What are you all reading?

[QuickTwist]

three ancient colonies by sidney mintz

europe and the people without history by eric wolf

considerations on the rise and fall of the romans and their greatness by montesqeau

psychological types, psychology and religion, the zolfinga lectures.... by carl jung

odu ifa the ethical teachings by maulana karenga

marx and marxism by peter worsley

alienation marx's concept of man in society by bertell oleman

towards an understanding of karl marx by sidney hook


and one fiction: the last harmattan of alustine dunbar by syl cheney coker

Takes glasses off.. Someone is def a reader.

Currently reading:

Psychological Types - Jung
Maps of Meaning - JP
Online Electronics Textbook
Brains for Instinct - How stuff works.com
Clinical Psychology - Wikipedia

 

[Kuu]

Halfway through Ready Player One by Ernest Cline at the moment. A movie version is about to be released and I felt I had to get through it. I must say the beginning was amusing but now the Marty Stuness of the main character is seriously grating...

 

[Happy]

Currently reading Principles by Ray Dalio. This guy is the best. Even has a short chapter on how to manage HR with mbti (he’s an ENTP)... I also love the idea of an idea meritocracy.

 

[jbar]

I've been reading a shit-ton of Stephen King the last year or more and I've got to get my non-fiction groove back on. I'm reading...

A Brief History of Thought by Luc Ferry now, and occasionally I'm picking up The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality by André Comte-Sponville (though I'm repelled by the title). Oh, and I'm 33% of the way through my first read of IT, because I'm still hooked on most anything he's written...

 

[Pizzabeak]

Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley

3rd or 4th attempt at getting through this essay. Never liked Huxley's style although he's, obviously, recognized as an important figure in Psychedelic literature and history. This book is about mescaline, peyote, the psychedelic cactus Mexicans & Indians would use to get inebriated and go on vision quests - see the desert scene in Beavis & Butthead Do America. Peyote hasn't been my psychedelic of choice - it's chemically similar to MDMA (which is 3,4,methylenedioxymethamphetamine and is good for couples therapy. Mescaline is 3,4,5-methoxyphenethylamine - amphetamine is just a phenethylamine with a methyl group on the alpha carbon). I haven't tried it yet but must. I heard it shits on LSD and everything else, so to speak, and you're stoned for at least two days. Acid can last 12 hours (if you smoke weed you're stoned for ~2-4 hours, edibles can get you way more stoned for longer) or if you can redose properly, which can be tricky, you can successfully be stoned off acid for at least 36 hours - granted you're smoking pot the whole time! There's a really strange synergy between LSD and weed. When the acid is starting to look and feel like it's wearing off, you take a hit of some cannabis - boom, it brings it back a little, colors jump and get more vibrant again and everything starts to swirl more, and you might even get more "hallucinations" or visuals, or however it would work.

 

[onesteptwostep]

I recently bought Frederick Copleston's monumental 9 volume A History of Philosophy so I'm taking the entire summer to try and get through them. With the pace I'm going it'll probably take a lot long though.. Starting with Fichte at the moment.

 

[redbaron]

obligatory annual 'this thread' comment

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

Recently bought a book I have intended to read for a long time: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid.

On the face of it seems a bit woo-woo, but we'll see how it turns out

 

[Pyropyro]

I'm currently playing with Spyder and reading Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional

 

[Pyropyro]

Finished the theoretical book, now to play with The Python Workbook: A Brief Introduction with Exercises and Solutions

 

[travelnjones]

Recently bought a book I have intended to read for a long time: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid.

On the face of it seems a bit woo-woo, but we'll see how it turns out

That is supposed to be pretty good

I'm always exhausted and reading seems the last thing on my mind. I picked up "The Man of Gold" by MAR Barker out of my bookshelf then set it down after a few pages and went to bed.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Given my enjoyment of visual space opera I tried to find any interesting literature from that genre. So far with mixed results.

Peter F Hamilton "Commonwealth Saga" was a terrible mess of annoying characters, shallow plot and excessive sexual scenes. The only two interesting characters, Paula Myo and Adam Elvin created a decent investigator vs mastermind terrorist dynamic that lasted into the second book where Paula's character lost all subtlety and was oversimplified to be the result of her genetics and manipulated background. Terrible sci-fi, the only hopeful thing going for it was the detective story.

I'm honestly unsure why I bothered to read the second book, I guess I was invested in whatever tension and personal story that wasn't ruined by part 1.
* 1/10, better than 0/10

Ian M Banks "Consider Plebas" has left me apathetic and undecided. On one hand certain scenes and world ideas were interesting and helped develop stronger characters, on the other the overarching structure wasn't consistent, worldbuilding had huge gaps and a lot of the narrative effort was wasted on inconsequential or overly specific elements. I liked the ending, it was quite bitter but realistic given all that was known about the characters. Culture agent's euthanasia after waking from ages long cryosleep to wait for a verdict on the objective moral evaluation of a conflict that caused irreversible trauma felt right, though bleak. It was a mature and post-modern feeling mere adequacy.

I know the author created a number of books in this universe and is supposedly acclaimed. Though his unfocused writing doesn't encourage me to try anything else.
* 4/10, I score it lower because it is far easier to write mature sad stories than it is to make happy ones and I've had enough of the melancholy.

Kevin J Anderson "Hidden Empire", good mythology and worldbuilding, a few ideas were excellent, but a weak storyline without enough nuance. Multiple storylines don't seem to merge or interact in a way that would justify having so many.
* 5/10

David Weber "Honor Harrington" books 1-2 are very enjoyable. The story has the right amount of character intro and growth, characters are compelling and I don't mind them being more unidimensional. The depiction of an intergalactic military organisation and conflict is well thought-out on every scale. I like how regardless of what idea is introduced, it is used meaningfully and fits nicely.
* 7/10

Overall I have established that what I'm looking for in those kinds of novels doesn't qualify them as space opera. I prefer more complexity in depicting political/social systems, cool and logical science, strong and likeable characters. Sci-fi books tend to be best when they try to present the author's vision for a particular future, or unfold a reality from a set of thought experiments, all the better if there is a narrative and characters to emote or relate to.

 

[redbaron]

just finished reading Left Hand of Darkness

was good, might suit your mentioned tastes blarraun.

 

[onesteptwostep]

It's a book assigned by school, but "Saving Leonardo" by Nancy Peracy. It's a good, very generalized assessment of current secularism from a Christian standpoint.

 

[Pizzabeak]

I’ve just been reading Moby Dick recently is all really, almost done with it, except I don’t remember every line all the characters made and other detail throughout the story. I only freshly recall key moments. I actually do remember most of it, even the locations of where they sailed through.

 

[onesteptwostep]

Reading After Virtue by Alasdair Macintyre atm.

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

Algorithmic Game Theory – Nisan et al.

 

[Siouxsie]

function and field of speech and language in psychoanalysis by Lacan, Ecrits 1

 

[kora]

Doris Lessing, the Canopus in Argos series

function and field of speech and language in psychoanalysis by Lacan, Ecrits 1

Sounds like my nightmare. Let me know what you get out of it.

 

[gilliatt]

Aristotle by John Herman Randall Jr. & Studies in Tape Reading by Richard D, Wyckoff. Also The Great Explosion by Eric Frank Russell. These books, all different subjects, not just world and people, earth and sky, birth and death, of time and change, sunshine and rain etc, etc, etc.

 

[onesteptwostep]

Currently reading On Human Nature by Roger Scruton. Here's the exposition on the back cover:

Spoiler

 

[Siouxsie]

Doris Lessing, the Canopus in Argos series

function and field of speech and language in psychoanalysis by Lacan, Ecrits 1

Sounds like my nightmare. Let me know what you get out of it.

Why though?
basically what Lacan says here it that the letter marks the body, and that in the three records RSI, in one interpretation the symbolic may produce the Real, this means that the body in its real is always speaking, sort of fluctuating through sympthoms, letting through the jouissance.
We´re reading it in a study group, so what we most get out of it are clinic indications for practice.

 

[Pizzabeak]

Finished Moby Dick (1851)

One of the more memorable parts:

But it so happened, that those boats, without seeing Pip, suddenly spying whales close to them on one side, turned, and gave chase; and Stubb’s boat was now so far away, and he and all his crew so intent upon his fish, that Pip’s ringed horizon began to expand around him miserably. By the merest chance the ship itself at last rescued him; but from that hour the little negro went about the deck an idiot; such, at least, they said he was. The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps; and among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God’s foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man’s insanity is heaven’s sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God.

 

[Pizzabeak]

Dr. Fu Manchu, and it sucks, or is boring, as it seems to be a rehash of "Sherlock Holmes" while they just hunt for the doctor or try to figure out his next move. It's both vague and detailed, about 3/4ths of the way through. I'm only figuring out if I should review it or not, basically just toss it away when done. I'm deciphering what it means.

 

[Minuend]

Borne. I like it so far, it's kinda charming. And it doesn't feel childish like a lot of sci fi/ fantasy usually do

 

[Elen]

Mistborn. Interesting magic. Sadly lacking character development. Mediocre world.

 

[Minuend]

Ended up really enjoying Borne

Just finished Flowers for Algernon which I really enjoyed as well, and I make it one of my favorite books. It's pretty relatable if you've lost something physical or mental.

Read 2 books in a row which I enjoyed above average. That is rare.

 

[Minuend]

Reading The Stranger now, another short book (novel). I know nothing about it other than some random internet dude saying he read it when he read flowers for algernon, together with The Road and that awas a triangle of sad. About 1/3 or halfway through and I have no idea what the plot twist I assume is coming is. Does he have a split personality? Is he hallucinating? Is things not happening as he perceive them?

I have no idea what this story is about, but I assume there is some twist somewhere. To be continued

 

[Pizzabeak]

Reading The Stranger now, another short book (novel). I know nothing about it other than some random internet dude saying he read it when he read flowers for algernon, together with The Road and that awas a triangle of sad. About 1/3 or halfway through and I have no idea what the plot twist I assume is coming is. Does he have a split personality? Is he hallucinating? Is things not happening as he perceive them?

I have no idea what this story is about, but I assume there is some twist somewhere. To be continued

Didn’t like it, overrated, hyped up French pseudo intellectual socialist trash of a read. Basically it’s “how can you tell if you’re crazy or not?” (think, “Othello”)
He’s just a normal person, people were staring at him and because of the way in which he drank water from a cup, thought he was “different”, thus becoming afraid rather than fascinated with him, and basically were sort of stalking him. He started to get annoyed and it’s because I’m guessing the people he was around, we’re either Fi/Fe dominants or just lower IQ. It’s like Lord of the Flies.

 

[Pizzabeak]

Finishing my current read, then finishing up Infinite Jest after

 

[Minuend]

Didn’t like it, overrated, hyped up French pseudo intellectual socialist trash of a read. Basically it’s “how can you tell if you’re crazy or not?” (think, “Othello”)
He’s just a normal person, people were staring at him and because of the way in which he drank water from a cup, thought he was “different”, thus becoming afraid rather than fascinated with him, and basically were sort of stalking him. He started to get annoyed and it’s because I’m guessing the people he was around, we’re either Fi/Fe dominants or just lower IQ. It’s like Lord of the Flies.

Yeah I looked up what it was supposed to mean after, I didn't realize there was that much context to it. I guess it might be more interesting for those who have that context

As for him being an absurd person in an absurd situation (like I read someone saying), I didn't really see that. I think there are quite a few people that are pretty similar to the main character, they might be rare and far in between, but it's not really the behavior of an absurd person, as in non-existent/ exaggerated, people like that exist for real...... And people like that are often interpreted close to how people in the book would, for instance as dependent and silent, or emotionless and evil

 

[Pizzabeak]

Didn’t like it, overrated, hyped up French pseudo intellectual socialist trash of a read. Basically it’s “how can you tell if you’re crazy or not?” (think, “Othello”)
He’s just a normal person, people were staring at him and because of the way in which he drank water from a cup, thought he was “different”, thus becoming afraid rather than fascinated with him, and basically were sort of stalking him. He started to get annoyed and it’s because I’m guessing the people he was around, we’re either Fi/Fe dominants or just lower IQ. It’s like Lord of the Flies.

Yeah I looked up what it was supposed to mean after, I didn't realize there was that much context to it. I guess it might be more interesting for those who have that context

As for him being an absurd person in an absurd situation (like I read someone saying), I didn't really see that. I think there are quite a few people that are pretty similar to the main character, they might be rare and far in between, but it's not really the behavior of an absurd person, as in non-existent/ exaggerated, people like that exist for real...... And people like that are often interpreted close to how people in the book would, for instance as dependent and silent, or emotionless and evil

This one INFP kept saying I remind them of The Stranger, and recommended me Dante's Inferno, as well, so who's to really say. Knowing about Lord of the Flies and reading it are two different things. Similarly, having people try to warn you is one thing altogether. It's as if calamity can be averted by reading a book first. After a certain point it becomes ancestors or dead people trying to tell you messages, if your memory is good enough it can be applied. And I'll just say, thinking about them doesn't help much, as it's about living in the now and being quick witted, somewhat luck based, to make decisions, which could lead you to any fortune (or whatever makes you happy enough to live a good life). Thinking about what Sherlock Holmes would have done during a situation unique to you, it seems, wouldn't be that much help if you need to focus on the details presenting themselves to you. Then again, I might never see the true point since the target audience could actually more be Eurocentric males instead. It's more so that any internal dia/monologue doesn't work, and extroversion beats introversion everytime.

Like I said, life is about breathing air, so sub, un, or even consciously, people try to breath as much air as possible (not exclusive to just talking), to maximize any optimal output as it were. Most people are Fi, Fe, and Se/Ni dominants, so that's the general sensibility - strength in numbers, popular consensus doesn't always mean something is correct.

 

[Pizzabeak]

Finishing up the last few Fu-Manchu adventures then I’d have most of the main body works. I already read Varieties of Religious Experience so it has nothing to do in the long run and mentioning it is irrelevant really, unless you have something specific to mention with it.

It still does nothing to explain the Book of Acts. In fact, that’s all it does as far as it being a hypothetical text. So I would critique such suggestions insofar as it being one man’s book, or explanation of a topic aiming to be the standard on the subject. Just because you read about something doesn’t mean you know it, or have experienced it.

It’s mainly a bunch of dialogue you need. But actions speak louder than words. And yet, looks don’t matter and neither does personality, so it must be how much money you have. Personality is a close second.

 

[Pizzabeak]

Links I find by surfing the internet. It’s totally the next thing, don’t you know.

 

[Pizzabeak]

There never was a “main body” of work to begin with unless you try to make your own custom degree at college. Jesus was a “trickster” figure and some people just dip their toes in the water to test reactions of people to see what they say or do, without their original claim even necessarily being true.

 

[Elen]

*sidesteps Pizza's 7 months past blah blah*

I read The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe. It is a reimagining of a H.P. Lovecraft story. Or rather a novella inspired by it. The perspective of the main character was refreshing. Not the usual beautiful Mary-Sue or the overwrought male youth. No Chosen One trope. It has a cat which earns it at least a glance. The author has created a fascinating alter-universe fully populated and complex.

I liked it.

 

[darque]

Ah, Hannah, let me count the ways I love thee. Your provocative graphs, stimulating statistics and elegant formula, make me quiver with antici...pation!

Chapter 6 The Maths of Sex is of course my personal favourite.
We are INTP I presume?

 

[Rebis]

Currently reading: The inventions, researches and writings of Nikola Tesla (Illustrated)

A few Computer Science books, purely technical.

An audiobook I've been listening to is on CBT.

I haven't got time for a 2 hour sci-fi movie so I think I'll try out Dune at last.

 

[Drvladivostok]

Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman, I'm considering reading Wealth of Nations after this, I've just finished Thomas Piketty's Capital, It's quite interesting how as your understanding of economy grow, you're able to compare and validate different perspective, and you realize even polarizing opinion have the support of factual data, it seems like economics isn't as much of a 'hard science' as I thought.

 

[Rebis]

 

[crippli]

Very good. Long time since we saw you. Everything okay?

 

[JoeSharp02]

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky - very cool sci-fi concepts
The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious by Jung - useful for writing and stereotyping character concepts
Metro 2035 by Glukhovsky - kinda whiny and boring, Metro was better when I was 15
Effective Modern C++ by Meyers
A random C++ exercises book
American Idioms and Phrases dictionary, trying to assimilate as many modern phrases and idioms as I can for writing
A book on google marketing tools
Started reading a bunch of random gamedev books and game marketing books, not sure if worth mentioning at this point

 

[verve!ne]

I am crawling through Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting by Daniel Dennett, and also skimming the occasional article on constructing identities in online space.

I'm more interested in non-fiction than fiction right now, having just finished a literature degree with non-stop mandatory fiction to read, but am taking notes on what everyone else is reading (haha).

I want to get back into Patricia Highsmith's Ripliad, too - read the first two while I was taking exams and really enjoyed them.

 

[theklaz]

Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life by Nicholas Phillipson

 

[Puffy]

I honestly haven't felt like reading for a long time. Sometimes, I feel like I should want to read and pressure myself to, at the same time I naturally end up procrastinating on it as a result. I don't feel it's necessarily a bad thing. I spent a good few years from 2009-2014 reading countless books & consuming lots of different forms of art, and 2014-2016 intently studying computer programming and user experience. I feel like I've burned out my desire to culture myself any further.

I feel exhausted of study, I'm more hungry for experience. To absorb myself in practice and different experiences. I still want to learn, I just feel like I learn the most from that at the moment. That it nourishes and vitalises my spirit in a way books and theory can't right now. I wonder if anyone else has gone through similar phases?

The most recent book I read was Rusty Brown by Chris Ware a few weeks ago. It's a graphic novel (i.e. comic book with novelistic structure & themes.) Very formalist and modernist, deliberately pushing the boundaries of what a comic can be and do. Chris Ware is the closest thing to the James Joyce of the comic books medium, so if you enjoy graphic novels like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, Art Spiegelman's Maus or Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell, then he's essential reading and comes strongly recommended. It was nice to catch up with this old hobby, like meeting a friend you haven't seen in years for a beer. But it's clear from the meeting we've grown apart from each other for a reason and expect it will be a good few years, if ever, before we meet again.

 

[∴∴∴]

I'm really enjoying a biography of Peter Kropotkin, written by Martin A. Miller ... the level of personality and detail within is engrossing, his family relationships especially, dealing with his own (initial) remoteness and alienation from the very society he wanted to help improve, his journey through thinking many different approaches to social change will work and being endlessly disappointed and betrayed by every "official" channel and institution...

Also, minor "spoilers" if you don't know this bit of history and want to be surprised ...

Spoiler

there is at least one jailbreak.

Highly cinematic for an actual event, which can make if seem unreal... but still the impact of what it must've been like to be in prison, in that society, at that time in particular, really hits home. His experience just seeing the outdoors again, and recalling how other (illiterate, isolated) prisoners were clearly going mad from lack of anything meaningful to think about or do.

 

[∴∴∴]

I am crawling through Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting by Daniel Dennett, and also skimming the occasional article on constructing identities in online space.

I'm more interested in non-fiction than fiction right now, having just finished a literature degree with non-stop mandatory fiction to read, but am taking notes on what everyone else is reading (haha).

I want to get back into Patricia Highsmith's Ripliad, too - read the first two while I was taking exams and really enjoyed them.

If any, are there more writers or books you covered for your literature degree you would recommend? I'm very disconnected from all fiction not directly given to me by a friend, or from school/childhood, and keep meaning to branch out more than once in a blue moon. Doesn't need to be recommend for all possible reasons, can be anything from "enjoyable" to "educational" to "irritating but wildly influential, so worth picking apart"

 

[CyranoTheLeprechaun]

I am re-reading for the millionth time "Love Voltaire Us Apart: A Philosopher's Guide to Relationships"
by Julia Edelman.

The way the writer uses the first person voice to write about(more like write for) the philosophers in this book is extremely hilarious.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has a decent working knowledge of some of the most famous philosphers (i.e. Kant, Hume, Aristotle, Plato, etc,.). Even if you don't this book will probably get you into philosophy.

 

[CuriousMonk]

I had been reading many books, sometimes they helped and the other times not. Sometimes they were interesting and the other times not.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that I had forgotten to read the most important book in the universe - my own mind.

Then I started looking objectively at the workings of my own mind. And as of now I've found it to be the most interesting and useful book ever. It's full of surprises and the whole reading process is fun