Looool. I know what you mean. But I'm really big into trail running and often live outdoors for work, so I'm hoping I'll at least give a worthy attempt one day.

There's a guy from Puzzles And Other Games doing it atm. He had a trail blog at one point, but I think he's given up.

Too busy leaving a bang trail through the mountains

I just finished this. (I decided I'd better read it because Ian Hamilton is coming to my home game in August.) The broad details of the Absolute-Potripper scandal form the basis of the tale and Hamilton has done his research.

Given that the thriller is not a genre I often read, I thought this was quite a decent and entertaining example of the genre. The book and the series has been widely praised and I can see why.

Ava Lee is well-created and a very likeable character (if a bit unbelievable, particularly in her martial arts ability) and the writing is quite good. The only downside is that the book has the most prominent product placement I have ever seen. (Most egregious sentence: "Back at Wynn’s she showered, put on a black Giordano T-shirt and her Adidas training pants, and then made herself a Starbucks VIA instant coffee.")

The Water Knife isn't exactly blowing me away 40% in so I have diverted into The Martian for a hard sci-fi fix. Very fun book.

I'm reading Kate Atkinson's Time After Time, which I like but keep feeling like abandoning, and Aberystwyth Mon Amour which is fun, but wtf was the author on?

about 100 pages into 1Q84..really liking it

Finished Notes from a Dead House by Fyodor Dostoevsky trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky and Memoirs from the House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky trans. Jessie Coulson.

Here's a snippet from each translation:

Pevear and Volokhonsky:

. . . Tyranny is a habit; it is endowed with development, and develops finally into an illness. I stand upon this, that the best of men can, from habit, become coarse and stupefied to the point of brutality. Blood and power intoxicate: coarseness and depravity develop; the most abnormal phenomena become accessible and, finally, sweet to the mind and feelings. Man and citizen perish forever in the tyrant, and the return to human dignity, to repentance, and to regeneration, becomes almost impossible for him. What's more, the example, the possibility, of such self-will has a contagious effect on the whole of society: power is seductive. A society that looks indifferently upon such phenomenon is itself infected at its foundation. . . .

Jessie Coulson does it as:

. . . Tyranny is a habit; it has the capacity to develop and it does develop, in the end, into a disease. I maintain that the best of men may become a beast. Blood and power are intoxicants; callousness and perversity develop and grow; the greatest perversions become acceptable and finally sweet to the mind and heart. The man and citizen perish eternally in the tyrant, and a return to human dignity, to remorse and regeneration, becomes almost completely impossible to him. Besides this, example and the possibility of such arbitrary power act like a contagion on the whole of society; such despotism is a temptation. A society which contemplates such manifestations calmly is already corrupted at its roots.

I like parts of each and think that reading both gives me a better idea of what Dostoevsky intended to convey than either independently.

I just finished it the beginning of May. I thought it was very good.

The Pevear and Volokhonsky is much more "literary".

Seveneves is kind of interesting but not really grabbing me. There is a lot of mechanical talk about how the space ark works...a little of that goes a long way, you, know?

can anyone recommend some great biographies of napoleon?

Set aside in progress: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, a book I was excited to start reading, I couldn't get into it.

Started: Popular Hits of the Showa Era by Ryu Murakami, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and Herzog by Saul Bellow.

I am 75% in and struggling. I am hoping to get to the end (somehow) but I don't like the repeated explanation of things. He goes on endlessly about the two moons, yes I get their are two moons and it's weird, but at least three characters have droned on about it. Also some of the minor characters get far too much background. I don't care that the investigator guy used to have a family and two kids. Adds nothing to the narrative.

I started this from really liking his short story collection 'The Elephant Vanishes' which was excellent. Now I don't know whether to continue him, any opinions?


Also looking for recommendations for books that have con, swindle, heist, noir type feel. Stuff like Nobody Move by Denis Johnson or movies like Mamets House of Games or The Spanish Prisoner, or the excellent Nine Queens.

Recently listened to Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts (2014). My first biography of Napoleon. I thought it did a good job of balancing his personal life with his military exploits. I enjoyed it. The French government a few years ago released 22,000 letters and documents on Napoleon. Roberts uses these in his biography. Napoleon constantly wrote letters.

I love titles like person: a life. Looking forward to reading meat: a food and stuff: a thing.

The Martian is one of the geekiest books I've ever read. The protagonist reminds me of a Heinlein character, which is a good thing. He fixes a lot of stuff with duct tape as you do on Mars.

For a true life big con. The Man Who Made Vermeers. The forger had the cojones to sell forgeries to Hermann Goring. Couldn't make,this up

I thought 1Q84 was very good, but Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore are both better and Colorless Tsukuru pursues the same themes, identity and engaging with life, without magical realism and may be better than any of them.

I'd look at Jim Thompson (several) or p. g. sturges's Angel's Gate or Pick-Up by Charles Willeford.

Devil's Knot. Book about the WM3 case. I'm half way through and so far it's not great, leaving out relevant and pertinent information as well as making substandard excuses for discrepancies wrt the three convicted defendants. Haven't seen the film adaptation yet and from reading this so far, am in no great rush to either.

currently reading Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene which 1/4 of the way through is great

Just read a short 50 or so page book - Managing oneself by Peter Drucker which I would recommend to anybody.

Napoleon by Andrew Roberts is great. I didn't know that French wasn't Napoleon's mother tongue, and that he spoke it with a very strong accent. Tough to imagine that happening today.

sweet thanks for the recs guys.

Just started The Martian by Andy Weir. Very funny so far. I wasn't expecting much, but find myself reaching for it every chance I get.

To those who don't know, it started as a Reddit thread, and got picked up by a publisher.

It's going to be a Movie starring Matt Damon on Oct 2nd.


Anyone here ever read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse? I have a friend who raves about how it changed his life.

Finished The Martian. Fun read!

I read Siddhartha along with a ton of other Hesse novels when I was an adolescent. It's a good book. Anything can change your life I suppose.

Next up, more Daniel Woodrell - The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do.

Siddhartha is very good. It wasn't life changing for me, but a lot of people of my generation thought it was (for a while). It has historical significance culturally and in literature.