The 50 book challenge

bdams19 · Post by **bdams19** » 23 Jan 2008 01:17

That sounds like a great read. It is so refreshing to hear a story where a character has such a passion for a subject that he is willing to give up recognition as long as his theory is heard in the scientific world (at least thats what I gather from your post). Very cool.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 23 Jan 2008 02:38

If you're talking about Alfred Wallace, I think it was the opposite of that. He wasn't sure enough of his theory to know if it would be published; which is why he sent it Darwin, and he was absolutely stoked to get so much recognition from it.

edit; I managed to pick up a copy of The Voyage of the Beagle today. There was one book shop left in the city, (the Hobart Bookshop, as featured in an old video I made with Dylan Fry years ago), and they had 2 different editions. From now on that's where I'm buying all my books

sniikeri · Post by **sniikeri** » 23 Jan 2008 06:02

1. Turms, kuolematon Mika Waltari 681pg
2. V for Vendetta Alan Moore and David Lloyd 281pg (got it for Christmas, I found it fantastic)

Colin · Post by **Colin** » 29 Jan 2008 12:15

1. Finishing School - Helen Fogwill Porter
2. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - George Luis Stevenson
4. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
5. The Old Man and the Sea - Earnest Hemmingway

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 30 Jan 2008 12:26

My goal is 12 books. I already got 3 down.

Everybody should read this one:

Stefano Benni - Terra! (365 pages)
Awesome satirical science fiction!
Trying to escape desert heat, a mouse crawls inside a nuclear command center and falls onto the doomsday button. ``And this is how W.W. III started. Three more followed.'' Thus opens this satire by an Italian journalist/humorist. The time is 2157. The earth is now sunless and people live underground. Report of a planet that is everything ours once was provokes an exploration ship from the Sinoeuropean Federation, tailed by ones from the Aramerussian and Samurai military empires. Meanwhile, an incredible energy source is detected beneath the iced-over ruins of the Inca Empire. With all stops pulledincluding the kitchen sink'sBenni ties together these events while ribbing our civilization and its cultural trends. Sometimes silly and precious, often charming like minor Stanislaw Lem, Terra! is never less than amusing, if not quite profound. Jeff Clark, SUNY Coll.

I also read:
Naja Marie Aidt - The Watermark (93 pages) [Not available in english]
JÃ¸rgen Nash - A Mermaid Killer Crosses His Trails (200+ pages) [Not available in english]

james · Post by **james** » 30 Jan 2008 14:41

Natural selection is not the basis for evolution...but I'm not going to argue it here. LOLZ

So that's a book a week eh? Some of the books I read are reaaallly long, so I doubt I'd make the 50 mark, though it IS interesting to keep track of such things.
Not sure when I finished the last one so I'll start with this

1. The Ghost in the Machine Arthur Koestler 354 pg

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 31 Jan 2008 04:13

Natural selection was the theory that explained why evolution occurred (in most instances). If specific traits were not selected, there would be no reason why species would change, because the changes would be pulling them in all directions. It was well noted in the time of Darwin and Wallace that animals of the same species look a little bit different, it wasn't clear that those differences give some animals of the same species a better or worse survival chance, and hence the species as a whole moves towards that direction.

In any event, if you're talking about variation and replication as the basis for evolution, I was referring to Darwin having the ideas in his head that convinced him that evolution did occur, and why it occurred. I thought that was very clear in my sentence. At the time of Darwin, evolution was not thought of as a serious theory, especially because of the crock theories like Lamarckism.

sniikeri · Post by **sniikeri** » 31 Jan 2008 04:55

1. Turms, kuolematon Mika Waltari, in Finnish 681pg
2. V for Vendetta Alan Moore and David Lloyd, in Finnish 281pg (got it for Christmas, I found it fantastic)
3. Brave New World Aldous Huxley, in Finnish (felt like reading it again after finishing V for Vendetta

Next books on my list are:
- Die Bestie im Turm ("The Beast in/of the Tower") Tom Wolf, in German: this is a German "Hansekrimi", i.e. a "Hanseatic League murder mystery". It takes place in a small town of Goslar in the 16th century. What makes it interesting to me is that I've spent four months in that town as an exchange student.

I'm reading this at the moment.
- The Swarm Frank SchÃ¤tzing, in Finnish: I started reading this techno- or bio-thriller like two months ago, but it's so massive that I just haven't had the energy to read further than the first 100 pages. Don't get me wrong, I'm very into reading it but it just demands a lot of thinking.
- The Bear and the Dragon Tom Clancy. The plot in brief sounds good, but Clancy isn't really a box of chocolates: you know what you're going to get. I read Rainbow Six when I was nine or ten and mentioned about it to my parents a few months ago. They thought they should have probably controlled more of my doings back then.

- The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde because a nice girl recommended it to me.

max · Post by **max** » 01 Feb 2008 03:03

L'homme Ã l'envers - Fred Vargas
Debout les morts - San Antonio
Nous Sommes Tous des Playmobiles - Nicolas Ancion (a bunch of short stories taking place in Brussels. Picked this up at a charity, fun read)

Colin · Post by **Colin** » 01 Feb 2008 05:22

Dude, what's wrong with those book titles? Those aren't even words!

max · Post by **max** » 01 Feb 2008 05:31

Colin wrote:Dude, what's wrong with those book titles? Those aren't even words!

Well I can assure you that they are in fact words. What's "wrong" with them is probably that they're French words

But don't worry I have a couple of English books that I'm also reading these days.

max · Post by **max** » 04 Feb 2008 03:40

L'homme Ã l'envers - Fred Vargas
Debout les morts - San Antonio
Nous Sommes Tous des Playmobiles - Nicolas Ancion (a bunch of short stories taking place in Brussels. Picked this up at a charity, fun read)
Texas Holdem Poker - Paul Mendelson. Picked this up yesterday in London browsing through a bookstore. Good read, not too in-depth.

dp · Post by dp » 04 Feb 2008 19:24

1.Animal Farm George Orwell 97 pg

2.Cannery Row John Steinbeck 181 pg

3.The Winter of Our Discontent John Steinbeck 276 pg

4.The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales Dr. Oliver Sacks 243 pg

The most recent book was a series of essays by this neurologist who goes into these problems people have, some quite comical, while others horribly depressing. He manages to make you examine what a human really is and what lives are. Cool book, interesting, but goes a bit too much into technical shit sometimes.

Post by **Zac Miley** » 04 Feb 2008 19:31

3. Night - Elie Wiesel

I thought it was pretty good - about the holocaust. It wasn't as descriptive as one could've hoped for from an actual survivor of it, but still it was a horrifyingly good book. Suggested.

Blue_turnip · Post by **Blue_turnip** » 07 Feb 2008 02:54

1. Lord of the Rings.
2. War and Peace.
3. Security Analysis.
4. A Suitable Boy.
5. Three Kingdoms.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 07 Feb 2008 03:09

Wow that's mental. Did you pick like the biggest books you could find? I don't know about 3 and 5, but 1,2 and 4 are all massive. Isn't A Suitable Boy the longest novel ever written (in one volume)?

sniikeri · Post by **sniikeri** » 07 Feb 2008 03:12

Blue_turnip wrote:1. Lord of the Rings.
2. War and Peace.
3. Security Analysis.
4. A Suitable Boy.
5. Three Kingdoms.

But still haven't finished the Bible and Ulysses by James Joyce? Shame on you.

Blue_turnip · Post by **Blue_turnip** » 07 Feb 2008 03:29

Lol nah I just conjured that list cos it makes me lol.

I did actually mow through 350 pages of LOTR while I was in Sweden a couple weeks ago but as soon as I got home and back to my computer I stopped, lol.

Blue_turnip · Post by **Blue_turnip** » 07 Feb 2008 03:32

Isilwar wrote:3. Night - Elie Wiesel

I thought it was pretty good - about the holocaust. It wasn't as descriptive as one could've hoped for from an actual survivor of it, but still it was a horrifyingly good book. Suggested.

It wasn't descriptive enough? Jesus christ you must be fucked in the head.

Blue_turnip · Post by **Blue_turnip** » 07 Feb 2008 03:38

sniikeri wrote:1. Turms, kuolematon Mika Waltari 681pg
2. V for Vendetta Alan Moore and David Lloyd 281pg (got it for Christmas, I found it fantastic)

Yeha V for Vendetta is a good read but what was the point in mentioning the number of pages when its like 98% pictures.

james wrote:Natural selection is not the basis for evolution...but I'm not going to argue it here. LOLZ

You are wrong.