I found that the series The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons, is written very well. I have listened to the audiobooks a couple of times. Not something to listen to when one is depressed though. I am really not sure how to summarize the books, for they are quite involved. The Wiki link above does a much better job than I could have.
From Steve Martin, Pure Drivel is very entertaining. It is a collection of short humor that was released in The New Yorker. A caution though. I was listening to him reading “Side Effects” on National Public Radio when the book was released. I was driving at the time. It was not a safe thing to do, for I was in tears laughing so hard.
Here’s one, I haven’t actually finished reading it but I’m about half way through. It was recommended by my calculus teacher.
Reamde by Neil Stephenson. It’s about an MMO that includes a real world currency exchange system. This is exploited by a group of Chinese hackers as a payment system for the ransom-ware ‘reamde’ This holds the files of an organised criminal group ransom and they attempt to take vengeance.
Well, not to be a dick, but right off the top of my head stuff that we as geeks may have heard of, there is the Fark’s Saturday Morning Book Club and Hacker Public Radio’s Audio Book Club…
I appreciate this is an old thread, one of my own even.
I have been ill recently, nothing to worry about - bad cold (flu like) symptoms: bad ridden - now fully recovered.
As a result I had nothing to do but read. My daughter gave me her copy of:
The Fault in our stars
John Green
Is in my opinion a terrible film but a great book. It tells the story from the girls perspective of how she knew she had a life threatening disease (Cancer) and hence probably a short one she was going to to make it the best she could.
I would never have chosen this book for myself, as it is normally considered as “teen literature”. The book is worth a read though - the film is not worth a watch.
I was on holiday in France for a fortnight a couple of months ago, and I decided to get back into (Kindle-assisted) reading again. I’ve ended up burning through:
James S. A. Corey’s The Expanse Series (all 5)
D. F. Jones’ Colossus Trilogy
Stephen King’s 11.22.63
Stephen Baxter’s NASA Trilogy (Voyage, Titan, Moonseed)
and I’m just about to get stuck into Ben Winters’ Underground Airlines. By God, Kindles really do make this stuff easy, don’t they?
I understand he was Japanese reading the newspaper content.
The closest I could get to anywhere near there was an Oahu book from my past-travel Library.
After Jono’s recommendation, I recently read this book. Would rate it as one of the better books I read in 2016.
Its a hilariously written book about the startup culture, in places its almost unbelievable the things that were happening in Hubspot (the company in this book), but perhaps only unbelievable from someone who hasn’t worked in the valley (me). The company I work with would have a culture of looking after their employees and often that translates to basically shiny toys, this book helped me put into perspective for myself what is worthless drivel and what is good employee benefits.
It also made me feel more thankful for the company and work environment that I have.
Definitely worth a read if you have even a passing interest in this sort of thing. I have recommended it to non-tech friends.
Me favourite service when away is the Beeb quitter.se feed, & they do cater for younger audiences (within their walled-garden). { You can bing it by searching for cbbc-book-club }.
Only sometimes … I have a last peek on my kindle before I turn-in, if I have the persuasion.