Wait. Wait. You can READ?

Ehhh....at a 4th grade level, yes.   

Crypotnomicon

Oh man, I hope you've read/heard Snowcrash. Another great audiobook. Was my intro to Stephenson. I got probably half way through Cryptonomicon but I lost interest; need to revisit.

I'll check out that other modern fantasy stuff, thanks for the rec. I have a mixed take on Way of Kings so far. The writing is acceptable by my standards. I think it's moreso the high fantasy stuff that I can't get into as easily. I prefer more grounded fantasy a la ASOIAF. I've reread/listened to it 4 times now. A whole nother level of depth and nuance brought to the genre.

Oh man, I hope you've read/heard Snowcrash. Another great audiobook. Was my intro to Stephenson. I got probably half way through Cryptonomicon but I lost interest; need to revisit.

I'll check out that other modern fantasy stuff, thanks for the rec. I have a mixed take on Way of Kings so far. The writing is acceptable by my standards. I think it's moreso the high fantasy stuff that I can't get into as easily. I prefer more grounded fantasy a la ASOIAF. I've reread/listened to it 4 times now. A whole nother level of depth and nuance brought to the genre.

Agreed, Cryptonomicon is what nerds always mention but his quintessential work is Snow Crash.

Currently, I'm listening to Crypotnomicon as an audiobook via overdrive.  I'll confess I find Stephenson's more mature works somewhat challenging for purposes of pure pleasure reading at the end of a long day, but they are just perfect as books on tape.  Goddamn can this guy write.  Also presently working my way through Fritz Leiber's Gather, Darkness and Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series.

With regard to the list mentioned, I mostly agree with you but you've left out Wolfe for the Book of the New Sun/Book of the Long Sun. Those two cycle end to end officially catapulted Wolfe to the top of the list of my favorite living American authors.

There is one glaring oddity on there: Rothfuss has one epic work with Name of the Wind, but the Wise Man's Fear is overrated. His prose is still quite good in the second book, but the narrative falls apart and the characterizations get wonky as hell. Not to mention there are parts of the book that sound like they were written as fan service for internet virgin neckbeards. His novellas are interesting, but I'd really like to see him deliver  the end of the kingkiller cycle as strongly as he began.

This is a really enlightening book, especially for someone like me, who grew up exposed mainly to Eastern religions and concepts.  As an outsider, my primary impression of Abrahamic religions was that they were oddly fixated/obsessive about antithetical concepts.  Zealot goes into the political and social climate of first century Palestine and explains a lot about how the Christian movement gained steam, and how off the mark modern understanding is of that time, climate, and of course Jesus himself.

Thank you! Picked this up tonight; it looks very interesting.

Now I'm a huge Murakami fan, and intend to read everything he's written. Maybe I just like my random bullshit Japanese flavored.

Me too! I've ready everything of his I can get my hands on (well, everything translated into English). I vacillate between loving the more mystical and the more r eal novels more

Just wow.  Despite Reza’s attempts to get back on his feet, Fox can chalk that up as a win.  Their narrative came across strong, clear, and brief: This guy is Muslim.  He wrote a book about Jesus.  Just who does he think he is?

My kindle said I was at 71% when I started the Notes section of the book, which goes chapter by chapter and presents counter-arguments to Reza’s own arguments.  If that’s not an attempt to be logical and transparent, I don’t know what is.

A friend (and fellow Pyrate) sent this over to me. It's making for a very interesting read.

"How the culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction"

That is why I simplified my life over the years. In the end you have consumed many things and you are still not happy. Consumer society will face its self-induced suicide and then what? Guru after guru, trend after trend and the sheeple follow each other to the edge of materialistic death...