Books: A Portal into A Different World

[Jon]

I came across the expression, "A book is a portal" the other day, and it really struck me as profound. What a great way to reframe what a simple book actually represents.

What are your favourite books, be they fiction or non-fiction?

I will start off with one that let me peer into the psychology of others through an evolutionary lens: "Evolutionary Psychology" by Dr David Buss.

 

[AccessBlaster]

I'm reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, good read so far.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

I'm reading:-

"The Master and His Emissary" by Iain McGilchrist.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

And:-

Awake: It's Your Turn by Angelo Dilullo.

 

[Harrybrigham]

Brother surgeons.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was my portal to the possibilities of a world of magic. Let me to a writing hobby.

 

[oleronesoftwares]

Ideas rule the world by Dr Sam Adeyemi

 

[strive4peace]

great topic, Jon. books are wonderful! They open the mind. I used to read a lot of fiction, but now mostly references (most read books are those that came with Access 97 developer edition, still on my bookshelf ~ how geeky am I?)

However, I bought a bunch of Dr Suess books to read and give away to children. They're silly, but a great start into books and imagination

 

[AngelSpeaks]

I've been reading a lot of murder mysteries by Agatha Christie type writers. I especially enjoy the historical stories.

 

[strive4peace]

I'm reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, good read so far.

@AccessBlaster -- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho has an intriguing title. I'd be highly interested in your comments

The author, Paulo Coelho, sadly, has ideas that aren't accepted by general society. He learns a lot by observation (for those that are scientific and need 'proof'). More importantly though, imo, is his connection to the universe ~ we all have that, better when we're children, before we've 'learned' what's possible and what isn't.

What we know about chemistry is broken down into the Periodic Table of chemical elements ... but what makes one element different than the rest? Can they be converted? I don't know how, but do believe its possible

My next user group presentation is how to make this fundamental table in an Access report without controls to write and draw ... everything is done with VBA

Not a good time for those in the UK ... but here's the link for those who want to join

Drawing the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements with an Access Report
https://accessusergroups.org/pacific/event/257-2022-06-02/

 

[AccessBlaster]

The author, Paulo Coelho, sadly, has ideas that aren't accepted by general society. He learns a lot by observation (for those that are scientific and need 'proof'). More importantly though, imo, is his connection to the universe ~ we all have that, better when we're children, before we've 'learned' what's possible and what isn't.

My wife and I were on our daily walk through the neighborhood, we came across two milk crates filled with books. The two books that jumped out at me were both written by Paulo Coelho, I'd call that a universe nudge.

 

[Isaac]

I came across the expression, "A book is a portal" the other day, and it really struck me as profound. What a great way to reframe what a simple book actually represents.

What are your favourite books, be they fiction or non-fiction?

I will start off with one that let me peer into the psychology of others through an evolutionary lens: "Evolutionary Psychology" by Dr David Buss.

Dave Eggers
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

 

[AccessBlaster]

After finishing my second book by Paulo Coelho, I'm revisiting a book I found a while ago in my mom's collection entitled Star Signs the secret codes of the universe by Linda Goodman. I wonder what's next, Tarzan or John Carter by Edgar Rice Burroughs? Only time will tell

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Are the books better than the film's? I just didn't get the film's.....

 

[prabha_friend]

S.Prabhakaran Karuppaih - India (90 books) | Goodreads

 

[prabha_friend]

Dear Friends,
Please also provide your goodreads link too...

 

[Darrell]

David Lifton
Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy

 

[The_Doc_Man]

One of the best books I ever read was Jurassic Park. Who wuda thunk it? A guy standing next to me in Barnes and Noble recommended it so I bought it. How bad could it be. I already read several books by Michael Crichton and liked them all. I was so transfixed by it I read it in a weekend. All the while I was thinking - what an awesome movie this would be if only the technology was good enough to bring the reality to life. And three years later, there I was in the movie theater completely awestruck by the renditions of dinosaurs that were totally realistic.

If you've only seen the movie, I have to explain one of the things that interested me in the story line that was too subtle to come across in the movie because it is all about what we do. The DNA strands used to clone the dinosaurs were incomplete so the scientists used a frog from Africa to fill in the gaps but this frog had an ability that no one saw as potentially being a problem. In times of stress in the community, if the sexes became unbalanced, females had the ability to transform into males (there are fish who do this also). The scientists deliberately only cloned females. Now we come to the software. As the animals were cloned and added to the various pens around the property, the monitoring equipment kept track of them so they could identify if any went missing. Additional animals never occurred to the programmer so the software knew there were 8 of type X in the pen and so it counted 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 - OK all accounted for and moved on so they never recognized that the dinosaurs were reproducing. The whole fiasco was caused by a programming bug

I've read a few books by Chrichton but at least three of four of them had what I considered a cop-out for resolution. He used the deus ex machina resolution, which removes all tension from the writing. The protagonists didn't have much (if anything) to do. For instance, in The Andromeda Strain, if they had held out just a little longer the infection would have mutated itself out of existence. In Sphere, they just imagined their problem away - and it vanished. At least a couple of his other books used that technique. I consider it lazy plot development even though I know many other authors use that same method. As to the Jurassic series, there the problem was different. The dinosaur antagonists were OP. (No, not "original poster" but "overpowered".) Still, he's commercially successful so I have to give him props for that much.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I merely think that a deus ex machina exit is a stylistic trap that is a too-easy way out of an overly complex situation. It's the "Alexander slices the Gordian knot" solution. Personal preference, maybe.

As to the dinosaurs, a few Browning M2 .50 caliber machine guns should have taken down the thunder lizards. If not that, then the Stinger missile. The big lizards were tough, but their scales weren't like plate-mail armor. That's what I meant by "overpowered." Just as a comparison, in the dinosaur flick Godzilla (Matthew Broderic version), small-arms fire didn't stop the big ugly beast, but a few jet-launched missiles that ripped big bloody holes in its skin were enough to bleed it out. There was potential parity.

I guess I'm saying that it is OK if the bullfighter doesn't always win for each battle, but in the long run the bull is going to get butchered.

 

[prabha_friend]

Any Ken Follet Readers Here? Pillars of the Earth, Hammer of Eden, Fall of Giants?