"Recent Reading"

Basically I'm suggesting an Off-Topic subforum or sticky thread; other members might want to suggest more on other off-topic topics.

For my part, I'd like to see a "Recent Reading" forum, that is a place were people could mention books or other print materials they have recently read or highly recommend, regardless of topic.

I've noticed on other forums that topics like sports and 'What are You Eating/Drinking" are pretty popular -- and sometimes there's a political topics thread/subforum.

{edit} I'll be following up with some of my all-time favorite reads :) {/edit}

I think that's a great idea Bill. I too have noticed that this group seems to be a rather literate lot...and I would imagine the topic matter to be quite diverse as well. I can see that being a hi-traffic thread.

Good idea.

I am currently reading for the second time, Fractal Time, written by Gregg Braden.

Always scouring for good reads myself...

Just finished "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi (wiki link). It got lots of recent awards from those that track Sci-Fi (Best Book by Hugo and Nebula). It's similar in some respects to classic cyberpunk like Neuromancer except that rather than computers electronic enhancements, the story takes place after the world has run out of fossil fuels and cheap power. In this future all is biologically driven and genetically engineered. Calorie companies have replaced the power States. Everything is lowtech-hightech. Anyway, it's a good yarn and an cool re-imagining of the future.

Currently half way through "Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. (wiki link)
I read his previous "Absurdistan' and it was hilarious and touching at the same time. That one was a hyper traji-comedy of a overweight son of an oliogarch trying to get back to his true love in the Bronx by escaping the Soviet Union via a an ex-Soviet, (imaginary) oil rich state of Absurdistan. "Super Sad..." is so far equally touching and hyper language humorous. The US is turning into a corporate run police state, the hero works for a company selling eternal life and is in love with a younger child of the digital age. So far so good.

Currently, I'm reading "Life" by Keith Richards. Great X-mas gift.

Twelve all-time favorites of mine:

History / Economics:

• John Kenneth Galbraith: The Affluent Society
• William H. McNeill: The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community
• Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
• Jared Diamond: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Politics / Religion:

• Seymour Martin Lipset: Political Man
• Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion
• Norman G. Finkelstein: Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History
• Chris Hedges: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America

Sci-Fi / Fantasy:

• J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings
• Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun
• Frank Herbert: Dune
• E.R. Eddison: The Worm Ouroboros

I have a tedency to pickup Bukowski when I'm bored. It never disappoints.

How about I just move this one to Off Topic - and maybe similar to what's spinning - it will just have a life of it's own.

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Originally Posted by jrhymeammo

I have a tedency to pickup Bukowski when I'm bored. It never disappoints.

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How could it disappoint? I read South of No North: Stories of the Buried Life last year...the last of a dying bread with the exception of yourself, Jayrha...

Hey there brother Mousy,

Maybe I wasn't clear enough, I wanted to say Bukowski entertains me.

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Originally Posted by jrhymeammo

Hey there brother Mousy,

Maybe I wasn't clear enough, I wanted to say Bukowski entertains me.

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You were quite clea,r my friend...I simply suspect it of being a case of art informing life...:p

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Originally Posted by bobsticks

You were quite clea,r my friend...I simply suspect it of being a case of art informing life...:p

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Ahhh... so kinda like this.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cRNEGw4fVU0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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Originally Posted by atomicAdam

How about I just move this one to Off Topic - and maybe similar to what's spinning - it will just have a life of it's own.

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Going to Off-Topic sounds right, aA. But consider that this, and What's Spinning, perhaps ought to be "sticky" -- they're easier to find that way.

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Originally Posted by jrhymeammo

Hey there brother Mousy,

Maybe I wasn't clear enough, I wanted to say Bukowski entertains me.

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Bukowski ... hmmm. Haven't read anything by him but he does sound like an old sleaze -- just the sort to appeal to you and 'Sticks.

Frankly, I prefer my sleaze younger...and female...

...but he does provide an interesting perspective on the underbelly of America.

Good Idea Feanor, like the list of you 12 all timers. This one got my interest..

Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion

One of my favorite reads is The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, The Subjection of Women, & Utilitarianism.

Hey, based on the interest of quality of the quality of literature, art, and science which can be shared off this kind of sub-topic, would you also consider links to websites that would offer brain floss for the reader too?

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Originally Posted by LeRoy

Good Idea Feanor, like the list of you 12 all timers. This one got my interest..

Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion

...

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I strongly recommend this Dawkins book to eveybody except the rigidly pious, (whom it will p!ss off extremely).

Funny thing is there wasn't a major thought from Dawkin's that I hadn't thought of decades ago -- but it was great to hear another person speak them.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...cL._SS500_.jpg ... Amazon.com

Another book in a similar vein but with a bit of a different emphasis is ...

Christopher Hitchens: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...SH20_OU01_.jpg ... Amazon.com

Thanks Feanor. I will drop by my 1/2 price book store later today and see if they have either one in stock. Thanks for starting this thread and for the recommendation!

Have a nice day.

LeRoy

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Originally Posted by LeRoy

Thanks Feanor. I will drop by my 1/2 price book store later today and see if they have either one in stock. Thanks for starting this thread and for the recommendation!

Have a nice day.

LeRoy

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Nowadays I get most of my reading from the public library. Years ago I bought everything but today in my retirement, free is good.

I picked up the Dawkins book but could not find the Hitchens book on the shelf. I will start reading the Dawkins book tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by LeRoy

I picked up the Dawkins book but could not find the Hitchens book on the shelf. I will start reading the Dawkins book tomorrow.

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Let us know how you get on with it.

Dawkins and Hitchens no doubt agree with each other. However Dawkins' God Delusion deals with the religious faith as a philosophical/logical issue. Hitchens' God is Not Great tends much more to criticize institutional religion.

I'm just getting to the end of this semi-classic. It was first published back in 1995 ...

James W. Loewen: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/618PEK-151L.jpg

Wherein the author examines twelve popular US high school history textbooks and debunks the flagrant mythology pandering and total lack of insighful analysis of real American history.

After 15+ years it ought to be old news, but judging by the wild ingnorance of the likes of Tea Party and Christian Right, the message has not sunk in.

http://www.atomicbooks.com/media/cat...tkingdfear.jpg

Before the good Doktor took his leave of us he penned this memoir of sorts. Nothing new but a rollicking good time with brief moments of intospection, particularly in passages when coming to grips with historical revisionist perspectives of his arch nemisis Richard Nixon against a backdrop of 9/11 and the horror that was Bush2....

good idea for a thread topic! I don't read as much for pleasure compared to my college days. Used to read John Irving, Robertson Davies, Elmore Leonard, Peter Straub, Carson McCullers, Erskin Caldwell, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, and an assortment of books re: Russian history, UFOs, horror movies, music, bands, pop icons like Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Andy Warhol, Andy Kaufman, pin-up girls/sex symbols from the 50s and 60s, etc.

These days the most intellectually stimulating thing I read is Oxford American - a quarterly mag with well-written articles and short stories. I'm just barely holding onto my luv of lit.

Flannery O'Connor kils me...I remember his work as being like Hemmingway on thorazine in search of a therapist at a hoorenanny...

It was a cold, cold day on Erskine Bol's farm as he limped through the pain of his wooden appendage. "T'aint but a thing" he growled to no one in particular as he approached the vine encrusted hubble where inside he would find the remembrances of a life long ago lost. Chastity Purehart would never understand the great endeavor, one meaningless year after the next dragging through this impentrable Applachian winter existing the only way he knew, a nameless construct, the details on his mannequin exterior changing with the auburn leaves...

I loll'd...

Terrible thing for an English Major to admit but I don't read too much fiction anymore. I tend to read history, historical biography's and science books. Currently reading Steven Ambrose's book on the Lewis and Clark expedition.

I like Ambrose. He wrote a good book on Nixon that, to my knowledge, wasn't even plagiarized.

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Originally Posted by bobsticks

I like Ambrose. He wrote a good book on Nixon that, to my knowledge, wasn't even plagiarized.

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Well I guess given some of Ambrose's issues with some of his books you could say I am reading a little fiction..... :D

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Originally Posted by bobsticks

Flannery O'Connor kils me...I remember his work as being like Hemmingway on thorazine in search of a therapist at a hoorenanny...

It was a cold, cold day on Erskine Bol's farm as he limped through the pain of his wooden appendage. "T'aint but a thing" he growled to no one in particular as he approached the vine encrusted hubble where inside he would find the remembrances of a life long ago lost. Chastity Purehart would never understand the great endeavor, one meaningless year after the next dragging through this impentrable Applachian winter existing the only way he knew, a nameless construct, the details on his mannequin exterior changing with the auburn leaves...

I loll'd...

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"The girl had taken the Ph.D. in philosophy and this left Mrs. Hopewell at a complete loss. You could say, 'My daughter is a nurse,' or 'My daughter is a school teacher,' or even, 'My daughter is a chemical engineer.' You could not say, 'My daughter is a philosopher.' That was something that had ended with the Greeks and Romans."

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Originally Posted by Feanor

I'm just getting to the end of this semi-classic. It was first published back in 1995 ...

James W. Loewen: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/618PEK-151L.jpg

Wherein the author examines twelve popular US high school history textbooks and debunks the flagrant mythology pandering and total lack of insighful analysis of real American history.

After 15+ years it ought to be old news, but judging by the wild ingnorance of the likes of Tea Party and Christian Right, the message has not sunk in.

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I read the hell out of this book and loved it immensely.

Worf

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Originally Posted by dean_martin

good idea for a thread topic! I don't read as much for pleasure compared to my college days. Used to read John Irving, Robertson Davies, Elmore Leonard, Peter Straub, Carson McCullers, Erskin Caldwell, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, and an assortment of books re: Russian history, UFOs, horror movies, music, bands, pop icons like Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Andy Warhol, Andy Kaufman, pin-up girls/sex symbols from the 50s and 60s, etc.

These days the most intellectually stimulating thing I read is Oxford American - a quarterly mag with well-written articles and short stories. I'm just barely holding onto my luv of lit.

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Philistine that I am, I don't read much "literature". Given my deteriorating eyesight I prefer to spend the maximum couple of hours a day I can read, to reading non-fiction.

The last "literature" I read, about six months ago, was ...

Franz Kafka: The Castle {Das Schloß, 1926} translated by Mark Harman

I'm afraid the greatness of this work eludes me, although I did learn the meaning of "Kafkaesque bureaucracy"

http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/41QF5S...SH20_OU15_.jpg

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Originally Posted by Feanor

.
The last "literature" I read, about six months ago, was ...

Franz Kafka: The Castle {Das Schloß, 1926} translated by Mark Harman

I'm afraid the greatness of this work eludes me, although I did learn the meaning of "Kafkaesque bureaucracy"

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Forget about the greatness of the literature or the struggle of the urban proletariat against a faceless and debilitating monolith...I'm amazed that Mark Harman had time between filming NCIS and chasing Mindy around Fred's music store to translate the screed from German to English...

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Originally Posted by bobsticks

Forget about the greatness of the literature or the struggle of the urban proletariat against a faceless and debilitating monolith...I'm amazed that Mark Harman had time between filming NCIS and chasing Mindy around Fred's music store to translate the screed from German to English...

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No, no: not that Mark Harmon, this Mark Harmon.

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Originally Posted by Feanor

Let us know how you get on with it.

Dawkins and Hitchens no doubt agree with each other. However Dawkins' God Delusion deals with the religious faith as a philosophical/logical issue. Hitchens' God is Not Great tends much more to criticize institutional religion.

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I'm the only Atheist that I've ever known and in my experiences it's difficult to speak to anyone of faith without coming across as abrasive. This book has got me to thinking about the psychological makeup and differences between those of faith and those of atheism.

I'm almost done with the second chapter but I do disagree with the author regarding when he called the president of the New Jersey Historical Society of being of intellectual and moral cowardice.

Feanor, I did not know of this book until you were so kind enough to share it with us on the forum. About 4 or 5 years ago I was pondering the faith -vs- atheism polarity and I came home chuckling and smirking...saying they faithful were delusional. So, it was much to my surprise that someone else also found the same description as I had. Now I'm not saying I'm on the same level as Dawkins but I wonder who else amongst us also arrived at the same conclusion.

Your thoughts, anyone?

LeRoy

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Originally Posted by LeRoy

I'm the only Atheist that I've ever known and in my experiences it's difficult to speak to anyone of faith without coming across as abrasive. This book has got me to thinking about the psychological makeup and differences between those of faith and those of atheism.

I'm almost done with the second chapter but I do disagree with the author regarding when he called the president of the New Jersey Historical Society of being of intellectual and moral cowardice.

Feanor, I did not know of this book until you were so kind enough to share it with us on the forum. About 4 or 5 years ago I was pondering the faith -vs- atheism polarity and I came home chuckling and smirking...saying they faithful were delusional. So, it was much to my surprise that someone else also found the same description as I had. Now I'm not saying I'm on the same level as Dawkins but I wonder who else amongst us also arrived at the same conclusion.

Your thoughts, anyone?

LeRoy

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Dawkins doesn't cut much slack for religionists. Nor does he for "agnostics" whom I think he feels are slightly disingenuous fence-sitters. There are times when he is gratuitously sarcastic and ridiculing.

Too bad about that but on an intellectual level I agree with Dawkins completely -- and, like I said, essentially all his arguments occurred to me decades ago. (I also agree with his assertion that the existence of God can't be disproven but that the rational person ought to accept God's non-existence based on the overwhelming balance of probability.)

You must life a sheltered life not knowing any atheists! I've know quite a few but everywhere we seem to be in the minority.

Let's remember, though, that there are quite a few places in the world where open disbelief is distinctly dangerous to you physical well-being. This is true in South Waziristan for example. There are a great many more places where it is merely bad for your business and social standing. This is true in Bible Belt, U.S.A. Accordingly very many people dissemble religious conviction, support their local church/mosque/temple, etc., despite a basic lack of faith. They are most often successful fooling other people and often fooling themselves too.

I'd be a billionaire if I had a nickel for everytime I heard some one say, "You've got to believe in something!". Personally all I really believe in is skepticism.

Yes, I agree. The sarcasm is appreciated and funny too. Ya, no doubt his approach is philosophy driven and while reading his work I can't help but to also think about the bio/psycho/social aspects of the differences between atheists and the faithful.

Na, I don't lead a sheltered life....but close though. I am deliberately the lone wolf kind and three certainly makes me feel a tad crowded. I'm in Texas so I think that's the bible belt, and in my area of the planet, Catholicism, Baptists, Lutherans, and fire and brimstone lot, pretty much are the leaders of the faithful over here.

I've never sought out other atheists but the book got me curious so I did a search for atheist groups in my area and I was surprised to find 3 in my area. I will have check a couple of them out and see what's up with them.

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Originally Posted by LeRoy

Yes, I agree. The sarcasm is appreciated and funny too. Ya, no doubt his approach is philosophy driven and while reading his work I can't help but to also think about the bio/psycho/social aspects of the differences between atheists and the faithful.

Na, I don't lead a sheltered life....but close though. I am deliberately the lone wolf kind and three certainly makes me feel a tad crowded. I'm in Texas so I think that's the bible belt, and in my area of the planet, Catholicism, Baptists, Lutherans, and fire and brimstone lot, pretty much are the leaders of the faithful over here.

I've never sought out other atheists but the book got me curious so I did a search for atheist groups in my area and I was surprised to find 3 in my area. I will have check a couple of them out and see what's up with them.

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Texas ... hummm ... yes, I see.

Then you might appreciate another book I mentioned above ...

Chris Hedges: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/51XzRF...500_AA300_.jpg

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Originally Posted by Feanor

Dawkins doesn't cut much slack for religionists. Nor does he for "agnostics" whom I think he feels are slightly disingenuous fence-sitters. There are times when he is gratuitously sarcastic and ridiculing....

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Clearly Dawkins has never had anything resembling a spiritual experience.

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Originally Posted by bobsticks

Clearly Dawkins has never had anything resembling a spiritual experience.

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What is the definition of "spiritual experience"? Can it be typified somehow? I don't think I've had anything like a spiritual experience in many decades; perhaps never.

In any case Dawkins would insist that can't draw concrete conclusions from these experiences since they might be entirely self-delusional.

I had a minor version of a spiritual experience when I attended a performance of G.F. Handel's Messiah during my late high school years. I thought surely there must be a God to have inspired such a magnificent work. Not long afterward I learned that Handel was motivated to write religious oratorios because Italianate operas were going out of style in England and there was more money to be made writing the former.

I actually read this book a few months ago, but I'm mention it because it discusses a topic not often mention in media such as TV. It made a strong impression on me. It helped me to understand the angst, humiliation, insecurity, and occassional anger I experienced as a working-level "technical professional", (business systems analyst), and that I was far from alone in these feelings. It also helped me to understand than these feeling stemmed from deliberate policies of the large organizations I worked for.

Richard Sennett: The Culture of the New Capitalism

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Capitalism.jpg

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Originally Posted by Wikipedia = The Culture of the New Capitalism

Based on the author's Castle Lectures at Yale, this book is a sociological study of the influence of the New Economy on human relationships. Sennett describes the transformations that have taken place in postmodern capitalism as corporations have become more diffuse, unstable, and decentered. Contrasted with the 'iron cage' bureaucracy described by Weber – those pyramid-like corporate structures in which individuals knew their place and planned their futures – modern corporations provide no long-term stability, benefits, social capital, or interpersonal trust.

Sennett first looks at bureaucracy in early capitalism. Most businesses were short lived and unstable. However, in the latter half of the 19th century, business was modelled on predictable military lines where all roles were defined and career progression could be mapped out. This new model aimed at social inclusion, that is, most would work at the base of the social pyramid, hopefully progressing to the tip.

Modern capitalism looks at this model with disdain – too many superfluous people are employed to remain competitive and people should constantly adapt and prove themselves to be assets. Therefore, in large modern businesses, the majority of workers face uncertainty and find it difficult to conceive of a life narrative. Due to mechanization and the need for upskilling, managers as well as their subordinates face the possibility of obsolescence. Concepts such as craftmanship and getting the job right are seen as wasteful and somewhat obsessive.

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The organization I worked for, like many, expected people to "constantly adapt and prove themselves"; this was largely a pretext to offer no job security and treat people like disposable parts -- wear them out and through them away. Note that at same time they provided very little support for the adaptation they wanted; training was very scarce, and latterly as an older worker, I was completely excluded for training and skill-expanding assignments.

I'm afraid global economic competion will further degrade the condition of the majority of workers, not only in North American, but world-wide. It's nice to talk about economic leveling on a nation-to-nation basis, but I foresee that this leveling will not apply to people withing given countries where the poor+middle verus rich spread will continue to grow.