[Seed]

Romping through the Masters of Rome series again by Colleen Muccullough. I've just started Caesar's Women. Quite an enjoyable series really, when I first read it I had to go out and buy them all immediately so I could finish the series as fast as possbile. I found them quite more-ish in that regard (as in give-me-more).

[Astra]

Gem Windcaster;218420 said:

Interesting. I actually liked no.6 the best.

I posted it somewhere else:

Spoiler

Especially some of Dambledore's comments about his extraordinary mind...mind you, I really like him! I just didn't like that Rowling was putting these lines, that IMHO are out of character for him. Also I started to get VERY tired of mentioning bucket size things when there is a talk about Hagrid. Every single time...silly. Even if it is a funeral!

[Puck]

kud13;220465 said:

So a question to you--where'd you get your books from?

Uhm, I read them in Russian and totally recommend to do so if one's able to. Don't know where you can get them from, because Russian books I buy during my summer holidays which I usually spend in the Ukraine, where there are book markets with stalls selling nothing but fantasy.
So, supposing you can read Russian I'd say try mail-order from a Russian company. This hasn't to be very expensive, we do this on rare occasions.
Well, wasn't much info, I'm sorry

[Mentalist]

@Puck? in Ukraine???
Where, specifically?, lol...
Haven't been back home for almost 2 years now, but L'viv has some monster bookstores.. i'll def. check it out once I go there next time...

[Puck]

Wait... May I ask: where are you from?
Actually, I was born in a small town near Charkow and still have some relatives there, that's why I spend my holidays there. And yeah, I've seen all of Sapkowksi's books at the book market in Charkow this summer.

[Thelomen Toblerone]

D Man;220492 said:

The God delusion by everyones favourite celebrity atheist.

The Dawkins delusion by alister macgrath. Gotta hear both sides, havent you? (If youre right, you should be able to take it on, and if youre wrong you should find out why, so you can be right ). The title amused me anyway.

Im glad you're reading both sides, there's so much wrong with what Dawkin's says in that book that I pity anyone who reads it and simply accepts it.

IIRC, Plantinga (might be Swinburne, cant be 100% sure) does a good critique of it if you're interested, and points out several of the holes in Dawkin's argument he just glosses over. To be quite frank the book offers nothing new, just presents older, non-convincing arguments in a slightly revamped way.


I'm presently reading "The Global Resurgence of Democracy" by Platner and Diamond, it's a collection of essays on democratization I'm reading for an essay, but I'm rather shamefully enjoying it so I think I'll end up reading the rest of it after the essays been done.

[Mentalist]

@ Puck, currently, i reside in Canada
I was born In L'viv, tho, my father's parents are from Ternopil'ska Oblast'..
My grandfather was born in Kharkov oblas't, but that was a loong while ago..

[Puck]

Oh, well, that's a coincidence
I was born near Kharkov, but have been living in Germany for ten years now, since my mom took me with her when she went to Germany.

[Mentalist]

heh.. well, we ARE all over the place.. and we keep in touch with our roots.. And the it's often lamentably underlined that Sapkowski's popularity continuously fails to spread beyond Eastern Europe.. which is a big loss...
Personally, I'd love for someone to publish Perumov in the West... I'm sure LoTR fans would gobble up 'The Ring of Darkness"...

[Puck]

Hehe
And yes, there is surely some stuff that should be spreaded beyond Eastern Europe. Although I've heard horror stories regarding the English translation of the Nightwatch.. But I'm working on spreading Sapkowski all over the world
Haven't read Perumov, yet, but do own the first two books of his series. Would you recommend?

[Mentalist]

The only thing I read by him was "Ring of Darkness" ( an originally fanfiction-type continuation of LotR), and a shred of his Hjorward Chronicles, b/c the text file i had was messed up..
If I was to recommend something, I'd say Lukyanenko, he's awesome, and not just the Nightwatch stuff.. Dyachenkos wrote some decent stuff, as did Ugryumovs. Then, of Course there's strugatskys classics..
Incidentally, lotsa stuff by Perumov can be found online for free d/l with a simple google search..

[Puck]

I've read the whole Nightwatch series and do have some other stuff by Lukyanenko, but haven't read it yet. Same with Perumov, as mentioned before. There's far too much stuff to read and far too little time for reading.
And thanks very much for the recommendations, I'll definitely check them out [have been focusing on English books lately and had completely forgotten about the good old roots until I digged out Sapkowski's books last week].
Still a big *lol* regarding the coincidence

[Mentalist]

lol indeed.. and totally second the bit about not having enough reading time... what i wouldn't give for time-freezing technology....

[Puck]

kud13;220896 said:

what i wouldn't give for time-freezing technology....

Yeeeah...

[Astra]

Interesting staff...

I was born 73 km from Lvov. Is it called L'viv nowdays?

[Puck]

Yes, Lvov actually is the Russian version of L'viv.
Ah, and welcome to the club

[Mentalist]

@ astra: 73 km which way?

[pat5150]

I've given up on Gregory Frost's forthcoming Shadowbridge. Though I was bored throughout, I gave the book a fair chance to suck me in, but that never materialized.

It's too bad, for the novel appeared to be interesting. But in the end, I found it as forgettable as anything I've read in recent memory...

Patrick

[D Man]

Thelomen Toblerone;220855 said:

Im glad you're reading both sides, there's so much wrong with what Dawkin's says in that book that I pity anyone who reads it and simply accepts it.

IIRC, Plantinga (might be Swinburne, cant be 100% sure) does a good critique of it if you're interested, and points out several of the holes in Dawkin's argument he just glosses over. To be quite frank the book offers nothing new, just presents older, non-convincing arguments in a slightly revamped way.


I'm presently reading "The Global Resurgence of Democracy" by Platner and Diamond, it's a collection of essays on democratization I'm reading for an essay, but I'm rather shamefully enjoying it so I think I'll end up reading the rest of it after the essays been done.

Well, the retorts are pretty weak. Macgraths' line is based on the hpothesising and lack of real verification in the last half of dawkins' book. He's right , of course, but its pretty pathetic to throw evidence based analysis and real-world hypothesising out of the window in order to maintian a belief in a supernatural power, and then cling to it so tightly and try to choke any hypothesis that hasnt been fully verified when it threatens your view of reality.

Hitchens case, being made from a much more anthropological point of view, rather than a philosophical and speculative scientific one, is far stronger.

[Mentalist]

Finished Acacia Yesterday... revie and bit of rant are on he Other fantasy forum...
Currently dunno what to start--either "Keys of power", "Otherland", "Darkness" "Prince of nothing", "Cloudmages" or "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant"......