Read, read, read!!!! education, imagination, humour

[Wyrd Sister]

Re-reading my way through Discworld (personal preference is to skip most of the Rincewind ones tbh) to balance the mostly depressing academic texts I'm usually buried in these days.

[Bartek]

20+ years too late, but at last:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[Being645]

20+ years too late, but at last:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

... ... at least you've managed after all, unlike me ...

[Wyrd Sister]

20+ years too late, but at last:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Oooo, update when you've finished? Curious how it holds up for people getting into it later.

[iesus]

Downloaded this
https://www.pdfdrive.com/gothic-music-t ... 52544.html

And found also a reference to mentioning that he is not goth by his own words... Found the mention very funny when read it somehow

[markfiend]

Strontium Dog: Search and Destroy vol 2

Well, technically I'm not reading it yet as I've only just had it delivered. But it's got the Journey Into Hell storyline featuring some of the late great Carlos Ezquerra's most insane artwork.

I always preferred Johnny Alpha to Joe Dredd; he's more human (ironically enough).

[eastmidswhizzkid]

i was bought this for Christmas and was initialy a bit sad that its written as a history rather than a traditional novel - think The Silmarrilion against the Lord Of The Rings- but its actually better written A Game Of Thrones and so i am rather enjoying it.

[Rantz Hoseley]

Been slowly wending my way through 'classic authors I should have read when I was younger' and finally got to this one...
It's f**king brilliant. I actually like it more than Slaughterhouse Five. Clever, funny, heartbreaking and inspiring. Also, razor sharp prose.

[markfiend]

Oh nice. I loves me a bit of Vonnegut and I think Bluebeard is right up there.

[hellboy69]

Apologies for the self promo… but this one is a dream come true for me!

https://frazerlee.wordpress.com/2023/04 ... bledegook/

[sultan2075]

For pleasure: The Táin Bó Cúailnge translated by Thomas Kinsella.

For work, I guess, but also for pleasure: Christopher Lasch's 1979 The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. I'm barely into it, but it strikes me as startlingly prophetic thus far.

[Damaged+Done]

20+ years too late, but at last:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Oooo, update when you've finished? Curious how it holds up for people getting into it later.

I re-read the series recently - and the Dirk Gently books -and was surprised how funny, clever and relevant they still were. The caveat being, I read them loads in my youth and loved them. Tried to get my kids to read them but either it wasn't for them or they have a blank disregard for anything I recommend, both options hold water. Certainly the whole 'Hitch Hikers guide to...' as a joke is out dated and the fantasy of the The Guide and related concepts has been realised by the internet, Wikipedia, WiFi and smart devices - there's even a Babble (fish) translation device so I suppose it exists in a weird retro futurist space these days...
The modern readers take would be so interesting.... is it relevance just the absurdity of the universe and the awfulness of Vogan poetry? (I'll get my towel...)

[Bartek]

20+ years too late, but at last:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Oooo, update when you've finished? Curious how it holds up for people getting into it later.

let me recall it from my memory after ~a year: I enjoyed it. Liked the absurd. I'll probably read more from the series.

Recently, after more than a decade I started to read more than 2 or 3 novels a year, it's my 4 only this year, two were Prattchet's, but now it's Ballard time, first was The Concere Island, now it's High-Rise. Ballard is/was Ballard you pretty much know what to expect.

From the other that is not about (in general IT or stoicism) I would recommend this one, really eye-opener on how we can see ourselves and other around us.

[Andy W]

The Big Midweek - Life Inside The Fall by Steve Hanley. A great read.

[Rantz Hoseley]

So, Eisner Award nominations came out today, and we got six nominations, with FOUR of those being for the Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes The Graphic Album book that I edited (with Margaret Atwood and David Mack getting a nod for 'best short story' in it).

https://www.comic-con.org/eisner-awards-current-info

So, if one wanted to have some lovely Comical Books to read, I'd say you could do worse (it also contains stories by Gaiman and Sienkiewicz, and Doran and a host of others) and the Weird Al book is a f**king Whos Who of humor comic artists.

I'm now off to have a pint to celebrate... before noon? OH WELL!

[Rantz Hoseley]

Recommendations from the last month's reading...

Joan Didion's THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING is just goddamn heartbreaking and brilliant.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman is a modern fable that has a HORRIBLE cover (so bad I refused to read it at first) but contains one of those magic stories where you are crying and laughing at the same time over the last four chapters. Cannot recommend it enough.

THE SHELL COLLECTOR is Anthony Doerr's first book... a collection of short stories... and there's some interesting things going on within the pages.

[sultan2075]

Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire. Given my interests it’s something that’s been on my radar for almost two decades. It’s shameful that I’m only getting round to it now. It’s good so far.

[Rantz Hoseley]

Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire. Given my interests it’s something that’s been on my radar for almost two decades. It’s shameful that I’m only getting round to it now. It’s good so far.

Pressfield is so great, THE WAR OF ART is one of my favorite books of all time... I have Gates Of Fire on my bookshelf, and should really finally read it! Thank you for the reminder!

[primasvisage]

Recommendations from the last month's reading...

Joan Didion's THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING is just goddamn heartbreaking and brilliant.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman is a modern fable that has a HORRIBLE cover (so bad I refused to read it at first) but contains one of those magic stories where you are crying and laughing at the same time over the last four chapters. Cannot recommend it enough.

THE SHELL COLLECTOR is Anthony Doerr's first book... a collection of short stories... and there's some interesting things going on within the pages.

I've heard that about "The Year Magical Thinking", but have not read it. I can recommend "Political Fictions" from Didion in addition:

The Drop Edge of Yonder - Rudolph Wurlitzer (of jukebox fame!)
The Transmigration of Bodies - Yuri Herrera . all three novels in his Border Trilogy read great
The Empire of Chaos- The Roving Eye Collection - Pepe Escobar . dispatches from around 2010 which I have been reading this morning:
"The World anyway will never become "flat" - this is a silly neoliberal, simplistic fantasy. "

[Incoming!]

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. Both beautiful and abhorrent at the same time.
Starting to reread it again.

[Incoming!]

For pleasure: The Táin Bó Cúailnge translated by Thomas Kinsella.

For work, I guess, but also for pleasure: Christopher Lasch's 1979 The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. I'm barely into it, but it strikes me as startlingly prophetic thus far.

Gotta ask the question. What is the man's pedigree? Historian, psychologist, sociologist.... You don't have to have one to write a book about culture, BUT you should have a high understanding via years of study to write about narcissistic personality disorder - which is what he argues is happening versus pure narcissism.

I would argue that this book defines the current generation - of all cultures and countries.

But I digress.

[iesus]

Just adding a parameter to the "This book xxx defines yyyy". History never repeats itself, but in many cases rhymes. After a great many of reading history, i tend at this point to agree on this at a high degree.

[sultan2075]

For pleasure: The Táin Bó Cúailnge translated by Thomas Kinsella.

For work, I guess, but also for pleasure: Christopher Lasch's 1979 The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. I'm barely into it, but it strikes me as startlingly prophetic thus far.

Gotta ask the question. What is the man's pedigree? Historian, psychologist, sociologist.... You don't have to have one to write a book about culture, BUT you should have a high understanding via years of study to write about narcissistic personality disorder - which is what he argues is happening versus pure narcissism.

I would argue that this book defines the current generation - of all cultures and countries.

But I digress.

BA from Harvard, PhD from Columbia. Taught history at Rochester, died in the early 1990’s.

[Incoming!]

For pleasure: The Táin Bó Cúailnge translated by Thomas Kinsella.

For work, I guess, but also for pleasure: Christopher Lasch's 1979 The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. I'm barely into it, but it strikes me as startlingly prophetic thus far.

Gotta ask the question. What is the man's pedigree? Historian, psychologist, sociologist.... You don't have to have one to write a book about culture, BUT you should have a high understanding via years of study to write about narcissistic personality disorder - which is what he argues is happening versus pure narcissism.

I would argue that this book defines the current generation - of all cultures and countries.

But I digress.

BA from Harvard, PhD from Columbia. Taught history at Rochester, died in the early 1990’s.

Since he doesn't have an MD, he's not a psychiatrist. His PHd seems to be in history as he studied under Hofstader. Nice that. He read psychology books, then wrote reviews about them. Just getting my stuff from Encylopedia.com. He was a social historian. At the beginning of revisionist history. I'm a conservatist historian.

Sounds like a great and interesting book. If you do that for work; that is cool. BUT to talk about "narcissistic personality disorder" only by reading about it but not seeing and treating it in the field is dangerous. When it comes to identified psychological/psychiatric disorders I become defensive. It is hard for professionals to properly identify them. Patients suffer as a result. For years. I know from personal experience. I'm not a narcissist, maybe narcissitic tendencies. We all do.

Long story short. Cool to have a job where you get to read history books.

[sultan2075]

Gotta ask the question. What is the man's pedigree? Historian, psychologist, sociologist.... You don't have to have one to write a book about culture, BUT you should have a high understanding via years of study to write about narcissistic personality disorder - which is what he argues is happening versus pure narcissism.

I would argue that this book defines the current generation - of all cultures and countries.

But I digress.

BA from Harvard, PhD from Columbia. Taught history at Rochester, died in the early 1990’s.

Since he doesn't have an MD, he's not a psychiatrist. His PHd seems to be in history as he studied under Hofstader. Nice that. He read psychology books, then wrote reviews about them. Just getting my stuff from Encylopedia.com. He was a social historian. At the beginning of revisionist history. I'm a conservatist historian.

Sounds like a great and interesting book. If you do that for work; that is cool. BUT to talk about "narcissistic personality disorder" only by reading about it but not seeing and treating it in the field is dangerous. When it comes to identified psychological/psychiatric disorders I become defensive. It is hard for professionals to properly identify them. Patients suffer as a result. For years. I know from personal experience. I'm not a narcissist, maybe narcissitic tendencies. We all do.

Long story short. Cool to have a job where you get to read history books.

You should probably read Lasch's work before passing judgment on it. You seem to be talking about something quite different from what he is talking about.