Reading into thin air. I have a ton of new books to read! My boyfriend took me to Portland for the long weekend which means I got to spend as much time as I wanted at Powells. If you've never been it's one of my favorite places, definitely worth stopping by if your in Portland.
Powells is one of the best places on Earth. You just reminded me that I have a gift card to Elliott Bay... I'm finishing up Our Mathematical Universe this week. I also read a grant application that The Vera Project submitted a few years back, that's been an interesting one. Might pick up some Feynman after this book.
Just wait until you get to the 20+ page exposition on sumerian language :P I do love that book, though.
From what I remember, good start, idea remains compelling despite age, but doesn't carry through in strength to the end. Also one of those novels where the author forgets it's a novel and thinks it's a treatise halfway thru as that other person said.
First off, I'm totally blown away that this thread has been going on for so long and I just haven't noticed. Second, Playing to the Gallery by Grayson Perry. It's a light read on contemporary art. Mostly I'm looking at his illustration-cum-commentary rather than reading the words... Also, in poetry: The Wheeling Year by Kooser and Erratic Facts by Kay Ryan.
#!, by Nick Montfort. I am generally not the audience for poetry, but someone told me "he doesn't write poetry, he writes little scripts to write poetry" and that I had to check out. The book has the script followed by sample output, "sample" because most of them or either randomized or never exit. Most are the kind of stupid thing you write when you're learning programming, given silly titles. Here's "ASCII Hegemony" but some are pretty clever. These are cute. I think I might have liked it better if the book had contained just the scripts, with no sample output, so you'd need to transcribe it to see what it did, because it's more fun to watch them executing than it is to read what they spewed after the fact. #!/usr/bin/perl {print " ".chr for 32..126;redo}
Finished Black Earth. I found it to be on par with David Graeber's Debt: The First 5000 Years in terms of the type of narrative, performance and quality. One of the better books I've read in the last years. A friend of mine reccommended Brandwashed, and since I crave a lighter read after the depressingness of the Holocaust I started reading that. If it sucks I think I'll return it and read Turkle's new book instead.
Boy that looks cheerful. And I say that, still cranking through Biohazard. The new Turkle book is a good read, but if you're only gonna do one, do Alone Together. There's more original research, more in-depth stuff, and more original thought; Reclaiming Conversation is basically "When last I wrote, I said we were fucked. Well, guess what? We're still fucked. Also, my editor told me to end on an up note so... I guess the kids are getting sick of Facebook?"
I read Alone Together somewhere last year. While she had a lot of interesting insights, most of the ideas in the book seemed like something I already knew intuitively but hadn't articulated in such a way before. She is after all talking about my generation [cue The Who]. Snyder missed that memo. In his conclusions, he argues that it is not unlikely that something like the Holocaust happens again and wonders what geopolitical conflicts are likely to generate similar circumstances that could lead to a mass ethnologic genocide. But it's a great book. I reccomend it, and b_b does too so I'm not the only one who liked it.Also, my editor told me to end on an up note
Finished Reclaiming Conversation. Enjoyed it. Was thought-provoking, but not as much as the rest of Turkle's ouvre. Recognized that I've got something like a dozen books sitting waiting to be read in my Audible queue so started cranking through. PROTIP: 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism is every bit the primer you'd expect it to be. Will and Ariel Durant's monster lies there lurking, daring me to touch it. 482 hours of audio. 9.3GB of 48kHz MP3s. Four million words - the equivalent of all three Lord of the Rings books nine times over. Speaking of which, I stopped giving a fuck halfway through Fellowship. Sorry, flagamuffin.
Sorry. I think maybe Tolkien has the reputation he does because he wrote the first high fantasy novels, not so much because they're really great. Lord Dunsany was playing in the same space first, and was pretty well known, but he didn't write novels in it.
He made up a mythology and aped the style of religious texts to tell it. I enjoy him. Lovecraft liked him enough to try to be him early on. Where he tells an actual story the story isn't the point, and there are no characters you're meant to relate to, so from your criticism of other things I wouldn't recommend him to you. Here are a few sections from In the Land of Time that are representative, though. If books full of this stuff doesn't sound excruciating to you, you might like him. Yonath was the first among prophets who uttered unto men. These are the words of Yonath, the first among all prophets: There be gods upon Pegana. Upon a night I slept. And in my sleep Pagana came very near. And Pagana was full of gods. I saw the gods beside me as one might see wonted things. Only I saw not Mana-Yood-Sushai. And in that hour, in the hour of my sleep -- I knew. And the end and the beginning of my knowing, and all of my knowing that there was, was this -- that Man Knoweth Not. Seek though to find at night the udder edge of the darkness, or seek to find the birthplace of the rainbow where he leapeth upward from the hills, only seek not concerning the wherefore of the making of the gods. The gods have set a brightness upon the father side of the Things to Come that they may appear more felicitous to men than the Things that Are. To the gods the Things to Come are but as the Things that Are, and nothing altereth in Pegana. The gods, although not merciful, are not ferocious gods. They are the destroyers of the Days that Were, but they set a glory about the Days to Be. Man must endure the Days that Are, but the gods have left him his ignorance as solace. Seek not to know. Thy seeking will weary thee, and thou wilt return much worn, to rest at last about the place from whence thou settest out upon thy seeking. Seek not to know. Even I, Yonath, the olden prophet, burdened with the wisdom of great years, and worn with seeking, know only that man knoweth not. Once I set out seeking to know all things. Now I know one thing only, and soon the Years will carry me away. The path of my seeking, that leadeth to seeking again, must be trodden by very many more, when Yonath is no longer even Yonath. Set not thy foot upon that path. Seek not to know. These be the Words of Yonath. When the years had carried away Yonath, and Yonath was dead, there was no longer a prophet among men. And still men sought to know. Therefor they said unto Yug: "Be thou our prophet, and know all things, and tell us concerning the wherefor of It All." And Yug said: "I know all things." And men were pleased. And Yug said of the Beginning that it was in Yug's own garden, and of the End that it was in the sight of Yug. And men forgot Yonath. One day Yug saw Mung behind the hills making the sign of Mung. And Yug was Yug no more. When Yug was Yug no more men said unto Alhireth-Hotep "Be though our prophet, and be as wise as Yug." And Alhireth-Hotep said: "I am as wise as Yug." And men were very glad. And Alhireth-Hotep said of Life and Death: "These be the affairs of Alhireth-Hotep." And men brought gifts to him. One day Alhireth-Hotep wrote in a book: "Alhireth-Hotep knoweth All Things, for he hath spoken with Mung." And Mung stepped from behind him, making the sign of Mung, saying: "Knowest though All Things, then, Alhireth-Hotep?" And Alhireth-Hotep became among the Things that Were. When Alihireth-Hotep was among the Things that were, and still men sought to know, they said unto Kobok: "Be thou as wise as was Alhireth-Hotep." And Kabok grew wise in his own sight and in the sight of men. And Kabok said: "Mung maketh his sign against men or withholdeth it by the advice of Kabok." And he said unto one: "Thou hast sinned against Kabok, therefor will Mung make the sign of Mung against thee." And to another: "Thou hast brought Kabok gifts, therefore shall Mung forbear to make against thee the sign of Mung." One night as Kabok fattened upon the gifts that men had brought him he heard the tread of Mung treading in the garden of Kabok about his house at night. And Kabok, who knew All Things, grew afraid, for the treading was very lought and the night still, and he knew not what lay behind the back of Mung, which none had ever seen. But when the morning grew to brightness, and there was light upon the Worlds, and Mung trod no longer in the garden, Kabok forgot his fears, and said: "Perhaps it was but a herd of cattle that stampeded in the garden of Kabok." And Kabok went about his business, which was that of knowing All Things, and telling All Things unto men, and making light of Mung. But that night Mung trod again in the garden of Kabok, about his house at night, and stood before the window of the house like a shadow standing erect, so that Kabok knew indeed that it was Mung. And a great fear fell upon the throat of Kabok, so that his speech was hoarse; and he cried out: "Though art Mung!" And Mung slightly inclined his head, and went on to tread in the garden of Kabok, about his house at night. And Kabok lay and listened with horror at his heart. But when the second morning grew to brightness, and there was light upon the Worlds, Mung went from treading in the garden of Kabok; and for a little while Kabok hoped, but looked with great dread for the coming of the third night. And when the third night was come, and the bat had gone to his home, and the wind had sunk, the night was very still. And Kabok lay and listened, to whom the wings of the night flew very slow. But, ere night met the morning upon the highway between Pegana and the Worlds, there came the tread of Mung in the garden of Kabok towards Kabok's door. And Kabok fled out of his house as flee a hunted beast and flung himself before Mung. And Mung made the sign of Mung, pointing towards The End. And the fears of Kabok had rest from troubling Kabok any more, for they and he were among accomplished things.YONATH THE PROPHET
YUG THE PROPHET
ALHIRETH-HOTEP THE PROPHET
KaBOK THE PROPHET
Actually, that's pretty fuckin' awesome.
Why? Fun fact, my dads cousin Andreas married Rob Halls widow. This happened after I had read the book and it made me irrationally dislike Andreas. Why? Cause the book was well written and I felt a deeper connection to Hall than I did him. -no joke, I was kinda pissed.
I feel we've talked about this, because somehow I knew that. My beef with Krakauer is that he glorifies stupid risk-taking, not adventure. Know how there's a certain love for Robert Scott and a certain loathing for Roald Amundsen, even though Amundsen beat him by more than a month and returned uneventfully without a body count? True - Scott suffered exquisitely and kept that stiff British upper lip the whole way, dying in a most gentlemanly and picturesque way while Amundsen just sorta checklisted his way through adventure? Krakauer plays right into that. He's a Scott man, a reviler of Amundsens. He writes to glorify foolhardy adventure and dismiss caution, expertise and preparation. Into Thin Air is a book about what a glorious and noble calling it is to be an overbred fuckup and as a consequence, everyone in that book is painted as an overbred fuckup. The fact that there were like three books in response to Into Thin Air calling every other word of it bullshit leads me to believe that Krakauer is far more into his tone than he is into his facts, and his tone drives me up the freaking wall. Two thirds of the way through that book I wanted those people to die. I wanted them to suffer for their sins. And when they ended up being saved by a fucking IMAX crew I was damn near laughing. Krakauer made a saint out of Chris McCandless, whose primary claim to fame is to walk unprepared into the Alaska wilderness and dying half a day's walk from civilization. That ain't noble, that's stupid. And when stupidity is presented as nobility, my hackles go up.
God, that's the perfect summation of why I dislike that story.Krakauer made a saint out of Chris McCandless, whose primary claim to fame is to walk unprepared into the Alaska wilderness and dying half a day's walk from civilization. That ain't noble, that's stupid. And when stupidity is presented as nobility, my hackles go up.
I'm really with you on hating his writing style. He's got a lot of climber's pretension he seems to buy into. Reading his description of each person on the mountain I felt vaguely guilty, like I was listening to a shameless gossip talk trash about everyone else. I understand each person processes trauma differently, I'm not passing judgement on him as a person. I just don't think I'll be reading any of his other books any time soon.
If you're looking for polar opposites, I recommend Mark Bowden or Sebastian Junger. Bowden's writing style is basically "these are people doing their job, which is dangerous and difficult." Sebastian Junger is more of a "at 8:30 am things weren't too terrible, but they were pretty terrible by 9, and by 9:30 people were dying despite their noble and valiant efforts, here's a 20-page writeup on meteorology."
Finished Feast for Crows, decided to take a break from GRRM for at least a book. Started NeuroTribes a book on the history of autism. There's a personal account in there of some CAM abuse local to where I grew up. The family interviewed in the chapter talks about seeing a provider who referred them to his (unbenownst to them) wife for behavioral therapy. After rounds upon rounds of diet changes, probiotics, and pills and injections of various supplements, the parents grew a bit suspicious. They finally quit just before starting another round of chelation therapy when they realized that their son was being recommended chelation when his mercury levels were high (indicating "heavy metal toxicity") as well as when they were low (indicating "poor clearance of heavy metals"). When they finally asked if any measurement wouldn't result in more chelation, the doctor told them flat out "no", so they left, leaving behind thousands of dollars of money wasted on therapies. And on top of that, they were accused of "giving up" on their son by fellow parents on communal forums. It made me sad to read all that, seeing a clear example of a provider taking advantage of parents in a shitty situation. But I never realized the pressure from parents of autistic children to "fix their kids" by any means necessary.
A lot of non-fiction recently (I find that being in college I often don't have much time to read anything else... - mostly historical works to do with Xinjiang and the CCP's attitudes towards the Uighurs during the 1950s and general ethnic minority policy. Also finished a fantastic little book called The Modern Spirit of Asia by the anthropologist Peter Van Der Veer. It compares spirituality/secularism in India and China and is just very well written.
I visited an ex-girlfriend in Portland and Powell's was one of the coolest bookstores I've ever been to. I ended up almost going over my 25kg checked baggage limit on the way home due to the twelve books I bought on my last day. I second the recommendation! I just started Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveller. The most enjoyable first paragraph I've read in a while.You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If On a Winter's Night a Traveller. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others right away, "No, I don't want to watch TV!" Raise your voice - they won't hear you otherwise - "I'm reading! I don't want to be disturbed!" Maybe they haven't heard you, with all that racket; speak louder, yell: "I'm beginning to read Italo Calvino's new novel!" Or if you prefer, don't say anything; just hope they'll leave you alone.
Reading "Earth Abides" this week. A plague wipes out mankind, and Ish is left to wander the unpopulated world. Written in 1949. I'm currently noodling the initial draft of a post-apocalyptic story I've written, and wondering what to do with it, and kleinbl00 suggested I read this to get a new (old) perspective on the topic. All I wanna do is curl up with it and read it, but this is a busy week. So I'm getting in a couple of pages here and there when I can. Great read so far!
Finished Spin (kleinbl00, it was okay. I found Blindsight more compelling, probably just a taste/setting thing) and my taste is starting to run back towards something with a bit more meat on its bones. I think I'll pull something from this list, see where it leads.
Do scientific publications also count? I will try Currently reading Psychedelics by David E. Nichols, a summary of everything we learned about psychedelic substances in the past century. For me, as entertaining and interesting as a fiction novel :) Two richard Feynman books are sitting on my cupboard, in addition of Kahnemann's Thinking Fast and Slow. I fear that I will never finish the Kahnemann book, I have to concentrate too hard on it >.<
Ariely. Tellin' ya. It's Kahnemann with jokes and charming personal anecdotes. He basically rolls right into Predictably Irrational with "is it better to rip off the bandage or pull it off slowly? I suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns over 80% of my body when a flare blew me up while training with the IDF, so bandages consumed a fair amount of my thinking. Then I tested on myself and rolled it into an undergrad thesis and now I study behavioral economics at MIT. By the way, I look just like a burn victim so personal attractiveness and other markers for relationships have also weighed heavily on my mind, so I spent several years studying relationships to figure out how I tricked my wife into falling in love with me."
Thanks for the review! I will check Ariely first and then give the book another try. I am surprised that this book was standing in the "general english reading" area of a german bookstore if it actually doesn't make sense without a background in behavioral economics.