| jcroach |
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MAME Fan
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I need a new book to read.....
#262255 - 08/15/11 05:08 PM
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.....give me some suggestions! Fiction. Any and all genres considered.
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| Pi |
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Allergic to life
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262256 - 08/15/11 05:13 PM
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> .....give me some suggestions! Fiction. Any and all genres considered.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume_%28novel%29
If you've not read it, please do. I do it every year.
Another one is 1984 by George Orwell, another fav of mine. Enlightening.
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Wound up, can't sleep, can't do anything right, little honey / Oh, since I set my eyes on you. / I tell you the truth.
I can't get it right / Get it right / Since I met you...
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italie |
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MAME owes italie many thank yous, hah
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262260 - 08/15/11 05:59 PM
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> .....give me some suggestions! Fiction. Any and all genres considered.
All genres? This is the latest book I've been digging into with my daughter. The last page has quite the twist ending.
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262266 - 08/15/11 07:00 PM
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| jcroach |
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MAME Fan
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: italie]
#262268 - 08/15/11 08:26 PM
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> > .....give me some suggestions! Fiction. Any and all genres considered.
>
> All genres? This is the latest book I've been digging into with my daughter. The last
> page has quite the twist ending.
Not quite what I had in mind, but I'll keep it in mind for my sons!
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GatKong |
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Tetris Mason
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262270 - 08/15/11 08:36 PM
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This was a serious endorsement of the best read I've had in years.
"The Princes Bride" by William Goldman.
Edited by Gatinho (08/15/11 08:40 PM)
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262271 - 08/15/11 08:50 PM
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You can never go wrong with The Lord of the Rings. Then there's always The Silmarillion, Watership Down, The Plague Dogs. Any book by Kurt Vonnegut is good. Maus and Maus II, unless you're dead set against graphic novels.
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| jopezu |
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bread-train
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262272 - 08/15/11 08:52 PM
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i'm currently reading
grapes of wrath
the witcher: the last wish
the art of photography -bruce barnbaum
i'd never read grapes of wrath before, and it's as depressing as i've heard.
i'd recommend
world war Z
1984
a clockwork orange
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i learned everything i know from KC
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| jcroach |
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MAME Fan
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jibmums]
#262273 - 08/15/11 08:55 PM
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> You can never go wrong with The Lord of the Rings. Then there's always The
> Silmarillion, Watership Down, The Plague Dogs. Any book by Kurt Vonnegut is good.
> Maus and Maus II, unless you're dead set against graphic novels.
Funny you should mention Vonnegut. I'm re-reading Slaughterhouse Five now. I've read Maus, but never Maus II. I'll check it you.
Watership Down was recommended to me before. I started and never finished.
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| jcroach |
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: krick]
#262274 - 08/15/11 09:00 PM
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> The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
Is this a good introduction to Heinlein? I know a lot of people on the board love his work. I've tried to read Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land, but couldn't get into either.
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262278 - 08/15/11 09:18 PM
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Harsh Mistress is a good intro into his 'Known Space' stuff. Later on, he went back and tied a lot of the non-canon stuff in with short stories and such, but Harsh Mistress is the best 'jumping off' point.
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Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262299 - 08/16/11 01:45 AM
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> > The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
>
> Is this a good introduction to Heinlein? I know a lot of people on the board love his
> work. I've tried to read Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land, but
> couldn't get into either.
"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is one of his most popular books. It certainly got the most awards.
The only thing "odd" about the book is that the people in the book talk in a strange made-up language that's a mixture of English, Russian, and a few other languages. At first, it's a little weird to read, but before you know it, you're reading right along and don't even notice it. It's pretty amazing.
I'm also a big fan of "Stranger in a Strange Land". That's considered his most popular work, though many hard-core Heinlein fans will probably pick other books as his "best". If you read "Harsh Mistress" and like it, you should go back and give "Stranger" another try.
"Time enough for Love" is always cited as a fan favorite. I kind of dig "Friday" too, but some people don't care for it that much.
Here's a pretty good list of Heinlein's books ranked by some random guy on the Internet for what it's worth... http://members.cox.net/kdrum/Heinlein.htm
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GroovyMAME support forum on BYOAC
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Almost finished with this one. Great guy, which is amazing considering what a bastard he seemed to be while growing up. 
[ATTACHED IMAGE]
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262313 - 08/16/11 04:02 AM
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> Funny you should mention Vonnegut. I'm re-reading Slaughterhouse Five now. I've read
> Maus, but never Maus II. I'll check it you.
>
> Watership Down was recommended to me before. I started and never finished.
I was turned on to Vonnegut by the movie adaptation of "Mother Night", which, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend.
I need to reread Watership Down myself, I think it's been about fifteen years or since I last picked it up.
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| italie |
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MAME owes italie many thank yous, hah
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jibmums]
#262314 - 08/16/11 04:18 AM
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> Watership Down
Damn that creepy movie. Damn it to the hell it spawned from.
Don't remember much on the book. Haven't read it since 8th grade.
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: italie]
#262325 - 08/16/11 05:52 AM
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> > Watership Down
>
> Damn that creepy movie. Damn it to the hell it spawned from.
>
> Don't remember much on the book. Haven't read it since 8th grade.
The book lets you imagine things rather than have them drawn for you. I haven't read it since my mother bought it for my father, thinking it was about the sinking of a boat. That would have been... maybe when I was 11-13, in there, no later.
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| Jdurgi |
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Regular
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262331 - 08/16/11 08:50 AM
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> .....give me some suggestions! Fiction. Any and all genres considered.
Two classics I can recommend are Dracula, by Bram Stoker, and Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Two great, classic books that I read frequently.
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I am just a worthless liar.
I am just an imbecile.
I will only complicate you.
Trust in me and fall as well.
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: TriggerFin]
#262337 - 08/16/11 12:16 PM
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Richard Adams has a pretty cool history of the Civil War called 'Traveler'. It's told from the point of view of Robert E. Lee's horse.
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Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
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| italie |
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MAME owes italie many thank yous, hah
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: igamabob]
#262340 - 08/16/11 01:32 PM
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> Richard Adams has a pretty cool history of the Civil War called 'Traveler'. It's told
> from the point of view of Robert E. Lee's horse.
A little bit of an animal fetish going on there, eh?
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| DR |
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Skeptical Linkbot
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262343 - 08/16/11 02:10 PM
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> .....give me some suggestions! Fiction. Any and all genres considered.
The Bible.
Yeah I know predictable but it was too good to miss.
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| jcroach |
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MAME Fan
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jibmums]
#262351 - 08/16/11 04:27 PM
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> I was turned on to Vonnegut by the movie adaptation of "Mother Night", which, if you
> haven't seen it, I highly recommend.
Mother Night is good. Breakfast of Champions with Bruce Willis was horrible.
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| GatKong |
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Tetris Mason
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: igamabob]
#262354 - 08/16/11 05:04 PM
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> Richard Adams has a pretty cool history of the Civil War called 'Traveler'. It's told
> from the point of view of Robert E. Lee's horse.
I didn't know his horse talked!?! You'd think that would have been mentioned somewhere in the museum tour.
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| Stick |
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Ultra Lurker
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262357 - 08/16/11 07:37 PM
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262369 - 08/17/11 02:19 AM
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> Mother Night is a good. Breakfast of Champions with Bruce Willis was horrible.
Horrible is a woeful understatement. I could not believe how bad that movie was, even with Albert Finney (one of my favorites) in it. Have any other of his books been made into films besides Mother, Breakfast, and Slaughterhouse?
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| FatTrucker |
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Randomly pressing buttons in hope of success.
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Re: I need a new book to read.....
[Re: jcroach]
#262375 - 08/17/11 09:12 AM
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> .....give me some suggestions! Fiction. Any and all genres considered.
Pretty much anything by David Gemmell, the Troy trilogy is particularly excellent.
Also read Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds recently, that was pretty good too.
Would also recommend the Emperor series and the Genghis Khan books by Conn Iggulden.
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one of my faves
[ATTACHED IMAGE]
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| jcroach |
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Vonnegut films
[Re: jibmums]
#262385 - 08/17/11 04:07 PM
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^ much agreeance -nt-
[Re: jumpmaniac81]
#262386 - 08/17/11 04:08 PM
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| jcroach |
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MAME Fan
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Pandora for books
[Re: jcroach]
#262441 - 08/18/11 03:34 PM
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> .....give me some suggestions! Fiction. Any and all genres considered.
Saw this yesterday. It's a database of book descriptions that are used to give you recommendations based on style and content. Like Pandora does for music.
http://www.booklamp.org/
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| GatKong |
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Tetris Mason
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Re: Pandora for books
[Re: jcroach]
#262457 - 08/18/11 10:50 PM
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I checked it out. It's a great concept. I know, people on the net are such haters... but IMHO the project is flawed from its origins...
"The content used to produce the data in our system is provided by our publisher relationships."
Publishers of each title submit their own list of books THEY feel are similar to the title in question. Thus, by design, it is a marketing tool for publishers, not a discovery tool for readers.
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| Stick |
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Re: Pandora for books
[Re: GatKong]
#262508 - 08/19/11 07:40 PM
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> I checked it out. It's a great concept. I know, people on the net are such haters...
> but IMHO the project is flawed from its origins...
>
> "The content used to produce the data in our system is provided by our publisher
> relationships."
>
> Publishers of each title submit their own list of books THEY feel are similar to the
> title in question. Thus, by design, it is a marketing tool for publishers, not a
> discovery tool for readers.
Not quite:
http://www.booklamp.org/faq.php#qa2_1
Still not sure who or what feeds the genome info into the database though?
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| GatKong |
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Tetris Mason
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Quite
[Re: Stick]
#262526 - 08/20/11 01:39 AM
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> Not quite:
>
> http://www.booklamp.org/faq.php#qa2_1
>
> Still not sure who or what feeds the genome info into the database though?
Quote:
The content used to produce the data in our system is provided by our publisher relationships. If there is a book you'd like to see in the system, look up the publisher and fire them an email.
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Re: Quite
[Re: GatKong]
#262532 - 08/20/11 02:03 AM
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> > Not quite:
> >
> > http://www.booklamp.org/faq.php#qa2_1
> >
> > Still not sure who or what feeds the genome info into the database though?
>
>
> The content used to produce the data in our system is provided by our publisher
> relationships. If there is a book you'd like to see in the system, look up the
> publisher and fire them an email.
Not even "provided by publishers." "Our publisher relationships" likely means they pay to be there.
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Re: Pandora for books
[Re: jcroach]
#262568 - 08/20/11 06:57 AM
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Very interesting concept. How we determine what to read may change soon, thanks to a service called BookLamp, aka “Pandora for books”. Mashable states that readers can enjoy targeted, user-generated reviews that taste real, rather than like canned promotional copy. More importantly, BookLamp.org offers an advanced matching algorithm that can lead to worthwhile new reading discoveries. New BookLamp service is like Pandora for books. BookLamp.org has the suggestion algorithms and useful user commentary to reshape the book reading experience on the consumer level, but it also helps book publishing outlets. BookLamp data can help publishers refine their targeting and marketing strategies, even to individual consumers. Knowing what they’ve read and what they’re most likely to read moving forward is golden information for book publishers.
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Re: Pandora for books
[Re: marielB]
#262587 - 08/20/11 06:43 PM
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> Very interesting concept. How we determine what to read may change soon, thanks to a
> service called BookLamp, aka “Pandora for books”. Mashable states that readers can
> enjoy targeted, user-generated reviews that taste real, rather than like canned
> promotional copy. More importantly, BookLamp.org offers an advanced matching
> algorithm that can lead to worthwhile new reading discoveries. New BookLamp service
> is like Pandora for books. BookLamp.org has the suggestion algorithms and useful user
> commentary to reshape the book reading experience on the consumer level, but it also
> helps book publishing outlets. BookLamp data can help publishers refine their
> targeting and marketing strategies, even to individual consumers. Knowing what
> they’ve read and what they’re most likely to read moving forward is golden
> information for book publishers.
Right. OK.
Publishers: My decision to buy and/or read a book is generally based on my familiarity with other work by the author.
This month I read shorter works by Stephen Baxter and Allen M. Steele, and had a chance to sample the wares offered by Benjamin Cromwell, Kit Reed, Chris Beckett, Peter Friend, and Anna Tambour. Some of those were good enough that I might buy something else they've written.
I was further entertained by Geoffrey A. Landis, Susan Abel Sullivan, and Sandra Lindow, but these were poems, and I don't make reading decisions based on such disposable works as "Of Lycanthropy and Lilacs."
Also, anyone with google might discover that I'm unlikely to actually buy anything you publish, as I'm now well over a year behind in my stack of periodicals.
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I need a new book to read.....
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