@Doofy, I just recently read Musicophilia and enjoyed it - but it's not what I had in mind. In the end it's about the neuroscience and that's a different level of explanation - like discussing film by examining the wiring of the projector and the physics of light and motion, valid but not necessarily the right conversation. (I was generally less impressed with his comments on music than with his comments on neuroscience, though it was a very interesting and enjoyable book). By phenomenological I meant more an analysis of the experience as it presents itself to us than the underlying mechanisms. Questions like, say, how "I love Mozart" is similar to/different from "I love ice cream", "I love my mother", etc (the fact that we can all tell the difference does not mean that there aren't things to elucidate). Whether there might be normative limits to the appetite for music - can one overconsume it like food or hunger for it disproportionately like money? The meanings to be teased out of our relationship to music. Something more philosophical. Or maybe theological I guess - I am still getting round to Jeremy Begbie's writing.
Thanks for the suggestions. I Will investigate them. If the hints and wishlists worked, I should also have some more music reading coming for my birthday shortly.
So with all the people talking about Game of Thrones, not just here but people I hang out with, I decided to check it out
Just finished the first book yesterday and remarked to my wife that I'd probably have to read it again to pick up the stuff I missed. Count me with the folks hoping all these threads will get tied in a tidy bundle. Now reading
I'm reading them on an e-Ink Nook that was an early Father's Day present. I also have a Literati that's color, but the battery won't take a charge so it's semi-useless. Returning to a topic a few pages back, I've also read a couple books on my Crackberry and as was said, you just flip the page more often. I rather liked it since it's hard to loose your place in the bite-sized chunks of text.
Hope you enjoy it Nanker P, I did! It certainly reminded me of that era and how much 'we' all hated Leeds in the Revie period. David Peace has also written a number of politically based novels from the same time.
I've seen the TV show or movies or whatever they were based on the Red Riding books, would like to read them one day and the miners' strike one. I'm a Nottm Forest fan so love me some Cloughie, immediately before this I read "Provided You Don't Kiss Me; 20 Years with Brian Clough" by Duncan Hamilton which was one of the best sports books I've read.
Was actually quite disappointing. He clearly aimed for a Malcolm Gladwellesque book about neuroscience, but he isn't the writer Gladwell is. Accordingly the book is just a jumble of stories and half considered opinions. I honestly don't know what the overarching theme of the book is, and that's not really a good thing.
Now starting:
I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be disappointed by this one. It's weird, though, this is the first of the series that I'm reading BEFORE the HBO show season based on the book. I don't know what's going to happen next!
I have read all of the Sword of Truth. It is a bit different than most fantasy, although toward the end it mutated into Atlas Shrugged with swords and sorcery. This one is a prequel, set ages before the regular series, and is e-book only.
Two books I'm struggling with for different reasons:
With this one I'm just not enough of a computer scientist or mathematician to follow every detail. I get a lot of it, but am unclear on enough that I keep losing interest. Turing barely figures in it at all, btw; it's more about von Neumann (also a fascinating figure).
Subtitle not on the cover: "Ontological Analyses and Ethical Applications." I tried reading this one decades ago, thinking, "Oh, those are three subjects I'm interested in." I didn't understand it at all then. Now I think I'm getting it, pretty much, but I keep wondering whether ontology really makes any sense. Admittedly I can't articulate my reservations well, and far better minds than mine have disagreed, but I still wonder.
btw, is there a word in any language for the feeling of anticipatory glee you feel on someone's behalf when you hear they've started reading "A Storm of Swords"?
Lol! I actually thought about posting that image myself. The author (Guardian science writer) mentions in the first couple of pages how much phyiscists loathe the term ... But uses it in the book subtitle anyway. I suppose he blames the publisher.
On the second, there should be. About 3 people in my Goodreads or Twitter feed have announced they're reading it this week and I got exactly the same feeling ....
I can tell I'm at that point where I'm going to have to turn to something fun. In the past when I felt that way I've turned to Carl Hiaasen and he's never disappointed me. There are a couple of his books I haven't read yet.
I'm back on Scandinavian crime fiction. A new three programme Wallander TV series started last night, still to watch it. We finished the final two parts of The Bridge last night, on our Sky Plus recorder. This was ten one hour episodes based around the Denamrk - Sweden Bridge. Great series, with English sub-titles. But if you like this kind of thing and it becomes available in the States, watch it!
The only reason I read this is because it was offered for free a little while back as a Kindle edition and I picked it up with a bunch of other things via a list of free Kindle books that someone linked to here. Free mystery novels on Kindle are very hit and miss; this one is rather good; the characters are richer than in several others I've ploughed through on planes recently, and despite some plot implausibilities here and there (for which a normal level of suspended disbelief is adequate) it keeps things moving well. The prose is above average for the genre, and it has kept me entertained. Might see what else the author has done.
@greg: Mrs Nereffid and I were big fans of The Bridge, too (and The Killing, though we haven't seen the second series). Last night's Wallander was even bleaker than usual, I thought. Branagh's really got into the character's skin.
I admit my heart sank a little with the discovery of the body - seems like every fictional detective's attempt to find tranquility always gets interrupted when he himself comes across a corpse - but I should have known to trust Mankell.
And (circling this thread back to A Game of Thrones) it was nice to see Maester Luwin again!
We've still got the Killing to watch, Nereffid. We missed the first few programmes of the first series, so Mrs G bought me a DVD set for Christmas, but we still haven't watched it yet, although it may be soon. I recorded series two, so that will have to come afterwards. I suspect we will see Wallender tonight - the beauty of our Sky Plus box is that it is so easy to record and watch programmes at a later time. We particularly like it when the programme has adverts, so we can skip them and 'save' ten minutes! Going back to Wallender, I must admit that the actor in the Swedish production is more my image than Branagh.
Comments
@BT, that sounds promising, I'll look it up.
Thanks, both.
If we are talking about mp3's, the answer is apparently yes!
edit: Available in hardcover for $5.00.
Just finished the first book yesterday and remarked to my wife that I'd probably have to read it again to pick up the stuff I missed. Count me with the folks hoping all these threads will get tied in a tidy bundle. Now reading
I'm reading them on an e-Ink Nook that was an early Father's Day present. I also have a Literati that's color, but the battery won't take a charge so it's semi-useless. Returning to a topic a few pages back, I've also read a couple books on my Crackberry and as was said, you just flip the page more often. I rather liked it since it's hard to loose your place in the bite-sized chunks of text.
Was actually quite disappointing. He clearly aimed for a Malcolm Gladwellesque book about neuroscience, but he isn't the writer Gladwell is. Accordingly the book is just a jumble of stories and half considered opinions. I honestly don't know what the overarching theme of the book is, and that's not really a good thing.
Now starting:
I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be disappointed by this one. It's weird, though, this is the first of the series that I'm reading BEFORE the HBO show season based on the book. I don't know what's going to happen next!
Craig
I have read all of the Sword of Truth. It is a bit different than most fantasy, although toward the end it mutated into Atlas Shrugged with swords and sorcery. This one is a prequel, set ages before the regular series, and is e-book only.
With this one I'm just not enough of a computer scientist or mathematician to follow every detail. I get a lot of it, but am unclear on enough that I keep losing interest. Turing barely figures in it at all, btw; it's more about von Neumann (also a fascinating figure).
Subtitle not on the cover: "Ontological Analyses and Ethical Applications." I tried reading this one decades ago, thinking, "Oh, those are three subjects I'm interested in." I didn't understand it at all then. Now I think I'm getting it, pretty much, but I keep wondering whether ontology really makes any sense. Admittedly I can't articulate my reservations well, and far better minds than mine have disagreed, but I still wonder.
In other news, I've also just started A Storm of Swords by GRRM.
btw, is there a word in any language for the feeling of anticipatory glee you feel on someone's behalf when you hear they've started reading "A Storm of Swords"?
On the second, there should be. About 3 people in my Goodreads or Twitter feed have announced they're reading it this week and I got exactly the same feeling ....
Yes, yes, yes. Me too.
I'm back on Scandinavian crime fiction. A new three programme Wallander TV series started last night, still to watch it. We finished the final two parts of The Bridge last night, on our Sky Plus recorder. This was ten one hour episodes based around the Denamrk - Sweden Bridge. Great series, with English sub-titles. But if you like this kind of thing and it becomes available in the States, watch it!
The only reason I read this is because it was offered for free a little while back as a Kindle edition and I picked it up with a bunch of other things via a list of free Kindle books that someone linked to here. Free mystery novels on Kindle are very hit and miss; this one is rather good; the characters are richer than in several others I've ploughed through on planes recently, and despite some plot implausibilities here and there (for which a normal level of suspended disbelief is adequate) it keeps things moving well. The prose is above average for the genre, and it has kept me entertained. Might see what else the author has done.
I admit my heart sank a little with the discovery of the body - seems like every fictional detective's attempt to find tranquility always gets interrupted when he himself comes across a corpse - but I should have known to trust Mankell.
And (circling this thread back to A Game of Thrones) it was nice to see Maester Luwin again!