I recommendWhite Noise by Don DeLillo to anyone, I think I read it about 8/9 times now
The books we are reading
RuzzyRuz
#106
Itās really good. His brain works in very strange ways indeed. He writes about it in his diaries. For example, sometimes when he would go to sleep he would shut his eye lids but he would see flashing lights, shapes and other odd visual effects.
bfk
#110
Iām reading the james baldwin essays first then Iāll read those eventually.
James Baldwin is such a good writer very direct but flowing, and engagingā¦
His analysis is so spot onā¦and is still relevant today.
Reading cause I dont want to get brainwashed by the thought garbage that the media puts forth.
Artificer
#112
I have a copy of the first edition of PCC that someone left at work, but havenāt really looked at it except to check out the ToC and flip through it. How is it?
1roomstudio
#113
Goedel Escher Bach
Itās about AI ā¦ Written in ā79. Fascinatingā¦ the way the author (Douglas Hofstadter) weaves art, music, history, logic, mathematics, philosophy, computer programming and the human need to understand and control all of these thingsā¦
Read it when it was first publishedā¦ thought I lost my copyā¦ it turned up recently and Iām really enjoying the perspective of how AI has progressed in 42 yearsā¦
Best definition of AI ā When computers can finally do the next thing they canāt do yetā¦ā
Creepr
#114
Heh, I am fighting my way through one of those called something like āautomate the boring stuff with Pythonāā¦good book, but they cover a loooot of coding territory before you can do anything interesting, and it gets rather technical I find, considering it is aimed at Excel power users basically.
Artificer
#117
Thatās been true of all of the programming books Iāve read, except for the advanced ones that assume you already know the basics, and I think itās why I never took to programming early on. Thereās a set educational form that means you start with the basic components and work your way up to more complex things, and itās always really, really boring. I think itās also a bad way to learn from books, because it doesnāt hold your attention.
I learned to program by writing little snippets of script (first in bash, then in PowerShell). Ends up that if you want to do one simple thing (like get all the files in a directory or read the contents of a text file), searching the internet will give you great, finished examples without trying to teach you anything. Learning to cut together other peoples code is a great way to learn those basics, and itās driven by doing a thing you want to do, not pouring over basic definitions or doing stupid āreplace ācatā with āhatā in this stringā exercises.
I donāt think just cobbling together basic code and then expanding it is a āproperā way of learning programming, but itās viable and itās let me do things I needed to do, kept me interested, and has shown me the basics enough that I was able to move on to more advanced topics without trying to slog through a book to learn them. And once youāve done the thing you wanted, it almost always prompts more questions about what you can add to it or do differently, and on and on. Getting a simple thing happening keeps the momentum going.
Also, PowerShell is a lot like Python, Java, and a bunch of other common languages. Once you have a handle on one, itās mostly just a matter of syntax so picking up other languages is a lot easier.
Creepr
#118
I use PS every day at work. It is super powerful for troubleshooting. I am trying to pick up Python, but it is only one of many hobbies atm. I am not getting very far. 
Roo_Stercogburn
#119
Winding up linux guys that their command line doesnāt intrinsically pass objects never gets old.
Yes I know you can make up your own code to pass some custom stuff, but the OS('s) and its/their various shells donāt intrinsically do it.
Iām sure it will come though when you can get more than 2 linux guys to agree on anything 
relic
#120
Not arrived yet but just a little fun summer readingā¦Iāve been looking up and comparing Zombie (cocktail) recipes for my vacation coming up here in June. Probably one of the most controversial cocktail recipes Iāve ever researched as the inventor closely guarded his many variations on what is considered the original.
bfk
#121
Hood feminism by mikki kendall.
Why because would rather hear the rationale than be brainwashed by an irrational false straw man arguement made by political news.
I have a long reading list soā¦20 pages a day for like 30 different books.
bfk
#122
Found out about anti machiavel by frederick the great king of prussiaā¦
The anti machiavel is a point by point rebuttal of machiavelli.
Will read anti machiavel in the future.
bfk
#123
Reading anti machiavelā¦difficult readā¦cause it presents machiavelli alongside the rebuttal.
Have so many books to readā¦beats watching tv.
Summaryā¦of anti machiavelā¦
Karma always winsā¦
People can always smell bs shenanigans
A ruler has a responsibility to their people.