Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: What Do You Like To Read?
badeMan writes "I will be traveling a third of the way around the world this Christmas, and that means a lot of time on a plane. I have decided I am not going to do any coding or technical reading during the flight. Outside the realm of technology and all things related to work, what do you find interesting to read? What books, genres, and authors do you enjoy?"
Neal Stephenson is a great author for Slashdot readers. Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash are great titles to start with.
Definitely Science Fiction. Peter F. Hamilton's "Nights Dawn" Trilogy, Pandoras Star & sequel Judas Unchained. I also like Alastair Reynolds. Right now I'm reading "Century Rain" by him.
If you have a penchant for classics, try short stories from Twain, Saki, English translations of Maupassant and Kafka, HG Wells, O Henry and Oscar Wilde. A short story winds up in typically 15-30 mins and provides good reading satisfaction. And all works from these authors are in public domain, so those can be accessed freely online.
this seems like a troll, but there really is an obnoxious trend in the fantasy genre. Emotional confused woman plus a superpower and a distant tall dark stranger. She, of course, is smarter and more clever than everybody else, but realizes her feelings for Mr. Dark only after he rescues her. Now empowered by LOVE she defeats the evil. Now repeat over a thousand variations with different titles. You have the fantasy section at Barnes and Nobles. It sucks.
Space Shuttle was a program that strapped humans to an explosion and tried to stab through the sky with fire and math
I'll second that. Take along an ebook copy of "Reamde" too. It's a hoot and will make the time fly by. Dude knows how to tell a story. Some of the best set pieces you'll find in the genre known as "sci fi" and the most fantastically plausible situations that could totally never happen, unless they do. It helps to have at least a passing acquaintance with roleplaying games, networks, and geopolitics, but it's not required.
Also, the Stephen Mitchell edition of the Tao Te Ching is worth sticking in the backpack (the actual paper copy, not the ebook). It's a slender volume, won't take much room, but will occupy a lot of space inside your head if you read it without expectations. You'll come back from the holidays refreshed and I guarantee that picking it up and reading passages will attenuate the holiday blues. You'll want the paper copy so you can flip around to something you read a few days previously, just to see if it really says what you think it said.
A great historical read is "Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War" by Tony Horwitz. It's a great reminder that if you go back to any of the most important events in American history, you'll find someone who could very easily (and mostly accurately) be termed a "terrorist". It's the story of unbelievable courage or zealotry bordering on the insane, depending on your point of view, and a chapter from our past that a lot of people don't know about or are uncomfortable talking about. John Brown is an amazing character that is held up as a hero by the far right and the far left and of whom even the "middle" stand in awe (if a bit uncomfortably). The things that happened at Harpers Ferry are still affecting us today.
Also, make sure you take a little time to read nothing, to take out the earphones and put away the electronics. The real interesting stuff is what's happening inside you, if you only have the patience and ability to quiet the noise in your head for a while.
And happy new year if I don't see you before.
You are welcome on my lawn.