I just (yesterday) started reading Ignition! An informal history of liquid rocket propellants, and I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone vaguely interested in chemistry, propellants, space travel or simply blowing stuff up. It was published back in '72 by John D. Clark, and has been long out of print. Used copies on Amazon go for well in excess of $2000, but there is a PDF freely available here. A couple of snippets from the book to show what you can expect: "Anyhow, he came up with the ethyl mercaptal of acetaldehyde and the ethyl mercaptol of acetone, with the skeleton structures: respectively. The odor of these was not so much skunk-like as garlicky, the epitome and concentrate of all the back doors of all the bad Greek restaurants in all the world. And finally he surpassed himself with something that had a dimethylamino group attached to a mercaptan sulfur, and whose odor can't, with all the resources of the English language, even be described. It also drew flies. This was too much, even for Pino and his unregenerate crew, and they banished it to a hole in the ground another two hundred yards farther out into the tule marshes. Some months later, in the dead of night, they surreptitiously consigned it to the bottom of San Francisco Bay." "The climax of unsaturation came with butyne di-nitrile, or dicyanoacetylene, N=C—C=C—C=N which had no hydrogen atoms at all, but rejoiced in the possession of three triple bonds. This was useless as a propellant —it was unstable, for one thing, and its freezing point was too high —but it has one claim to fame. Burning it with ozone in a laboratory experiment, Professor Grosse of Temple University (who always liked living dangerously) attained a steady state temperature of some 6000 K, equal to that of the surface of the sun.” So yeah, it's pretty much like reading the journal of a Kerbal chemist...
So finished Ready Player One and the book was great. The future world it was set in was very believable and the whole quest thing was great. I can definitely see something like the Oasis existing in the not too distant future. IT was also full of 80s reference and while I didn't get all off them it didn't detract from the story at all. Now going to be listening to Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer.
I've just finished reading 'The Martian' Which the Matt Damon film is based on, a good read too. Now i can go and watch the film Sam
So since my last post I've read the following: Off to be a Wizard by Scott Meyer Easy reading that doesn't take itself seriously at all. About a guy who finds a file that proves the world he lives in is actually a simulation of some sort. You can edit the file to change appearance, defy gravity and travel in time (but only to the past, you can't travel past your present). The main bulk of the story is set in Middle Age England and is a pretty amusing tale if not a bit predictable. Next I read: Wool by Hugh Howey This book was excellent from start to finish. Set in a future where a group of people live underground in a Silo. It has conspiracy, murder and mystery all rolled in to one. A genuine page turner (although I listened to it via audiobook) Cibola Burn by James S. A. Corey The 4th book in the Expanse series of novels, and probably the weakest of the series so far. I still enjoyed it though as I love the universe and the characters but the story is scaled down to just the settling of a new planet and does have the massive scope of the previous 3. From reading reviews most people seem to say the same but from the looks of it, the next book, Nemesis Game takes it back to the style of the first 3 books. Having a break from the series as their was a different narrator for this book to the normal guy and so getting him out of my head before moving on. and finally The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde Another series of books that I love. This is book 7 and the last one that has been published so far. Book 8 is coming but there has been no news for a few years on when it will be out. It's a fun story that if you like the series you will enjoy. Obviously not a book to jump straight in to as you wont have a clue what's going on but it centres around Thursday Next in an alternative reality earth set in Swindon. She can enter the bookworld (a seperate world where characters of books live) where she gets up to various adventures. Murder, conspiracy and time travel are often on the agenda. Would recommend the series from the beginning. Next I'm moving onto a new series called: Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor the blurb from the website: Sounds fun and again nothing too serious.
I couldn't even begin to... it definitely includes the dune saga, all the fish, anethem (I'm addicted) and a load of Pratchet... I'm currently reading Sherlock Holmes, all of it - kindle app tells me I'm about 45% through...
Been wanting to start Pratchett for a while now. Hoping to get a few audible credits for Christmas to do a bit of purchasing.
No credits for Christmas but hasn't slowed my Audible listening. Just one Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor A fun time traveling adventure with plenty of twists turns and excitement. Was very easy to listen to. My one criticism is that I often lost track of how much time had passed in some chapters (e.g. it was written like only days had passed but it had been months etc.) but apart from that I would recommend if you into that kind of story. Spell or High Water by Scott Meyer 2nd in the Magic 2.0 series about time traveling "wizards". Great continuation of the story and characters. Bit of a murder mystery this time around with multiple stories converging in the finale. I really like the world created in this book and the characters are good fun. Again like the previous book it's very light and fun. Next I'm onto Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde Really love his Thursday Next series of books and have had the paperback for a while but never finished it. Looking forward to his writing style in a new environment.
Good to very good read. Great to see King moving away from his old formula. Finished: King's latest short story collection, The Accident by Chris Pavone, ... Now reading: Killing Floor by Lee Child. Finally decided to start the Jack Reacher stories. Pretty impressed so far, definitely fun to read. But now I'm even more flabbergasted about Tom 'The Dwarf' Cruise playing Reacher in that movie that I never watched... he's way too tiny!
Yeah, I'm enjoying it so far. It feels a lot like Mr. Mercedes in tone. It is nice that he's gone in another direction, but from what I read about the synopsis of the third book, it goes VERY King.
It does sound a lot more "conventional" King, yes. I still hope he will write something else like N. anytime soon. Something Lovecraftian again. Seeing him toy with different styles and techniques only gives me more hope.
Read Eye for an Eye by T.F. Muir, got given The Meating Room for Christmas last year which I really enjoyed so thought I'd read the rest of the series to get back into reading regularly.
Installing and updating Windows 7 on my partners PC. The update process has fought me all the way. The cynic in me, judging by what has become a common problem, is that this another ploy to get us all to move to Windows 10 sooner rather than later.
Now finished all the Sherlock Holmes. Any interesting suggestions guys? <-- will read just about anything...
You'll love it. It's one of those books that stayed with me. I'm still waiting for the sequel Forde promised us, The Gordini Protocol. Write it, Forde! Write it now! Just finished: The Book of Strange New Things. A surprisingly good science fiction story, with in my mind one of the most credible descriptions of the psychology of colonising another planet.
I thought Gordini was the third book? Painting by Numbers was supposed to be the second, but the next book in SoG is a prequel, "7 Things to do before you die in Talgarth", due in 2016. But then since his website says Early Riser was due in 2015 and there's still no sign of it, I'd say the next SoG book is probably due in 2017 (although he does say on his Events page that he's not doing "...so much on this year as I need to get back on track with my writing." I'm just about to start on the last of the Southern Reach trilogy - a very psychological series, you're never really sure who or what the protagonist is.
I've learnt when it comes to fforde the books will be out when they are out. Titles and dates often slip!
He's obviously in the Douglas Adams school of thought: "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."