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Paul Lloyd Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 May 2004 Location: Wales Posts: 486
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Posted: 28 March 2013 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | 1
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Just finished "Return Of A King: The Battle For Afghanistan" by William Dalrymple, about the 1839 British invasion of Afghanistan. Entertaining and thought provoking.
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Shane Matlock Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 August 2012 Location: United States Posts: 1760
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Posted: 28 March 2013 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | 2
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Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King. Some enjoyable novellas in this one. Not King's best, but not his worst either. The stories grab you and keep you hooked and they are indeed dark.
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Andrew Hess Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 9846
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Posted: 04 April 2013 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | 3
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Just heard the Jeff Wayne dramatization of "War of the Worlds" from the 70s, with narration by Richard Burton, and music by Justin Hayward (Moody Blues), David Essex, et al. Kind of a capsulized condensation of the Cliff Notes of a summary of the book, but fun.
My son liked it so much he downloaded it to his computer.
Recently read that this has sold several million to date, and that the album is the #40 all time best seller in Britain. And here I thought it was a geeky little trinket from my youth.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 133535
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Posted: 05 April 2013 at 5:15am | IP Logged | 4
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THE WAR OF THE ROSES, by Allison Weir.Having just read her bio of Richard III, I'm sort of doing this backwards!
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John Leach Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 1860
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Posted: 05 April 2013 at 9:13am | IP Logged | 5
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"Going Clear (Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief)" by Lawrence Wright. Fascinating stuff.
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Monte Gruhlke Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 3303
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Posted: 05 April 2013 at 10:19am | IP Logged | 6
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The Black Unicorn by Terry Brooks. Always a fun read and one I have on my tired old gray-screen Kindle.
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Matthew Chartrand Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 June 2007 Location: United States Posts: 1359
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Posted: 06 April 2013 at 7:04am | IP Logged | 7
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A HIGHER CALL by Adam Makos. A true story about an encounter over WWII Germany between an extremely shot-up B-17 and a German fighter pilot who, instead of finishing off the bomber, escorted it through German flak lines along the coast.
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Andrew Hess Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 9846
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Posted: 07 April 2013 at 10:05am | IP Logged | 8
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99) "Gun Machine" by Warren Ellis
An NYC cop discovers a huge cache of guns in a seemingly abandoned apartment, each of which has been used in unsolved murders that go back for decades.
The main character, John Tallow, is Ellis' typical loner "smartest guy in the room", in this case someone who happens to know a lot of trivia about the founding of NYC, which is paramount to the case. This time around, it turns out that key people around Tallow also know the same things, so when he tosses out a reference they not only understand it but can continue the thought. here are also a couple of cases of extremely unlikely incidents that would have been leaps in poorly-written episodic TV, let alone a novel written by someone with 20 years of experience. This book is really only for people who love Ellis' writing.
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Andrew Hess Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 9846
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Posted: 11 April 2013 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | 9
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100) "The Upside of Irrationality" by Dan Ariely
Through tests and research, Prof of Psychology and Behavioral Economics Ariely shows how people will consistently behave in ways that defy logic, and how we can make better decisions based on this.
Filled with self-depricating humor and insights, this book (a follow up to "Predictably Irrational") is weighty in what it says about human nature, but fun and easy to read.
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Andrew Hess Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 9846
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Posted: 11 April 2013 at 9:55pm | IP Logged | 10
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I've now finished my Year of 100 Books three weeks early!
Not as hard as I thought, filled with good books and interesting thoughts.
Time for a victory lap: let's see how many books I can finish before the end of the month.
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Andrew Hess Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 9846
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Posted: 17 April 2013 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | 11
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101) "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov, read by Scott Brick
Through the science of Psychohistory, Harry Seldon foresees the fall of the Galactic Empire, and 30 thousand years before another Empire can rise; but if he can gather all of the knowledge in the galaxy through his "Encyclopedists" at his Foundation, he foretells that the fall will only last 1,000 years.
A series of short stories of "two guys sitting in a room talking" (and they are guys; a couple of women only make the briefest of cameos); as I picked up the story as I went along, had trouble remembering which two guys were sitting around, since the reader doesn't vary his tone for different speakers (I think I got spoiled with the Artemis Fowl reader, who spoke with several different Irish accents).
And as I listened I figured that the stories could really be set in any time with only slightly different circumstances, and indeed Asimov was inspired by Gibbons' "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."
Hopefully the rest of this trilogy is a little more engaging.
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Sean Watson Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 June 2012 Location: United States Posts: 608
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Posted: 18 April 2013 at 11:00am | IP Logged | 12
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The Massive- Black Pacific vol.1- by Brian wood
Saga vol.1- by Brian k Vaughan
I really enjoyed these books. I highly recommend the two of these if you are looking for something new and different to read.
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