Return of the Book Thread

[Sky]

The occasional flashback. 

Not in my experience.

[Murgos]

The occasional flashback. 

Not in my experience.

Yeah, yours would best be described as frequent, or even continuous.  Am I rite?   

[Sky]

No, I got robbed.

[Evildrider]

The occasional flashback. 

Not in my experience.

I haven't had one in a long time.  I did more than my fair share of the stuff in high school though.

[ghost]

My father in law, who is in his 70s, said that he had participated in some of the LSD studies back in his college years where he went to school in California.  He said he did it twice for the research and that was all he could handle.  It doesn't sound like a good time.

[Evildrider]

My father in law, who is in his 70s, said that he had participated in some of the LSD studies back in his college years where he went to school in California.  He said he did it twice for the research and that was all he could handle.  It doesn't sound like a good time.

It really isn't for everyone.  I'm not going to promote people go out and do acid or even shrooms.  At this point in my life I won't touch the stuff, I was just young and happened to know someone who made the stuff.   

[Sky]

I've gotten what I needed to from LSD, spiritually. I would highly recommend LSD, mescaline and psilocybin with a major caveat: you need to have a controlled environment. Nobody ever had a bad trip with us, it was always a lot of fun and very mind-expanding. I haven't touched it since the 80s and wouldn't again; but I'm glad I did. Some really magical and wonderful experiences with some great people.

[Evildrider]

I've gotten what I needed to from LSD, spiritually. I would highly recommend LSD, mescaline and psilocybin with a major caveat: you need to have a controlled environment. Nobody ever had a bad trip with us, it was always a lot of fun and very mind-expanding. I haven't touched it since the 80s and wouldn't again; but I'm glad I did. Some really magical and wonderful experiences with some great people.

It's not just the people you do it with, but also the frame of mind you are in when you do it.  It's not one of those things I would do just because I was bored and by myself, and I definitely would not have had a good experience if I was being a lab rat.

[Morat20]

I've gotten what I needed to from LSD, spiritually. I would highly recommend LSD, mescaline and psilocybin with a major caveat: you need to have a controlled environment. Nobody ever had a bad trip with us, it was always a lot of fun and very mind-expanding. I haven't touched it since the 80s and wouldn't again; but I'm glad I did. Some really magical and wonderful experiences with some great people.

Is it LSD or acid that has a propsenity towards causing some genetic issues for your kids? (I don't think just in pregnant women. I think, and this is all fuzzy, we're talking about some fucking-with-the-sperms or egg shit).

I do know that there's been some controlled studies of something -- the active bit of shrooms maybe? -- that says a properly escalating dose (to a certain point and no higher) causes some rather positive changes. Maybe that was LSD?

Shit, after pot and exctasy, I'm kinda lost. (The latter is supposedly damn good for people undergoing therapy, especially things like PTSD. Opens you up to talk about your feelings and problems without triggering anxiety. Basically makes sessions a hell of a lot more productive).

[Ingmar]

LSD and acid are the same thing.

[NowhereMan]

I never did manage to get my hands on LSD, something I always wanted to try but in terms of dealers everyone sold shitty weed or cheap coke or a few other even less pleasant substances. Psychadellics seem to be very much out of favour. Did try shrooms a few times when they were still legal and easy to get and had fucking awesome experiences, definitely not for everyone but it's hands down the most fun drug I've ever had.

[Evildrider]

I never did manage to get my hands on LSD, something I always wanted to try but in terms of dealers everyone sold shitty weed or cheap coke or a few other even less pleasant substances. Psychadellics seem to be very much out of favour. Did try shrooms a few times when they were still legal and easy to get and had fucking awesome experiences, definitely not for everyone but it's hands down the most fun drug I've ever had.

Don't worry, shrooms > LSD imo anyway.  I just had easier access to one than the other.

Oh but LSD didn't taste like shit!   

[Ironwood]

Anyone read any books lately ?

Hell, even Black Company ?

 

[NowhereMan]

I never did manage to get my hands on LSD, something I always wanted to try but in terms of dealers everyone sold shitty weed or cheap coke or a few other even less pleasant substances. Psychadellics seem to be very much out of favour. Did try shrooms a few times when they were still legal and easy to get and had fucking awesome experiences, definitely not for everyone but it's hands down the most fun drug I've ever had.

Don't worry, shrooms > LSD imo anyway.  I just had easier access to one than the other.

Oh but LSD didn't taste like shit!   

It was all about mushroom soup. Bit of nice vegetable stock and let the whole simmer for a few minutes with the shrooms. I've been reading copious amounts of Huxley myself

On an on-topic note I've recently started Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts. Odd book about a Soviet Sci-Fi writer who is briefly part of a project creating an alien menace that could be used to unite the peoples of the world after the West and Capitalism fall and then events in it (like a US spacecraft being destroyed and the Ukraine getting nuked around 1986) start coming true. Just started it and there's Scientologists appearing, I am slightly worried it's going to turn crazy or have them as heroes but so far it's a different take from most sci-fi stuff i.e. the 'author' is pretty sure you aren't going to believe him and seems pretty sceptical of the whole thing himself.

[Sky]

I never did manage to get my hands on LSD, something I always wanted to try but in terms of dealers everyone sold shitty weed or cheap coke or a few other even less pleasant substances.

That's what grateful dead parking lots were for!

[kaid]

I've gotten what I needed to from LSD, spiritually. I would highly recommend LSD, mescaline and psilocybin with a major caveat: you need to have a controlled environment. Nobody ever had a bad trip with us, it was always a lot of fun and very mind-expanding. I haven't touched it since the 80s and wouldn't again; but I'm glad I did. Some really magical and wonderful experiences with some great people.

Apparently going to see Toy Story 2 is not the correct environment after doing LSD given the reaction of some friends I knew back in the day.

[Viin]

I just finished Reamde too, I thought it was pretty good. Lots of action and running around. Certainly a different type of story from Neal.

Started Kushiel's Dart on the recommendation of some folks here .. a bit hard to get into with the first 10 or so chapters, but I see glimmers of interesting things to come.

[Ironwood]

Toy Story 2 is 'back in the day'.

 

[murdoc]

I'm currently read The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart. Very violent and very funny tale of absolutely despicable tomb-raiding brothers and their run-ins with creatures of myth and folklore.

[bhodi]

I finished Altered Carbon. Good book. I want more, so I am glad there are 2 more.

[Samwise]

I'm most of the way through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.  The Jane-Austen-y bits kind of drag on, but I like the magicky bits, so I'm conflicted on whether or not I like it.

[Tmon]

Just finished up Harry Connolly's Child of Fire and Game of Cages I read both in about one and a half days.  I just got the third book, Circle of Enemies from the library.  I like that it main character spends most of the books so far getting his ass kicked, kind of reminds me of the early Dresden books.

[Rendakor]

Just finished rereading The Dragon Reborn; was about to start on The Shadow Rising but since moving this spring I can't find it or book 6. Bleh. I have Reamde on the shelf but I'm getting back into the WoT stuff and don't really want to take a break from them yet, so I'll probably go buy another copy of books 4 and 6 (only to inevitably find my originals the day after).

[Johny Cee]

Started Kushiel's Dart on the recommendation of some folks here .. a bit hard to get into with the first 10 or so chapters, but I see glimmers of interesting things to come.

Heh.

I liked the first Kushiel series, but be prepared to skim read.  There is some fairly explicit sex/erotica that may not be to your tastes... but fits the story since the main character is a courtesan whose Special Power is S&M and being submissive (in bed).  It was on the NPR list for a reason, though....  and it is a strong, active female protagonist who isn't just a man without a penis.

The next trilogy I stuck with till the third book and kind of lost interest, and the story is barely connected as it is new main characters.  I don't think it really touches the first, though.

[Johny Cee]

Anyone read any books lately ?

Hell, even Black Company ?

 

For Ironwood:

Go read Caitlin Kiernan's The Red Tree, ignore the cover.  Snarky, early 40s lesbian author moves to cabin in Rhode Island after a bad breakup with her photographer/artist lover and keeps a diary, delves into either an ongoing degeneration in mental state or paranormal/Lovecraftian horror.

Kiernan is a transgendered lesbian in her 40s living in Rhode Island with her photographer/artist partner.  There are multiple layers of story and commentary, both explicitly in text as it's supposed to be a "discovered" text (which references a discovered text from a previous renter of the cabin, which may be a fabrication) put together by a nameless editor, and because the protagonist mirrors may attributes of the author.

[Ironwood]

I'm most of the way through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.  The Jane-Austen-y bits kind of drag on, but I like the magicky bits, so I'm conflicted on whether or not I like it.

It's awful.  I was the same as you, not sure all the way through if I liked it or not.  Then I finished it.

Awful.

[dd0029]

Managed to get a Kindle copy of Wise Man's Fear from the library. It was good in that I kept reading it and did not want to put it down. As the second book in a reported trilogy, it kind of failed completely. I enjoyed it as a loosely connected set of stories featuring the same protagonist. Speaking of the protagonist, someone needs to spend more time around real sixteen year olds. At the least, I do finally understand the PA strip about the book now.

[murdoc]

I'm most of the way through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.  The Jane-Austen-y bits kind of drag on, but I like the magicky bits, so I'm conflicted on whether or not I like it.

I've had this sitting on my bookshelf for over a year now. I keep picking it up, reading a little of the first couple of pages and putting it back with a 'naaah, i'll read it NEXT though'.

[Ironwood]

Don't.  It's totally not worth it.

[Khaldun]

I liked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell a lot but you definitely have to be a certain kind of reader to really get into it.

Morgan's other books in the Altered Carbon universe aren't as good but none of them are bad.

[Samwise]

So, on Jonathan Strange:

[Ironwood]

He does, but then he gets fucked in entirely different ways.  FLEEEEE.


On a related note (since it's a book) I just finished Pratchetts latest - Snuff - and I'm left wondering when he stopped writing fantasy and went into political writing entirely.

Sigh.

[Ingmar]

I enjoyed Snuff overall, but I'm glad he's now pretty much out of fantasy races to rewrite the same gaining-societal-acceptance story yet again with.

[Ironwood]

My main problem with it was it wasn't funny.

At any point.

[ghost]

I just finished Sourcery.  While I didn't dislike The Light Fantastic or The Color of Magic as much as some around here seem to, this novel was purely insipid.  I've begun Interesting Times and it is much better done than Sourcery.  I'm debating trying to finish up the Rincewind series first or go on to the Witch series, bypassing Unseen Academicals for a bit.