read any good books lately...

ExittheLemming wrote: ^you have piqued my curiosity, Sounds like the sort of stuff I'd lap up

really?  I'm surprised, most people get a far-off look and mutter something like, "Hmm. right, sounds cool.."

finished Flight From Dallas about an air force sergeant who claims to have accidentally been aboard an empty unmarked plane on the afternoon of Nov 22, 1963 which was suddenly diverted mid-flight to Dallas.  Upon landing, the plane picked up two guys in coveralls, one who looked exactly like Lee Harvey Oswald.   A fantastic story that is almost beyond belief, except that the sergeant wrote his name in the flight log that day and that log was found years later with his signature.   It also fits with credible reports of Oswald lookalikes in Dallas weeks before the assassination, and the account is so incredible and bizarre that it reads almost like fiction.   If false, it's bad literature.   If true, it is a fascinating piece of the puzzle.

also midway through The Assassination Tapes, a very important if long-winded book written in '75 focusing on the Psychological Stress Evaluation test done using recorded samples of the voice; a very precise method of determining whether someone is likely to be telling the truth based on subtle changes in voice and speech patterns (and less accurate about whether someone is consciously lying).   After years of studying and stress-evaluating recordings of all the major subjects in the Kennedy case - Oswald, Ruby, Earl Warren, the police, etc. - author and former chief of the CIA's Problem Analysis Branch, George O'Toole, made some startling discoveries.






Edited by Atavachron - January 05 2012 at 01:40

I just finished reading Count Zero by William Gibson.  It was good, though not quite at the same level of Neuromancer (who would expect it to be, really?).  The interlocking storylines were more confusing than necessary this time around since I had close to a month break about halfway through the book thanks to loads of video games, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  Tonight I started the final book in the Sprawl trilogy, Mona Lisa Overdrive.  Up after that, I've got some Neal Stephenson lined up...I have Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon, and I'll probably check them out in that order.  More PKD and other authors will also go in there somewhere. 

That's the same issue I have, Dustin.

It's why I haven't read Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood too.

The same applies for me with television series.  There was a series made for the BBC in the 1980s that was cut short, so there's only two series, when there should have been three.

So I kind of want to watch it but I know I'll be wanting to see that third series.

Luckily, the series was based on a series of books, so I can get around that way.

He was undoubtedly a short story writer, his shorter works were so much stronger than the longer.

I haven't read The Castle yet though.

I think he was still in that random room in that random place being on trial when my computer crashed and I lost my tabs and thus where I got up to.

That's the thing.  When he died, his work was going to get destroyed until Max Brod decided otherwise.

I wish he'd have written more as I believe there was even more genius in his mind.  Alas, we'll have to live with the legacy he left and thank Max Brod for saving it all.

Which chapter has a missing section?


Edited by James - January 04 2012 at 21:43

But the ending of The Trial is the best. 

However, I got the feeling the section missing in the one chapter was insanely crucial to the overall story. I could just sense it once it skipped.

Alitare wrote: As for Kafka, having read most of his short works + the Trial, I can say that his most notable writing aspect is the mental state he brings in - creeping, crawling, claustrophobic, paranoid, and calmly confused. Paranoid in a rational manner. Think of a man trying to make sense out of an entrapping senselessness. Very much inspired by governmental pains and the like. I can't say he's ever shaken my world, but I've been entertained by his works on occasion. I'm in more of the 'preferring the influenced to the influential' in this regard.

That's basically how it is for me only from what you've said I seem to be a little more emotionally attached to Kafka.

Thanks, that's a good idea. I'm currently scouring the web for speculative fiction/notable sci fi short stories and copy/pasting them into my Progarchives personal messager, messaging myself so I can read them at work.