Books: Book(s) you are Currently Reading | Part II

[heatnikki]

Blood Meridian. I think Judge Holden is one of the best written "villains" in literature and I personally love McCarthy's bleak writing style. I'm writing an essay about my favorite book and I think it's the one. Hope with a little help of writing service here I'll finish my essay in the near future.

 

[Babe Ruth]

I recently finished Vansant's graphic novel on the Red Baron, now I'm reading his one on Gettysburg (The Graphic History of Gettysburg). Quick, good looking read..

 

[MadDevil]

 

[Babe Ruth]

I like it. I still have love for the old 80s interview series with Campbell (Power of Myth). Another insightful guy who had a strong influence on my tastes & world view is Rod Serling. I'm currently reading a nice, personal bio written by his daughter..

 

[Thucydides]

Have had a interest in this. Lmk how it is.

I finally finished this am. It was great . Ghost wars and the Lawrence Wright book - The Looming Tower are the ones to read on the lead up to 9/11. Wrights might be the more accessible of the two, but both are 5 star books, imo.

 

[Thucydides]

 

[Thucydides]

Very engaging so far.

still enjoying it ? Recommend ?

 

[Spring in Fialta]

still enjoying it ? Recommend ?

Absolutely zero commercial/mainstream potential but I think a good reader like you may enjoy it/get something out of it. I've been enjoying it but some of it goes over my head in terms of intention/purpose/attempt, especially regarding the litany of references. Cool format though and despite its reputation as an experimental/challenging powerhouse, so long as you're willing to put up with its cadence and structure, it's not a difficult read on a surface level. It won't send you to the dictionary for example. But I do find myself going back to reference similar declarations to try and see if there's something to figure out or not to miss. Tonight's reading is the Leafs board though.

 

[Thucydides]

Absolutely zero commercial/mainstream potential but I think a good reader like you may enjoy it/get something out of it. I've been enjoying it but some of it goes over my head in terms of intention/purpose/attempt, especially regarding the litany of references. Cool format though and despite its reputation as an experimental/challenging powerhouse, so long as you're willing to put up with its cadence and structure, it's not a difficult read on a surface level. It won't send you to the dictionary for example. But I do find myself going back to reference similar declarations to try and see if there's something to figure out or not to miss. Tonight's reading is the Leafs board though.

thanks. Let me know when you finish. I’ve always heard the ending was good.

leafs board would be a fun read after last night lol

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Read TC Boyle: Stories and The Complete Stories of JG Ballard. Just started Collected Stories of Paul Bowles.

Have had them on the shelf for ages, but have always been reading other things. finally powering through them. Expect the collected stories of Nabokov to be next.

Strolling with my wife this morning, I found a copy of Nabokov's Speak, Memory. Re-read the short story Colette (sometimes titled First Love). It's the book's 7th chapter. Christ, what a piece. The theme always makes me think of Daft Punk and Julian Casablancas' masterful song Instant Crush. An utterly gorgeous recollection of a 10 year-old Nabokov's childhood friendship/romance with a french girl his age during a summer vacation in Biarritz. Describing the atmosphere of a train ride, the words 'somebody's comfortable cough' will remain etched in my mind forever. How did you like the Paul Bowles short stories? He's got some great ones.

A passage from Colette:

One day, as we were bending together over a starfish, and Colette's ringlets were tickling my ear, she suddently turned towards me and kissed me on the cheek. So great was my emotion that all I could think of saying was, 'You little monkey.'

I had a gold coin that I assumed would pay for our elopment.

Beautiful and the source of a phenomenal belly laugh.



Great candy.

 

[Ouroboros]

Picked these up recently...

Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky - Memories of the Future

"Written in Soviet Moscow in the 1920s—but considered too subversive even to show to a publisher—the seven tales included here attest to Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s boundless imagination, black humor, and breathtaking irony: a man loses his way in the vast black waste of his own small room; the Eiffel Tower runs amok; a kind soul dreams of selling “everything you need for suicide”; an absentminded passenger boards the wrong train, winding up in a place where night is day, nightmares are the reality, and the backs of all facts have been broken; a man out looking for work comes across a line for logic but doesn’t join it as there’s no guarantee the logic will last; a sociable corpse misses his own funeral; an inventor gets a glimpse of the far-from-radiant communist future."

I'm enjoying this one a lot. I think if you like Gogol, Borges and Schulz you'd probably find something to appreciate here. Surreal and dark as you'd expect from the description, but funny as well and that's a difficult balance to achieve.


Natasha Dow Schüll - Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas

Drawing on fifteen years of field research in Las Vegas, anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll shows how the mechanical rhythm of electronic gambling pulls players into a trancelike state they call the “machine zone,” in which daily worries, social demands, and even bodily awareness fade away. Once in the zone, gambling addicts play not to win but simply to keep playing, for as long as possible — even at the cost of physical and economic exhaustion. In continuous machine play, gamblers seek to lose themselves while the gambling industry seeks profit. Schüll describes the strategic calculations behind game algorithms and machine ergonomics, casino architecture and “ambience management,” player tracking and cash access systems — all designed to meet the market’s desire for maximum “time on device.” Her account moves from casino floors into gamblers’ everyday lives, from gambling industry conventions and Gamblers Anonymous meetings to regulatory debates over whether addiction to gambling machines stems from the consumer, the product, or the interplay between the two.

Haven't even been able to get my head in the right space to start this yet, but soon maybe.

 

[End of Line]

I finally finished this am. It was great . Ghost wars and the Lawrence Wright book - The Looming Tower are the ones to read on the lead up to 9/11. Wrights might be the more accessible of the two, but both are 5 star books, imo.

Appreciate the feedback. An issue regarding how Intelligence was collected in the 90's was the switch from analog to digital. That f***ed us more in the end than people tend to realize when it comes to the failure. Along with casting a small net in collection. Now the net collection is f***ing humongous.

 

[Thucydides]

I’m about 60% into this book now and it’s one of the more thought provoking and terrifying books I’ve read on current world affairs . 240 pages - not a huge commitment .

The argument of the book is that when a new power (China )overtakes an aging power (USA ) 12 out of 16 times the nations or groups have gone to war - is the USA and China destined for it ?

Look at current news about China and USA relations and this book becomes even more real, and that much more terrifying.

The book is filled with a lot of history , and shines a lot of light of the accomplishments the Chinese have made in terms of human progress . Some great stories about Theodore Roosevelt thrown in there, too. Fascinating stuff. Highly recommend if you’re into this sort of thing .

 

[Thucydides]

 

[Thucydides]

 

[Thucydides]

 

[Thucydides]

@kihei - I put your question from our discussion about the "why is there something rather than nothing..." out to an "eccentric" acquaintance and was recommended this. I've never heard of this, but I guess it's starting to gain mainstream traction. So I'm told. I'll let you know. Thought you might be interested.

 

[Habsfan18]

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Been on a Western kick of late. Read Elmore Leonard's highly entertaining Forty Lashes Less One (Tarantino had the rights to this years ago and you see why it would appeal to him ...), then Larry McMurtry' mammoth Lonesome Dove (which managed to live up to its reputation), then a nice, breezy collection of Leonard short stories headlined by 3:10 to Yuma and now am back to McMurtry's Dove sequel, Streets of Laredo, which I like so far. Fairly amazed at how much of the prior book he manages to dispose of in the opening 50 pages or so of the sequel. It's so aggressive it almost comes across as angry ...

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Re-read

 

[Thucydides]

 

[Spring in Fialta]

 

[ItsFineImFine]

I love mysteries so I'm reading the 2nd Nero Wolfe novel by Rex Tout (The League of Frightened Men) and the noir dialogue is driving me insane. The wisecracking writing style is super annoying to decipher and follow. It might work in films I guess but in this novel, it's an absolute gongshow. I've read English mysteries from the 19th century which were easier to follow along.

 

[Thucydides]

 

[End of Line]

I’m about 60% into this book now and it’s one of the more thought provoking and terrifying books I’ve read on current world affairs . 240 pages - not a huge commitment .

The argument of the book is that when a new power (China )overtakes an aging power (USA ) 12 out of 16 times the nations or groups have gone to war - is the USA and China destined for it ?

Look at current news about China and USA relations and this book becomes even more real, and that much more terrifying.

The book is filled with a lot of history , and shines a lot of light of the accomplishments the Chinese have made in terms of human progress . Some great stories about Theodore Roosevelt thrown in there, too. Fascinating stuff. Highly recommend if you’re into this sort of thing .

I think the Westphalian line of thinking would stop China ever overtaking the United States imo.