flamy Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 OK, so Tad Williams was not next. Carol Berg - Transformation. Excellent. 4/5. Great character work, decent plot, poignant ending. Part of a trilogy, but a very satisfying ending. The last chapter left me mired in pathos. *sigh* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 textbooks :(( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamy Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Finished the Rai-kirah Trilogy. 4/5 for the whole series, great characters. I'd say low-level magic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachin=GOD Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 Currently reading Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty. Read about 35% of the book - the Ambani Brothers' feud (even at its highest point during the division of the Reliance empire) looks like a kids fight as compared to the no-holes barred Charles/David Koch vs Bill/Fredreich Koch fight. Very interesting read so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diga Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 The big short by Michael Lewis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desi Cartman Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution Richard Dawkins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachin=GOD Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Currently reading Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty. Read about 35% of the book - the Ambani Brothers' feud (even at its highest point during the division of the Reliance empire) looks like a kids fight as compared to the no-holes barred Charles/David Koch vs Bill/Fredreich Koch fight. Very interesting read so far. Finished it. The amount of influence Koch Industries has on American politics is alarming. Pretty good book though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachin=GOD Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty The story of Conrad Hilton (founder of Hilton Hotels) and his family. It is a very interesting story involving an eclectic collection of characters but the author hasn't done justice to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Merlyn Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 Finished it. The amount of influence Koch Industries has on American politics is alarming. Pretty good book though. Currently reading Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty. Read about 35% of the book - the Ambani Brothers' feud (even at its highest point during the division of the Reliance empire) looks like a kids fight as compared to the no-holes barred Charles/David Koch vs Bill/Fredreich Koch fight. Very interesting read so far. The biggest loser is Frederick Koch.Bill Koch reconciled with Charles and David and is worth billions now,while Frederick is still very wealthy he isnt a billionaire.Koch industries is supposedly worth in excess of $100bn. 84% owned by Charles and David. 15% held by Elaine Marshall,wife of E Pierce Marshall.E.Pierce's father John Marshall II had married Anna nicole smith when he was 84years.Also MarshalII had dis inherited his son Marshall III.Their court case is another interesting read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachin=GOD Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 The biggest loser is Frederick Koch.Bill Koch reconciled with Charles and David and is worth billions now,while Frederick is still very wealthy he isnt a billionaire.Koch industries is supposedly worth in excess of $100bn. 84% owned by Charles and David. 15% held by Elaine Marshall,wife of E Pierce Marshall.E.Pierce's father John Marshall II had married Anna nicole smith when he was 84years.Also MarshalII had dis inherited his son Marshall III.Their court case is another interesting read. Actually their father (founder of the business) gave each of them percentages in the business and since Frederick Koch was never interested in the business at all (he was into arts, paintings, museums etc) so he got a lesser share of the business. Then later on Bill and Frederick had a massive dispute with Charles and David and the case went for years (and the case was so heated up that nothing about the family was off limits).....then finally they both settled the case and sold their shares to Charles and David for $700 million in the 1980s. Bill was always a shrewd businessman so he used that money to start his own oil company Oxbow - so he is now worth around $4 billion. Frederick Koch meanwhile has been one of the biggest patrons and collectors of art,books, rare manuscripts, houses etc in the world. BTW is there any book about that Marshall court case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonix768 Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 Reading Dostoyevsky's The Gambler. Finished just 4 chapters. So far too good.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSK Fan Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 Then there were none. What an awesome story and copied so many times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachin=GOD Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 Finished Titan : the Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. by Ron Chernow . The image that comes out of this book is that of one of THE most remarkable personalities who ever lived. Started War of the Whales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachin=GOD Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 Read Obsessively Especially if you are young. Warren Buffet reads five hundred pages per day. His right-hand man, Todd Combs, reads up to a thousand. “I just sit in my office and read all day.” The point of reading this much is to build knowledge. And when you read five hundred pages of relevant non-fiction a day, you get really knowledgable. For the rest of this post, I will assume you read varied subject matter, although a narrower focus may also apply. I suggest you follow in Buffet’s footsteps and read more. For the past year, I have read upwards of four hours a day. I highly recommend it. Some of the effects I have noticed from extensive reading are: Development of a strong, informed world view. A wealth of useful knowledge, skills, and conversational fodder. Lack of patience for bullshit (including bad, regurgitated writing). Improved writing and speaking skills. Mental clarity and enthusiasm. Self awareness. An inclination towards free thinking and a distaste for structure. There are few better ways to absorb knowledge and wisdom than through reading. Don’t read just anything, though. Due to the sheer volume of content available, being an instinctive curator is an important skill. There are thousands of blogs and books, some of which are incredible. It’s your job to filter out the rotten ones. Beyond content quality, reading (and learning) is best when it is: Self-directed, driven by curiosity. This is key. If you don’t give a **** about what you are reading, you will never remember it. You will resent the content, the author, and the person who told you to read it. Self-initiated. When we learn things because we want to learn them, we are much more likely to remember and apply that knowledge. Endless. Learning is not a four-year degree, a program, or a seminar. Never stop learning; if you stop learning, you stop growing. Those who stop growing stop living. As virtuous as reading is, you should eventually stop reading and start creating, writing, designing, doing whatever it is you are reading about. There is a place for doing, and there is a place for learning. Knowledge without action is pointless; a balance must be struck. A note to younger readers If you spend several hours reading nonfiction each day instead of wasting your time with TV, video games or the newest social app, people will notice. A consulting client once mistook me for being 23; I was 17 at the time, and looked younger. “If you can read in the 21st century, you own the world.” -Stephen King The bottom line: read more, and only read what is interesting. https://medium.com/@connorgrooms/read-obsessively-cdba4c00d21e 500/1000 pages a day :ohmy: and here I thought I read a lot.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachin=GOD Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 The Accidental Prime Minister : The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh Pretty good. Some people have unfairly called this a collection of gossip columns - I disagree with that because the book is much more - it shows the severe constraints under which MMS had to work in UPA1 and still managed to achieve certain things, it goes into the strengths and weaknesses of his leadership style, his relationships with Sonia Gandhi and with certain ministers of UPA1 etc. There was not much of self aggrandizement from Sanjaya Baru, he defended MMS and praised him for whatever he did as PM in UPA1 (especially for the Nuclear Deal which both the author and MMS himself, call the biggest achievement of his entire 10 year tenure) and severely criticized him for completely giving in to the party/Nehru Dynasty in UPA2 and for not resigning despite being insulted by the party again and again. Looking forward to Natwar Singh's biography....should be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariyam Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Picked up this book Thus spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche. I haven't really read much of Nietzsche before this. But I'm enjoying this thus far. Sample this: "-And I saw a great sadness come over mankind. The best turned weary of their works. A doctrine appeared, a faith ran beside it: 'All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!' And from all hills there re-echoed: 'All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!' To be sure we have harvested: but why have all our fruits become rotten and brown? What was it fell last night from the evil moon? In vain was all our labour, poison hath our wine become, the evil eye hath singed yellow our fields and hearts. Arid have we all become; and fire falling upon us, then do we turn dust like ashes:—yea, the fire itself have we made aweary. All our fountains have dried up, even the sea hath receded. All the ground trieth to gape, but the depth will not swallow! 'Alas! where is there still a sea in which one could be drowned?' so soundeth our plaint—across shallow swamps. Verily, even for dying have we become too weary; now do we keep awake and live on—in sepulchres." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brainfade Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Enjoying it so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueBee Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 Reading : To kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee. Great read so far.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSK Fan Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 Reading some Lovecraft “That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.” “In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulu waits dreaming” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueBee Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 Reading some Lovecraft The call of Cthulu? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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