Grand unified books thread

[Ed Anger]

2,000 page biography

TLDR

[Martinus]

Reading short stories by Ronald Fairbank at the moment. So over-the-top, they are actually funny.

Also, could this thread be stickied please? It's a bitch to find, especially as the title is retarded (not "What you are reading?", to make it similar to other threads about movies or music).

[frunk]

They demonstrate he's obviously worked on this problem. The worst offenders in this respect was Cryptonomicon and The Diamond Age, both of which just sort of ended while the story was still going;

I've never seen it as a problem.  He tends to jump you into the middle of a story as much as possible, leaving in the middle is perfectly fine.  I thought the ending of Anathem was the weakest part, dragging on unecessarily.  The Baroque cycle was also seriously bloated, particularly the first book.  It could have been nicely trimmed and turned into a tighter series.

[katmai]

Anybody picked up the first book in  new vampire trilogy co-written by Guillermo Del Toro?

[Sophie Scholl]

Anybody picked up the first book in  new vampire trilogy co-written by Guillermo Del Toro?

Check your in box.

[Syt]

I just ordered:
Maps of War
Remarkable Maps: 100 Examples of How Cartography Defined, Changed and Stole the World
Cities of the World: A History in Maps
New Worlds: Maps from the Age of Discovery
To the Ends of the Earth: 100 Maps That Changed the World

Maps galore!

Books arrived yesterday. The small ones are really nice. The "Maps of War" and "Maps from the Age of Discovery" in their 43.8 x 35.6 cm format are faptastic, containing ca. 100 large prints each; Maps of War covers historical battle/campaign/siege maps from 16th century to 19th century.

[Alatriste]

I just bought A Dying Light in Corduba and Alexandria signed by the author, Lindsay Davis herself.

In the last times I have started to hate historical novels with a passion, too many pathetic wannabes with absolutely no qualification are writing them just because they are fashionable, and historical detective novels are even worse, but I make an exception with Lindsay Davis: she knows the field and her novels are very good; actually the detective part in some of them is merely en excuse, a MacGuffin if you like.

[Malthus]

I just bought The Fall of the West: Death of the Roman Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy. Anyone read this? Views?

[jimmy olsen]

I just bought The Fall of the West: Death of the Roman Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy. Anyone read this? Views?

No, but the title strikes me as anachronistic.

[Martinus]

Why do adult people buy maps to study? That sounds like the most boring thing ever.

[garbon]

Why do adult people buy maps to study? That sounds like the most boring thing ever.

Is something wrong, Marty? I've found you likable enough lately but today you seem to be drifting into whiny , I'm a cool gay, teen mode. Problems on the home front?

[Martinus]

Why do adult people buy maps to study? That sounds like the most boring thing ever.

Is something wrong, Marty? I've found you likable enough lately but today you seem to be drifting into whiny , I'm a cool gay, teen mode. Problems on the home front?

What, unhappy I am stealing your act?

Ok, I will be less whiny. I'm just feeling a bit blue, mostly because of the weather being shitty and overall boredom.

[garbon]

What, unhappy I am stealing your act?

Sorry, but I never bash on people for studying maps ('cepting Tim) and never go on about my fabulous apparel and parade of accessories.

[Malthus]

What, unhappy I am stealing your act?

Ok, I will be less whiny. I'm just feeling a bit blue, mostly because of the weather being shitty and overall boredom.

Know what helps with the blues? Studying maps. 

[Sheilbh]

Why do adult people buy maps to study? That sounds like the most boring thing ever.

I love maps

Antique maps are one of the few antique things I understand.