What are you reading at the moment

[mrbasehart]

I'm going through a Blade Runner scifi noir thing at the moment.

In the world of Richard Morgan's future, a person can change bodies by downloading all of their memories from their old body and then uploading them to a new body. This is done via a piece of biological machinery that every human possesses in their brainstems called a "stack". The bodies are called "sleeves" and range from cheap artificial robot-like bodies to biologically enhanced superhuman bodies.

Most people can afford to live only two lifetimes. After that, they spend eternity in a virtual storage device and are usually only downloaded into cheap artificial bodies for significant family events such as weddings, funerals, and births. Of course, rich people can afford to live many lifetimes and can change bodies as often as they wish; often traveling by transferring themselves to remote bodies set up in other places rather than via mass transportation. These rich people are called "Methuselahs" or "Meths" for short.

Takeshi Kovacs is an ex-envoy. An envoy is a kind of elite soldier who spends his term of service being downloaded into different bodies for the purpose of performing the same kind of operations a special forces commando performs in the present day.

Kovacs gets in trouble with the law on his home world of Harlan's World. As a result he is sentenced to being stored for a long, long time. However, before his sentence is up, Takeshi's information is transmitted to Earth and "sleeved" in a body. It turns out a "meth" named Laurens Bancroft killed himself and he, after his backup information is downloaded to a new sleeve, doesn't believe it was suicide. Therefore, he hires Kovacs to determine who murdered him, since the police seem to have concluded the investigation as a suicide and not a murder.

It all seems straightforward, but why is the police lieutenant in charge of the investigation, Kristin Ortega, giving him funny looks all the time? Why is he being followed and Who is following him? Does it have to do with him or the previous occupant of his "sleeve"?

After that, the story starts going full blast and we get all the nice twists and turns of any noir detective fiction: plenty of action, double crosses, and even a femme fatale or two.

I really loved Altered Carbon when I read it and I don't think Morgan's ever really matched it.

[Mrs. Dick Courier]

About to finish the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel.

This is like maybe number 11?  I think it may be time for the author to give them up, I keep reading them, but personally they started going downhill about book five.  When that Quinn dude showed up.

Not sure what I'll read next.  I like the supernatural and history, any suggestions?

[Tripe H. Redux]

Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel.

[goflyblind]

pratchett & baxter's long earth. it's an enjoyable story so far, but there've been quite a few instances of american kids using british terms for things. that's been annoying.

[lassieface]

I won a free book on Goodreads, which is odd cause I never win things. Anyways it's called "Glow" and it's a young adult, science fiction story. I'm only a fifth of the way in, but I like some of the concepts in (generation ship). Nice to see the laws of physics obeyed (so far).

[Space version 2.0]

About to start this:

Ever since he can remember, Dom Joly has been fascinated by travel to odd places. In part this stems from a childhood spent in war-torn Lebanon, where instead of swapping marbles in the schoolyard, he had a shrapnel collection -- the schoolboy currency of Beirut. Dom's upbringing was interspersed with terrifying days and nights spent hunkered in the family basement under Syrian rocket attack or coming across a pile of severed heads from a sectarian execution in the pine forests near his home. These early experiences left Dom with a profound loathing for the sanitized experiences of the modern day travel industry and a taste for the darkest of places. And in this brilliantly odd and hilariously told travel memoir, Dom Joly sets out on a quest to visit those destinations from which the average tourist would, and should, run a mile. The more insalubrious the place, the more interesting is the journey and so we follow Dom as he skis in Iran on segregated slopes, spends a weekend in Chernobyl, tours the assassination sites of America and becomes one of the few Westerners to be granted entry into North Korea. Eventually Dom journeys back to his roots in Beirut only to discover he was at school with Osama Bin Laden. Funny and frightening in equal measure, this is a uniquely bizarre and compelling travelogue from one of the most fearless and innovative comedians around.

Seems like it should be pretty interesting.

[Tripe H. Redux]

I did not know that about Dom Jolly, I just think of him as this bloke:

<a href="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/iPrphagpOPE" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/iPrphagpOPE</a>

[Space version 2.0]

He's done a few shows, the best of which involved him traveling the world "studying" different cultures' drinking habits. Most of the scripted "sketches" were shit, but there are plenty of good moments, like this one in Australia. At around 2:20 is something I desperately want to believe wasn't scripted.

[Space version 2.0]

I am judging that book based on its cover.  And it's not going well for the book.

Oh well.

[mrbasehart]

I'm about half way through this:



It's a pretty informal look at the 1500s, what were the prevailing attitudes and mindsets that caused the Dark Ages, and how the Renaissance came about.  I know the book's a little out of date now, as apparently Manchester references pretty old Historians himself for his sources, but its otherwise a well written, easy to read look at a terrible, terrible, time to live.

[wurwolf]

I am judging that book based on its cover.  And it's not going well for the book.

Funny you say that, I am usually turned off when I see the author making a wacky face on the cover of a book. Like the book will be more about the author's zany personality than it will about the subject at hand.

A friend of mine sent me a campsite recipe book for my birthday that I have yet to open because of the cover. She seemed to think it was hilarious -- my first reaction was, "Gross." I will probably wind up giving it away because I'd be embarrassed to read it.

[mrbasehart]

Bought a Kindle.  I looked at the list of books I would like to read in the future and most of them can be acquired for free via Project Gutenberg.

[Mrs. Dick Courier]

How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, a cautionary tale by Jenna Jameson.

Found it for $2 at the local Goodwill, which surprised me, this town is full of people who turn their noses up at this stuff and love to censor what you read.  Truth be known they are probably total sexual deviants behind closed doors.

Anyway, really enjoying it.  It's funny, and yet sad.  She talks about her life growing up and her road to stardom.  She's very open and honest about her drug and alcohol abuse and doesn't make any excuses.  Very well written as well, but I wonder how much of that is because of Neil Strauss, her co-writer.  He's a great writer.

[goflyblind]

And is there any advice on how to boff like a porn star?

be loud, vacant, and dispassionate.

[D.B. Barnes]

And is there any advice on how to boff like a porn star?

be loud, vacant, and dispassionate.

Well, fine, but I meant more mechanical types of advice.

Do a lot of choking. Apparently, they love that.