Describe your new book: This book is the story of my life — the ups, the downs, and the music. If someone were to write your biography, what...
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I picked up this book on Saturday and finished reading by Sunday afternoon. A thoroughly enjoyable, immersive book. The concept is a truly original way to incorporate all sorts of 80s geekdom into a book and make it relevant. If you are at all a fan of the geek pantheon from the 1980's should read this book now.
Action packed and riveting, a great space opera novel from Banks's Culture series. Most of the Culture novels are pretty good as stand alone reads, and this one is no exception. The downside of them being standalone reads is you don't get the character continuity you would get in a traditional series, but the Culture (the galaxy spanning pan human protagonist for most of these books) is almost like an independent character in itself. If you haven't read a Culture novel before, this is as good as any of them to give it a try.
Kapitoil was a quick and easy read about a very rational finance quant from the Middle East who comes to New York to work at a brokerage on the Y2K bug in 1999. He happens upon a novel idea to predict oil futures and all of a sudden he is succeeding in business without really trying. It's a first person narrative, and I could see how some could be turned off by the extremely logical thought process of the protagonist, but I found it engaging. For me, it was difficult to put down for the day or two it took to finish.
I truly enjoyed reading this book, even though it is almost a thousand pages long, and is about of period of history (early 20th century) that I was previously not interested in. Ken Follet's historical details and simple prose helped to make it an enjoyable read. Some of the characters are a little like cardboard cut outs of real people, but there are others that seem to have a bit more depth. I am definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.
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Egg_salad has commented on (5) products.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Egg_salad, January 1, 2012
Not deep, but great fun!Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Egg_salad, September 11, 2011
I picked up this book on Saturday and finished reading by Sunday afternoon. A thoroughly enjoyable, immersive book. The concept is a truly original way to incorporate all sorts of 80s geekdom into a book and make it relevant. If you are at all a fan of the geek pantheon from the 1980's should read this book now.Surface Detail by Iain M Banks
Egg_salad, June 15, 2011
Action packed and riveting, a great space opera novel from Banks's Culture series. Most of the Culture novels are pretty good as stand alone reads, and this one is no exception. The downside of them being standalone reads is you don't get the character continuity you would get in a traditional series, but the Culture (the galaxy spanning pan human protagonist for most of these books) is almost like an independent character in itself. If you haven't read a Culture novel before, this is as good as any of them to give it a try.Kapitoil (P.S.) by Teddy Wayne
Egg_salad, June 11, 2011
Kapitoil was a quick and easy read about a very rational finance quant from the Middle East who comes to New York to work at a brokerage on the Y2K bug in 1999. He happens upon a novel idea to predict oil futures and all of a sudden he is succeeding in business without really trying. It's a first person narrative, and I could see how some could be turned off by the extremely logical thought process of the protagonist, but I found it engaging. For me, it was difficult to put down for the day or two it took to finish.Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
Egg_salad, April 2, 2011
I truly enjoyed reading this book, even though it is almost a thousand pages long, and is about of period of history (early 20th century) that I was previously not interested in. Ken Follet's historical details and simple prose helped to make it an enjoyable read. Some of the characters are a little like cardboard cut outs of real people, but there are others that seem to have a bit more depth. I am definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.