Books The BOOK thread

Dresilved

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Hitchcocker said:

The book on the bottom is The Black Swan and I am reading that at the moment. I've finished the other five in the past 3 weeks.
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I saw Malcolm Gladwell on his "Outliers" book tour, he told the story about the airplane crashes and his ideas about "power distance", fascinating stuff, I really like how he thinks, very refreshing ideas.
 

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elmo

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Dresilved said:
I saw Malcolm Gladwell on his "Outliers" book tour, he told the story about the airplane crashes and his ideas about "power distance", fascinating stuff, I really like how he thinks, very refreshing ideas.
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Mind telling more about what Gladwell said? I think he's brilliant and the world needs more journalists like him.
 

wr8_utd

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Anyone read the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson? Heard great stuff about it. Anyone here read it?
 

Dresilved

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cj4_elmo said:
Mind telling more about what Gladwell said? I think he's brilliant and the world needs more journalists like him.
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A scientific study was done on Obedience levels from different cultures.

example, A union employee in America is almost "unfireable" so they tend to not fear their bosses, this is considered small "Power Distance" between employee and boss, in contrast other places have absolute obedience from their staff, this would be considered large "Power Distance"... Obviously this example is a massive dumb down from what he said, and also, usually the power distance relates in their culture generally, like for example people from a dictatorship tend to have a larger power distance with authority figures in general.

Using that data as a measuring tool he looked at plane crashes over a long period of time, cant remember how many years, 20 at least I think and it turns out that the countries whos pilots have been involved in more commercial plane crashes are the ones with the largest "Power distances"

He has listened to tapes of archived chatter between air traffic controllers and pilots prior to crashes and has made the observation that pilots from a culture of Absolute Obedience tend to be a lot less pushy at critical times, he goes on to quote verbatim some of the conversations that have transpired between pilots and controllers, if it wasn't so tragic it would be like listening to Billy Connolly, its almost unbelievable.

It was one of the most fascinating stories I ever heard, the guy is so compelling, you should absolutely read his books.
 

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Finished Neil Gaimans, "The Anansi Boys." Great fun and a dark read at the same time.
 

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EricaNo7 said:
have you read " Return of the Native? " and " Tess of the d'Urbervilles ? "
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Tess of the D'urbervilles was the first Hardy novel I read (at school I think). "Return of the Native" is on my list, right after "Far From The Madding Crowd". I'm having some problems with insomnia at the moment so I'm reading much more than I usually do in a vain attempt to force myself to go to sleep!


@CheadleBeagle, the Withered Arm really stays with you doesn't it?
 

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evra said:
Tess of the D'urbervilles was the first Hardy novel I read (at school I think). "Return of the Native" is on my list, right after "Far From The Madding Crowd". I'm having some problems with insomnia at the moment so I'm reading much more than I usually do in a vain attempt to force myself to go to sleep!


@CheadleBeagle, the Withered Arm really stays with you doesn't it?
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Return of the Native is marvellous - I preferred it to Tess tbh - I always preferred Eustacia Vye's type to poor Tess's.


if you're struggling with insomnia, try A Laodicean ;)
 

Dresilved

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EricaNo7 said:
some of his novels are wonderful, but I agree one or two are little boring
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Its just a matter of personal taste, aren't his books all about upper society in the Victorian Era, their struggles and rivalries and all that fluffy stuff. I'm not a fan of Victorian lit, other than Dickens, just never appealed to me, a lot of people seem to like him though!
 

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Dresilved said:
Its just a matter of personal taste, aren't his books all about upper society in the Victorian Era, their struggles and rivalries and all that fluffy stuff. I'm not a fan of Victorian lit, other than Dickens, just never appealed to me, a lot of people seem to like him though!
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not at all. His books cover all strata of society and are usually set in the countryside .
Plus they are usually tragedies, nothing " fluffy " about them at all.
 

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Dresilved said:
A scientific study was done on Obedience levels from different cultures.

example, A union employee in America is almost "unfireable" so they tend to not fear their bosses, this is considered small "Power Distance" between employee and boss, in contrast other places have absolute obedience from their staff, this would be considered large "Power Distance"... Obviously this example is a massive dumb down from what he said, and also, usually the power distance relates in their culture generally, like for example people from a dictatorship tend to have a larger power distance with authority figures in general.

Using that data as a measuring tool he looked at plane crashes over a long period of time, cant remember how many years, 20 at least I think and it turns out that the countries whos pilots have been involved in more commercial plane crashes are the ones with the largest "Power distances"

He has listened to tapes of archived chatter between air traffic controllers and pilots prior to crashes and has made the observation that pilots from a culture of Absolute Obedience tend to be a lot less pushy at critical times, he goes on to quote verbatim some of the conversations that have transpired between pilots and controllers, if it wasn't so tragic it would be like listening to Billy Connolly, its almost unbelievable.

It was one of the most fascinating stories I ever heard, the guy is so compelling, you should absolutely read his books.
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I've all four of his books, on a side note. This means, avoid all planes piloted by North Korean :angel:
 

The_Red_Hope

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wr8_utd said:
Anyone read the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson? Heard great stuff about it. Anyone here read it?
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I've got them all but haven't got around to reading them yet. Have heard great things as well, its supposedly not very easy reading for the first couple of books because he throws you right in the middle of his world without too much of an explanation. But everyone who's read it says that the pay-off is great further on in the series.
 

The_Red_Hope

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Finished with Iain Banks - 'Transition'. Very interesting read this - infinite parallel universes, an institution called the Concern bent on multi-universe domination, an assasin who travels through the multiverse course-correcting, a torturer called the Philosopher, an epic rivalry between two women who know the secret to everything. Its like Inception/Bourne/Chronicles of Amber/Book of the New Sun rolled into one. Flawed but very enjoyable.

Started with China Mievelle's New Crobuzon trilogy. First book - Perdido Street Station.
 

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wr8_utd said:
Finished Towers of Midnight, the 13th book of Wheel of Time.

Really enjoyed it. It's far more fast paced than usual and a lot happens and moves forward. A Memory of Light is going to be epic :drool:
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Have to agree after the lull around books 7-9 the last 2 in the series definitely have picked up the pace heading towards a major battle at the end. The next year waiting on the last book is going to be hell :(

Finished The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton prior to reading book 13 as well and once it got going i got drawn into it but at times a hard read. Not sure what hasn't sat right whether it is the cult aspect to the story line or how it seemed far too easy to end up where they did as doesn't say much for an advanced life form to be caught the way it was. I might just be nitpicking but felt a little lazy how that bit worked out, otherwise enjoying the series and onto the next one now The Neutronium Alchemist.
 

Suedesi

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Dresilved said:
A scientific study was done on Obedience levels from different cultures.

example, A union employee in America is almost "unfireable" so they tend to not fear their bosses, this is considered small "Power Distance" between employee and boss, in contrast other places have absolute obedience from their staff, this would be considered large "Power Distance"... Obviously this example is a massive dumb down from what he said, and also, usually the power distance relates in their culture generally, like for example people from a dictatorship tend to have a larger power distance with authority figures in general.

Using that data as a measuring tool he looked at plane crashes over a long period of time, cant remember how many years, 20 at least I think and it turns out that the countries whos pilots have been involved in more commercial plane crashes are the ones with the largest "Power distances"

He has listened to tapes of archived chatter between air traffic controllers and pilots prior to crashes and has made the observation that pilots from a culture of Absolute Obedience tend to be a lot less pushy at critical times, he goes on to quote verbatim some of the conversations that have transpired between pilots and controllers, if it wasn't so tragic it would be like listening to Billy Connolly, its almost unbelievable.

It was one of the most fascinating stories I ever heard, the guy is so compelling, you should absolutely read his books.
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Agreed.

gladwell dot com - malcolm gladwell, blink, tipping point and new yorker articles
 

wr8_utd

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SCM said:
Have to agree after the lull around books 7-9 the last 2 in the series definitely have picked up the pace heading towards a major battle at the end. The next year waiting on the last book is going to be hell :(
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I did not really mind 7th to 9th either tbh. 10th was slow. It's been picking up since Knife Of Dreams. TofM was Brilliant! :D

Can't wait for an entire year now :(
 

SCM

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wr8_utd said:
I did not really mind 7th to 9th either tbh. 10th was slow. It's been picking up since Knife Of Dreams. TofM was Brilliant! :D

Can't wait for an entire year now :(
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I haven't had any issues reading any of the series just it did get a little quiet while he was introducing all the new characters who are now playing a part. With everything that has gone on the last few books you can understand why he did it but i know for some it might not have made sense at the time.
 
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