Now reading

[APK]

Just finished this enjoyable and informative read:

Long For This World: The Strange Science of Immortality
by Jonathan Weiner

Its about the biological nature of aging and scientific advances
relating to how our lifespan might extended. Important stuff
(unless you think dying is ok).

[Dave Michuda]

Just finished two books that I discovered via Boingboing.



Up Against It by M.J. Locke - What's not to love about colonies on asteroids dealing with a nano-tech disaster, a rogue AI, kids on rocket bikes and the Martian mafia?  Good old fashioned, space-opera type of story.




Among Others by Jo Walton - normally I don't like fantasy but I loved this book.  It's part fantasy, part SF & part coming of age tale.  A fifteen yr old girl, away at boarding school, deals with mean kids, magic, fairies & the death of her twin sister.  What gets her through all of it is her love of science fiction.  She reads a TON of books throughout this book(which is her journal).  It takes place in the late 70's so many of the books she reads are classics & works published in 40's, 50's & 60's.  She drops a lot of titles & names... Heinlein, Asimov, Silverberg, Brunner, Delany, Zelazny, CS Lewis, Tolkien, Anderson, Clarke, Renault, LeGuin and many, many more.

The main character mentions a lot of books and authors I've never read before so I can't wait to dive in & try some.  First up is Babel 17 by Samuel Delany.

[mgriffin]

"Among Others" sounds interesting.

I've been reading Peter Straub's "A Dark Matter," an interesting and quietly-told horror novel. The story is told by a character who is a middle-aged writer who starts to become interested in a strange event (involving death, insanity and vanishing human beings) that his wife and friends experienced decades earlier. The event was something the writer himself managed to miss, and the others never told him the truth about what happened back then until he starts digging into it.

It started a bit too slowly for me, but as more of the central mystery has been revealed, I've started getting hooked. Straub's a great writer but if you're looking for full-on horror, this really isn't it. It's more weird and mysterious literary fiction.

[jkn]

admittedly - I just haven't read much lately at all... I definitely go in phases now where I'll read a ton, then none at all as I do other things like play video games.

[Ein Sophistry]

/nerd

[hdibrell]

Autobiography of Mark Twain". This is a book I've been looking forward to reading since I first heard of it. It is a little tedious in the beginning as he sets the groundworks ( history, characters, etc.), but now past that it's starting to get really interesting with his opinions and stories that he did not wish to have published until after his death.

[APK]

/nerd

Always good to see someone reading philosophy (even if its metaethics).

I used to teach philosophy.

[Ein Sophistry]

Nice. Did you have a particular area of emphasis? I'm starting a grad program in neurophilosophy in a few months.

I take it from your parenthetical comment that you're either a noncognitivist or an error theorist...?

[APK]

 

You are talking anglo-american analytical philosophy.
I'm phenomenology, existentialism, semiotics, hermeneutics,
and post modernism. So I'm more firmly in the contemporary
european camp.

I'm more hermeneutic than anything else. But my PhD thesis was on
narrative and the self. So I was into issues of identity and self, but not
quite how that is perceived in the more scientistic (and materialistic)
veins of contemporary philosophy.

I'm not sure "neurophilosophy" existed when I was in grad school,
but I can see where it is coming from.

What draws you to it?

Feel free to PM me.
Though this does fit in "Everything and Nothing" 

[mgriffin]

I strongly encourage people to discuss subjects that make my head spin!

It's spinning now, BTW. I may have taken 2 or 3 classes of 100-level philosophy in college but that's it.

[jkn]

I love discussions with lots of 5 and 6 syllable words mostly ending in "ology" bring it on!   

I love to read these types of discussions - but Yes - totally over my wee pea brain.

[Ein Sophistry]

Perhaps a new thread is in order...

[mgriffin]

Yes, I'm going to start a new "now reading" thread. This is one category I'd love to see more active.