Weekend reading roundup

[nanila]

How did your weekend reading go? If you planned on anything specifically, did you read it?

Comments

[nanila]

I'm nearly finished with C. Stross' The Nightmare Stacks. It's been a lot of fun. I'm happy to have gotten successfully stuck into a novel-length piece of fiction - it has been quite some time since I was able to do that.

[davidgillon]

I stumbled on, and have been sucked into, a transcription of "ADM 186/259 C.B. 1640 PROGRESS IN GUNNERY MATERIAL 1922 and 1923" http://www.admirals.org.uk/records/adm/adm186/adm186-259.pdf, which was an (bi?-)annual publication of the Royal Navy for its gunnery specialists. It's fascinating because of the depth of research that's going on and the casual mention of things like using a 25' solenoid (yes, 25 feet) as part of a test rig for calculating shell velocity. Another experiment measured the varying rotational speed of a shell during its flight, from inside the shell... (obviously this does mean some poor sod had to trudge all across the sands at low tide trying to find the thing afterwards, but that's what enlisted men are for ;) ). More soberingly, extensively detailed full scale tests of shell impacts on a captured German battleship.

I might have hesitated if I'd looked at the page count first, 386 pages, and that's without the original illustrations, but I'm glad I didn't as this is so fascinating. It does semi-intersect with the stuff I used to do professionally when I wasn't doing flight controls, though I actually came across it while searching for hobby stuff.

[nanila]

That does sound very interesting. I'm curious to know if it's going to be helpful with the hobby stuff you were originally searching for?

[davidgillon]

As the hobby stuff is naval history, particularly in that era, it all kind of adds into the general core of knowledge. And the intersection with the weapons control stuff I used to do is particularly interesting.

[fred_mouse]

I'm reading a fascinating (but probably not for the reasons the author intended) book about the importance of nutritional supplements in long term health. I guess it counts as intended reading, given that the plan was 'try and finish something I've already started'.

(I did finish one book, but it was Monday morning at that point, so I don't know that it counts)

[nanila]

I'm curious now. I'm guessing the argument is in favour of supplements? Is it backed up by actual science?

I would totally count the finished-by-Monday-morning book in with the weekend reading.

[fred_mouse]

It is strongly in favour of supplements, backed up by science, and so far does not appear to be extrapolating beyond the data. For example, in the chapter on heart disease and coenzyme Q10, it only goes so far as to say the evidence says that there is benefit in cases of serious congestive heart failure (and cites multiple studies, including one of 2000+ people).

Unfortunately, from the perspective of convincing me, the author is also strongly religious, and there have been multiple appeals to the reader's belief in the Christian god, and righteousness of this belief and god. Also, intelligent design, which is a topic that gets me very very cranky (this is not intelligent design. Even if I concede a creator, which I don't, what we have at best is design by committee). I'm finding it a fascinating case study (me) on bias, because I find significant parts of the discussion to be unbelievable, and thus I'm having difficulty with giving credibility to the discussion of the science! And I've read enough (pop) science that cherry picks the published data, so I'm also a little leery from that perspective.

[bonnefois]

I haven't finished anything, but I've gotten through most of the stories in Frosting On The Cake 2 by Karin Kallmaker. There's only one and a half left at this point. (Though I still need to read the book associated with one of the short stories here)

[nanila]

Fantastic. You must be nearing the end of your completist journey!

[bonnefois]

Yup! All I have left is part of Above Temptation, Love by the Numbers and 18th and Castro, and I'll be done with this author.

Well, technically there's also Rollercoaster, and one or two anthologies, but I have it in kindle, so it's left off the list for now, as this is for shipping books.

I'm still deciding where to go from here. After some 20+ LGBT with barely any breaks, I'm either going to shift to another niche (like gay or trans) or shift to something else entirely. I really want to read something supernatural or horror-ish for the season, but I don't have anything and I don't think I can get to the library anytime soon. I'll have to dig in my boxes of stored books to find the Poppy Z. Brite books a friend sent me.

[ironed_orchid]

Saturday was stormy and I stayed in and read one and a half books! I rarely do that anymore.

The books were The Winter Long and A Rose Red Chain, books 8 and 9 of the October Daye series. I've read them before, and re-read the series in order over the last couple of weeks.

[nanila]

It sounds like a very pleasant way to spend a stormy Saturday. \o/

[bonnefois]

I think I might've finished it a bit earlier than the weekend, but I finished Above Temptation, and moved on to reading 18th and Castro (also by Karin Kallmaker).

[nanila]

At this rate, you'll be finished by next week's check-in. Excellent! Have you decided on another niche, or will you be going seasonal?

[bonnefois]

Probably both, actually. 18th and Castro is set during Halloween. I dragged out some Poppy Z. Brite from storage, so I might finish that. Technically I know there's lots of m/m in those, so it'd be double duty.

I'll probably go back to my stack of LGBT stuff by November, because it's short and I'll be doing Nano. Though I DO need to get to some research, so :|a Maybe I'll just make it so I read one LGBT book and one research book so I can fill boxes AND get my research in.