Reading Minds: The CoastGab Book Club

[Avi]

I don't like ereaders simply because the formatting is so crappy, it breaks the flow of reading. You just can't enter into alternate universes the way you can with a real book, nor can you easily loan or give your book to an appreciative friend. It's useless to keep reference material on an ereader, because most texts do not feature interactive tables of contents. To use the "go to" function on the ereader means you know exactly where you want to go already. Over-hyped.

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

anything by Amber Benson. my latest read, The Witches of Echo Park. can't wait for the next one!

[Addis0n]

I don't really think it fits in the context of this forum but if anyone likes military related reading I am a good resource for it.

On Killing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Killing

The Things They Carried
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Things_They_Carried

[Juan]

I don't like ereaders simply because the formatting is so crappy, it breaks the flow of reading. You just can't enter into alternate universes the way you can with a real book, nor can you easily loan or give your book to an appreciative friend. It's useless to keep reference material on an ereader, because most texts do not feature interactive tables of contents. To use the "go to" function on the ereader means you know exactly where you want to go already. Over-hyped.

If you have the formatting done by someone competent, you get all of these things.  However, it would appear that publishers are opting for some kind of cheap software alternative.  Typical

[nbirnes]

I just finished Stephen King's "The Gunslinger", and am taking a short break from the "Dark Tower" series to read some William Gibson. My Dad got me his first two books, "Neuromancer" and "Count Zero" for Christmas, which are the basic foundation for most modern "dystopian" cyberpunk. So far, as a fan of Shadowrun the game, the seedy "Blade-Runneresque" world of "Neuromancer" has already deeply captured my interest. I recommend it to all sci-fi fans, as it's won the Hugo, Philip K. Dick, and other prestigious awards from the community over the past 20-something odd years.

An interesting factoid about Neuromancer is that it was written in a basement on a regular typewriter. All that modern stuff, the very substance of our reality today and tomorrow -- all of that was just Gibson's amazing imagination. No computers were harmed back then.

Still reading this nice thread. My favorite of this type is the first 7/8s of Neal   Stephenson's "The Diamond Age." It's also future-building in its own nanobot way.

[nbirnes]

"90 Minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper. An interesting account of an NDE/life after death experience. I find it cuious that the brain is able to form any memory at death or near death as it is typically deprived of blood flow and oxygen at that moment. It's not slam dunk proof but it's pretty interesting.

It is an interesting extra bit of info. Also, we replace all our cells in our body every 7 years, but retain all our memories for life. What exactly *are* memories, in contrast to worries or plans or most of our ordinary volitional thinking processes? They seem to be perfectly preserved little capsules, ready to open fragrantly and vivid when pressed. Literally.

(I'm reading the books thread to take my mind off the real-world threads. Hiding among books is always a good idea.)

[Abealla]

I recently reviewed some spiritual fictional work written in post modernistic writing styles, here: http://newsunwesternskies.com/reviewing-fictional-spiritual-works/

The Mummery Book by this controversial guru has also been adapted to stage with a lot of experimental features.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

It is an interesting extra bit of info. Also, we replace all our cells in our body every 7 years, but retain all our memories for life.

We don't replace nerve cells, muscle cells, or egg cells.

[pate]

I am struggling through somesuck:  ""Power, Faith and Fantasy:  America in the Middle East 1776 to present"

Can anyone suggest some historical fiction?

[Avi]

I am struggling through somesuck:  ""Power, Faith and Fantasy:  America in the Middle East 1776 to present"

Can anyone suggest some historical fiction?

The Journeyer by Gary Jennings

Or were you looking to leave the East?

[3OctaveFart]

Bring back the serial novel? Why the hell not.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/great-expectations/2015/04/24/ad1e24a2-e916-11e4-9767-6276fc9b0ada_story.html?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=referral

[3OctaveFart]

Good pull.



https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2013-fall/men-who-lost-america/

The American Revolution is a national disgrace for the Brits, which is why you don't see many of these studies across the pond. Full-length bios of British generals Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis were written in the 20th century by Americans, as was the bio of Lord North.

[zeebo]

An interesting factoid about Neuromancer is that it was written in a basement on a regular typewriter. All that modern stuff, the very substance of our reality today and tomorrow -- all of that was just Gibson's amazing imagination. No computers were harmed back then.

In the foreward to a later edition Gibson mentions though that in spite of his prescience he did miss the advent of cell phones, as his high-tech future still had payphones around.   

I will also say this about the book.  Having long been on my to-read list, I actually read it for the first time just a few years ago and I loved it.  But I was amazed just how .. weird .. it was.  I mean really strange stuff in there, even now.  I can't believe how weird it must have seemed thirty years ago when it came out.

...Still reading this nice thread. My favorite of this type is the first 7/8s of Neal   Stephenson's "The Diamond Age." It's also future-building in its own nanobot way.

Yes I also had issues with the plot later in the book, but as for the vision of a nanotech future it was pretty amazing.  One part I remember is these mini-wars between clouds of nanobots that just sounds so plausible down the road.

[nbirnes]

Yes I also had issues with the plot later in the book, but as for the vision of a nanotech future it was pretty amazing.  One part I remember is these mini-wars between clouds of nanobots that just sounds so plausible down the road.

Yeah. And using nanobots to explode criminals into a cloud for execution. But most of all, the stolen book that imprints to the first person to open it and then they grow together ... that's how I see the internet. Who should we read after Shephenson?

[zeebo]

... Who should we read after Stephenson?

He covers alot of ground but I'm assuming you mean more specifically topics like virtual reality, nanotech, biotech etc.  You've probably already read Stephenson's Snow Crash which is a must.  And if you haven't read more Gibson I suggest two of my faves Idoru and Pattern Recognition.  I loved Ernest Cline's Ready Player One which is a really fun read but maybe not your cup of tea.  Other authors that might be worth checking out: Charles Stross, Richard K. Morgan, Alastair Reynolds.  Anyone else have some suggestions?

[nbirnes]

He covers alot of ground but I'm assuming you mean more specifically topics like virtual reality, nanotech, biotech etc.  You've probably already read Stephenson's Snow Crash which is a must.  And if you haven't read more Gibson I suggest two of my faves Idoru and Pattern Recognition.  I loved Ernest Cline's Ready Player One which is a really fun read but maybe not your cup of tea.  Other authors that might be worth checking out: Charles Stross, Richard K. Morgan, Alastair Reynolds.  Anyone else have some suggestions?

Thank you for this list! I would add Murakami (both of them), Nicholson Baker, and spiraling back to Pynchon's Gravity. So much good.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

Anyone else have some suggestions?

How about
Soul of a New Machine -about a tech startup in the 80s.
"Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one companys efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market."

Lipstick Traces -about the "punk" part of Cyberpunk.
" what Marcus so brilliantly shows is that various kinds of angry, absolute demandsâ€"demands on society, art, and all the governing structures of everyday lifeâ€"seem to be coded in phrases, images, and actions passed on invisibly, but inevitably, by people quite unaware of each other...
the dadaists in Zurich in 1916 and Berlin in 1918, wearing death masks, chanting glossolalia"
(I think you will like this book-there are a few sections in here about the importance of zines in transmitting information)

McLuhan for Beginners -the cyber in "Cyberpunk" helps to understand the human need to grasp more technology
"Marshall McLuhan pioneered the study of the media and is now making a comeback, despite the fact that he died in 1980...This book is described as a "documentary comic book" that explains his ideas but doesn't take itself too seriously."


Here is an online article about the subject:
http://www.lib.ru/STERLINGB/interzone.txt
Bruce Sterling. Cyberpunk in the Nineties
""Cyberpunk," before it acquired its handy label and its sinister
rep, was a generous, open-handed effort, very street-level and
anarchic, with a do-it-yourself attitude, an ethos it shared with garage-
band 70s punk music. Cyberpunk's one-page propaganda organ,
"CHEAP TRUTH," was given away free to anyone who asked for it.
CHEAP TRUTH was never copyrighted; photocopy "piracy" was actively
encouraged.

CHEAP TRUTH's contributors were always pseudonymous, an
earnest egalitarian attempt to avoid any personality-cultism or
cliquishness. CHEAP TRUTH deliberately mocked established "genre
gurus" and urged every soul within earshot to boot up a word-
processor and join the cause. CT's ingenuous standards for SF were
simply that SF should be "good" and "alive" and "readable." But when
put in practice, these supposed qualities were something else again.
The fog of battle obscured a great deal at the time."

[zeebo]

How about ....

Nice suggestions Monk, I was hopin' you'd chime in.   

One other tangential thought I had is Hyperion & Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons.  These two books together make up one of my all-time favorite sci-fi works.  Their thematic scope is wide (from technology to religion to ecology and more), but at least part of the plot concerns A.I. networks and some forms of cybernetic enhancements. 

[zeebo]

... I would add Murakami (both of them)...

I only know of Haruki but I confess I have not yet read any of his stuff, although he's on my reading list.  Aaargh I need more time, or need to take a speed reading class.

[nbirnes]

I only know of Haruki but I confess I have not yet read any of his stuff, although he's on my reading list.  Aaargh I need more time, or need to take a speed reading class.

Ryu: Almost Transparent Blue. Very dystopian, and I'm glad I stumbled on him, by mistake or serendipity.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

Aaargh I need more time, or need to take a speed reading class.

fastreader works for most fiction stuff for me! If it's good, read it the second time the normal way.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.surkeo.fastreader&hl=en

Or http://www.spreeder.com/bookmarklet.php
Try Spreeder and then select the text and open it with the bookmarklet. It needs a little fast forwarding because the software counts all the spaces used as padding in the article.
http://www.lib.ru/STERLINGB/interzone.txt

more stuff here
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/

[Mind Flayer Monk]

I own many of these books. David McCullogh books-yep lots them.
from the comments:
"My grandfather had a fine collection of pseudo-pornographic 'Detective' novels that most men wouldn't admit to reading. Matt Helm, 'The Penetrator', 'Th Destroyer', 'The Man from O.R.G.Y.', etc... "
MFM asks where are these books?

"Books That Literally All White Men Own: The Definitive List"
http://the-toast.net/2015/05/12/books-that-literally-all-white-men-own/

[Eddie Coyle]

I own many of these books. David McCullogh books-yep lots them.

http://the-toast.net/2015/05/12/books-that-literally-all-white-men-own/

   About 37 of 79 here.

   

[MABUSE]

"Dark Homages" by H.R. Arswyd.
This is a brilliant collection of novellas and short stories that, true to its title, is an homage to great horror authors of the past.
That being said, the story "The Call-in of Cthulhu" is an overt homage to H P Lovecraft, and appears to be based on Coast. 
All the stories work well and Arswyd's writing beautifully captures the styles of Lovecraft, Doyle and James as well as more modern writers like Lansdale.
Each story is quite different, but the overall effect is brilliant, and terrifying.  Highly recommended.

[nbirnes]

"Books That Literally All White Men Own: The Definitive List"
http://the-toast.net/2015/05/12/books-that-literally-all-white-men-own/

Every time I see your avatar's name, I think of this book: "The Physiognomy" by Jeffrey Ford. Methinks you might like.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

Every time I see your avatar's name, I think of this book: "The Physiognomy" by Jeffrey Ford. Methinks you might like.

I will keep a look out for it. I checked my local libraries and it wasn't available (but several other Jeffrey Ford books were available).

The name is from a video game from 2003 or so.

[ponyboysunset]

I am re-reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Still love it!

[zeebo]

I am re-reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Still love it!

I'm glad you mentioned this, as I've been meaning to give this series a try for some time.

[albrecht]

"Trophy Hunt" by C.J. Box, I've read several of his others in the series about a Game Warden in Wyoming who gets mixed in other crimes. This one I mention because it involves animal, and then human, mutilations, so a C2C staple. Pretty darn good.

[Treading Water]

Just finished Revival by Stephen King.  OMG!!!!  I finished it at the laundromat this morning.  I had to feed two dryers two more quarters each and continue on "fluff" in order to keep reading....

Now I'm starting something "calmer".  It's a Long Story by Willie Nelson.  "The IRS had come down with the hammer.  And those sons of bitches came down mighty fuckin' hard."
Yeah, I'm ready for this.