Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[Scepticalscribe]

Well I've started it, but I think it is a little too early to say. I think he listens to dodgy music!
Btw I'm a terribly slow reader!

I'm not; I speed read - which means the books I love are finished all too quickly!

But then, I can always re-read them, and the process of fresh exploration - not to mention the joys of rediscovery - are sometimes even more enjoyable than the initial read where your hunger to find out what happened may have interfered with your appreciation of the rich story telling skills and exquisite prose of your chosen narrator.

 

[AVBeatMan]

I'm not; I speed read - which means the books I love are finished all too quickly!

But then, I can always re-read them, and the process of fresh exploration - not to mention the joys of rediscovery - are sometimes even more enjoyable than the initial read where your hunger to find out what happened may have interfered with your appreciation of the rich story telling skills and exquisite prose of your chosen narrator.

This is something I wish I could do, read quicker! I too am a slow reader. I think it's because I want to read every word and enjoy every page. I do have to read faster at work but then it's like scanning a document and recognising the main points. Documents at work are often, well, boring and lengthy. They could easily be summarised into one paragraph.

I seem to take ages reading books. I think I try to read too many different things, newspapers (there can be 3 on a Saturday and Sunday), magazines (I've bought lots that have been thrown away without even opening!). I tend to read books at the end of the day, before bed. My wife (when she was here) used to read 3 or 4 books a week. I used to tease her that she only read the first and last sentence of each page!

So, yes, I'd like to read faster, if only to be able to get through more books.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

This is something I wish I could do, read quicker! I too am a slow reader. I think it's because I want to read every word and enjoy every page. I do have to read faster at work but then it's like scanning a document and recognising the main points. Documents at work are often, well, boring and lengthy. They could easily be summarised into one paragraph.

I seem to take ages reading books. I think I try to read too many different things, newspapers (there can be 3 on a Saturday and Sunday), magazines (I've bought lots that have been thrown away without even opening!). I tend to read books at the end of the day, before bed. My wife (when she was here) used to read 3 or 4 books a week. I used to tease her that she only read the first and last sentence of each page!

So, yes, I'd like to read faster, if only to be able to get through more books.

Years ago, when I was a kid, - aged ten - I was sent into hospital - at very short notice - to have my appendix removed.

To the considerable surprise of the medical staff - and they did offer me the choice - I preferred a single, private room, to a ward full of children; the nurses suggesting in a wheedling tone 'but surely you'd love to be in with other kids' and were somewhat stunned at my very firm 'no' as I was being prepared for the operation; they even checked reactions - visibly surprised - by looking at my mother, who calmly supported my preference, saying that this is what I had explicitly, (very clearly, in fact, as I was one of those kids who spoke in clear, grammatically correct sentences) stated that I wanted.

Anyway, I was in hospital for over a week, in a room of my own, able to read (at night) for far longer and far later than I would have been allowed to do at home, and books were my constant diet, as anyone who visited me was asked to bring books. That was when and where I learned to speed read.

 

[AVBeatMan]

Just ordered;

And

 

[S.B.G]

Encounter at Farpoint (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

The U.S.S. Enterprise is en route to Cygnus IV, home of the technologically illiterate Bandi and their mysteriously advanced Farpoint Station. After adding to its crew complement from Deneb IV they are harassed and prosecuted by an omnipotent being named Q, who claims that humanity has not progressed beyond barbarism. Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise must defend themselves by solving the mystery of Farpoint Station in a manner satisfactory to their newest judge and nemesis.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Encounter at Farpoint (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

View attachment 664006

Ah. Fascinating.

And how does this compare with the TV series - still my favourite (by far) of the entire Star Trek franchise?

 

[S.B.G]

Ah. Fascinating.

And how does this compare with the TV series - still my favourite (by far) of the entire Star Trek franchise?

I just finished it. Being this book was the written version of the very first episode of the very first season of TNG I found it to be okay. In between reading the book yesterday I watched the episode again on Netflix, so effectively I watched it and read the book at the same time.

The book was nearly the script for the episode, or vice versa. There was very little additional information or extra narrative added to the book than what is shown on screen. Though there were a few pages dedicated to explaining a little more the history between Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher than is revealed in the show, but not much. Also there was a bit of deeper insight into Commander Riker's initial views towards Data and how he chose to interact and eventually come to accept him.

Otherwise, if you've seen the episode there is almost little reason to read the book. On Goodreads.com I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I just finished it. Being this book was the written version of the very first episode of the very first season of TNG I found it to be okay. In between reading the book yesterday I watched the episode again on Netflix, so effectively I watched it and read the book at the same time.

The book was nearly the script for the episode, or vice versa. There was very little additional information or extra narrative added to the book than what is shown on screen. Though there were a few pages dedicated to explaining a little more the history between Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher than is revealed in the show, but not much. Also there was a bit of deeper insight into Commander Riker's initial views towards Data and how he chose to interact and eventually come to accept him.

Otherwise, if you've seen the episode there is almost little reason to read the book. On Goodreads.com I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

Many thanks for the detailed review; an aside: What were Commander Riker's initial views on Lt-Commander Data? I didn't realise that he harboured a prejudice, - but then - it is quite some time since I saw the first season of STNG.

I seem to recall that it got really good in the third series - there were a number of individual - quite excellent - episodes in the second series, but as a series, in general, it got better as it progressed.

 

[S.B.G]

Many thanks for the detailed review; an aside: What were Commander Riker's initial views on Lt-Commander Data? I didn't realise that he harboured a prejudice, - but then - it is quite some time since I saw the first season of STNG.

I seem to recall that it got really good in the third series - there were a number of individual - quite excellent - episodes in the second series, but as a series, in general, it got better as it progressed.

Riker's prejudice toward Data doesn't really come out in the show, but he was taking a racist view toward him, albeit subdued, in that he wasn't a biological being and was created by an unknown alien race. He even questioned him in Picard's ready room and at first refused to refer to him as an officer of Starfleet. That is until Picard admonished him for it and ordered him to study the personnel record of Data and then get to know him better. If you recall the episode where Riker meets Data on Holodeck 4 and finds him trying to learn to whistle as humans do, they have a conversation about his history, capabilities and his superiorness to humans and how if Data could, he'd give up his superiority to be human. Then he demonstrates his capabilities and compassion when he pulls young Wesley Crusher out of the stream he had fallen into after slipping on a loose rock.

The rest of the book/episode Riker comes to appreciate Data for what, no, who he is and what he can do.

 

[ardchoille50]

Ah. Fascinating.

And how does this compare with the TV series - still my favourite (by far) of the entire Star Trek franchise?

That has been one of my favorite series for years.
[doublepost=1476029816][/doublepost]

I just finished it. Being this book was the written version of the very first episode of the very first season of TNG I found it to be okay. In between reading the book yesterday I watched the episode again on Netflix, so effectively I watched it and read the book at the same time.

The book was nearly the script for the episode, or vice versa. There was very little additional information or extra narrative added to the book than what is shown on screen. Though there were a few pages dedicated to explaining a little more the history between Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher than is revealed in the show, but not much. Also there was a bit of deeper insight into Commander Riker's initial views towards Data and how he chose to interact and eventually come to accept him.

Otherwise, if you've seen the episode there is almost little reason to read the book. On Goodreads.com I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

Thank you for that. I'm going to have to start buying ST:TNG books - the TV series is a favorite of mine.

 

[S.B.G]

This is a book that I will be reading sometime in the future. It's not available yet, but I signed up to receive notification when it's available for purchase.

Oakdale: The Lapeer State Home

It's about a former 'mental' hospital in my home town, which used to be just down the street from my office, where a community college now sits. It was at one time the largest institution of it's kind in the world and it's not without its controversies either. I doubt this photo book will go into that, but information is out there on the Internet about it.

I'm finally going to start on this book today. It's been a couple of years since it was announced and after I received it, I put it on the book shelf. Now is good a time as any to begin reading it.

 

[ardchoille50]

I'm currently reading Once Dead - by Richard Phillips. This is the first book in the Inception trilogy - which is itself the prequel trilogy of the Rho Agenda series - all within the science fiction genre. Mr. Phillips is, in my opinion, a very talented author. I read the Rho Agenda trilogy and then noticed that the author released the Inception trilogy as the prequel. I can't wait to find out what led to the events in the Rho Agenda books

 

[Scepticalscribe]

This week past, "Goldenhand" the fifth volume in the "Abhorsen" series by Garth Nix was published, and I had it on order, purchasing a very elegant hard back book.

The original series was a trilogy - the "Abhorsen" series ("Sabriel", "Lirael" and "Abhorsen") and was rightly regarded as a 'YA' classic. Personally, I thought it superb - beautifully written, with a wonderful - and entirely original and internally consistent - magical world, a sort of medieval world, co-existing uneasily with an alternative England (Ancelstierre) straight from the period of shortly before, during, and after World War One and the 1920s, that world so beautifully evoked by Dorothy L. Sayers, P. G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie (not to mention Downton Abbey), excellent plots, fantastic female characters, and an unforgettable narrative arc.

After some years, a novella, a long 'short story' (set mainly in the alternative England) called "The Creature In The Case" (English country home mystery in the 1920s meets fantasy) which occurred after the events at the end of "Abhorsen" came out.

More recently, two years ago, a sort of prequel, set centuries earlier, called "Clariel" was published, as was a short story (set in the same world) called "To Hold The Bridge".

"Goldenhand" pulls all of these together - elements of every single one of those stories - together with further encounters with some wonderfully engaging familiar characters (along with some completely new ones) all of whom are brought together in a terrific new tale.

I thoroughly enjoyed it; if you liked the world of the "Abhorsen" series, you will most certainly love this. Recommended.

 

[S.B.G]

I finished the book I posted about last already, it was a short read and primarily captioned photos. It was a fascinating look into the State Home that used to reside in my town and contributes to a lot of local history dating back to the 1890's.

Now I'm on to a much longer book, one I pulled off my shelf and is a wonderful feeling hardcover book with the smell only a book of this sort can generate.

Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918

November 11, 1918. The final hours pulsate with tension as every man in the trenches hopes to escape the melancholy distinction of being the last to die in World War I. The Allied generals knew the fighting would end precisely at 11:00 A.M, yet in the final hours they flung men against an already beaten Germany. The result? Eleven thousand casualties suffered–more than during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Why? Allied commanders wanted to punish the enemy to the very last moment and career officers saw a fast-fading chance for glory and promotion.

Joseph E. Persico puts the reader in the trenches with the forgotten and the famous–among the latter, Corporal Adolf Hitler, Captain Harry Truman, and Colonels Douglas MacArthur and George Patton. Mainly, he follows ordinary soldiers’ lives, illuminating their fate as the end approaches. Persico sets the last day of the war in historic context with a gripping reprise of all that led up to it, from the 1914 assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand, which ignited the war, to the raw racism black doughboys endured except when ordered to advance and die in the war’s last hour. Persico recounts the war’s bloody climax in a cinematic style that evokes All Quiet on the Western Front, Grand Illusion, and Paths of Glory.

The pointless fighting on the last day of the war is the perfect metaphor for the four years that preceded it, years of senseless slaughter for hollow purposes. This book is sure to become the definitive history of the end of a conflict Winston Churchill called “the hardest, cruelest, and least-rewarded of all the wars that have been fought.”

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I finished the book I posted about last already, it was a short read and primarily captioned photos. It was a fascinating look into the State Home that used to reside in my town and contributes to a lot of local history dating back to the 1890's.

Now I'm on to a much longer book, one I pulled off my shelf and is a wonderful feeling hardcover book with the smell only a book of this sort can generate.

Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918


View attachment 664310

Sounds fascinating.

The justly celebrated war poet (Second Lieutenant) Wilfrid Owen was killed (in action) on November 4 1918, a week before the end of hostilities, and had won the Military Cross shortly before that.

Tragically, with terrible and ironical timing, his mother (to whom he was very close, writing to her of his war experiences) received the telegram informing her of her son's death on November 11, what is now Armistice Day, as the very church bells were ringing out in celebration at the declaration of the end of the war.

 

[S.B.G]

Sounds fascinating.

The justly celebrated war poet (Second Lieutenant) Wilfrid Owen was killed (in action) on November 4 1918, a week before the end of hostilities, and had won the Military Cross shortly before that.

Tragically, with terrible and ironical timing, his mother (to whom he was very close, writing to her of his war experiences) received the telegram informing her of her son's death on November 11, what is now Armistice Day, as the very church bells were ringing out in celebration at the declaration of the end of the war.

What a terrible tragedy and one I couldn't begin to imagine what that poor mother must have felt.

 

[aaronvan]

I never heard of this author and picked it up because of the interesting jacket. However, it's an excellent book.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

What a terrible tragedy and one I couldn't begin to imagine what that poor mother must have felt.

He is regarded - rightly, to my mind - as possibly the very best of the war poets.

Have you ever read "Regeneration" by Pat Barker?

It is an excellent - no, an outstanding book - both the research and history are meticulous, as is the tone - (she used diaries and letters written at the time to get that right).

The book is mostly set in Craiglockhart hospital - just outside Edinburgh - in 1917 where both Lt Wilfrid Owen and Lieut - later Captain - Siegfried Sassoon were recovering from shell shock; the work discussed their treatment with the enlightened doctors - Dr Rivers and Dr Brock - who treated them - and their development as poets - both submitted poems - some of the best war poetry of the entire twentieth century - which were first published in the hospital publication - The Hydra.

Regeneration is the first book of a trilogy, which runs roughly from spring to autumn 1917 - (the full trilogy brings the story up to the end of the First World War) - the others being "The Eye In The Door" and "Ghost Road".

Technically, they are fiction, yet almost everything depicted actually took place, (with meticulous historiography) and are powerful, disturbing and quite brilliant works. Deservedly, Pat Barker won the Booker Prize for the trilogy.

I have friends who thought they were depressing. I thought them brilliant, especially the first book.

 

[S.B.G]

Have you ever read "Regeneration" by Pat Barker?

No, I've not had the pleasure, but will add it to my list of books to obtain and consume - thank you!

 

[yaxomoxay]

What a terrible tragedy and one I couldn't begin to imagine what that poor mother must have felt.

Can you imagine the relatives of Henry Gunther?

Henry Nicholas John Gunther (June 6, 1895 – November 11, 1918) was an American soldier and the last soldier of any of the belligerents to be killed during World War I.[1][2][3] He was killed at 10:59 a.m., one minute before the Armistice was to take effect at 11 a.m

(...)

French commander-in-chief Marshal Foch refused to accede to the German negotiators' immediate request to declare a ceasefire or truce so that there would be no more useless waste of lives among the common soldiers. By not declaring a truce even between the signing of the documents for the Armistice and its entry into force, "at the eleventh hour, at the eleventh day and the eleventh month", about 11,000 additional men were wounded or killed - far more than usual, according to the military statistics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Gunther

I remember that Barbara Tuchman destroys Marshal Foch in her Guns of August.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

......
I remember that Barbara Tuchman destroys Marshal Foch in her Guns of August.

And rightly so.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Not a book, but a terrific profile of Leonard Cohen in the New Yorker penned by David Remnick (who has written a number of excellent books). Well worth reading.

 

[D.T.]

I'm excited to say my 8 year old is reading the first Harry Potter [and the Philosopher's Stone]

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I'm excited to say my 8 year old is reading the first Harry Potter [and the Philosopher's Stone]

Something tells me that this is just the first step..........on along - and rewarding - journey of exploration and discovery of the Harry Potter world - which is wonderfully richly imagined.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it together.

Get the illustrated versions, if budgets allow, - the first two are now out, the second one (Chamber of Secrets was published a week ago) - and kids will love them, they are so beautifully produced.

 

[pachyderm]