Question What are you reading?

[Deltafang]

I recently bought Mars Life by Ben Nova when I was browsing the train station bookstore. Apparently everyone here has high opinions of him, I haven't started reading it yet so I'll have to start.

I finished Mars Crossing by Geoffrey Landis a few weeks back, and I have to say, that was a spectacular book. One of the best 'hard' sci-fi renditions of a Mars exploration I have read.

In that same week I finished reading Star Dragon by Mike Brotherton. That was good too although the concept of organic future technologies scared me a bit.

After Mars Life, I'm slated to read the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Anyone have any opinions on it?

 

[Enjo]

I've just ordered How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics, by Zbigniew Michalewicz and, David B. Fogel. Should help against those i = i + 1 numerical methods of solving problems in my everyday programming

 

[Izack]

I know I'm more than a bit late, but I've just picked up Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I've seen the films and read a quintripleskillion (saw that number elsewhere in this forum and was just dying to use it, sorry) quotes from it, but I'm finally going to actually get it read. I've read some of his short stories, though.

 

[n122vu]

David Sherman/Dan Cragg - First to Fight - Starfist Book 1

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/First-Fight-Starfist-Book-1/dp/0345406222"]Amazon.com: First to Fight (Starfist, Book 1) (9780345406224): David Sherman, Dan Cragg: Books[/ame]

 

[Loru]

Today: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

 

[rucinter]

"Failure is not an option" by Gene Krantz. I'm reading it for a while and I don't really want to finish it just yet.

 

[N_Molson]

"L'astronautique soviétique" by Christian Lardier.

It's an history of the soviet space program, from the first theories around 1900 to the Mir Station. The author worked with soviet scientists during some Europe-USSR space projects, so there is a lot of very interesting data you don't find easily on the Net

 

[tblaxland]

Not sure if magazine articles qualify for this list but I found this one really interesting: Australian National Maritime Museum: Sail Handling on Endeavour* - A description of how the ship's sail plan is adjusted when sailing with a well-trained crew to compensate for different wind strengths.

EDIT: *That's Her Majesty's Bark Endeavour, the working replica of Cook's HMB Endeavour.

 

[Izack]

I should make a list of the books mentioned in this thread, and go look 'em up. Some of these sound like some fine reads.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I've just started "Time Traveller's Never Die" by Jack McDevitt.
Recently finished "The Scourge of God" by William Dietrich (rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers for historical fiction) and "The Time Traveller's Wife", much better than the movie (of course, very, very clever book, but still mostly for chicks).

 

[SiberianTiger]

Swapping several times a day from Jonh Hull's 'Options, Futures and Other Derivatives', to a couple of books on Java concurrency and an online training course. I feel like my head is going to explode! :beathead:

 

[Graham2001]

James Oberg's "Red Star in Orbit", while rendered somewhat obsolete by time, it's still a look into how much we didn't know about the Soviet space program thirty years ago.

 

[Urwumpe]

Not sure if magazine articles qualify for this list but I found this one really interesting: Australian National Maritime Museum: Sail Handling on Endeavour* - A description of how the ship's sail plan is adjusted when sailing with a well-trained crew to compensate for different wind strengths.

Where can I get this magazine article? It sounds really interesting.

 

[Loru]

Today: Storming Interpid by Payne Harrison

Late Cold War era novel about "Star Wars" program.

"Its payload bay carrying the components to make "Star Wars" a working reality, the American space shuttle Intrepid blasts off into space. Then something goes terribly wrong, and a military satellite learns that Intrepid is no longer under American control."

 

[Unkas]

Just finished The Revolt of the Masses by José Ortega y Gasset

And finishing Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier.

Both a clear recommendation

 

[lennartsmit]

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert.

 

[Graham2001]

Shuttle by David C. Onley, it is amazing what authors came up with in the early 1980s, see below:



I'm still trying to figure out where the SSME fuel was stored on this one.

 

[Star Voyager]

Just finished "Shuttle Down" by Lee Corey. It's about the Atlantis launching from Vandenberg in the early 80's. Due to a premature MECO, the 4 person crew is forced to land on Easter Island. The book is mainly about the recovery process (which is pretty ingenious, by the way). It is a very action packed techno-thriller that I would recommend to any STS fan (especially Graham, who can add this book to the "Fictional Astronauts" page :thumbup.

 

[Graham2001]

Just finished "Shuttle Down" by Lee Corey. It's about the Atlantis launching from Vandenberg in the early 80's. Due to a premature MECO, the 4 person crew is forced to land on Easter Island. The book is mainly about the recovery process (which is pretty ingenious, by the way). It is a very action packed techno-thriller that I would recommend to any STS fan (especially Graham, who can add this book to the "Fictional Astronauts" page :thumbup.

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll keep an eye out for that one.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

At work during lunch I'm reading "The Battle of the Labyrinth" (the 4th Percy Jackson book. Everywhere else I'm reading "The Dakota Cipher" which is another William Dietrich book with Ethan Gage adventure.