http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=288462

Vote on this poll

The Taming of the Shrew
[bar] 3/1%
The Lord of the Rings
[bar] 91/18%
The Bhagavad Gita
[bar] 8/2%
Foundation
[bar] 39/8%
The Dark Knight Returns
[bar] 12/2%
Steppenwolf
[bar] 10/2%
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
[bar] 10/2%
Firestarter
[bar] 4/1%
Ulysses
[bar] 12/2%
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
[bar] 9/2%
War and Peace
[bar] 9/2%
The Da Vinci Code
[bar] 12/2%
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
[bar] 36/7%
Gravity's Rainbow
[bar] 18/4%
Bridget Jones' Diary
[bar] 3/1%
The Colour of Magic
[bar] 42/9%
Burnt Njal
[bar] 2/0%
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
[bar] 38/8%
Quo Vadis
[bar] 1/0%
Murder on the Orient Express
[bar] 19/4%
Flatland
[bar] 21/4%
The Story of the Stone
[bar] 2/0%
My tastes are too discriminating for these vulgar choices.
[bar] 40/8%
Fiction? Ew!
[bar] 36/7%
Reading is for sissies. My sister told me me the poll options.
[bar] 16/3%
493 total votes
Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Chady (Priest) on Sep 03, 2003 at 09:49 UTC
    The only fiction I've read:
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    He who asks will be a fool for five minutes, but he who doesn't ask will remain a fool for life.

    Chady | http://chady.net/
      At times THGTTG has seemed less like fiction than non-fiction. Anyone not seen a Vogon throw a coworker out the nearest airlock just because they couldn't appreciate the captain's 'poetry'? And who hasn't found themselves in a project with an SEP thrown around it? Though Marvin did seem a bit more cheerful than some I've worked with...

      [SEP - Somebody Else's Problem field - useful for encouraging people to not see things that are in plain sight, not acknowledging existence, etc.]

      I am very disappointed that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy wasn't one of the choices. After all it is required reading here at the Monastary. :-)


      Peter L. Berghold -- Unix Professional
      Peter at Berghold dot Net
         Dog trainer, dog agility exhibitor, brewer of fine Belgian style ales. Happiness is a warm, tired, contented dog curled up at your side and a good Belgian ale in your chalice.
        Indeed,
        And whilst it may not be Thursday, I have a Vogon ship parked over my house, for some reason my digital watch isn't working and I don't seem to be in ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha any longer... [?]
if fiction then let there be Perl in it! ;-)
by YAFZ (Pilgrim) on Sep 03, 2003 at 10:08 UTC
    The only fiction in which you can find a lovely Perl code related to encryption (a pretty tough algorithm indeed, designed by Bruce Schneier) : CRYPTONOMICON and also Snow Crash from the same author.

    I advise these two books to any PM reader ;-)

      Not that tough. Solitare has a severe bias in its random number generator (external link). Still, I'd like to see more research into strong crypto that can be used without a computer.

      ----
      I wanted to explore how Perl's closures can be manipulated, and ended up creating an object system by accident.
      -- Schemer

      Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by zakzebrowski (Curate) on Sep 03, 2003 at 00:24 UTC
    bought the divinci code... (interesting, but not that interesting, voted for it... I read all of the harry potters, but the last one wasn't the greatest...) Most likely you'll see me with a copy of Tom Clancy... :) (I particuarlly like Without Remorse. Reading the latest on paperback. None of the spin off series, though...) BTW, anyone else a regular reader of the Writers Almanac?

    ----
    Zak

      Wot no "all of the above" option?

      Reading is one of my great pleasures: There is nothing (or rather, very few things) nicer than being curled up on a sofa with a really good book, a glass of nicely chilled white burgundy with some background music playing. The type of book itself is almost immaterial: I'll read just about anything, althoug if I did have to display a preference it'd have to be David Lodge, or maybe LOTR, possibly David Eddings... I'm not sure, perhaps some Salman Rushdie, or maybe Virginia Woolf...

      Elgon

      Please, if this node offends you, re-read it. Think for a bit. I am almost certainly not trying to offend you. Remember - Please never take anything I do or say seriously.

      I voted for LotR, but I'm a Clancy fan as well, having read all of the main-line books except the newest one which I haven't started yet.

      I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates the spinoffs. In fact, it seems as if the majority of the people who like TC don't like the spinoffs.. Feel free to prove my generalization wrong! :)

      BTW - Without Remorse is a good one, but I'm still partial to Red Storm Rising :)
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Drgan (Beadle) on Sep 03, 2003 at 00:31 UTC
    I like Elven people! They're cool! I think their wonderful order and pointy ears are awesome too. Has anyone considered that Elvish people might have evolved into Perl programmers? LoTR
    "I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High." - Psalms 82:6
      Lingua::Tolkien::Quenya anyone?
        Although I voted for "War and Peace" (cuz I am reading it right now), all I have to say to prove my LotR love affair is this: I can write every word you've read so far in several Elvish dialects...<stick tongue out>so there!</stick tongue out>

        Just Another Perl Wannabe

      "The Colour of Magic" is really not representative of Discworld. Quite a lot of PTerry's books have really good elves, "Lords and Ladies", "The Fifth Elephant" and "The Wee Free Men" to name just a few.

      Of course when I say good I don't mean good

      Has anyone considered that Elvish people might have evolved into Perl programmers?

      Yeah, each time I see a program without use strict, use warnings and without checking the return value of open, I think must have been an elf. After all elves are immortal, so they can afford to be careless. For all others, life's too short.

      Elves are smelly characters. They have no use except satisfying the need of AD&D munchkin players.

      Abigail the Dwarf.

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by jaldhar (Vicar) on Sep 03, 2003 at 03:38 UTC

    You put the Bhagavad Gita under fiction? That's rather offensive.

    Though even in the standard Hindu conception, it isn't 100% factual reportage either. It is a conversation between Krishna Bhagavan and Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra as reported to the blind king Dhrtarashtra by his bard Sanjay as reported by the sage Vaishampayana to the sages of the Naimish forest as he heard from the sage Veda Vyasa the author of the Mahabharata (of which the Gita is a part.) And in the Gita itself, Krishna Bhagavan says it is the second time it is being told, the first being when he told it to the Sun who told Manu the first king, who told his son Ikshavaku.

    Njal's Saga may have poetic embellishments but it is also mostly based on true events in Medieval Iceland.

    If fiction is taken to be any writing which doesn't describe events exactly as they happened then we would also have to classify the New York Times as fiction (Not even counting the Jayson Blair stuff.) There needs to be a better word to describe the above works. Epic is more suitable IMO.

    --
    જલધર

      You put the Bhagavad Gita under fiction? That's rather offensive.

      It wasn't meant to be. In fact, its presence in the list is a mistake.

      I began by composing a list of books in general. I tried to cover as many genres as possible, since someone inevitably complains that something is missing... and because it's fun to have interesting choices. Amongst the titles on the original list were Gödel, Escher, and Bach, The Bible, Programming Perl, A Brief History of Time, The Federalist Papers, and Manufacturing Consent, each of which I imagined would be of interest to some significant number of people here.

      Allowing for non-fiction, though, really threw the gates too wide. History, Philosophy, Art, Religion, Psychology, and innumerable other fields all deserved representation, many of which were too difficult to represent succinctly in any case.

      So, not long before I posted the poll, I began to consider how to bring it back under control. After chatting with ailie for a bit (who also was very helpful in bringing balance to the list) I chose the word 'fiction', elided a bunch of choices, and posted it.

      As is now clear, I missed a few. While I don't think anyone's likely to take strong exception to Njal's presence on the list, I would really be inclined to remove the Bhagavad Gita. However people have already voted for it, which makes that awkward, too. I could, I suppose, change the poll topic... but I'm not yet sure to what. 'Epics' certainly doesn't describe the whole list, and a fair number of people have already said, 'Ew!' to fiction.

      In any case, more than a few of these were chosen because, as well as being good representatives of a genre, I like them... including the two you mention. I suppose I may have slipped on The Gita because I tend to think of it as I do The Iliad... as an epic. Of course, it's considerably more than that for many of its readers. My intention was to bring a good piece of literature up for discussion, not to disparage it.

      If I have offended anyone, I apologize. I am open to suggestions as to how best to handle this faux pas. Perhaps this clarification will suffice. Perhaps not. It's yet early in the life of this poll, and all things are possible.

        Thanks for the explanation. I wasn't that offended. (Well there is a difference between "stern letter to the editor" offended and "burn your house down" offended. :-) You're right epic doesn't cover the whole range. Gravity's Rainbow in particular is an an anti-epic. How about just literature?

        Incidentally two really imaginative and thought-provoking short story collections I''ve read recently are collected works of Jorge Luis Borges and Phillip K. Dick. I'd heartily recommend to monks looking for a good read.

        --
        જલધર

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by batkins (Chaplain) on Sep 04, 2003 at 10:52 UTC
    WIn32 Security - my favorite book of fiction.
    it says she can do math, but will she recognize 8 / 0?

    We can only hope they've put in those safeguards.

    Worst case scenario: She succeeds in dividing by zero, and suddenly little Tiphany-Amber's bedroom becomes the center of a howling vortex of nonspace, frying the neighborhood with sparkling discharges of zero-point energy.

    - slashdot
      batkins++

      You had me cough up my tea over the keyboard laughing there - maybe I'm in a bitter mood: phb's have just decided that we're to be a .Net-only shop rsn.

      <query hope="forlorn">Anyone have a job for a Perl hacker in the Copenhagen Area?</query>

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by theguvnor (Chaplain) on Sep 03, 2003 at 02:14 UTC

    Not sure I'm actually more likely to be found reading Lovecraft (Shadow Over Innsmouth) but his work is so damn cool I had to vote for it!

    [Jon]

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by TacoVendor (Pilgrim) on Sep 03, 2003 at 02:01 UTC

    How can Snowcrash be left off of the list? Yeah, it's become a cliche of sorts over the past couple of years, but when it came out it was wonderful.

    Also forgotten are Westerns. Louis Lamour to be precise.

    So, I choose Murder on the Orient Express. Simply a classic.

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Moriarty (Abbot) on Sep 03, 2003 at 03:53 UTC

    It was a toss up between LOTR and Foundation & I saw that Foundation didn't have any vote yet :-).

    Mind you, with my chosen nick-name, the most logical choice would have been Sherlock Holmes, but since that wasn't available.

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by greywolf (Priest) on Sep 03, 2003 at 05:02 UTC
    Scoots over and scans the book shelves...

    The only book on this list that I can find on my shelves is The Lord of the Rings. Naturally I had to vote for it. But since I rarely/never read a novel twice it is unlikely that you will ever find me reading it.

    Typically you will find me reading science fiction or fantasy novels.

    mr greywolf
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by deliria (Chaplain) on Sep 03, 2003 at 06:52 UTC
    In this case I had to vote 'Foundation' as it's the only series of books on the list which i really liked.

    But I really miss the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan on the list. My favourite and imho better than LotR.
      For the reccord (not that anyone cares) The wheel of time is a terrible series and an offense readers everywhere. After writing something like 9 books each of which is over 900 pages, you'd think you'd manage to find a conclusion in there someplace. So lest I be accused of going on too long with out my own conclusion, let me say this: I hate hate hate hate!

      :)
        the series is getting rather long indeed, i finished the 10th book a while ago and waiting for the next.

        can you imagine i read volumes 1 to 7 about 3 times? *grin*
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Popcorn Dave (Abbot) on Sep 03, 2003 at 16:33 UTC
    What??? Fear and Loathing is fiction??? ;)

    There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling now.

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by menolly (Hermit) on Sep 03, 2003 at 23:36 UTC

    Checkboxes, checkboxes, my kingdom for checkboxes!

    Oh wait...I don't have a kingdom. Since I rent, I don't even have a castle. Never mind.

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by rir (Vicar) on Sep 03, 2003 at 03:55 UTC
    Too discriminating? well maybe -- is that a code phrase for pornographic works?

    I am reading religious stuff at present. So the Bhagavad Gita gets the nod though it's been years since I read it.

    I'm on vacation from sci-fi for awhile. Any one want a bunch of books?

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by gwhite (Friar) on Sep 04, 2003 at 00:41 UTC

    Atlas Shrugged, Animal Farm, 1984

    g_White
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by batkins (Chaplain) on Sep 03, 2003 at 22:57 UTC
    I voted LOTR, but only because there's no option for Dune. What gives?
    it says she can do math, but will she recognize 8 / 0?

    We can only hope they've put in those safeguards.

    Worst case scenario: She succeeds in dividing by zero, and suddenly little Tiphany-Amber's bedroom becomes the center of a howling vortex of nonspace, frying the neighborhood with sparkling discharges of zero-point energy.

    - slashdot
      Yes batkins!
      Where are the Dunes and the Stranger in Strange Lands???
      I voted Foundation ( didn't like it that much ), but
      my favourite fiction is either one of the above books
      or "Inside XENIX" :-> greatest fiction book ever.
      
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by mayaTheCat (Scribe) on Sep 04, 2003 at 06:39 UTC
    "The Tin Drum" ...
    ... is the one I would like to see on the list.

    ---------------------------------
    life is ... $mutation=sub{@_=split'';$gene=int(rand($#_+$=/$=));$_[$gene]=$=/$=-$_[$gene];$_=join'',@_};

Unfair to Niven
by PhilHibbs (Hermit) on Sep 03, 2003 at 09:08 UTC
    All the other authors get their most well-known work listed, but Niven gets Flatland! This means that any one that's read a few Niven books, but not much else on the list, will overlook that option and vote for something else. Ringworld would have been a better option.

    Ignore me, I'm talking shite.

      ???

      Flatland was written in the 19th century by Edwin A. Abbott. It's a mathmatical textbook hidden inside a cute story.

      I don't know where Niven comes into this.

      ----
      I wanted to explore how Perl's closures can be manipulated, and ended up creating an object system by accident.
      -- Schemer

      Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

        Larry Niven wrote a story called Flatland, part of his Known Space arc. I presume the OP hasn't ever heard of the more famous Flatland...
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by perlsage (Scribe) on Sep 04, 2003 at 06:02 UTC
    Howard Phillips Lovecraft, I know the sleeping can't forever lie. :D
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Rex(Wrecks) (Curate) on Sep 03, 2003 at 17:26 UTC
    This poll is like asking favorite foods....the selection of good books out there is so huge and varied in genre that it is impossible for me to say anything but "My tastes are too discriminating for these vulgar choices."

    "Nothing is sure but death and taxes" I say combine the two and its death to all taxes!
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by phydeauxarff (Priest) on Sep 03, 2003 at 20:27 UTC
    WOAH!! How ironic coincidential is it that I am reading Flatland right now??

    I didn't know that PM Polls had gotten psychic....psychotic, yes...but psychic??

    --update--see the thread below for the grammar update

      Must... resist... temptation to... define... ironic.

      Hmm, life was much simpler when I didn't know the difference between "their", "there", and "the're", or the actual meaning of words like "ironic", or terms like "begging the question".... I blame books.

      --
      TTFN, FNORD

      xaphod
        Hmm..I actually meant it as 'ironic' in the "poignantly contrary to what is expected" sense of the term as I rarely have any real connection to the content of the polls (so much so that I had actually turned off the voting booth from my frontpage nodelets) and here was a poll that actually reflected what I was doing in real life.

        However, given that one would have to know this context to make "ironic" an accurate description, I suppose "coincedental" would have been more appropriate.

        I sit corrected.

        Oh....and Hail Eris ;-)

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Steve_p (Priest) on Sep 03, 2003 at 22:46 UTC

    Sorry, its the Beat Generation for me. So, you'll likely see something like On The Road, Naked Lunch, Junkie, etc.

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 03, 2003 at 23:09 UTC

    What? The script my workmate, who just spent all morning writing it, swears up and down worked perfectly before I got my hands on it even though I ran it once and it seems to have more bugs in it than a beehive didn't make the list? *sigh* Guess we're only going for mainstream works of fiction :-/

    Anonymous Monk   
    The first rule of perl club is....*DOH*

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by TStanley (Canon) on Sep 03, 2003 at 23:29 UTC
    I generally try to read the LoTR trilogy once a year, and have managed to read some of the other books listed on the poll (Harry Potter, Foundation (all 5)). I also enjoy Tom Clancy, Mercedes Lackey, and R.A. Salvatore.

    TStanley
    --------
    The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing -- Edmund Burke

      I remember reading somewhere on a Tolkien trivia site that Christopher Lee likes to read LOTR once a year also. Apparently he's the only member of the LOTR cast to have actually met Tolkien in person.

      -- vek --
        In the deluxe edition of the LoTR DVD set, there are two entire DVD's full of interviews with crew and cast of the movie. And Christopher Lee does mention that he reads the trilogy at least once per year, although I didn't know he had actually met Tolkien.

        TStanley
        --------
        The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing -- Edmund Burke
      I'm so glad someone else does this. I re-read LoTR without fail every year. Same with Dune (all of those by the original author, I'm not interested in subsequent publications by his son). Same with HHGTTG. Same with Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" every Christmas morning. I love the fact I get so many re-reads out of books - I'm not one of these people who reads them once and never again. If you don't go back to your books and re-read them you miss so much! Still to this day, every time I read HHGTTG I find a sentence or something that I've just never seen/fully appreciated before... Books for me are real value for money :)

      Bukowski - aka Dan (dcs@black.hole-in-the.net)
      "Coffee for the mind, Pizza for the body, Sushi for the soul" -Userfriendly

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by spacewarp (Pilgrim) on Sep 04, 2003 at 04:11 UTC
    Although I voted Colour of Magic, I actually don't like the first two books in the series, so I guess you wouldn't really catch me reading it...
    Spacewarp

    DISCLAIMER:
    Use of this advanced computing technology does not imply an endorsement
    of Western industrial civilization.
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by elbie (Curate) on Sep 03, 2003 at 12:37 UTC
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Flatland at best (excuse the pun) tangentially fiction? The whole book seemed to me to be an analogy of geometry (and hyper-geometry) wrapped in an overwhelmingly Victorian viewpoint. Granted, it's been a long time since I read it.

    elbieelbieelbie

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by bradcathey (Prior) on Sep 03, 2003 at 12:44 UTC
    I immediately parsed the list for the Classics, but, at the risk of offending, I only saw Ulysses (Joyce or Homer--doesn't matter), War &.+, Taming.+, and Rime.+. What about T. Hardy, George Eliot (read all of hers a couple of years ago--amazing insights) or the American, Edith Wharton? To quote Steve Martin, "I'm into language...ahhhhhhhh, ummmmm." To quote my kids, "Yeah, whatev."

    Point is, read some fiction--great analog activity needed by all us digitial divas.
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by cLive ;-) (Prior) on Sep 06, 2003 at 04:56 UTC
    Hmmm, let me use this to drop in a recommendation for Robert Rankin. If you like Pratchett, but want to go darker, he's you're man.

    Particularly the Brentford Trilogy and the Armaggeddon Trilogy - is there anyone who doesn't find the idea of Elvis travelling in time with a Brussel Sprout called Barry an interesting idea? Yes, "Nostradamus ate my hamster", "The dance of the voodoo handbag", "Raiders of the lost car park". And who can forget "The sprouts of wrath".

    Ahhh, the classics...

    cLive ;-)

    --

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by DigitalKitty (Parson) on Sep 08, 2003 at 03:33 UTC
    Hi.

    I was thinking of the book 'Neuromancer' since I read that in high school but then I started to reflect on those 4 years and a few other choices sprang to mind:

    • The reports from my guidance counselor that I read during the many parent/teacher/student meetings I endured.

    • Words of 'wisdom' from the vice-principal.

    • The mind-numbing high school propaganda that engulfed me with such memorable phrases as 'We are a team!', etc. In truth, high school is an intensely painful period of time for many adolescents. With the seemingly endless array of elitist cliques, giggling vacuous cheerleaders, and domineering jocks, it's rather amazing so many kids emerge without profound emotional scars.

    -Katie
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by blue_cowdawg (Monsignor) on Sep 04, 2003 at 17:43 UTC

    Some of my choices that weren't listed (but not limited to this list) are in no particular order:

    • Starship Troopers -- Robert Heinlein
    • Les Miserables
    • The Foundation Series
    • any of the Tom Clancy novels


    Peter L. Berghold -- Unix Professional
    Peter at Berghold dot Net
       Dog trainer, dog agility exhibitor, brewer of fine Belgian style ales. Happiness is a warm, tired, contented dog curled up at your side and a good Belgian ale in your chalice.
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by vili (Monk) on Sep 03, 2003 at 19:23 UTC
    Fiction? Ew!
    Reading fiction is much like playing video games.
    I always feel remorse for not doing something more productive.
    Cheers,
    ~vili
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by gregor42 (Parson) on Sep 04, 2003 at 20:16 UTC

    I'm shocked.... Nowhere on the list and not one comment about any book by William Gibson?!?

    Aside from the bastardization of the C word that every marketing putz from here to the moon still misuses over and over and over....

    Neuromancer, Count Zero, MonaLisa OverDrive - these are Classics...

    Virtual Light, All Tomorrow's Parties, Pattern Recognition - not so ground-breaking but more CURRENT anyway...

    Or is this like siting Citizen Kane as your favorite movie? Too obvious?

    Is this thing on?



    Wait! This isn't a Parachute, this is a Backpack!

      A real pity it is indeed!

      I try to reread these classics at least once every few years.

      CountZero

      "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by michaeld (Monk) on Sep 03, 2003 at 19:31 UTC

    What? No Terry Pratchett in there ??

    Cheers,
    MichaelD

      Um, who do you think wrote the "Colour of Magic"?
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 04, 2003 at 00:03 UTC
    Richard Stark's (Donald Westlake) "Parker" crime novels are the best.

    There's your anti-hero criminal mind. If he only knew perl!

    "The Great Perl Score" ...hmmm

    Andy

The only best selling fiction with perl code
by hawtin (Prior) on Sep 06, 2003 at 08:34 UTC

    How can the choices possibly not include Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon". To my knowledge the only best selling fiction book that includes a chunk of Perl code.

    And it does play some role in the story (at least in one of the stories)

      That was fiction????

      Damn.

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Ryszard (Priest) on Sep 05, 2003 at 09:18 UTC
    I bought and read the Da Vinci Code in one weekend, i couldnt put it down.

    I'm lucky enuff to be living in Europe, and found it a huge boon to go and visit The Lourve after reading the book.

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 08, 2003 at 14:48 UTC

    White House press releases. :-)

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by feloniousMonk (Pilgrim) on Sep 05, 2003 at 15:14 UTC
    Tough tough choice. Though I voted for the Gita, if multiple selections were allowed I would have voted in no particular order:

    • Lord of the Rings
    • Bhagavad Gita
    • Anything by H.P. Lovecraft
    • Harry Potter series
    • and The DaVinci Code because I haven't read it yet :-)

      -felonious--
Scott
by xtype (Deacon) on Sep 05, 2003 at 17:16 UTC
    Sir Walter Scott?
    In particular, I enjoyed Ivanhoe (1819).

    Although I have not read fiction for quite some time now.

    I did skim one of the first couple Harry Potter books to see what the fuss was about, I was un-impressed. Also I think that the likes of Merlin and Gandalf would be offended by her confusion of the words 'Wizard' and 'Warlock'. I believe that the author of that book has mucked up the word 'wizard' for future generations. 'Wizard' shows no preference to gender, and a Wizard does not have to be a Witch nor a Warlock. They are witches and warlocks in her story. I hope that the translations to other languages corrected that major flaw.

    -xtype
      I agree that Ivanhoe was good.
      But regarding Harry Potter, perhaps you could clean your glasses for another look. The constant themes of the stories are love, friendship and self-sacrifice, wonderfully told as JK is very good at hitting all the emotional pressure points.

      "Also I think that the likes of Merlin and Gandalf would be offended by her confusion of the words 'Wizard' and 'Warlock'" - oh give me a break.

      What themes run through LOTR? (Apart for a nasty little misogynist undercurrent).

      And now, as he looked and saw the whole Hellespont covered with the vessels of his fleet, and all the shore and every plain about Abydos as full as possible of men, Xerxes congratulated himself on his good fortune; but after a little while he wept...
      Asked why he was weeping he replied
      ..."There came upon me," replied he, "a sudden pity, when I thought of the shortness of man's life, and considered that of all this host, so numerous as it is, not one will be alive when a hundred years are gone by."
      The History of Herodotus By Herodotus Written about 440 B.C.
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by poqui (Deacon) on Sep 08, 2003 at 02:27 UTC
    "The Colour of Magic"!
    I'm about halfway through the series.
    Pratchett is one of the best.
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by kutsu (Priest) on Sep 04, 2003 at 17:24 UTC

    Being classified as a computer/history/Tolkien geek I had to vote for LOtR, but I wrote my end of the year geometry paper on Flatland in 10th grade so it always has a special place in my heart

    Caution: I'm not really a Tolkien geek as I can't speak Elvish

    "Pain is weakness leaving the body, I find myself in pain everyday" -me

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by JSchmitz (Canon) on Sep 08, 2003 at 13:00 UTC
    I keep looking at the list over and over again and I don't see Hitchhikers Guide am I at the right website? Hey where am I? ....what's going on?? Can't see through the darkness...gasping for air
      What??

      Are you telling me the Hitchhikers Guide is just fiction?

      /me removes babelfish from ear and cries softly...


      Teabag
      Sure there's more than one way, but one just needs one anyway - Teabag

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by tekniko (Deacon) on Sep 05, 2003 at 16:22 UTC
    I was surprised that Dune, et al, was missing from the list. Great stuff, if a bit cryptic in parts. Also, no Heinlein. What's the world coming to? Foundation...I voted for that. Excellent work; my favorite series of books.
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by talexb (Chancellor) on Sep 05, 2003 at 19:24 UTC

    I love fiction .. even fiction based on real events like Gone with the Wind which I just read for the first time last month. Quite a story, rich with detail, interesting characters, fascinating historical detail. And was there a sequel? Certainly the book ended with things (more or less) settled, but ..

    Alas, no John D. MacDonald (sp?) is on the list, nor any Tom Clancy .. although the latest of his that I read (Red Rabit) was surprisingly lame. Quite readable, but somewhat improbable and without any real climax. Disappointing.

    Slash has an announcement about an old Heinlein novel that's been discovered .. not sure if I'm looking forward to that or not. Some of his stories were hit and miss.

    I did read the latest Harry Potter though -- probably the best story of the bunch, and Harry is angry throughout most of the book. Good character development, more of an adult's book than a kids book.

    I do want to read about how Germany worked its way out of the Reichsmark disaster in the 1930s .. apparently they issued 'rented marks' .. if anyone can suggest a source, I'd love to read it.

    So many books, so little time ..

    --t. alex
    Life is short: get busy!
      I've spent the last three years studying History and one of the topics was the rise of Hitler. I do make a habit of collecting history books and *borrowing* the school text books but haven't found a book specifically on Germany's economy for that period, yet. I would suggest any book focusing on the reparations Germany were forced to pay after the Treaty of Versailles or of the Great Depression as that's what led to the hyperinflation. So...I don't know of any decent books covering this but..there's always the web :-) If anyone else knows of any books though that would be great :)
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by logan (Curate) on Sep 08, 2003 at 04:12 UTC
    Yep, this one really could have used check boxes. Seems like most of us read several different types of fiction. As a matter of fact, I'm reading both "The Two Towers" and "Thief of Time" right now. A few weeks ago during the blackout, "Flatland" was the only book I could find with large enough print to read by candlelight, as I wasn't about to risk dripping candle wax on my copy of "Dark Night 2" and my copy of "Fellowship" has like 8 point type.

    It's actually a credit to Perlmonks that so many of us are readers, and have broad tastes. I'm curious, though. What type of fiction is "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"? It's unlike anything I've ever read that wasn't also by Hunter S. Thompson.

    -Logan
    "What do I want? I'm an American. I want more."

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by atcroft (Abbot) on Sep 08, 2003 at 04:13 UTC

    When I have the time, in general you'd find me between sci-fi, psychological thrillers, and American Civil War period. At the moment, as I look at my bookshelf, you would probably find me somewhere between a Thomas Harris novel , a Robert Heinlein novel (I have about 30+ of his), or one of the novels by Michael and Jeff Shaara, with Douglas Adams, Tom Clancy, William Gibson, H.P. Lovecraft, (and as soon as I actually have more time to catch back up) Neal Stevenson, and J.R.R. Tolkien thrown in for spice.

    (I also have a copy of both "The Art of War" and "The Bhagavad Gita" packed away somewhere I need to dig out and finish as well.)

    (Yes, I have a weakness for bookstores and good books, but don't let them know that...)

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 04, 2003 at 23:31 UTC

      I bought a Bathroom reader once. Er, prolly shouldn't be admitting that should I?

      :-)

      -- vek --
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by Jonathan (Curate) on Sep 05, 2003 at 15:21 UTC
    I've read about 3/4's of the options but other than Harry Potter and War and Peace (of course!), I'll never read any of them again. (though I'll happily watch The Taming of the Shrew)

    LOTR - I read as a teenager (who didn't). Thought it very slow and a lot of the descriptive prose truly awful. On given a copy of the book I can make any Tolkien fan squirm with embarrassment within 40 seconds. It is not hard :-)

    Foundation - also read when I was a teenager so I guess I was too old to appreciate it.

    Steppenwolf - well I guess we all go through that phase.

    Gravity's rainbow - was good but not (IMO) worth re-reading.

    Where are the Homer, Virgil, Jane Austin, Cervantes and Patrick O'Brian (couldn't resist adding) options?

    When the bells justle in the tower
    The hollow night amid,
    Then on my tongue the taste is sour
    Of all I ever did.
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by helgi (Hermit) on Sep 08, 2003 at 09:34 UTC
    I found no option for "most of the above".


    --
    Regards,
    Helgi Briem
    hbriem AT simnet DOT is

Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by vek (Prior) on Sep 05, 2003 at 04:07 UTC

    What no Dean Koontz or James Herbert?

    -- vek --
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by /dev/null (Chaplain) on Sep 07, 2003 at 23:08 UTC
    I was suprised Cryptonomicon and Neuromancer were not on the list. Neal Stephenson has a Perl script in Cryptonomicon.
GEB:aEGB
by jonadab (Parson) on Sep 08, 2003 at 14:06 UTC

    Currently reading <cite>Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid</cite>, which is fascinating. Oh, and I just finished Apocalypse 6; that counts as fiction, right?


    $;=sub{$/};@;=map{my($a,$b)=($_,$;);$;=sub{$a.$b->()}} split//,".rekcah lreP rehtona tsuJ";$\=$ ;->();print$/
      Great Book! I found myself reading passages multiple times to digest what I had just read. In fact, a node on perlmonks inspired a response from Hofstadter.
Re: The sort of fiction you're most likely to find me reading:
by BigLug (Chaplain) on Sep 09, 2003 at 08:11 UTC
    I voted 'foundation' although I don't like it. Couldn't read it. However plain sci-fi is my genre of choice so while I enjoyed some of the other books more than 'foundation', it's the genre that counts. My faves would be anything by Heinlein or and of the straight sci-fi from Orson Scott Card (such as the Ender series). I'm currently reading 'Enchantment' by OSC and reasonably enjoying it. I figure if I like his other stuff I should at least try all of the fantasy. I didn't like Alvin Maker at all! Oh, Greg Bear is another fave, once again the straight SF like EON and Moving Mars.

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