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Does anybody read [books] anymore?

junkyard

You might feel a little prick.
Sep 1, 2015
2,601
2,303
San Diego
I got a long drive to work everyday so I listen to books on tape. Makes my drive enjoyable, plus my dad does the same drive basically and he buys all the books. I just get them second. Finished up atlas shrugged the other day. Pretty awesome book, ayn rand had some good predictions.
 

junkyard

You might feel a little prick.
Sep 1, 2015
2,601
2,303
San Diego
I would have said capitalistic idiot with a smoking problem that hates fat people, but we are all entitled to our opinions. She was right about Colorado being a center for manufacturing though.
 

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,390
16,884
Riding the baggage carousel.
atlas shrugged
I have to agree with JBP on this one. I've read the book twice, and man is it bad. Read it first in 7th, maybe 8th grade and thought it was really bad then. Couple years back when the Tea Baggers came to "prominence" I decided to read it again, thinking that maybe the first time I'd read it maybe I'd just been too young and/or naive to really appreciate it. No, that book just sucks, all her books suck actually. It's an amazing piece of fantastical hackery. It's boring, the pacing sucks, and has super bad "I'm the cabler guy" porn-like dialog. I'm immediately suspicious of any one who claims that book as a positive part of their intellectual foundation.

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged . One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
― John Rogers
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,514
20,320
Sleazattle

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,390
16,884
Riding the baggage carousel.


My wife and daughter read them all over the last 6 months together and now they really want to go visit one of the homesteads because woman-child was totally enamored. Most likely the De Smet, SD place. So I decide to read them to keep up. Read Little House in the Big Woods today at work. Kids books, so simple, yet strangely endearing. I really enjoyed the book today.
 

jackalope

Mental acuity - 1%
Jan 9, 2004
7,617
5,941
in a single wide, cooking meth...
Finishing up 'The Shining', which somehow I missed when I was in my Stephen King phase 30 some odd years ago. Damn good, and very different (and better IMO) than the Kubrick film.

Finished 'Killing the Rising Sun' on CD this morning...Meh...Let's just say Bill O'Reilly is no Stephen Ambrose.
 
Sep 11, 2015
332
118
I just finished The Stand. Over 1200 pages in two weeks. Loved it. Considering revisiting the Dark Tower series this winter, but am wondering if I should check out some other King book instead.

Also just received Finnegan's Wake and the Reader's Guide. Diving into that soon.
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
20,291
7,838
Transylvania 90210
I never got into the whole control scheme for MIDI controllers.
Tell me, am i missing out?
Depends what you're trying to do. They're making some pretty deep and flexible tools. My latest purchase was built as a sequencer, but I got it for the rotary encoders. It comes with software that lets you get in and customize the MIDI commands. Ableton and NI make MIDI learning/mapping in the host software pretty easy now. It takes some thinking to keep track of all the variables on more flexible/complicated machines. Check some videos on YouTube for Tim Exile's Flow Machine, which is a collection of MIDI devices he's assembled and mapped to soft synths and loopers.

Also, if you're a modular synth type, Reaktor 6 now supports sending CV (if you have the right audio interface) to external devices.

Even if you're making more traditional rock music, it still has uses. I just saw a video with the drummer from Periphery explaining how they often MIDI sequence drum parts in the studio as part of the writing process. Later he has to learn what he programmed. The giant catalog of sampled instruments you can control via MIDI is staggering, from classical string sections to Aztec death whistles.
 
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Yossarian

Monkey Pimp
Jul 25, 2001
1,702
99
Aboard the Inchcliffe Castle


My wife and daughter read them all over the last 6 months together and now they really want to go visit one of the homesteads because woman-child was totally enamored. Most likely the De Smet, SD place. So I decide to read them to keep up. Read Little House in the Big Woods today at work. Kids books, so simple, yet strangely endearing. I really enjoyed the book today.
I might have to pick these up. I loved the TV series.

I just finished The Stand. Over 1200 pages in two weeks. Loved it. Considering revisiting the Dark Tower series this winter, but am wondering if I should check out some other King book instead.

Also just received Finnegan's Wake and the Reader's Guide. Diving into that soon.
The Stand was a great read, but at 1200 pages,it takes a commitment. After reading it, I rewatched the miniseries, which I loved when originally aired and was let down just a little bit on the re-watching.
 

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
16,023
13,276
I've been re-reading some of the older Tom Clancy books as it's probably a decade since I read most of them. The 1300 pages of Executive Orders kept me going across a couple of weeks work travel.
 

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
40,621
9,622
until i get proper reading glasses....audio books are where its at.....started listening to the new harry hole book by jo nesbo..."the thirst"