What Are You Reading?

[Fe 26]

The exact titles are

The Ultimate Tone - Modifying and Custom Building Tube Guitar Amps
Principles Of Power - A Practical Guide To Tube Power Amplifier Design
Tonnes Of Tone - Electronic Projects For Guitar And Bass
Ready Set Go! - An Electronics Reference For the Everyman
London Power DIY Speaker Cabinets for Musicial Instrument Applications
Secrets And Secret Holders - A Report on INtellectual Property in the Musical Inustrument Amplifier Industry

[MVS]

Masters of Doom.

3/4's done and I can't reccomend it enough. It's a fascinating read and gave me a better appreciation for the early days of id and the insanity that was Doom. I'm convinced that John Carmack is some sort of Robot-Human hybrid (He took a standardized test that showed him to be at a 9th grade level...in the 3rd grade) and one of the most interesting people of the last 15 years.

9.5/10

[Kinopio]

Probably why he won his only Oscar for it. It is a great movie, no doubt, but is equal to, and not exceptional when compared to, the book.

In terms of story alone, of course the movie is not remarkabley better. But its the way the movie tells the story that makes it impressive. The special effects and lack of traditional narrative were groundbreaking. What ground did the book break?

The influence that 2001 had on art and popular culture can be seen everday, and those things have little to nothing to do with its plot.

[Cowdisease]

Finished Halo: Fall of Reach and am just about to finish Halo: First Strike. I'll be primed and ready for Halo 2 come Wednesday morning.

[MVS]

In terms of story alone, of course the movie is not remarkabley better. But its the way the movie tells the story that makes it impressive. The special effects and lack of traditional narrative were groundbreaking. What ground did the book break?

The influence that 2001 had on art and popular culture can be seen everday, and those things have little to nothing to do with its plot.

That is due to the relative newness of the Film medium, and not a failing of the book due to the Printed Mediums time in existence.

I think it's one of the best movies of all time, but not leaps and bounds beyond the book. If you have an imagination, that is easy to see.

[Fe 26]

Speaking of 2001, I just got a first printing of it, in hardback, for 25 cents. Still has the dustjacket even.

Also got first printings of:

Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov
Asimov's Mysteries - Isaac Asimov

All hardbacks, all 25 cents each =D

[MVS]

Finished:
Masters Of Doom. Fantastic read, I highly reccomend it.

Reading:
The Man In The High Castle, P. Dick.

Bought today:
Kurt Cobain, Christopher Sanford
The Battle For The Falklands, Hastings and Jenkins

[Cowutopia]

Currently Reading: Shadow Divers - A cool book about a bunch of New Jersey deep-wreck divers discovering one of Hitler's lost U-boats. Sometimes it's written poorly but it's a good read.

On my list: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Hitchiker "trilogy" funny tale about the apocalypse. A must-read if you like British humour.

And this book is amazing.

[MVS]

Kurt Cobain, Christopher Sanford

1/4th of the way done with this book, but I am going to have to reccomend that anyone interested in Nirvana/Kurt Cobain pass up on it. It's 3 shades of shite.

There is a lot of redundancy, it skips around all the time and the premise of the book starts with "Kurt Cobain was 3 years old and was stealing things and a a bully to animals and other children", then goes downhill from there.

I've heard good things about Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana by MICHAEL AZERRAD, anyone read it?

Hell, I'm just going to post this from Amazon and agree with it so far.

Simply put, this is a really poorly written book! There is no sequence, order or sense to the way it's written. The author can't seem to stick to one idea at any point in the book so it makes it hard to follow. I assume it is from a British author which also makes it a little confusing at times.
I read this book because of the controversial reviews here at Amazon. I was interested to see what all the "slander" accusations were about. There are a few incidents reported in this book that were bothersome. The author's lack of identifying his sources makes some of it hard-to-believe but I don't really find these things unlikely either. Kurt had many sides to his personality.
In the rare case that he named his sources, he did not clarify who they were in relation to Kurt. The important details such as a timeline and places and people were apparently not important to this author. He seemed more interested in just getting a book out which again makes his book questionable. He couldn't even decide if he liked Kurt or not.
The author dwelled on his comparison of Kurt to Jimi Hendrix which never really seemed like there was much to compare. His comparisons to John Lennon didn't even go into much depth so why bother?
I would only say this book is only worth reading if you're bored. I suggest Who Killed Kurt Cobain?. I was very convinced by the end of that book that Love had a lot to do with Kurt's death. I also purchased Heavier Than Heaven and the Azzerad book which the author from this book quoted entirely too much. I've flipped through both of these and look to be VERY good books.

Reviewer: Amy R. Westveld "Seeking Truth" (

[Calliander]

"Excession" by Iain M. Banks.

Interesting novel in a series by the author, though any book from the series can be read at any time since they aren't sequential. He has a really odd way of writing, but it's basically a sci-fi mystery with some pretty funny comedic moments.