Though mine has different cover art and the subtitle "The Curious Lives of the Elements From Arsenic to Zinc":

RIP Terry Pratchett.

I read this a while back, but it occured to me it may be of interest to Mr. Chris:

Yer gawdamned right it it is.

I figured as much. It is a bit contrarian wrt the popular view of things, but the history is solid. While some technologies of the Roman era did fall out of use, many significant advancements were made throughout the era. It's a worthy read for sure, and accessibly written as far as acadamic history is concerned.

I just finished up this earlier:


And this excellent thing from a while back:

The shit I read for fun. This has nothing to do with my academic work, which focuses on a different time period altogether.


And Dr. Carrier's weighty tome 'bout Jibbers, vol. 2:

Finished this a while back:


And this last night:

And to accompany it, I'm re-visiting this piece of epic brilliance:


Which if you haven't read, you should.

Because I'd only read Bonk, Stiff, and Spook:

I have been reading a lot of geeky books about old sailing warships lately.

Currently, this one:

Damn. We haven't posted in this thread in the better part of a year. I've probably read a hundred books in that time. More than, really; I go through them quite fast. Seriously. 'S what I do.

Though not all of them are serious. Currently, this:


Fucking hilarious. Author is highly recommended if you enjoy absurd humor with a side of total degeneracy and creative violence. Which, if you're posting here, you almost certainly do.

It starts off thusly:


It continues, a couple pages later:


My ex turned me on to him a few months back, and needless to say, he's rapidly become one of my favorite authors.

I have been relatively lazy bookwise, lately, kind of slowly circling back and leisurely reading books that i skipped over because i wanted to read them but kind of knew too much about their contents to have that desire be strong enough to get my curiosity to crack the actual books open. Malcom Gladwell's first three at the moment, just crawling though in 20 minute bits between work and projects.

Been reading a lot of fucking schematics tho.

I recently started DM'ing a game of DnD with some friends, so I dived back into The Forgotten Realms stuff, specifically R.A. Salvatore. The nostalgia is strong, been a while since I read a proper high fantasy book. I made the mistake of getting back into them using Audible.com though, and I am not really into the audio book versions. They use the same voice actor for all of of Salvatore's books and he does a really good job. It's a bit pricey though, $15 a month or something and you have to buy the books. They give a credit each month to purchase books though as part of the subscription. Not terrible, but I burn through books too fast by listening to them while I work.

This is happening.

Someone finally released a proper Fallout RPG but there is like no supporting material for it. So reading this as inspiration for a campaign I am writing based in Charleston, SC.

Themes of racism, toxic nostalgia, and a weird reverence for the military are basically baked right in!