What are you reading?

[Johnlenham]

Got that book about the hells angels but H.S.T last night, not started it yet though.

[butter_man]

a short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson.

Very good if you lacked at science like I did in school. reading this you wont come out with degree level knowledge of any of the subjects touched on just an overview to understand and ponder more the various different scientific fields that keep us spinning, floating, orbiting, evolving, digesting and many other processes that makes us and and everything around us, us and it.

Poetry for the committed individual- Various, Stand.

I've only just started this and reading the introduction was enough to enduce a headache but here goes.. based off the publication: stand that collected works by poets dealing with imagistic more than interpretive writing, less to do with real time coherence and exuberant descripitions and more to do with economical emotiveness and a seperations from well worn cliches and much used (and deemed here) inneficient structures. the poems i've read so far have been brilliant and was going to search for a poetry thread to post a poem I like by dannie abse (turns out he's welsh! "BRUKKA BRUKKA")

[magma]

a short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson.

Very good if you lacked at science like I did in school. reading this you wont come out with degree level knowledge of any of the subjects touched on just an overview to understand and ponder more the various different scientific fields that keep us spinning, floating, orbiting, evolving, digesting and many other processes that makes us and and everything around us, us and it.

Yes. Agree with all of that. I left school not even realising that I liked science due to the entire thing seemingly being an exercise in learning equations, names and arbitrary facts about chemicals. Since reading this book I've read about almost nothing but science for the best part of ten years and I've still got a reading list as long as my arm.

It's by no means in depth and it's probably pretty wrong at times, but as a method of getting someone interested in humanity's richest subject it's difficult to compete with.

[Muncey]

Monetary Policy b2b Debunking Economics b2b Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas

Never actually got round to reading fear and loathing, good shout!

Will check out the other 2 as well, cheers.

Its quite a short book, 200 pages but half of them have massive random acid like drawings so its a lot less than even tat lol. The other 2 are boring as shit.

A short history of nearly everything has been on my to read list for a while now.. trying to hold off reading any books I can't get at the uni library til I get a kindle.

Yes. Agree with all of that. I left school not even realising that I liked science due to the entire thing seemingly being an exercise in learning equations, names and arbitrary facts about chemicals.

This. Hated science, history and geography/nature.. now all I do is watch endless documentaries and videos about string theory, space, any revolution I can find, any important historical event I can find and anything made by David Attenborough,

[m8son666]

Science gets alot better at degree level, well chemistry does anyway, but i do know what you mean school science was bollox

[DRTY]

yeah I feel cheated; leaving school not liking science. There's nothing that interests me more now. I don't think it's because I've changed, it's just not done justice in schools. When we can reanimate Richard Feynman, we could clone him and put him in every school, and the world would be a better place.

[butter_man]

a short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson.

Very good if you lacked at science like I did in school. reading this you wont come out with degree level knowledge of any of the subjects touched on just an overview to understand and ponder more the various different scientific fields that keep us spinning, floating, orbiting, evolving, digesting and many other processes that makes us and and everything around us, us and it.

Yes. Agree with all of that. I left school not even realising that I liked science due to the entire thing seemingly being an exercise in learning equations, names and arbitrary facts about chemicals. Since reading this book I've read about almost nothing but science for the best part of ten years and I've still got a reading list as long as my arm.

It's by no means in depth and it's probably pretty wrong at times, but as a method of getting someone interested in humanity's richest subject it's difficult to compete with.

any recomendations which are fairly easy to read like that one. he recomends biology: the science of life as an easy readable text book. any more you know that are fairly easy to get through?

[kay]

a short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson.

Very good if you lacked at science like I did in school. reading this you wont come out with degree level knowledge of any of the subjects touched on just an overview to understand and ponder more the various different scientific fields that keep us spinning, floating, orbiting, evolving, digesting and many other processes that makes us and and everything around us, us and it.

Yes. Agree with all of that. I left school not even realising that I liked science due to the entire thing seemingly being an exercise in learning equations, names and arbitrary facts about chemicals. Since reading this book I've read about almost nothing but science for the best part of ten years and I've still got a reading list as long as my arm.

It's by no means in depth and it's probably pretty wrong at times, but as a method of getting someone interested in humanity's richest subject it's difficult to compete with.

I've probably said this a couple times now. There's a lot that's inaccurate in the book (especially with the physics bits) that could've been rectified easily, but wasn't. It's only the second book I've been unable to stomach finish reading the first time.

[Lystric]

just started book 4 in a Song of Ice and Fire series. really hooked, always so much going on.

[Shum]

Bryson has always been a bit loose with his facts, he's a good writer though.

[Sexual_Chocolate]

Meditations on first philosophy.

[Shum]

Re: Bryson

Just finished his latest book "One Summer: America 1927" - good stuff.

[esfandyar]

just began reading the expanse series

[Muncey]

Gave up on Debunking Economics, swapped it for 'The Mystery of Capital - Why Capitalism Triumphs In The West And Fails Everywhere Else'.

[magma]

swapped it for 'The Mystery of Capital - Why Capitalism Triumphs In The West And Fails Everywhere Else'.

Oooh, this looks GOOD. Kindled right up.

[kay]

Re-reading this more than 10 years on. Hadn't thought that much of it first time round, it's much better this time.

[TheIntrospectionist]

-

[wub]

Starting a 52 books in 52 weeks thing, been a bit slack on my reading recently and not about to wait until New Year to bundle a change in as a 'resolution'. So...

52 Books in 52 Weeks - started 30th October 2013

1) The 4hr Work Week - Timothy Ferriss
2) Globalization and Its Discontents - Joseph E. Stiglitz

Comments on new titles

The 4hr Work Week - Good ideas in here, found some of the sections on abandoning time management interesting, but overall a bit of an overly smug delivery. Last third of the book is a 'toolkit' of sorts, some of which isn't of practical use as I don't have my own business. Yet.

Globalization and Its Discontents - A re-read triggered by my watching of some documentaries on the financial crash. Found the language slightly more friendly this time round, still a hard read at times to get down some of the finer points of IMF monetary policy.

[ehbes]

Savage peace : hope and fear in America.

nice little one for my fellow history nerds out there on what was going on in 1919 America

[magma]

Longitude by Dava Sobel. Story of how John Harrison's clocks solved the problem of navigation and pretty much paved the way for the modern epoch. Wonderful.