Read any good books lately?

[Decaman]

I hadn't read in years untili picked up the davinci code by dan brown, couldnt put the damn thing down. Then I read the story that was supposed to be before that angels and demons and thought that was even better. Now i am onto deception point and thats really good also. Dan brown is excellent. Any one read any good thrillers/fiction/suspense stuff lately because after this one and digital fortress I am out of dan brown books and want to grab something along those lines.

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[Monster]

I just finished a political science book called "Hidden Agendas" by Dan Pilger.
Im starting a book on cryptovirology and looking at the ins and outs of writing a virus that is encrypted and undetectable (since an antivirus scanner wouldnt be able to detect the algorithm of a virus which is encrypted). Its not as dull as it sounds... honestly...

Then Im s-l-o-w-l-y working my way through "Mastering Active Directory" (for work reasons).

Dont get me started on audio bokks though!!! Being in the car a lot it allows me to enjoy literature while driving!! My iPod is packed full!
I currently have in rotation:

*The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy (all of them) by Douglas Adams (read by the author)

*The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighari (read by John Cleese, lol!)

*1984 by George Orwell

*a bunch of Noam Chomsky lectures

*A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

...and a few other odds and ends.

-------------------------
Monsterland Is (NOT)Open Again!!! (http://68.43.66.69:66/monsterland.htm) (dont say you werent warned...)

"Trying is the first step towards failure."
http://www.bodo.com/simpsons/zhomerb.gif "Well, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is... never try."

[archive_LuckyDog]

The May issue of PlayBoy, Mens Health, and Maxim...oh wait, you didn't mean those publications... http://anabolicfitness.infopop.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Well since it's summer and I don't have classes I actually get to read books I want now which is nice and I just finished You Have More Than You Think by the Motley Fool Brothers David and Tom Gardner and it was quite interesting and a very easy read and comical. For those who want to get started investing for their future, this is a great start tothe Stock Market. Bought The Adonis Complex a couple years ago and finally will read it just to see how amusing it really is. Some other good ones for younger readers such as myself, The Physics of Immortality is a good read, and on the recommendation of Bjaarki, The memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant is a phenominal read, and originally from Fukken and then B, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. To be honest, those are all I have read recently (All training and BB books aside) but reading is such a great thing to pick up...I truly wish I had more time to read than I do, b/c I can never get enough. When I saw this thread, I immediately thought of B and I'm sure he'll be around soon enough with works that you'll all love. Take care.

LD

Education is a continuous process ending only when ambition comes to a halt.
-Col. R. I. Rees

[South of the border]

Pleased to know that I am not the only bookworm here...

I read everything: magazines, novels, Biographies, ect. I have been reading a lot of investment books in the last years.

I go up North to the US once a year and I always bring back quite a few books.

[Decaman]

I am glad myself to have rediscovered it. Reading can take you to another place for that period of time your doing it.

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Deal with reality
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[macdaddy]

I really enjoy John Sanford, his Det Davenport books, I think I've read them all and am currently working on Naked Prey.

I read DaVinci Code (in one night), I didn't really like it because Dan Brown seems to present things as fact which aren't fact, other things he presents are factual and fascinating.

Hey Monster I occasionally need to read afor work, I'm a systems engineer, I can't read computer books sitting down, I'll fall asleep.

[PQ]

I enjoyed The DaVinci Code...but you're right Brown takes a few facts and totally skews them. However, that's what makes his work enjoyable. After reading the phantom hand reference in "The Last Supper" painting I was pulling out every art history book I own to find the painting and look for the hand. Remember that one?

It's one thing to read a book, enjoy the story and go...it's quite another to be intrigued by it enough to do your own outside research and sleuthing.

[macdaddy]

I know what you mean, I had fun looking up Opus Dei on the web.

[Decaman]

THats funny i was doing the same thing. Looking a the last supper, checking up on opus dei. I can't tell you how fascinated I was about the fact that jesus could have had a child and the whole mary magdelene thing. Is it so far fetched?

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[Decaman]

Hey pharm queen did you read angels and demons?

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[PQ]

Not yet, but it's on the list...I'm into The Fifth Angel by Tim Green right now..and I can't put it down lol!

[Decaman]

Really whats that about ? is it like a suspense thriller thing?

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[PQ]

Yes it is...a man's daughter is kidnapped, brutalized and after a joke of a prison term, her captor goes free. Of course the father goes ape sh*t and proceeds to stalk down the kidnapper/rapist and others like him. It's a very graphic book, more so than I think I'm comfortable with, but now that I've gotten into it I can't put it down without first finding out if the father's crimes will eventually corrupt him and end up making him as animalistic as the men he's hunting. Of course throughout all of this, the typical young detective is trying to find out who's killing sexual predators left and right. But why not let these men get what they deserve? It's a "where do you draw the line between revenge and wanton violence" kind of thing.

It's a suspenseful crime story though and it flows nicely. So far every chapter is a bit of a cliff-hanger in itself...that's why I bet I can finish it tomorrow if I don't plow through the rest tonight. http://anabolicfitness.infopop.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

[macdaddy]

I think the farfetched thing about Jesus with a wife and baby is His life and ministry are pretty well documented, it would've been spelled out. There wouldn't have been any reason not to spell it out?

[Monster]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="**-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by macdaddy:
I think the farfetched thing about Jesus with a wife and baby is His life and ministry are pretty well documented, it would've been spelled out. There wouldn't have been any reason not to spell it out?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Its no different than what WE see of the war versus what the rest of the world sees of it. Its written by the people who are trying to gain from it. There were loads of cults of people claiming to have the "messaih" among them... look at the various books of the new testament and see how each apostle tells a very different story of jesus.
One tells of the son of god come as a shepard, one tells of a King of Men come to rule, and so on. I think people forget that the new testament was written by men, not by the hand of god.
And dont foget Peter. Actually read the book of Peter some time, actually take it in and dont just skim it. Peter was VERY hateful toward women and very jealous of the esteem that Jesus held Mary Magdelene in, so no matter if you wish to believe she was his wife or not, you have to at least see that it is human nature to make a story fit your own ends and beliefs.

Also, Jesus was jewish and was a rabbi. In Judaism it is an act against God for a Rabbi not to take a wife and bear children. Jews (and actually most non-christians) believe that even a religous leader has a resposibility to build Gods flock.

Actually, Jesus life is very poorly documented. Major portions of his life are missing from the gospels and many books of the gospel (the agnostic gospel, gospels by others of the twelve apostles) were destroyed as heresy by the church during the Inquisition.

I dont say any of this to change anyones minds or sway opinions. Each persons beliefs are their own... too many people feel that any new truths to Jesus destroys him and his memory and I just feel like it all makes his life that much more intersting.

(Plus I have an odd interest in it http://anabolicfitness.infopop.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Im from the Languedoc/Rousillon region of france and descended from devout Johanites.)



Macdaddy:

Heh heh, computer books can be really dull. I find that the ones by Mark Minasi are good. He has a dry kind of wit in his wrinting... we had one of our clients let their "in house computer guru" (a.k.a. some guy who secretly read XP for Dummies and shows off all the tricks he knows) take a shot at a problem they had on their server.
Next thing you know we're getting a paniced phone call that the whole network is down... I decide to go and have a look and find that he has somehow managed to delete almost 100 roaming profiles, disabled a DNS server and changed DHCP from being handled by the DHCP server to being handled by the router. The router which is not currently handling DHCP and is only working as a pass-through. http://anabolicfitness.infopop.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
So Ive been trying to brush up on AD... I didnt realize how out of practice I was till I had to roll out that whole network again. I think Im a programmer at heart...
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-------------------------
Monsterland Is (NOT)Open Again!!! (http://68.43.66.69:66/monsterland.htm) (dont say you werent warned...)

"Trying is the first step towards failure."
http://www.bodo.com/simpsons/zhomerb.gif "Well, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is... never try."

[macdaddy]

Monster, interesting ponts you bring up about Jesus, I've read some of the same things. The thing about the gnostic gospels is there aren't any extant manuscripts that date before 325 AD, whereas the 4 canonized gospels there are ancient manuscripts from as early as 125 AD, which is only about 25 years after it was written.

Before I couls comment on Peter's view of women, I want to know which passages you were refering to. Concering women though. Jesus was considered a radical by even recognizing them, women weren't counted as much in that culture and certainly weren't honored in any way. Jesus interaction with Mary Magdeline was probably considered "disgusting" by the religious rulers of the day. He definately didn't fit the norm and it probably is part of what got Him killed.

If He was married I don't think it would cahnge my beliefs, I'll ask Him someday.

[Monster]

I wish I could name any passages off the top of my head, but I cant, I actually went to seminary school (Sacred Heart in Detroit), but it was long, long ago. My family history has loads and loads of Jesuit priests and IHM nuns. But Peter is widely believed (amoung biblical scholars) to be the one who started the story that Mary Magdelene was a prostitute. She was actually from a very influental family at the time and would definatly NOT have been a prostitute as her family was considered quite wealthy for those days...

I didnt read the Davinci Code, but I know from a lot of research into the region my family came from that after the death of Jesus, Mary Magdalene fled to southern Gaul (now the south of France) with a large portion of the Jews of the time to avoid persecution by the Romans. Because of that many people of French, Scottish and some English decent actually have ancestors of Jewish decent and dont realize it.

It was said that Mary Magdelene carried the bones of Christ with her and that among the things the Jews brought with them was the Arc of the Covenent (taken from below the Temple of Solomon in palestine). It was belived to have been stored in a chamber below one of the many cathedrals in the Languedoc area... during WWII Hitler spent a lot of time excavating the area trying to locate it.
I think it was moved by a priest by the name of Dominic (later to become Saint Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order) to a\the tomb of Dagobert in the area to keep it safe. Dagobert was said to be of the blood line of Christ and was guaranteed the recognition his blood line granted by Pope Clementine (again, Im trying to remember names from a long time back... http://anabolicfitness.infopop.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif) but was betrayed lated and assassinated by Pope Innocent the II because he was held in such high regard by the Mergovingians that Rome was afraid he would become a threat to the churchs seat of power. His death is believed to be the point of schism between the House of David and the Roman Cathoilic Church as we know it today. In those days they honored the true sabbath (saturday) and followed the original teachings (no meat at all during lent - not just fridays, no pork at all, complete non violence as opposed to the roman addition to the bible of "an eye for an eye", and so on)...

<BLOCKQUOTE class="**-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
The thing about the gnostic gospels is there aren't any extant manuscripts that date before 325 AD, whereas the 4 canonized gospels there are ancient manuscripts from as early as 125 AD, which is only about 25 years after it was written.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
But if you know where to look you can find record of the destruction of "heretical" manuscripts written by other of the twelve apostles being destroyed by the church. With the heresies mentioned being everything from a coverup during the crucifiction to Jesus acknowledging John the Baptist as his religious better (a thing which Davinci believed ferverently).

But its all neither here nor there. I think if a persons beliefs lead them to be a better person then theyre doing ok, regardless of what the beliefs might be.

Sorry to go all religous on you guys. Its the Sacred Heart influence. I never had intended to become a priest when I was there, but the thought of becoming a biblical scholar was appealing at the time...

(kind of makes you laugh when you think of how I turned out http://www.anabolicfitness.net/smileys/lol2[1].gif)

-------------------------
Monsterland Is (NOT)Open Again!!! (http://68.43.66.69:66/monsterland.htm) (dont say you werent warned...)

"Trying is the first step towards failure."
http://www.bodo.com/simpsons/zhomerb.gif "Well, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is... never try."

[Decaman]

Anyone read any of those dark tower books by stephen king? I think there is 6 or 7 of them

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[hooker]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="**-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Decaman:
THats funny i was doing the same thing. Looking a the last supper, checking up on opus dei. I can't tell you how fascinated I was about the fact that jesus could have had a child and the whole mary magdelene thing. Is it so far fetched?

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually, it's pretty well established that J.C. would have been "forced" to procreate by Jewish Tradition. He was heir to the House of David (as in "Star of David") as well as being royalty through the house of Aaron. He would have had to produce progeny...it's just common sense. Nobody in those days would have been a King and a swingin' bachelor (with no children)at the age of 33...it's absurd.

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[VOX - DEI]

LD, "The Physics of Immortality", I actually remember buying that book, or my mom did rather, I must have been in high school when I read that one.

[harddtime]

Just finished Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, long read but it was truly an amazing book. If you got the time i suggest giving it a go.

- harddtime

[hooker]

Ayn Rand is one of my pet peeves....

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