Post: #601

(01-18-2017 09:20 PM)Balkan Wrote:  Just finished A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. Quick read at ~100 pages. I can see some guys interested in Japanese culture, kendo, or zen really appreciating this book, but barring those interests, I would not recommend it.

Musashi was undoubtedly a bad motherfucker. He was born in 1584 and would live his adult life under the relative stability of the Tokugawa shogunate. This stability meant samurais, the elite class, were unneeded and often put down their swords for more profitable vocations. An increasing outlet was competition and sponsorship between the growing number of kendo schools.

Musashi was noted for winning all of his 60 duels. He even stopped using real swords part way through as he was already deemed invincible. Near the end of his life, Musashi sequestered himself in a cave and wrote this book. The book is a guide for mastering strategy and its advice often transcends swordsmanship. It contains 5 chapters: Ground, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void. An annoyingly large number of paragraphs end with "you will need to research this thoroughly". Below are some of my favorite quotes...

"'To become the enemy' means to think yourself into the enemy's position. In the world people tend to think of robber trapped in a house as a fortified enemy. However, if we think of 'becoming the enemy', we feel that the whole world is against us and that there is no escape. He who is shut inside is a pheasant. He who enters is hawk. You must appreciate this."

"When you have grasped this principle, whatever the enemy tries to bring about in the fight you will see in advance and suppress it. The spirit is to check his attack at the syllable "at...", when he jumps check his jump at the syllable "ju...", and check his cut at "cu..."."

"What is known as 'getting someone drunk' is similar to this. You can also infect the enemy with a bored, carless, or weak spirit."

A read I really enjoyed, especially as I have huge interest in Bushido (actually implementing it in some ways), warrior culture, history (Sengoku Jidai period mostly) and Japan in general. Even practiced iaido several years ago. Not in weeaboo (is that how its spelt?) terms of course.

Musashi is even credited inventing his own Niton Ryu style that uses long sword (daito) and short sword (shoto), opposed to mainstream using just the longer one. Well, when you kill your first man when you are 13, you cannot be more crazier than that, other 59 men were surely just a number to him, even though he probably had huge respect for them, especially to Sasaki Kojiro.

Post: #602

Wasnt Musashi the dude that used a Bokken in his duels?
Major badass

Post: #603

While he was going to duel with Sasaki Kojiro (user of the nodachi sword called "washing pole") with his boat, he made suburito from the spare oar in his boat. Suburito was a heavier wooden weapon than bokken or bokuto. I think he made it to counter long reach of the Kojiro's nodachi, which has blade length of 1 meter.

That is only really know example of him using wooden sword, since than Musashi was portrayed in anime as having always bokuto, which as I said is probably misconception.

Post: #604

just finished up Peter Clines "14" - excellent story, I guess you could classify it as a soft sci-fi horror, with a bit of Lovecraft tossed in. reminded me of that old show LOST mixed up with Fringe, only with average relate-able main characters.

Post: #605

just finished The 37th Parallel, by Ben Mizrich (author of Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions and several other books.)

I wouldn't recommend it. Mezrich is a talented writer, and I am a little bit interested in UFOs, but the plot and the ultimate ending of this book was disappointing. I'm going to read Jim Mars' Alien Agenda next.

Post: #606

(02-06-2017 11:09 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  While he was going to duel with Sasaki Kojiro (user of the nodachi sword called "washing pole") with his boat, he made suburito from the spare oar in his boat. Suburito was a heavier wooden weapon than bokken or bokuto. I think he made it to counter long reach of the Kojiro's nodachi, which has blade length of 1 meter.

That is only really know example of him using wooden sword, since than Musashi was portrayed in anime as having always bokuto, which as I said is probably misconception.

Havent seen anime about him but I can definitely cnfess to being guilty of buying into the wooden sword being used constantly thing!
Thanks for the pro-tip!

Post: #607

Ride the Tiger by Julius Evola. Heavy stuff, but needed.

Post: #608

Just finished the famous Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hills:

What I learned so far is that to achieve your ambition you must:

1) Have a definite purpose - you must know what you want and fix a deadline to obtain it

2) Desire - Rather than wishing you must believe that you already have it

3) Faith and Persistence - Never give up on your desires no matter what. Avoid negativity and people who bring you down

4) Have an organised plan - What are the systematic steps, the obstacles, how you will tackle the problem, etc

5) Gather your masterminds - Brainstorm and mix with people with similar ambitions.

6) Make a definite decision - decide quickly to avoid doubts in the future and change your decision slowly

6) Avoid fear at all cost- Fear will create indecision, doubt and failure. Execute your plan step by step and reap the benefits

These are some of the elements that I understood from the first read. Hills has filled it up with too much details and layers that his ideas can be analysed from multiple angles.

Will reread this book as many time as I can. As Roosh said once, this is the only motivation book that a man need.

Post: #609

(02-09-2017 08:15 AM)brokinetic Wrote:  Just finished the famous Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hills:

What I learned so far is that to achieve your ambition you must:

[...]
6) Avoid fear at all cost- Fear will create indecision, doubt and failure. Execute your plan step by step and reap the benefits
[..

among all other points of yours, this one sounds the most like pide-piper's song.



the only way OUT is THROUGH!

Post: #610

I've slowed down my reading lately. Just not finding the time or motivation like I used to. Nonetheless, recently finished Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

I believe every guy should read at least 1 stoic work, ideally one of the big 3; Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, or Epictetus. I haven't read anything from the later too. I really enjoyed Letters from Seneca and would highly recommend it to anyone. I got the Penguin classic edition, which are usually mediocre, but it was surprisingly decent.

Seneca, more appropriately known as Seneca the Younger, was a Roman statesman, philosopher, imperial advisor, and suffect consul. He was born in 4BC and died in 65 AD. His father, Seneca the Elder, brother, Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, and cousin, Lucan are all of note. The majority of his life, within the public limelight, was after his exile by Claudius to Corsica from 41-49 AD. He was brought back by Claudius' new wife Agrippina as a tutor to her son and future emperor, Nero. Seneca retired to the countryside in 62 AD after a mutual falling apart from Nero. In 65 AD he was accused of taking apart in the Pisonian conspiracy and sentenced to death by suicide, which he committed.

It should be noted that Seneca was often cited as one of the wealthiest men in Rome and subsequently lived a very opulent lifestyle, often in direct contrast to the philosophy he preached. Who knows but his writing stands on its own legs.

Below are 5 of my favorite passages..

Letter XXXVIII- On Originality
"I have no doubt, too, they may be very helpful to the uninitiated and those who are still novices, for individual aphorisms in a small compass, rounded off in units rather than like lines of verse, become fixed more readily in the mind. It is for this reason that we give children proverbs and what the Greeks call chriae to learn by heart, a child's mind being able to take these in at a stage when anything more would be beyond its capacity. But in the case of a grown man who has made incontestable progress it is disgraceful to go hunting after gems of wisdom, and prop himself up with a minute number of the best-known sayings, and be dependent on his memory as well; it is time he was standing on his own feet. He should be delivering himself of such sayings, not memorizing them. It is disgraceful that a man who is old or in sight of old age should have a wisdom deriving solely from his notebook. 'Zeno said this.' And what have you said? 'Cleanthes said that.' What have you said? How much longer are you going to serve under others' orders? Assume authority yourself an utter something that may be handed down to posterity. Produce something from your own resources.

This is why I look on people like this as a spiritless lot - the people who are forever acting as interpreters and never as creators, always lurking in someone else's shadow. They never venture to do for themselves the things they have spend such a long time learning. They exercise their memories on things that are not their own. It is one thing, however, to remember, another to know. To remember is to safeguard something entrusted to your memory, whereas to know, by contrast, is actually to make each item your own, and not to be dependent on the original and be constantly looking to see what the master said. 'Zeno said this, Cleanthes that.' Let's have some difference between your and the books! How much longer are you going to be a pupil? From now on do some teaching as well. Why, after all, should I listen to what I can read for myself? 'The living voice,' it may be answered, 'counts for a great deal.' Not when it is just acting in a kind of secretarial capacity, making itself an instrument for what others have to say.

A further point, too, is that these people who never attain independence follow the views of their predecessors, first, in matters in which everyone else without exception has abandoned the older authority concerned, and secondly, in matters in which investigations are still not complete. But no new findings will ever be made if we rest content with the findings of the past. Besides, a man who follows someone else not only does not find anything, he is not even looking. 'But surely you are going to walk in your predecessors' footsteps?' Yes indeed, I shall use the old road, but if I find a shorter and easier one I shall open it up. The men who pioneered the old routes are leaders, not our master. Truth lies open to everyone. There has yet to be a monopoly of truth. And there is plenty of it left for future generations too.

Letter XLI- On Spirit
"What, then, is this soul? Something which has a lustre that is due to no quality other than its own. Could anything be more stupid than to praise a person for something that is not his? Or more crazy than admiring things which in a single moment can be transferred to another? It is not a golden bit that makes one horse superior to others. Sending a lion into the arena with his mane gilded, tired by the handling he has been given in the process of being forced to submit to this embellishment, is a very different thing from sending in a wild one with his spirit unbroken. Bold in attack, as nature meant him to be, in all his unkempt beauty, a beast whose glory is that none can look on him without fear, he stands higher in people's eyes than the other, docile, gold-leaf, coated creature"

Letter LXIII- On grieving
"'Thinking of friends who are alive and well is like feasting on cakes and honey. Recalling those who are gone is pleasant but not without a touch of sourness. Who would deny, though, that even acid things like this with a harshness in their taste do stimulate the palate?' Personally I do not agree with him there. Thinking of departed friends is to me something sweet and mellow. For when I had them with me it was with the feeling that I was going to lose them, and now that I have lost them I keep the feeling that I have them with me still."

"And merely growing weary of sorrowing is quite shameful as a means of curing sorrow in the case of an enlightened man, I should prefer to see your abandoning grief that it abandoning you."

Letter CVIII- On Guilt
"Where there is a bad conscience, some circumstance or other may provide one with impunity, but never with freedom from anxiety; for a person takes the attitude if he isn't found out, there's always the possibility of it. His sleep is troubled. Whenever he talks about someone else's misdeed he thinks of his own, which seems to him all too inadequately blotted out of people's memories. A guilty person sometimes has the luck to escape detection, but never to feel sure of it."

Letter CXXIII- On Necessity
"Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them. Look at the number of things we buy because others have bought them or because they're in most people's houses. One of the causes of the troubles that beset us is the way our lives are guided by the examples of others; instead of being set to rights by reason we're seduced by convention. There are things that we shouldn't wish to imitate if they were done by only a few, but when a lot of people have started doing them we follow along, as though a practice became more respectable by becoming more common. Once they have become general, mistakes may acquire in our minds the status of correct ones."

Post: #611

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

Immense tale of domination and war, hunter and the hunted, gruesome brutality in the vast unforgiving desert along our southern border.

Quite a challenging read, coz the author hates punctuation, and describes every setting (including realistic ultraviolence) with minute detail, that you can imagine the scenery very vividly.

I'd like to add that I have never read a character so masterfully written and interesting as that of judge Holden - and I'll just leave it at that.

Absolutely worthy read. It really picks up after the first half but the ending nails it.

Just thinking about the final scene leaves me speechless. 5/5 from me.

Post: #612

Just finished Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen. He is one of my favourite authors and continues to do his thing in this book. It's fiction but closely related to reality since he works for the Miami Herald.

Post: #613

the last full book i finished was "there is no such thing as a negative emotion" back in 2011. it's the BEST book i found on emotional body work - dismantling the false ego and building up an authentic one.

check it out - though the author of the book has gone insane believing he is an incarnation of buddha and jesus at the same time. he is not the first one to be under that impression, but other people's trips lasted at most a couple of month and for this guy it seems to have lasted at least a couple of years - and in public, not in private as for others who felt the same way that i've known.

still, it's an EXCELLENT book and presents a CUTTING EDGE, STATE OF THE ART EMOTIONAL FUSION-STRENGTH TECHNOLOGY.

Post: #614

"The Home of the Blizzard" by Douglas Mawson, his account of the 1911-1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition.

Which happened to land its main base at possibly the most miserable place on the planet, climate-wise.

Pretty impressive overall what these guys did, the kind of "real-world heroes" stories that used to be taught to kids. Hunkering in a hut the size of a garage for nine months straight. Going out for a couple of months with a sledge loaded with food and supplies, camping in blizzards, covering a few miles a day, then all the way back again. Mawson's own tale is incredible: one of his party of three disappears down a crevasse with most of their supplies (including their tent). They get most of the way back to the hut, only for the second guy to die en route from what modern experts believe was vitamin A poisoning from eating their sled dogs' livers. Mawson has to throw away everything he can at that point to make it the remaining 100 miles. He gets to a forward supply dump in an ice cave a few miles from the hut, only to get stuck inside it for a week during a blizzard, and misses the return ship by a couple hours when he gets to the hut, and has to spend another winter in Antarctica.

One thing that kept occurring to me was how different the world was then. Not just the technology (they used oiled canvas outer gear and Finnish fur boots, for example, and had very limited and primitive radio contact with the rest of the world) but the mindset. They thought nothing of collecting eggs from penguin and sea bird rookeries by the hundreds to add some variety to their diet, or killing penguins and sea lions and walruses and whatnot for dinner, or seals to feed the dogs. They dumped their gear and garbage where convenient instead of packing it all out (for understandable reasons). The men were nearly all in the range 22-32. Significantly, they organized this expedition (near as I can tell) on private initiative and with a large proportion of private funding, and didn't have to beg permission from international authorities, perform environmental impact assessments on every last thing they planned to do and place they planned to go, undergo comprehensive health and psychological evaluation and competitive selection, train intensively for several years to learn how to deal with all possible contingencies (vs. winging it on good judgment and basic knowledge and skills), etc. etc. etc.

In short, it's an undertaking that couldn't be done today, something peculiar to that period in history between the tentative early expeditions that characterized the place for them and the world wars ushering in stultifying technocracy and overbearing statist governance.

It's a long book, and drags in parts, but it's well worth reading.

ETA: It also completely reshaped my mental image of Antarctica. I had always pictured it like a jagged-edged beanie-cap of nice, smooth ice. Not so...

Post: #615

(02-10-2017 02:53 PM)Balkan Wrote:  ...I believe every guy should read at least 1 stoic work, ideally one of the big 3; Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, or Epictetus. I haven't read anything from the later too...

For Marcus Aurelius, I recommend "The Emperor's Handbook". It's a recent translation of The Meditations into accessible English. The public domain translations I've seen translate the Latin words but maintain the Latin grammar, a common affectation of 19th Century classicists who aimed to preserve the form of the original but succeeded only in obscuring its substance.

Post: #616

The Green Ripper by John D McDonald. Great hard boiled stuff, but in this one it's a revenge story where Travis McGee (McD's Sam Spade/Marlowe guy) goes and infiltrates a militant cult in the Pacific Northwest.
There are like 17 or so books with this character and I've read over a handful. This one's different and also a bit darker than any of the others.

Post: #617

The Predatory Female by Lawrence Shannon.

Advice on how to spot the narcissistic females and how to deal with them. Mostly related to married man and dealing with divorces.
Very red pill book.

Post: #618

Finish a Fight in One Move: Without Any Training by Justyn Billingham.

Solid common sense advice, takes about an hour to read.

Post: #619

"At the Mountains of Madness" by H.P. Lovecraft.

The gist: A Miskatonic U. professor writes public plea to stop a planned Antarctic expedition, revealing what really happened on the disastrous prior one and the danger to all humanity of awakening ancient powers About Which Man Was Not Meant To Know. So, the usual Lovecraftian themes and Mythos references, but set in the deep interior of Antarctica rather than New England. Cross Carpenter's "The Thing" (or its original, "Who Goes There?") with what "Prometheus" should have been, add in some sentient coral and a dash of Cthulhu, and then freeze.

Even better than the first time I read it about 15 years ago. Moreso for having just read Mawson's "Home of the Blizzard". Oddly, I didn't at all remember the Great Old Ones being presented sympathetically.

Post: #620

I have been on a reading spree lately. Just finished The Stranger by Albert Camus. It's one of those red pill fiction books that man should read.

The story is basically about a man who lives the life he wants without any emotion bound to the outside world.

Every chapter of the book has a lesson to be learned.

Post: #621

The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky

A precursor to Nietzsche and Freud, Dostoevsky was an amazing writer and philosopher through his characters.
White Nights is about a lonely beta who falls in love but doesn't get the girl. Good for starters on the red pill, or those that want to confirm what we've already know.
The Honest Thief is a good story about a drunk thief who couldn't get his life together.
The Christmas Tree and a Wedding is as perfect a very short story you will ever see, and satirically dark on social commentary of his time.
The Peasant Marey is a short story written while he was in prison based on an event that happened when he was nine, nothing really to say about this one, it was okay for a 6 page story.
Notes from the Underground is the best story in the book, and an essential story for existential philosophy. The unreliable narrator guides you through his angst and anger at the world, talking about pain, suffering, and the unreachable utopia desired by the enlightened self-interest of utilitarianism. We do not always act for our own self-interest and ego. We act irrationally and often just to affirm our own existence. If you're going to read one of these short stories, this is the one.
A Gentle Creature or The Meek One is a powerful story about a relationship that ends tragically. A failure to take into account the feelings of the other, a form of narcissistic love and endless pursuit of material wealth, ends with the death of the narrator's life. A story that stays with you for sometime after.
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is Dostoyevsky's judgment of man, and while mostly negative, he believes that man is capable of love and goodness despite a perfect utopian world being unachievable. Human life is a never-ending conquest to attain the unattainable, and this endless striving makes life meaningful despite it's eventual outcome. A fitting story to end this book. Dostoyevsky's writings influenced Nietzsche, who's writings in turn influenced this next book.

A Primer Of Freudian Psychology by Calvin S. Hill

The main ideas in the work of Freud translated and summarized by Hill, anyone interested in understanding their own psych should read this book or anything similar of Freud. The id, ego, and superego trifecta is explained here, along with anxiety, narcissism, and repression. The book really helped me understand the fixation and underlying feelings I had last summer over a prior relationship and my frustration with the one I was in. Freud's work can be life changing, and it helped confirm what I needed to do to move on in life.

Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America by Donald J. Trump

Anyone who reads this book and is still a cuck-sucking Hilary Clinton Democrat needs to get the dick out of their ass. Trump outlines his vision for America should he be elected president and thank God he won. Each chapter is like a long Trump tweet, tackling a different issue facing America, from foreign policy, education, trade, immigration, and health care. Must read for Trump haters and Trump lovers as you'll come away understanding the issues facing America and have faith in a man that knows he's doing (despite what the corrupt media will tell you!). Start winning again America.

MAGA Mindset by Mike Cernovich

Mike's second major work, MAGA Mindset didn't sell as well as his first, but this is still great work. The first two of three parts examine the current state of culture and the corrupt media in America, including a reference to Roosh's confrontations over the last two years, and explaining the rise of Trump and his popularity. We on the forum know most of these reasons, but it's nice and clearly outlined here. The best part of the book, is Mike's main strength as a writer, part three on Mindset. I'll be referring back to this part of the book throughout my life to refresh my own mindset. Using the same principles Trump has used in his own life will help you achieve your goals.

Post: #622

Hitler: Hubris 1889-1936
Hitler: Nemesis 1936-1945

both by Ian Kershaw...considered to be the (as yet) definitive biography of Der Fuhrer. In total, almost 1,900 pages. Strongly recommended.

Post: #623

I just finished another modern war book called Fearless. The book is about a Navy seal and his life story. There are lots of ups and downs, with stories outside of the military as well as some combat stories.

I was surprised how quickly I got attached to the main character and ended up finishing the book in several days.

If you like American sniper you will like this book.
Spoilers (but I think it says this much on Amazon)


The main character is a high school football star that drops out of college becomes addicted to crack, before turning his life around and joining the Navy.

Post: #624

I just finished a book by Pat Buchanan, as a result of an alt-twitter recommendation [some aren't suspended, still]

It's called the death of the west.

Great book from 2001 and Buchanan outlines pretty much all what is wrong with the West these days.

I will continue with the camp of saints [in French to train my French]

here are my favorite quotes [I have more in a seperate evernote, as I want to make reading a habit, now that I have more time]:

On the current US

• in 1960, Only 16 millions Americans did not trace their ancestors to Europe today the numbers 80 million no nation has ever undergone so rapid and radical in transformation
• Correction no nation in history has gone through a demographic change of this magnitude in so short a time and remained the same nation.
• Balkanization beckons
  

[a lot of people made such comments after the Trump election]



On Europe

• By the end of this century, the English people will be a minority in their homeland [hell, go for a walk through east London]</li>
• Italy, a theme Park - 52% of Italian women between 16 and 24 plan to have no children „career" was their principal reason for this [the word career should be banned, I see the same shit here in Germany]</li>
  

On the current culture

• Millions have begun to feel like strangers in their own land. They recoil from a popular culture that is saturated with raw Sex and trumpets Hedonistic values. They see the art and artifacts of a glorious past removed from their museums and replaced by the depressing, the ugly, the abstract, the anti-American.
• Hate crimes are the cultural elites way off racially profiling white males</li>
• Nietsche called it the transvaluation of all values, the old virtues become sins, and the old sins become virtues. Hate crimes has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with ideology</li>
  

A great book which occasionally made similar points to Taleb's Antifragile. The reasons he notes for why the west is dying are accurately described. He highlights the end of the Roman Empire and makes lots of historical references [history always repeats itself. Only in Rome it was Germans outbreeding the Romans]

Various remarks on globalists, Globalism, and cultural marxists are also in this book. A great background on cultural marxism, a term I had never bothered to research [although you read it often in zerohedge, here, and related sources.]

Buchanan describes frightenigly accurate how cultural marxists are conquering institutions for their revolution.

Trump's slogan America first is referenced various times in this book.

I have also not mentioned various chapters on other cultures [you know who]

Finally, Buchanan outlines why cultural marxism will eventually fail [and how to counter it]. Lots of the things mentioned here are already described in this book.

For any heterosexual white male in the West, a must read in my opinion! An eye opening book.

Post: #625

"The Shadow Over Innsmouth", also by H.P. Lovecraft.

College student traveling through New England on summer break encounters a town filled with people about whom there's something...fishy.