Topic: Reader's Nook

[8ullfrog]

I just don't like the term sugary drinks. I get why they did it, but it's like people saying supper, I just want to throat strike like an 80's van damme baddie.

[smokester]

So far, they've not taxed the air, but one thing you'll enjoy is the "soda tax" on carbonated beverages here ....

Does that count for Lager too?

In Alabama they are all "cola". Regardless of flavour. "Want a cola?" - "Yup" - "RC, Mountain Dew, A&W or ...?"

You really are a polyglot. Aren't you?..

[8ullfrog]

In Texas it's all coke. And they mean Dr Pepper. It's an ugly regionalism.

[6pairsofshoes]

In some places, it's just "pop."  Like your dad.

[goldshirt*9]

only drink diet coke myself, prefer pepsi max or cheap ALdi max

[dweez]

I know that in Indiana, Texas, and Nevada (maybe New Mexico), any carbonated beverage is "coke".

You want a coke?
Sure.
What kind?
Hmm, ginger ale.

[Beatrix]

We dont "coke" dweez.    It's like in that movie "pawn shop chronicles"  with the two barber shops, half the people soda, half the people pop, and everyone argues about it. 
Arguing in Indiana, that's what we do.

And I'd like to mention that im reading "the death of methuselah"

[dweez]

I grew up in Indiana. Maybe they don't "coke" anymore but that was the norm for a long time.

Good to hear you're hanging in there.

[Beatrix]

I've heard it. People just drink pop less, also a contributing factor, I grew up in Illinois then Indiana, and now we are arguing topics
I can hang.

[6pairsofshoes]

I'm reading the Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin.  About half way through and I'm getting bored.  The representation of historical characters in the game sequences are sort of lame and superficial, and the rest of the plot development is kind of like watching paint dry.  I'm a patient sort of reader, but this bloated first volume of a trilogy is getting to me.  What is the point of these silly game sequences?  Here's an example of the silliness:  Norbert Wiener is hanging out with Sir Isaac Newton and was described by Newton as fighting off some pirates, and in the next sentence the gaming person, Wang, asks Von Neumann "Why did you have to come to the East to build a computer?"  To which the two (Von Neumann and Newton) reply, "A computer?  A computing machine!  Such a thing exists?"

This, after one of the seminal mathematicians who contributed to modern computer science and the field of cybernetics just finished sacrificing himself to some pirates.  Huh?  This is pretty ridiculous.  If they know who Norbert Wiener is, they should also know that computers exist.  Hell's bells.

Has anyone else read his books?  Have an opinion?  I am actually considering putting it down and giving up.  The general tone is sort of goofy and not very serious.  And this got a Hugo award.  Has science fiction really declined that much?

[6pairsofshoes]

I'm reading this on an ipad.  It naturally splits books into a zillion pages in epub format.  The hardcover edition is 400 pages.  I'm on 466 of 946.  Supposedly, from the summaries I've read, there's another rival civilization involved, but you'd never know it from the hemming and hawing that is going on here.  This is an author desperately in need of a good editor and he didn't get one.

I may slog on a bit more, but I'm not particularly impressed.  It was recommended by someone I met on a gaming forum, but he's not the sharpest pencil in the box, a nice guy, but I don't know that our tastes in literature are coincident.  Oh well.  The Ann Leckie trillogy was decent, I think you may have suggested that, but I have a brain like a sieve sometimes, so I can't remember.

[6pairsofshoes]

I haven't read Wheel of Time or anything in that series.

My knowledge of Chinese is limited to a few phrases in Mandarin that I picked up in the dorm, so I can't speak to the translation, but it does seem that the language in the book is often stilted and uses odd syntax in places, which makes me suspect that the translation is not the best.  I read another 100 pages last night before I got tired and reverted to SG1.

[goldshirt*9]

I haven't read Wheel of Time or anything in that series.

I gave up after book 5 ish.
Although started well it soon rambled on and lost all cohesion.

[Beatrix]

Actually I've been lazy audio booking for the last six months without a phone. 
Anything on android free audio books apps, greek mythology, fairy tales ect.

[6pairsofshoes]

Hi Bea, glad to see you here.  Because of the pandemic, audible is offering free kids' books and many adult classics.  Here:  https://stories.audible.com/start-listen