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Books for those who can read
Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:01 pm
by johno
Genre: thrillers with a mystical bent.
Author: Michael Gruber
Titles: "Tropic of Night" and "Valley of Bones"
Mak tha Clawhammer might particularly enjoy the discussion of Christianity in Valley of Bones. A respectful, thoughtful treatment.
Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:18 pm
by Fat Cat
Not so into thrillers and fiction in general. I'm reading Imperium by Yockey, and it's...different, in a Mein Kampf kind of way.
Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 6:49 pm
by Batboy2/75
Fat Cat wrote:Not so into thrillers and fiction in general. I'm reading Imperium by Yockey, and it's...different, in a Mein Kampf kind of way.
How is it?
From the Amazon reviews he sounds like a watered down version of Hitler, minus the German superman racial thing. Seems he was a Ultra Western European Culture, Caucasian race first, Facist?
BB2/75
Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 6:58 pm
by Fat Cat
Batboy2/75 wrote:Seems he was a Ultra Western European Culture, Caucasian race first, Facist?
Yes. The interesting curveball is that he started off as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, yet ended up as a Nazi sympathizer. It is worth bearing in mind that half of Europe lay under the Soviet boot at the time, as this was the context under which he wrote his book. So far, not so impressed.
Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 8:42 pm
by Hagbard
Just finishes A Little History of the World by some German dude, currently re-reading Godel, Escher, Bach by Hoffstedter.
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:23 am
by TomFurman
Finally reading DaVinci Code. Alot like Art Bell's Coast to Coast.
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:29 am
by Turdacious
Just read Toqueville's Memoir on Pauperism-- good if you like Toqueville, and an interesting critique of the 19th century welfare state, but short (too short to be worth buying new).
Currently reading The Magician of Lublin by IB Singer-- pretty good so far. Also reading Rome and Jerusalem, by Moses Hess. Prophetic mystic socialism-- very interesting.
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 9:06 pm
by johno
Oh crap, you guys have taken my thread all intellect & shit.
OK. Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence. No, it's not a Quentin Tarantino movie.
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 9:08 pm
by Fat Cat
Turd Ferguson wrote:Toqueville
LOL! Do you mean "de Tocqueville". When you're trying to impress people with your literacy, try not to misspell the author's name repeatedly.
Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 12:17 am
by Turdacious
Fat Cat wrote:Turd Ferguson wrote:Toqueville
LOL! Do you mean "de Tocqueville". When you're trying to impress people with your literacy, try not to misspell the author's name repeatedly.
ROLF! Good thing I don't care what you think.
Besides, it took me a half hour to read-- hardly deep reading.
Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 12:56 am
by Batboy2/75
Western Civilization & It's Enemies, by Lee Harris
very good read.
He's a quote from the inside jacket that does a good job explaining what the book discsusses.
"Forgetfulness occurs when those who have beeen long accustomed to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe.... they forget , in short, that there has ever been a catagory of human experience called the enemy. "That, before 9/11, was what happened to us. the very concept of the enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn't done enough for yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part-something we could correct....."Our first task is therefore to try to grasp what the concept of the enemy really means. th enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true the enemy always hates us for a reason, it is his reason, and not ours."
BB2/75
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 2:38 am
by seeahill
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.
On the less thoughful side, anything by Tim Dorsey, who supplies my current sig.
Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 8:36 pm
by johno
seeahill wrote:Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.
Diamond lost me in his Introduction/Preface, where he explained that his goal was to produce a politically correct explanation about why honkies rule. Anything that follows from that viewpoint is suspect.
Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 10:00 pm
by beefheart
Read Valley of Bones aand am working on Night of the Jaguar, Tropic of Night was checked out of the library.
Did I find V of B profound? No. But I found it thoughful and interesting. thanks for the tip off.
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 4:12 pm
by Fat Cat
The Art of War by Sunzi
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 10:21 pm
by johno
BeeFart - I thought V of B's treatment of Christianity was interesting. Tropic of Night is the better thriller of the two, IMO. And I haven't read Night of the Jaguar, yet.
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 11:20 pm
by Maza
Skepticism and Animal Faith by George Santayana is what I'm reading now. Haven't finished it yet, but what I've read so far is good. You will dig it, if you dig that sort of thing.
I also picked up Judo: History, Theory, Practice by Vladimir Putin recently. It's interesting so far, but I don't know enough about the subject to say whether it's is a quality judo book or not.
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 12:22 am
by beefheart
Fat Cat wrote:The Art of War by Sunzi
I just gave my younger son, 22, Art of War and the Book of Five Rings to address some of the deficiencies in his education.
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 4:15 pm
by Fat Cat
It had been a long time since I looked at it, and it is an impressive work.
Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 11:27 am
by Shafpocalypse Now
"Old Man's War"? Wasn't that a sci-fi novel? If so, I read it, enjoyable read.
Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 2:24 pm
by Hagbard
For a taste of somthing you'd never read unless your freaky musician/singer chick friend gives you for xmas, try Geek Love by Katherine Dunne. Fucking crazy.
Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 10:29 pm
by seeahill
johno wrote:seeahill wrote:Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.
Diamond lost me in his Introduction/Preface, where he explained that his goal was to produce a politically correct explanation about why honkies rule. Anything that follows from that viewpoint is suspect.
Granted. Still, as Diamond makes his case, he becomes more and more difficult to dispute.
Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:34 am
by Hank Scorpio
Imperial Grunts, Kaplan.
The Great Game, Peter Hopkirk. Easy, informative.
Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:34 pm
by Chr1stine
Just finished "Guests of the Ayatollah" by Mark Bowden. I liked it a lot.
Now I'm reading "Saturday" by Ian McEwan. My first fiction reading in quite a while. [And I'm re-reading "Muscle Logic" by Charles Staley.]
Next up: "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 9:11 pm
by cleaner464
I just knocked off "Middlemarch". Might be the best book I've read.