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What's on Your Summer 2002 Reading List?

Posted by Cliff on from the sharing-your-book-lists dept.

Quixote asks: "Well, summer is upon us, and I'm wondering: what does Slashdot read? I'm thinking of non-geeky, non-SciFi books. Anything out there that has caught your fancy? Would you like to share your reading list (stuff that you've read and/or plan to read)."

65 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Manuals - anything else aint geek it's nerd by DrSkwid · · Score: 2

    Program Python (2nd Ed)
    XML-RPC
    SVG

    that would just about do me

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    1. Re:Manuals - anything else aint geek it's nerd by Hast · · Score: 2
      From the topic:
      I'm thinking of non-geeky, non-SciFi books.
      Seems like your suggestions might be a tad bit off. ;-)
  2. Fast Food Nation by new-black-hand · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Great book about the Fast Food Industry by Eric Schlosser

    See it here..

    1. Re:Fast Food Nation by nicedream · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I didn't think this book was that great.

      A lot of it seemed to ramble on and on, without ever getting to the point. When I was done with it I felt as if he tried to make me hate fast food companies, but didn't present a very convincing case.

  3. I'm currently reading the Qu'ran by ringbarer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No lie. With all the anti-Muslim propaganda currently in the news, I feel it's best to try to understand things from another point of view.

    Because in the end, we're not that different!

    --
    "Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
  4. Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? by foniksonik · · Score: 2

    Do you mean like 'romance' novels or 'who-dunnits'... non sci-fi / non geeky? Is there anything else that's real and NOT on the Oprah list?

    'This Alien Shore' --C.S.Friedman

    All about wetware hackers and a genetically derived virus sent out by earth to disable the interstellar travel monopoly of the Guild (a group of mutated humans who alone can navigate the stars effectively).

    My Playboy subscription, /., and a few manuals on JSP.

    That's the list so far.

    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    1. Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? by texchanchan · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I read 'em in a geeky way (detailed below), but what I read is a broad selection linked from the Online Books Page. Recommended:
      • John Lathrop Motley's 3-part history of the early Dutch Republic. Sheds a lot of light on Microsoft vs. everybody else, UnitedLinux, etc. These situations aren't new. The players just have different names--and, fortunately, big corporations don't actually have armies.
      • The novels of George Eliot. This 19th-century writer is head and shoulders above her contemporaries. Again, in these books you will discover that people haven't changed.
      • The novels of Anthony Trollope, especially the Barchester series.
      • Macaulay's History of England from the Accession of James II. Another historical era with big, big similarities to our own. The explosion of activity powered by the sudden end of censorship in England resembles the 1990s in several ways. For instance: Broadsheet = web page.
      • H. Rider Haggard. Classic adventure stories. Anna Katherine Green, Maurice Leblanc, Gaston Leroux--all early detective novelists. William Morris--peculiar, pseudo-medieval language, but good stories.
      I download these in text format, run a macro to take out the extra carriage returns, then convert them through MakeDocW and read them on the PDA.
    2. Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? by b_pretender · · Score: 2
      C++ Primer Plus
      Speaker for the Dead (Orson Scott Card)
      Disappearing Cryptography, Second Edition - Information Hiding: Steganography and Watermarking (Peter Wayner)

      Although I admit that these are all geeky or SciFi books, I have to learn C++ prior to August, the Orson Scott Card book is interesting, and the Steganography book is interesting, too! Sorry. I'm a SciFi geek.

      If I finish these books, next on my list is another book by Kurt Vonnegut (I've only read Cat's Cradle). That's hardly geeky.

    3. Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? by b_pretender · · Score: 2

      Well, then please recommend my next book for me. Which Vonnegut book should I read next?

    4. Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? by PeterClark · · Score: 2

      Slaughterhouse Five, beyond a doubt.

      :Peter

    5. Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? by joshjs · · Score: 2

      "Slaugherhouse-Five" is the one that got me hooked, I must say. But I have special fondness for "Mother Night" and several of the pieces in "Welcome to the Monkey House," a collection of short stories.

    6. Re:Non Sci-Fi / Non Geeky? by gartogg · · Score: 2

      It's SO nice to know I'm not the only person reading classic books on computers. When I tell people I just read The Kreutzer Sonata By Tolstoy last week on my computer, I get strange looks, even from people who are geeks like me.

      But seriously, are the screens on Palms decent enough to do this? When I ask most people, I just get strange looks and questions about where online books come from: When a Mommy book and a Daddy book get married...

      --
      I'm a concientious .sig objector.
  5. Some Japanese authors by ObviousGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Haruki Murakami is a favorite.

    Some Junichiro Tanizaki is always a blast.

    You can't go wrong with Yukio Mishima.

    And right now I'm reading Michio Kaku.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    1. Re:Some Japanese authors by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      hmmm something strikes me as non-Obvious here, or does it?

      Reviews? Please ObviousGuy, be a little more obvious.

      thanks

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    2. Re:Some Japanese authors by ObviousGuy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm glad you asked!

      Murakami is one of the better fiction writers today. He's not a bad non-fiction writer either as evidenced by his treatment of the Aum Shinrikyo Tokyo subway sarin attack in his book Underground.

      Murakami's fiction runs the gamut from love stories to fantasy, and his writing style (at least his translator's interpretation of it) is exciting and quite beautiful in its descriptions of surroundings and exposition of his characters. He writes primarily in the first person so it may take a little getting used to, but the stories really come alive as a result of this technique.

      I recommend all his English translations except for Sputnik Sweetheart which felt like a simple rehashing of his older works.

      If you read his stuff in order:

      Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World Reminiscent of Philip Dick's works. It isn't quite technothriller, it isn't quite fantasy, but it is a blast to read.
      A Wild Sheep Chase THE Murakami book to read.
      Dance Dance Dance Sequel to Wild Sheep Chase. Quite a bit darker in tone than Sheep.
      Norwegian Wood Murakami's first novel. Pure fiction, no fantasy beyond the narrator's imagination.
      The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle His magnum opus. It draws all of his themes from other books into a single narrative. It's long, but I didn't lose interest at any point.
      South of the Border, West of the Sun My personal favorite because it touches on a lot of themes of love and infidelity. I won't go into the infidelity, thank you very much.

      The rest of his stuff is short stories, so read those at your leisure.

      Tanizaki is a Japanese writer who has an impish streak running through him. His stories and writing are ebullient and discuss all matters of things from politics to sex. No sci-fi here. I recommend The Makioka Sisters

      Mishima is another writer who was a contemporary of Tanizaki. His writings are infused with Japanese Nationalist themes. Even his love stories have nationalist undercurrents. I liked the autobiographical Confessions of a Mask.

      Michio Kaku is an American (as far as I can tell). His main topic is Superstring theory, so he doesn't quite fit with the fiction writers that I listed above, but hey, some people think that string theory is fiction.

      --
      I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    3. Re:Some Japanese authors by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      Thanks OG! It's feels really nice to get positive feedback sometimes. I'll take you up on the offer and read some new stuff.

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  6. DA by Noodlenose · · Score: 2, Funny
    Douglas Adam's "The Salmon of Doubt". And it's Winter down here in NZ, you northern hemispherian.

    Dirk

  7. Just remembered by foniksonik · · Score: 2

    "The 48 Laws of Power" --Robert Greene, Joost Eiffers

    Really good stuff. Historical case studies of when and how to use power. Of course you have to interpret it for your situation but very interesting reading.

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/014028019 7/ qid=1023794596/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/002-0434838-32016 42

    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  8. Supporting Controversial Books... by Chasing+Amy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    > With all the anti-Muslim propaganda currently in the news, I feel it's best to try to
    > understand things from another point of view.

    That's how I try to approach everything. Why believe what agenda-driven media and political people claim, when you can get closer to the source and make up your own mind?

    That's why, when I saw Bill O'Reilly screaming his loudest about a recent book release, complaining bitterly that a university press would dare to publish it--I knew I had to read it. :-) Controversial subject matter, but the book he said shouldn't have been published is judith Levine's *Harmful to Minors*:

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/081664006 8/ qid=1023794022/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-3562730-02361 48

    So, I pre-ordered it, and I have to say it's a fantastic analysis of the current situation. The author makes a lot of sense, and I feel sad that we (Americans) live in a country where people are so outraged by the simple truths most of the civilized world already takes for granted. We in the U.S. treat 15 year olds the same as 5 year olds. No wonder some kids rebel against that...

    Anyway, I always like to support free speech by buying the books of authors whose books get assailed for silly personal moral reasons. So, go buy that book, or another one in need of support, as a big F-U to those who would censor our right to read.

    --

    Chasing Amy
    (We all chase Amy...)
    "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
    1. Re:Supporting Controversial Books... by TRACK-YOUR-POSITION · · Score: 2
      I dunno, from what I hear of that book, they are correct that our culture is somewhat insane regarding children, but the proposed culture is far more insane. I think our current overreaction is simply forming a useful "buffer zone"--there is an age of child before which it is among the most reprhensible things on Earth to engage him or her in sexual acts, but we aren't sure which age, so it makes sense to error on the side of over-prohibition. I also think psychology and science in general are completely incapable of measuring the value and quality of our lives, so any argument along the lines of 'children at age X who had sexual contact with adults show no mental damage discenable to psychologists' carries little weight with me.

      I'd like to read the book, to decide for myself, but if my suspicion of its wrongfulness is correct then I really don't want to find myself supporting it.

    2. Re:Supporting Controversial Books... by invenustus · · Score: 2

      I hear you. I'm as liberal as the next guy about openness towards sex, but what worries me (judging from good and bad reviews of the book) is the action they want to take. Instead of saying, "Yo, parents, quit repressing your kids!" they want to use the public school system to force sexual knowledge on young peope. It seems to me that the true "liberal" position is to SUGGEST openness, but not impose it.

      --
      grep -ri 'should work' /usr/src/linux | wc -l
    3. Re:Supporting Controversial Books... by Chasing+Amy · · Score: 2

      > You did not get O'Reilly's point!

      I always get O'Reilly's point. I watch his show on FoxNN every night at 11, and I find myself either completely agreeing with what he has to say on an issue, or feeling exactly the opposite. ;-)

      > His argument was that this book should not have been published by a state-funded institution.

      That's an insane argument for several reasons. The first is that a university is an academic institution, and its allegiance has to be to the facts and the truth, not to some pre-approved noncontroversial political piffle. Only despotisms dictate what academic institutions can espouse, and as Thomas Jefferson said, "An elective despotism is not the government we fought for."

      The second is that nearly everything is state-funded these days. They take too much of our money in taxes--which the Constitution originally forbade them to do; they had to amend it early this century to allow the federal income tax at all. Then they use our own money to fund everything, all levels of the educational system, fom pre-kindergarten programs to college grants and loans. So by your reasoning, and O'Reilly's, no educational institution in the country should ever say anything controversial or publish anything controversial, only useless non-offensive PC junk. I call BS. Even private colleges take a lot of state money today, thanks to this insane notion we have that *everyone* should go to college. All that does is devalue a college degree and lower the common denominator, making a college degree worth no more than a HS diploma used to be, and necessitating a graduate degree to be worth as much as a BA or BS used to. And it extends state and federal tendrils where they don't belong.

      But getting back to the point, we as taxpayers fund a lot of things we don't want to. I have to fund insane public schools which don't work the way they should. You have to fund books you don't like. Too bad; we have to live with it.

      > If the book had been published by a 'private' publisher, O'Reilly would not have put it on his show.

      Oh yes he would have! Instead of blasting the U of M press, and calling for state lawmakers to look into it, he would have called for a boycott of the private press. Hell, he pratically called for a boycott of the entire nation of Canada the other night...

      --

      Chasing Amy
      (We all chase Amy...)
      "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
    4. Re:Supporting Controversial Books... by Chasing+Amy · · Score: 2

      > what worries me (judging from good and bad reviews of the book) is the action they want to take.
      > Instead of saying, "Yo, parents, quit repressing your kids!" they want to use the public
      > school system to force sexual knowledge on young peope.

      The book makes some suggestions, but makes no pretense of claiming that they're the only ones that would solve the problem. But, like it or not, the school systems in all but the most underdeveloped Bible Belt backwaters already teach young people about the basics of sex. The problem is, it's taught as something they're not supposed to do, which naturally makes some really want to do it, and the rest develop unnatural sexual inhibitions which can sometimes become full-blown dysfunctions in later life. All bcause sexuality is taught as something to never do until you'e married, or vaguely old.

      What's more troubling though is that when young people do choose to engage in sexuality, thwey often get severely punished for normal sexual behavior. For example, the 15 year old boy in Michigan who's on the sex offender registryu for the rest of his life for having had consensual sex with his girlfriend who was one grade below him and a year and a half younger. They're peers. Playing together is normal, dating is normal, but sex is a felony. That's a fucked-up system. That's the system we have today.

      That's the system Judith Levine's book is trying to change. So, I support this book fully and without reservation. Despite some reviews, it's an excellent book which exposes this nation's horrible Puritanism and the evils which it imposes.

      --

      Chasing Amy
      (We all chase Amy...)
      "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
    5. Re:Supporting Controversial Books... by TRACK-YOUR-POSITION · · Score: 2
      But, like it or not, the school systems in all but the most underdeveloped Bible Belt backwaters already teach young people about the basics of sex. The problem is, it's taught as something they're not supposed to do, which naturally makes some really want to do it, and the rest develop unnatural sexual inhibitions which can sometimes become full-blown dysfunctions in later life.

      My non-Bible belt school district had very minimal sex education, and I'm not aware of any great plague of promiscuity or neurosis from the place. I graduated in '97, though, maybe, just like metal detectors, sex education magic appeared everywhere sometime in the half decade since then...

      That's a fucked-up system. That's the system we have today.

      You condemn your point of view with such strong words. Your example shows the system being slightly flawed in one particular state. It needs slight modification, an increase in the difference between ages, and punishments in proportion to the difference between ages of the partners, perhaps.

      There will always be some variance in the laws among the states, thus if your standard is that no state ever, ever err on the side of prohibition, we will have a drastically more liberalized system, in which many states will err on the side of tolerance. And in this particular issue, most Americans have decided that errors on the side of tolerance are completely unacceptable and horrific--as soon as there is one case of it being legal for a 22 year old man to have sex with a 12 year old anyone, you'll see a rapid switch back to Puritanism immediately.

  9. books for research & to review by cpfeifer · · Score: 2
    I'm starting an MSCS grad program at UMBC, so I'll be reading:

    • Modern Information Retrieval [Baeza-Yates, Ribeiro-Neto]
    • Understanding Search Engines, Berry & Browne
    • myth of paperless office, Sellen and Harper
    • a mathematical theory of communication, C.E. Shannon
    • elementary statistics, some dude

    And then just for fun
    • Instant Messaging in Java, Shigeoka
    • thinking in C#, Eckels
    --
    it's not going to stop until you wise up, no it's not going to stop. so just give up.
    1. Re:books for research & to review by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      If you weren't a student and didn't know better, somone would tear you a new one... MSCS indeed. Well I suppose a paycheck is the payoff but still...

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    2. Re:books for research & to review by cpfeifer · · Score: 2

      What seems to be the problem?

      --
      it's not going to stop until you wise up, no it's not going to stop. so just give up.
    3. Re:books for research & to review by gartogg · · Score: 2

      Why are posts like these not modded off-topic? It bothers me that someone can SPECIFICALLY exclude a subject from discussion in their post, and the discussion immediately goes in that direction just because people (see parent) can't read a post. And we want to know what they are reading!

      ObOnTopic:
      A friend of mine told me about a book club that he and a friend (who I know) started, now containing 3 peopl. I am the fourth, and we just finished reading The Kreutzer Sonata, by Tolstoy.

      --
      I'm a concientious .sig objector.
  10. more controversial books by WINSTANLEY · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Caleb Carr author of The Alienist has
    written a military history of terrorism
    published after 9-11.
    The NYT reviewer wrote the most vitriolic
    review I have ever seen. Most really be worth
    reading (no seriously).

    --
    It is by coff... er, will, alone I set my mind in motion...
    1. Re:more controversial books by realgone · · Score: 3, Interesting
      And let's not forget that Carr quickly provided us with one of the most vitriolic responses to a review -- in the form of a letter to Salon -- that most people have ever seen. It included such gems as:

      [L]et's not let facts or a shaky grounding in history keep us from being a bitchy wise-ass -- THAT would get you thrown out of the club that meets at [NYT critic] Michiko's to watch "Sex in the City" and spout a lot of nonsense about things they don't know."

      full text here

      P.S. To quickly bring this post back around to the question at hand, I've got "The Second Rumpole Omnibus" and O'Reilly's "Programming PHP" in my summer bag right now. (Hey, depending on how you look at it, they're both mysteries.)

  11. have read/plan to read this summer: by oyenstikker · · Score: 3, Funny

    Animal Farm (Orwell)
    1984 (Orwell)
    A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana (Haven Kimmel)(really funny)
    The Turk (Tom Standage)
    some of Terry Pratchet's Discworld series
    some of Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who series (crime solving cats)
    some of Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Polifax series (sweet old aunt Emily joins the CIA)
    Take the Canoli (Sarah Vowell)

    --
    The masses are the crack whores of religion.
  12. um. . . by oyenstikker · · Score: 3, Funny

    Summer 2002 reading list
    Summer 2001 reading list^U
    Summer 2000 reading list^U
    Summer 1999 reading list^U
    AP English summer reading list^U
    Billy Bud
    A Patch of Blue
    1 Shakespear tragedy

    --
    The masses are the crack whores of religion.
  13. Current events, bioterrorism fiction, etc by blankmange · · Score: 2
    The usual: Noam Chomsky's latest on 9/11, just about any and all bioterror fiction novels, and anything that pisses Bill O'Reilly off (that is always a good choice).

    Read whatever is on the banned book list -- I always try to get a copy of whatever the government doesn't want me to read; there is usually a good reason they don't......

    --
    ...we are from the government - we are here to help...
  14. Some Classics... by Ivan+Raikov · · Score: 2

    The Death Ship: The Story of an American Sailor, by B. Traven. Although I disagree with the anarchist/Libertarian political views of the author, he is nevertheless a magnificent story teller, and every time I read this book, I feel as if I'm living with the characters and know their experiences first-hand.

    Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. I love sea stories, and I find this to be a very powerful tale of human madness and obsession, although many people find it long and boring. A matter of taste, I suppose.

    A Russian Journal, by John Steinbeck. A very interesting historical account of 1948 Soviet Russia. I very much enjoy Steinbeck's narrative style, and if you like Travels with Charley, you'll probably like this one, too.

    --
    Bush Lies Watch
  15. Hornblower by medcalf · · Score: 2

    My current plan is to read all of C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower books. I'm halfway through the third, and figure I'll finish all 11 in about a month. After that, I'll reread the Federalist Papers. After that, no telling.

    --
    -- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
  16. Re:Bible, anyone? by gartogg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One tends not to "read" the Talmud.
    None of the translations do justice to the interplay of commentators on the subjects discussed. There are also 38 seperate books in just the Babylonian Talmud, not including the Jerusalem Talmud, and most Jewish Scholars would agree that studying a page would take at least half an hour (in an english translation) and this would be without any commentaries that explain the reasoning behind the logic, and what the actual law derived from the text is, since is is rarely obvious based on the text of the talmud itself. There are just under 3000 pages of talmud (front and back, otherwise about 600 pages, obviously.) Perhaps you would be better off reading a book written in english about modern Orthodox Judaism, and would like to suggest some authors:

    Aryeh Kaplan
    Akiva Tatz (Especailly "A Thinking Jewish Teenager's Guide to Life)
    And for lighter reading, Hanoch Teller's Books

    --
    I'm a concientious .sig objector.
  17. Mah List by Jeff+Knox · · Score: 2

    Science Books:
    Age of Spiritual Machines (almost done)
    Linked: A New Science Of Networks (almost done)
    Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks
    Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software

    Then the usual computer books (already started):
    Java & XML, 2nd Edition: Solutions to Real-World Problems
    Java in a Nutshell (review, currently reading)
    Enterprise JavaBeans (3rd Edition)
    Java Web Services
    Java & Soap
    Java Enterprise in a Nutshell

    Some math books:

    Handbook of Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics (maybe)

    Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science (2nd Edition)

    Introduction to Graph Theory (2nd Edition)
    by Douglas Brent West

    --
    Jeff Knox
  18. I am reading by sinserve · · Score: 2

    Nifty.org

    no kidding.

    1. Re:I am reading by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      Is that like www.sluggy.com ?

      The comic is soooo nifty!

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  19. An odd suggestion by Icepick_ · · Score: 2

    One Good Turn: A History of the Screw

    A surprising search for the orgin and inventor of the screw and screwdriver. The Screw is named the most important invention of the past 1000 years.

    Very intresting.

  20. cold war by austad · · Score: 2

    I'm looking for interesting books on the cold war. Primarily ones that deal with russian secrets, spying, and the "space race".

    Some of the greatest technology ever made came out of the cold war, and it's interesting to see how a country essentially closed to the rest of the world can develop it's own version of a current technology that works in a completely different way.

    --
    Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
  21. Not much by bluGill · · Score: 2

    It is summer, between the boat, mowing the lawn, projects, and just playing with the dog, I won't be in very much except for work.

    However I do plan on using some books as reference materials for various scientific expiriments. (get the full paper catalog, a lot of the good stuff isn't shown online). Someone in my neighborhood should make his own transisters for instance.

    Although every one in a while there is a lazy rainy night when I wish I has some books to read, I do most of my reading in winter.

  22. Some recent picks by Otter · · Score: 2
    Some random books I've enjoyed recently:
    • The Peshawar Lancers -- OK, this one is kind of geeky. An alternative history where a comet hitting earth results in a world where the British Empire, transported to India, rules the world.
    • It Rains Fishes -- Superb Thai cookbook.
    • The Maritime History of Massachusetts -- The person who recommended it said, "When you hear the title you'll think I'm insane, but it's terrific." It's a fascinating book about world trade in old Massachusetts, when Nantucketers would visit China and Africa before they ever set foot on the US mainland.
    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  23. Just in Case by m_evanchik · · Score: 2

    Just in case the shit really hits the fan, I've been reading:

    FM 21-76

    Reprint of Department of the Army Field Manual

    US ARMY SURVIVAL MANUAL

    Here's a quote from Chapter 4, Field Expedient Weapons and Tools:

    "You can make another type of sling club by putting sand or a rock in a sock. This type of weapon, however, is a one-shot deal."

    It'll make for good reading on some foreign beach(head).

    --

    evanchik.net

  24. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by dstone · · Score: 2

    If anyone in the last hundred years should be told, "no, YOU da man!" it's this guy.

    Impressive and inspiring book so far (I'm 3 chapters into it). This is written in the first person, in his own words (naturally), and was edited after his death.

    here and here
    The links are free of referrals. The Indigo.ca link doesn't have popups and prices are in CAN$.

  25. Discussing Reading by hether · · Score: 2

    If you'd like to discuss reading, I suggest you join a reading discussion forum. For example:

    SF/Fantasy - http://www.sffworld.org/forums/

    NY Times Book Forums(all sorts of genres) - http://www.nytimes.com/books/forums/

    etc.... I'm sure a Google search can get you in touch with people who'd like to investigate and critique books with you. Slashdot just doesn't seem like the place for good literary discussion.

    --

    Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
  26. Re:My list by schulzdogg · · Score: 2

    5) Japan's War
    A history of the Japanese industrial build up and the Japanese perspective on World War II.

    This is a great book. A good companion to it is embracing defeat by dowers, which deals with post war japan.

    I guess i should chime in here:

    Hamlet
    King Lear
    Fall of the Roman Empire
    The rise and fall of the third Reich
    Choke

  27. study .. by mbyte · · Score: 2

    Boudewijn R. Haverkort : Performance of Computer Communication Systems: A Model-Based Approach

    i hate having exam in summer, but its the last ;)

  28. Science fiction books... by mfarah · · Score: 2
    ... because I am a geek.

    I recommend:
    • The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
    • The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, by Douglas Adams
    • Life, the Universe and Everything, by Douglas Adams
    • Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
    • Foundation & Empire, by Isaac Asimov
    • Second Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
    • I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
    • The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester
    • The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
    • Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
    • Ubik, by Philip K. Dick
    • The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
    • Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
    • Dune, by Frank Herbert
    • A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller
    • The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
    • Hyperion/The Fall Of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
    • A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge
    • A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge



    Be sure to take a look at the The Internet Top 100 SF/Fantasy List for more recommendations

    --
    "Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
    - Sledge Hammer
    1. Re:Science fiction books... by stevey · · Score: 2
      # Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

      Because I'm a geek who likes his stories to have a little bite I'd suggest 'Stranger In A Strange Land' above Starship Troopers.

      I'd also add 'Wizards First Rule' + sequels by Terry Goodkind.

    2. Re:Science fiction books... by mfarah · · Score: 2
      Because I'm a geek who likes his stories to have a little bite I'd suggest 'Stranger In A Strange Land' above Starship Troopers.



      I haven't read that book, so I can't recommend it. It IS on my "to-read" queue [I have a copy], though.

      --
      "Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
      - Sledge Hammer
  29. The Scarlet Letter... by eugene+ts+wong · · Score: 2

    ...is considered classic literature, if I understand correctly. I would never know for sure, so I would appreciate it if some people corrected/verified what I said.

    I take a very right wing, Christian fundementalist view on things. The story is about a Puritan village, and the story probably doesn't potray the Puritan religion very well in the eyes of today's world, however, I felt that it wasn't about the religion as much as it was about how people behave. It almost appears to be about social science.

    Now that I've studied political science and economics on my own, it would be interesting to reread the story to see if I could glean some deeper messages and principles out of it.

    --
    testing out my trending skills
  30. things to read by Tumbleweed · · Score: 2

    I'd recommend you scare yourself to death and read Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan" novels, including 'Rainbow Six'. Especially Rainbow Six. You should definitely read 'The Sum of All Fears', and see why the movie is pathetic in comparison - they chopped out massive parts of the book, and changed what they left almost to the point of unrecognizability. A great book, with an interesting idea on how to actually achieve a workable peace in the Middle East, though it may be too late after 2001-09-11. :(

    Other books - I'd recommend all the 'Spenser' books by Robert B. Parker. These are the books that the tv series and tv movies were based on, and if you liked them, you'll be pleased to know these are the same, only much better. It's interesting to start reading them at the beginning (started in the 70's!), and read them all the way through to the most recent one. Interesting character changes.

    And, what else, oh, Peter Mayle's 'Provence' books - starting with 'A Year in Provence'. He's got some other related books that are enjoyable, too. Don't take them as gospel on what Provence is like (from what I hear), but they're still very enjoyable.

    Sorry, no links today. :)

  31. My reading list by dfelznic · · Score: 2

    Hello, here is my reading list for the summer:
    Linked: The New Science of Networks
    Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants,...
    A New Kind of Science
    Letters to a Young Contrarian
    Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will...
    Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of...
    I have already read linked. i liked it alot however it gets repeative at times...

    --
    Douglas Calvert
  32. Re:Threee must reads for the summer by Limburgher · · Score: 2

    Um, that's four must reads, not threee. Back to fourth grade math for you. (zap)

    --

    You are not the customer.

  33. Decent mix by Zurion · · Score: 2

    Alice in Wonderland -- Lewis Carroll
    The Stand -- Stephen King
    Hearts in Atlantis -- Stephen King
    1984 -- George Orwell
    Band of Brothers -- Stephen Ambrose

    I'd like to fit in some more classics, but I'm rather indecisive.

  34. cluetrain manifesto by cr@ckwhore · · Score: 2

    Been meaning to read it for a while.

    --
    Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
  35. All Hail the Annual Library Book Sale by n8willis · · Score: 2
    Which brings me:
    • The Laughing Sutra by Mark Salzman
    • The Gulag Archipelago by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn
    • The Road to Joy by Thomas Merton
    • Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone
    • The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, volume 5
    • The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    • How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
    • Bored of the Rings by Henry Beard et al.


    Well, alright, the last couple I didn't find at the library sale, but I was caught up in that UL. Anyway, there is some heavy stuff and some light stuff in there, some stuff I've been wanting to read for a while, and some stuff that just lept off the table at me. But the point I wanted to bring up is what a great place a library sale is to pick up an ecclectic stack of reading material. I paid like five bucks for everything I got, and what the hey, the library benefits.
    --
    -- Watch the REAL Jon Katz.
  36. Virtual Machine Design and Implementation by wackybrit · · Score: 2

    My summer read is Virtual Machine Design and Implementation (in C/C++) by Bill Blunden.

    Why? Because I think custom VMs are the next big mealticket, and I want in on the ground floor. Also.. it teaches you how to write compilers, assemblers, and what not.. so it'll be fun anyway.

    --
    mogorific carpentry experiments
  37. Re:More stupid poll topics to come.... by funkhauser · · Score: 2
    That's why it's part of "Ask Slashdot."

    --
    Learn to Play Go
  38. Mmmm, books by sclatter · · Score: 2


    First, hearty agreement with the person who recommended "Fast Food Nation". It's not as much of a gross-out as "The Jungle" was, though there's a bit of that too. It's more about the culture of fast food. Packed with fun trivia! Did you know Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald? They didn't keep him because he was too fat.

    I recently finished "War and Peace". It's a *great* book. Took me a *long* time to read, but I really enjoyed every bit of it. Truly a pleasure, and not at all what I expected. Give it a shot!

    I am almost finished with "Guns, Germs and Steel". It describes how different people in different locations on earth came to develop the technologies that they did. The author argues convincingly that more advanced cultures owe their success to location, location, location. Specifically, the availability of domesticable plants and large animals drove the development of agriculture, and agriculture led to more advanced societies.

    I'm listening to "The Orchid Thief" on audio. It's pretty good. The stories of Victorian orchid hunters are more interesting than the modern storyline, IMHO.

    On my "to read" pile are "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" and Ian Rankin's "Dead Souls". "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" is sort of a chick book, I think. It's about a girl who feels suffocated with her life. I've just heard good things about Ian Rankin. I'm not usually into mysteries but i thought I'd give it a try.

  39. Vonnegut. by saintlupus · · Score: 2

    Which Vonnegut book should I read next?

    Bluebeard. I've read the vast majority of Vonnegut's books, and that one is by far my favorite.

    As for me, I decided to spend some time catching up on my mid-20th century American writers. Norman Mailer, James Cain, James Jones, Mickey Spillane - maybe I'll reread some of my Jim Thompson collection while I'm at it.

    Though I must admit that the parallels between the anti-Communism of Spillane and the anti-foreign message of, say, Dan Rather, is kind of creepy.

    --saint

  40. Ummm by Rogerborg · · Score: 2

    Non geeky, non SciFi? What does that leave? Jackie Collins?

    Oh, history. If you want a nice blend of popular history and entertainment, try Nathaniel's Nutmeg, a fascinating story about the 17th century spice trade. And no, that's NOT geeky, it says a lot about humanity's ability to commit truly horrendous acts on each other for seemingly trivial things.

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140292608/ qid=1023903130/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-2433064-31240 52

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  41. C++ Primer Plus by scubacuda · · Score: 2

    C++ Primer Plus (by Prata) is a damn good book. Much better, IMO, than the plethora of other C++ books out there.

  42. Re:Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire by Ashurbanipal · · Score: 2

    Well, I've read Pirsig's opus several times already, but thanks for the recomendation anyway. It's a pretty good popularization of some basic zen principles (I particularly like the bit about "mechanic's feel") even though a bit less sucessful as a narrative. I also recommend it.

    I'm about two thirds through Candide now, and I'm enjoying it. Certainly no LOTR or Gilgamesh, but still interesting and lively, compared to other books I've read from the same time period. And as you mentioned it's short, which is a blessed relief after recently reading Kafka's "Trial" and Frazer's "Golden Bough".

    As a rebuttal of Leibnitz/Pangloss, so far it's pretty thorough. The Bantam version's footnotes are refreshingly brief and to the point.

    What of Rousseau's would you recommend?