What are you reading now?

[George K]

@jon-nyc said in What are you reading now?:

https://www.medrxiv.org/search/covid-19

Geekiest response of the day.

Almost as geeky as Klaus's "Markdown" thread from this weekend.

[Aqua Letifer]

[kluurs]

Just finished On the Road

And a re-read of Zen

Also just finished Five Days at Memorial

Now Reading
Lifepsan - Why we Age

And also Heaven & Hell

[George K]

I read that a few years ago. Some people think that it tended toward being a hit-piece directed at the docs she talks about.

I'm agnostic as to that charge. It is, nevertheless, a compelling description of what people did under the worst of circumstances.

Perhaps Jolly can comment.

[kluurs]

@George-K For me the author was pretty agnostic, even sympathetic towards the people involved except for Pou's subsequent public speaking efforts where Pou clearly said false/misleading statements.

[George K]

"On The Road" is a ... what's the word...touchstone book for the 1960s.

I've never read it.

Worth my time?

[Aqua Letifer]

@George-K It's fun as a cultural artifact; same reason you might, say, pick up Fear and Loathing.

[kluurs]

@George-K - Did you like Easy Rider or Into the Wild? If yes, then maybe yes. I did the audiobook while running. It is interesting reading about people living literally on their last dollar. It is a product of its times - people living for the experience of exploring/seeing the world, dropping out, turning on. I'll probably read some more of his work.

[Aqua Letifer]

@kluurs Might I recommend Desert Solitaire and basically anything by Bukowski.

[mark]

pgp documentation.

[jon-nyc]

I was disappointed by On The Road.

I read it when I had a highly itinerant lifestyle thinking I’d relate. Frankly I thought the writing was unimpressive and the traveling and adventures rather noobish.

[George K]

Hey, Phibes...

The Gap series?

On the advice of Phibes, I persisted. I'm halfway done with the 5th and final book.

Donaldson takes a great idea, several, as a matter of fact, and stretches out to Wagnerian length. The five books total over 2600 pages of print. He spends way too much time describing how characters feel, how they are conflicted, how they worry about possible outcomes of their actions. Every time I read "Morn could feel the rage boiling within her..." I wanted to put the book down pull my earbuds out.

This could have been half the length it is and it would have been a much better, tighter tale.

[Doctor Phibes]

@George-K said in What are you reading now?:

Donaldson takes a great idea, several, as a matter of fact, and stretches out to Wagnerian length.

It is supposed to be loosely based on the Ring Cycle

[George K]

@Doctor-Phibes said in What are you reading now?:

@George-K said in What are you reading now?:

Donaldson takes a great idea, several, as a matter of fact, and stretches out to Wagnerian length.

It is supposed to be loosely based on the Ring Cycle

And that's a justification for its length because.....

[Doctor Phibes]

At least it's not in German.

[George K]

@Doctor-Phibes said in What are you reading now?:

At least it's not in German.

Half-full guy you are, eh?

[Aqua Letifer]

Ohhhh shit, son. I like this already. Which probably makes me a Certified Middle-Aged Person, but I don't care, this is awesome. Good recco.

I also don't know a damn thing about ships, so I'm trying to reference some background information just so I can better wrap my head around the descriptions.

[Jolly]

@Aqua-Letifer said in What are you reading now?:

Ohhhh shit, son. I like this already. Which probably makes me a Certified Middle-Aged Person, but I don't care, this is awesome. Good recco.

I also don't know a damn thing about ships, so I'm trying to reference some background information just so I can better wrap my head around the descriptions.

That's ok, the guy who wrote it supposedly didn't know much either. Which is interesting, because most of the nautical stuff in the books is considered accurate.

[Doctor Phibes]

Oh, matron!

This has been on my Amazon wishlist for years. I figured I needed cheering up, and this should be fun, as well as a little sad.

[George K]

Finally, finally, finished "The Gap" series.

My original comment stands - a good tale that could have been told in half the pages. I definitely felt there was a rush to "get the story told" at the end of the series. If Donaldson had been as compact with the other 4 ½ books as he was with the finale, it would have been great.

Up next, because I need a thriller:

Adam Cassidy is twenty-six and a low level employee at a high-tech corporation who hates his job. When he manipulates the system to do something nice for a friend, he finds himself charged with a crime. Corporate Security gives him a choice: prison - or become a spy in the headquarters of their chief competitor, Trion Systems.

They train him. They feed him inside information. Now, at Trion, he's a star, skyrocketing to the top. He finds he has talents he never knew he possessed. He's rich, drives a Porsche, lives in a fabulous apartment, and works directly for the CEO. He's dating the girl of his dreams.