I had the same problem. Still sitting on my shelf only partially read.

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

I just ordered this book and can hardly wait...

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"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater view?" - Hugo

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Churchill

Maybe part of the problem is that I belong to the choir he's preaching to...

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"A witty saying proves nothing" Voltaire.
"All your bias are belong to us" Ara Pacis.

Lol same here. I tried to read it because I was looking for some better arguments against a few relatives of mine that are devout Mormon. Between The God Delusion, The Blind Watchmaker, and The Ancestor's Tale, the only one I could get through was the blind watchmaker, which does an excellent job of teaching evolution and natural selection.

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

No doubt he's got a target audience but I wonder how many "believers" or people of faith actually picked up his book... and changed their minds.

Very few, I suspect.

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"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater view?" - Hugo

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Churchill

"We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Shirley Jackson.

Awesome.

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There in the valley of Scorpio, beneath the Cross of jade
Smoking on the seashell pipe the gypsies had made
We sat and we dreamed a while...in that crystal thought time in Mexico. ~Donovan

Oh, I like her!

I'm currently reading--well, skimming, really--Lyrics: 1964-2008, one of my birthday presents. It's a collection of all of Paul Simon's lyrics. Hence, you know, the name.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Currently reading Don Quixote, had it on my shelf and never got around to it. Silly of me, very good read.

I've got a copy of Don Quixote in my collection - I haven't got 'round to it yet. That and a large number of other books I've bought when I've found them at a good price.

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"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients:matter, energy & enlightened self-interest." - G'Kar

"The universe is not only stranger than we know, it is stranger than we can know." - Louis Wolpert

"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity." - Harlan Ellison

to read...the impossible book....

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

I try to do six impossible things before breakfast...

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"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients:matter, energy & enlightened self-interest." - G'Kar

"The universe is not only stranger than we know, it is stranger than we can know." - Louis Wolpert

"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity." - Harlan Ellison

Just finished Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire.

Impressive...most impressive.

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

Finished Footfall, now reading Have Spacesuit, Will travel. A lot of Niven can be seen in less-fleshed-out form here--for example, Langston-like field for a spacesuit helmet, the Mother Thing species is Motie-like in some ways, including furry appearance and having 12 or so "castes". I guess Kip's fancy bed is a kind of autodoc as well.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

HS,WT is a fun little story. Pure wish-fulfilment/"Boy's Own Adventure"/escapism type stuff but enjoyable.

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"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients:matter, energy & enlightened self-interest." - G'Kar

"The universe is not only stranger than we know, it is stranger than we can know." - Louis Wolpert

"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity." - Harlan Ellison

A quote from it--"It is better to be a dead hero than a live louse". Something to try to remember if the choice ever happens and my survival instincts are screaming the exact opposite at me.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Better still to be a live hero.

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

I've always figured you can't help people after you're dead - the whole "only one life to give..." thing. Live heroes are, on the whole, more useful than dead ones. (And they get to actually attend the parades in their honour, sign autographs, endorse consumer products... )

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"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients:matter, energy & enlightened self-interest." - G'Kar

"The universe is not only stranger than we know, it is stranger than we can know." - Louis Wolpert

"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity." - Harlan Ellison

I'd love to see a hero refuse to sacrifice himself to save someone else, and say something like, "I'm sorry, but far more people depend on me than depend on you. I'm not happy about it, but that's the way it is."

In the last week,
Pratchett:
The Folklore of Discworld (quite good, comes around to interesting corners of folklore and the origins of traditions)
Monstrous Regiment
Wee Free Men
Wintersmith
currently reading Nation, which is not a discworld
Gaiman:
The Graveyard Book

Funny, just realized that the last 4 are all coming-of-age/growing to be an adult stories
Must be a phase I'm in.

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

I just read Star Soldiers (free download), a 1955 SF "soldiers in the future" novel by Andre Norton. It's actually 2 books or 2 halves, the first one was ok, the ending in the 2nd disappointed me. A bit.. pretentious? Cheap out? I don't know.. the first half was enjoyable.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.

Thanks for that, I've grabbed it.

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"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients:matter, energy & enlightened self-interest." - G'Kar

"The universe is not only stranger than we know, it is stranger than we can know." - Louis Wolpert

"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity." - Harlan Ellison

Since September 2007 I've been doing so many demanding courses that I haven't had much time to immerse myself in a good book, but recently I have read:

A Quantum of Solace. I'm not hugely interested in James Bond films but I wanted to know the original story just in case I see the film. I cannot imagine how any of the short story will make it to the screen.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Just started this, having had it on my "to read" pile for years, and so far I've liked all the film versions, although I haven't seen the fourth one yet.

The Italian Secretary - a non-Doyle Sherlock Holmes novel, proving yet again that only one man can write Sherlock Holmes stories.

Two Neil Gaimans - Stardust (excellent), Coraline (not really for adults). I started The Graveyard Book but decided to rest it for a while as I was reading too much by the author - pleasure begins to diminish.

Started Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. About 30 pages in I was thinking, "Dear God, this is unengaging!" I read a huge number of reviews on Amazon which assured me that it would get worse and the ending was lame. So I gave the book (and Sepulchre) to a charity shop.

Two Inspector Rebus books, Tooth&Nail, and Hide&Seek. The first was outstanding; the second suffered from "the episode 2 effect" - by the end I was finding it hard to remember what had been done, let alone whodunnit!

A Quantum of Solace--none of it made the film, only the title and the main character (being narrated to, not in the story within the story).

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

How surprised am I?

A week and a bit ago read a 10,000 word excerpt of James Ellroy's "Blood's a Rover". Can't wait for the full release of this final installment of his "Underworld USA" trilogy, next fall.

Have started reading an English translation of Matti Klinge's "Ancient Powers of the Baltic Sea".

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" The universe is running away
I heard it on the news just the other day
There's this new stuff called dark energy
We can't measure and we can't see..." - from Jimmy Buffett's What if the hokey pokey is all it really is about?

Re-reading "A Gift from Earth"--Matt Keller's psychic power could really come in handy sometimes!

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

"Better be a live coward than a dead hero" -- Harry Flashman

To answer OP -- I finally got around to reading Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin, and am currently about 2/3 of the way through "Game of Thrones". I really like it. Technically, it is a swords-and-sorcery fantasy but there is very little magic or supernatural^*, so it feels like a historical novel set in Late Middle Ages, except I never heard of any characters before. There is no Good or Evil -- just people acting the way they really did act at that time (which is plenty nasty by modern standards).

^* Although there are strong hints this will change in later books

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Fiction has to be plausible. Reality is under no such constraint.

Incidentally, the situation of the quote was such that not being the hero was, truly, "lousy". A man lured a 12-y/o girl to himself via promises of secret uranium deposits on the Moon, and brought her to the evil alien, because he was afraid the alien would kill him if he didn't. He was a live louse, who only gained a few days' life when the alien killed him anyway when he was no longer needed.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Turn your back and walk away-
And live to graft another day.

- James Bolivar (a.k.a. "Slippery Jim") diGriz

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"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients:matter, energy & enlightened self-interest." - G'Kar

"The universe is not only stranger than we know, it is stranger than we can know." - Louis Wolpert

"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity." - Harlan Ellison

Gemini, I read last time the marathi novel "Bermuda triangle" it's meaning in marathi was "Bermudacha tricon". very nice novel, in which it was shown that how the things were diappered over that Bermuda triangle.