Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Reading this at present, as an engineer historical engineering stuff is interesting, in the knowledge it was state of the art and experimentation in the unknown at the time - and we probably haven't got much further even now.
https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/aer … etail.html

Dear lord, just this makes my head hurt
https://i.imgur.com/ZiDWuXT.png

There's a whole lot more.
https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/index.html
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
It looks like a F-35
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3422
lol.

i’m reading quite a lot of oliver sacks lately. pretty middlebrow fare but he writes engagingly and with an enormous spirit. hard to dislike.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX

SuperJail Warden wrote:

It looks like a F-35
Its an X15 you moran
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/images/343501main_ECN-1025_full.jpg
Or an early concept at least.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Are you sure it's not a bump stock?
DesertFox-
The very model of a modern major general
+794|6654|United States of America
J10 > F-35
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
Was gifted The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for Christmas as well as The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 by Eric Hobsbawm. I already had Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer. So I feel I have a pretty good World War 2 section of my personal library.

What books were you gifted?
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
KEN-JENNINGS
I am all that is MOD!
+2,973|6602|949

i didn't get any books this year and i've been in a reading slump for the last month or so. Lame.
DesertFox-
The very model of a modern major general
+794|6654|United States of America
I kept imagining Uzi ran into the dude in this New Yorker article the entire time I was reading it. Should've gone to Oxford and punched this dude in the face.
uziq
Member
+492|3422

DesertFox- wrote:

I kept imagining Uzi ran into the dude in this New Yorker article the entire time I was reading it. Should've gone to Oxford and punched this dude in the face.
i actually read that last night, which is weird. i do remember the buzz when his book went up for auction. it was pretty much immediately going to be a bestseller even though the writing was terrible.

pretty accurate portrayal of the publishing industry tbh. it is very chummy and people like that – psychopaths, basically – can rise really fast just by sheer dint of the fact that publishing attracts ‘nice’ arty/bookish types who would just rather avoid confrontation.

i see a biopic of that guy in the near future.
KEN-JENNINGS
I am all that is MOD!
+2,973|6602|949

Hey, I read that article too! I signed up for the New Yorker when they were having a special. I think it was 24 weeks for $6, including online and print.
DesertFox-
The very model of a modern major general
+794|6654|United States of America
Unrelated to the topic, but I found the recent article The Life Cycle of a Stolen Gun also a very interesting read, though parts were not surprising considering I grew up in a state that funnels guns into Chicago.

Now I've only got 3 free articles left, unlike KENs unlimited subscription donger.
KEN-JENNINGS
I am all that is MOD!
+2,973|6602|949

i will probably unsubscribe once the life of the deal is over. I was just looking at a cover of the mag an it retails for $8.99. I don't live in NY so a lot of the coverage means absolutely nothing to me.  I pretty much bought it for their longform.

I picked up Why We Sleep after listening to the author on Joe Rogan's podcast.  He had a complete hard on for the science of sleep and im looking forward to reading it.
uziq
Member
+492|3422
americans. the new yorker is okay but it's not top rate.

i recommend a subscription to the new york review of books or the los angeles review of books. the former is much more respectable; the latter a bit grad-school.

but both are eminent sources for longform essays.

the london review of books is naturally the original, and best, source. the paris review is great too for interviews. check the archives online.
DesertFox-
The very model of a modern major general
+794|6654|United States of America
(No one said the New Yorker was top rate)

You have suggested those before, but I don't have much of a sense of what I actually want to read. If you'd summarized the first article about that author, I don't think I'd be interested in reading it. But somehow, I ended up starting it at lunch and finishing it at home in the evening. Regardless, I've lined up a couple of articles for the morning, so we shall see.
uziq
Member
+492|3422
he's not an interesting 'author'. it's a human interest story about a pathological liar and a psychopath. pretty universal tbh. the particulars of the publishing industry are merely quaint. he could have gone to wall street and done the same thing -- albeit with a greater economic damage.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
Reading History of the Peloponnesian War. Conservative publications and writers like to name drop this book as something everyone should read to get an understanding of American politics, government, some shit or the other. I don't know. But they name drop it often so I am reading it.

It's okay I guess.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
Since Game of Thrones is running, I keep looking at GoT memorabilia on Amazon and Jeff Bezos keeps trying to get me to buy the GoT book box set. So I looked up what GRRM is up to instead of finishing the last two novels and he keeps writing large side books about the GoT universe.

So the guy's series is over 5,000 pages, 4.5 times longer than the Bible. He is over 70, dangerously obese, finally rich enough to enjoy life, and releases stuff not related to the main series every few years. That series is never getting completed.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Jay
Bork! Bork! Bork!
+2,006|5328|London, England
I'm fairly sure HBO paid him a ton of money to wait until after the show is done to release the last two books.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
uziq
Member
+492|3422
i just finished richard ford’s sportswriter trilogy. pretty good books although nothing much happens. an updated updike-rabbit saga. would recommend people check out his shorts like ‘women with men’ first for real condensed brilliance.

Last edited by uziq (2019-05-10 00:05:02)

SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
What do you think about Stephen King? I am reading my first novel of his. The book is a 1200 pager and I am 300 in since I started Saturday. So it's an easy read.

I have heard people say he isn't a good writer but he seems fine. I did notice he explains things a little more than he has to.

For instance a general inspecting a science lab after the scientist got locked in and died.

It went something like
"He opened another door and found a naked man and woman with holes in their heads. They had sex and afterward the man shoot the woman and then himself. The .45 pistol was still in the makes man's hand."

Anything after "He opened another door and found a naked man and woman with holes in their heads." was unnecessary or at least could have been better summed up.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3422
i do not like stephen king. he's an able-enough craftsman when it comes to writing plot and characters, but i really don't have time for books like that. it's just sort of frivolous entertainment. reminds me of goosebumps for adults. it's just not what i reach for a book for. can understand why his tv/movie adaptations have been so popular, though.

i like the fact he has an identifiable 'cocaine phase' where his books all got 1000+ pages long and involved mad digressions and twists.

Last edited by uziq (2019-05-21 05:54:11)

SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
"Stephen King doesn’t even try to hide the fact that many of his works were written on cocaine. Besides, he doesn’t even remember writing them. In a Rolling Stone interview, he said that he’d been using cocaine from 1978 to 1986 and wrote around 10 novels. Some of them are It, The Dark Tower, Pet Sematary, and The Stand."

The book I am reading is the Stand. The book does have a lot of references to drugs now that I think about it.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Jay
Bork! Bork! Bork!
+2,006|5328|London, England
I read a lot of them when I was younger. His early stuff was pretty good because it was rather unique. The stuff he wrote after he got hit by the car got weird and uncomfortable to read.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
uziq
Member
+492|3422
https://imgur.com/a/CsCI4K5

some recent richard ford. i think he’s good.

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