What's Everyone Reading

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I agree Jazzdoc, very good read.
 
Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN
 
The instructions on the Galaxy Note 3. Sorry :)
 
Why the Allies Won - Richard Overy
 
The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve.
If it sounds like a horror story, it is. Scary stuff. And though the book was published some time ago, it is still very pertinent.*

_________________
*Non-political statement disclaimer.
 
The Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries Series by Ashley Gardner

Written in the first person and set in the Regency era, I am currently savoring this series. The protagonist is a not without flaws. Much like Sherlock Holmes, he can be melancholy and eccentric. I just finished the third book and am finally catching on to her "tells" and beginning to get a clue as to whodunnit.

A genre known as "cosy mysteries" and much beloved by women. Other series like the Agatha Raisin mystery series by M.C. Beaton and the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich fall into this genre.
 
Spin- Robert Charles Wilson. I am not always taken with 'hard' sci-fi, but this book works on so many levels. One night, the stars wink out. The protagonists are all young, and the story flashes back and forth between their childhood on an Earth that is no longer, and the present day, where one of the three youngsters- now adults- is leading the effort to save mankind. The story mixes science with good characters (something so many sci-fi books really lack) and exceptionally straightforward writing. I am still in the midst of this- it won a Hugo award in 2006, and I think there is talk of a movie adaptation.
Pretty highly recommended, from someone who doesn't always get into these types of 'out there' novels.
 
I don't just read one book at a time and I am also slowly reading the old classics - some that I read as a child / teen - and some I've never read.

Just finished Jack London's White Fang - and realized how much I had mixed it up in my adult mind with Call of the Wild - two totally different books.

Currently reading Thackery's Vanity Fair
 
As the weather was rather poor this weekend I could finally read a chapter of a fantastic book: Recording Studio Design by Philip Newell - Chapter 10 Limitations to design predictions : Measuring techniques for the evaluation of room performance. Modelling techniques for the prediction of room performance. The strengths and weaknesses of different approaches.

This chapter deals mainly with the acoustics measuring tools and their use.
The book can be read even by those who do not have technical preparation and is written in a very accessible style. Although I will never build a studio and most probably I will skip a few chapters, IMHO this book is a must on acoustics!

Just read this sample sentence about waterfall plots:

Despite all of this information though, one must always remember that what a room sounds like can still not accurately be assessed from any piece of paper, because measurement microhones, no matter how sophisticated, are not ears, and neither are they connected to human brains.
 
Statistics Essentials for Dummies

Are you confused by terms like confidence intervals and sample sizes? It is good book to have on your desk. Its also available at your local library.At work or play it is hard not to be confronted by some sort of study involving statistical support. Astonish your coworkers and friends by appearing to actually know something on the subject.
 
"The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas
 
Sleepwalkers; How Europe went to war in 1914 - Christopher Clark
 
Just published the Mark Twain autobiography.... volume 1.

The original intent was honored. in that the volumes were not to be published until 100 years after his death. Elegant writing, almost a free flow of thought.

One thing you come away with is that it was not a simpler time, and there were scoundrels aplenty.

Hence the wishes for publication to be delayed for 100 years........

Cyclotronguy
 
Just published the Mark Twain autobiography.... volume 1.

The original intent was honored. in that the volumes were not to be published until 100 years after his death. Elegant writing, almost a free flow of thought.

One thing you come away with is that it was not a simpler time, and there were scoundrels aplenty.

Hence the wishes for publication to be delayed for 100 years........

Cyclotronguy
I read Vol 1 over a year ago, vol 2 was just delivered yesterday. So I suspect you meant vol 2.
 
Started two this week
Tune In: The Beatles•All these years vol1 - Mark Lewisohn
Autobiography of Mark Twain vol2
 
Did I already mention The Circle, by Dave Eggers? It is in some ways a '1984' for our times. (Orwell's book seems almost quaint by comparison). Eggers is a great writer. The Circle is a mega-data company that is already the dominant platform for search, social media and e-comm. A fresh recruit, Mae Holland, joins the ranks at an entry level position and is enthralled by the company's initiatives to join all of its various technologies together to create utter and complete 'transparency' in every aspect of civilian and government life. What follows is a tale that is disturbing, not because it presents a bleak, dystopian future that 'might' happen; we are looking into a mirror of current social and technological 'convergence' and watching the the unfolding of the ultimate surveillance society in which private industry and 'government' are really one and the same; no one can really be 'off the grid' and the population gets its validation from zings, smiles and social media interaction that is mined, manipulated and fed back in ways that 'engineer' outcomes. What is disturbing about the scenario is not that it is 'imposed' by a totalitarian regime, but that it is willingly embraced and fostered by the public as part of what Orwell would have referred to as 'groupthink.'(1)

(1) Quick research reveals that Orwell did not originate the term, but inspired it as part of 'newspeak.' See Whyte, W. H., Jr. (March 1952). "Groupthink". Fortune. pp. 114–117, 142, 146.
 
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