OT: The Good Book: What are you reading right now?

[Chili]

Lemmon is one of my all time favorite actors, everybody knows he was a great comic actor but I prefer his more somber acting like in Glengarry Glen Ross (tragic) or Macaroni (tragicomic). I might pick up that book.

The book is a nice, light read with alot of father/son expériences, stories and a bunch of tributes from others he worked with.

I've seen several of his movies now, he had great chemistry with Walter Matthau and they were close friends. Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, The Odd Couple, are some of my favorites.

 

[Astormynight]

I read "On the genealogy of morality" for a philosophy course.

Having spent a lot of time reading on developmental/behavioral biology in the last decade, I now think it's a waste of time to read Nietzsche if what interests you is understanding human nature.

All these old philosophers who concerned themselves with human nature were geniuses for their time, but because of personal bias and a more limited wealth of knowledge, they were mostly all off the mark.

Your time would be better spent reading Sapolsky's Behave or De Waal's Age of Empathy.

you can also read Lipovetsky's l'ère du vide.. if you read french.... it is... for me.. aquite an enlightening book... it was written in the early 80's... but today, it is more truthful than it was back there... it's about how every ideas are "equals" since the end of the great "moral" compass...

Also in French, Hervé Fisher wrote alot about Philosophy and the new medias... one of his favorite subject is how the multiplicity of opinions does not mean that we found the truth...

 

[groovejuice]

Lemmon is one of my all time favorite actors, everybody knows he was a great comic actor but I prefer his more somber acting like in Glengarry Glen Ross (tragic) or Macaroni (tragicomic). I might pick up that book.

Lemmon and Matthau are among the top, if not the outright best comedy team ever in films.

 

[atrud66]

The Harm in Hate Speech by Jeremy Waldron if you enjoy philosophy and are interested in freedom of expression

 

[Per Sjoblom]

The book is a nice, light read with alot of father/son expériences, stories and a bunch of tributes from others he worked with.

I've seen several of his movies now, he had great chemistry with Walter Matthau and they were close friends. Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, The Odd Couple, are some of my favorites.

Some Like it Hot was with Tony Curtis. Otherwise I agree, the Odd Couple and the Apartment are hilarious, I even like the first Grumpy Old Men.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

Lemmon and Matthau are among the top, if not the outright best comedy team ever in films.

Laurel and Hardy as well. I have 2 favorites, Flying Deuces (they end up in the French Foreign Legion) and Help Mates.

 

[Chili]

Laurel and Hardy as well. I have 2 favorites, Flying Deuces (they end up in the French Foreign Legion) and Help Mates.

I watched a John Wayne western this week (the Fighting Kentuckian) and was surprised to see the familiar face of Oliver Hardy. Apparently he had turned down Wayne a few times to do the movie, he didn`t want to do it without his partner (Stan Laurel was sick with diabètes). Finally it was Laurel who convinced him to do the movie and he`s his usually funny self. Gotta check out the Flying Deuces, probably saw it many years ago. My favorite Laurel & Hardy is the March of the Wooden Soldiers.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

I watched a John Wayne western this week (the Fighting Kentuckian) and was surprised to see the familiar face of Oliver Hardy. Apparently he had turned down Wayne a few times to do the movie, he didn`t want to do it without his partner (Stan Laurel was sick with diabètes). Finally it was Laurel who convinced him to do the movie and he`s his usually funny self. Gotta check out the Flying Deuces, probably saw it many years ago. My favorite Laurel & Hardy is the March of the Wooden Soldiers.

The other day I saw the last clip of them together in 1956 and Hardy had lost a lot of weight, he was probably less than half if his earlier size. Laurel had had a stroke. They were both dead fairly soon after that. Look for last clip of Laurel and Hardy on YouTube.

 

[Gravity]

Meditations Marcus Aurelius

Discourse on the Method Rene Descartes,

I absolutely love Descartes.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

Meditations Marcus Aurelius

Discourse on the Method Rene Descartes,

I absolutely love Descartes.

Descartes has a Swedish connection as well, he died there.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

He sure was WAY ahead of his times, perhaps more so than almost any other philosopher in history. That's not even taking into account his works in science and mathematics which would have been enough to leave a huge mark in themselves.

Descartes has a Swedish connection as well, he died there.

I don't know if you should be proud of that, the Swedish weather is what ended up killing the man

 

[Gravity]

Descartes has a Swedish connection as well, he died there.

yup he froze his butt off in the Swedish winter haha

 

[Gravity]

He sure was WAY ahead of his times, perhaps more so than almost any other philosopher in history. That's not even taking into account his works in science and mathematics which would have been enough to leave a huge mark in themselves.

I don't know if you should be proud of that, the Swedish weather is what ended up killing the man

what I deeply like and share with him is the skepticism of common ingrained belief as well as a deep root of rationalization that lacked presence then and now.

 

[Gravity]

He sure was WAY ahead of his times, perhaps more so than almost any other philosopher in history. That's not even taking into account his works in science and mathematics which would have been enough to leave a huge mark in themselves.

I don't know if you should be proud of that, the Swedish weather is what ended up killing the man

you could also argue the Cartesian plane is the backbone of all modern physics and mathematics like GR

 

[dackelljuneaubulis02]

Jonathan Haidt's 'The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion'.

Haidt's amazing. The good cop to Peterson's bad cop I suppose.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

He sure was WAY ahead of his times, perhaps more so than almost any other philosopher in history. That's not even taking into account his works in science and mathematics which would have been enough to leave a huge mark in themselves.

I don't know if you should be proud of that, the Swedish weather is what ended up killing the man

I like Diderot as well. Don't know if he actually said this but it has been attributed to him and I certainly agrees with it: "Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."

 

[Bouboumaster]

I've read Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune and now I'm halfway in God Emperor of Dune.

 

[viceroy]

Sweet. My kind of thread, I was an English Lit major so I've read a lot of the big books. I'm also a big fan of classical stuff so I've read lots of the major Greek/Roman works. And also an old school Fantasy fan so I've read tons of that too.

For Sci-fi I've tasted most of the important stuff, Asimov's first Foundation novel(too dry for my tastes), Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse V(not blown away), Dick is trippy fun(especially knowing he was basically looney tunes himself) and Heinlein's Starship Troupers(the movie is a classic to me) but my fave by far is Stanislaw Lem. I've read his entire oeuvre and I really feel he doesn't get enough respect. A true master and according to me the greatest. Also honorable mention to Zelazny, his 9 Princes in Amber series is more Fantasy but was maybe the most enjoyable book series I've ever read.

 

[viceroy]

For Fantasy I've read tons. I recommend REH's books, any of them, all of them. Robert Earvin Howard isn't just Conan, he wrote hundreds of short stories in his short life. Fritz Lieber is also often an ignored master, his Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser book serie was delightful. HP Lovecraft really deserves to be read as well, a wonderfully dark and depressing universe he created.

If you're looking for new-ish fantasy check out the Brits. Not just Neil Gaiman and Kim Newman but try out the best of their generation, China Mieville. His Perdido Street Station novel deserves all the praise it gets.

And finally for the best Fantasy writer today, Gene Wolfe. He may not just be the best Fantasy writer but I believe may be the best writer alive. Try his stuff, his prose is breathtaking.

 

[viceroy]

Other writers I love are James Ellroy, a Crime writer who writes like a triphammer and whose 50's-60's LA he loves writing about is a world in all by itself; and Larry McMurtry, his Cowboy books are terrific and Lonesome Dove is probably the best Cowboy novel ever and also won the Pulitzer.

I have over a hundred unread novels at home and can never seem to find the time to read any nowadays so I've taken to listening to audio books going and coming home from work. Right now I'm trying to complete all the Warhammer 40k Horus Heresy novels.

 

[groovejuice]

Sweet. My kind of thread, I was an English Lit major so I've read a lot of the big books. I'm also a big fan of classical stuff so I've read lots of the major Greek/Roman works. And also an old school Fantasy fan so I've read tons of that too.

For Sci-fi I've tasted most of the important stuff, Asimov's first Foundation novel(too dry for my tastes), Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse V(not blown away), Dick is trippy fun(especially knowing he was basically looney tunes himself) and Heinlein's Starship Troupers(the movie is a classic to me) but my fave by far is Stanislaw Lem. I've read his entire oeuvre and I really feel he doesn't get enough respect. A true master and according to me the greatest. Also honorable mention to Zelazny, his 9 Princes in Amber series is more Fantasy but was maybe the most enjoyable book series I've ever read.

Nice post. Asimov was never the best writer in Sci-Fi, but I regard him as the best story teller; Larry Niven is close behind with his marvelous "Known Space" universe. By far my favourite author in the genre though is John Brunner.

I loved Zelazny's Amber
series also and would highly recommend Michael Moorcock's vast contributions in Fantasy, notably the Elric of Melnibone series.

 

[groovejuice]

Double post

 

[viceroy]

...highly recommend Michael Moorcock's vast contributions in Fantasy, notably the Elric of Melnibone series.

Yeah loved Moorcock too back in the day. My favourite Moorcock's book series is the Hawkmoon/Count Brass one. I loved the first couple of Elric novels but the stuff got kind of muddled later.

If you want to try his Sci-fi stuff read his Dancers at the End of Time series and of course his classic Behold the Man.

 

[Astormynight]

Read a lot of Fantasy when I was younger, still do, but nothing major. My most important discovery in Sci-Fi litterature in that last few years is Peter Hamilton. Most notably the Commonwealth series and Nightdawn. It's well written, it's intelligent, it's thrilling and he goes for the fun side of science-fiction. He cares more about world building, characters and storytelling than to look like a pseudo scientist.

I also like Lem and Asimov

Right now i'm reading Alex Scarrow's Time Riders, a serie of easy young adult books about time travellers and Sebastian Fitzek's Noah, a spy/ conspiracy/ crime novel.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

Sweet. My kind of thread, I was an English Lit major so I've read a lot of the big books. I'm also a big fan of classical stuff so I've read lots of the major Greek/Roman works. And also an old school Fantasy fan so I've read tons of that too.

For Sci-fi I've tasted most of the important stuff, Asimov's first Foundation novel(too dry for my tastes), Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse V(not blown away), Dick is trippy fun(especially knowing he was basically looney tunes himself) and Heinlein's Starship Troupers(the movie is a classic to me) but my fave by far is Stanislaw Lem. I've read his entire oeuvre and I really feel he doesn't get enough respect. A true master and according to me the greatest. Also honorable mention to Zelazny, his 9 Princes in Amber series is more Fantasy but was maybe the most enjoyable book series I've ever read.

Thanks for that. I have never read Lem although I have seen 2 films based on Solaris. This makes me want to read some of Lem's work.