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pachyderm

macrumors G4
Jan 12, 2008
10,741
5,409
Smyrna, TN
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is a very good hard science fiction novel. Andy Weir is also well known as author of The Martian, which was also made into a successful movie of the same name. I thought Project Hail Mary was the better of the two but Andy Weir has a definite style/theme that is common across both novels.
I love them both.

His first novel, Artemis, is also a very entertaining read.
 
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chmania

macrumors 65816
Dec 2, 2023
1,036
1,509
I am getting caught by John Ajvide Lindqvist's books. Now, I am reading Harbour.

Harbour.jpg

Pretty good translation by Marlaine Delargy.
If you are into audio books, here it is. I am not, I'd most probably fall asleep.😊
 
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DaveFromCampbelltown

macrumors 68000
Jun 24, 2020
1,779
2,875
Trying to read The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas

1717983443697.png


My interest was piqued by all the good reviews it has been getting, and the fact that I had worked in a natural history museum in my youth.
However...
It opens up with some of the most flowery language that I have come across in a very long time --

Set in sprawling lawns scabbed with necrotic patches of brown, the three-story building was a moldering embarrassment to Neo-Romanesque architecture. The gabled roof, pockmarked with missing shingles, buckled like paper that had met with a spill. The windows were opaque with grime, many riven with spidery cracks sealed with duct tape. Weeds twisted up the base like snakes attempting to scale the facade, and the dome that protruded above the north wing resembled a badly infected hernia, raw and blackened

and that's just on the first page. Whatever happened to editors? Why hasn't somebody hit him over the head with a copy of Stunk and White?*

Currently on page 22, and hoping that it will get better.


* Ok, it's a tiny little book and wouldn't do anybody any damage.
 

Mousse

macrumors 68040
Apr 7, 2008
3,647
7,082
Flea Bottom, King's Landing
Last Days of Summer. It's a book my daughter got from her teacher. It has a bit of WWII era slang she didn't understand and kept asking me. Anyhow, she was reading part of it out loud...
"Where did they hear that from? A Nazi spy? J. Herbert Hoover? Franklin Delano Biscuithead?"
I cackling with insane glee thinking she must have misread the passage. She pointed out lines in the book. I laughed even harder. She wanted to know what's so funny. I told her to google "Herbert Hoover" and "J. Edgar Hoover" and "FDR".

Anyhow, I'm halfway through and laughing my (_!_) off. The book is written mainly in the form of correspondence between a 12 year old Jewish boy and a star baseball player who becomes friends.
 
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chmania

macrumors 65816
Dec 2, 2023
1,036
1,509
Finished reading Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It interesting what people can imagine to write books on. The ending was pretty lame, doesn't give anything for the reader to keep on thinking. Took me a long while to read it, as I couldn't find enough leisure time after work.

After few pages, decided not to read Dune by Frank Herbert, but most probably will read The Legacy by Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

The Legacy by Yrsa Sigurdardottir.jpg
 

ducknalddon

macrumors 6502
Aug 31, 2018
344
568
the-way-home-9781786077271_hr.jpg


A guy builds a cabin in Ireland without any modern technology. He gets his water from a local spring and fish from a nearby loch. He isn't a recluse, he seems to have embedded himself in the local community. His lifestyle seems too much for the opposite sex though.

It's well written, has hints of Walden through it. I enjoyed it.
 
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chmania

macrumors 65816
Dec 2, 2023
1,036
1,509
Finished another book by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Screenshot 2024-07-21 at 21.48.23.jpg

and now will move to read a book by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir
Screenshot 2024-07-21 at 21.51.50.jpg

It quite interesting that such a small country (by population too) can produce so many good writers. Sure, I have to read the translated books. Both books were translated by Victoria Cribb, so they are in British English.
She has translated more than 25 novels from the Icelandic and, in 2017, she received the Orðstír honorary translation award for services to Icelandic literature.
 

scubachap

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2016
512
821
UK
Trying to read The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas

View attachment 2386691

My interest was piqued by all the good reviews it has been getting, and the fact that I had worked in a natural history museum in my youth.
However...
It opens up with some of the most flowery language that I have come across in a very long time --



and that's just on the first page. Whatever happened to editors? Why hasn't somebody hit him over the head with a copy of Stunk and White?*

Currently on page 22, and hoping that it will get better.


* Ok, it's a tiny little book and wouldn't do anybody any damage.
That looks good, can't resist anything Dinosaur related... I think editors are now officially extinct too - have you read Kindred - Rebecca Wragg Sykes (Neanderthal non-fiction), she clearly knows her stuff and it's a decent book but, ye gods, every chapter starts with a poem...
 

Mac Face

macrumors member
May 2, 2022
41
149
Hungary
I managed to find some old horror comics in PDF format (legally on an archiving site). I plan to start reading them this weekend.
 

Bodhitree

macrumors 68020
Apr 5, 2021
2,068
2,200
Netherlands
I found once I really got into the spiritual path, that all my interests in entertainment fell away. I used to read a lot of fiction, watch tv, movies, but since a time about ten years ago I am no longer interested. I noticed that it was not real, all the entertainment is made up, fake, the dreams of other people.

So these days I meditate, read spiritual books, and write a little on Buddhist and spiritual forums. Nisargadatta’s “I Am That” is a classic, good choice to get your feet wet. When reading it I wouldn’t pay too much attention to some of the things that are not a conceptual fit to your worldview, just take from it what makes sense to you.

Holybooks.com has a lot of free spiritual ebooks, I recommend it. Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now is also available if you do a Google search for the pdf.
 
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chmania

macrumors 65816
Dec 2, 2023
1,036
1,509
When reading it I wouldn’t pay too much attention to some of the things that are not a conceptual fit to your worldview, just take from it what makes sense to you.
Most will fit my worldview, except things about gods. Everything is "maya," after all.

I've not stopped watching TV, especially sports, music and reading light fiction etc. Lately quite interested in Icelandic, Scandinavian books. I am still interested in Linux and Windows, now macOS. Life is short, and not interested in afterlife.
 
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