legov Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Perhaps the generation who grew up with free porn on t'internet are more deserving of the 'beat generation' moniker. Mmmm creamy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 14, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 14, 2012 Perhaps the generation who grew up with free porn on t'internet are more deserving of the 'beat generation' moniker.Reminds me - thanks for the tip on that Beat Generation Jazz CD. Excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 No worries, it's a good one alright. Interestingly the booklet claims Francis Ford Coppola is making On The Road, well that's half true, he bought the rights back in his S.E Hinton phase, but Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) is directing it, and it's out later this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veloman Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Well despite advice given many pages ago, I would still like to read 'Atlas Shrugged' but is not in the library and I have never seen it in St Giles Hospice book shop ! (my usual source of reading material due to state of penury) I have recently finished a rather 'odd' book called 'The Coming Race' - very early sci-fi; anyone read that ? For anyone reading to help with insomnia; may I recommend anything by Spicer and Pegler ! (Anyone who has studied Accountancy will know what I mean) My favourite book at school - 'The Boys Book of Girls' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted March 15, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2012 South Park"] Yes, at first I was happy to be learning how to read. It seemed exciting and magical, but then I read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I read every last word of this garbage, and because of this piece of shit, I am never reading again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 15, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2012 Well despite advice given many pages ago, I would still like to read 'Atlas Shrugged' but is not in the library and I have never seen it in St Giles Hospice book shop ! (my usual source of reading material due to state of penury) However, Levi is correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veloman Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 However, Levi is correct. Thanks for that MJM and I fully acknowledge that it will probably be 'odd'. Pehaps I am just perverse; after all. I thought the invention of the wheel was just a passing phase ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 On Ayn Rand I've read The Fountainhead. It's safe to say she is a poor writer and her characters behave bizarrely. It does have some interesting ideas about the individual and not compromising your beliefs but overall she has a terribly cold outlook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Reading Jared Diamond's Collapse. A thought provoking book. Didn't finish it, just didn't captivate me the way his other major bestseller (Guns, Germs and Steel) did. I think I'm going to give GGAS a read again, brilliant book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 15, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2012 Reading Jared Diamond's Collapse. A thought provoking book. Didn't finish it, just didn't captivate me the way his other major bestseller (Guns, Germs and Steel) did. I think I'm going to give GGAS a read again, brilliant book.I got halfway through GGAS, put it down, and haven't picked it up again two years later. Interesting content, but I thought it was a bit dull and academic in style TBH. Will probably go back to it eventually though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted March 15, 2012 Moderator Share Posted March 15, 2012 2 hours into Shantaram and really enjoying the easy but eloquent style with which it's written. I like this author already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted March 15, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2012 There is a big sale on the Android phone market this week because Google have decided to rebrand it as "Google Play" Basically this means there is a cheap book every day, today it is Girl With The Dragon Tattoo for 20p. (link) Suffice to say, I will never buy anything from Google Play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted March 15, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2012 Also acquired for Kindle William Poundstone's Fortune's Formula, which covers the development of the Kelly formula/criterion and the extent to which it's still controversial in the world of finance, largely because it opposes the efficient market hypothesis.Well I enjoyed the Gutenberg book, but I think I'll be giving this one a miss. :yawn: While it predates 2008, so I can't quite say that Poundstone makes the case that, had the economic and finance professions accepted the insights of Kelly/Bernoulli/Shannon/Thorp/etc. (as the community of professional gamblers outside of the finance sector largely has), the crisis would not have occurred (or would not have been as severe), the critique of VaR and the comparison of Long Term Capital Management (a hedge fund at least partially run by Nobel laureates who developed the efficient market hypothesis) with Ed Thorp and others (perhaps including Buffett, though it's unclear the extent to which his methodology is Kelly-derived) seems to point in that direction: Thorp, Buffett, et al. have consistently managed to make more money with far less (approaching zero) chance of ruin than their opponents. It's also an interesting history of the US Mob over the past several decades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 16, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 16, 2012 Also acquired for Kindle William Poundstone's Fortune's Formula, which covers the development of the Kelly formula/criterion and the extent to which it's still controversial in the world of finance, largely because it opposes the efficient market hypothesis.Well I enjoyed the Gutenberg book, but I think I'll be giving this one a miss. :yawn: While it predates 2008, so I can't quite say that Poundstone makes the case that, had the economic and finance professions accepted the insights of Kelly/Bernoulli/Shannon/Thorp/etc. (as the community of professional gamblers outside of the finance sector largely has), the crisis would not have occurred (or would not have been as severe), the critique of VaR and the comparison of Long Term Capital Management (a hedge fund at least partially run by Nobel laureates who developed the efficient market hypothesis) with Ed Thorp and others (perhaps including Buffett, though it's unclear the extent to which his methodology is Kelly-derived) seems to point in that direction: Thorp, Buffett, et al. have consistently managed to make more money with far less (approaching zero) chance of ruin than their opponents. You're not selling it to me. It's also an interesting history of the US Mob over the past several decades. Now you are. :nod: I did read Poundstone's "The Recursive Universe: Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge", many years ago. Rather good, as I recall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Also acquired for Kindle William Poundstone's Fortune's Formula, which covers the development of the Kelly formula/criterion and the extent to which it's still controversial in the world of finance, largely because it opposes the efficient market hypothesis.Well I enjoyed the Gutenberg book, but I think I'll be giving this one a miss. :yawn: While it predates 2008, so I can't quite say that Poundstone makes the case that, had the economic and finance professions accepted the insights of Kelly/Bernoulli/Shannon/Thorp/etc. (as the community of professional gamblers outside of the finance sector largely has), the crisis would not have occurred (or would not have been as severe), the critique of VaR and the comparison of Long Term Capital Management (a hedge fund at least partially run by Nobel laureates who developed the efficient market hypothesis) with Ed Thorp and others (perhaps including Buffett, though it's unclear the extent to which his methodology is Kelly-derived) seems to point in that direction: Thorp, Buffett, et al. have consistently managed to make more money with far less (approaching zero) chance of ruin than their opponents. It's also an interesting history of the US Mob over the past several decades. Wow esoteric economic lexicon FTW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briggaman Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 I spent today reading 'The Hunger Games' ahead of the film release. I had a couple of friends that were going on about how good the book is. This made me decide to read it before the film release, as I prefer painting my own picture of characters etc. I always find that you can't shake the characters from your mind seen on screen if you see a film adaptation before reading the book. Anyway, I have really enjoyed it to be honest. The writing style is rather basic and it isn't long at all. I did find it to be a complete page turner though and rather gripping throughout. I'm not ashamed to say that I enjoyed a book that was aimed at teenagers... I'll start the second book at some point this week. Anyone else read this trilogy? By the way, I'm looking for a new author in the crime genre. I've read most books by Pelecanos, Block, Rankin and Ellroy. Does anyone know of any other good ones out there that may be worth a go? I quite like it when there is a character I can stick with throughout a set of books if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 Just read Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas, using fiction to examine people / moments at the end of the civil war. It's excellent. He fictionalises a version of himself researching a moment in the civil war when a real personality - a Falangist writer Sancho Mazas - escapes a firing squad and then in the woods is spied by another soldier and lets him go. Really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted March 21, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 21, 2012 I have scavenged a treasure! While out on a midnight walk, I spied that someone had left a collection of old National Geographics on the curbside. After first checking to verify that this was not bait to ensnare a passing geography/history nerd, I took a whole load of them home. Most of them are from the first half of the 1940s. First, the September, 1943 issue... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 21, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 21, 2012 I have scavenged a treasure! While out on a midnight walk, I spied that someone had left a collection of old National Geographics on the curbside. After first checking to verify that this was not bait to ensnare a passing geography/history nerd, I took a whole load of them home. Most of them are from the first half of the 1940s. First, the September, 1943 issue...Must... not... mention... tits... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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