What are you reading (Non-Lovecraft)

[Newton Applefig]

I must recommend Art of War by Sun Tzu here (there is a downloadable version at the link for free).  If you have to read only one book on military thinking that would be THE one.  I should probably read it again.

That is an excellent suggestion.  Thank you very much.  I played that game a LOT back in the day.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancient_Art_of_War  So much so, that I know understand Sun Tzu's mind better than anyone.  He's no match for me on most of the maps, I probably wouldn't get much out of his books.  Now, I am the master...

Even that donkey kong cannot stop me, I'm invincible!

Seriously, you are jarring my memory I have read Sun Tzu's AoW at some point, it was ages ago though. It was excellent, very accessible. So maybe technically I have read more than one military guide. 

So two, two military self help books in my whole life.  yeah.  I'm sure of it.  that's factually accurate.  I think.  I'm at least as sure as last time when I was totally wrong.

Also, I forced myself to read the "book of five rings", which I cannot recommend.  I don't think it qualifies.

I've toyed in the past with reading Clausewitz, since he seems to be pretty seminal too.  But in the end he never ends up on my amazon list.

I have read a few books on game theory, and ones on coding for game ai.  These have been interesting, although I'm not sure if I ever found them useful as a player.  If they helped, I never realized it.

[Bob Lovecraft]

I recently read The Ruins by Scott Smith after enjoying the film (much to my amazement.) That guy is way too good at psychological horror. I couldn't stop reading but I don't think I ever want to read a book like that again.

I had no idea that was a novel. I saw the movie because the heroine looks a LOT like my wife in a few scenes and it was kind of uncanny, but I never realized it was based on a novel. I will have to see if I can find an audiobook of that (though I don't hold out much hope...).

Bob

[YYZ]

Got August Derleths "The Lurker at the Threshold" in the mail today...i have not read it for some 15 years i think.
I remember it as quite good (when i read it, it was under Lovecrafts name)...should be an interesting re-read.

that one IS actually quite good.  I think it's the best nonHPL mythos work. 

[YYZ]

I'm reading "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. Never got around to reading it before, but it's pretty cool.

HGW's War of the Worlds is also killer Chris.  I read that one a while back for the first time and it blew me away. 

[YYZ]

I'm currently reading Harry Adam Knight's 1984 novel "Carnosaur" about an eccentric, British billionaire who secretly funds genetic research aimed at reviving and cloning dinosaurs which he then plans to place in his private zoo. However, things quick go to hell when a traitor on the inside turns off the zoo's power and releases all the dinosaurs.

Sound familiar?

Yeah....six years later Michael Crichton would steal.... I mean mysterious come up with the same idea and with the help of a movie adaptation courtesy of Stephen Spielberg get rich and famous because of it.          

Michael Crichton was "rich and famous" long before Jurassic Park bro. 
he's only one of the best and most thoughtful authors of the latter 20th century.  his books are page-turners and meticulously researched, incorporating cutting edge tech in almost every one.

and he was a thinking man's genius to boot. 

I hear you about Carnosaur but that happens a lot as you probably know.  and I hated ER. 

but his great works stand on their own.

[YYZ]

The Prize by Daniel Yergin

it's a fantastically detailed history of the oil industry.  I have learned SO much from just the first 3rd of this book.  wow. 

given the terrible anti-American regime now in power in America, and their constant lying about and re-writing of our history, I have felt the need to read the history for myself.  from trusted sources. 

so far I've read

History of the Roman Empire (3 versions from various authors, but Adrian Goldsworthy's is the best) - never learned so much from any one primary history read than this - fascinating!
The Punic Wars by Adrian Goldsworthy (includes the Hannibal invasion of Italy)
biography of Julius Caesar
biography of J. Paul Getty
Stalingrad by Antony Beevor  (the depth of human misery in this account is incredible - what detail!  Beevor is really a great historical author)
The Fall of Berlin by Antony Beevor

[Jape]

I'm reading "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. Never got around to reading it before, but it's pretty cool.

HGW's War of the Worlds is also killer Chris.  I read that one a while back for the first time and it blew me away. 

Indeed. I think due to the 50s movie and its fame as one of the first Martian Invasion stories people assume WotW will be a cheesy outdated bit of Victorian science adventure. It terrified me, the mollusc aliens, red weed, 'farming', stampeding refugees, empty streets dotted with the wretches of humanity, the delusional sapper, black smoke, heat ray ripping through the first crowd. Everything. I think its arguably the best example of a social/political message wrapped in a fantastical story: war is the greatest horror, and more specifically to Victorian empire builders: there's always someone bigger than you.

The 'excluded' chapter (though present in all modern editions) of Time Machine, when the protagonist jumps forward a billion years to see the Earth all but dead is great cosmic horror in my opinion. A bloated red orb hanging over black rolling waves, the last unintelligent decedent of man, more marsupial than hominid prey to giant chitinous centipedes. All of humanity's accomplishments ground down to sand on a beach. You can see why his editor wasn't too keen for it as an ending for a science adventure.

All that said if you do want cheesy outdated Victorian science adventure, read the WotW 'sequel' Thomas Edison's Conquest of Mars, made thanks to poor copyright protection in the United States. It completely ignores Wells' message and instead involves all the great powers uniting behind Edison's super science to build a space fleet and conquer Mars for Earth. It also changes the Martians into comical fifteen foot high giants with big heads as can be seen on the book's Wikipedia page. It is not a great read by any stretch but is free on Project Gutenberg and historically interesting to see what the lower end of Victorian pop fiction looked like.

[InvisFriend]

I'm reading "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. Never got around to reading it before, but it's pretty cool.

HGW's War of the Worlds is also killer Chris.  I read that one a while back for the first time and it blew me away. 

Indeed. I think due to the 50s movie and its fame as one of the first Martian Invasion stories people assume WotW will be a cheesy outdated bit of Victorian science adventure. It terrified me, the mollusc aliens, red weed, 'farming', stampeding refugees, empty streets dotted with the wretches of humanity, the delusional sapper, black smoke, heat ray ripping through the first crowd. Everything. I think its arguably the best example of a social/political message wrapped in a fantastical story: war is the greatest horror, and more specifically to Victorian empire builders: there's always someone bigger than you.

The 'excluded' chapter (though present in all modern editions) of Time Machine, when the protagonist jumps forward a billion years to see the Earth all but dead is great cosmic horror in my opinion. A bloated red orb hanging over black rolling waves, the last unintelligent decedent of man, more marsupial than hominid prey to giant chitinous centipedes. All of humanity's accomplishments ground down to sand on a beach. You can see why his editor wasn't too keen for it as an ending for a science adventure.

All that said if you do want cheesy outdated Victorian science adventure, read the WotW 'sequel' Thomas Edison's Conquest of Mars, made thanks to poor copyright protection in the United States. It completely ignores Wells' message and instead involves all the great powers uniting behind Edison's super science to build a space fleet and conquer Mars for Earth. It also changes the Martians into comical fifteen foot high giants with big heads as can be seen on the book's Wikipedia page. It is not a great read by any stretch but is free on Project Gutenberg and historically interesting to see what the lower end of Victorian pop fiction looked like.

Said lower end of Victorian pop fiction yields a lot of great opportunities for re-writing it because the ideas are pretty nice sometimes, despite the poor quality of the writing and the questionable messages. And, let's admit it: It's always fun to have a deserving object of criticism at hand! After all, that's part of the fun in most of the podcast episodes! 

Also, let me just say, Jape, that your post has whetted my appetite to finally read WotW. I have not gotten around to read it since I picked up a copy at a library sale two years ago.

[old book]

If you have lived in the wonderful city of Alexandria long enough and had connection with fishermen who do commercial net fishing then you must have heard about ‘A1 Kinessa’. Some say that it is out in the open sea about one kilometre to the north of Qait Bey and that when an east wind blows and the waters are clear you can sometimes see what look like the remains of a building underwater. Others claim it is much further north – perhaps as much as five kilometres out from shore. Three different people told me very specifically that it is five kilometres north to north-west of Qait Bey. Before reaching it the sea-bed slopes down to 40 metres where the bottom is sandy with a few patches of rock; then you pass an area of rocky pinnacles, some as much as 20 metres high jutting out of another sandy bed; then the bottom profile rises up sharply from 40 metres to just 18 metres in depth creating a smooth-sided, flat-topped hill five kilometres from shore in the middle of nowhere. That is where they say the Kinessa is.

Aschraf Bechai's Treasure of the Sunken City: The Truth About the Discovery of the Lighthouse quoted in Graham Hancock's Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization

[Miskatonic Philologus]

Don Quixote - I see a lot of my own character in this book...

[Ruth - CthulhuChick]

Books of Blood. So good.

Also I just read The Haunting of Hill House & We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

[InvisFriend]

Books of Blood. So good.

Ooooh, I devoured them in my final year at school.
This weekend I saw a movie adaption of the framing story. Quite nice for a blissfully thought-free evening, I thought. 

I read Whitechapel Gods by S. M. Peters recently. Great steampunky feel, thought the plot is only slightly above average to my mind. And the pseudo-Platonic mind-journeys are great food for thought.

[Drew Unspeakable Name]

I'm currently re-reading former loves of childhood; Ira Levin, Robert Bloch, and (early) Stephen King.  Boys from Brazil is holding up well, and Rosemary's Baby is ok. Cujo is probably the most horror inducing. And I'm planning to re-reading Marion Zimmer Bradley (inspired by certaing Yellow Signs).

[Ruth - CthulhuChick]

Black Dahlia. Very good.

[Vulpine]

I just finished 'The Seven Wonders' by Steven Saylor.  Roman mysteries with a generous helping of ancient tour guide.  I got it as an audiobook, that's why I've been late with listening to the podcast.  Good place to the start if you haven't read Roman whodunits before.