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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson Published: 1971 I must have watched this movie half a dozen times in my last year of high school, against my will. I enjoyed it at first, but enough is enough you stoner high-schoolers. We don’t need to watch this at every social gathering. It’s been over a decade now, so I felt it was safe to have a peek at the novel. I actually don’t remember much of the movie anymore (somehow), and I went in thinking this was entirely fiction. After reading the Wikipedia page just now, I see that it’s actually an autobiographical account of two seperate…
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The TBR Double Dare
Since I have an embarrassing 70 books in my to-read list, and will likely have more after Christmas is over, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to take part in C.B. James’ TBR Double Dare. The goal is to read only books from your to-read list for the first three months of next year. I could probably read from mine for the entirety of 2012 and be quite happy, so I don’t foresee any issues there. I might stray from this challenge for audio-books, as I don’t have a to-listen list, but I’ll stick to it for the dead-tree books. I may even pick up the audio version for a couple…
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Snow Crash
Snow Crash (audio) by Neal Stephenson Published: 1992 Narrator: Jonathon Davis Hiro Protagonist, a sword-wielding hacker, and Y.T., a 15-year-old skateboarding courier, struggle to stop the spread of Snow Crash, a digitally and visually transmitted…ancient herpes…from space. This book is a staple in geek culture. People just love it, and in a way I can see why. The technology described in Snow Crash was way ahead of its time. It was published before the first graphical web browser was even invented and managed to describe what would eventually become Google Earth. It also features an internationally networked virtual environment accessed through the use of a headset, a trope that is…
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Sum: Mary
Here’s one of my favourites from Sum. Not sure if this embedded Google Book will show up in feeds, so you might need to click through.
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Sum: 40 Tales From The Afterlives
Sum: 40 Tales From The Afterlives by David Eagleman Published: 2009 I first heard about this little book when Stephen Fry mentioned it favourably on Twitter, and since I am powerless to his suggestions, I added it to my next Amazon shipment. It’s taken me a long time to get around to it, but I’m glad I did. The title of the book really says it all. This is a collection of forty vignettes that imagine different afterlife scenarios. They range from comical to heartbreaking, and each one is perfectly sized but could easily inspire longer pieces. The amount of creativity packed into this is astonishing. As someone who used…
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Irredeemable Vol. 2
Irredeemable, Volume 2 by Mark Waid Illustrated By: Peter Krause Format: Trade Paperback Comic Published: 2010 Publisher: Boom! Studios The tale of America’s fallen superhero, The Plutonian, continues in a second volume that’s every bit as strong as the first. The pacing is perfect for me, the art is great – this is quickly becoming my favourite comic series. It’s the one I’m most excited to read, at least, although I am pacing myself and not buying all seven currently-released volumes at once. See? Willpower, I gots it. We’re introduced to the last member of The Paradigm, The Plutonian’s old supergroup, and get to see what really pushed him over…
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Book Beginnings
A Few More Pages has a weekly meme called Book Beginnings, in which you share the first line or two from your current read. I’m finishing up a fun one right now, so I thought I’d share. In the afterlife you relive all your experiences, but this time with the events reshuffled into a new order: all the moments that share a quality are grouped together. — Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman I’ve been spoiled, as this book contains forty great opening lines.
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The 2012 TBR Pile Challenge
Another reading challenge for 2012! I might be joining these only for an excuse to make lists. I do love me some lists. The 2012 TBR Pile Challenge is to read 12 books (allowing two alternatives) that you’ve had in your possession since before January 1st, 2011. I have many more than 12, so it’ll be good to make some progress on the ol’ to-be-read pile. The first four books are crossovers with the Back to the Classics challenge. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle As I Lay Dying by…
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Blink
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell Published: 2005 The basic premise of this book is that we should pay more attention to our initial gut reaction when making decisions, as having more information can often lead to making worse decisions, except if you haven’t spent enough time honing the particular skill and knowledge set you’re basing the decision on, because then it could lead to shooting an innocent dude 41 times. So…be careful with that. I liked this book a lot. It’s not really going to change how you make decisions, but it does provide chapter after chapter of interesting anecdotes showing both the positive and negative aspects of ‘thin slicing’ –…
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Neil Gaiman and Connie Willis
Neil Gaiman posted this on his weblog a bit ago. It’s him and Connie Willis on a panel together talking about their craft and influences. If you have any interest in writing, it’s an interesting hour.