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Christopher O'Brien said:
I'll be interested in hearing your review. Ray's prediction of an attempt on the life of the Pope, (to the day?) seven years before JPII is enough to cause one to ponder the odds...
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The short and sweet of it: I read the 1988 edition with Ray's commentary. The book was a very good read for my purposes, my goal was to gain some insight about Ray (at least the early years) and learn more about the Marian apparitions which I did (I knew a little about Fatima but nothing on Beauraing, Garabandal, and Zeitoun with some great photographs in the book). As far as the odds of prediction by the "Source"/ Ray of the attempted assassination of the Pope as you know are not even slim to none. I think Ray has something special that makes him unique and fascinating in his research (uap, paleontology, etc). Thank you for helping bring some of his work to light
 

A provocative work by medical ethicist James Hughes, Citizen Cyborg argues that technologies pushing the boundaries of humanness can radically improve our quality of life if they are controlled democratically. Hughes challenges both the technophobia of Leon Kass and Francis Fukuyama and the unchecked enthusiasm of others for limitless human enhancement. He argues instead for a third way, "democratic transhumanism," by asking the question destined to become a fundamental issue of the twenty-first century: How can we use new cybernetic and biomedical technologies to make life better for everyone? These technologies hold great promise, but they also pose profound challenges to our health, our culture, and our liberal democratic political system. By allowing humans to become more than human - "posthuman" or "transhuman" - the new technologies will require new answers for the enduring issues of liberty and the common good. What limits should we place on the freedom of people to control their own bodies? Who should own genes and other living things? Which technologies should be mandatory, which voluntary, and which forbidden? For answers to these challenges, Citizen Cyborg proposes a radical return to a faith in the resilience of our democratic institutions.
 
kukalakana said:
I'm in the middle of National Novel Writing Month at the moment (37 000 words done out of 50 000!) but just before bed I have been re-reading The Island of Doctor Moreau. Read through it a few times for my thesis last year on H.G. Wells. It feels good to be reading his stuff for fun and not to have to be making notes.
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How did the novel go and what was your writing schedule like? Did you do a lot of advance planning to make things move along faster?
 
I am reading NANCY DREW AND THE SINFUL CUCUMBER.

Actually, I am reading THE PHILOSOPHER'S SECRET FIRE - A HISTORY OF THE IMAGINATION by Patrick Harpur.
 
I was just about to post the following on a new thread with the same title as this one. Then I saw this thread. The little tool that shows you other threads before you post your own -- that's a cool addition. Well done, board managers.

I shall have to go back and read this entire thread. Perhaps some will want to talk about what they're reading again?

----

Here is why I stopped following UFOs. It wasn't because I was turned off by the chaos in the research community. It was because I developed a new obsession. That obsession is reading fiction. It's what I've been doing for the last 6 years, since I stopped posting here. It's why I stopped reading UFO and paranormal books. I fell in love with fiction.

Perhaps some on this board want to talk about the books they're reading? You needn't talk about fiction. Talk about whatever you're reading.

What do you like to read? What are you reading now? I have been reading "No Country For Old Men," by Cormac McCarthy. Before that, I read "Sirius," an old science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon. Before that, I reada bunch of short stories by Harlan Ellison from his collection "Shatterday." Before that, it was "The Book of the Long Sun," by Gene Wolfe. I didn't like it as much as what came before, "The Book of the New Sun," but it was still an amazing achievement by any measure. It's a huge tome, 4 novels in length, and all of it takes place in a very short amount of time, weeks or months at most, if that long. There's one more in the cycle, "The Book of the Short Sun," 3 more novels. I haven't read them yet.

I wonder if folks who are interested in the paranormal tend to read more fantasy and science fiction, or do they read more so-called "mainstream lit?"

I read lots of science fiction and fantasy. My favorite science fiction novels (to save time, I will not attempt to define science fiction) are "The Book of the New Sun," by Gene Wolfe; The Valis trilogy, by Philip K Dick; "Lord of Light," by Roger Zelazny; "Dune," by Frank Herbert; I also like the uncut edition of Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land." He gets a lot of flack from the literary community, and the more hoity-toity of genre fiction, but I think that some of his stuff will continue to endure. I need to reread that one. I really dug how they called him the antichrist at the end, and then executed him just like Jesus. That's probably what would happen to Christ if he came back; the Christians would call him the antichrist, and then they'd kill him -- again.

Fantasy? Some would classify the Wolfe book I put on the sci-fi list here. "The Lord of the Rings," of course, is supremely amazing and will endure for a long time. So is "The Silmarillion," and Tolkien hadn't even finished it, but gosh, what an amazing achievement. I like "American Gods," and I like "The Knight" and "The Wizard" by Gene Wolfe.

CBF
 
Oh, man. I just remembered the real reason I stopped posting here: Keymaster. He was going to be so much fun. He had some very crazy notions to share, and then Decker banished him from this great land.

If only the moderators would welcome him back, he would be sure to entertain us all.
 
Just finished "The Complete Stories Of Truman Capote." I've only recently appreciated what a master of the art Capote was. He had a gift finding magic and insight in everyday life events.

I've just barely started on "Billions and Billions: Thoughts On Life And Death..." by Carl Sagan. This was Sagan's last work and I think it's going to be a superb one.
 
I'm reading John Alexander's UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities. I'm enjoying it, although I'm sure conspiracy buffs will disagree with his premise.
 
Last Laugh said:
Confrontations by Jacques Valleé. Currently reading the chapter about liquid metal falling from the sky. Neat.
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This is the sort of high strangeness stuff I was talking about here:

Chuckleberryfinn said:
You start out thinking that some sightings are real. Then you keep reading about it, more and more, and learn about the high strangeness. It blows your friggin mind, man. The high strangeness stuff tends completely to annihilate the reasoning centers of some minds. It did mine. It's just so bizarre and wild and out-there, so completely disconnected from the reality we're accustomed to, that it breaks the incredulous part, the skeptical part, of your UFO reasoning center.
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It would be interesting to examine this in more detail, citing specific examples of researchers who seemed very sane and grounded and years later had gone off the proverbial deep end.
 
Finished reading Monster Hunters by Tea Krulos and posted a review if anybody gives a doodle. Might be an interesting guest for the show sometime but i don't know if Tea's book could carry an entire episode by itself either maybe worth a whole after the paracast episode or a multiple guest episode if there was a special angle.
 
I am reading a classic, Terrifying Tales, which is a collection of Poe's big titles, The Raven etc. sometimes you just have to go back in time the old way, through books.
 
I just finished go set a watchman...
Harper Lee sold her soul for mockingbird. .
Hard to beleve Lee wrote bolth books..

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Tapatalk
 
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