The Books/Reading Thread

[Dak]

I would imagine the goal of a book like this would be to figure out a way through and how to get people to talk to each other. If so, what'd you think of the solutions presented? Is the book realistic/pragmatic?

I mean, it's pragmatic and/or realistic in the sense that there's explicit recognition that there are at least three different general approaches ("Liberal", "Conservative", and "Libertarian") to politics, at least in the west anyway, and that these three approaches have different terms for similar things and place weight differently on different issues. The problem I have with the book is more meta, which is to say that it is most likely an exercise in preaching to the choir, eg most likely more libertarian leaning persons. I doubt staunch US Democrats or Republicans (that is to say, party hardliners and/or unthinking voters) are going to give two shits about understanding the differences or even themselves for that matter. It's not a lengthy read whatsoever, so getting people to read it wouldn't necessarily be difficulty due to density, but I wouldn't expect it to be helpful to the persons it would actually be potentially helpful for.

 

[unknown]

I noticed it was published by the Cato Institute, which would lend to the idea of preaching to the choir. Also, only people interested in having a conversation/recognizing a lack of discourse would likely be the ones to pick up said book. Hm

 

[Einherjar86]

Big holiday haul:

Last one's kinda nerdy, but it's possibly my favorite American novel and one seriously needs a guide in order to parse all the nuance and catch all the references. And even then, most scholars who study the novel admit that there's just too much to ever catalog in its entirety.

 

[rms]

Let me know how the Baldwin one is, por favor

 

[TageRyche]

Here's my list of the Top 10 Mysteries & Thrillers of 2017.

 

[Einherjar86]

Let me know how the Baldwin one is, por favor

It may be some time before I really get into it, but I've already read some of the essays in the collection. Not sure how familiar you are with Baldwin, but he's a phenomenal essayist.

 

[rms]

Watched a little bit of the film about him but haven't finished that. Seems like a person worth reading all about, from his words

 

[unknown]

It may be some time before I really get into it, but I've already read some of the essays in the collection. Not sure how familiar you are with Baldwin, but he's a phenomenal essayist.

This. You can pick up Notes of a Native Son pretty much anywhere, and it's a solid place to start. (The book the title references, Native Son by Richard Wright, is also worth reading). I always assign one or two of his essays every semester. His fiction is really good, too. Giovanni's Room is a good place to start

 

[tagradh]

Did God Emperor of Dune and figured fuck it may as well just get them all out of the way. Half way through Heretics now. Part of me wants to go through Hunters and Sandworms when I'm done with the original 6 but I can't remember shit about them. I dunno how much of that is because I was drunk as fuck around '07 and how much is because they were boring. Can remember thinking that it should all have been condensed into a single book about the length of one of the books.

 

[Einherjar86]

This. You can pick up Notes of a Native Son pretty much anywhere, and it's a solid place to start. (The book the title references, Native Son by Richard Wright, is also worth reading). I always assign one or two of his essays every semester. His fiction is really good, too. Giovanni's Room is a good place to start

I’ve only read Go Tell it on the Mountain, which is a great novel.

 

[unknown]

Yeah that's another good one and is his most famous novel

 

[Einherjar86]

Got my advance e-copy of Peter Watts's new book today; I'm writing a review for Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction. I'm fucking psyched:

 

[CiG]

 

[Talos of Atmora]

View attachment 13475

Horus Heresy rules.

 

[CiG]

Horus Heresy rules.

I only owned the first 7 books when I started but stopped at book 6 because life got chaotic for a second, anyways I'm finally catching up to where I was in the books which is great because I recently picked up books 8, 9, 10 and 11.



Got really lucky, old stock from my local hobby store. Like $5 each iirc.

 

[EternalMetal]

Got my advance e-copy of Peter Watts's new book today; I'm writing a review for Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction. I'm fucking psyched:

Never read any of his books before, but ive been meaning to. Should I start with Blindsight seeing as it is his most popular? Good luck with the review, that's pretty cool.

Ive been sick over the x-mas/New Years holiday so ive just been reading through some books I bought but never read yet.

I actually somewhat enjoyed this book, even if I found LeGuin's portrayal of Capitalism to be a bit egregious in its negativity.

And this classic by H.G. Wells. I think my expectations were too high for this one. It was ok, but really nothing special.

 

[Einherjar86]

Never read any of his books before, but ive been meaning to. Should I start with Blindsight seeing as it is his most popular? Good luck with the review, that's pretty cool.

Thanks man. I'd start with Blindsight, yes; and just know that while his other books are good, none of them quite live up to the insanity and intelligence that is Blindsight. The closest would be the second book of his Rifters trilogy, Maelstrom (in my opinion). I'm excited to see how Freeze-Frame stacks up.

Ive been sick over the x-mas/New Years holiday so ive just been reading through some books I bought but never read yet.

I actually somewhat enjoyed this book, even if I found LeGuin's portrayal of Capitalism to be a bit egregious in its negativity.

And this classic by H.G. Wells. I think my expectations were too high for this one. It was ok, but really nothing special.

Never read the Wells, but I'm a big Le Guin fan. Haven't read any of her Earthsea books, but the Hainish novels are very good, even if you're not fully on board with political sf.

 

[tagradh]

The Dispossessed is cool, might have to get around to re-reading that some time this year.

Just bought a bunch of Bataille's books second hand as fuck knows where mine have gone.

 

[Einherjar86]

Bataille's a nutjob. An awesome nutjob, but a nutjob. One of my students a couple years ago recommended "Story of the Eye" to me.

 

[tagradh]

The Story of the Eye and Blue of Noon are both great. Also a good length for re-reading.

Read those two, Do Androids Dream and I am Legend a whole bunch of times primarily because of their length.