# What do Macheads read?



## Rhisiart (Jun 20, 2006)

To kick off, here are my favourite authors:

Bill Bryson (travel)
Stephen Hawking (science)
Henning Mankell (fiction)

_Best book ever read_: 'To Kill A Mockingbird' by Harper Lee
_Worst book ever read_: 'The Trigger' by Arthur C Clarke
_Toughest book to get through_: 'Moby Dick' by Herman Melville
_Funniest book (i.e causing stress incontinence)_: 'A Walk in the Woods' by Bill Bryson
_Currently reading_: 'Frankie & Stankie' by Barbara Trapido


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## Esquilinho (Jun 20, 2006)

Hum&#8230; difficult&#8230; I read a lot of different things. I just don't read silly stuff, like Barbara Cartland and what's her name? Ah, Danielle Steal 

I love Gore Vidal, specially the non-"historical" ones, like 'Kalki' and 'Duluth'.

As for favourite book&#8230; I have more than one, I guess.

All of Jorge Luis Borges short stories, specially Ficciones.

Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment', Capote's 'In Cold Blood', Bret Easton Ellis' 'American Psycho' &#8211; I see a pattern here 

Anything by Italo Calvino, specially 'If on Winter Night a Traveller'

Nabokov's 'Lolita'

José Saramago's 'All the names'

But also some lighter stuff like Harry Potter and David Lodge. 

Ah! And I HATE Dickens!


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## fryke (Jun 20, 2006)

Douglas Adams, of course. And William Gibson, of course.


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## sinclair_tm (Jun 20, 2006)

fryke said:
			
		

> Douglas Adams, of course.


ditto
also like sci-fi, read herbert's dune books, and liked them.  also rama and space oddsey books by clarke.  fave book is 'being of two minds', and i like the other books by her (pamela f. service)that i have read.  also enjoy misteries, like sherlock holmes, and "the cat who..." series.  also reading computer books about macs, and macaddict mag.


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## adambyte (Jun 20, 2006)

For the most part, I am just NOT into fiction. But I do love books that are intellectual, entertaining, or both... past reads in no particular order....

Stupid White Men by Michael Moore, Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them by Al Franken, The Know-It-All by A. J. Jacobs...

Curent reads

Getting Things Done by David Allen, The Complete A**hole's Guide to Handling Chicks by Dan Indante and Karl Marks


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## hawki18 (Jun 21, 2006)

Vince Flynn Consent to Kill


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## Mikuro (Jun 21, 2006)

I like humorous fiction most of all, I guess. P.G. Wodehouse is my favorite. And Mark Twain, too. (Gotta love Project Gutenberg! Especially when you have Tofu.) I'm the only Mac user I know who HASN'T read anything by Douglas Adams, though. But he's on my "To Read" list.

Some miscellaneous good books I've read lately are Faster by James Gleick, All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, and a new favorite of mine, First Kyu by Sung-Hwa Hong.


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## bbloke (Jun 21, 2006)

I've tended to read non-fiction, although I did like Douglas Adams' works when I read them years ago.  Some of my more recent reads include:

1) "If This is a Man / The Truce" by Primo Levi

2) "The Drowned and the Saved" by Primo Levi

3) "Marcovaldo" by Italo Calvino

4) "Stupid White Men" by Michael Moore

5) "Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern" by John Gray


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## ScottW (Jun 21, 2006)

Read? Your joking right?

Oh, wait, I have ADHD. Reading is a chore.


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## nixgeek (Jun 21, 2006)

About all I read nowadays are magazines, books, and online articles about technology, be it computer or musical (as I also play keyboards and love to program on synths....trying to get back into that after a hiatus from it ).

My wife always harasses me about it, but that's me.


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## Qion (Jun 21, 2006)

My reading really doesn't stay on one topic for too long; example: Just got done reading "Hunting Down Amanda" by Andrew Klavan, and before that, I read "Phantoms of the Brain" by VS Ramachandran. The nuerology/psychology novel was far more interesting to me than the fiction novel, however, I tend to lean towards fact more than fiction. 

Although, The Notebook was quite good...


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## ora (Jun 21, 2006)

Some things I've liked

Non fiction:
Whatever random history I find. Recently:
Ataturk by Andrew Mango
Persian Fire by Tom Holland (on Persian wars)
Herotodus - The Histories (gives +2 to intellectual snobbishness  , goes with one above)
Some pop-ish science, i really enjoyed Into the silent land by Paul Broks (looking at brain disorders from an experiential point of view).

Fiction:
Haruki Murakami, all of it  (weird but wonderful japanese chap)
Umberto Eco (the reason I cannot stand Dan Brown)
Paul Auster (American weirdness)
Some Amitav Ghosh (he seems very inconsistent)

..plus a now departed youth of SF reading
I still like Neal Stephenson, but pre this Baroque stuff which really drags
Gibson, Douglas Adams, Dan Simmons, bits of Iain M Banks etc.

Short fiction:
Raymond Carver
Checkov
Zoran Zivkovic (Serbian, weird semi-fantastics stories)
(plus many SF shorts from my younger days, ex interzone subscriber)

Poetry:
Theodore Roethke (nostalgic american)
Don Paterson (interesting Scot)

Playwrights
Shakespeare (thankfully i went to see productions before i had to study it, Richard III still a huge favorite)
Ibsen 


Some questions.
Is Borges really that good? Lots of people rave about him, and I love short fiction, but the one time i tried, rushed as I was, didn't quite get there. If I try again where shoudl I start?

Comments on Calvino? Again many mates like it but I know little about it. What style/where to start?


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## Esquilinho (Jun 21, 2006)

Well, I agree Borges is not for everyone. The short stories I've read are a bit weird or strange, to say the least. It's not the same as reading Raymond Carver's short stories. (I don't even know if I can call Borges' short fiction "short stories"). You either like his style or you don't. It's almost like the twighlight zone, but better!  
The ones I've read are Ficcions, The Aleph and The Book of Sand and they're all the same style, so try maybe first The Aleph. I prefer Ficcions, but that's because it has more to do with my studies (Literature).

The same applies to Calvino. It's a universe of its own. The one I recommended before is a sort of a literary exercise, almost, so not many people will find it interesting. But try one of the stories like Cosmicomics, The baron in the trees or The cloven viscount.


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## fryke (Jun 21, 2006)

Oh. Ray Bradbury. Almost forgot to mention him. He defines Science Fiction for me.


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## CaptainQuark (Jun 21, 2006)

I don't read fiction, with the exception of Tolkien. Mostly history, military history and parrot psychology.

Although, having said that, I did have a good giggle recently at the DaVinci Code  just to see what all the fuss was about after a veritable rash of TV programmes and newspaper debates.


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## Rhisiart (Jun 22, 2006)

Wow, this is manna from heaven. I originally posted this thread out of simple curosity. Now I have a whole list of recommendations to try out!



			
				adambyte said:
			
		

> The Complete A**hole's Guide to Handling Chicks by Dan Indante and Karl Marks


Where can I get this? Don't get me wrong, I have a lovely wife, but I really could do with a good hearty laugh right now.


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## ora (Jun 22, 2006)

Thanks Esquilinho! I'm off on holiday in a week or so and I need to grab some books. If they have either the calvino or the borges at the english bookstore, I'll grab them.

I"m interested in your literature studies, what's your area? 

Rhisart; if you like pop-science (but not too pop) try that Paul Broks book I mentioned, It's kinda my area (the neuro and the writing side) and its beautifully poetic and one of my faves. Also try Genome by Mat Ridley,  pop-sci but decent, beware his other books though.

I agree on Clarke by the way, amazing ideas but I just don't think the guy can write!


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## adambyte (Jun 22, 2006)

rhisiart said:
			
		

> Where can I get this? Don't get me wrong, I have a lovely wife, but I really could do with a good hearty laugh right now.



Hope this amazon link works...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/03...ref=sr_1_1/104-9153993-2349526?_encoding=UTF8


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## Rhisiart (Jun 22, 2006)

adambyte said:
			
		

> Hope this amazon link works...


Yes it did. Thanks. Only problem is ... well, since intially posting this message and actually having read the description on Amazon, its sounds a bit exploitive. Actually, it sounds very exploitive. Mind you, if it was written by a woman about getting dumb men laid, perhaps it would be seen as OK? Who knows? (BTW, I loved Stupid White Men).



			
				ora said:
			
		

> Rhisart; if you like pop-science (but not too pop) try that Paul Broks book I mentioned, It's kinda my area (the neuro and the writing side) and its beautifully poetic and one of my faves. Also try Genome by Mat Ridley,  pop-sci but decent, beware his other books though.


Will do. Grazie.


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## bbloke (Jun 22, 2006)

If you feel like a chuckle, rhisiart, Douglas Adams' books can be very good if you haven't already read them.

As for Calvino, I've only read one of his books ("Marcovaldo") so I can't judge his entire works, but I did find that one odd.  It felt very "simple," I don't know how else to put it.  I wondered more and more if it was a book aimed at teenagers, perhaps.  It probably just isn't quite my sort of thing, but I'm not slagging it off, though.

If people don't mind a bit of heavier reading, I strongly recommend works by Primo Levi.  I started with "If This is a Man" and was very much gripped.  "The Truce" was a bit weaker in my view, but "The Drowned and the Saved" was very strong again.  Primo Levi was an Italian who was sent to Auschwitz and survived until the late 1980s.  He was a scientist (specifically, a chemist) by profession and wrote about his experiences in Auschwitz in a very analytical manner.  He wrote with emotion and compassion, but seemingly without bitterness (quite a feat...).  He learned a huge amount during his incarceration and his books are as much about the nature of life and the way human beings tick as they are about his specific experiences.  I've also got "The Periodic Table," but have not read it yet.


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## thatcomputerguy (Jun 22, 2006)

Another vote for Douglas Adams, the man was a genius.  Also, Spike Milligan is an old favorite that i'd forgotten about until recently and am "rediscovering".


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## Ferdinand (Jun 23, 2006)

My fav books are "The Golden Hour", "The Opponent", "Pompeji" and "Anders". Though two of them are in German and I think only availabe in Austria. If you like action, mystery etc then The Opponent is a really good book for you to read.


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## Esquilinho (Jun 23, 2006)

ora said:
			
		

> Thanks Esquilinho! I'm off on holiday in a week or so and I need to grab some books. If they have either the calvino or the borges at the english bookstore, I'll grab them.
> 
> I"m interested in your literature studies, what's your area?




Back in the 90s, I studied Modern Languages and Literature  English and German (i.e., literature written in these 2 languages). But I didn't go much further than my college degree. It was just those 4 years and that was it. Now I only read! 

So I studied a lot of different authors from different eras, like Shakespeare, Gore Vidal, Goethe, Thomas Bernhard, Melville, Dickens (iac!), Oscar Wilde, Virginia Wolf, Brecht, you name it!   And also some authors that were not from those languages, in more general subjects that I had, like Calvino, Borges and Umberto Eco (his essays are great, BTW) in Literature Theory or Aristotle in Introduction to Literary Studies Enough?  I always feel like I talk to much! 



			
				bbloke said:
			
		

> As for Calvino, I've only read one of his books ("Marcovaldo") so I can't judge his entire works, but I did find that one odd.  It felt very "simple," I don't know how else to put it.  I wondered more and more if it was a book aimed at teenagers, perhaps.  It probably just isn't quite my sort of thing, but I'm not slagging it off, though.



I didn't read that one  But The Invisible Cities is not strange either. But the other ones I quoted are definately strange!


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## sinclair_tm (Jun 23, 2006)

fryke said:
			
		

> Oh. Ray Bradbury. Almost forgot to mention him.


ditto.  i lovehis stuff too.  i like the older sci-fi stuff by the masters; ie bradbury, asimov, clarke, herbert...  thats what i read of fun.


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## ora (Jun 23, 2006)

sinclair_tm said:
			
		

> ditto.  i lovehis stuff too.  i like the older sci-fi stuff by the masters; ie bradbury, asimov, clarke, herbert...  thats what i read of fun.



They were great but the one that still seems freshest to me Alfred Bester. Genre or not, The Stars My Destination is in my top 3 all time reads.

Esquilinho: Wow, serious reading   I was in biochem as an undergrad but hung out pretty much with philosophy and literature students, so I read  a bit eclectically, but I's still catching up on a lot. If I had free time I'd love to dive into literature for a few years, these days i only manage to read on the bus. One of my good friends has some named Literature scholarship at Oxford and I love chatting with him about his ideas, he even sold me on some of the sillier seeming postmodern approaches to literature, no meat feat given i'm broadly sciencey!


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## adambyte (Jun 23, 2006)

rhisiart said:
			
		

> Yes it did. Thanks. Only problem is ... well, since intially posting this message and actually having read the description on Amazon, its sounds a bit exploitive. Actually, it sounds very exploitive. Mind you, if it was written by a woman about getting dumb men laid, perhaps it would be seen as OK? Who knows? (BTW, I loved Stupid White Men).



Nah. Women would then just hate the woman who wrote it. Basically, the book is based on the theory that, in order get a healthy dose of poon, you must be an a**hole, because women dig a**holes. (lol. Sad, but very often true.)

I, personally, am not an asshole. Nor do I intend to be one. I think the people who read this book and take it to heart (whether they be dumb men who think "this is how I should live life" or dumb women who think "how dare they teach men this?") are not the target audience. This book is meant to simply be entertainment. 

It's in the "comedy" section of the bookstore. Anybody who doesn't treat it as such is taking life too seriously.

*steps down from soap box*


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## Rhisiart (Jun 24, 2006)

adambyte said:
			
		

> I, personally, am not an asshole. Nor do I intend to be one. I think the people who read this book and take it to heart (whether they be dumb men who think "this is how I should live life" or dumb women who think "how dare they teach men this?") are not the target audience. This book is meant to simply be entertainment.


Hey, I am sure you are not. And yes, anyone taking such a book seriously would be ... well quite frankly an a**hole. I just thought the book might be about really hopeless chat up lines (such as those I used in my pre-marriage bliss days).


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## Cat (Jun 25, 2006)

Great thread! Of late I have enjoyed reading Dan Simmons (Illium and Olympos), Neal Stephenson (Baroque Cycle) and Piers Anthony (early Xanth stuff). For fun, I definitely recommend Terry Pratchett (Discworld)! For literature perhaps Monaldi & Sorti (Imprimatur, Secretum), Luther Blissett (Q) or Caldwell & Thomason (The rule of four).


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## reed (Jul 15, 2006)

Any history book, classic novels and funny cartoons. Hey, this answer could be on the Mac smug thread. Sorry.


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## Rhisiart (Jul 15, 2006)

It's OK to be smug, if you know your stuff. It's when you don't know what you don't know that everything goes down hill.


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## reed (Jul 16, 2006)

I'm re-reading "The Proud Tower" by Barbara Tuchman, great book, great author.


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## ora (Jul 16, 2006)

reed said:


> I'm re-reading "The Proud Tower" by Barbara Tuchman, great book, great author.



Totally, Guns of August is in my all time top 5 and Tuchman is a truly great writer. I just bought the Proud Tower to read on holiday a but my friend immediately stole it and didn't finish before i left. WIll have to get him to send it back to me.


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## Rhisiart (Jul 17, 2006)

Tainted Blood by Arnaldur Indridason. Icelandic inspector Morse. A bit grim in parts, but good plot.


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## Mobius Rex (Jul 17, 2006)

I fancy weird fiction/science fiction, so HP Lovecraft and Philip K Dick are two of my faves.
In poetry, I especially like Rainer Maria Rilke, and Allen Ginsberg.
Conspiracy theories get my rocks off, so David Icke does it for me(uh oh, better duck;  I sense a barrage of hostility hurling in my direction!).
Just finished The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, a fascinating tome putting forth an unusual theory of the nature of reality and consciousness drawn from the realm of quantum physics, and Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnostism by Kurt Rudolph....it's a really good overview of a major and fascinating heretical belief system.  Gnostics believed that Gnosis, or spiritual knowledge, could only be obtained through direct spiritual experience and not through blindly accepting religious dogma. They were relentlessly hounded and attacked, and eventually wiped out by the Catholic Church.  (I've got a soft spot for heretics; all power to the heretics, wherever they be!)


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## ora (Jul 17, 2006)

Hmmn, currently:
Representing and Intervening by Ian Hacking (Philosophy of Science)
Who Moved My Blackberry (Fun junk)
Collapse by Jared Diamond (a biogeographer on why societies collapse)


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## Esquilinho (Jul 18, 2006)

I'm readind Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie and it just goes to prove what I already knew since I started reading The Satanic Verses a couple of years ago: Salman Sucks!!


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## Qion (Jul 18, 2006)

Mobius Rex said:


> Just finished The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, a fascinating tome putting forth an unusual theory of the nature of reality and consciousness drawn from the realm of quantum physics.



Never read this; is it purely based upon scientific explaination, or does it admit fault in realms such as love and premonition and blend the quantum physicality with human drama? You make it sound interesting nonetheless.

Ah yes, and I'm currently reading The Soul of Sex (by Thomas Moore). Just started, but it looks promisingly deep.


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## reed (Jul 18, 2006)

Here's a fun book, if you like Anthropology, as I do ... "Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches The Riddles of Culture" by Marvin Harris. Not heavy and easy to read unlike many Anthro. books.


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