What are you currently reading?

[DemonHunter]

I can recommend books written by Raymond E. Feist, he writes good fantasybooks

all different series wich fit into one big storyline

[Kilfire]

I've started reading science fiction again, having found a place where I can get hold of Interzone and Analog. Can't get them at W.H.Smith or even at Forbidden Planet now, have to go to "Borders" in the middle of Glasgow.

I also recently finished "Absolution Gap" by Alastair Reynolds. It's got an interesting blend of science and religion-as-virus.

[gravyluvr]

Currently searching for the next read...

Flipping back and forth from World War II for Dummies and some book on Wine from my girlfriend (I'm a beer drinker).

I need a good fiction book (just re-read Narnia). I was thinking about going with Eragon - Inheritance Trilogy, Book One by Christopher Paolini - to be followed by The Eldest. Anyone read them?

Just finished "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. It's about globalization and the way the world is becoming flatter (metaphor) and goes into the ten "flatteners" (Fall of the Berlin Wall, Netscape IPO, Work flow software, Open-sourcing, Outsourcing, Offshoring, Supply-chaining, Insourcing, In-forming and Wireless.).

[Veldrynus]

My girlfriend is currently reading "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Marquez. She really likes it, so I was wondering whether I should give Marquez a try. Is "One Hundred Years of Solitude" better, though?

I don't really know the other one, but I doubt that it can be better. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is a must-read book, so read it.

[Suleman]

At the moment, I'm reading for my tests. I am also reading: "This is how they lived in Ancient Greece", a nonfiction book about life in Athens in the ancient times.

And comics, fantasy and sci-fi, as soon as the tests have gone by.

[Tao Jones]

Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, by Lisa Randall, ISBN-0060531088.

Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions, from Plato to String Theory and Beyond, by Lawrence M. Krauss, ISBN-0670033952.

The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design, by Lawrence Susskind, ISBN-0316155799.

...and I'm reading them for fun.

I've started reading science fiction again, having found a place where I can get hold of Interzone and Analog. Can't get them at W.H.Smith or even at Forbidden Planet now, have to go to "Borders" in the middle of Glasgow.

Do yourself a huge favor and subscribe at analogsf.com. I'm not sure how much longer you're going to be able to get digest-sized magazines at any retail outlet, and they could really use your support, as they make more money from subscriptions.

[LordHoborgXVII]

Just read the first three parts of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. Very nice plot twists, a gritty medieval setting. I haven't started the fourth book though, since I don't have any time for reading right now. I'm also trying to get a copy of Robert E Howard's Solomon Kane, but again I don't have any time yet, with tests and all. Howard is a marvellous writer though.

[theLuckyDragon]

Speaking of G.R.R. Martin, one of my favourite books is Tuf Voyaging! That book is a marvellous blend of SF, humour and seriousness! And it has cats!

[DaemianLucifer]

Curently Im reading sunstorm.Its the sequel of times eye,by clarke and baxter.Interestingly though,times eye is a first book by clarke Ive read that has a mass battle in it(a battle between alexander the great and gingis kahn)

[vulnevia]

I'm reading Robin Hobb's new book, "Soldier son" and an Anthony Burgess book; "the Wanting seed". I really recommend everything Robin Hobb has written.

[wimfrits]

Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, by Lisa Randall, ISBN-0060531088.

Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions, from Plato to String Theory and Beyond, by Lawrence M. Krauss, ISBN-0670033952.

The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design, by Lawrence Susskind, ISBN-0316155799.

...and I'm reading them for fun.

Hmmmm... Are you from another dimension perhaps?

[Tao Jones]

Hmmmm... Are you from another dimension perhaps?

I never warp-n-tell...

Seriously, if you seek answers to the most basic of questions - who are we, where do we come from, where are we going, and is my luggage going to arrive at the same destination - then physics and cosmology are the most likely places to find them.

Actually, I just like to wait until some smart-aleck at a party asks "So, if you're in your car and you're going the speed of light and you turn on your headlights, what happens?" And then I tell them.

Ok, really seriously, these two fields of study are approaching a breakthrough in our understanding of space, time, and reality that is likely to change the human race forever. Soon, thanks to the tireless efforts of scientists laboring the world over, we'll all be perpetually tan, cut and buffed, and smell like freshly-baked bread.

Really, really seriously... I am from another dimension. But I have done the headlights thing.

[ThunderTitan]

Actually, I just like to wait until some smart-aleck at a party asks "So, if you're in your car and you're going the speed of light and you turn on your headlights, what happens?" And then I tell them.

So... what does happen? Does the universe blow up?

[[T]osHiro]

Macroeconomy, Chapter 2.

I have a test in 3 weeks.

[DaemianLucifer]

Actually, I just like to wait until some smart-aleck at a party asks "So, if you're in your car and you're going the speed of light and you turn on your headlights, what happens?" And then I tell them.

So... what does happen? Does the universe blow up?

If you were to reach the speed of light in that car,first youd shrink to singularity.At the same time your time would stop flowing,and your mass would expand.Basically youd be turned into one gaint mutated foton,and thus being unable to turn your lights in the first place

[LordHoborgXVII]

Seriously, if you seek answers to the most basic of questions - who are we, where do we come from, where are we going, and is my luggage going to arrive at the same destination - then physics and cosmology are the most likely places to find them.

Actually the most likely places to find them are in Heroes of Might and Magic. These wonderful modules have all the answers to the universe that one needs, all compiled wonderfully.

Actually, I just like to wait until some smart-aleck at a party asks "So, if you're in your car and you're going the speed of light and you turn on your headlights, what happens?" And then I tell them.

It's pretty obvious, isn't it? Your car has to end its movement for the turn, has its line of sight 0, and when you attempt to move it the next day its colours get inverted and you can see the edges of its sprite, and you get a syntax error at memory location &34DF37567C. Simple. Pure speculation can reveal the answer to the deepest of mysteries. Who needs science?

[Tao Jones]

Firstly, you can't reach the speed of light in your car, or spaceship, no matter how powerful it is. You'd need an infinite amount of energy to do that.

But say you were to accelerate to a significant fraction of it (99.99%) and turned on your lights. From inside your car, the beams would seem normal in every respect. This is because the speed of light is the same for all observers (and also the reason that moving clocks run slower).

The beams bouncing off objects nearly in your path (and moving slower, relatively, as you approached them) would be bluer, while objects already passed would be seen as redder.

An observer watching the car go by would first see the beams blue-shifted into the far ultraviolet, then they would Doppler down to the far infra-red after you passed by.

Your car would appear to them to be only a fraction of an inch thick in your direction of travel, by the way.

On second thought, I like Lord H's explanation better. Camelot - it's a silly place. Let's not go there.

[Pol]

Firstly, you can't reach the speed of light in your car, or spaceship, no matter how powerful it is. You'd need an infinite amount of energy to do that..

Oh, you can, and when you will be in, it will render as totally unimportant if you're really in the car, bus, spaceship or on your owns. (As anyone of these won't be source of the given speed) Tachyons can do that...

If you were to reach the speed of light in that car,first youd shrink to singularity.At the same time your time would stop flowing,and your mass would expand.Basically youd be turned into one gaint mutated foton,and thus being unable to turn your lights in the first place...

That's relative, maybe correct from your angle of view but not from the car's driver...

[theLuckyDragon]

I've recently finished reading the whole Chronicles of Narnia set, something I wanted to do ever since I was 10 or 11, but never had the chance to. I must say, it's not necessarily a children's book. Anyone can read it at any age, because it's pure and simply wonderful, IMO.

@ to all the light-speed-discussing-persons
What happens when a snail is running with the speed of turned off light?

[ThunderTitan]

What happens when a snail is running with the speed of turned off light?

Elementary my dear tLD, he turns into a Mutated Gaint Snail!