Post: #601

The Governator by Ian Halperin, it's a book about Arnold Schwarzenegger..his early childhood, going to America and all the way to him becoming Governor of the State of California. I like reading about Arnold's insights and ways of thinking.

Post: #602

The Seven Storey Mountain - Thomas Merton

Post: #603

Safeguarding Liberty - it's a collection of essays about the Second Amendment. It was edited by Larry Pratt, who is now the director of Gun Owners of America. A lot of great historical info so far.

Post: #604

Deep Work - Cal Newport

The argument for really focusing on a topic.

WIA

Post: #605

The Divine Comedy, Dante.

God save us from people who mean well. -storm

Post: #606

I am trying to read the Koran. No offence to muslims here but I dont see waht is so great about it.

Bible>Koran.

Post: #607

(01-12-2016 11:21 PM)Chauncey Wrote:  

(01-12-2016 02:41 PM)ed pluribus unum Wrote:  Just finished The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie and getting into The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow.

How was this?

Just came by to update and saw your question.

It probably helped I've never watched House, and anything else I may have seen him in was long ago enough that it didn't colour my judgement. It's entertaining, a bit of a 'military/industrial complex' conspiracy theory thing; characters are intriguing enough to make you want to keep turning the pages. Laurie does descend into a bit of smug literary wordcrafting, which was fresh and witty when Douglas Adams wrote Hitchhiker's but is getting a little hackneyed by now I think. I loved the last-page punchline which I absolutely did not see coming.

Post: #608

(01-27-2016 11:13 PM)Paracelsus Wrote:  The Divine Comedy, Dante.

I picked up a dual-language edition of The Inferno, but in French and Italian when I already spoke French and was dating an Italian lady. Not a bad way to add another Romance language. It rhymes a lot better in the original.

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Along with History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Civilization, I added a graded Russian reader. I like having a few languages rattling around in my head.

Post: #609

Just started reading Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B3M3...TF8&btkr=1

It is about the killings between territory contested by Germany and Russia during WW2. Haven't read too much of it and it makes for tougher reading considering the grim nature of the subject matter but I'm enjoying it so far.

I am sure I will gain something valuable from reading it.

Post: #610

Currently reading 1984 by George Orwell for the first time. Feels like a timeless book.
Just finished No more Mr Nice guy. Can recommend.

Post: #611

At the moment tackling two books:

Antoine De Saint-Exupery, biography by Alain Vircondelet of the famed author of the Little Prince.

Re reading Brave New World in its original language.Another timeless book,or rather,a horrifyingly timely one in this day and age

Post: #612

(02-05-2016 12:15 AM)philosophical_recovery Wrote:  

(01-27-2016 11:13 PM)Paracelsus Wrote:  The Divine Comedy, Dante.

I picked up a dual-language edition of The Inferno, but in French and Italian when I already spoke French and was dating an Italian lady. Not a bad way to add another Romance language. It rhymes a lot better in the original.

I wanted to read The Divine Comedy in the original when I started to learn Italian. This wasn't the reason why I started but I thought it would be a nice goal. Unfortunately it was written in a 14th century Tuscan dialect which later served as the basis for what would become the Italian language, meaning it is not even understandable for native Italian speakers without commentary or help of an expert. This put me off a bit but I might put in the effort one time. It just didn't seem worth it at the time. However, I can absolutely recommend listening to it in Italian, I'm sure no translation comes anywhere close to that. Even if you don't understand a word, the musicality and the flow of the verses is just magnificent. Divine seems apt, doesn't it?

Post: #613

Just finished:
The book of five rings, by Miyamoto Musashi.
Pulp, by Charles Bukowski.

Now reading:
Gorilla Mindset, by Mike Cernovich.

Post: #614

China Road by Rob Gifford. The author did a road trip from Shanghai to the far western province of Xianjing on Route 312 (China's version of Route 66 if it went from Washington DC to Seattle). Some of this I knew already but here's some interesting facts from the book.

-China is not a communist nation. Its not quite free market either because the government would proabably cut any company getting too powerful down to size but its definitely not communist. The irony is that the European social democracies are more socialist with universal healthcare and a social safety net.

-The countryside is boiling angry. Another reason why China is not communist, the farmers are getting screwed in favor of the urban middle class which was the exact opposite under Mao. The farmers are being screwed over by corrupt officials and with all the income inequality, drain of youth to the big cities and no social safety net the people in the countryside are very angry. Ironically China is ripe for a communist revolution.

-China is a very diverse nation. In fact you could almost say its a colonial power. You're familiar with the Tibetans but there's also the Uighurs who are muslims in the far west Xinajing region. Those two groups don't want to be apart of China and feel no kinship with the dominant ethnic group the Han Chinese. Its a very volitile situation.

-China is going through its version of the Gilded Age/Industrial Revolution/the Technology Revolution and roaring 50s simultenously. Whats happening is because Mao destroyed traditional Chinese culture then communism was slowly pushed to the side all that was left was capitalism and getting rich now that's basically all everyone cares about. I don't think the Chinese are especially greedy or anything but considering they've been lurching from one disaster to another since about the 1820's with wars, mass starvation, destructive political campaigns there's something very intoxicating about being in peace and being able to acquire wealth even if that wealth is tame compared to our standards. Again very ironic since everyone thinks of China as a Communist nation but in a lot of ways they're a super-capitalist nation now. Its good because they've gone from starving to even the garbageman has a cellphone but its caused a very stressful and hyper competitive atmosphere.

-The Communist Government is disliked but its not in a Arab Spring kind of way. I get the sense its a more familial anger like hating your dad but you wouldn't want to see him dead. In the same way I don't think any Chinese besides minorities like the Uighurs would want to see the Chinese government overthrown by a foreign power (like Saddam in Iraq) or even a domestic uprising. If the Government just did some modest reforms that created a independent judiciary so the average person would stop getting screwed over it'd help to stop a lot of the popular anger towards the government. In other words I don't think the average Chinese person wants Democracy as much as for the Communist government to stop being so arrogant and abusing their power.

Post: #615

Ulysses, James Joyce. Approaching it with some dubiousness as it's a Seminal Literary Text and Is Regarded As Being The Endpoint Of The Novel, but I've read Dubliners and most of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Joyce always seems to turn up a beautiful phrase or two. I suspect the book's going to be full of Anti-Catholic sentiment, and Joyce himself was a coward who hid away in Switzerland rather than come back to Ireland and sign up when World War One broke out, but we shall see.

God save us from people who mean well. -storm

Post: #616

(02-15-2016 07:16 AM)Ringo Wrote:  Just finished:
The book of five rings, by Miyamoto Musashi.
Pulp, by Charles Bukowski.

Now reading:
Gorilla Mindset, by Mike Cernovich.

Let us know how Gorilla Mindset is once you've finished.

Post: #617

Currently reading: Demons, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Post: #618

(01-25-2016 11:14 PM)Moma Wrote:  The Governator by Ian Halperin, it's a book about Arnold Schwarzenegger..his early childhood, going to America and all the way to him becoming Governor of the State of California. I like reading about Arnold's insights and ways of thinking.

I'm going to check this out. I'm almost finished TOTAL RECALL.

Post: #619

Confessions, Saint Augustine.

God save us from people who mean well. -storm

Post: #620

A Canticle for Leibowitz

Post: #621

Currently reading: Made in Japan by Akio Morita (Sony's Cofounder).

Post: #622

Catch 22,

Before I couldn't bring my self to read it if I don't liked it, but I wouldn't know if I liked it if I don't read it.

Post: #623

Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power by David Rothkopf.

Begs the question, whether men are writing history or are we just tagging along. I've read to many books from both aisles to know the answer ....

Post: #624

Walden and Other Writings - Henry David Thoreau. The key essay, Walden, written over 150 years ago is still a timely commentary on the mechanisation and alienation of the modern, industrialised world.

Post: #625

"Crazy From The Heat" by David Lee Roth.