Books

I just finished Lord of the Flies by Golding for the 8th time. Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment was also completed for the 4th time the other day.

CM

John LeCarre, Len Deighton, Robert Ludlum, Adam Hall, Alistair MacLean, Martin Cruz Smith, Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series, Nikon N90s service manual, etc. . . .

dan k

"The Sirens of Titan" - Kurt Vonnegut
"Gateway" - Frederick Pohl
"The Footprints of God" - Greg Iles
"Oryx and Crake" - Marget Atwood
"Brave New World Revisited" - Aldus Huxley
"Music for Chameleons" - Truman Capote
"Blue Light" - Walter Mosley
"Futureland" - Walter Mosley
"Blue Nowhere" - Jeffery Deaver

I think I'll stop before the list gets crazy long. There's several others that I've started and put down in favor of these and others more... :rolleyes:

1984
Eragon
upgrade your mac and save a bundle
Visual quickstart UNIX

did a book report on the unix book last year for school

... just kidding...

Just finished reading the expanded and revise "The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I" by King. I wanted to start over again, since he's been re-writing some of his stuff.

I may try "Cryptonomicon" again, as long as I can not get caught up in the math theory. Last time, I got about four chapters in and dropped it to take on "N vs. NP".

... I didn't solve it, yet... in case you were wondering...

"Jarhead"

My sister is just about to drop "Cyrptonomicon" because of the math. She absolutely loved "Snow Crash" (of course!) and though she'd try some more Stephenson. I guess she chose the wrong book.

I can't believe I forget to add:
"The Mediteranian Caper" - Clive Cussler

A Certain Chemestry, by Mil Millington. Quite funny-- although that's just how the author is.
Fifty Degrees Below, by Kim Stanley Robinson. A very good insight into environmental change by an incredibly skilled author.
The Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger. A whiney book with a strong undertone of something or another.
Spook, by Mary Roach. Not very intensive reading at all, which was disappointing.
The First Immortal, by James Halperin. A somewhat fantastic story of cryogenics.

Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy
The Restraunt at the end of the Univerese
So Long and thanks for all the fish
Mostly harmless
Dirk Gently's Holstic Detective agency
The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul
pretty much anybook written by douglas adams

Hmn, I could never get into the Dirk Gently books.

by José Saramago, Also "Flowers for Algernon", by Daniel Keyes
To kill a mockingburd by Harper Lee,
The Dave Barry books (Comedian Journalist)
Of course, there is always the HHGTTG series. Also, "A Salmon of a Doubt"
I read a lot of phsychology books. And some Manga, as well as several Japanese Comics online, and some of the books put out by them. I even read stuff like foxtrot and Dilbert.
My most recent book is "Tricky Business" by Dave Barry.
I'm pretty sure I have read more, like Space Odessy 2001/2010.... and some of the Isaac Asimov books. Just don't want to sit down and list them all here

EDIT: I Read Most of the Lord of the flies book, but put it down before the last 3 chapters, as it creeped me out. No thx...

Oh, are we listing every book we've read? I'm afraid I've read at least a few thousand... I love books.

Having time to finish a book. Them's were the days! All I read is the web anymore.

If I stopped using teh intarweb and read books during that time my book list would be beyond crazy long...

Lord of the Flies is strange and I see no underlying moral. Unless the underlying moral is similar to that of Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Orwell's Animal Farm, like his 1984, were social commentaries wrapped in satire and colorful description. Communism was a real scare, and particularly in 1984, Orwell made that scare tangible.

Lord of the Flies is also a social commentary, and one that - in my opinion - needs to be taught more. The idea that a group of boys, with limited social, religious, and academic learning would degenerate into a tribe of murderous savages without direction is... well... not far fetched. The moral of the story is we need to teach our children right and wrong, that we need to raise them to respect each other and life itself, and that we need to instill a good knowlege of religion. Otherwise, they will turn into murderous savages...

... much like many young people today...

The Dave Barry books (Comedian Journalist)

To say Dave Barry is a journalist is a stretch. He's a columnist. And a humourist.

My current book is Heinleins "To Sail Beyond The Sunset".

my bad, forgot that it was called "Columnist" I wasn't thinking at the time -.-

I finished Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld novel "Thud!" over the Christmas holidays.
Now I'm reading my way through his guards-focused books in chronological order (again).

BTW, newspaper columnist and humourist could be considered to fall into the broader category of journalist.

I can't think about Lord of the Flies now without thinking about Kamp Krusty. Thank you, Mr. Groening.:)

BTW, newspaper columnist and humourist could be considered to fall into the broader category of journalist.

Though I guess you're right, it seems wrong to group him with people who try to gather and present news in an unbiased fashion.

(As a note, I find Mr. Barry to be hillarious. I even celebrate talk like a pirate day. But journalist seems...strong for him.)

From some of the commentary I've read about 1984, it seems that Orwell wasn't really trying to write a story about how bad Communism is but rather about how Communism mis-applied could degenerate into the Big Brother society. It was more to be a warning to those who setup Socialist/Communist systems to be wary of the consequences than an outright attempt to dissuade them.

Hmm… My impression was that it wasn't about Communism, although certainly inclusive of it.

Aren't there a few lines about how somebody can't remember which side caused the problems, but implying that both were easily capable?

I haven't read 1984 since high school.

Hmm… My impression was that it wasn't about Communism, although certainly inclusive of it.

Orwell is best interpreted by Orwell, as all others will have slightly differing takes on what it is that he wrote. Having actually visited the former Soviet Union, I can say without a doubt that even during Perestroika there existed a need for the State to control the lives of the indiviual. Combining this personal experience with 1984's view that the omnipresent State enforces perfect conformity among members of a totalitarian Party through indoctrination, propaganda, fear, and ruthless punishment, and my point is made.

Aren't there a few lines about how somebody can't remember which side caused the problems, but implying that both were easily capable?

Yeah, the "history" of 1984 is sketchy, and only told from Winston's point of view. His knowlege is limited (on purpose), so we (the readers) don't know whether the British civil war happened first of the nuking of Colchester by either Eurasia or Eastasia.

... but it makes you think, huh, considering all the countries that currently have nukes and all of the countries that want nukes...

... but rather about how Communism mis-applied ...

You can misapply Communism? What would that be? Successful?

Hmm… My impression was that it wasn't about Communism, although certainly inclusive of it.

Orwell is best interpreted by Orwell, as all others will have slightly differing takes on what it is that he wrote.

Here we go:

"The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it."

- George Orwell, Why I Write

1984 was published in 1949.

True, the actual difference is Capitalism vs Commumism. It's just that When you have "The Party" people tend to forget that whole democracy part. When your choice is The Party or Siberia, democracy went out long before.

And I just finished "The Art of Intrusion" by Mitnick and Simon today. It was a good read, and now I wanna go get "The Art of Deception"...

by William Goldman. "S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure." As usual, much better than the movie, although the movie is a hoot!

I was recently looking at my copy of "Pirates of Silicon Valley", and was watching the scenes when they are filming the infamous 1984/Macintosh introductory (superbowl) commercial. I thought of that when I started reading this thread.

Also, the other day, I was considering the fact that the latest Macs have video cameras built into them, intended for use with iChat on highspeed connections.

While I realize that the stated intent is not to enable "big brother", it seems that the hardware certainly moved that way. Now, logically, this is a mere association of facts. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might conjecture that Steve Jobs is following the CIA/Manchurian Candidate type programming that THEY implanted in him when he won the Next Computer contract with THEM.

Mutant_Pie

True, the actual difference is Capitalism vs Commumism.

On the contrary, I must disagree. I feel Animal Farm goes far beyond indictments of a particular form of government. I think it shows the potential collapse of any free, egalitarian society back into a primitive, totalitarian, aristocracy-based dictatorship when the members of that society fall into blind patriotism, ignorance, trust of propaganda. and unquestioning obedience. (Don't be a sheep, dudes!)

Anyway, I discovered recently that Leonard Wibberly wrote more sequels to The Mouse that Roared than I had known about, so I just read The Mouse on Wall Street, am reading The Mouse that Saved the West, and looking forward to Beware of the Mouse! I also can't wait to get my hands on Ptolomy's Gate and A Feast for Crows, though I wish our library would get FfC on audiotape. I prefer my really thick books to read themselves to me.

Actually if any tech company is big brother, I'd say it's Google.

Too true. Google's fingers are in most everything on the 'net these days, and they're trying to get them in all of the other places. And they come across as such a happy company...

Also, for anyone who is worried about the possibility of the camera on their iMac or MacBook being used to spy on them, I've got two words that can give you much comfort:

Electrical tape.

"Leonardo's Laptop" by Ben Shneiderman
"Next" by Michael Lewis
"Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig
"Where The Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak

Going back to my Gmail and hiding deep within the comfort that is Google (it watches after me, you know...)...

Rob

1984 and "A Hanging" is the only Orwell I've read yet, so I can't comment on Animal Farm. It's another on the to-read list.