The Books/Reading Thread

[skeptik]

Descartes was a funny man.

 

[Pessimism]

And his logic is absolutely foolproof!!

Right now I'm reading Russell's History of the Western Philosophy

 

[skeptik]

And his logic is absolutely foolproof!!

Indeed.

I'm STILL reading The Dreams In The Witch House And Other Weird Stories, but I'm finally on the last story, that being "The Shadow Out Of Time," which I WILL finish tomorrow. I swear.

 

[Pessimism]

I'm returning that Russell book I just bought today, I got to reading it....and fuck - I just don't like the writing style at all. It's not a slow read at all, it just doesn't...well...grab my attention (which is a real shame, seeing as I enjoyed the first 20 pages) before I bought it).

I've read a lot of criticisms about the book too, one of these being the section on Kant (and a few other sections); apparently he makes a lot of mistakes and misconstrues most of Kant's concepts, as a bonus he then shrugs off whatever he doesn't feel like elaborating on. Since I'm no Kantian, or even bothered to learn much about his philosophy (I hate Kant's style of writing), I'm really at a loss for words and facts at the moment.

I'll probably get one of those newfangled atheist books from Harris, Dennet, Dawkins, or Hitchens. I've also heard good thins about A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson...still not sure what I'm going to get though.

 

[skeptik]

I'm really not a fan of Kant at all, both in his philosophical ideas and (particularly) in his writing style, though he was an interesting man.

 

[Susperia]

Get a job.

 

[cookiecutter]

To some extent I enjoyed the new Dune books more so than the originals.

To me the new Dune books are just plain old enjoyable scifi. The old Dune books however are in a class of their own. They are intelligent, well written and rise above the cliches that nearly all scifi uses.

About The God Delusion: Who here has read it? I'd especially like a non-atheist's point of view. Where in your mind did Dawkins go wrong? I think a few of his points were rather clumsy, and I have come to learn later that some of his scientific points about "memes" may have been incorrect, but I cannot find any major flaws in the main body of his argument.

 

[wandering_taco]

I'm rereading the Three Musketeers for the umpteenth time. The book is so much sweeter than the movie.

 

[Pessimism]

Well, I returned my Russell book for Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy (almost the same thing...except for a huge time gap between Aristotle and Bacon) and Gaiman's Anansi Boys.

 

[unknown]

I'm reluctant to pick up Anansi Boys only because it sounds like a loose rehash of American Gods (one of my favorite novels)


Descartes joke:
Descartes walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Would you like a drink?" Descartes says, "I think not," and then he disappears.

*crickets*

 

[skeptik]

I am, I exist.

 

[cookiecutter]

Descartes joke:
Descartes walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Would you like a drink?" Descartes says, "I think not," and then he disappears.

*crickets*

I smirked

 

[unknown]

feel free to use that one at your next cocktail party

 

[tagradh]

 

[Pessimism]

I'm reluctant to pick up Anansi Boys only because it sounds like a loose rehash of American Gods (one of my favorite novels)

Yeah, I got that feeling from just reading the back cover. It really doesn't matter to me though, I'm just looking to have a little fun with the book.

 

[Ben_t]

Well, I'm a hardcore Ligotti fanboy, so my opinion of him is biased to say the least.



but yes. any of his material is a great place to start. his early works were more dreamlike and surreal (a few were dedicated to Lovecraft and a couple were almost blatantly written in the Lovecraftian vein). but as his work's progressed it's gotten more pessimistic and antagonistic towards the whole working world and society as a whole. great stuff.

Would you happen to know where to find a copy of The Nightmare Factory at a decent price? This book seems really hard to find...

 

[unknown]

You might as well go with The Shadow At The Bottom of the World...it's sort of a "best of" from The Nightmare Factory (even though pretty much every story in the collection is amazing). Plus it features an added story, "Purity", which is totally fucked up. The Shadow at the Bottom of the World is easier to find too...I see it in Borders and Barnes & Nobles quite a bit (do you have those in Canada?).

Mythos Books has a lot of Ligotti books, as well as other weird fiction and horror authors worth looking into. EBay also almost always has something.

 

[Skepticism]

Just started this...

 

[~Neurotica]

I finally finished reading Les Miserables Man, what a great book.

 

[Matt]

Oh yeah, Les Miserables is awesome. Good play too, and I don't usually care for those.