[Q_BE]

I've been reading my Introduction to Sociology—er, I mean Liberalism 101— textbook cover-to-cover, and it's a fascinating exploration of the liberal mind, since, as you know, there really is so much space in there to cover, because they're so empty to start…

Q-"I prefer the ACTUAL sciences, thank you"-BE

[homevintner]

Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean - probably about my 4th reading
Flight of Eagles by Jack Higgins
The Battle of the Huertgen Forrest by Charles B. MacDonald
The Complete Hammer's Slammers   Vol. 1 by David Drake
The Best of the Bolos - Their Finest Hour by Keith Laumer

[Zealot]

Just finished "At Any Price",the second in David Drake's "Hammer's Slammers" novels.It had some interesting story concepts,but I felt it took too long to tell a story which seemed very short.

[number3fac]

I just finished "The Accidental Time Machine" by Joe Haldeman, about a physics grad student at MIT that accidentally creates a forward-only time machine (I'd heard about the novel after reading other forums discussing that recent episode of Futurama).  It was a quick read and quite good, though a couple parts of the resolution left me scratching my head.  I'll have to reread those parts again after letting them stew for a bit.

[pedonbio]

I just finished "The Accidental Time Machine" by Joe Haldeman, about a physics grad student at MIT that accidentally creates a forward-only time machine (I'd heard about the novel after reading other forums discussing that recent episode of Futurama).  It was a quick read and quite good, though a couple parts of the resolution left me scratching my head.  I'll have to reread those parts again after letting them stew for a bit.

I'm tempted to read that, given your description. I've followed a bit of the real physics of time, including the evidence that time travel could only go back as far as the invention of the machine in which one traveled. Is that what you mean by "forward-only"?

[number3fac]

I'm tempted to read that, given your description. I've followed a bit of the real physics of time, including the evidence that time travel could only go back as far as the invention of the machine in which one traveled. Is that what you mean by "forward-only"?

In this instance, it means that the time machine only carries its passengers into the future (along with itself), and cannot travel into the past.  This was also the case in the Futurama episode; the Professor didn't want to deal with any paradoxes from messing with the past.  However, apart from the fact that the time machines only allowed for "forward-only" travel (and the protagonists began searching for backwards-capable time machines), there isn't much similarity between the episode and this book in terms of plotline, which meant that they both held my interest and I found each quite enjoyable.  The novel is only a couple hundred pages in length, and it's not a difficult read...so it should be feasible to get from start to finish over the course of a few free afternoons.

[rtpoe]

If I can jump from books to movies for a moment, you guys should check out "Primer", about a couple of engineers who accidentally invent a time machine in their garage.

A perfectly logical time machine, too. Not one of these things where you dial in a date and then off you go, but a box where the arrow of time is reversed inside it.

[number3fac]

Now that I think about it, Isaac Asimov's "The End of Eternity" is an interesting novel with a time-traveling organization whose members are, in fact, limited to traveling only within a span encompassed by the creation of a Time Displacement Field (or some such term).  So while they can travel forward and back without a problem, they cannot travel back in time to a point earlier than the Field's origin.  I recall there being some interesting discussion about social engineering implemented by the organization, and I think that organization was referenced in one of the later Foundation novels (tying it in to his Robots/Empire/Foundation series, though none of that is required reading for "The End of Eternity").  It's been a while since I read it, but certainly worth revisiting...to the library!

[homevintner]

Grantville Gazette IV - Edited and created by Eric Flint

[RandomX]

I'm about 80% through Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, which I'm really enjoying. I love Russian literature! My only complaint is every time someone asks what I'm reading on my Kindle, I sound super pretentious.

[Q_BE]

I'm about 80% through Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, which I'm really enjoying. I love Russian literature! My only complaint is every time someone asks what I'm reading on my Kindle, I sound super pretentious.

That's hot. I've read War and Peace myself (I ought to go read it again).

Q-"Everything about you is sexy"-BE

[RandomX]

I've read most of Tolstoy and loved it. I picked up The Idiot for super cheap at a used book store and it sat around until I went through the rest of my monster pile. Then I discovered it was a free kindle book, so I'm reading it that way.

I think after this I'm going to read Discworld or World War Z for something easier to digest, but I'm definitely planning to read more of Dostoevsky in the future!

[pedonbio]

My favorite Russian novel joke is Woody Allen's comment that after he took a speed reading course, he was able to read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It's about Russia.

[Shara]

recently:

William Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night; or, What You Will
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Troilus and Cressida
All's Well That Ends Well
Measure For Measure
Othello, the Moor of Venice
King Lear
Macbeth
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Timon of Athens
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Cymbeline
The Winter's Tale
The Tempest
The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth
Sonnets

(Have to teach a Shakespeare course)

[DruulEmpire]

My favorite Russian novel joke is Woody Allen's comment that after he took a speed reading course, he was able to read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It's about Russia.

There was a pretty bad "Get Smart" TV movie about KAOS developing a weather control machine, basically a giant electric fan at the North Pole.  The one good joke in it is when Max gets into a fight in a library.  A KAOS man lunges at Max with a knife, but Max randomly grabs a huge book and stops the knife.  Then he notices the title, and declares "NO ONE gets through War and Peace!"