What are you reading, what have you read and what do you recommend - discuss!

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

http://www.certforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=29609

 

When I get the time

Network+ by David Groth (about halfway through).

Overclocking by Toms Hardware (read two pages)

And hopefully at Crimbo I'll get the new Stephen King book

 

I've read the The Ice man and have got a documentary on DVD about him, I've always been into true Crimes etc. I often read up on www.crimelibrary.com it has it all there.

 

I visit that site quite a bit, nice one

The Ice Man documentary is brilliant, it was watching that that led me to read up a bit more about him. Absolute psycho tha tlad

 

I was watching a documentary on the crim channel a while back about the Russion guy who they think may have murdered over 1000 people although they can only acount for about 250

I'll have a look into that, I find it weird how phsycopaths have different emotive responses to words than 'normal' people. Like if someone said house, car, murder, rape then a 'normal' persons brainwaves change when they hear the last two words but a phsycopaths doesn't as it means nothing to them. Physcology of criminals has always interested me.

 

The psychology of psychopaths or sociopaths i think is intriguing. I'm fascinated by the whole nature vs. nurture debate. Are they bon evil or without empathy, or do they have it drilled into them by their environemnt when growing up? Henry Lee Lucas is a classic example of the nurture arguement, whereas you have someone like Peter Sutcliffe who to be honest had a relatively normal and stable family life.

 

Yep. My mum has fostered 28 kids over a 25 year period with 4 of us being long term including me. Two of the kids were half brothers (same mother), and one of them was very disturbed. Everyone expected the disturbed one to go permanantly of the rails and get into crime (the wosrt of crimes according to social services) however it turned out that through my mothers caring etc he has turned out fine and is now the area manager for Nissan.

The other one was very intelligent and my Mother put him through private school with no help from social services turned to crime from the age of 13 (the first time he was caught anyway). At the age of 16 my Mother had to release him back into the care system as he forcibly got hold of my Mother and threaten to kill her. At the age 18 he joined the army and was subsequently arrested by MPs when he was on leave as he had taken a machine gun and ammo back to wherever he was living. He somehow at the age of 20 got onto a law course at university in Newcastle using his half brothers identity nobody knows where he is now.

All the kids in my family had exactly the same upbringing, so I guess he was born that way. It's funny how my Mums dad said when they both placed with her at first that he should be the one to watch out for and not the one that was classed as disturbed.

 

For the sheer "brain candy" of it, I'm reading Larry Niven's Rainbow Mars novella. I didn't know he'd published a new Svetz/Time Travel story since the 1970s. This one was published originally in 1999. Nothing particularly scholarly, but nice to help wind down the brain before going to bed.

 

Currently reading anything that has 70-291 in the title, also reading joe haldeman's peace and war all three books in one. I was on holiday when I picked this up, looking at the scifi isle and a guy started chatting to me and recommended this book. its a great story about a war between us and an alien race, but whenever soldier go off to fight the mechanics of their travel means that when returning to earth 20 years or so have passed in their relative 6 month tour of duty. Its a great story about how people fighting a cause get alienated further and further away from who they are fighting for!

 

So those two upbringings could imply that nurture has a factor...but also nature?

 

Just finished Mechanicum by Graham McNeill the other day, waiting for the next one in the series to come out, ive been pretty impressed by the Horus heresy saga so far big gamesworkshop fan too so i guess that helps

been eyeing up some of my old David Gemmell books i have on the shelf for a re-read. favorite of his is Dark Moon and also the Rigante series. he was a really good fantasy writer and a shame that he passed away

 

Well sort of, the disturbed one had a good upbringing and is now doing well, the 'sane' one had the same good upbringing but is a piece of criminal scum

 

Havent got that one yet, but just re-read Descent of Angles. I collect a DA army so this book really interested me, and i'm picking up bits i must have missed first time round. Want to know more about what followed in the DA history, and i think theres a new book on the way to show that.

Am curently re-reading teh Commissar Cain stories and the other month finished the last of teh Gaunts Ghosts books again for teh 3rd time.


Do members here reread thier books? and if so how many times or how often? I know i have read teh original Do Androids Dream of Sheep (Bladreunner) by Philip K Dick, about 25 times in my life. I have over 200 books in my libarary and all have been read at least twice some a lot more than that (Original I Robot and Rest of Robots 10 times each!)

 

Some books I have read recently which I would recommend are :-

Blind Faith by Ben Elton - a very funny satire about the future society we may be heading for if reality TV, celebrity culture, and our propensity to record digitally every single event in our lives takes hold.

Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore - a more serious read for those interested in learning about Josef Stalin, the great Soviet dictator - the remarkable story of his remarkable life up until the age of about 40, a totally outstanding read and award winner for best biography in 2007.

Anyone Can Do It by Duncan Bannatyne - has to be read by anyone with the remotest interest in business/entrepreneurship. Duncan's story is an amazing read and very inspiring. I thought it was remarkable how he stood up to the city bankers who tried to fleece him. You may know him from Dragon's Den.

Bannockburn by Peter Reese - for those interested in Scottish history, this is an outstanding account of the great battle, one the events which shaped not just Scottish history but also British history. There are very few, if any, other books which deal exclusively with this subject.

The Sigma Protocol by Robert Ludlum - the author of the Bourne books on which the Bourne trilogy of films is based. This particular novel is an extremely gripping 'page-turning' thriller, highly recommended.

Back Chat by Garry Trainer & Tania Alexander - if you've got a bad back read it - it might cure you - it did mine in a matter of days after 15 years of suffering back problems and inadequete treatments from doctors

Dreamweaver MX 2004 by J. Tarin Towers - yes I know an old version of the web design package, but for those who don't have access to a later version, this is an excellent tutorial in how to use this excellent package. I recently designed a web site and found this guide invaluable and time-saving.

Complete Reference to HTML&XHTML 4th Edition by Thomas A. Powell - an excellent authority for those who need to really understand the underlying HTML/CSS of their web design.

Railway Man by Eric Lomax - I posted a message about this before, but highly recommended. Harrowing true story about a Royal Signalman captured as a POW on the Burma 'Railway of Death' during WWII.

Windows Server 2003 by Minasi - found many answers to my questions in here - a very comprehensive guide

 

Started re-reading Dashell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. It was originally published around 1928, and it's still a classic at 80 years of age.

 

I am currently reading Fireproof. I just finished Qi.