What are you all reading?

[rbpinheiro]

Reading Maus by Art Spiegelman.

Great read if you like history, specially world war II.

 

[TBerg]

The Birth of Tragedy, by Friedrich Nietzsche, traces the development of Greek culture from the early period of the primordial Titans to the more rationalist Olympians and makes the case that the primordial nature of early culture carried human experience as it actually was and the more reflective nature of the Olympians was an attempt to escape the primordial tragedy.

 

[Sinny91]

The Holy Bible.

Like fuck are the God of the OT and NT the same.

The OT is blatantly demonic.

 

[TBerg]

The Holy Bible.

Like fuck are the God of the OT and NT the same.

The OT is blatantly demonic.

Talmudic tradition teaches the development of Yahweh and Elohim as the development of the moral outlook of humankind. I can criticize the Hebrew texts all day, but there is something to be said about how we can see into our more primitive past.

 

[grayskies]

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis. I'll probably read this once every year for the rest of my life.
Also finished the first book of the Ranger's Apprentice series (The Ruins of Gorlan). It was entertaining but unfortunately the author is Australian so there wasn't a conversion to American measurement(s) or literature style (I know this happens with foreign books and vice versa with us...but seeing that this is a big series, just surprised it wasn't done). It's irritating but...still wouldn't stop me from continuing the series.

 

[Sir Eus Lee]

7 habits of highly effective people, by Stephen R Covey

I'm not one to read self help books but my parents are making me do a report in it for school credit, and I figured I might as well see what's really on it. I've read a shorter version before and skimmed this one but now it'd a mostly full read.

I'm pretty sure the author is ESTP. He talks about things in our life needing to be based on "principles" and then also has some good Ti insights. They aren't quite up to our level of Ti, and they're based on Se processes, but they're still good derivatives.

Although, the Ti insights are not really that deep- at least for us. What's surprising about it is that his mentality seems to be one embracing Ni through Ti, as if he's come to terms with his inferior, good terms. Which is impressive. The 2nd and third habit are productivity and begin with the end in mind, respectively, which are both rather Ni concepts. But it still offered me the ability to critique my own outlook. I realized I was trying to embrace the Ne Fe perspective from Ti and Si, which was bringing me towards a neutral ground, but not into Ne Fe territory, and that to make progress I'd have to actually use them more often. I've fallen into Si and Ti too much. There are also some concepts that it seems he got so close to but failed to put the conclusion waiting just at the next level in writing. Although it's not perfect, it's a good read for identifying areas that Fe has pervaded and corrupted that you aren't aware of.

(All assuming he is ESTP, but it would make perfect sense.)

 

[Alias]

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling.

I'm really liking it. I'm not done, but it's very realistic, and it shows the societal conflicts that happen all the time, like rich vs. poor, teen vs. parent, and side of government vs. other side of government. All the characters are people that can really exist in real life, and it;s told in a way that shows you character motives.

 

[Sinny91]

The Holy Bible.

I rather enjoyed Eccelesiastes - In all it's nihilism.

 

[TBerg]

I rather enjoyed Eccelesiastes - In all it's nihilism.

It is profound but flippant. It brings tears to my eyes during periods of grief.

 

[Sinny91]

It is profound but flippant. It brings tears to my eyes during periods of grief.

I've just bonded with somebody else over that book.
What should I read next? Should I just go on in order? I didn't read all the way up to there, I went straight there after Exodus.

 

[Alias]

What should I read next? Should I just go on in order? I didn't read all the way up to there, I went straight there after Exodus.

Try out Proverbs. Revelation is interesting too.

 

[dutchdisease]

"Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions"-Edwin A. Abbott

"Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations"-Paul Krugman

"Electronics All-In-One For Dummies"-Doug Lowe

 

[Sinny91]

"Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions"-Edwin A. Abbott

On Mr ISTP suggested that to me today, and a bunch of others:
(and thanks Alias)

Spoiler

recently finished Ecclesiastes Old Testament bible

aha good read!
the only bit i like
id recommending also reading the vedas and al-quran. lots of good guidance in religious text

Ill check em out ta

have you ever read flatland?

nope

defo read that it's only a short book
its about a flat world where women are lines and men other geometric shapes

ahh that sounds awesome

I think you'd like metamorphosis by franz kafka too

Thats looks awesome to..
keep em coming

Animal farm by George Orwell
and Rassalas Prince of Abyssinia
marquez is v good.
100 years of solitude
The unbearable lightness of being
oh marcus mills. so good

all good, apart from animal farm smile emoticon
I resented that one aha

why
it was tge first book i read

just the fact it was shoved down our necks in school

oh yes that happened with me and treasure island

 

[Sinny91]

Wotan - CG Jung
http://www.philosopher.eu/others-writings/essay-on-wotan-w-nietzsche-c-g-jung/

 

[TBerg]

The Quran is a rambling, repetitive, incoherent mess of a book. It makes me realize how reading it could convince you to hate everyone who disagrees with you and then possibly kill them.

 

[Sinny91]

The Quran is a rambling, repetitive, incoherent mess of a book. It makes me realize how reading it could convince you to hate everyone who disagrees with you and then possibly kill them.

This is a perfect book; there is no doubt in it; it is a guidance for the righteous.

 

[TBerg]

Let me know when you make a jihadist parody video.

 

[Sinny91]

You inspired me to read up to chapter 2.
Started off - meh - then got cool - then when back to meh.
...I should finish the Bible first - quit distracting me.

Damn

Spoiler

If I was The Devil I would manifest myself inside of a virgin, say that I am the Son of God and convince everyone that they can now be forgiven for every sin just by asking, thus opening the floodgates for an unprecedented and unending torrent of sin.
I would start with the uneducated and the poor. I would impress them with some magic tricks, teach them to pretend to eat my flesh, drink my blood and always, ALWAYS, use MY name when speaking to God.
I would most assuredly use my immortality to fool them into thinking I came back from the dead as proof of my divinity.
What better way to channel more souls away from God and straight into Hell

4. Sowing Seeds of Confusion - Not the Antics of a Good God

The Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Scriptures / Old Testament contains two examples of some very limited communication methods used by God. Both would have serious deleterious consequences if we didn't ignore these verses.

Numbers 12:6 has God say "Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream". But this is a clear-cut path to chaos and anarchy, and would immediately undermine all religion. If we trusted Numbers 12:6, then, it would mean that Christianity isn't true, because too many people have had visions of Krishna and Buddha. Likewise, Hinduism cannot be true because too many people have had visions of a monotheistic God. Instead, it must be the case that most visions are actually wrong - they are delusions and illusions. Fortunately for us, we have learnt much about human neurology and we know many of the physiological and neurological causes of visions (see: Experiences of God are Illusions, Derived from Malfunctioning Psychological Processes). We know simply to disregard Numbers 12:6.

Numbers 22:21-34 tells a rather odd story where a man, Balaam, is travelling one way, when God wants him to go another. God's method of communication here - out of all the means available to the miracle-worker Creator of the Universe, is to have the donkey do things. At first the donkey merely resists because God sends an invisible angel to stand in their way, that only the donkey can see. The man, of course, has no idea why the donkey is being stubborn and strikes the donkey a few times. I could not think of a poorer method of communication than an unspeaking invisible angel. It is so daft that the Qur'an makes fun of it in Sura 31:19 - "indeed, the most disagreeable of sounds is the voice of donkeys". When the donkey speaks, things get a little clearer - eventually. The moral of the story is somewhat shaky: if an animal resists doing what you want, then do not make it obey you because it might be God trying to communicate with you

http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/christianity_evilgod.html


I do find myself attached to the Christian God...
But it's completely irrational... obviously.

 

[A_Scanner_Darkly]

The Holy Bible.

Like fuck are the God of the OT and NT the same.

The OT is blatantly demonic.

Song of Solomon is some the best love poetry I've ever read.

I'm now reading Dracula...also, Hallucinations and Interview with the Vampire, interspersedly.

 

[Sinny91]

Song of Solomon is some the best love poetry I've ever read.

Excellent, I'll go there.. I was lacking further direction/motivation, and since only sporadically flipped through Psalms & Revelation.

I'm now reading Dracula...also, Hallucinations and Interview with the Vampire, interspersedly.

I love Dracula, read it 4 times. Never read Interview with a Vampire, but I loved the movie.

 

[TimeAsylums]

Recently:

- The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley (and some Alan Watts stuff)

Meh was ok. Nothing new.

- Programming and MetaProgramming of the Human BioComputer - Dr. John C. Lilly

Better than the aforementioned, but still nothing new.

- Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

Only starting it, not bad, suppose to be Orwellian.


Open to reccomendations

 

[A_Scanner_Darkly]

Excellent, I'll go there.. I was lacking further direction/motivation, and since only sporadically flipped through Psalms & Revelation.

Oh, I forgot...

DISCLAIMER: I only read the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible for pleasure.

I love Dracula, read it 4 times. Never read Interview with a Vampire, but I loved the movie.

Dracula seems to be an early form of the encyclopedic novel, loaded with detail. I love when I get to read nonfiction and fiction at the same time.

If you liked Dracula, you would probably get a kick out of IWTV. It's loaded with historical detail as well. I always felt this was Anne Rice's overarching appeal: the way she inserts her vampiric characters into and across the various epochs of our history.

For instance, Louis' narrative starts out in a very interesting era in Louisiana history (Pre-American), which I would otherwise know nothing about...later, they travel to 19th century France and Eastern Europe. And of course he lives into the 21st century, so he's able to compare much across space and time...

 

[Sinny91]

Conspiracy Against the Dollar Dr. Peter Beter
http://www.peterdavidbeter.com/docs/thecad.html

 

[Sinny91]

Hotel Transylvania by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
A romantic rendition about the ever immortal, ever mysterious Le comte de Saint-Germain.

Vististed moms and stayed in my old room. Ultimate goths lair, my units are stacked with various Vampire literature, amongst other things.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Channels 'Ascended Masters'... books are from the early 70's.

I've got LJ Smiths original '91 prints of the Vampire Diaries too. I was really pissed off when my friends came to me tried telling me all about them when they finally 'took off' in the Naughties, when Vampires became 'cool'.

 

[LOLZ9000]

Henry Miller - Tropic of Capricorn
Ivo Andric - Bridge on the Drina

Henry Miller is probably my favorite author, ever. Talk about a guy who marches to the beat of his own drummer and tells it like it is like no other. A very INTP-friendly author I'd say.

 

[Sly-fy]

Every book I can find that has to do with psychology, I often get bored with fiction books before I finish reading them as soon as I think I can spot where the story's headed. Frankly I have a lot more patience with audio/visual input.

 

[PaulMaster]

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society: Dave Grossman: 9780316040938: Amazon.com: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Bu29eZsZL.@@AMEPARAM@@41Bu29eZsZL

 

[Sinny91]

Esoteric Treatise of Theurgy

Note to self:
https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.gnosis2002.com/&prev=search

And:
http://www.gnosis2002.com/ovni/El fin del Sistema - Andrew Lemmingway.pdf

And:
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sour...on=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=life of the 12 caesars

 

[Puffy]

On a similar theme of Hermeticism: 'Suggestive enquiry into the Hermetic Mystery' by Mary Anne Atwood. Fascinating book with an interesting history behind it, only past the first chapter though.

Morris Kline's 'Mathematics for the non-mathematician' (thanks r4ch3l!), 'Eloquent JS' & Douglas Crockford's 'Javascript: The Good Parts' study wise.

Been learning to write poetry for a little while. Used Mary Oliver's 'The Poetry Handbook', and Stephen Fry's 'The Ode Less Travelled' to pick up the technical terminology, and have been dipping in and out of Blake, Keats, and Goethe for the moment.

(I'm never reading one thing at any one time. >_>)

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Recently finished:
Waiting for Godot,
Ramayana,
The Trial,
For Whom the Bell Tolls,
Król Bólu,

 

[TBerg]

The Civil War, by Julius Caesar: Finding out how similar he is to Donald Trump.

Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius: For personal edification.

I have also been plumbing Mastery, by Robert Greene, for life tips. So much I should have learned a long damn time ago.

 

[Nebulous]

The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell

 

[A_Scanner_Darkly]

Finished Dracula and several others since last posted. It was good, very good, but lost some of its momentum near the end. Neither am I terribly interested in this original model of the vampire (i.e. an almost mindless predator with no heart or soul), which is the vampire of antiquated Eastern European lore; nay, what is typically credited to Anne Rice, in the 1970s, which co-occurred with the shift in our Postmodern/New Age conception of evil---and, by extension, of the vampire---as something not external but within ourselves, is far more intriguing. Thus, Rice's Louis is the ideal vampire for the time and mindset we inhabit today.

Read Anna Salter's book, Predators, based on Salter's years of research on rapists, pedophiles, etc. Most illuminating, many interviews with these sickos included. She also has video interviews of the same on YouTube if anyone is interested.

Now reading Fire in the Brain by Ronald K. Siegel. Also The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories. Have a number of others in the queue, including Octavia Butler's Fledgling and Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire (already read it once).

 

[Puffy]

The Civil War, by Julius Caesar: Finding out how similar he is to Donald Trump.

Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius: For personal edification.

I have also been plumbing Mastery, by Robert Greene, for life tips. So much I should have learned a long damn time ago.

I'm generally mistrustful of self-help books (there's a lot of money to be made in telling people what to do with their lives) but Mastery is a good book. My main critique is that I think the essential advice is intuited pretty quickly, and can be lost in too much verbiage.

His book The Art of Seduction (on seduction herp derp) is actually good for a book of that genre as well.

Reminds me that I was planning on re-reading Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings. Musashi's life-guidance is often simplified into a few easy to memorise maxims. "Do nothing that is useless" is a great one to hang up on your door as a reminder and continues to kick my ass to this day. (Is this post useless? )

 

[TBerg]

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson

I am beginning to compare Thomas Jefferson with Karl Marx, in that they both held onto ideals that were disconnected to the reality of human nature that they seek to impose upon. While Alexander Hamilton was rising from poverty to become capable of commanding men, Jefferson was born to relative luxury and privilege and only was able to hold onto his idyllic picture of utopia because so many of his underlings did the dirty work for him. These included party members, government servants, and slaves. Some people attribute his lack of connection to people as a result of Asperger's Syndrome. But he cannot be a good role model for others on the spectrum because he did not know how to deal with obstacles without retreating into his privileged lifestyle.

I have also been listening to other biographies of the Founders and have been listening to Hamilton: The Musical. I need to find Ron Chernow's biography of him from an online source.

 

[TBerg]

Then again, so many of us live as privileged kings used to live, so maybe there is more to grasp than we might think.

 

[Sinny91]

Martin Bormann, Nazi in Exile - Paul Manning

Anticipating the defeat of the Third Reich, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann set up 750 corporations in neutral countries, primed as vehicles to receive the liquid wealth of Germany in addition to patents and other proprietary industrial information. An organizational genius and the real power behind Hitler, Bormann, known as the "Brown Eminence", successfully fled Europe for South America and administered a "Reich in Exile" in the years following the war. With remnants of the SS as an enforcement arm, former Gestapo chief General Heinrich Mueller as security director, the 750 corporations as a base of economic power and the willing silence and cooperation of the Western Allies, Bormann guided his organization to a position of consummate power. One banker quoted by Manning termed the Bormann Organization, the "world's most important accumulation of money power under one control in history". Controlling Germany's major corporations, the Federal Republic itself and much of Latin America, the Bormann Organization also maintained a formidable circle of influence in the United States. Paul Manning has written the definitive text on the Bormann Organization. Manning worked with CBS radio during World War II in London as a member of the elite Edward R. Murrow/Walter Cronkite team. As part of his coverage duties, he was the only member actually allowed to fly on U.S. Air Force missions as a fully functional crew member. Having qualified as a gunner, his flights included B-17 missions with the 8th Air Force over Germany and several B-29 missions to Japan. On behalf of CBS, he broadcasted the surrenders of Japan and Germany. In 1948, along with fifteen other distinguished war correspondents, he was awarded a medal for his reporting of the unconditional surrender of the Germans at Rheims. After the war Manning continued his journalistic profession and also served as a speechwriter for Nelson Rockefeller.

PDF:
http://spitfirelist.com/books/manning.pdf

 

[Sinny91]

Martin Bormann, Nazi in Exile - Paul Manning

PDF:
http://spitfirelist.com/books/manning.pdf

In following on from the book:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iszh2F3D2TE

 

[deathvirtuoso]

I'm trying to read Lolita and The Great Gatsby, but it's so excruciatingly difficult. I just can't read more than 3 pages. I can't concentrate. Not sure if it's the book that's dull or my mind that's incapable.

 

[Nofriends]

if it counts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I_RxbKSyWw

 

[onesteptwostep]

Currently reading The Book of Corrections or 'Jingbirok', translated by Choi Byonghyon. The book is a reflection on the Imjin War from a senior state councilmen in 16 century Joseon/Korea. For those unfamiliar, the Imjin War is the equivalent of WW2 in 16th century East Asia. America landed 150,000 troops on D-day, compared to 130,000 launched by Japan.

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

forum posts mostly

also, Bible verses

 

[Interdimensionist]

I'm in the middle of Mind in Science by Richard L Gregory and Maverick Screenwriting by Josh Golding along with a couple of textbooks (physics, ICT, statistics) that I pick up and leaf through every once in a while.

I know what you mean by The Great Gatsby being dull deathvirtuoso, I finished it about a week ago for the first time and it's basically just a bunch of rich socialite twats up their own arseholes having parties and committing adultery with a shock ending that you can see coming a mile off.

The narrator makes it slightly more bearable by being quite a detached and down to earth character but everyone else in the novel was just irredeemable. It was really just one of those so called 'Great' books that I wanted to tick off my reading list, also I know Hunter S Thompson was fond of it and would type it out word for word to get a feel for Fitzgerald's prose, something which made me curious enough to seek it out but I didn't see what all the fuss was about to be perfectly honest. Its main saving grace is it's brevity, you could blast through it in no time at all on the train to work or something if you were so inclined.

 

[Ex-User (11125)]

it's basically just a bunch of rich socialite twats up their own arseholes having parties and committing adultery with a shock ending that you can see coming a mile off.

hahaha yes, majority of the book was painful to read and i disliked most of the characters.
it reminds me of this film called La maman et la putain where you have to sit though...idk...3(?)hours of some pseudo-intellectual twat with an inflated ego talking non-stop, then watch all of that fall to ashes as the character's lover delivers a harrowing 10 minute long monologue, in the closing scene, that dismantles the mountain-heap of bullshit the film's main character has been building up to that point, and it is this genius scene that makes the film what it is. did i have to go through all of that to appreciate the closing scene? probably not. anyway, great gatsby's ending was just as harrowing for me, you said that you can see the ending coming a mile off but i beg to differ

Spoiler

i agree it was pretty obvious that gatsby would be meeting ruination soon, but the ending still shocked me...because it was so anti-climatic! i remember gatsby's death being alluded to by the narrator all of a sudden in a very matter of fact way and i wasn't even sure i got that right until a few pages later when he started talking about funeral arrangements. i still think the ending was powerful and genius, the rest of the book was meh as far as social commentary and parody goes though, i've seen it done better...overall it's an average book

 

[Interdimensionist]

you said that you can see the ending coming a mile off but i beg to differ

Spoiler

i agree it was pretty obvious that gatsby would be meeting ruination soon, but the ending still shocked me...because it was so anti-climatic! i remember gatsby's death being alluded to by the narrator all of a sudden in a very matter of fact way and i wasn't even sure i got that right until a few pages later when he started talking about funeral arrangements. i still think the ending was powerful and genius, the rest of the book was meh as far as social commentary and parody goes though, i've seen it done better...overall it's an average book

Meh, slight exaggeration but it did seem inevitable once Wilson or whatever the mechanic's name is starts investigating and yeah, I got that too and thought I had gotten it wrong at first, it's almost as if the book skips a part. Just me or is it kinda amusing we're trying to avoid giving away spoilers for a 91 year old book? The lack of remorse shown by the characters bothered me but I suppose that was the whole point of the book, not much of a newsflash though that vapid, young rich kids are selfish asswipes mostly.

Also maybe the film you mentioned wouldn't have had the same impact without the egotistical main character droning on about a load of crap beforehand, never seen it but sounds like the whole point is to make you hate him so the ending pays off more when she breaks him down and exposes him for what he really is, or was it actually trying to be deep and just failed miserably?

 

[Sinny91]

To read:

Left in the dark
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Left_in_the_Dark.html?id=vOj_GZ2-1dEC&redir_esc=y

Left in the Dark expounds the most radical reinterpretation of existing evidence from the disciplines of evolution, ecology, neurology, psychology, anthropology and other academic fields, whilst also placing the ancient ‘Ages of Mankind’ mythology and related traditions within a scientific context. These universal traditions were once the only version of history we had, they describe the onset and progression of a neurodegenerative condition that really has left us in the dark. Often considered no more than the imaginings of a primitive mind and easy to dismiss as mere myths, they are in fact a more accurate natural history of humankind than modern science has thus far recognised. The book outlines the origin and nature of a condition that eventually left us virtually blind to its existence. Evidence is cited that supports such a scenario. A means of definitively testing its validity is proposed and most importantly what can be done to treat the condition and prevent its occurrence. While this may seem a challenging prospect it promises amongst other things the restoration of phenomenal abilities, exceptional immune function and most importantly a greatly enhanced state of mind and well being only rarely glimpsed by a tiny minority.

The revised 2nd edition of 'Left in the Dark' with a foreword by Dr Dennis McKenna is now available.

A neurodegenerative theory, such as the one outlined in Left in the Dark, which proposes that the development of our brain has become seriously retarded would accurately predict a number of major psychological symptoms.

For example making sense of who or what we are or recognising the insanity of our day to day behaviour would be virtually impossible.

Furthermore such a theory would predict that even if there were overwhelming evidence to support such a scenario we would be slow to understand the context, specific nature and severity of our predicament, even if it were pointed out in laypersons language…

http://leftinthedark.org.uk/book

 

[xbox]

ur moms diary

 

[Brontosaurie]

ur moms diary

That's fucking rude.

 

[Kuu]

Recently finished:
Neuromancer, William Gibson's cyberpunk first.
Accelerando, moar cyberpunk orgy from Charles Stross. This guy shoots such a torrent of half-baked ideas on you like Ne on a cocaine rampage...
In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki, more of a long rant than a book, but oh what a rant!

In progress:
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, a rather timely book to finish my cyberpunk cycle.

Up next:
Probably Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom, or Walden if I'm not feeling the paranoid technolust anymore.

 

[rainman312]

Recently finished:
Neuromancer, William Gibson's cyberpunk first.

Thoughts on it? I remember reading it in 6th or 7th grade and finding it a bit pulpy. Still, that was a while ago, so I don't really remember it too well.