Post: #126

I'm re-reading Total Recall (Arnold's autobiography). Terrific book.

This book reminds me about how much potential us men have. I also love how his pursuit of greatness began with, and was fostered by, lifting weights.

If that isn't motivation to hit the iron, then I don't know what is.

Post: #127

I started reading this today ...... I don't read enough novels/fiction, this one is holding my interest .

Post: #128

(02-12-2014 09:54 AM)Frontenac Wrote:  I'm re-reading Total Recall (Arnold's autobiography). Terrific book.

This book reminds me about how much potential us men have. I also love how his pursuit of greatness began with, and was fostered by, lifting weights.

If that isn't motivation to hit the iron, then I don't know what is.

You sure are an Arnold fan, then again who isn't.

What's the difference between Total Recall and Education of a Bodybuilder. Is the latter focused more on his development as a bodybuilder, and the former his life as a whole?

Post: #129

I am currently reading:

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Really awesome book so far, got the special anniversary edition.

Post: #130

Mastermind: How to think like Sherlock Holmes, Maria Konnikova.

The thought -patterns of Watson and of Holmes are broken down into pieces. The writer gives great examples about how our brains too often choose the lazy route to generalize instead of making individual deductions and how that laziness makes our brains act biased and illogical. Definitely a long and a rocky road from the ''System Watson'' into the ''System Holmes'' - but worth it . This book not only teaches solid reasoning but the importance of tuning things out.

Post: #131

(11-14-2013 03:44 PM)Ringo Wrote:  Right now:
Influence, by Robert Cialdini

Last books:
American Sniper: the autobiography of the most lethal sniper in U.S. Military history, by Chris Kyle

Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer

The Red Market, by Scott Carney

Up next:
???
Accepting suggestions

Just finished this week:

Mastery, by Robert Greene
Good read, very assertive on the importante of practicing and honing your skills when reaching for the ultimate level of knowledge; talent is not as important as we tend to believe.

Ham on rye, by Bukowski
What a sad childhood this guy had. I went from bursts of laughter to misty eyes and back every two pages.

Post: #132

I am currently reading:

The Sex God Method by SexGodMethod

Great read for guys that are already getting laid and want to advance their bedroom skills. I'm about half way done, I've already used a good portion of SexGodMethod's tips and the reaction so far has been nothing but positive.

Post: #133

(02-15-2014 05:19 PM)Dom Torres Wrote:  I am currently reading:

The Sex God Method by SexGodMethod

Great read for guys that are already getting laid and want to advance their bedroom skills. I'm about half way done, I've already used a good portion of SexGodMethod's tips and the reaction so far has been nothing but positive.

Give us a good write-up when you're finished. There was a thread on RVF a year or two ago about becoming better in the bedroom, it was quite popular.

Post: #134

I'm currently reading American Rifle by Alexander Rose. Fascinating reading covering technological developments, military history, and American culture, from colonial days to the modern era.

You don't have to be a firearms enthusiast to enjoy this book and understand why the rifle is, in the minds of many Americans, THE symbol of freedom.

Post: #135

Currently reading Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. Can already tell I'm really going to enjoy this and for many years to come.

Post: #136

I'll be picking up a copy of How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne, on my next trip to the library. Really looking forward to it.

Post: #137

The wolf of wall street

Post: #138

Reading "Anti-Fragile" and love it. I have always enjoyed the intellectual company of straight-talking Mediterranean guys ( I have known a few), so I appreciate the voice.

I read Roosh's summary (approved by the author)

In spite of the glowing review and solid quotes, I did not expect much, but put it on my list.

Read this book, if nothing else for the life advice... but I think it offers a theoretical framework to understand a lot of the discussion topics here, and tools to understand masculinity.

One thought: The dude talks about everything under the sun but not a peep about feminism and very little discussion about women or families. A few passages on seduction analyzing the oneitis of Proust's main character.

My thought is that historically the patriarchal Family was Anti-Fragile institution. It got stronger as it faced adversity, chaos. Divorce made it easy to dissolve it on a whim; hence fragile. Combined with state incentive to ensure there would be no loss (a spouse is "entitled" to an accustomed lifestyle, of course) to extract certain financial benefits from the other party.

A generalization. Men are pre-disposed for anti-fragile institutions. Women are pre-disposed to chase after Robust institutions.

I wonder if thinking about these things is the one place Taleb did not tread in order to have some mainstream acceptance. It is probably no mistake he unapologetically retweeted Roosh. The guy know how to read and is acutely aware of image.

Post: #139

Started reading How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World last night. Excellent book thus far.

Post: #140

The Alchemist, seeing what it's all about.

Post: #141

I'm reading Brave New World. I somehow missed this one in high school and figured it was time to read it.

The passages about taking soma to alleviate uncomfortable feelings is so similar to the way people take psych meds today. I'm a little more than halfway through it; there are some very prophetic sections and some completely outdated notions.

To be honest, this book is about 20% interesting and 80% boring, but it holds my interested long enough for some bed time reading.

Post: #142

Lucky--one dystopia I liked more than Brave New World was We by Zamyatin--written by a Russian (who saw what was coming with communism) in 1921 and predates even Brave New World.

Post: #143

(02-18-2014 08:30 AM)Cincinnatus Wrote:  Started reading How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World last night. Excellent book thus far.

I've read his 'Permanent Portfolio' but have never read this one. I'll have to add it to my list.

I just started reading "Thinking, fast and slow" by Daniel Kahneman.

Behavioral Economics is an interesting subject.

Post: #144

(02-15-2014 11:58 PM)Biz Wrote:  Currently reading Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. Can already tell I'm really going to enjoy this and for many years to come.

I loved that book. I recommend his following book (Lila) that expands on the ideas he raised in Zen.

You may be interested in the Metaphysics of Quality website http://www.moq.org

Post: #145

(02-18-2014 05:49 PM)Gator Wrote:  

(02-18-2014 08:30 AM)Cincinnatus Wrote:  Started reading How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World last night. Excellent book thus far.

I've read his 'Permanent Portfolio' but have never read this one. I'll have to add it to my list.

I just started reading "Thinking, fast and slow" by Daniel Kahneman.

Behavioral Economics is an interesting subject.

Roosh described How I Found Freedom... as "an attempt to apply libertarian philosophy as a template for a person’s entire life instead of just for the political realm"* - it's a great description.

The book has an introductory chapter or two, then spends a dozen chapters describing the 'traps' that prevent us from realizing true freedom. The last half-dozen chapters are about how to free yourself from those traps.

It's another one of those books that put into words things I'd always felt but couldn't quite vernacularize.

* http://www.rooshv.com/more-book-reviews-7

Post: #146

Talleyrand by Duff Cooper

A Biography about one of the greatest political masterminds that ever lived. There's a reason Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord is mentioned many times in Robert Greene's books. An excellent conversationalist, a womanizer and a pragmatist of epic proportions. Always the one to favor brain over brawn, Talleyrand was the driving force behind many major events from Napoleon's ascension to throne to playing foreign politicians and monarchs into France's benefit after Waterloo. Serving through several different regimes during that time required both huge political capital and a chameleon-like ability to change whenever necessary. This guy had both. A true red pill statesman.

''I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.'' - Talleyrand

Post: #147

Book Review: Carrie by Stephen King [SPOILERS]



A quick back story. This was King's first major novel published under his name. A woman challenged King, calling him a chauvinist who feared woman. King rebuffed her, but decided to write a story about a woman. King, at first, tossed the first 3 pages (shower scene involving Carrie's first period) in the trash. His wife picked it up and, quietly read it and convinced to finish the story. He said he wrote the book in less than 2 weeks. He sold the rights to the story for 400K in the mid-1970's. Impressive, indeed.

As far as the book is concerned, there is nothing really to give up about the plot. Most are aware it is about a troubled teenage girl who has a nasty prank played on her at the Prom and she responds with using her telekinesis powers. The book hides no bones about the plot and what the climax will be. King mentions TK power on page seven, the story opens with Carrie's first use of her powers at the tender age of three.

What is most intriguing about the book is the disjointed narrative that King uses. Most of the book isn't told from Carrie's view -- in the 3rd person -- but newspaper clippings, books that explored the event that night itself, and 3rd person views of the main characters. He seamlessly welds these varying viewpoints together into a coherent narrative. The reader knows that something bad is going to happen and after the meltdown at the Prom, the true climax is the reign of terror Carrie engages in. The suspense is heightened with routine, but well-calculated, breaks in the action as court reports and views of 3rd parties punctuate the sheer madness Carrie descends into.

Carrie, herself, had a deeply troubled upbringing. Her Christian upbringing was highly conservative but with a seriously sadistic, obsessive edge. Her mother was an intense and borderline insane woman who directs her own version of Christianity, with her as preacher with Carrie as the sole pulpit member. She had a father, that when one day when praying, he touched her crotch, Carrie's mother cast him out of the house. He came back drunk and forced himself on her and Carrie's mother was disgusted because he made her feel those sinful feelings (sexual pleasure). He dies in a factory accident so thereafter before Carrie's birth, leaving the family just Carrie and her mother. Carrie's mother treated her like an agent of the Devil, but never the temerity to kill her -- until Prom night.

Carrie had only recently had her period at 17. It happened the damp showers of her high school, surrounded by the terrifying jeers of her female classmates. Carrie, with the blessing of the school, ran away home. On the way home a young kid accosts her and in a blind fit of rage, knocks him off his bike with her mind. In the weeks leading up the Prom, Carrie masters the muscle in her mind to manipulate objects. She gets asked to the Prom by a popular boyfriend of one girl named Sue who felt extremely guilty over her taunting of Carrie in that shower.



At the Prom, she is elected Prom Queen. A particularly loathsome girl - who absolutely detests Carrie -- had her abusive, anti-social boyfriend rig up two buckets of pig blood to rain down on Carrie as she was elected, per this nasty girl's plan. It goes as planned until they realize that Carrie is an absolute monster. Carrie tries to flee but once she calms down, she goes completely insane.

Carrie locks the doors of the gymnasium with her mind, turn on the sprinklers and tosses the electrical cords from the stage into the scrum, electrocuting some and the rest die in the fire.

Carrie walks with purpose toward her home, where she plans to kill her mother -- her one, true tormenter. She burns half the town down on her way. Everybody in town -- even they don't know her -- instinctively know Carrie is at fault. For a few hours, Carrie exerted complete psychological control over the town. At her home, her mother confronts her in an incredibly emotionally charged showdown. Carrie's mother nails a butcher knife into Carrie's shoulder and Carrie manipulates her heart so she dies.

The story ends as she travels to the local watering hole, an establishment her mother whinged endlessly about for its intrinsic ungodliness. She confronts the the offending couple and kills them both before falling to die. She leads the girlfriend of the man who took her to Prom to her and they have a sad exchange as Carrie dies.

The national press treated Carrie as a sheer monster who was so evil that she did this out of pure, vile spite. The few survivors feel tremendous amounts of guilt, as they know what she did was wrong but they also know they either did nothing to help Carrie and her mother or actively discriminated against and hurt Carrie.

Book rating? I can't put a number on it. The story is mesmerizingly terrifying and the writing is quite good, but you can tell King hasn't hit his stride as a writer. Epistolary novels can be quite tough to pull off, but King does this in effortless fashion and the story flows better as not a pure descent into madness, but a trying, conflicted attempt of outsiders endeavoring to understand the situation coupled with the growing sense of Carrie's impending doom.

King must have his own demons, as his ability to document the slide into pure insanity is effortless. He does a phenomenal job of presenting Carrie as a victim first and butcher second. Rare is the novel where somebody can kill over 400 people and, yet, at the end, still feel a complete sense of sympathy for Carrie. She is a preeminently a tragic character. The harrowing scenes of her mother's abuse and the vitriolic treatment at the hands of her peers is carefully done to ensure maximum sympathy for Carrie.

In the end, it is a well-told tale of a young woman testing the boundaries of her own sanity, only to realize that some doors were never meant to be opened and -- once you do -- you can become somebody you never thought in a thousand years you would become.

Post: #148

Picked up a book today called Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee: How A Founding Father and His Slave James Hemings Introduced French Cuisine to America, by Thomas Craughwell.

It's been an interesting read thus far. Basically Jefferson travels to France as the United States newly appointed Commerce Commissioner. Jefferson strikes a deal with his slave, James Hemings, that if Hemings can master French cuisine, Jefferson will grant him freedom.

The book goes into great detail describing the diet of colonial-era American, and that of upper class Europeans. Not only did the American diet include the usual barnyard suspects, Americans also ate turtles, sturgeon, catfish, bear, deer, waterfowl, rabbit, etc. Okra, sweet potatoes, and beans were common. They shunned now-appreciatetd seafood such as cod, flounder, and haddock.

Jefferson's farming operations and kitchen garden are given great attention. In 1770, Jefferson cut a garden space 1,000 feet long and 80 feet wide, so he could grow 300 different varieties of vegetables.

He also had an obsession with vino, his dream was to make great wine at his estate (Monticello) but his efforts to cultivate a vineyard were frequently ruined by black rot and phylloxera.

I'll give the book a full review when I finish.

...

I'll also be re-reading Brave New World and Animal Farm soon, then 1984. Been a while since I've read any of these classics, and I'm sure they'll resonate more with me now, than they did when I was a teenager.

One more book on the reading list - Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford, which Roosh reviewed in an ROK article: http://www.returnofkings.com/10973/the-hands-of-man

Post: #149

Early Retirement Extreme. The guy has some real good ideas that I am currently implementing in my life right now.

Post: #150

@2Wycked - Stephen King was living with his wife in a trailer when he wrote 'Carrie'. He had yet to publish a book - and he wasn't happy with his completed manuscript for 'Carrie'. He ended up throwing it in a wastepaper basket.

His wife fished it out, told him it was a great story and convinced him to send it to an agent to try and get it published.

The rest is history.