What book are you reading?

I'm reading Metroland by Julian Barnes. It's the first fiction that I have read in a while. I love Julian Barnes.

Here are a few titles that I read recently:
-Niall Ferguson, Civilization: The West and the Rest
-Ken Carty, Big Tent Politics
-John English, Citizen of the World The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau Volume One 1919-1968
-Francis Fukuyama, The Origins of Political Order
-Justin Trudeau, Common Ground
-Joseph Boyden, The Orenda
-Ian Morris, Why the West Rules for Now
-Michael King, Penguin History of New Zealand (this book did NOT! discuss penguins)
-Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone
-Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
-Samuel Huntington, Clash of Civilizations
-Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal
-Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature
-Geoffrey Blainey, A Shorter History of Australia

 

I picked up Glenn Greenwald's Great American Hypocrites for free. I know that it's a bit dated, I thought that I would give it a read anyhow. I'm in chapter 2 and I can't say that I like it so far. While I am sympathetic to the message, the delivery seems over the top. The thesis is that the US right are a bunch of war mongers and family-values zealots who avoid military service and are serial cheaters who can't maintain stable relationships.

Yay, we already know that, but do you need to repeat it over and over again? Do you really need to preach to the choir?

 

The Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan. I am avoiding non fiction these days because I don't want to think too much.

Fantasy is the best escape!

 

And according to Tolkein that is its strength (or is it its virtue? I forget). How far in are you?

 

Well, I read up to book ten many years ago, back when that was current, but I've forgotten everything since then, so I decided to start over. I'm currently on book 5, and it's damn good. I'd forgotten how much I liked that series.

 

Just finished Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. It was the first book in a long time that I found genuinely enjoyable and thrilling.

Currently I'm reading A Brief History of Time, and also Kafka's The Trial.

 

I'm going to start read Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes. I avoided it because CBC did a miniseries on it recently and it didn't strike me as fun summer reading.

 

Slowly working my way through this one now.



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You certainly do a good amount of reading, Cheburashka

What did you think of Trump's book? I haven't read it. Is it interesting?

 

I've enjoyed quite a bit of fantasy, mostly from Tolkien and Salvatore.

 

I have a Classics Club edition entitled: Plutarch: Selected Lives and Essays. I read it a couple of years ago and loved it. It immediately became one of my favorite books. It's well worth a read, and probably available through your local library.

 

Interesting you would knock Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. I couldn't disagree more, it's one of my favorite books. I also enjoyed his Cannery Row.

Here's the review from rottontomatoes.com:

100%
Average Rating: 9/10
Reviews Counted: 43
Fresh: 43
Rotten: 0
Critics Consensus: A potent drama that is as socially important today as when it was made, The Grapes of Wrath is affecting, moving, and deservedly considered an American classic.

 

Didn't the Republicans get all of their crummy and basic economic theories from this fiction writer? That's what I read, somewhere.

 

I'm two thirds through Walter Issacson's Steve Jobs biography. It's long, but it covers the history of Apple computers from the very beginning.

 

I read a lot this year because I was taking care of a sick dad and spent a lot of time in hospital, doctor's offices etc. Anyhow, before my dad died he watched CNN a lot. I mean a lot. He just loved watching when Trump troll whoever the hell annoyed him. It's one of the Donald's more endearing qualities. My dad decided that he wanted a Trump hat and T shirt. I ordered them, and went down to the US to pick them up. I also ordered Art of the Deal from Amazon to give him something to read and gave the three items to him for his birthday. He loved the hat and shirt, but wasn't healthy enough to read. So, I read it. It's neither a long nor difficult read.

The book is what you would expect from Trump. Even though the book was written and published nearly 30 years ago, you can see the Trump then that we see today. He's great. Others that he doesn't like are not. It starts out with his early life and the influence of his father and brother, heartbreak over his brother's death. It goes on to stories including those about his frustration with Ed Koch and building a skating rink where there the city failed, frustration at small thinkers in the USFL and his success building the Trump Taj Mahal.

If there is a lesson that he offered is that you surround yourself with smart people that you trust, and you don't invest your own money in your projects.

Cheburashka might be retired soon. Our Russian trolls seem to be quieting down.

 

You really ought to try out WOT, if you like Tolkien. He does a really good job developing a complex world, much like Tolkien did. Honestly, I enjoy a lot of fantasy written since the early 90's more than I did Tolkien. Obviously, a great debt is owed to Tolkien, but I believe others have done a remarkable job expanding upon the genre he created.

I also like Salvatore. I love the Drizzt books, and I also really liked the Cleric Quintet. It's young adult, but I still love it. Hey, if adults can read Harry Potter, I can read Drizzt novels, which are certainly more mature than a (*)(*)(*)(*)ing Potter novel lol.

 

I'd say Harry Potter is quite mature (haven't read them in a while though); the themes hidden beneath the childish prose and deceptively typical plot are much more profound and developed than those of your average children's series.

I finished Against Method, which was one of the most muddled-up books I've read in a while, and am not sure what to read next. I want to reread What Is To Be Done? (Chernyevsky) because that's what socialists do when they're a bit disillusioned and in need of some hope and inspiration, but I don't know if it'll just make me sadder.

 

That's true of many young adult books. I don't really have a problem with Potter, but it seems that Potter gets a pass while other equally good books get ridiculed. It's essentially a function of popularity, unfortunately.

My advice is to avoid any non-fiction if you want to cheer up. When I'm depressed or need to feel better, I've found that reading things very different from reality, in fact the opposite, is better. Here are some things I look for when I need an escape:

1. Good and evil (no relativism)
2. Higher purpose
3. Afterlife
4. Magic
5. Non-determinism
6. Badass Hero

I don't even read fiction without those elements anymore. I've had enough reality and "enlightenment" to last many lifetimes.

 

True, although when it comes to YA, I think since the recent dystopia trend (which mostly makes me want to cry because I love dystopian fiction and some YA dystopias make a mockery of the genre), a lot of books try to hide how threadbare and plain cringey they are with pseudo-philosophy. Divergent was like that: poorly written, but full of weird Platonic (*)(*)(*)(*), probably to make it sound "deep." Same with the Matched trilogy, which I read forever ago but remember being awful.

Good idea; What Is To Be Done? is fiction (Lenin's non-fiction pamphlet was named after the novel) but it's also sort of realistic and gets you pretty pumped up if you're a socialist. An escape from reality is probably what I need though. Honestly, given my relationship with Marxism these days I sometimes feel like a lapsed theist trying desperately to regain faith.

 

Try to avoid deep. Deep is the wrong the direction, with either fiction or nonfiction. These days, if I watch TV, I watch really cheesy stuff like Supernatural and Once Upon a Time. Avoid reality at all costs if you are trying to feel good. It's okay for bad things to happen, but avoid things that trigger feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, which is all that "realism" will get you.

I've come to believe that truth is not neutral and is, in fact, negative (to the psyche at least).

 

Yeah, I watch really trashy anime and romcoms which are about as deep as Barbie...the books I read are slightly different though, because I do want to learn from them, and sometimes I do enjoy "deep" messages when they actually offer some insight and are not just pseudophilosophy. It's about a balance (like most things), I think. Feeling good sometimes isn't as exciting or conducive to personal development as feeling like a helpless blob of slime mould, but the latter sensation should not occur too often either.

 

I hear you, but I'm done with it. I spent too much time focused purely on what was true, and I've had enough.

 

Yeah, I feel your pain. I often feel like that about Marxism more specifically; I've invested so much effort, time, energy and hope into it, and these days I'm often left feeling a bit bored and fed up with the whole thing and not enthused like I used to be, and I wonder if it's worth it.

 

Just started Caleb Carr's new book, "Surrender, New York."

Running a bit slower than his other books (which I loved)...and seems to have some very odd aspects, but we'll see as I get further into it.

 

I don't blame you. It will never happen, and that is really depressing. My favored political ideology will also never happen, and it is a pretty depressing realization to come to. Liberals and conservatives, especially liberals, have a real shot at getting the world they want--we are totally (*)(*)(*)(*)ed.

 

Just read Haldoor Laxness's Nobel Prize winning epic, Independent People. It is astounding.