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[farmer]

Nice, Jack Vance.
He's where Dungeons and Dragons (and by extension, every game with "rpg elements" there ever was) got its magic system from.

Oh wow! I was wondering about that when in the first couple pages turjan memorized only a few spells and they seemed like d&d spells.

[SeaWyrm]

Yeah, I think there are even a couple of spells in that book that made it straight into D&D with the names completely intact.

[forwardresent]

Read In the Penal Colony earlier today, found some Nietzsche in a charity shop too.

[Nitromatic]

I found Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and other stories... in a single book! Oh, the wonders of library!

I really, really like it.

[forwardresent]

Alternating between Naked Lunch, Steppenwolf and various short stories by Neil Gaiman and Franz Kafka. Last night was Steppenwolf. Providing no more books are delivered today it'll be Naked Lunch tonight.

[charlestheoaf]

Recently finished Roadside Picnic and Paradise Lost.

I just finished Roadside Picnic a few months ago as well. It was thought provoking, though at the end I was a little unsure of what to make of it.

Now I'm slowly going through Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams. I am spending most of my time on my Learning Processing book by Daniel Shiffman. I found his syllabus for his Nature of Code class, and am "taking" it now. This class also lead me to The Computational Beauty of Nature by Gary William Flake.

[Fission Mailed]

I just started reading A Clash Of Kings, it's very good so far but I'm still shocked at dat ending of the first book...

[PaleFox]

I am reading The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

Its pretty good, yes?

[Nava]

I just started reading A Clash Of Kings, it's very good so far but I'm still shocked at dat ending of the first book...

Ho ho ho, just wait until the third 

I just finished The Man Who Loved Only Numbers and was blown away.

Now reading Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and a random book I picked up at the library, called There is No Year.

I LOVE BOOKS SO MUCH 

[Hangedman]

I just finished Roadside Picnic a few months ago as well. It was thought provoking, though at the end I was a little unsure of what to make of it.

Personally, I liked it because it did an excellent job of juxtaposing the ordinary and the extraordinary, which seems to be a great foundation for stories that we can identify with but are still original and alien. As well, it left a considerable amount to the imagination, which I always love. The anomalies, the ending, the zone, etc.

Just finished Snow Crash. Very good. Very solid world.
Not a lot of reading lately, as I'm busy as heck, but I'm open for suggestions on what to read next.

[oyog]

Recently finished Roadside Picnic and Paradise Lost.

I just finished Roadside Picnic a few months ago as well. It was thought provoking, though at the end I was a little unsure of what to make of it.

Ditto.  I enjoy the way they write.  I always end up wondering what's left out conceptually when I read something that's been translated.  This was especially true while reading Tales of the Troika but that was probably because it was so surreal.

Currently I'm reading the Polish to French to English translation of Solaris.  It's interesting though I find that some of the descriptions in it can get baffling at times.  Either that or I'm simply mentally exhausted from adapting to a new work schedule.  Again I find myself wondering how much more I'd get out of it if I was a native Polish speaker.  Gosh darn-it, why am I not fluent in every language!?

[fraxcell]

Neal Stephenson's latest book, Reamde. Seems pretty good so far. You've gotta love the cover:

[wademcgillis]

The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven..

 

[charlestheoaf]

Currently I'm reading the Polish to French to English translation of Solaris.  It's interesting though I find that some of the descriptions in it can get baffling at times.  Either that or I'm simply mentally exhausted from adapting to a new work schedule.  Again I find myself wondering how much more I'd get out of it if I was a native Polish speaker.  Gosh darn-it, why am I not fluent in every language!?

Solaris is one of my favorite novels. It has great insight on the human mind and how we relate to anything external to us (including other people).

Recently a "Definitive Edition" was released, with a new Polish to English translation. But for the moment it is only available as an audiobook. I'm hoping that they release the text in novel format.

[genka]

Recently finished Roadside Picnic and Paradise Lost.

I just finished Roadside Picnic a few months ago as well. It was thought provoking, though at the end I was a little unsure of what to make of it.

Ditto.  I enjoy the way they write.  I always end up wondering what's left out conceptually when I read something that's been translated.  This was especially true while reading Tales of the Troika but that was probably because it was so surreal.

I think part of the issue with reading a translation of "The Tale of the Troika" (TTT) is that while it stands fairly well on its own, TTT is a sequel to "Monday Starts on Saturday" (MSS.) As a result, the characters and setting that get a full treatment and are well fleshed out in MSS are assumed to be familiar to the reader.

The other part is that it's a dark political satire from the late sixties, set and written in the soviet union. Reading it in russian, and armed with a small level of historic background, I could catch an occasional glimpse of the comedy gold. The phrase "there's a neon lamp in there" alone is worth reading the whole book for. Still, I can't imagine getting much more than a headache out of the book without my "vast" background.

Really, I am almost always somewhat surprised and confused when I see Strugatsky translations on amazon. It seems like the choice of which books to translate into english was based on either their political undertones or a random roll of a die. For instance, I have a translation of "A Kid from Hell," but haven't been able to find anywhere the book it is a sequel to: "An Inhabited Island." It's weird.

Anyway, the books I would definitely recommend:
Roadside Picnic (duh)
Hard to Be a God
The Final Circle of Paradise
Ugly Swans (should be pretty easy to find)
Noon XXII
Escape Attempt


And the books I would recommend if I knew of translations out there:
An Inhabited Island
Mondays Starts on Saturday
Doomed City (Warning! "Cerebral" and weird!)
Snail on the Mountainside (Warning! "Cerebral" and weirder!)


But really, if you see anything written by the strugatsky bros, grab it. They are definitely my favourite author.

PS: Here's the strugatsky bros english website with the available books listed: link.
Here's their russian book list, with full texts and commentary: link

[oyog]

The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven..

I admit I'm not a huge fan of Niven's characters but DAMN I love the concepts he comes up with.

Solaris is one of my favorite novels. It has great insight on the human mind and how we relate to anything external to us (including other people).

Recently a "Definitive Edition" was released, with a new Polish to English translation. But for the moment it is only available as an audiobook. I'm hoping that they release the text in novel format.

I'd love to get a copy of that some day.

*Snip*

When I read it I assumed TTT was simply a surreal satire of beuracracy in general.  It's nice to know the reason I felt like I was missing something was because I was missing something.

I'm definitely adding those Strugotsky titles to my book list, thanks!

[forwardresent]

Nietzsche's The Gay Science, mainly the poetry as some light reading inbetween chapters of Steppenwolf.

[trq]

Anyway, the books I would definitely recommend:
Roadside Picnic (duh)
Hard to Be a God
The Final Circle of Paradise
Ugly Swans (should be pretty easy to find)
Noon XXII
Escape Attempt


And the books I would recommend if I knew of translations out there:
An Inhabited Island
Mondays Starts on Saturday
Doomed City (Warning! "Cerebral" and weird!)
Snail on the Mountainside (Warning! "Cerebral" and weirder!)


But really, if you see anything written by the strugatsky bros, grab it. They are definitely my favourite author.

I'm quite a bit fan of Strugatsky, and I want to say it's really nice list. I would also like to add "Predatory Things of Century" but have found English title is "The Final Circle of Paradise" (I suspect whole book was translated poorly), and looks like "The Doomed City" has no official English translation.

My personal favorites (Best of ABS):

Roadside Picnic
The Doomed City
Hard to Be a God
Snail on the Mountainside

[Tycho Brahe]

Neal Stephenson's latest book, Reamde. Seems pretty good so far. You've gotta love the cover:

I REALLY want to read this, even though the British cover is nowhere near as good

[Nix]

How fast is it?