What book are you reading?

Over the course of the past year I've been reading history books on some of the larger countries in the world whose pasts I'm not terribly familiar with - India, Russia and now China - and I just finished reading Paul Bushkovitch's A Concise History of Russia:



https://www.amazon.com/Concise-Hist...concise+history&qid=1561056094&s=books&sr=1-2

While one must always temper their expectations with single-volume histories covering an enormous amount of time and events, I found this book a little disappointing. While it's understandable that the book would begin with the formation of Kiev-Rus in the late 9th Century AD, I was hoping it would cover some of the history that preceded it. My biggest disappointment, however, was that it was too fair towards the USSR, from the suppression of its own people to the oppression of the people of Eastern and Central Europe following WWII, and there's mention of the Holodomor in Ukraine at all, which is unforgivable IMO. Even though Bushkovitch is a decent historian and writer I don't know that I can recommend this book despite the efficient job he does covering the expanse of history leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution.

Having finished that, I'm now reading John Keay's China: A History:



https://www.amazon.com/China-History-John-Keay/dp/0465025188

and I'm reminded what a fine historian and even better writer he is. I've read his India: A History, which is a marvelous (and massive) single-volume history of India that I highly recommend (see Post #410), and it looks like this equally lengthy single-volume history China should be just as good. Hopefully, I'll be finished with it by the end of summer.

 

If you see this I'd like to know what you think of that book, Todd.

I've read Dostoevsky's Demons and it's both a fine and disturbing work. The parallels to our own time are striking.

 

Dittos on the "parallels of our life times" but then the main subject is human nature. A lot of very well fleshed out characters, and interesting comparisons of it in the main comparing the main characters.. the brother's, their father and the household.. Truth is .. it was good for putting me to sleep and dragged on .. especial during the murder trial, forever.
But then I usually read books like "the Brother Karamov" for the intellectual reason; such as the bio on Obama I'm on now. It's over a 1000 pages..but does move along fairly quick.. even tho' I'm anticipating the action further along.

I' read a little action fiction, but binge consume it like candy

One more note.. I chose the "Brothers Karamov because of the "reading list " of Dr. Davis Patterson.. he has a series of lecture on .. uh.. psychology.. but mostly I'd call those lecture on human nature too.

 

Dittos on the "The parallels to our own time are striking." He fleshes out a lot of characters.. very well.. the Brothers Karamov is a study of human nature, specific examples compared and contrasted with the households and their relationships of the the Brothers Karamov themselves. I read this because it was on the reading list of Dr. Jordan Peterson, the psychologist.. he as a lot of lectures on youtube with seem to study "human nature", and as an intellectual exercise.. I do that, but I did find it tedioius and slow leading up to, and during the trial.. plus I just wanted to slap the stupidity out of some of the characters. ..
I consume action fiction like candy,(latest sub genre I call, "Swords and Sandals" based on Biblical characters)….. and at least this, the Brothers Karamov, and the 1000 page Obama bio I working on now, take a little time.

 

Who the writes them!? the ones featuring the son and his sister just have some stupid plots lines.. they do stupid things (and miraculously !! survive being stupid .. over and over.. I guess the villains are even more stupid.)

 

Thanks, Todd.

You might like Demons - it's a semi-fictional story about the rise of Nihilism in pre-revolutionary Russia and you can see how similar destructive movements operated in the same way in revolutionary France, civil war era Spain and now here in America:

It's not a 1000 page elephant, either.

While I'm on the subject of Russian novels, you also might want to give reading Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak some consideration. It's nothing like David Lean's film (and it's MUCH better) and you can see why Pasternak's criticism of the Bolshevik revolution and the communists in Zhivago got him in so much trouble with the Soviet authorities who banned his book. If he hadn't managed to smuggle the manuscript out of the USSR there's no telling if it would have ever seen the light of day. A fair warning though, it's a very long and dense book that took me months to read, but it was well worth the effort. Make sure you get the original Hayward/Harari/Bayley translation, too:

https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Zhivago-Everymans-Library-Pasternak/dp/0679407596

Pasternak's niece said the new translation is awful and I agree with her.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Right-Broadcast-Internet-News/dp/0205343511

and once I finish this 12 rules by Jordan Peterson which I bought only because NZ book store pulled it from their shelves.

 

this is another reason to hate nepotism.

 

Just about finished the Garrow book "Rising Star" a well annotated bio on Obama. Quickly, two things that stand out... He promised to "work across the aisle", to "bring the country together" and utterly failed, Remember, "we won?" and some of the other things he said that definitely weren't "reaching across the aisle? The other thing was his criticism of the Patriot Act and it's possible misuse, and then his Administration abused that in the coup d'tat continuing attempt on Trump (and spying on other campaigns in the last election cycle)

 

The Family by Jeff Sharlet. an eye opening expose of how Christian evangelism is no longer anything but a Christian version of ISIS

 

I think the books are being computer generated by now. They are possibly the most abysmally BAD books I have ever seen, yet he has made millions of dollars off of them.

I think the secret is the scenery. He tends to set them in exotic places and appears to know these places well. He also has an iconic car in each and it is often one he actually owns ( and often puts a picture of on the back cover)

 

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, by Jordan B. Peterson.

 

I read that! Watched many of his lectures on YouTube.. especially relevant in re; the number of mass murders in the USA; are his lectures on what makes a sociopath.

 

That no kidding.. most of them are based around some object being way out of place (Aztec in the middle of the Az desert, Civil War Iron clad in the middle of the Sahara, sailing ship being miles and miles inland,... etc.. throw in the iconic cars and a few others eccentricities; and an algorhythim (sp) to write the books writes ITSELF.

 

Rereading parts of the "Camalud Chronicles", an historical fiction based on the Roman evacuation of Britain and the rise of the Arthurian Myths.
I've long wanted to flesh out an historical fiction on the place I live.. I wonder how these people survived with all the hostile tribes (including the Spanish and the Americans) that moved in and around the area. Hint.. I know the Americans were absorbed into th e local populace.

 

Right now that would be the latest of Webber's Safehold novels

 

Oh you like fantasy to do you?

 

Beautifully illustrated book with lots of great photos. The history itself is a broad overview, not an in-depth account of Ancient Greece, but that's not why I purchased this book.

I wish I could find a similar book on the Minoans and their architecture and artwork but I have been unable to do so. The loss of their civilization is one of the greatest tragedies in human history...

 

I've only read the Prologue and into the 2nd chapter, and this is going to be fascinating.

 

This is a truly remarkable and groundbreaking piece of scholarship, first published in 1864, and it is by far the best book I've ever read on the origins of Western Civilization. It is also one of the most penetrating glimpses into the lives of the Archaic and Ancient Greeks.

Larry Siedentrop opens his own magnificent book, Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism - a book every libertarian and conservative should read - with Fustel de Coulanges' findings in The Ancient City.

 

Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer

 

The Borgias



and The Song of Simon de Montfort: England's First Revolutionary

 

Just this morning finished The Catcher In The Rye.
I then finally allowed myself to watch videos on this as I was afraid of spoilers so refrained from playing any that I couldn't help myself from searching while I was reading this.
I also promised myself I wouldn't rewatch that The Catcher In The Rye South Park episode.
Today I stumbled across this video and was the first video I played when I completed reading The Catcher In The Rye this morning...
Spoilers in this so IDK if you should play this if you want to but haven't read The Catcher In The Rye, enjoy!


I found some interesting book, some old book.
Some old spooky and autographed book.

It's a Thirty-First edition from 1896, and it's in good shape for it's age, a little dusty, pages yellow with patina, but the spine cover and pages are all in one piece... and it's called
'The Sorrows of Satan'
and on the cover it's gotten
'O Lucifer Son of the Morning how fallen art thou!'
and I found it yesterday in my Grandmother's old house with a crazy letter I want to read of hers and.... some witches sorcerers book too, but this old book interested me.

It looks like this

(not my photo or my copy but this is the same cover and edition I have, I just found this on Google)...
Did I say mine's autographed? lol.

It caught my interest, I found it at a perfect time and now I've finsihed The Catcher In The Rye, I'll start on this.


IDK if it's fiction or not, this book, but... I'll read it and find out what it is; looks interesting as **** though when I glance, hence it being my current read I'm going to read next.

 

I'm planning on starting Judas Goat soon, it's the story of Wynand de Toit, the ex South African Recce (special forces) who, along with his men were set up to be killed or captured 2000km's behind enemy lines by South African politicians, so they can
1. damage relations with the US (they were to target US oil interest in the Congo)
2. start negotiating the Brazzaville protocol that involved the exchange of prisoners & release of Nelson Mandela.

Of course they also had to build Mandela into a godlike creature which was done by the press who ignored the sabotage and terrorist activities and sang his non existent praises. Then they released him... and put him on the throne. Tada... betrayal complete..welcome to the slaughterhouse.

Of course the poor guy walked around thinking he failed his mission only to find out years later he was set up.... politicians simply didn't care to ruin his life... I wonder how many special forces soldiers have been sacrificed in this treasonous manner around the world?

 

Reading two books right now.

Started with this one which contains a series of short vignettes of some of the people who advanced the cause of Liberty from Marcus Tullius Cicero to the present:



And I'm just starting this book: