I liked Lock In. Scalzi also wrote a short story to promote Lock In. You can find a free copy on Tor.com, it's a fun "oral history" of the disease. You can get a bit of background on the main character. I read the story first last summer and that's why I ended up reading the book.

The only other Scalzi I've read is Redshirts, which is quite funny.

Do you recommend his space opera series?

I haven't gotten to the oral history yet, but there is a copy of it at the end of the audiobook. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy Lock In, but I think he's gotten so good at his schtick that he sometimes fails to push the envelope with regards to his style (his ideas always seem to do so -- can't complain about that).

Redshirts is awesome, and is one of those books that really shows what he's capable of.

I've been trying for a while now to psych myself up to dive into the Old Man's War series, but I'm in the middle of so many series already that I'm loath to start a new one before I've polished off a few. One of these days....

I'm no expert on his work, but if you're looking for a good Scalzi one-off, I liked Agent to the Stars, which is basically about a big piece of sentient alien poo who hires an agent to turn it into a celebrity so that it can ingratiate itself with humanity before initiating first contact.

Need some material for a 10 day holiday. Any recommendations? It can be anything tbh.

I'm quite pleased the thread GOAT'd up The Count of Monte Cristo. Good length for a holiday of 10 days too.

I gave up on redshirts because of the writing style.
It's been a while since I tried it but I remember every sentence ending with: he said, she said, 'x' said. I couldn't read the book normally anymore after focusing on that :/

Brushing up on some old Classics, Caro's Book of Poker Tells, Annie Duke's Decide to Play Great Poker, Joe Navarro's Poker Tell Essentials. Heading to Vegas and trying to brush some of the rust off...

I'm looking for a new goal. I did ok on my last one, reading 8/10 of the 'Best books of 2014'. I know I should have done the other two but they were very long and definitely not my 'thing'.

Could the well read, intellectual giants that reside here please give this list I stumbled upon a quick look through and give their opinions. It seems good to me, even though I've not heard of a lot of them, and has a mix of genres, which I like.

The 50 Books Everyone Needs to Read, 1963-2013

Looks like your preparing for some MTT play, but if its cash games, I've been living off cash games for 7 years now and I still got a lot out of 'Pokers 1%'. I've never read any MTT books, but actually any NLHE it's really good for I thought.

Only looked at a few (long lists that load a new page for each entry piss me off), but:

Picking one book for each year is gimmicky and stupid

Having several of those be collections of previously published work completely undercuts the idea of picking one for each year

The author seems to be focusing on what literary types would consider "important" rather than what's good or entertaining. The list seems to be made not to direct readers to worthwhile books, but to impress people.


In other words, find another list.

Thinking about that list just pisses me off.

The only reason you'd make s list of one book per year is to have that book either somehow represent what that year was about or at least be the best book published that year.


But what does she pick for 1971?

A collection of short stories by a writer who'd been dead since 1964 and who did her best work in the 40s & 50s.

It was obviously not representative of 1971, nor was it the best book published that year ("Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was the answer to both those).


In short, **** that list.

Actually a low limit cash game player, very impressive on the 7 year run. You out in Vegas? I just posted a TR for my trip starting tomorrow.

Awesome read.

List is awful. Big Poppa nailed it. What do the current political views of the guy who wrote Ender's Game have to do with Ender's Game?

Nothing, and everything, since his views probably haven't changed much. Still, it's one of the great novels about "special education" of all sorts.

Cool thanks for the input! Apologies for rustling you so much BigPoppa.

I've decided just to pick ones that interest me from this list instead.

All-TIME 100 Novels

Fixed for me.

Oh dear, I better just get my coat then...

Ha, that was an unfortunate grunch. I'm pretty sure I've posted some lists ITT, even quite recently.

I think really what I bridle at is the claim to authority. Of course we all have personal lists - 'here are some books i liked', they're one route to finding new favourites, but it's when they start with titles like the must read list, or the top whatever, or things you must read before you die, or the canon, then my hackles start to rise. I think the personal random walk through literature is one of the fundamental glories of reading.

What's the deepest into a book you have given up? I'm 345/400 into The List of Seven and ditching it. I love the setting and the characters but don't care at all about the plot or how it will wrap up.

Oh I completely agree, I just feel I may need a better path. Something to work through gives me a bit of a boundary, and a lesson in self-constraint, as I have a bad habit of starting way too many books, then getting lost/bored/distracted, then never finishing them.
Currently I'm listening to two audiobooks and reading:

How Not to Be Wrong : The Power of Mathematical Thinking - Jordan Ellenberg
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography - Simon Singh
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
High Sobriety My Year Without Booze - Jill Stark
The "Bhagavad Gita" A Biography - Richard H. Davis
Fingerprints of the Gods - Graham Hancock

Really, I loved that book. But maybe the end did get a bit twisted. The very very end is strong

Who's in for a The Familiar reading club? Full committal and a thread. All 27 volumes... Starting now!

i want to say i did well into the 90+ years of solitude without finishing, and I abandoned Midnight's Children in the jungle quite near the end. Both books I was loving, but then had enough of.

Maybe Hannibal or some crap Dan Brown book. Actually it was probably Hannibal, as soon as I saw how the ending was shaping up I just threw that book across the room.

Never have gotten that far into a book and quit, usually it would be less than 20% and that's still extremely rare. I did quit the show Big Love like 85-90% in. I quit Lost very far into it but am now forced to pick it back up*.


*Should explain this in the Twin Peaks thread some day.