Topic: Rate the last book you just read

[moj]

Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency - Douglas Adams

  Refreshing in so many ways. It's funny but still wholesome. I'm often jaded but how quickly media get's dated but this one was still funny. My only problem was that I was reading an old paperback copy and am over paper books. It's flimsiness, the old pages changing color, might as will be on papyrus. 

[pandamonium]

I have a soft spot for the musty smell of old cheap paper.

I finished the third book in A Song of Ice and Fire--a storm of swords. I've never been more frustrated or more entranced by a book in at least ten years. I think it's the way that Martin moves you around from character to character. at least it's in space rather than time. I do like his device of relating seeming important plot points second or third hand. it keeps you interested.

I'd give the series a preliminary 7/10. the last book may have been my favorite to date, but it's also freshest in my mind and I've become invested in the characters.

[superdave]

The Moral Landscape: Sam Harris  9.5/10


Well written and accessible as Harris's works tend to be. Much lighter on polemic and filled with studies to back up the claims being made (A full 1/3 of the book is dedicated to citations).  If you've watched any of his talks on the subject you will find some familiar territory here. That said, the book really opens up his argument that morality is an undeveloped branch of science.


Not sure how one could walk away from this work unconvinced, but I know it will happen. Very worthwhile read.

I couldn't finish it.  The argument makes some sense but it seemed like he covers everything in the first chapter and repeats it over and over again.  By the way, a few notable skeptics have argued that Harris is wrong, in particular Massimo Pigliucci.
http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2010/04/about-sam-harris-claim-that-science-can.html

[goodthink]

I find most of the science writers and atheism writers to be repetitive. I guess I am somewhat dis-sensitized to it.


At the same time, I realize why they do it. I have a friend who is convinced that Harris wants to kill religious people because in the End of Faith he said some ideologies just aren't compatible with modern life and given all else failing it might be an necessarily evil to kill them.


Even on this forum you see people saying Harris endorses torture when the opposite is clearly true. Why? Because he wasn't pedantic and repetitive and put what be means in a hundred different ways to make sure people are correctly getting his message.


What I did like about Landscape were the references and the base argument. I also find Harris to be a fairly good writer in that he usually doesn't mince words and takes an active stance in much of what he writes about/says.


I think Dawkin's argument about god claims being scientific and Harris' argument that moral claims are claims about well-being give a pretty secure and valid foundation on which to build a new science.

[moj]

The hunger games 7.5 out of 10.

Not great, but solid. She is awesome at pacing.  I've read many a crime/thriller/mystery that couldn't keep that kind of tension up. Even though I finished in time to see it in the theater am not sure I will. Not as slight against it, I just don't make it to the movies that often.  Its already in my netflix queue.

[pandamonium]

Out of Oz--9/10 Almost as good as Wicked. If you're a fan of the Wicked Years series, or just Wicked, definitely check this one out. It's bittersweet and poignant, and if you're read any Baum Oz books other than The Wizard of Oz, you can see how much Maguire incorporates from that world. Maguire doesn't take everything from Baum's world, and he adds a lot from his own imagination, but it still manages to be Oz. But Oz for cynics and romantics (in the Roland of Gilead sense, if you know what I mean).

Maguire also has a wicked wit, imo. Even in the tenser moments of the book, he made me laugh at some witticism from a character. A well-written book all around.

[amysrevenge]

Top Ten, by Alan Moore 10/10



The first 7 issues of the comic Top Ten. One of the best comics I've read to date.

Premise: imagine a city where every citizen, from poorest slum-dweller to corporate honcho, has unusual powers and abilities - not to mention an alter ego and costume. How would you police such a city? Rookie cop Robyn Slinger is about to find out in her first day as part of Precinct 10.

[pandamonium]

that sounds relevant to my interests.

[PANTS!]

I could not get behind top 10. It's not bad, it's just kinda there for me. Certainly not the relevation like League, Watchmen, or Swamp Thing.

[amysrevenge]

It has a similar hook to Watchmen, in that it takes the concept of capes/supers and messes about with it.

I just finished it yesterday so I can't say for sure, but I think I actually prefer it in the end to Watchmen.  Definitely I like it more than Tom Strong or League.  Never really got in to Swamp Thing.

[amysrevenge]

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson.

http://thebloggess.com/lets-pretend-this-never-happened-a-mostly-true-memoir/

If you're a fan of The Bloggess, 10/10.  If you're not, what, are you retarded or something?

I bought the hardcover, and got the audiobook.  I listened to the audiobook, and flipped through the pictures in the hardcover.

There are a couple of sections taken from her blog, but most of it was new material.  Solid gold. 

Stories about mental illness and fertility troubles don't take anything away from the "so funny you'll laugh until you can't breathe" aspect.

There's one chapter about acupuncture, but it's an acceptable take on it.

P.S. I got Wil Wheaton to sign this sticker inside the front cover for me:

[goodthink]

The Prodigal Son  4/10


The artwork wasn't up to par for my tastes. Something about it was grating (had a hard time distinguishing some characters from each other). Poor use of time lines/flash backs. Rehashed story line without enough novelty.


Thoroughly unimpressed.

[lonely moa]

"Merchants of Doubt", Oreskes and Conway.  10/10.  Nice research.  How science works, history, politics, great book.

[EhJayArr]

"Merchants of Doubt", Oreskes and Conway.  10/10.  Nice research.  How science works, history, politics, great book.

Interesting! So, very much in the skeptical pile? How does it compare to other skeptical books, and how much of it seems fresh?

[lonely moa]

"Merchants of Doubt", Oreskes and Conway.  10/10.  Nice research.  How science works, history, politics, great book.

Interesting! So, very much in the skeptical pile? How does it compare to other skeptical books, and how much of it seems fresh?

The last "sceptical book I have read, Taubes "GCBC" (third time) is sort of similar in structure and style.  It is a bit academic and I knew come of the material, but I learned heaps. There was even a reference to someone I personally new.  GW was only a chapter and there was great insight in the chapter relating to Rachael Carson.

The take home message was political ideological and the amazing fact was the consistancy of actors (some get old and die) from the 50's and smoking to the present and GW.