What are you currently reading?

[Clare]

Did you ever give us your thoughts on "That Hideous Strength"?

I've just finished it again. I'm not sure where to begin giving my thoughts. It's an amazing book. First time I read it, I thought the ending was a bit disappointing, but this time I didn't. What were your thoughts, Maximilian?

I thought it was amazingly prescient. Written in 1945, it was 3 years before "1984." It's prophetic in a religious sense, but it succeeds as a work of science fiction. Like most English sci-fi (e.g. Dr. Who) there's not much science in the sci-fi, but it was ahead of its time in mixing science fiction with fantasy. I think C.S. Lewis identified the real problems that we face today even better than Aldous Huxley or George Orwell, although those men were geniuses as well.

When I was reading a bit on Wikipedia about That Hideous Strength, I was surprised that it had influenced so little. A couple of Heavy Metal bands, and not much else! I've been watching some old Dr Who series recently, and I could imagine THS providing inspiration for potential stories, if only its writers had read it!

[Clare]

I've just finished The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis, and I'm re-reading The Ball and the Cross by GK Chesterton now.

[Arun]

the brain that changes itself, by norman doidge.

[red solo cup]

Off the Planet by Jerry Linenger.  Linener is a naval flight surgeon who spent five months aboard the Russian space station Mir. Very entertaining and informative. When he described liftoff and entry into orbit, it was hard to put it down. Mir was designed to last five years. When the author was on board it was in it's tenth year. As a result there were constant problems; many of them life threatening.
There were constant cooling leaks causing them to breath glycol fumes. There was a fire that burned long enough and hot enough to melt nearby metal. There was even a bungled docking maneuver that caused a near miss of a one ton module.

[Chestertonian]

the brain that changes itself, by norman doidge.

how is it

[Arun]

the brain that changes itself, by norman doidge.

how is it

pretty amazing man. all about neuroplasticity and how the brain is malleable and can reorganise itself to allow "normal" function despite extensive irreparable brain damage. it can shift processing and functions to other areas to compensate for when another area is damaged. that's mainly what it's covered so far, given a bunch of people's case stories and stuff. cool read tho; i can send you a pdf if your interested in reading it man.

[Clare]

I'm re-reading The Great Divorce by C S Lewis.

[zork]

Wheel of Time 5: The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

[Maximilian]

Wheel of Time 5: The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

Someone just posted a graph here the other day claiming to show that the relationship between how good a book is and how many words the author made up is a 1/x inverse functions. I immediately thought of Robert Jordan.

I don't know if anyone can find that graph again.

[zork]

Oh yeah, I saw that too. Stephen King made up words for his Dark Tower series, and the words he used became cloying rather quickly.

[Gardener]

Wheel of Time 5: The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

Someone just posted a graph here the other day claiming to show that the relationship between how good a book is and how many words the author made up is a 1/x inverse functions. I immediately thought of Robert Jordan.

I don't know if anyone can find that graph again.

I posted it in the LMS USA/Canada thread. The graphic is from xkcd: https://xkcd.com/483/

To keep it literary for the thread: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/alternative_energy_revolution.jpg

[Maximilian]

Wheel of Time 5: The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

Someone just posted a graph here the other day claiming to show that the relationship between how good a book is and how many words the author made up is a 1/x inverse functions. I immediately thought of Robert Jordan.

I don't know if anyone can find that graph again.

I posted it in the LMS USA/Canada thread. The graphic is from xkcd: https://xkcd.com/483/

To keep it literary for the thread: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/alternative_energy_revolution.jpg

Thanks for the link:



It's pretty hard to see this graph without thinking of Robert Jordan.
On the other hand, there are lots sci-fi/fantasy writers who are just as bad.

[Maximilian]

To keep it literary for the thread: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/alternative_energy_revolution.jpg

Great cartoon. I have often thought the same when I have seen these things along the highway. They remind me of some sort of creepy sci-fi characters. Their appearance is distinctly eerie and foreboding.

[Bernadette]

I'm reading Food in England, by Dorothy Hartley. Highly recommended! I've been looking for it for years, but unwilling to pay $20-$30 dollars for it, and then I finally found it for $7.50. When I opened it to start reading, the bookseller had written: "£4.99. Sought after" on the first page. lol Sought after was right! Anyway, it really makes me want to read Dorothy Hartley's other books.

[Michael Wilson]

Re. Wheel of Time: I admit that R.J. "Goes long"; but since I really didn't want the books to end, for that would mean that the world he created was finished; I enjoyed all the "baroque" verbal decorations that his books contained.