B3D Book Club

[entity279]

The best refactoring and self-improvement milage & motivation i am currently geting is out of the switch from a procedural/object oriented mindset (and/or programing language) to functional programming.

I know this isn't what you asked but my claim is that learning a totally new way of approching problems will help you code better. I claim it will get you farther on your goal than compared to reading books that focus on the refactoring topic specifically. It certainly has helped me.

(
My story is as follows : I was looking, 2-3 years ago for a 'better' Object Oriented language than Java. I was at the time reading the excelent (IMO) Object Oriented Software Construction by Bethrand Mayer so Eiffel was in my short list. But I gave Scala a try (managed to implement nearest neighbour classifier in very few lines of code) and really liked it.

Turns out Scala is a quite potent functional programming language as well and this year, in which I started using it as much as possible , I also fell more and more in love with this aproach.
The incredibly powerful type sistem, the concision, the ease to produce more correct code are all new challenges. The surprising imaturity of the ecosystem (for a 12 year old language) is the other challenging part, unfortunatelly.

I can recommend this book : http://www.amazon.com/Functional-Programming-Scala-Paul-Chiusano/dp/1617290653, although I've not read it yet. I watched quite a few presentations and read quite a few blog posts from one member of the authors pair Rúnar, he's a smart and nice guy. But yeah, the book reffers to Scala which is JVM language. I'm pretty sure it can be read through to learn FP alone, but refering to a JVM language can put some people off and I understand that.
)

 

[Gubbi]

More about The Nazi War on Cancer. It's honestly the best non-fiction I've ever read, and also the only frightening book I've ever read

A, if not frightening, then certainly sobering read is Erik Schlosser's "Command and Control" about US cold war nuclear strategic thinking and the (lack of) command and control of the nuclear arsenal.

A long list of near misses is interleaved with a dramatic (but non-fictional) telling of the Damascus incident where a Titan 2 blew up in its silo.

A real page turner.

Cheers

 

[London Geezer]

I thought The 3 Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch was terrifying when I read it as a kid. If you are familiar with some of the internet's convoluted theories about The Matrix/The world as VR then you easily see that in this novel. A Scanner Darkly was very moving as I've lost friends to drug abuse.
I think that once you buy into how PKD reflects the world as he sees it in his stories you then get an easier access to anything else he's written. He becomes your eccentric friend, you don't what story he's going to tell next, but you know it will be interesting.
And of course there's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. You'll find a lot of stuff in it that the movie didn't have room for, or would have altered the style. All as brutally effective as what's in the movie.
P.S. I found We Can Build You to be a sentimental, even poignant, effort by PKD. He deal a lot with emotions, and those who have trouble finding theirs. The girl in that book, Pris Frauenzimmer, is something of an exemplar for other women, in other stories, that PKD casts as intimidating his characters. Worth reading for how he sketches these broken creatures, his Lincoln was amazingly moving.

So after your recommendation, I got The 3 Stigmata of Palmer Eldricht and I'm about a third of the way in. I must say, it was all a bit cryptic initially, but everything is kinda starting to make more sense now and I'm loving it.

 

[Grall]

*Edit:
@London-boy While I'm typing up my post, you post in this thread as well... Creepy!

Finished Thousand Sons by Graham McNeill a couple days ago. It is one of the earlier volumes in the (essentially endless, I assume) Horus Heresy saga set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40.000 universe, for those who haven't been introduced at some prior point.

WH40k is a classic dystopian space-operatic franchise; in the Horus Heresy branch of the universe, set in the 30th millennium, on the surface everything's fine and dandy. Forces of Terra (Earth), fighting for the xenophobic, fascist Imperium of Man, is reaching out and re-conquering the galaxy, taking back territory that has been lost for thousands of years during a period known as "Old Night". Incidentally, this is done by killing each and every non-human species encountered unto their last man woman and child (as applicable anyway with aliens), and also as it happens, killing any and all humans refusing to swear fealty to The Emperor.

Leading the fight are 20 "Primarchs", partial genetic clones of the titanic and immortal super-being known only as The Emperor of Mankind, and each reflecting a personal trait of him. "Geneseed" taken from these Primarchs were used to create 20 Space Marine Legions (each consisting of roughly 100.000 genetically enhanced, post-human warriors), and each warrior, each Astartes, with the strength of a hundred normal men or more, bearing the traits from their Primarch, giving the Legion their unique personality and fighting style.

However, everything isn't going quite so well; in the mainline WH40k universe, the Horus Heresy ended with Primarch Horus Lupercal, foremost amongst his peers and named Warmaster, murdering his "father"; the Emperor of Mankind, then the Emperor killed him in turn (because *ahem* he's too powerful a being to simply die from having been murdered), and ten thousand years of bloody civil war followed as the half of the Space Marine legions still loyal to the Imperium fight the others, those who followed Horus as he fell to Chaos and rebelled. Meanwhile, the dead Emperor sits as a desiccated corpse on his Golden Throne, a vast, unbelievably complicated machine whose construction is now a lost art, which keeps him alive.

That hasn't happened yet however in this book. Instead we follow the Primarch Magnus the Red; fearless mighty warrior and psyker supreme; unmatched - almost - wielder of the powers of "the Great Ocean" (more correctly known as the Warp; the alternate dimension where the Gods of Chaos just happen to live), as he sets out on a road paved with absolutely nothing but the best of intentions, inevitably leading him exactly where you'd expect it to...

It's a very good read, in a pulpy sort of way, I would say. Well crafted; even though the way the story ends is pre-destined, at no point are any of the main characters reduced to stereotypical badguys; they're honorable, well-intentioned men, which makes their downfall even more heartbreaking so to speak. Don't expect high literature though, because it isn't. It's entertainment, plain and simple, you read the book and then you put it away. You don't sit and mull and reflect over it.

The battles in WH40k-based books can all pretty much be summarized with "pow, boom, thwack, heads rolled, people died, monsters died more, space marines won"; they're essentially uninteresting, partially because the hero characters simply can't die because of plot, but there's not THAT much fighting in Thousand Sons. There's some fights yes, but mostly quite a lot of story, some intrigue, and some lore hinted way back at the first initial trilogy of the Horus Heresy, which a geeky person like me might remember and get excited over.

Do you need to read all the prior 11 or so volumes in the Horus Heresy series to understand this book? No, not really. It's a pretty stand-alone book actually, as most of the volumes in the series so far are, all you really need is a love for dystopian space opera. You could essentially pick it up and just read it, and not really spoil anything from any of the prior books, if you were to then desire to start from the very beginning...

Of course, then there's an additional 18 or so novels published in this series so far, and I don't even know if GW has reached the Battle for Terra yet; they're well-known for moneygrubbing, so they're probably going to draw this out as much as possible. I wouldn't expect the Heresy to really end with the showdown between Horus and the Emperor either; no doubt they'll continue milking this alternative timeline for all its worth even after the "final battle" has been fought...

 

[Alexko]

Since there's been some discussion of non-fiction books, I have to recommend Randall Munroe's What If?. The shortest way to describe it is that it's a compilation of articles like these: https://what-if.xkcd.com/ (Yes, Randall Munroe is the author of xkcd.)

Basically, he writes "serious scientific answers" to absurd hypothetical questions. He'll sometimes model the problem and simulate it, consult with experts in the relevant fields, or review the "related" literature, etc., so there's a good deal of effort put into these things, at least for the hard questions, and it's surprisingly entertaining. I found the book difficult to put down.

 

[Babel-17]

So after your recommendation, I got The 3 Stigmata of Palmer Eldricht and I'm about a third of the way in. I must say, it was all a bit cryptic initially, but everything is kinda starting to make more sense now and I'm loving it.

It's fact pace might lend to it being cryptic. It's got things in common with Inception. Glad you're liking it. I just started re-reading Zelazny's Amber series and, wow, I'd forgotten how fast paced it was. It's notable because he builds an amazing universe for his characters, in record time.

Edit: I'd forgotten how much craziness PKD put into that book. I was focusing on the parts dealing with Chew-Z.

 

[Mariner]

Regarding the Warhammer 40K fiction, I've read a number of the books and the recent ones are definitely more 'pulpy' than the much older books from over 20 years ago, some of which I found to be very good.

In particular, the books by Ian Watson - Inquisition War trilogy as they have been rebranded after they were re-released years later - and a novel called "Space Marine" seemed very much darker and more mysterious than the recent stuff. Oh, there was a short story anthology called "Death Wing" which was pretty decent too, I think. I've still got them buried away somewhere at home.

I've always thought the WH40K universe would be great one in which to set a movie/TV series but the rumoured projects over the year never seem have come to fruition, which is a shame.

 

[I.S.T.]

If you like 40K, you'll likely like these:

I'm not really a 40K fan, but this stuff is hilarious and obviously a work of love towards the franchise.

 

[I.S.T.]

Okay I don't know whose bright idea it was to turn all youtube links into videos at whoever designed this board software, but I will find them, and I will kill them.

The actual url: https://www. youtube .com/user/alfabusa/videos Remove the spaces, copypaste, and it'll work.

 

[AlNom]

Emprah's voice could use some work (or maybe I expected something more boomy/bass or simply "Stephen Hawking"), but that was amusing.

 

[BRiT]

Okay I don't know whose bright idea it was to turn all youtube links into videos at whoever designed this board software, but I will find them, and I will kill them.

The actual url: https://www. youtube .com/user/alfabusa/videos Remove the spaces, copypaste, and it'll work.

Tapatalk does that automatically on display regardless of how its orignally posted.
Xenforo does not touch them on display.
Use a web browser, not tapatalk.

 

[I.S.T.]

I use Firefox.

 

[Grall]

I use Firefox.

Edge also seems to do this (if it is in fact not the board software which is responsible), as your original post shows an in-line youtube video object rather than a link - for me anyway...

 

[AlNom]

Finished Thousand Sons by Graham McNeill a couple days ago.

Thousand Sons was definitely one of the better stories for me. There's a slight hint towards the end if anyone has followed the

Spoiler

Dawn of War

games & novels.

Of course, then there's an additional 18 or so novels published in this series so far, and I don't even know if GW has reached the Battle for Terra yet; they're well-known for moneygrubbing, so they're probably going to draw this out as much as possible. I wouldn't expect the Heresy to really end with the showdown between Horus and the Emperor either; no doubt they'll continue milking this alternative timeline for all its worth even after the "final battle" has been fought...

Yeah, they're not even close really. They are taking their sweet time with filler/garbage stories (somewhat easy to tell when you look at the back descriptions), though I don't mind in some ways since there are so many legions and side things going on - just gotta pick and choose what might be of interest to you (particular legions). I've probably skipped about 5-7 books by now.

I do like the short story collections - no need to have a full blown novel just to have interesting bits.

If you'd like recommendations, I can try. I'm somewhat caught up, but I don't get the usual paperback release, so I wait quite a while for the mass market editions.

 

[tabs]

Just finished the Rho Agenda trilogy as suggested in the OP. Big thumbs up from me, it was quite a ride.

 

[London Geezer]

Great, happy you liked it!

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Cool thread!

The direct sequels to Ender's Game are IMHO progressively getting a bit worse and worse, at least after Speaker for the Dead. They're focusing more on Card's theories about the universe, and I've found that the characters suffered for it.
Ender's Shadow stood out a bit as far as I recall, though - it's the first chapter told from Bean's perspective and has some interesting ideas about what was going on beyond Ender's understanding. Then the rest start to focus on super complicated plot and I've ended up not caring about that either.

I wonder if we should get into SF classics here? There are lots of them, so it might be hard to chose which ones to read... And of course I have my share of unknowns here as well. Right now I'm trying to get through Iain Banks' Culture novels, quite interesting but from time to time I get too tired to read in the evenings...

 

[Laa-Yosh]

As for Philip K. Dick, I'd say his novels are the best reading... They tend to be short enough, so whenever he sort of messes up the storytelling and/or the ending, you can still finish them.

I mean, the man was an idea powerhouse, a LOT of SF movies and books and such have been taking inspiration (or more) from his work. It's just that his real life problems with drug abuse and paranoia and such tend to take over halfway through the story and the result is usually a bit of a mess. But he's definitely original.

Also, while so much of his work was adapted into movies and such, it's usually changed too much and the ideas become somewhat diluted. I'd still highly recommend reading his short novels, even if you've seen movies like Minority Report or Blade Runner or Total Recall or The Impostor or Second Variety; they're still quite more powerful in the original version.

 

[AlNom]

Right now I'm trying to get through Iain Banks' Culture novels, quite interesting but from time to time I get too tired to read in the evenings...

I've been meaning to read those considering Halo... Guess I should have started reading a decade ago when I still had the interest.

I did manage to get through the Ringworld series (became... bland with the third book).

 

[Mariner]

Cool thread!

The direct sequels to Ender's Game are IMHO progressively getting a bit worse and worse, at least after Speaker for the Dead. They're focusing more on Card's theories about the universe, and I've found that the characters suffered for it.
Ender's Shadow stood out a bit as far as I recall, though - it's the first chapter told from Bean's perspective and has some interesting ideas about what was going on beyond Ender's understanding. Then the rest start to focus on super complicated plot and I've ended up not caring about that either.

I wonder if we should get into SF classics here? There are lots of them, so it might be hard to chose which ones to read... And of course I have my share of unknowns here as well. Right now I'm trying to get through Iain Banks' Culture novels, quite interesting but from time to time I get too tired to read in the evenings...

You've managed to get further than me with the Ender books. I gave up after Xenocide which was OK, I suppose, but nothing more.

Let's be correct here as well - don't forget to include the "M" for Iain M. Banks' Culture books! His books written as Iain Banks are quite different, though still very interesting. Stick with the Culture books, most of which are excellent. A real tragedy he left us too soon as I always looked forward to his new books as they were published.

Another SF author I can heartily recommend is Charles Stross if you've never ready of his work. Some hard SF/space opera type stuff, lots of very clever speculative SF and a series of books which humorously blends the Cthulhu mythos with a British government department secretly trying to keep the country safe from mind-eating horrors from beyond time!

For other enjoyable authors of 'Space Operas' try Alastair Reynolds (his Revelation Space series of books are very good). For very hard (yet very violent) SF, try Richard Morgan's books beginning with Altered Carbon and Neal Asher's Polity books are also excellent.

All of these authors are British and I'm not sure how much coverage their works get outside of the UK so you may or may not have read any of their work in the past.