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What book are you reading at the moment?

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How not to murder your mother!

 

Its not all that great to be honest but it does make me giggle at times! Reminds me more of my friends Mum than mine though lol

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Love My Rifle More than You by Kayla Williams

 

A very honest hard hitting memoir of the author's experiences as a young woman in the US army in Iraq. Sometimes funny, sometimes shocking - very good writing.

 

K x

 

 

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Embracing The Wide Sky: A tour across the horizons of the human mind by Daniel Tammet. I'm only about half way through yet, but really enjoying it. Daniel is HFA and also has Savant Syndrome. The book isn't autism heavy but Daniel uses his experiences to explain issues such as memory, genetics, talents etc. It dispels many of the myths about Savants (particularly those set up by Rainman!!)

 

 

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Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier.

 

Its a novel about Mary Anning, the Victorian woman from Lyme Regis who discovered previously unknown fossils there. But its also an exploration of the power of friendship between women, as it also tells the story of Elizabeth Philpot, another keen fossil hunter but who did it for pleasure rather than to earn a living. Their shared passion for these 'remarkable creatures' transcended age & class.

 

Loved it. Thought I would, as I enjoyed Girl with a Pearl Earring too, but we know Lyme so well that I felt like I was there. Wish I'd had it with me on holiday this year.

Edited by pearl

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This week I am reading The book of tomorrow by Cecilia Ahern, its her new book. Heard her interview on radio 4, irish writers are great. Its a reserved book as its just came out, so i have a 2 weeks to read it and dont think will be done by monday, but will try. I read a book 6 months ago which i enjoyed called Lady of Milkwood manor, a great read!! Aspergers books take the priority, i am still looking at Tony Attwoood complet guid to As. I read his first one, when we got diagnosis.

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Pearl - talking of Tracy Chevalier, have you read Burning Bright also by her? It's partly about William Blake, although he's not the central character. I enjoyed it.

 

I've just finished Revolutionary Road which was good, and unputdownable. I'm glad I read it before seeing the film. Actually I'm not sure I even want to see the film as it features two of my least favourite actors in the whole world. :wacko:

 

K x

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Pearl - talking of Tracy Chevalier, have you read Burning Bright also by her? It's partly about William Blake, although he's not the central character. I enjoyed it.

 

I have indeed Kathryn. I like William Blake. Well, as he was portrayed in the novel, anyhow.

 

 

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The Shack - Willaim P Young The Shack

 

I was intrigued by this book, because it had so many postive reviews on amazon, yet i was undecided because it seemed to be in a religious vein, which i didn't think i would enjoy.

 

Well it was a brilliant read, it hasn't converted me, but it has answered some questions, and made me look at many things (forgiveness especailly) in a whole new way.

 

 

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The Satanic Bible by Anton La Vey

 

I'm not a Satanist, I don't particularly plan on being a Satanist but quite a lot of what it says makes sense and/or resonates.

 

:)

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Haven't posted on this thread for aaaaages because I've been reading a stonking 1100 page historical saga -

 

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.

 

Basically, the story of the building of a cathedral over a period of about 30 years in the 12th century - but with a cast of interesting characters & lots of battles, intrigue, romance & some really bad sex :lol:

 

I enjoyed it enough to finish it, but shan't bother with the sequel - life's too short.

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Rereading

 

"They Came And Ate:

Armageddon II: The B Movie"

 

By Robert Rankin

 

:D

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I decided to try and see what all the hype was about and I'm reading Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. It's OK, but that's about it.

 

I've also recently read Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, which was interesting.

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J-pod by Douglas Coupland. And one of the characters has AS tendancies ... also it is very wacky and funny. but thats just me... I thought yeah right for ages, but my husband forced me practically to read it. He's read it about 5 times in the last 2 yrs... Definately recommend! :robbie:

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Nick Hornby: Juliet, Naked.

 

because of the slightly obsessive nature of Duncan the Crowologist, which I found fascinating, I'm in the middle of a read-through: How to be good - A long way down - About a boy (Marcus :P ) - High fidelity.

I was thinking about buying the movie but obviously the aspie traits of Marcus have been smoothed over (look here).

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I'm reading Why Does E=mc(squared) by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. I was not expecting it to be this complicated, but I think I am understanding just about enough to keep track of what it is saying.

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I'm reading Why Does E=mc(squared) by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. I was not expecting it to be this complicated, but I think I am understanding just about enough to keep track of what it is saying.

 

So why does it then? :lol:

 

I'm reading Chris Evan's autobiog purely because it was handy for grabbing the last time I was in the library. It's rubbish. Before that I was reading 'Juliet Naked' by Nick Hornby. That was very poor too. Also dipping in and out of Alan Bennett's 'Untold Stories'. I do like AB, but he's a bit dry for a long read, iykwim.

 

:D

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Well, mainly the answer is because it makes sense. That is what you do in Science apparently. You come up with an idea, and then test it. And if it works then it is true. And when you put the numbers in from things we observe, then it works. I don't really understand the things they talk about in the book, so it may be complete rubbish, but I think that a pair of physics professors have too much invested professionally to write things that aren't true. Also, it's something to do with spacetime and clocks ticking faster on the train than on the platform and all that stuff, I am sure you know what I mean :lol:

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Well, mainly the answer is because it makes sense. That is what you do in Science apparently. You come up with an idea, and then test it. And if it works then it is true. And when you put the numbers in from things we observe, then it works. I don't really understand the things they talk about in the book, so it may be complete rubbish, but I think that a pair of physics professors have too much invested professionally to write things that aren't true. Also, it's something to do with spacetime and clocks ticking faster on the train than on the platform and all that stuff, I am sure you know what I mean :lol:

 

 

If nothing travels faster than the speed of light, can anything travel faster than nothing?

 

And if nothing travels faster than the speed of light, what about the light from a torch that's been strapped to the front of a rocket?

 

And if E=MC2 what letter = MC Hammer?

 

:D

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We are not yet able to travel anywhere near the speed of light in a rocket, but these particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva can make small particles travel pretty close to it. The speed of light is a cosmic speed limit, and nothing will ever be able to travel faster than it, but we may equal it some day. So the rocket will never overtake the torch's light because that is impossible.

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We are not yet able to travel anywhere near the speed of light in a rocket, but these particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva can make small particles travel pretty close to it. The speed of light is a cosmic speed limit, and nothing will ever be able to travel faster than it, but we may equal it some day. So the rocket will never overtake the torch's light because that is impossible.

 

 

No - you've misunderstood...

The beam from the light on the front of a rocket would be travelling at the speed of light + the speed of the rocket! It doesn't matter how fast the rocket is travelling, it's the principle that counts. So the beam of light from a torch strapped to the shell of a tortoise would be travelling at the speed of light + 1 tortoise speed i.e. one tortoise faster than the speed of light! :lol:

The problem with science is that someone comes up with an idea, then looks for the evidence to 'prove' it, and then they find the evidence and rather than proving anything it just opens up another huge can of worms. I'm a collectivist existentialist - everything and everyone only exists because I exist to perceive them, but then everything i perceive has it's own perception too, including me! And we all live on the back of a giant tortoise, which goes ALLLLLL the way down and was made by god, gods, or other mythical entities which do or don't make a noise when they fall over in an empty forest depending on how hard they are listening. :wacko:

 

:D

 

Oh - and as for the large hadron collider... they won't really know what's going on and what's actually possible/happening until they've built the small hadron avoider and the medium-sized hadron 'nudger'.

Edited by baddad

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STart reading the paragraph that starts near the top of the page: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a24/Tallulah550/light.jpg

 

ANd continues over the page: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a24/Tallulah550/light1.jpg

 

Michelson and Morley, by the way, showed that the speed of light viewed from earth does not vary seasonally, as you would expect if light travelled through the "ether" rather than empty space.

 

Remember that the earth is moving in space, so the speed of light viewed from earth should vary depending which direction it was coming from. But it does not. It's all because of spacetime.

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You're taking me far too seriously! :lol:

 

But how can there be one 'lightspeed' when we know that light is made up of a spectrum of different wavelengths (colours) that all travel at different velocities? Do they all compromise and travel at the frequency of the slowest, or do the faster ones carry the slower ones or do they just stop occassionally to give the slowies time to catch up? And if you're looking at a light source billions of miles away and it suddenly gets turned off, does the darkness from the switching off travel at the speed of light too? If so, then darkness matches the speed of light and the whole theory collapses. And if darkness and light both travel at the same speed then why is grey dragging its ar*e like that? Come on, grey, get your finger out!

And if the universe is shaped like a saddle does that mean God is a pony? And if God is a pony who does the mucking out? And can I have a couple of kilos for my roses, please?

 

Who was that great philosopher who said 'time is just a concept by which we measure our age?' Oh yeah, St. Bob of Geldof - it's a rat trap, Billy, and you've been caught! :lol:

 

L&P

 

BD :whistle:

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The Satanic Bible by Anton La Vey

 

I'm not a Satanist, I don't particularly plan on being a Satanist but quite a lot of what it says makes sense and/or resonates.

 

:)

 

I read that years ago; it would have been much better without La Vey's rantings lol. His biography also makes interesting reading, written by one of his ex-wives!

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The Island by Guy N. Smith

 

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Puckoon - funniest novel ever written IMHO, despite the occassional 'patchy' bits (SM - what would you expect?) Pity Spike couldn't ecxercise that kind of quality self-control in all his work :(

 

Haven't posted in here for a while but thought my current book might be of interest: MYSTERY MAN - By (Colin) Bateman.

 

The reason I thought it might be of interest is because the main character is very OCD and 'Active but Odd'. Not specifically autistic, and some very strange background stuff (he lives at home with his overbearing, disabled mum - but a huge number of 'traits' along with all sorts of other life complicators. All presented in a very funny, very matter of fact and very accepting way, without him being heroic, or tragic, or any of the other cliches that might have reared their heads.

 

He's a (relatively) succesful business man with his own book shop specialising in crime/mystery novels (a bit of an obsession - he knows all the trivia, etc etc) who finds himself unwittingly becoming a detective when the detective agency next door closes down without warning and all the real private eyes clients come in asking after him. Love interest comes from the gorgeous girl he's worshipped from afar who works in the jeweller's opposite his shop, and that part is really funny as he (partly because of OCD and partly because of his total lack of experience/awareness) keeps rejecting her advances despite being madly in love with her. She takes him on a picnic where he's scared of eating the sandwiches (IBS), worried by the dangers of flies, cows and dutch elm-disease, and terrified that she'll try to kiss him (date nerves + worried about the germs).

Another good 'sketch' was where she phones him, slightly frustrated, at 3 in the morning:

 

She phoned me at 3 a.m. I was still up looking for patterns [in his carpet/whatever] , but faked a yawn for her benefit...

... She then said, 'So are you in bed now?'

'Yes'

'What do you have on?'

'My pyjamas.'

'Do you know what I have on?'

'No.'

'The radio.'

'Why?'

'I don't really. I have no clothes on. I am naked.'

'Okay.'

There was a long pause.

Eventually I said, 'What time tomorrow?'

'Lunchtime.'

'I have to go now,' I said. 'Mother's calling.'

'I don't hear anything.'

'She may have fallen out of bed.'

'If a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears does it still fall?'

'What?'

'Doesn't matter. I'll see you tomorrow.' Don't be going to sleep thinking about me being naked.'

'Okay.'

I put the phone down. There was no doubt about it. She was odd as begot.

-------

 

Haven't got to the end yet, but hoping that Bateman doesn't kill them off and there might be a series!

 

L&P

 

BD :D

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I've just read Simon King's autobiography, Wild Life. I especially liked the bit where he says he likes to climb a tree when he is finding a social situation difficult, and sometimes sneaks out of elegant parties to do so.

 

Now I am reading Shooting In The Wild by Chris Palmer about the ethics of wildlife film-making.

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I'm reading 'Adrian Mole - The Prostrate Years' by Sue Townsend. I grew up with the Mole books and loved them and recently re-read quite a few. This new one is just as good, if not better. In some ways it's a bit different, because it contains more emotions. I'm only half-way through at the moment, but it's quite sad in parts, which I don't remember the others being, at least not in the same way. :)

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Haven't posted in here for a while but thought my current book might be of interest: MYSTERY MAN - By (Colin) Bateman.

 

I've just finished this, it was absolutely hilarious, thoroughly enjoyed it. Trying to persuade my DH and DS to read it too.

 

I've been reading quite a few Jodi Picoult's recently, very much enjoyed 'Handle with Care', started 'Picture Perfect' but got bored halfway through and put it on hold. Have been waiting for 'House Rules' (about AS teen) for ages, reserved it at the library and finally got it yesterday. So far, have to say I'm disappointed, not impressed at all, maybe I was expecting too much. I'll persevere with it though, although it feels like a bit of a trial at the moment.

 

~ Mel ~

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On my holiday (the only time I read) I galloped through "May contain nuts" chortling at all the scenarios I recognised from my more aspiring neighbours. Brilliantly observed. Also Nick Hornby's "How to be Good" which started off very dark but got better. Plus Essential Spanish for Kids which increased my slang vocab. and then a history of Granada, which were all lying around in the house in Spain. Then I worked out how to do the internet on my phone and that was that.

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Update (Aug-Nov):

I "found" Terry Pratchett. So: Interesting Times, Going Postal, Unseen Academicals.

In addition: Adrian Mole: the Prostrate years

LOTR (Re-read), The Simarillion

Making Money; The Colour of Magic, Equal Rites, The Last Continent; Guards! Guards!; The Fifth Elephant; Men at Arms; Jingo; Thud; Feet of Clay (that's my reading order, not the suggested one).

Re-reads: Nick Hornby, Juliet, naked, Ch. Moore: George and Sam, Paul Collins: Not even wrong.

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