Post: #51

I think 14 days is a good time limit. I'm starting with Snowball, Warren Buffett's biography which is over 800 pages by Alice Schroeder. After that I'll read the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. I have another big ass book I have to tackle which is Private Empire, Steve Coll's book on ExxonMobil.

John D. Rockefeller's biography Titan by Ron Chernow was mentioned in this thread. I definitely recommend it! The guy built an empire. He is the richest person in human history. Adjusted for inflation his net worth would today be in the hundreds of billions. Other than dictators and royal families no one comes even close.

Post: #52

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Post: #53

(12-14-2012 12:05 PM)BlurredSevens Wrote:  A Short History of Nearly Everything should be on every players bookshelf for one simple reason: the content serves as endless conversation starters.

So many tidbits of fascinating information in that book, you'll find yourself saying "did you know..." ten times a day.

I'm nearly 100 pages in. I'm enjoying it, it really is written in an approachable tone and demonstrates some of the difficult facts/ideas in a way that allows it to be easily understood. I also like how the author goes into the personal lives and history of the men who made the great scientific discoveries.

Post: #54

Probably a little late to the thread, but here are some big ass book recommendations.

John Adams by David Mccollough-awesome book. I think I actually had a tear in my eye when I finished it.

The teddy Roosevelt series by Edmund Morris- three books on the life of teddy Roosevelt all over 500 pages. Fantastic read about one of the greatest people in American history. This guy did everything.

I haven't read this one yet, but the last lion by William Manchester. 3 books on the life of Winston Churchill, although each book is running like 800 pages. Might be a little much, but I have heard good things.

If you like American history, there is a series called "the Oxford history of the United States" or something like that in which a expert on a particular area writes a book about a time period of US history. Early history include "the glorious cause", "empire of liberty", what god hath wrought", "battle cry of freedom" and I forget what is after that. All over 500 pages.

Steve jobs by Walter issacson was great.

I haven't read the mark twain biography yet, but I've heard good things.

Some good recommendations on here. That's all I got off the top of my head.

Post: #55

I get a guilty conscience every time I open a book that isn't part of my curriculum. This is torture! so much good stuff to read, so little time!

Post: #56

I've had this 800 page biography of Cromwell sitting on my bookshelf for ages. Time to hit it!

Post: #57

Been reading Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 for like a year now but am still only 16% of the way through it. Maybe during my winter break I'll buckle down and read this thing. I've always been interested in the history of NYC

Post: #58

Just started and I'm 30 pages in

Post: #59

@WesternCancer what are you reading?

I got my book today and I am starting tomorrow: http://books.google.com/books/about/Basi...X6-P0N2nUC

Post: #60

Oh screw it. I'm putting Cromwell back on the shelf.
I just bought the big ass book on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (see my avatar). Going to read it in the kindle edition.

Post: #61

(12-17-2012 08:18 AM)ColSpanker Wrote:  Oh screw it. I'm putting Cromwell back on the shelf.
I just bought the big ass book on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (see my avatar). Going to read it in the kindle edition.

Lol, do you have Turkish ancestry?
He was a great politician, maybe the best Turkish Prime Minister and his life is interesting, but it seems like every Turkish man adores him to the point of stupidity.
I lost count of the tattoo with his signature and/or face, gadgets and paintings of him while I was in Turkey.
The state contributes actively to his cult of personality and it's almost forbidden to talk bad about him (to the point that you can risk to go to jail).

Back on the big book challenge, I'm reading Mastery by Robert Greene.
It' probably a little less 500 pages but I'm reading the whole book in a language that's not my native one (English) so it requires me more energy.
Hope it can fit the challenge... xD

Post: #62

This is a great idea. I believe any forum member should read this.

Not only is it the story of Jobs, it is also the story of the IT revolution.

It is also the most brutally honest biography I have ever read. Basically Jobs told the author that he would not even read the book. As a result it paints a pretty unflattering image of Jobs. Not your regular celebrity biography.

(12-14-2012 10:57 AM)Sleek Wrote:  Believe I'm going to tackle Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson starting in a week or so. Have heard good reviews.

Post: #63

I just started Dark Alliance. Ever since I read "The Power of the Dog" and found out about the whole Iran-Contra thing, Ive been interested in the topic. Really creepy stuff.

Post: #64

Most people thing traveling is all fun an games and being out 24/7 all day long.
It's still a "vacation" aka you need and get time to relax.
When I was traveling and not 100 percent in my school work ( also didn't have internet on my phone for a while)

I started blasting through e books. ( Almost all nonfiction) I started buying lots and lots of books..Then never got around to reading them.

I guess this is a chance to jump into this book now.
A book on the "Betrayal of american men"
http://www.amazon.com/Stiffed-Betrayal-A...B000H2M9Y6

600+ pages. and surprisingly written by a woman

The reviews are really iffy. So i figure I will just read it myself.
I picked it up along with another big ass book.
Long Gray Lines
http://www.amazon.com/Long-Gray-Line-Ame...080509122X
I've got alot of books on military college history.

If you want a good look at the history of boys become men and so on.
Look into military colleges.
Cadets today are having lots of problems and argument with the new pussification within the military system

Post: #65

Alright I'm doing this thing. I'm reading http://www.amazon.com/Hans-Christian-And...0715633759 which will hopefully fill me with flash backs of my time in Denmark. Still you gotta be something pretty special to be the best Dane, since no Dane is allowed to be better than any other.

554pages to go, will be need 40 pages a day to make the challenge.

Post: #66

(12-13-2012 08:40 AM)tomhagen Wrote:  I recommend "Titan" the biography of Rockefeller. Eyeopening and truly interesting. It has about 800pages

Picked this book up. 80 pages in. A great read so far. Hoping to read some more biographies of great men after this one. Probably the one on the South Korean president is next on my list.

Post: #67

I just got finished reading American Desperado, the story of Jon Roberts the American head of operations of the Medellin cocaine cartel in the 80s. The formatting was fucked up on my ipad so I didn't realize it was over 500 pages until I checked it on Amazon just now. I blew through it in 3 days.

Its a biography/autobiography because Jon had someone help him right it. It is an unreal story that takes you to the darkest side of humanity. The things this man did during his life are unreal. He talks about skinning soldiers in Vietnam, killing people on a whim and you really get the sense that he has no emotion about any of the things that he did. The book is so unbelievable at times that it reads like a non fiction instead of a memoir. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get inside the head of a psychopath.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Desperado...0307450430

Post: #68

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Post: #69

Just finished A Short History of Nearly everything. 544 pages, but it is actually only 476 not counting the notes and index.

Very informative and entertaining. You can tell that the author has no science background because he breaks things down in a very accessible manner, as if he were trying to explain something to you the way he wished it had been told to him.

Anyway, here are a few interesting things I learned:

-The average species on earth lasts for only about 4 million years.

-What would happen if you traveled to the edge of the universe? You can’t because the universe bends. If you traveled outward in a straight line, you would never arrive at an outer boundary; instead you’d end up right where you began. The analogy the book uses is to imagine someone from a universe of flat surfaces who has never seen a sphere and travels to earth. No matter how far he roamed across the planet’s surface, he would never find an edge and he would eventually wound up where he started.

-None of the maps we have ever seen of the solar system are drawn even close to scale. On a diagram drawn to scale with the earth reduced to the size of a pea, Jupiter would be a ping pong ball over a thousand feet away.

-A nineteenth century Swedish chemist named J.J. Berzelius was the one who decided to abbreviate elements on the basis of their Greek or Latin names (iron is Fe from the Latin ferrum for example). That so many other abbreviations are based on their English names (N for nitrogen for example) is because the English word is rooted in Latin or Greek.

-Marie Curie discovered that certain rocks (e.g. uranium) converted mass into energy. She dubbed it “radioactivity.” For a long time after it was thought that something so natural and energetic must have been beneficial. In the 1920s a hotel in New York advertised the therapeutic effects of its “Radioactive mineral springs.” Sounds like something from Fallout. To this day Marie Curie’s notes and lab books are considered too dangerous to handle. Anyone who desires to look at them has to wear protective clothing.

-One atom is to the width of a millimeter line as the thickness of a sheet of paper is to the height of the Empire State Building.

-All atoms are mostly empty space and the solidity we experience is an illusion. When two billiard balls come together they don’t actually strike each other. The negatively charged fields of the two balls repel each other, were it not for their electrical charges they could pass right through each other. You’re not actually sitting in that chair, but levitating at one angstrom (a hundred millionth of a centimeter) above it. Your electrons and its electrons are keeping you from touching.

-One-tenth of the weight of the average pillow is made up of dead skin cells, mites, and mite dung.

-Stretch your arms to their fullest extent and imagine the width as the entire history of earth. On this scale the distance from the fingertips of one hand to the wrist of the other is the Precambrian, all of complex life is in one hand, and in a single stroke of a nail file you could eradicate human history.

Post: #70

Big Ass Book challenge.... complete.

It took me 13 days to finish The Landmark Thucydides. It was probably not a good idea to pick this book because of how dense it was, as it took me about 75 minutes to read 25 pages. I had to average over 2 hours a day to get it done within two weeks time.

Reading it quickly was positive in the sense that all day I'd think of the book. I even had a dream about it. I took some good notes that I will share in a future review.

This was perhaps the hardest and longest book I've read. Reading the ancients is not impossible. It just takes time. If you have to re-read a paragraph fives time to understand just 50% of it, so bet it.

Post: #71

Good job Roosh, that book sounded very tough when you announced the Big Ass Book challenge, defintely want to see the review.

I loved American Caesar by William Manchester. MacArthur was definitely a WWII badass. Everyone knows the famous "I shall return" quote which he fulfilled in retaking the Phillipines but it's less known how he conducted the Pacific war. Compared to the European theatre the losses under MacArthur in the Pacific were relatively light because he employed the tactic of bypassing the enemy where they were strong and hitting them where they were weak then wearing them down. The major Pacific debacles like Iwo Jima were under Nimitz who MacArthur's superiors forced him to let operate on his own and against his recommendations.

The most powerful part of the book was when the Japanese surrendered. The guy had balls of steel, flying in with only a small planeload of soldiers to guard him against the entire nation of Japan, he was literally one of the first there and they had no idea how they would be received or if it was a trap. He insisted on doing it, a move that earned him humongous respect in Japan which he ruled like an enlightened king. Japan went from having an emperor who was worshipped like a god to a democracy in the blink of an eye under MacArthur and it was done 99% peacefully.

This was definitely one of the best biographies I've read. I've been reading a lot of WWI and WWII and it just amazes me how American men were back then, they literally scared the shit out of the entire world.

Post: #72

Damn. Work and the holidays are digging into my reading of the Ataturk bio. And it's not very scholarly. It reads like an "official" biography.
The man was still impressive as hell.

Post: #73

I finished Pacific Crucible. Engrossing.

Post: #74

I've been looking for a good Balkan culture/history book that doesn't irk me too much, maybe a Tito biography that isn't too biased.
Well, it just happens that Misha Glenny (of McMafia fame) recently updated this big brick he wrote 10 years ago : "The Balkans, Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers". Great, and it's finally available as digital download.
I guess this will have to do, it ticks in at 800 pages:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Balkans-Nation...B008EKMAO2

Post: #75

(12-12-2012 10:33 PM)Roosh Wrote:  

(12-12-2012 05:31 PM)MSW2007 Wrote:  Roosh, is The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich a book you would actually recommend?

Your blog post including the book (More Book Reviews 11) isn't especially enthusiastic.

You have to have a sharp interest in WW2 to really enjoy it. The amount of detail was insane.

Think I'll definitely read it sometime in the near future, huge interest in WWII, Holocaust and the Nazi's.