What Fiction do you read ?

[g5>@nn0n]

Hi, all

I was a wonderin, what type of fiction everybody is into. I personalley enjoy alot of Star Wars expanded universe novels. I have also just been introduced to the Warhammer series and enjoying it a hell of alot.( Strange cause I have always been more Sci-Fi than Fantasy).

Comics as well ( Batman , Justice league America , Europe and International are the shizzle ):thumbsup:

So tell me - Wut u into :P

[]H[ellboy]

Let's see...

Books

1. Clive Cussler - Every single book read, all Dirk Pitt novels, Oregon Files, Kurt Austin & Non-Fiction Sea-hunters. I just can't put a Cussler book down love the easy reading and predictable plots!
2. Grant Naylor - Red Dwarf (Infinity welcomes careful drivers is my favorite book of all time)
3. Simon Green. - Wolfbane great fantasy book!
4. Robert Rankin. Currently reading a dog called Demolition.... again.....
5. Tom Holt.
6. Douglas Adams.
7. Terry Pratchett.
8. Clive Barker

Comics...

Batman
Spawn
X-Men
Hellboy
Nova
Ghostrider

[Macera]

Wheel of time.. Simply the best

[cyghost]

avid science fiction / fantasy reader when I was younger (Issac Asimov anyone?) but have gradualy turned to detective / law / thrillers

favourite authors of all time: said Issac Asimov, Stephen King and Dean R Koonts

current: Micheall Conelly and Lee Child rawks

comics:

batman, spiderman way on top

[]H[ellboy]

(Issac Asimov anyone?)

lol still got most of those shortstories in paperback....

[LordScallyWag]

I am fantasy reader. David Gemmell (rip), Terry Goodkind, Raymond E Fiest.
When I have the time to that is, used to read alot when I was younger.

edit: read some pratchett as well, love the witty humour.

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

The only books I've been reading the last four years have had titles like; Introductory Econometrics, Advanced Time Series modelling and Modern Macroeconomics.

[CrazyBob]

The only books I've been reading the last four years have had titles like; Introductory Econometrics, Advanced Time Series modelling and Modern Macroeconomics.
You must be fun to hang out with :cool:

[g5>@nn0n]

Hey , hey , Jaymac pop over for dinner and a light hearted chat over them there subjects. lol

Prehaps we could sit out back by my grey primed X-wing on bricks (Yes Sonic Vader still has not brought over the spares :) )

Seriously - sounds like some heavy sh1t, good luck and respect

[opi@te]

Wheel of time.. Simply the best

I'm done with New Spring and started The Eye of the World now.
What an epic tale ahead... :D

[<A>Eradicator]

These forums :)

[Plato]

1. Popular science and maths books
eg.

Stephen Hawkings - a brief history of time

David Bodanis - E=mc^2 , Electric universe

John Gribbin - In search of schroedinger's cat

Rob Eastway & Jeremy Windham - How long is a piece of string? {<- I HIGHLY recommend this one :)}

Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything

2. And some fiction stuff:
eg.

Aldous Huxley - A brave new world

John Gray - Men are from Mars, Women are from venus

George Orwell - Animal Farm , 1984

God - The Bible

Stephen King - Insomnia

[LordScallyWag]

Plato, do u understand or can explain gravity?

[Plato]

Which model, Newtons Theory of Universal Gravitation or Einsteins General Relativity?

[LordScallyWag]

Both are slighty flawd. not theories or models. do YOU or can YOU exlpain gravity. on say something like a planetry scale.

[Plato]

Hmmzor I`m not sure I understand what you want...

All we have are theories and models.

Yes I am familiar with both of the above mentioned and I can give you a qualitative description if you like?

If you`re asking whether I have formulated my own model for gravity: the answer is no.

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

You must be fun to hang out with :cool:

Yeah... I'm a blast. :cool:

Just checked my marks after pasting that and !wham! passed my supp exams! Feels good to be done for good.

@Plato: Based on what I've heard from you, I expect you will one day go on to formulate some great model on something and explain a lot of inexplicables to all of us common mortals. :P

Let me know if you need help with that hefty book by God. :P

[cyghost]

gravity is - jump from a building if you don't believe me

plato m8 - on the brink of reading short history of everything looks very kewl (finishing up with die groot avontuur - Leon Rousseau (him of Fritz Deelman fame? not bad all things considering)

just wanna know weather you have read the god delusion or any other Richard Dawkins' books??

[LordScallyWag]

sorry not making my self clear. yes yes newton and his apple blah blah blah.
Some one explain gravity. how, why does it work. throu what medium.
again, not localised as in i can fall of me bed. think planets, solar systems etcetc.

[Plato]

just wanna know weather you have read the god delusion or any other Richard Dawkins' books??

My buddy got "The God Delusion" for his 21st. I was angry after the second chapter :P

So I didn`t read any further.

A good point that was made in the debate that ensued between my friends and me was that even if you remove religion from society all together, people will still do stupid evil shit to one another.

The only thing that I would say is unfair about religion in general is that its like a vito in intellectual debate. All you have to say is ,"... its for religious reasons" and everyone automatically backs off.

A good example:
I don`t drink alchohol at all. Doesn`t matter if its someone`s 21st or a celebration of passing varsity. Every time I tell someone this, they ask me why. I proceed to give them a list of reason's which for me are valid. They continue to question and debate it with me, when in actual fact, it is my prerogative and has no influence on them at all.

If I had to say ,"for religious reasons", the most I would hear from them is "Which religion is that?" and that would be the end of the story.

{This is a trivial example, things like pro-life and other bio ethics subjects sometimes have religious motives which are often devoid of logic. I will not respect someone's opinion if they have not clearly reasoned it out for themselves}

@Scally:
Right-o. Gravity is a warping of space-time, which is a 4 dimensional structure.

A good way to visualise it is to imagine a ball sitting in the middle of a taut rubber mat. The ball will indent the mat. If you were to roll another ball towards the one at rest, the new ball would "fall" towards the one already indenting the mat.

If you were part of the rubber mat, you would conclude that the two balls were attracted to each other some how. You could call it whatever you want, we settled on "gravity". If you are part of the rubber mat, which you are, you could attribute the attraction to a field force at first glance. This is what Newton did. Einstein came along and revealed gravity's "true" structure.

The mass of an object affects how much of an indent is left in the rubber mat.

So if the orginal ball is very much more massive than the one you set rolling towards it, the original ball will hardly move and the little ball will roll into it. Or if you set the little ball rolling on the rim of the indent that the big ball makes, it would "orbit" it.

This is quite a good analogy and is often used in explaining general relativity in a qualitative way. The only problem is that this is a 2d scenario when in real life the structures are 4d.

As to how gravity arises. You have to go into particle physics for this answer. The theorised particle that endows objects with mass {and hence gravity} is the Higgs Boson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson). If you find one, you can go to sweden and collect a nobel prize :)

[Crazychic]

There u asked for it .....

Koontz, King, leather, hawkings, oh and all the mills & boons out there

[LordScallyWag]

Thanks Plato. Was the exact explanation I always get from physics students etc. As you quite rightly pointed out its is a 2d representation of reality. The other night me and me mate poked a great many holes in it. I am off to the beach now, and i am quite stoopid sometimes these days and have misplaced some of the more valid points in my head. upon return i shall take up the theory again and try and shoe how it is flawed. If it is something u have thought upon and and are satisfied all is good man. Thanks again for typing that all out :)

[cyghost]

thx plato :) as this is on reading and books we won't take it further (now) :P

I am currently reading three books at the same time - "die groot avontuur" as mentioned before, glimpses of a "a short history of nearly every thing" and a fiction book not really worth mentioning [unless a book is really bad I'll always finish it ... "catcher in the rye" was one I didn't finish - meh some people 's ideas of classic books leave me completely cold]

I don't as a rule read more than one book at a time, being able to finish one off quite quickly... anyone else reading more than one at a time?

and for that matter who agrees or disagrees with me on the so called classics? I personally think people read it, go wtf? and then because they don't quite get it decides it must be good - I read for pure entertainments sake and to gain knowledge, not to be bored to tears

[Plato]

The other night me and me mate poked a great many holes in it.

Like the fact that the analogy has a gravitational field present already?
{Thats how the ball sinks in the rubber mat }

The analogy is a visualisation tool only. The theory itself {General Relativity} has been confirmed many times over. Gravitational lensing, Time dilation, Mercury's precession have all been experimentally verfied. GPS, MRI machines amongst other things are all applications of the theory.

So it is very much confirmed ;)
Thanks again for typing that all out :)
Always a pleasure :)

[Boogeyman]

I enjoy mostly biographies and motivational books.
Long Walk to Freedom (the shortened version) was excellent and anyone living in SA should read it.

[LordScallyWag]

Like the fact that the analogy has a gravitational field present already?
{Thats how the ball sinks in the rubber mat }


ye that was one...couple others as well. As I said yer I understnd the visualisation aspect of it, but then so far its the only I have heard to explain gravity.
I mean, what is it.
blah blah space time blah blah.
Neways shot plato for being to cleva, ill take some cleva muti tonight and hopefully bring me A game back to you tomorrow so as you can undertand wtf I mean and am saying.
Peace brother.

[bl@d3]

U guys got this whole gravity thing all wrong, the answer is - 42!

[Macera]

I'm done with New Spring and started The Eye of the World now.
What an epic tale ahead... :D

It's a great great book, I suggest you read it with an open mind instead of just half a brain, else you'll not understand the story

Great story, I'm at Crown of Swords :P

Terry Pratchett really funny! Terry goodkind also good

[Macera]

Isn't gravity because of all particles of matter performing a force excuse the wrong word out on eachother, then planets are formed with electrons all facing one way and thus polarized? (This is what I remember of science class :P)

[Dace]

I'll read anything thats Fantasy/Science Fiction. Used to read historical fiction, but not so much lately.
David Gemmel is my favourite, as those who have read his books can probably tell :D

[AdV3nt]

Speaking of Fiction books although to be honest all i have read is a few Harry Potter books and The Hobbit (really enjoyed) i was wondering have any of you ever read those Diablo and Warcraft Novels by Richard A. Knaak I've really been wanting to get these just wondered what you all though?

btw @ Scally and Plato what the hell are you guys studying, sounds interesting :) i'm still trying to figure if i should do concept art or physics, hard decision :(

[]H[ellboy]

Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything

Got that book for my Birthday about 2 years ago... a must read!

[cyghost]

agreed with hellboy - a must read (and trust me, it reads easily... the guys is a genius for making difficult things easy to understand... )

advent I know Richar A Knaak wrote a few dragonlance novels and they were kickass so I presume he'd do a good job with diabl and warcraft :D

[]H[ellboy]

What I liked about it the most was the explanation of Newton's obsession with Alchemy and his maths and laws was like a side project..... imagine if he gave it his full attention..... :)

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

Hmmm.... all these recommendations. I think I will definitely consider reading 'A short history of everything.'

[Cataphract]

Screw explaining gravity! If you want a REAL challenge, try explaining the English instructions for any appliance made in China.

Here are some trusty fireside favourites:

Spike Milligan;
Stephen King;
John Connolly;
Douglas Adams;
Thomas Harris; and
The Dosage and Directions on prescribed medicines - schedule 3 and higher. :D