What book(s) are you reading?

[Crash Dummy]

nyrb classics has a one day sale on - any recs? https://www.nyrb.com/collections/classics

[benjipwns]

admittedly the selection plus the prices are a bit off putting to build up a fivesome to get that discounts (a casual glance at amazon could net you a same set of the random five i picked for anywhere to 25% to 80% off the non-discount price) though i know nothing of the quality of their books in all the other ways...categorization on some books is a bit weird too, a number could have been in more categories and thus more easily "discovered"

but reading some of the sites descriptions alone is worth the price of clicking the link:

Stepping out of the darkness, the American emerges upon the stage of history as a new character, as puzzling to himself as to others. American Humor, Constance Rourke’s pioneering “study of the national character,” singles out the archetypal figures of the Yankee peddler, the backwoodsman, and the blackface minstrel to illuminate the fundamental role of popular culture in fashioning a distinctive American sensibility. A memorable performance in its own right, American Humor crackles with the jibes and jokes of generations while presenting a striking picture of a vagabond nation in perpetual self-pursuit. Davy Crockett and Henry James, Jim Crow and Emily Dickinson rub shoulders in a work that inspired such later critics as Pauline Kael and Lester Bangs and which still has much to say about the America of Bob Dylan and Thomas Pynchon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

CRACKLES WITH THE JIBES AND JOKES OF GENERATIONS

A classic book for TVC and kris to read together in Vegas:

introduction by Christopher Hitchens

A Handbook on Hanging is a Swiftian tribute to that unappreciated mainstay of civilization: the hangman. With barbed insouciance, Charles Duff writes not only of hanging but of electrocution, decapitations, and gassings; of innocent men executed and of executions botched; of the bloodlust of mobs and the shabby excuses of the great. This coruscating and, in contemporary America, very relevant polemic makes clear that whatever else capital punishment may be said to be—justice, vengeance, a deterrent—it is certainly killing.

[Joe Molotov]

nyrb classics has a one day sale on - any recs? https://www.nyrb.com/collections/classics

buy the ones with naked ladies on the cover

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Alternatively

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[close]

[Tasty]

Halloween Returns (2015) [Screenplay]

Michael gets put on death row, but shenanigans happen on the night of his execution (Halloween, of course.)

Halfway through now. Emotions for the first half:

[benjipwns]

did you know that Ronald Reagan was an anti-communist New Dealer in the mold of FDR and Truman? that he strongly supported welfare, free education through college and civil rights? that Reagan barely agreed with Goldwater, but thought LBJ was a disaster?

and that when he said "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me" it was 100% true, as the Democrats tossed out those in the image of FDR and Truman to follow Henry Wallace's 1948 Progressive platform which desired to establish central planning and proto-communism and eliminate free speech and weaken the United States against the Soviet Empire?

it's all true! (And Trump is closer to Reagan's true conservatism, because he cares about the working class and rejects harsh ideology, than most elected Republicans who are extremist libertarians like Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Rob Portman!)

spoiler (click to show/hide)

i feel like i need to follow up by actually reading this now

[close]

[benjipwns]

wait, nobody told me we'd have to read a book

motherfucker we know what pundits you read, don't lie about having standards now

ohhh, this is the type of thing you were talking about...

[HardcoreRetro]

Here's a book and drinking challenge for people. Read Trainspotting and take a shot every time the word fuck pops up in any capacity.

[BisMarckie]

Very easy to read and presented in an accessible way. Easy to follow and if you are an idiot like me that doesn't know all that much about the'Glorious Revolution', I'd recommend it.

[kingv]

Been listening to The Fifth Season by some chick in New York... nemispn or something like that?

Basically it’s a fantasy stories where peopl live on some Pangaea like continent with a bunch of earthquakes and has three interweaving stories of people who can do magic.

Sort of interesting in that it is a good bit different than a lot of fantasy tropes as it’s writteb by a black writer and thus most of the characters are not white. It also has a part where this chick goes hard in the paint for a yeast infection by banging a dude that just blasted a mans Asshole.

Weird ass sex in books is cringe to me and it’s my sole complaint, but otherwise I’m enjoying it (and there is only really one that I thought was bad but it gave me flashbacks to reading the shining).

Apparently it is the first of a trilogy.

[Madrun Badrun]

Ya, its a trilogy. 

[benjipwns]

due to her birthday, been celebrating america

[benjipwns]

I actually don't read that Fox News garbage in book form because it's the same book over and over usually. Same for the progressive/Democrat side too. I did read them for a while and realized that they were temporarily very set in stone about the hot topics of the moment. Especially any by politicians except like Ron Paul since he'd write about the Fed or Foreign Policy over so many years or such. (Along with his campaign books.) But compare to one of his son's books, Government Bullies, it's like all 2012 election issues and solutions treated as if they're timeless. And his book is only tonally different from Ted Cruz's or Marco Rubio's or whatever. I especially assume that about his 2015 book which is an obvious presidential campaign book. Never touched the thing.

Sometimes if they look different, like Tucker Carlson's upcoming one seems to be a bit less "in the moment" but I'd have to look at it. Jonah Goldberg is usually decent at this, even if he'll use all current examples to the point that he changes the subtitle of his books multiple times. Ann Coulter's books were once written around themes, but after she tricked me into looking at just a collection of her columns for the second time, I haven't given her a third chance.

Hannity's books I read because I was skeptical of his literacy, and Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism and Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism were like literally the same book with the chapters reorganized, and a some more terrorism stuff in the 2004 book.

Really, Rush Limbaugh's two books from the 1990s are the only conservative pundit books I'd ever think to say "these are canon" because they have a sense of humor and he outlines basically all the positions they've held ever since. Everyone else's books are just treading that ground without any humor.

From looking up these, I saw these in the "customers who also bought" and they are amazing:


and this cover pose lol

[benjipwns]

Oh, just saw this, this would be something more like I might actually read from one of these garbage types, even if the description is screaming "SKIP THE INTRO AND CONCLUSION CHAPTERS":

In these pages, you’ll learn the true stories of founders such as...

• Aaron Burr who is depicted in the popular musical Hamilton and in history books as a villain, but in reality was a far more complicated figure who fought the abuse of executive power.

• Mercy Otis Warren, one of the most prominent female writers in the Revolution and a protégé of John Adams, who engaged in vigorous debates against the encroachment of federal power and ultimately broke with Adams over her fears of the Constitution.

• Canasatego, an Iroquois chief whose words taught Benjamin Franklin the basic principles behind the separation of powers.

The popular movement that swept Republicans into power in 2010 and 2016 was led by Americans who rediscovered the majesty of the Constitution and knew the stories of Hamilton, Madison, and Washington.

[Joe Molotov]

Constitution? Sounds like some Big Government bullshit. Where were the true heroes that fought for the Articles of Confederation?

[TVC15]

Read Clive Barker’s “In the Hills, The Cities” for like the tenth time on the way home and I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite horror/weird short story. In my book, it’s perfect.

[Tasty]

Read Clive Barker’s “In the Hills, The Cities” for like the tenth time on the way home and I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite horror/weird short story. In my book, it’s perfect.

Starting this now.

[Joe Molotov]

Read Clive Barker’s “In the Hills, The Cities” for like the tenth time on the way home and I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite horror/weird short story. In my book, it’s perfect.

That story is great, easily the best of his short stories from The Books of Blood.

[Tasty]

It opens with a gay romance?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Tasty]

This story's pretty wild.

[chronovore]

The Books of Blood are wonderful. They're like little gems. Rubies, specifically, I'd assume.

[benjipwns]

this book on the Bill of Rights cites a professor from a Russian university

[agrajag]

I can tell you what I'm not reading: Jordan Petersons dumb books, and neither is Assy.

[benjipwns]

Explores the mid-19th century wave of founding of what we'd now call "communes" especially in the western expansion of America providing cheap land, opportunity, and fresh starts combining with religious-political millienialist and/or collectivist concepts or fads. While touching on a pretty decent number as there were a shit load of these in the decades between Jackson and the Civil War, it is focused around these structurally:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaker_communities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Harmony,_Indiana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_Farm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fourier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Community
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_stirpiculture

Also, even for a casual or "amateur" history work (rather than academic) it's well-written in a relaxed style that has no problem with jokes let alone making fun of the more strange aspects of the subjects. My favorite example is his noting that in Charles Fourier's extensively described utopian phalanx there are 64 people "assigned" to grow pears, for some reason, eight of these people are "assigned" to grow crappy pears nobody wants to eat. We'll never escape the tentacles of the Big Shitty Pears lobby!

huh, at first i thought this was about this book, now i'm a little surprised there's two books about this topic released within ~6 months of each other and both setup the same looking at four/five utopian movements, although this one seems to be more about writers visions than setting up actual "communes" by people, the original idea writers or not: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/30/what-can-we-learn-from-utopians-of-the-past


also:

Nineteenth-century utopians offered a radiantly progressive vision, if you put aside the eugenics, anti-Semitism, and racism.

well, yeah if you put aside that kind of stuff probably lots of people were

[archnemesis]

Land of Ghosts by E.V. Seymour is a spy novel inspired by Bond and Bourne. Something about the writing felt off, but I could never put my finger on exactly what it was. Neither the protagonist or his mission resonated with me. The only thing I liked about it was the depiction of Chechnya.

Paganinikontraktet (The Nightmare in English) was the only crime fiction novel by the pseudonym Lars Kepler that I hadn't read before. Once again the cops managed to solve mysterious murders in my hometown.

I also read two short books by Swedish physicist Bodil Jönsson pondering about time and work. They gave me some well needed perspective.

[HardcoreRetro]

Reading The Rebel by Albert Camus

Finished Mrs. Dalloway before this. That book was such a slog.

[EVOL]

Reading Pale Fire by Nabokov.

I was already spoiled on the twist of the book, but it's so telegraphed that I think I would have been able to figure it out pretty early on anyway.

Reading The Rebel by Albert Camus

Finished Mrs. Dalloway before this. That book was such a slog.

I read that when I was in the peak of my Camus fanboy days back in high school but forgot most of it. Tell me how you found it when you're finished, I might revisit it.

[HardcoreRetro]

I liked it, but not nearly as much as The Myth of Sisyphus.

It looks at different historic rebellions/revolutions and then applies the absurdist way of thought from The Myth of Sisyphus to them.  He argues that the rebels in the historic rebellions aren't true rebels, because once they've defeated their "evil" they become complacent in their own "good". One evil makes place for the other evil.


How'd the Tao Te Ching  treat you? I still have no clue what to make of it. (Which means I'm on the path to true understanding, apparently.)

[EVOL]

I liked it, but not nearly as much as The Myth of Sisyphus.

It looks at different historic rebellions/revolutions and then applies the absurdist way of thought from The Myth of Sisyphus to them.  He argues that the rebels in the historic rebellions aren't true rebels, because once they've defeated their "evil" they become complacent in their own "good". One evil makes place for the other evil.


How'd the Tao Te Ching  treat you? I still have no clue what to make of it. (Which means I'm on the path to true understanding, apparently.)

It was okay, it didn't really tell me anything I didn't know tbh. I liked Zhuangzi better.

I think it's not so much the content of Tao Te Ching that it's difficult, but rather it requiring a cultural background of Chinese fables to get. I was raised with that shit so the metaphors and riddle like structures were pretty easy to 'decipher'. I guess a Western equivalent would be some book relying heavily on Biblical references and structure in order to make it's point.

[HardcoreRetro]

Now reading Karl Ove Knausgard's first My Struggle book.

So far it's boring as hell. You'd expect something called Mein Kampf to have some edge to it.


I think I got both The analects and Zhuangzi somewhere. Reading those (more in general) will probably help me understanding other eastern philosophy.

[chronovore]

Re-reading Gibson's THE PERIPHERAL, which is stunningly even better than the first read. It's as insightful as Neuromancer, and if you disagree with me, you're wrong.

[EVOL]

Now reading Karl Ove Knausgard's first My Struggle book.

So far it's boring as hell. You'd expect something called Mein Kampf to have some edge to it.


I think I got both The analects and Zhuangzi somewhere. Reading those (more in general) will probably help me understanding other eastern philosophy.

Lol if you didn't get anything out of Tao Te Ching you won't be getting anything out of Zhuangzi, it's even more obscure and it's notorious for being even more difficult to interpret than Tao Te Ching.

It has some very beautiful passages in it though, so it might be enjoyable on that level.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Re-reading Gibson's THE PERIPHERAL, which is stunningly even better than the first read. It's as insightful as Neuromancer, and if you disagree with me, you're wrong.

I couldnt get into the Neuromancer at all

It was too dense with all these terms he invented, like overkill.

[Bebpo]

I finished up The Wolfman by Nicolas Pekearo

It's a werewolf detective book by a young author that died right before it came out sadly. Was a reserve police officer in NYC (aka no gun) and got shot in the head chasing a perp. There's even a short story at the end of the book written by him before his death about becoming a police officer and what it was like.

The Wolfman, being written by a young punk-y NYC/NJ guy is pretty raw and the main character narrates and talks like a fuck off everyone guy. The concept of werewolf detective is pretty fun and the pacing is pretty good and overall the book is enjoyable. My only nitpick is for a who-dunnit, the culprit is way too obvious, but once you get past that it's a good read, especially for a very early and in some ways amateurish book (I believe it was his 2nd book). If you like Werewolves it's worth a read.

Need to start looking for the next quality horror, under 400 page book for my book club. If you got any suggestions, lemme know. So far we've read House of Leaves (ok), The Social Affair (eh), The Thief of Always (alright), The Fisherman (quite good), Short stories by Charles Beaumont (mixed bag, some great, some good, some bad), and now The Wolfman (good). We implemented the under 400 page rule after House of Leaves because that was a fucking huge book and scared off most of the people interested in coming.

[Bebpo]

Doing some searching, I'm gonna go with this. I definitely prefer Humor over about everything. So a comedy/horror nerd mashup that's actually good sounds like a winner.

https://www.npr.org/2017/07/15/535799772/in-meddling-kids-the-scooby-gang-grows-up-hard

[Joe Molotov]

The Cloven, Book 3 of the Vorrh Trilogy is out, so I'm reading that.

[Bebpo]

Cool cover, what type of series is it?

[HardcoreRetro]

Lol if you didn't get anything out of Tao Te Ching you won't be getting anything out of Zhuangzi, it's even more obscure and it's notorious for being even more difficult to interpret than Tao Te Ching.

It has some very beautiful passages in it though, so it might be enjoyable on that level.

Some of what I read of Zhuangzi seems to follow the same structure as the greek dialogues. Some pretty much read like fairy-tales.

It might not be any easier to understand, but it sure is a hell of a lot easier to read.

[Joe Molotov]

Cool cover, what type of series is it?

Low Fantasy/Horror

It's about a colonial city in Africa on the edge of a primordial forest in central Africa, set in the 1920-30's. The forest is believed by some of the locals to be the Garden of Eden, and the creatures that live there are the remnants of the angels sent to guard it, but it's never been fully explored because the forest also causes everyone that enters it to lose their minds after a few days.

I read the first two books during the summer, they were pretty good, but I got roasted because I said they were whimsical. 

[Nintex]

The Colour of Time: A New History of the World, 1850-1960

A book made by a 23 year old girl from Brazil who colorizes black & white photo's and an English historian who's skilled at describing the times and events that took place.
It basically shows the history of the world from the late 1800's all the way up to 1960 in color.
The quality of the images is just incredible. It's much easier to identify with or comprehend these events if they're in color.

The writing in the book is pretty good as well and it even got a shout-out from 'Hardcore History' Dan Carlin.
If you like history or just want an encyclopedia about how this world came to be I highly recommend this book.

[HardcoreRetro]

I'm also reading some history book.

The part that gripped me the most so far was seeing the way the Mayans got their elongated heads. It got a drawing of a child with his head stuck between two planks. There's a rock tied to the elevated plank to weigh the plank down and squash the child's head in the desired shape.

Made me laugh pretty damn hard.

[HardcoreRetro]

[I'm a Puppy!]

I took a break from the second Malazan book to read "It" to get hyped for Halloween.
It's my first time reading the whole thing (I started it back in high school and gave up).
I have to laugh at how stereo typically Stephen King it is. It starts off you're like "OK" about a quarter of the way you're like "Wow this is fun and well put together!" Then at the end it all comes unglued and falls apart spectacularly. I'm still butt hurt over how the Dark Tower series disintegrated, sorta funny to see how that happened again in It.

I'm also re-reading the Divine Comedy. I love Dante's arrogance and how he pulls it off. I love that in almost every circle of hell he puts someone he knew in there. It'd be like "Then I got to the prostitutes and I was like "Hey Mupepe! How's it going?!"

[benjipwns]

Apparently H.W. considered himself an expert on China because he lived there for a little while, even though he spoke no Chinese and never studied its history, so he was considered the administration's "China desk."

Tiananmen Square totally surprised him because his old friend Deng didn't seem like that type of guy. This was a guy he had met like five times over 15 years prior. The last time (and first time as President) for just five minutes in private before a banquet dinner.

As more of these once locked files become opened and these books are written I'm surprised at just how many Presidents seemed to think they could not only be their own Chief of Staffs, but also effectively Secretary of State.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Kinda makes me feel better that Trump was like "nah, fuck that boring shit" and just tweets random crap he sees on FOX that policy people probably truly don't take seriously. Even though I highly disagree with the bureaucracy's foreign policy too.

[close]

[Crash Dummy]

if anyone is interested, verso books has a 50% sale on selected items: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3998-50-off-all-student-reading

[Crash Dummy]

last day to grab a bunch of free ebooks off verso, i have no idea which are any good but hey, they're free https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4033-last-chance-flash-ebook-giveaway?utm_source=Master+List&utm_campaign=308c12dbe5-US+Direct%3A+BTS+Free+Ebooks_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1f96ba5fab-308c12dbe5-410499237&mc_cid=308c12dbe5&mc_eid=0cf71de45a

[VomKriege]

What's in the socialist canon after Marx?

Not "post" Marx (not sure the dogma admits there was anything to add) but I guess the usual names would be : Trotski, Proudhon, Bakounine, Saint Simon. Otherwise Lenin and Mao. Kara will surely have all the good expert stuff.

[HardcoreRetro]

Reading Gimmick! by Joost Zwagerman.

The dude commited suicide in 2015, a fitting punishment.

[jakefromstatefarm]

What's in the socialist canon after Marx?

really depends on what you’re interested in. Specifically wrt 20th century Marxism: Kautsky, Gramsci, Luxembourg, Lukacs, Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin, Marcuse, Althusser. The most notable contemporary names in the Anglosphere are prob GA Cohen, David Harvey and Richard Wolff.

For strains of socialism/leftism in deliberate contradistinction to orthodox Marxism: Bernstein, Sorel, and as vomkrieges pointed out, Bakunin and kropotkin.

There’s also a turn in the middle of the century where the most poignant apologetics for leftward politics goes from revolutionary tracts/philosophical treatises to empirical social scientific or historical studies. In this category you could look at Hobsawm or EP Thompson.

And there are brands of socialism that aren’t noticeably leftward: Comte, Spengler, Schmitt.

If nothing else, just read Corey Robin and David Graeber. And even if you do read everything else, still read Robin and Graeber.

[MMaRsu]

Has anyone read this book?



Thinking about buying it

[Kara]

To use an analogy Dmitri Dmitriyevich, you asked for the best animes to watch after Dragon Ball Z and jake gave you a bunch of weeb shit with varying degrees of pantsu that you'll only ever talk about on the internet or at Anime Expo.

Anyway:

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific - Engels
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State - Engels
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism - Lenin
The State and Revolution - Lenin
Prison Notebooks - Gramsci
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong - guess

Where you go from there will really depend on the line you take (or don't take).

[Crash Dummy]

where do all these accelerationist kids like nick land and yuk hui fit in? they still count as marxists or some offshoot socialism?

[jakefromstatefarm]

To use an analogy Dmitri Dmitriyevich, you asked for the best animes to watch after Dragon Ball Z and jake gave you a bunch of weeb shit with varying degrees of pantsu that you'll only ever talk about on the internet or at Anime Expo.

im mad but this isn’t wrong.

[Crash Dummy]

you've all left zizek off your lists

To use an analogy Dmitri Dmitriyevich, you asked for the best animes to watch after Dragon Ball Z and jake gave you a bunch of weeb shit with varying degrees of pantsu that you'll only ever talk about on the internet or at Anime Expo.

the frankfurt school stuff isn't all pantsu-tier, quasi una fantasia i feel can be worked into conversation without going full 

[HardcoreRetro]

Has anyone read this book?

(Image removed from quote.)

Thinking about buying it

Do you want a self-help book that basically tells you, follow your dreams!

I thought it was this spiritual nonsense that middle-age women with one of those dollar store buddha statues gobble up.

[jakefromstatefarm]

zizek

[MMaRsu]

Has anyone read this book?

(Image removed from quote.)

Thinking about buying it

Do you want a self-help book that basically tells you, follow your dreams!

I thought it was this spiritual nonsense that middle-age women with one of those dollar store buddha statues gobble up.

Well a woman did reccomend it to me so 

[Crash Dummy]

zizek

ah he's pretty harmless and fun if you view him as a court jester.

on topic, just finished gerald's party by robert coover, wonderful juvenile humour and entertaining dialogue. onto thinking fast and slow by daniel kahneman

[chronovore]

Reading the DRESDEN FILES, just finished Dead Beat. There are some really good moments in it, and it has a pretty solid wrap-up.

[HardcoreRetro]

My favourite bit from the Gimmick! book so far.

"I found a hair of my ex-girlfriend in her tobacco. I took the hair, scrunched it up, pulled on my foreskin and tucked it underneath my dickhead. The best place in the house."

[FatalT]

I got back into reading recently and was reading some Young Adult-type novels because I wanted easier reading material to ease myself back in. I was looking through lists of the best horror novels ever (obviously a lot of Stephen King) but I was wanting to see if any of you had any recommendations.

Right now I’m reading Richard Matheson’s Hell House (I read his novel I Am Legend which was way better than the Will Smith movie) which is amazing to me since it released in 1971 and most ghost-based horror movies I’ve seen use the tropes the novel seems to have started. I was planning on reading Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House next because it has a series coming out on Netflix soon and is supposed to be one of the best horror novels from lists.

Anyone else reading horror for October?