Reading material

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Re: Reading material by arhuman (Vicar) on May 23, 2001 at 09:46 UTC
For sci-fi: Dune (all the books) By Frank Herbert (and Brian Herbert now...) Hyperion By Dan Simmons Gibson Novels (Cyberpunk inventor) and books : Neuromancer, Burning Chrome... Almost all ASIMOV books The players of Null-A By Van Vogt (There's more in this book than just a story, the General Semantic topic is really WORTH studying...) For historical novel : Musashi (A MUST READ!!!) By Eiji Yoshikawa Le comte de Monte Christo By Alexandre Dumas (Sorry I haven't found the english version, but this book will blow your mind, you can't talk about retaliation without reading this book first... ;-) "Only Bad Coders Badly Code In Perl" (OBC2IP)	[reply]
Re: Reading material by TStanley (Canon) on May 23, 2001 at 06:15 UTC
If you're looking for some good reading material, I would suggest some of the following scifi/fantasy series: The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore The Heralds of Valdemar Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey I also like the Jack Ryan books written by Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October, Debt of Honor, Patriot Games,The Sum of all Fears, Executive Orders, Cardinal of the Kremlin, and The Bear and the Dragon). I would say that most of these could be found at your local library. Good reading! TStanley -------- There's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out -- Douglas Adams/Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	[reply]
Re: Reading material by scott (Chaplain) on May 23, 2001 at 17:58 UTC
I've got a bigger list at home but here're some favorites: Sci-Fi/Fantasy I second the vote(s) for Asimov, Herbert, and Tolkien. Addtionally, Anything by by Ursula K. LeGuin. I particularly like `The Dispossessed'. The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson Most things by `The Killer Bs' : David Brin, Ben Bova, and Greg Bear. Philosophy Conquest of Abundance, by Paul Feyerabend The Logic of Scientific Discovery, by Karl Popper Ethics for the New Millenium, by the Dalai Lama Power, Mysticism, and Logic, by Bertrand Russell History Turmoil and Triumph, by George Schultz, a former Secretary of State A History of the Arab Peoples, by Albert Hourani Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville Anything by Barbara Tuchman (sp?). `The Zimmerman Telegram' is pretty short. Science Most of these assume a high level of familiarity with advanced mathematics &&\|\| physics, but this is what I do in real life so ... A Primer of Infinitesimal Analysis, J. L. Bell At the level of college Calculus -- An alternate view of calculus based on infinitesimal line segments. Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics, by J. S. Bell Quantum Mechanics, by J. J. Sakurai Solid State Physics, by Ashcroft and Mermin Classical Electrodynamics, by Julian Schwinger Classics Joseph Conrad, Jane Austen, Willa Cather, O'Henry, Poe Other The Transparent Society, by David Brin 1984, by George Orwell Engines of Creation, by Eric Drexler Godel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas Hofstedter Joseph Liouville 1809-1882, Master of Pure and Applied Mathematics, J. Lutzen A biography. I think your quote is slighly off: "For us, who are convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future has no other meaning than that of an illusion, though a tenacious one." in Correspondance avec Michele Besso, 1979. Although, it does sound funkier and non-snooty your way. :)	[reply]
Re: Reading material by cacharbe (Curate) on May 23, 2001 at 07:28 UTC
I just finished reading Tad Williams' 'Otherland' series. Tad is a good author. He writes strong characters and doesn't shy away from using interesting story hooks (I won't give them away as I think people should read it) to twist the story. He also has a good fantasy series that begins with 'The Dragonbone Chair'. If you're a Fantasy fan, try 'A wizards first rule' by Terry Goodkind. Too, pick up Neal Stephenson's work (Yes, all of it) including 'Snowcrash', 'The Diamond Age' and, my favorite 'Cryptonomicon'. In this same vein, Bruce Schneier's 'Secrets and Lies' is a great compliment to his textbook, and should be read by everyone in the IT environment. Security is a process, not a product. C-.	[reply]
Re: Reading material by Ducati (Beadle) on May 23, 2001 at 16:26 UTC
If you are interested in OOP programming I suggest: Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software This book is written by the Gang of Four (Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides) and is very highly praised. It is a great book if you need to use patterns in your code ... which most of us do. Note, it's written for C++ and some Smalltalk but you can apply it to just about any OO language. It's a great reference book in general. Hope that this helps .... Ducati ============================================ "We rock the body to rock the party ... until the party rocks the body" De La Soul	[reply]
Re: Reading material by Elgon (Curate) on May 23, 2001 at 17:46 UTC
Reading? Yep, I do that. In fact I do a lot of that. Reading is like a kind of mental masturbation, great fun and best done on your own somewhere quiet! I find myself a nice quiet place, a jug of OJ or similar, something like Portishead on the hi-fi and curl up for a few hours with just about anything. Here's my list... Asimov's Foundation and Robot Series Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit Neuromancer and to a lesser extent, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive The Two Cultures by CP Snow Iain M Banks' "Culture" novels Iain Banks "Real World" novels, especially Complicity, The Wasp Factory, Crow Road, and The Business. David Eddings' "The Beligariad" and "The Malloreon" "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss (No really, a great book!) "Mindstar Rising", "A Quantum Murder" and "The Nanoflower" by Peter F. Hamilton And for the more ecclectic reader... The Gun and Its Development, WW Greener Cartridges of the world, Ed. Frank Barnes Anyway, read and enjoy. "What this book tell me is that goose stepping morons, such as yourself, should spend more time reading books istead of burning them.." --Dr Jones Sr, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"	[reply]
Re: Reading material by Vynce (Friar) on May 23, 2001 at 17:23 UTC
i never have trouble finding good books to read; i live with someone who reads 5 times as fast as i do, and mostly read the things he tells me to. saves me the trouble of thinking. many of those listed here i can vouch for, but i feel this medium will take more space recommending books than is needed; perhaps a better voting system could be set up. also in the meta-category, i'll point out that vroom's node has his growing reading list on it. .	[reply]
Re: Reading material by LD2 (Curate) on May 23, 2001 at 19:55 UTC
Reading? Ahh.. a love of my life. Without that, well.. insomonia could be unbearable at times. Here's a short list... David Eddings Robert Jordan - although, I'm wondering a bit if he's ever going to finish the series. Ken Follet Stephen R. Lawhead Douglas Adams - must read .. "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Anne Rice Caleb Carr - "The Alienist" Robert A. Heinlein - "Time Enough for Love", "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Job: A Comedy of Justice" etc. Morgan Llywelyn C.S. Friedman Chiam Potok There are loads others.. but those are just to name a few.	[reply]
Re: Reading material by Sherlock (Deacon) on May 23, 2001 at 20:54 UTC
In case anyone would like a summary of these books listed by category, visit my home node. I've compiled these books, along with a few of my own, into a single list and linked as many as I could to Amazon.com so you can quickly find summaries and reviews of each text. Hopefully, you'll find it useful. Further, if anyone would like to add books to my list (as I doubt you're all going to stop reading), please /msg me and I will attempt to keep the list updated. Skepticism is the source of knowledge as much as knowledge is the source of skepticism.	[reply]
(Guildenstern) Re: Reading material by Guildenstern (Deacon) on May 23, 2001 at 18:54 UTC
I can't believe nobody's mentioned the master yet. Get your hands on anything by Heinlein. His early stuff is good if you just want sci-fi or dead on social commentary (Starship Troopers?). His later stuff tended to be a bit different, but still quite readable. The Number of the Beast is an absolute classic. Others that can be found on my reading list: Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance The Red Wheel series by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Fermat's Enigma The Tao of Pooh Rather shamefacedly I'll admit to reading the Magic: The Gathering books Beowulf Guildenstern Negaterd character class uber alles!	[reply]


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