What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

[JimC]

I am re-reading the entire naval series by Patrick O'Brien. A veritable marathon...

[orpheus]

In The Guardian, Rachel Cusk said this is "perhaps the most significant literary enterprise of our time." Zadie Smith's tweet was much more to the point: "KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD. MY STRUGGLE. It's unbelievable. I just read 200 pages of it and I need the next volume like crack." I have to say, I agree with both. This is good, very good. Despite all the hype -- both positive and negative -- Knausgaard is the real thing.

[tattuchu]

Just started Going Clear, the recent Scientology exposé.

[Pappa]

Game Programming Patterns

[Brian Peacock]

Game Programming Patterns

Who, what, when, where, and how much?

[rainbow]

Android Karenina

[tattuchu]

Just started Going Clear, the recent Scientology exposé.

I'm halfway through this. It's interesting but not quite as interesting as I thought it'd be. It's also fairly well written but not quite as well written as I thought it'd be given that it's from a Pulitzer prize winner.

[tattuchu]

Just started Going Clear, the recent Scientology exposé.

I'm halfway through this. It's interesting but not quite as interesting as I thought it'd be. It's also fairly well written but not quite as well written as I thought it'd be given that it's from a Pulitzer prize winner.

Finished this. Not much I didn't already know. What was surprising to me was how sympathetic, despite the criticisms, the author was toward L Ron Hubbard and Scientology. I've always considered Hubbard a hack writer and, when it comes to Scientology, a huckster and charlatan. The author however paints him as a brilliant and creative man, if perhaps mentally ill, and one who likely believed his own religious-based writings. Also, the book made me curious enough about Scientology that I would actually be willing to check it out and see if there's something to it (if it didn't cost money, that is).

I'm on to reading Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill, the niece of tyrannical Scientology leader David Miscavige.

Also got an e-mail from the library informing me that the copy I requested of Trigger Warning has come in, the new collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman.

[Rum]

I've been reading (or trying to) the Koran (no, really).. One hears to much talked about it and so many myths seem to abound that I thought I should have a go myself.

I must say that from the outset it has a go at Jews and Christians in a big way. Not much live and let live in it. Some mind you. Apparently if you are a Jew or Christian and live a 'good' life you can get to paradise. Unfortunately pretty much the only way to live that good life is to be a Muslim! It's pretty ranty stuff!

[JimC]

Re-reading My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell...

[tattuchu]

I'm on to reading Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill, the niece of tyrannical Scientology leader David Miscavige.

It was boring. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, maybe in the next chapter, or the next, but it never did. She also had an annoying habit of going into quite a lot of detail about things that mattered not a bit and, frustratingly, not going into detail about the things that really needed going into. The book was also in desperate, desperate need of proofreading. Jesus Christ, how could a professionally published book be in such a state?

[Pappa]

Game Programming Patterns

Who, what, when, where, and how much?

Some guy, a book, a few weeks ago, Amazon, I don't remember.

It's good though. It covers design patterns in a way that's applicable to not just games. It's well written and gives a great insight into some of the challenges game developers face.

[cronus]

The RAF in Camera. Archive photographs from the public record office and ministry of defence. 1939-1945. Roy Conyers Nesbit. Page 104.

[Pappa]

The Screwtape Letters. It's kind of doing my head in a bit, but I do like much of it. It feels like a barely veiled attempt to dictate how to be a good Christian and it comes across as presumptuous at times.

[JimC]

The Screwtape Letters. It's kind of doing my head in a bit, but I do like much of it. It feels like a barely veiled attempt to dictate how to be a good Christian and it comes across as presumptuous at times.

Not veiled in the slightest, IMO - I read it many years ago...