, Premiers and their cabinets under Victoria, then Edward VII), misapprehensions that brought the whole thing exploding out. The book does fair coverage of these events, so to me, it's like little lessons from contemporary world events I knew little about but have learned some, now (e.g., The Boer War, the modernization of the British navy as the 19th century, and Victoria, grew old, etc.).

 

[Setsumi]

e.g., The Boer War, the modernization of the British navy as the 19th century, and Victoria, grew old, etc.).

Thomas Pakenham a Brit wrote a book on the Boer war. Title is the Boer war. I am a Afrikaans South African and found the book pro Boer and descriptive and after I read it I understand why my grand parents was so against people like Rodes, Milner and Kitchener.

 

[user 246304]

Thomas Pakenham a Brit wrote a book on the Boer war. Title is the Boer war. I am a Afrikaans South African and found the book pro Boer and descriptive and after I read it I understand why my grand parents was so against people like Rodes, Milner and Kitchener.

Thank you Setsumi. History is tough, and absolutely fluid, even though it has already taken place. I love and admire the English people, but as my favorite writer, John Fowles, said in so many words, "Small England, English, and not empire" (he was English and isn't well known, though many, like me, are devoted). I don't know enough about Victoria, though I'm trying to learn. I know there was savagery in the conflict and I'm sorry your blood suffered.

I wanted to add: (First, just added the book. Thanks). Second, as an American, I'd obviously be hypocritical in the extreme to condemn the race for empire, while not acknowledging we came late, but came furiously. We're all blooded.

 

[MaxStout]

I wanted to add: (First, just added the book. Thanks). Second, as an American, I'd obviously be hypocritical in the extreme to condemn the race for empire, while not acknowledging we came late, but came furiously. We're all blooded.

For a look at our start in empire-building, this is a good read. Just read it a few months ago.

 

[shoengine]

Atlas Shrugged is one of those books where I hate to have to tell someone "oh, the first 600 pages or so are mostly character development, but it gets better once you get through that."

The Fountainhead is definitely better in that regard.

I don't quite understand why people say that Ayn Rand is a great author, though. She seems to be a pretty terrible novelist. Her characters are wooden, two-dimensional caricatures, and that's the protagonists. The villains are laughable. And that's to say nothing of her strange rape fetish.

People read Atlas for the ideas, not for the quality of the writing.

I prefer Heinlein as an author.

Yes.

 

[user 246304]

For a look at our start in empire-building, this is a good read. Just read it a few months ago.

Great, thanks Max. Just added it.

 

[Setsumi]

We're all blooded.

Yip that is true. That is why we need to reflect on our
history and be able to digest different perspectives...

 

[corkybstewart]

Good read on the wild food plants of the Sonoran desert.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I don't have a nightstand...

 

[BruceH]

Just starting Josephus' Works. A friend dropped it off, said it was very interesting.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

100% agreed. I do wonder about Rand. The female characters are weird, with some odd sexual stuff going on. And the male characters are either Übermensch or looters, without much in between.

Best to read something FAR left right afterwards

To everyone, what's your favorite Heinlein book and why?
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, my favorite revolution book

 

[shoengine]

To everyone, what's your favorite Heinlein book and why?
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, my favorite revolution book

That's a funny once, Mike.

 

[Kharnynb]

heinlein never was my favourite, but i've read most of his books, I prefer Niven/pournelle for social commentary sci-fi books.

 

[ancientmariner52]

heinlein never was my favourite, but i've read most of his books, I prefer Niven/pournelle for social commentary sci-fi books.

So did Heinlein. He said The Mote in God's Eye was the best SF he'd ever read. It and Footfall are two of my favorites.

 

[Kharnynb]

I think I rate lucifer's hammer just above footfall, but by the thinnest of margins.

 

[ancientmariner52]

I think I rate lucifer's hammer just above footfall, but by the thinnest of margins.

I would almost agree, if not for the final battle in Footfall, using space shuttles, battleship guns, and an atomic-bomb-driven mothership, with steam attitude jets, built in a greenhouse. Future steam punk?

 

[bleme]

I just finished the Temeraire series which was really brilliant. It's historical fiction, based on the Napoleon era. It really fleshes out all the big players like Napoleon, Nelson, and Wellington as well as the Prussians and Russians you never hear about. It goes pretty in depth into the concept of honor for the period, then throws dragons into the mix.

Now I am burning through all the Brandon Sanderson books. I finished the first 4 books of the Mistborn series, a few of his novellas and am working on Warbreaker right now. He doesn't have the gift on concise writing like Robert Jordan did but he still spins a great tale.

 

[MaxStout]

I'm about a third of the way through the latest of the Gray Man series, Agent In Place, by Mark Greaney. Great geopolitical thriller, smartly written. Greaney started out co-writing, then ghost-writing, a few Clancy novels, but his Grey Man books are so much sharper.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Just started the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Currently in book 3.

So far it's been really interesting, but I suspect that I'll need to get farther into it to get to the "payoff" of what it's all really about.

 

[fourfarthing]

Some LotR is always near me, but our book collection has expanded such that none are on the nightstand and all are in the 'library'. Waiting for GRRM to not die and publish and for the last Rothfuss has me re-reading LotR. Wife is on a Sanderson kick again, which you can stay on forever at the rate he publishes.

Always re-reading Palmer 'How to Brew'. Currently on a PH kick.

 

[bleme]

The Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown was pretty good too although by the 3rd book the brutality was getting to be pretty predictable.

 

[FatDragon]

Just started the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Currently in book 3.

So far it's been really interesting, but I suspect that I'll need to get farther into it to get to the "payoff" of what it's all really about.

The latter parts of the series show the pitfalls of King's writing style where he rarely knows any better than the reader what's going to happen next. Don't read The Dark Tower for the ending, read it for the road that takes you there.

 

[Cyclman]

Salt, a world history

Surprisingly great read.

 

[passedpawn]

Salt, a world history

Surprisingly great read.

Added to cart. Thanks.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher