Re: Whatcha Readin'?
 

About to start reading this. It's about an Indian tribe in Mexico who run ultra-marathons, many times barefoot or just with a very thin sandal. It apparently dispels many myths about modern running shoes and running science. I've been running for a little while now, and I'm curious to see whether barefoot running might be the way to go.

Re: Whatcha Readin'?
 

You should play barefoot on stage.

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Until you step on a nail and get tetanus.

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I saw that guy on the Daily Show. Interesting stuff.

This blog explores barefoot running. Been trying to find a cheap running shoe based off of the thin sandal or ones that mimic being barefoot, but the cheap part is hard.

Running with and without shoes and the difference it makes.

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That's why you get those shots! Also, the guy says he "uses his eyes to see things on the ground." And I run in a nice area and in a loop around a state park. There really isn't much debris. I can't say I'm ready to do it yet, but the idea is intriguing.

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you start running barefoot and your feet will look like this

It'll be nature's way of giving you a "shoe".

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It's natures way of getting people to stay the fuck away from you when you take your shoes and socks off! Talk about a social trade off...running barefoot.

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Ehm, feet start to smell as soon as you put socks and shoes around them. Or was that your point?

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Probably asked this before, but how do you pick out books and stuff?

Just finished my current book, and not quite sure where to go now so looking for a way to pick out next few books.

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I usually read things recommended by friends.

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I poop in this bathroom on campus and it always has pleasant things written on it. They clean it up every few weeks, but my University has a bunch of comedians. The current thing is a bunch of dick drawings. But there is also written stuff....and some of it is funny.
Like Demitri Martin said:

Re: Whatcha Readin'?
 

In the last few years, I've been trying to read whatever "modern classic" I hear about (if it interests me, of course). The Hitchhiker's Guide, Catch-22, Brave New World and stuff.

Or books I hear about here. The Gun Seller was great, for example :)

Also, I've been doing some reading on my iPod Touch, I read quite a few free ebooks, especially Lovecraft.

And I also read some sci-fi. I usually do some research on the internet before, then decide on a book. Or in the case of my current book, Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep, it's because I love Blade Runner so much, I wanted to read the book :)

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fixed.

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That was my 3rd watch, and anyways, I watched it once more after that time.

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Haha, that's why my brother's not on GT. :D

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2 weeks ago for the first time in 3 years, I read a book.
Halo: The Fall of Reach.
Since I dont read books very often I dont know what the standards are for a "good" book but I liked it.
Then I picked up the next one titled "The Flood" and finished it last night, figure ill grab the next some time as well.
If anyone likes action Sci-fi then I'd suggest reading those books.
And if you like the Halo story these would add to it.

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I'd love to see a book written with the Bioshock universe as the base. It could explore the founding and building of Rapture and sow the seeds of it's destruction.

The first part of the story has already been written. It's Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

The end of the story is Bioshock.

But it needs a second act.

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Talking about fantasy books, guess who still hasn't finished the book he had almost ready 2 years ago?!? Yes, GRRM.

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http://whatshouldireadnext.com/search

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Figured since such a huge fan would try out the Bond novels, and started with Casino Royale, and it makes you look at Bond in a different light.


Sure it is only the first book, but he isn't quite the character he is in most of the movies.

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If people wanna complain about movie/book conversions, I don't think they need look further than the Bond series.

As said before, Casino Royale is the first book, but is the 21st movie made.
Live and Let Die is the second book, but the 7th movie made.

So these things were out of wack from word one, and sure its Bond, but there are some elements that carry over and stuff.

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Sergey Brin seems to have found this solution.

More on the KSO.

Makes me kinda wanna try them out...

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Those do look rather nice. Maybe if I ever get back into running.


And reading American Psycho. Might be the only time I ever read a book after seeing the movie instead of the other way around.

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Yeah, I'm intrigued by those things. "Barefoot" Ted who is mentioned in the book wears them and it seems rather amazing. I finished the book, by the way. It's a really interesting read, especially since I started running a couple of years ago. It makes you wonder about modern shoe companies...

Today I picked up this in the studio.



I have never actually read Hammet's work. I only know of his work from some of the great 50's Film Noir. It's roped me in already though, really good detective book.

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Just finished 1984

WAR IS PEACE
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

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Oh my lord. I don't even know where to begin since my last post.

I'll just say the basics. I just finished Redwall by Brian Jacques, and now I'm reading Gaijin by James Clavell. So good.

I probably go through 40 books a month right now. I'm not joking. I'm finishing everything I have and then moving on to a library. Nothing can stop me.

I love reading on my train.

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40 books a month means 1.3 books a day. How is that possible? :D

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Well, I think 50-80 pages an hour is possible. So if an average book is 200 pages, it takes 3-4 hours per book. If you travel a lot, I guess you have more than that per day...

But I'm curious as well, how do you do that?

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One of my favorite books of all time.

You need to read "The Legend of Luke"...it's another in the Redwall series, and probably my favorite.

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Just finished this:



Dr. Miller does a great job at reconciling religion and Darwinian evolution (you'll find the two concepts need not be at odds at all).


And currently reading this monster, which I doubt I'll finish before I go back to university:

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Just about finished this.

By one of my favorite musicians at it is turning out to be an enjoyable read though a bit short.

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In the past few weeks I've read:

The Watchmen

Bottomless Belly Button: http://www.amazon.com/Bottomless-Bel...3061825&sr=1-1

Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste (33 1/3)
http://www.amazon.com/Celine-Dions-L...8&sr=1-1-spell

Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (33 1/3)
http://www.amazon.com/Neutral-Milk-H...3061656&sr=1-1

If you are a music fan, the 33 1/3 series is pretty great. Basically an author chooses an album he finds compelling and writes a short non-fiction book about it. The Celene Dion book is a really interesting look at taste and why certain things are popular.

A friend got me The Exorcist for Christmas, so I'll probably start reading that.

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I'm still in Die Unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story). I'm halfway through. Somehow it doesn't captivate me like it did in the beginning. One of the reasons could be that my German isn't that good, and I sometimes have trouble understanding the text.

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Finished reading this.
And it is NOTHING like the movie at all. :lol:

And started reading this,

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Somebody lent me this, about halfway through, dont see what's the big fuzz on this book.

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Just finished reading Daemon and its sequel Freedom by Daniel Suarez:



Very good techno-thriller books, would recommend to anyone, especially if you're into technology. The books were written by a real software developer, so there aren't any of those "that's not how it works" moments.

Getting ready to read The Passage by Justin Cronin.

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I'm currently reading a book about the origins and evolution of the English language, to the current, and future progression.

Highly interesting book [stuff like this fascinates me].


Like for example, one of the main reasons English has so many words for one thing, and is therefore so hard for other people to learn, is because we've assimilated so many other languages and meshed them into our own to incorporate them over hundreds and hundreds of years. During the Renaissance 10,000-12,000 new words were created. Shakespeare created many of the phrases that we still use today [the only one I remember right now] like "I'm in a pickle." Pickle at the time being a relish-type of thing, therefore the statement making no absolute sense, but people would quote it constantly as people did with "Wazzap".

What fascinated me the most was the evolution of 'ebonics', and the explanation behind it. The slaves picked up 'pidgin' [not a real language, but a basic type of english to get a point across] from people who spoke English as a second language. Which is why things such as "is" and "are" are omitted from 'ebonic speech'. They served no purpose in pidgin English. And explains why "th" and "t" is pronounced like a hard "d" sound.

Also, if two people who speak pidgin English have a child, that child cannot speak Pidgin English, because it doesn't exist - that child now speaks Creole.


Fascinating.

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That's one of my favorite things about English, just how mashed up and crazy it is. There's actually a movement out there to remove all the duplication and non-nonsensical parts, but I think that would kill the beauty of the language.

Also, I started reading The Passage last night. It is an awesome book, I'm about 100 pages in out of over 800, and the character development is superb. It's a vampire horror novel, but more along the lines of I am Legend than Dracula. It hasn't "jumped" yet, but supposedly the book covers hundreds of years of time. Very epic.

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I was talking to my dad about something to that effect [he gave me the book]. He said he was talking to a Chinese guy who said "English is so hard because you have so many duplicate words for things. Like small. You have so many ways to say it."

But then I made the point to my dad that there is only one way to say small - small. There are things like 'tiny' and 'miniscule', but those don't really mean small. It's a measurement scale that's signified in words. You wouldn't say "It was a tiny battleship", but you'd say "It was a small battleship", because 'tiny' would portray being palm-sized, while small would signify that it's smaller than normal, or large, while still being big in context of battleships.

Fascinating.

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I just started reading The Gunslinger by Stephen King. It's the first book in The Dark Tower series.

I'm already almost done the book [granted it's only about 400 pages], but I'm really enjoying it so far.