What are you reading?

I'm currently reading "Nature via Nurture" by Matt Ridley - a fascinating if somewhat dry and deeply scientific case for settling the old "vs" debate by combining the two schools of thought on genetics - very convincingly.

Before that, I read "A Short History of Nearly Everything", by Bill Bryson - a thoroughly enjoyable if slightly scary read; Bryson gleefully takes us through several doomsday scenarios each of which could happen tomorrow, including one I was not aware of - the fact that for years scientists had been aware that there is a gigantic magma pool below Yellowstone Park that hadn't "gone off" for several millenia more than the past cycles dictated it should. They knew it was big, because it tended to throw mountains around - it formed most of the mountains in the park.

Then they realised...

It IS the park!

Nice.

I'm reading this book..my limited edition... check out the author...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001081AU/qid =1092771531/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/104-7313965-69855 02?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

"His Master's Voice" by Stanislaw Lem, philosophical science-fiction :

"What would happen to us if we could truly sympathize with others, feel with them, suffer for them?  The fact that human anguish, fear, and suffering melt away with the death of the individual, that nothing remains of the ascents, the declines, the orgasms, and the agonies, is a praiseworthy gift of evolution, which made us like the animals.  If from of his feelings, if thus grew the inheritance of the generations, if even a spark could pass from man to man, the world would be full of raw, bowel-torn howling."

I had started to re-read "The Illuminatus Trilogy" but after several pages I remembered how bad it was the first time and returned it to the shelf.

The Tortilla Curtain - T.C. Boyle.

The book outlines the parallels of misery on two different plains. Middle-Class Americans and an Illegal Mexican couple trying to make it in the USA.

I'm also re-re-re-re-re-re-reading the collected works of E.A. Poe. Can't get enough misery and gloom....

Certif1ed wrote: emdiar wrote: Just started "The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy", for the millionth time. Hillarious and scientifically mind bendingly deep, one of my favourite trilogies of all time, I love all five parts! Have you played the old Infocom game? It was one of the first computer games I ever played - and I still enjoy playing it occasionally, even though there are no graphics, and I never seem to be able to leave the Heart of Gold... Fortunately people maintain online versions; http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html

No mate, I never did. It sounds a bit like a role play game to me, a la dungeons and dragons, which I cannot stand.

First nerd: "I'm Dryxqqjas, Lord of the Qxurklo, and I shall banish you from the plains of Tyzxqpphlsr, lest you answer these questions three..."

Second nerd: "No you don't, for I am the mighty wizard Grakkkeegel, barer of the enchanted Sword of Gluuk, and I will smite all who dare to tidy my bedroom".

Third nerd:"Fcuk this, lets go and get girlfriends."

 I was king on a Vectrex, mind, back in the mid eighties, but that was my only flirtation with the whole gameboy/playstation type world. Give me chess, any day!

A People's History of the United States is in my bookcase. I love how Zinn totally bypasses rhetoric by politicians and spin-doctors. He goes right to the source, everyday people, diaries, correspondence and newspaper articles. Any history buff would revel in all the real life drama.... very readable and powerful stuff. It's the first history book that didn't reek of bullsh*t that I've read.

Of course, that's my opinion.