- Joined
- Jul 16, 2021
That ending when he went nuts and wiped out the clueless US unit was really gripping. I'm going to reread that tonight or tomorrow.
What are you reading right now?
- Thread starter AtroposHeart
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2021
Seneca was kind of shit, go for Pliny or Marcus Aurelius.
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2022
I've already read Emperor Marcus and I'm reading Seneca to contextualize his writings
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2023
Definitely, and that was all so interesting that I can easily forgive the lack of emotional or personal stuff (and just imagine it myself as I've been doing since finishing it). After all, I hated Interstellar for being too far the other direction.
I've saved the recommendations people have given me here and I'm waiting on some to arrive from other libraries and an online store (not a ton of easy access to English books where I am). In the meantime, I'm going to start Humble Pi today. I don't know math but it seems like I'll get something out of it anyway.
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2022
I’m about halfway through An Inquiry Regarding Human Understanding by David Hume, and I got to say I’m liking this guy. I like his style, his thoughts regarding Skepticism are pretty neat, and it just sounds like he’s having a blast telling you all his thoughts. The way he breaks things down is really interesting, asking about the cause of the cause of the cause.
Some of the ideas he posits are completely inapplicable to real life, but even then he more or less admits that and is more interested in asking these questions to further the field of philosophy. At least from what I can gather. Fucker loves his sentences that take up half the page.
So far, if you like philosophy I would highly recommend this book. Especially if you haven’t read much about Skepticism, I would say it’s a solid crash course.
Some of the ideas he posits are completely inapplicable to real life, but even then he more or less admits that and is more interested in asking these questions to further the field of philosophy. At least from what I can gather. Fucker loves his sentences that take up half the page.
So far, if you like philosophy I would highly recommend this book. Especially if you haven’t read much about Skepticism, I would say it’s a solid crash course.
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2022
Just finished Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. I liked Starship Troopers better but this was ok. The basic premise is there's a human baby that winds up on Mars and is raised by Martians who then comes back to Earth and his experience learning about humanity.
It's got a lot of free love/hippy idealism. Ideas like that if humanity can overcome feelings of jealousy everyone would be happy in polyamorous relationships. The most interesting part to me was in the beginning where it was partially a legal thriller about whether or not the Man from Mars legally owned the entire planet because technically he colonized it.
It's fun to see how Mike improves in his use of the thr English language as the book progresses. There's some Death Note elements at the end since Mike has telekinetic powers and can evaporate people from existence at will which I didn't expect. Besides sex the other major theme is religion and Heinlein seems to take a stance of "like if you really think about it, all religions are equally ridiculous, man."
Heinlein seems to be simultaneously pessimistic and optimistic on humanity as a whole. From the two books of his I've read I get the impression he believes humans can be awful and weak but also are infinitely malleable and just need a correct system in place to guide them towards utopia. Overall fairly interesting but not so much to my taste with it's hippy influence.
It's got a lot of free love/hippy idealism. Ideas like that if humanity can overcome feelings of jealousy everyone would be happy in polyamorous relationships. The most interesting part to me was in the beginning where it was partially a legal thriller about whether or not the Man from Mars legally owned the entire planet because technically he colonized it.
It's fun to see how Mike improves in his use of the thr English language as the book progresses. There's some Death Note elements at the end since Mike has telekinetic powers and can evaporate people from existence at will which I didn't expect. Besides sex the other major theme is religion and Heinlein seems to take a stance of "like if you really think about it, all religions are equally ridiculous, man."
Heinlein seems to be simultaneously pessimistic and optimistic on humanity as a whole. From the two books of his I've read I get the impression he believes humans can be awful and weak but also are infinitely malleable and just need a correct system in place to guide them towards utopia. Overall fairly interesting but not so much to my taste with it's hippy influence.
Flaming Carrot
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2019
Dreamsongs by George R.R. Martin - a big collection of his non-Song of Ice and Fire short fiction. Mostly good, some great ("Sandkings" is one of my favorite short stories ever). What's hilarious is that Martin talks about the stories and many of them were intended to be the first part of a series. Martin has finished none of them. So, anyone surprised by the continued non-appearance of Winds of Winter shouldn't be.
Collected Stories of Richard Matheson - Matheson, despite having many his works made into movies and TV episodes, is not well-known outside of the horror and science fiction. fields This is a three volume of most of his short fiction and included all the classics like "Duel" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". Highly recommended.
Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman - A history of Israel's targeted assassination program. Bergman's an Israeli journalist who talked to pretty much everyone in Israel's political and intelligence establishments for this book, and he delivered an extremely well-written chronicle of the country's intelligence triumphs and complete fuck-ups. Best non-fiction book I've read in a long time.
Collected Stories of Richard Matheson - Matheson, despite having many his works made into movies and TV episodes, is not well-known outside of the horror and science fiction. fields This is a three volume of most of his short fiction and included all the classics like "Duel" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". Highly recommended.
Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman - A history of Israel's targeted assassination program. Bergman's an Israeli journalist who talked to pretty much everyone in Israel's political and intelligence establishments for this book, and he delivered an extremely well-written chronicle of the country's intelligence triumphs and complete fuck-ups. Best non-fiction book I've read in a long time.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
666 by Jay Anson.
Holeeeeeee Shit--this thing is SO unintentionally hilarious and ridiculous, I'm giving serious thought to creating a thread just to pick it apart bit by bit. I'm only on chapter 8, but... I swear, Anson shaped up (for me) to be the Neil Breen of horror. Good thing he's dead and can't write any more because I wouldn't want a Tommy Wiseau situation where he tries catching lightning in a bottle again.
And it's first edition, hardcover. Found in the bowels of a Goodwill book rack.
Holeeeeeee Shit--this thing is SO unintentionally hilarious and ridiculous, I'm giving serious thought to creating a thread just to pick it apart bit by bit. I'm only on chapter 8, but... I swear, Anson shaped up (for me) to be the Neil Breen of horror. Good thing he's dead and can't write any more because I wouldn't want a Tommy Wiseau situation where he tries catching lightning in a bottle again.
And it's first edition, hardcover. Found in the bowels of a Goodwill book rack.
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2018
I'm toward the end of Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry and it's good enough that I'm finding myself trying to slow down to make it last a little longer. It didn't occur to me until I picked this up that beyond watching some video clips the only information I ever got about the 2011 tsunami was filtered through international response to Fukushima rather than the widespread death and destruction to the whole region. The author is the Asia editor for The Times and had been living in Japan for some years before the tsunami struck, giving it the perspective and writing voice of someone familiar enough with the culture to be affected by the devastation and gain the trust of the locals he interviews but enough of an outsider to have relevant historical and social minutiae explained by those locals in those interviews.
It's an interesting read. While the story connecting the book together focuses mainly on one particular village where the school evacuation was mishandled, it branches out into everything from the inevitability of Tokyo getting destroyed by an earthquake to the cultural factors causing a good chunk of the country to just casually accept seeing tsunami ghosts as an inconvenience in the aftermath. I'm not much of a weeb; my working knowledge of Japanese culture is basically mid-00s Toonami with a dash of James Clavell and Arthur Golden, so the snapshot of modern life in the wake of such an extreme catastrophe is like information crack.
It's an interesting read. While the story connecting the book together focuses mainly on one particular village where the school evacuation was mishandled, it branches out into everything from the inevitability of Tokyo getting destroyed by an earthquake to the cultural factors causing a good chunk of the country to just casually accept seeing tsunami ghosts as an inconvenience in the aftermath. I'm not much of a weeb; my working knowledge of Japanese culture is basically mid-00s Toonami with a dash of James Clavell and Arthur Golden, so the snapshot of modern life in the wake of such an extreme catastrophe is like information crack.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2015
To carry on re: my musings on Lily Prior, I reread Ardour for the first time in many years. A delightful little snack, anachronistic surrealism set in the unspecified Italian countryside. The story is narrated by a mule in love with an olive grower, and revolves around a woman who moves to the region in order to repair her relationship with her twin sister's ghost, and becomes involved in a passionate affair with an artisan pork butcher.
I'm the only person in the world who doesn't read Stephen King, and every few years I try remedy this. Currently I'm attempting Mr Mercedes and every fucking time I start to get into it I trip over King's champagne socialism and the whole thing derails. It is so clumsily and badly done- the characters randomly spouting social justice koans so completely incompatible or irrelevant to the plot or character development that everything comes to a screeching halt as I try to figure out what the fuck said koan has to do with the actual story. So far: absolutely nothing. It's like reading random tweets from SJW#688311's Twitter account copied and pasted into a chunk of prose by a particularly autistic editor before being emailed to the publishers.
Rereading China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, one of my favourite books for many years. Mieville was one of my favourite writers until Iron Council came out, the third book in the Bas Lag series, which beat the absolute fuck out of the fascists vs the socialist republic concept. Mieville is/was heavily involved in socialist politics, and given the storyline, the political shit in Iron Council is actually relevant and woven into the plot, unlike Stephen King randomly spitting out some SJW wisdom every few pages in his books. However, I still found Iron Council heavy going and it really put me off of Mieville for quite a few years. Perdido Street Station, and its follow up, The Scar, are excellent however, and immerse you in a world literally scarred by alien technology that tore natural laws to shreds, to the point where 'up' and 'down' seem more like suggestions rather than directions.
I'm ildly rereading my Eternal editions of Sailor Moon too.
I'm the only person in the world who doesn't read Stephen King, and every few years I try remedy this. Currently I'm attempting Mr Mercedes and every fucking time I start to get into it I trip over King's champagne socialism and the whole thing derails. It is so clumsily and badly done- the characters randomly spouting social justice koans so completely incompatible or irrelevant to the plot or character development that everything comes to a screeching halt as I try to figure out what the fuck said koan has to do with the actual story. So far: absolutely nothing. It's like reading random tweets from SJW#688311's Twitter account copied and pasted into a chunk of prose by a particularly autistic editor before being emailed to the publishers.
Rereading China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, one of my favourite books for many years. Mieville was one of my favourite writers until Iron Council came out, the third book in the Bas Lag series, which beat the absolute fuck out of the fascists vs the socialist republic concept. Mieville is/was heavily involved in socialist politics, and given the storyline, the political shit in Iron Council is actually relevant and woven into the plot, unlike Stephen King randomly spitting out some SJW wisdom every few pages in his books. However, I still found Iron Council heavy going and it really put me off of Mieville for quite a few years. Perdido Street Station, and its follow up, The Scar, are excellent however, and immerse you in a world literally scarred by alien technology that tore natural laws to shreds, to the point where 'up' and 'down' seem more like suggestions rather than directions.
I'm ildly rereading my Eternal editions of Sailor Moon too.
- Joined
- May 21, 2019
I read a small bit of Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels book earlier today just to see what all the fuss is about. Gotta say, I liked it more than I thought I would. He has a very charming writing style, and I'm usually a complete snob when it comes to these things. Will definitely have to go through his whole catalog at some point.
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2021
I've liked 3 of his books (Kraken, King Rat, and Railsea), really really liked them but his politics are retarded and have kept me away from the rest.
Geddy Lee's Fee and See
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2023
I just finished Mary of Nazareth and I'm at a crossroads. I want to start Geddy Lee's recent memoir I bought a few months ago but I still haven't finished Neil Peart's Ghost Rider and I also want to start St. Augustine's Confessions. I think I'll finish Ghost Rider and then read the other two in tandem. Or I can just finish that book on Musonius Rufus' Stoic teachings since it's rather thin anyways.
Anyways, the Mary of Nazareth book was very good. Well-researched and brought to light the life of the Virgin Mary from just a purely theological figure to that of a young Jewish woman that lived in the time of the beginning of the Roman Empire and her deep religious connection to the Essene sect of Judaism. It also talks about various legends and so on and so forth connected to Mary and their beginnings in the Early Church in addition to her and Joseph's flight through Egypt during the Massacre of the Infants and even interesting tidbits like how her living quarters were transported to an island off Sicily during the Crusades. I genuinely liked it and recommend it to anyone that wants a deeper relationship with Mary or just a good globe-trotting archaeological/historical book.
Anyways, the Mary of Nazareth book was very good. Well-researched and brought to light the life of the Virgin Mary from just a purely theological figure to that of a young Jewish woman that lived in the time of the beginning of the Roman Empire and her deep religious connection to the Essene sect of Judaism. It also talks about various legends and so on and so forth connected to Mary and their beginnings in the Early Church in addition to her and Joseph's flight through Egypt during the Massacre of the Infants and even interesting tidbits like how her living quarters were transported to an island off Sicily during the Crusades. I genuinely liked it and recommend it to anyone that wants a deeper relationship with Mary or just a good globe-trotting archaeological/historical book.
I've recently read the book "The War on Cash" by David McRee. It's a book about how various institutions such as the government, academia, banks and businesses are trying to get you to stop using cash.
McRee discusses how the institutions scare you into not using cash (police can seize your cash even if you're not suspected of a crime, businesses are beginning to reject cash payments, the IRS can seize your bank accounts if you're someone that's paid in cash and you make small deposits per year that add up to $10k even if you declare your income, etc).
Then, he discusses the consequence for a cash-free society (banks will implement negative interests rates, you will be charged a fee to keep your money in the bank and top academia professors have already justified this by suggesting it'll encourage spending).
It's a book with knowledge that that I'm sure some of you will already be familiar with, especially those who are into crypto, but if you want a quick refresher or fill in some gaps in your knowledge, it's an easy short book to read, with all the cited sources and without the verbose academic jargon.
McRee discusses how the institutions scare you into not using cash (police can seize your cash even if you're not suspected of a crime, businesses are beginning to reject cash payments, the IRS can seize your bank accounts if you're someone that's paid in cash and you make small deposits per year that add up to $10k even if you declare your income, etc).
Then, he discusses the consequence for a cash-free society (banks will implement negative interests rates, you will be charged a fee to keep your money in the bank and top academia professors have already justified this by suggesting it'll encourage spending).
It's a book with knowledge that that I'm sure some of you will already be familiar with, especially those who are into crypto, but if you want a quick refresher or fill in some gaps in your knowledge, it's an easy short book to read, with all the cited sources and without the verbose academic jargon.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
I finished Hardwired a few days ago, a very nice bit of early cyberpunk. Walter Jon Williams, an apparently prolific author whom I had never heard of before, makes no effort to sound like William Gibson, which I am grateful for. His writing is clear and evocative, and his descriptions of the decayed physical environment are unladen with Patrick Bateman-like cataloguing of the brands and national origin of every object in a scene, nor are there meaningless techno similes cluttering every page, as if the characters are constantly thinking about the minutae of machines.
Speaking of Bateman, I have begun rereading American Psycho, a book which I took a stab at when I was 20 (according to Amazon) and strongly disliked. What was I thinking?!
I'm also reading First Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship, which I thought would be a more current affairs kind of book of the sort that Thomas frank would write, but it is actually a pretty wonkish analysis of exactly how competing factions of elites consistently undermine hegemons and the empires which they build. The author uses world systems theory, which is somewhat outré in popular literature at the moment because of its strong emphasis on the agency of metropolitan Europe and not oppressed peoples elsewhere.
You should give The City & The City a chance if you want a book of his which is not especially political.
Speaking of Bateman, I have begun rereading American Psycho, a book which I took a stab at when I was 20 (according to Amazon) and strongly disliked. What was I thinking?!
I'm also reading First Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship, which I thought would be a more current affairs kind of book of the sort that Thomas frank would write, but it is actually a pretty wonkish analysis of exactly how competing factions of elites consistently undermine hegemons and the empires which they build. The author uses world systems theory, which is somewhat outré in popular literature at the moment because of its strong emphasis on the agency of metropolitan Europe and not oppressed peoples elsewhere.
You should give The City & The City a chance if you want a book of his which is not especially political.
You have it backwards, it was published before the hippy scene really came into being. It was the influencer, not the influenced.
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
Heinlein was like Tolkien. Hippies were fans of him (or at least SiaSL) but he was no fan of hippies.
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2021
I forgot I read that one, it was good, too.
- Joined
- May 21, 2019
Didn't notice this post earlier.
In short he's an extremely shallow man in every sense of the word.
I've read and enjoyed some of his books in prior decades in my teens and 20s when I initially got back into reading for fun, but I'd still say you're not missing out on anything particularly worthwhile because he does objectively suck as a writer. He's popular in the category of what used to be called "Airport fiction" because his books aren't challenging or engaging beyond a very rudimentary and milquetoast TV movie of the week level where things just kinda happen because they happen and you can put them down and pick them up very quickly because there's no substance to them. On top of that he's endured for decades as Hollywood's golden boy because he's become an out of touch douchebag who toes the party line as hard as the rest of them and despises anyone who doesn't as a matter of course.
In short he's an extremely shallow man in every sense of the word.
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2023
The New Testament, and Geddy Lee's autobiography.
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2020
On Amazon, I was searching for Jacques Ellul’ book Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes, when I randomly stumbled upon this gem that was in the similar results category after one reads Ellul’s book:
This was actually written back in the year 2000, but a second edition was made fifteen years later, and it’s still currently up on Amazon. I’d honestly look and think I were basic to read this considering the Israel vs. Palestine war coverage that has happened over the last few months, but I’ll be damned if I did not say that I wasn’t curious to read this.
This was actually written back in the year 2000, but a second edition was made fifteen years later, and it’s still currently up on Amazon. I’d honestly look and think I were basic to read this considering the Israel vs. Palestine war coverage that has happened over the last few months, but I’ll be damned if I did not say that I wasn’t curious to read this.