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Ask Slashdot: What Are You Reading This Month? 312

An anonymous reader writes: Hey folks! Could you share what are some books (or book) you're reading this month? Maybe it's the book you've already started, or you intend to begin or resume later this month? Thanks!
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Ask Slashdot: What Are You Reading This Month?

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  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @01:31PM (#55189133)

    Right now, I'm reading Slashdot.

    • Right now, I'm reading a comment about some guy reading Slashdot.

    • Slashdot is all you really need to read. Everything else is fake.
    • by thomst ( 1640045 )

      I just started reading Iain M. Banks' final Culture novel The Hydrogen Sonata. I'd been putting it off since he announced his cancer diagnosis and impending death, because ... well, because there just weren't going to be any more of them. Ever. And that was just unbearably sad to me.

      But now that my own health has become so problematic, I realized that I might very well wind up depriving myself of what was pretty much guaranteed to be a great read by one of my all-time SF authors. So, what the hell.

      It's very

  • by computational super ( 740265 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @01:33PM (#55189163)
    I'm in my third year of my multi-year effort to read and work every problem in TAOCP. It's not easy, but I will say that it is rewarding. How practical it is is definitely up for debate, though - I've become an expert at MIX, an assembler language that's never been used anywhere except those books, and is more similar to the IBM instruction sets from the 60s than the x86 instruction set.
  • I haven't been doing much reading because I've been hard at work writing a book. It's a sequel to my first novel (Ghost Thief [ghostthiefnovel.com] if you don't mind a shameless plug). I'm currently over 72,000 words on the sequel and there's probably another 8,000 words (at least) until I hit the end.

    • I am also writing a book, kind of. 20 years ago I haphazardly began a process that I eventually intended to become an epic series of stories (epic in the original sense of a bunch of interconnected smaller stories) once I had my life well-enough sorted to work on them well, to make them my life's work, my magnum opus; and failing that, this year I decided to finally put some real effort into it anyway even though I still really don't feel like I'm in the right headspace to be writing properly.

      I'm basically

      • Even if you don't perceive yourself to be in the desired state of mind for what you're working towards, dabbling/going off on semi-related tangents does provide some additional perspective(s) to approach things from later on.
    • by Quirkz ( 1206400 )

      I've seen your line in your sig and keep meaning to check it out. Sample downloaded!

      I'm supposed to be writing a lighthearted handbook on health and fitness, but I got halfway through, got distracted, and now keep tinkering with other ideas instead of finishing it up. I've been filling time listening to the Self Publishing Podcast, which--coming from 2102--is already a little dated, but also still somewhat entertaining and informative. (And a little disgusting, as two of the authors on the cast are producin

      • I've seen your line in your sig and keep meaning to check it out. Sample downloaded!

        Thanks. Let me know what you think of it - even if you don't go past the free sample.

    • Me too- I am writing a modern western (diesel trucks instead of horses, drugs instead of gold). Should I finish it?
      • Definitely. I didn't write mine thinking I'd get on the best seller list. (Not that I didn't engage in some imaginings of what that'd be like, but it was a "If I won the lottery, what would I do" sort of thing.) I wrote it because I like writing and wanted to publish a book. Personally, if my book makes back what I spent during the publishing process (about $300), then I'll consider it a success. Meanwhile, I'm writing my second book and have an idea for a kids book that I want to write with my 10 year old

    • So... your metric when writing a book is the number of words?

      I could easily write a script in a few minutes that could write thousands of books per second with thousands of words per book. Would that make the script a better author than you?

  • by Stormy Dragon ( 800799 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @01:37PM (#55189199) Homepage

    From 1962, the Pulitzer Prize winning account of how World War I started.

    • Crazy how all the WW1 era monarchs were cousins and went to war with each other to prove their nation's honor

    • Read that one last year.

      Right now, rereading Mote in God's Eye. Pournelle just died, so it seemed like the thing to do.

    • by deesine ( 722173 )

      Just read Margaret Macmillan's essay The Rhyme of History [brookings.edu] wherein she mentions Kennedy's actions in the Cuban Missile Crisis:

      "The young and relatively untried U.S. president was urged by virtually his entire top military leadership as well as many of the civilians in his administration to confront the Soviet Union vigorously, up to the point of invading Cuba and so risking an all-out nuclear war. Standing up to them, he opted instead for negotiations with Moscow and, in the end, preserved the peace. It wa

    • I read this, but the ending is a bit coitus interruptus.
  • Anatole France

  • My copy of Blood, Sweat and Pixels by Jason Schreier arrived yesterday from Amazon, haven't started it yet. Heard good things about it so I picked it up.

    From the publisher's website:

    "Taking some of the most popular, bestselling recent games, Schreier immerses readers in the hellfire of the development process, whether it's RPG studio Bioware's challenge to beat an impossible schedule and overcome countless technical nightmares to build Dragon Age: Inquisition; indie developer Eric Barone's single-hand
  • Reading... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sqreater ( 895148 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @01:43PM (#55189265)
    Not tech. "Stanton," by Walter Stahr. "This Side of Paradise," by F. Scott Fitzgerald. "Led Zeppelin, When Giants Walked the Earth," by Mick Wall. And I just received "What Happened," by Hillary Rodham Clinton. I've been interested in the American Civil War since I was about eight years old or so. I was briefly an English Major. Led Zepp was a favorite growing up. And I'm curious to see Hillary expose her psychology.
  • After watching "Arrival" on an airplane, started reading the other short stories at:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    Pretty neat stuff, kinda like reading Neal Stephenson with smaller words. He's very good with trimming unnecessary prose... actually finished reading the story "Arrival" was based on in less time than it took to watch the movie!

  • Safehold series by David Weber

    Post-apocalyptic science fiction novel series (9 books so far).

    Wikipedia Link (with spoilers): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    It has Science-Fiction, technology discovery, war-tactics. Be sure to have the maps handy for each book: http://www.davidweber.net/down... [davidweber.net]

    • by psergiu ( 67614 )

      If you like David Weber's work and Science Fiction in gereral, you could download a sample of (*cough* *cough* ... almost all *cough*) books from the Baen Library from ebooks dot thefifthimperium dot com
      Do buy the physical books / eBooks if you like them.

      • by sconeu ( 64226 )

        Seconded. I started the "Oath of Swords" series this way. I'm currently in the middle of the third book, "Wind Rider's Oath"

  • H.P. Lovecraft: The Ultimate Collection (160 Works Including Early Writings, Fiction, Collaborations, Poetry, Essays & Bonus Audiobook Links) Always a good (if somewhat pulpy) read.
  • Read Dennis E Taylor's Outland, liked We Are Legion, We Are Bob better.

    Just finished Jim Butcher's Furies of Calderon, always like his writing in any book.

    Now reading Revenger by Alastair Reynolds. Kind of slow starting but the ideas and descriptions of an existence in space without planets is pretty interesting.

  • On the most recent book of the Bobiverse series. Basically a modern day nerd engineer ends up as the consciousness controlling a space probe in the future. We've heard that before, but this one is witty, and as Bob replicates himself, the byplay between the various Bobs as they explore the galaxy is pretty hilarious. Not too many dead spots in the story 3 books in, and the chuckles come on a regular basis. I ran across this one by accident, and have been binge reading the series for a few days now. Alon
  • Re reading the whole series,since I heard there maybe a new book out by the ghost writer that helped on his last book before Vince Flynn's death.
  • Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds and am having some trouble getting into the swing of the story. It has taken me a few weeks just to make it 100 pages in... though now I am getting a little more used to the writing style and the story is picking up a bit..... I guess it doesn't help that archeology is not my cup of tea either...

    Prior to this, I finished up Peter Hamilton's "Fallers" series with "A night without stars" (excellent!)

    And prior to that I read James Corey's "Babylon's Ashes" which is another

  • by edx93 ( 4858619 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @01:53PM (#55189363)

    by Tony Attwood.

    Discovering I have asperger's (now known as high functioning autism) was one of the (if not THE) most life-changing events of my life (no joke). Not only has this book helped me understand myself, but I'm hoping it'll help me cope with all my still significant social and dating issues. I'm 1/3 of the way through, so we'll see. Any hints and tips from fellow aspies welcome.

  • I'm in the middle of John Le Carré's latest. It's his first George Smiley novel in something like 25 years, and supposedly it is the final farewell to the character. I'm quite enjoying it so far.

  • Fiction: I'm currently reading a set of short stories by Alex Shvartsman, titled "Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma and Other Stories." He's a fun writer. Some of the stories are ideas I've seen before but there's a broad breath of stories, including classic scifi, fantasy, and magical realism. I also am rereading the Alcatraz v. the Evil Librarians which is made for about 10 year olds but is absolutely hilarious and well done (which shouldn't be surprising since the author, Brandon Sanderson is in general an

  • "Kingsman: The Secret Service" by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons (differs quite a bit from the movie, but I guess Samuel L. Jackson as the baddie has more pull than some random 23 yo whiz kid...)
    "After Death" volume 1-3 by Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire (still haven't read volume 3)
    Probably "Black Magic" volume 1 by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott (after reading the next 2 issues a refresher after the long hiatus couldn't hurt)
    "Lazarus: Cull" by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark and Santi Arcas (plus what's been released of

  • by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @02:00PM (#55189435) Homepage

    I am half way through The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt. After that I had planned to read a few more of his stand alone works, Eternity Road and Moonfall but I'm thinking of diverting to read some Jerry Pournelle's works. I'll probably start with Footfall since it has been on my "to be reread list" for almost a decade. From there who knows? I'm looking at a whole list of Pournelle that deserve to be re-read.

    • by sconeu ( 64226 )

      Hercules Text was meh. Eternity Road was better, as are Infinity Beach and The Cassandra Project.

      You also might want to look into the Alex Benedict novels and the Patricia Hutchins novels.

      • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

        I'm struggling with the Hercules Text. I'm halfway through it and not really impressed. I have Eternity Road and the next Alex Benedict novel, Coming Home, in the queue. There is a new Patricia Hutchins novel coming out next year that I'm looking forward too. Infinity Beach was the first McDevitt book I read., or was it The Engines of God?

  • Y is for Yesterday - Sue Grafton
    Pale King and Princes - Robert Parker

    Going Deep - John Holland
    A history of the attack submarine

    The Cake and the Rain - Jimmy Webb
    Biography of the 60s/70s song writer

    The Taking of the K-129 - Josh Dean
    Another telling of the CIA's Glomar Explorer's attempt to raise a Russian nuke submarine from 15000-foot depth

  • I picked up a copy of O'Reilly's "Ansible: Up & Running" this weekend. At a meetup last night, I got a very strong recommendation for "Ansible for DevOps," so that will be the next item on the list. Both seem to be well liked by others who've read them.

  • finishing up Joe Abercrombie's excellent "First Law" trilogy.
  • If you ever look for sci-fi on amazon you'll see hyperion in like every list. It never looked that great to me but eventually I gave in and read it. It was... interesting. But I'd say thumbs down. The storytelling is top notch. But the book goes on and on and spins all these increasingly crazy stories together until your like "how could they possibly tie this all together" and then after a very loooong read, everything is coming to a head and it just ENDS without resolving or revealing anything.

    1. That's su

    • I had a similar experience as yours with Hyperion, but I found that on the whole the sequel held together much better, including tying together all those apparently unrelated stories. If possible, just get it from the library. That way, low risk.
    • A perfect summary of Hyperion.
      I have all the books.
      They are probably the only books I own, that I only have read once and probably never read again.

  • "The Stone Sky" is the 3rd book in Jemisin's "Broken Earth" trilogy and so far (I'm ~100 pages in) it is living up to the first two. When I say that, keep in mind that the first two books each won the Hugo for best novel (2015 & 2016) so I had high hopes.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @02:22PM (#55189663)

    I'm reading _The Count of Monte Cristo_ for the first time at age 50. I'm sure glad I started reading it; I think it's great. You can get it legally for free online since it's in public domain. I downloaded it to a kindle.

    “And now,' said the unknown, 'farewell kindness, humanity, and gratitude! Farewell to all the feelings that expand the heart! I have been heaven's substitute to recompense the good - now the god of vengeance yields to me his power to punish the wicked!”

    • The origninal is a GREAT story. Enjoy!
    • What's amazing is that book was loosely inspired by stories of his father. Alexandre Dumas (author) was half black - his father, a black man, was born in Saint-Domingue (Haiti now) in 1762. He became one of the most courageous and respected soldiers achieving almost unbelievable feats. Went to Egypt, Malta, etc. Racism came back in force with Napoleon and he died in very poor circumstances. All statues of him were destroyed in WWI and WWII if I recall, and now no one seems to remember him. The book "The Bla

  • Earlier this month, I read Thomas Berry's book The Sacred Universe.

    It encompasses about 30 years of thought from Berry, who is a priest interested in trying to find a new moral and ethical framework based upon our understanding of the universe through science. He outlines what he sees as several of the key stories provided by the world's historical religions and shows how we can recast many of these stories in light of our modern understanding of the physical world.

    The book also discusses some of th

  • by nanospook ( 521118 ) on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @02:31PM (#55189755)
    Playboy, 180 and oh yeah 1884
  • First book in an epic medieval fantasy.
    It's good. Full of fun adventures.

    http://a.co/7HUB5Hf [a.co]

  • Southern Reach trilogy, psychologically thrilling...
  • I'm currently really enjoying Stephen Fry's most recent memoir "More Fool Me". He has a very engaging writing style of which I'm rather fond.
  • Barnaby Rudge

    "De chaos van het slagveld" an in-depth analysis about the evolution of the Belgian army in the trenches in WWI

    Sandman, "The Kindly Ones"

    "American Gods"

  • I'm slogging through Capital in the 21st century.

    I don't understand how this got to the top of the bestseller lists. It's shelf fodder.

  • reading Ready Player One in anticipation of the movie
  • It's really quite interesting, and if you're a food nerd (or really anyone) it's hard to read it and not feel like we've been lied to our whole lives.

    • by pnutjam ( 523990 )
      Yeah, it's like learning about Santa Clause all over again.
    • That's because we have been lied to all our lives. It's a major reason we here in the US are suffering from obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and a host of other ailments related to poor nutrition, bad eating habits, and processed foods full of salt, sugar, and bizarre chemicals designed to make the processing companies wealthy and the people who eat that shit unhealthy.

  • The Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper

  • Just finished Little Dorrit (Dickens)
    Just started Master and Margarita (Bulgakov)
    The Once and Future King (T.H. White) is next
  • I've got a longstanding interest in the pulp and popular fiction of the 20s and 30s, and right now I'm working my way Earl Derr Bigger's Charlie Chan novels. These are very controversial today because of the issue of cultural appropriation, and probably also because of their association with the movies in which European actors in yellowface played the detective.

    Because of the movies, many younger Asian Americans reject the Chan stories out of hand as racist without even looking at them. And indeed Biggers g

  • By Clevernickname / Wil Weaton

  • I read alot.
    Hard Luck Hank 1, 2, & 3. [goodreads.com]
    'The Warmth of Other Suns' by Isabelle Wilkerson
    'Half Way Home' by Hugh Howey
    'Empire of the Summer Moon' by S. C. Gwynne
    The Passage series by Justin Cronin
    The MadAddam series by Margaret Atwood
    '1491: New Revelations of Americas before Columbus' by Charles C. Mann
    'Underground Airlines' by Ben Winters
    'White Trash: The 400 year untold story of class in America' by Nancy Isenberg
    'Lovecraft Country' by Matt Ruff

    -email me for ebooks
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars.
  • Just finished Mary Stewart's 'The Wicked Day', part of a series that is a pretty unique telling of the Arthurian tales as told by Merlin. Great historo-fantasy (or whatever it's called)
    • Try the Camulod Chronicles (I think it's called the Dream of Eagles Cycle or something in the US) by Jack Whyte.

      Arthurian legend, told as historically plausible, and the first novel starts two or three generations before Arthur is even born, with Britain still under Roman rule, and the warning signs and portents of the fall of the Empire spurring some citizens to start making plans.

  • In order of how much I liked them:
    "News of the World" by Paulette Jiles.
    excellent

    "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
    excellent

    "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin
    good

    Also, I recently re-read the "The Death Gate cycle" by Weis and Hickman
    fun read. dumb fun, but fun

  • Yes, I know it's by that Scientologist guy L. Ron Hubbard (and I think Scientology is bunk), but I actually like the movie and the book is better. Bit of fun to pass the time, and some proper sci-fi.
  • by John Le Carre. It's like a sequel to his book from 1963 - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
  • I've just (a few minutes ago) finished the second of Stephen Clarke's books about an Englishman living in France: A Year in the Merde, and Merde Actually.

    They are a somewhat-less-than-usually-starry-eyed view of life in France for the expat. He turns some phrases wonderfully, and there are a few laugh-out-loud moments.

    About 400 pages each, but large type so they are quick reads.

  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? [openlibrary.org] ... what with a new Blade Runner movie coming out in a few weeks.

    It's not a long book. Next up: Ready Player One [openlibrary.org]

  • Westerns, written by Louis L'Amour. The dialogue is excellent.
    • The Stuff of Thought (2007) by Steven Pinker
    • Algorithms to Live By (2016) by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths
    • Bread Baker's Apprentice (2001) by Peter Reinhart
    • Fat Chance (2013) by Robert Lustig
    • The Hacking of the American Mind (2017) by Robert Lustig (on order)
    • Democracy to Live By (2016) by Christopher H. Achen
    • Taste of Persia (2016) by Naomi Duguid

    Democracy is a textbook in drag, but has some worthwhile chapters near the end.

    Taste of Persia is interesting, but this isn't the easiest cuisine to crack in

  • Tripoint, C. J. Cherryh, 1636: Mission to the Mughals, Eric Flint and Griffin Barber, The Fiery Cross, Diana Gabaldon.
  • I've slowly been making my way through NPR's 100 Science fiction books, I say slowly because even though I read a lot, I also belong to a book club, and the list is not just a list of books, but a list of book series, and if I like an author a lot I may read a lot by that author before I come back to pick up another in the list. I'm mostly NOT reading those that are fantasy, at least not for now, even though I've read some. I'm currently about 55 in.
  • Just finished Underground Airlines [amazon.com] by Ben Winters [benhwinters.com].
    It's been a while since I read something that wasn't a tech manual, user guide, or related to hardware or software.

Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder. -- Dr. Laurence J. Peter

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