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

[Scriptor]

Steven Wright recently ate at a restaurant called 'Bulimia'. The food was great, but the line-up for the John was unbearable.

 

[holy]

Iceberg Slim: Pimp.

Apparently a jailhouse classic. Audiobook showed up on my YouTube page for some reason and man am I glad it did. Guy reading it sounds like Samuel L Jackson and the story is very well written.

 

[Asamu]

I'm currently reading Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe, by Stuart McLean. I love his short stories. A really great writer taken from us way too soon.

Damn I didn't know he was dead ! I had a book from him and it his stories were so well delivered on the radio. Thanks to Stuart I discovered Hey Rosetta!, The New Pornographers and Kate Rodgers. I'm still a big fan of CBC Radio One: it's always 1 step above what's is happening on Radio-Canada. Quirk and Qwarks > Les Années Lumières for instance.

I'm currently reading: L’Univers expliqué à mes petits-enfants, 2011 by Hubert Reeves, an astrophysicist from Montreal. The first time I saw him was on Canal Savoir in the early 2000 and he was giving astronomy classes and I fell in love with this scientist.

 

[Runner77]

Damn I didn't know he was dead ! I had a book from him and it his stories were so well delivered on the radio. Thanks to Stuart I discovered Hey Rosetta!, The New Pornographers and Kate Rodgers. I'm still a big fan of CBC Radio One: it's always 1 step above what's is happening on Radio-Canada. Quirk and Qwarks > Les Années Lumières for instance.

I'm currently reading: L’Univers expliqué à mes petits-enfants, 2011 by Hubert Reeves, an astrophysicist from Montreal. The first time I saw him was on Canal Savoir in the early 2000 and he was giving astronomy classes and I fell in love with this scientist.

You're reminding me how I don't spend enough time listening to CBC Radio One. A great place for books, especially those that are not as mainstream but are worth pursuing.

I'll never forget this one show, The Next Chapter with Sheilagh Rogers about audiobooks. I was going to dismiss it after the first few seconds but then the show made me realize the value of it. I'm not sure if this was the episode but it provides the flavor of it: The Next Chapter | Columnist Susan Juby on audio books

The guest on this segment mentions how there is a performance element to it and how you can get invested according to who the reader might be.

 

[VirginiaMtlExpat]

Before i answer poster below i suggest reading Happy ****ing Birthday, a graphic novel, not for children, looks are misleading 'cause it's sorta disturbing in a funny way.


He's too laidback to properly integrate. To understand him we probably have to integrate Bill Murray but then we risk getting lost in him. j/k

I liked LIT, different role for him although Sophia Coppola wrote it for him. Razor's Edge is a lesser known film with BM that you might like.

Seems tough to integrate Japan's culture without complying to what seems overzealously conservative.

I hear the young generations are trying to come out of the mold though?

BTW i used to live in MTL.

Did you go to Japan to work/study?

It was my first postdoctoral fellowship, which led to a longer-term job there at AIST Tsukuba. Decidedly contrarian choice of a post-doc, but totally worthwhile to me, especially since I met my wife there (at a salsa party, no less). We got married in Tokyo in November 2004. I try to visit my in-laws near Fukuoka every 2-3 years; my wife goes just about every year, usually with our son who also speaks Japanese (and understands French but answers in English).

My second post-doc was in Leipzig, Germany, which was promised as a faculty position, which failed to materialize as described, so I ended up in North Carolina, and then in Virginia.

 

[BladeRunner66]

It was my first postdoctoral fellowship, which led to a longer-term job there at AIST Tsukuba. Decidedly contrarian choice of a post-doc, but totally worthwhile to me, especially since I met my wife there (at a salsa party, no less). We got married in Tokyo in November 2004. I try to visit my in-laws near Fukuoka every 2-3 years; my wife goes just about every year, usually with our son who also speaks Japanese (and understands French but answers in English).

My second post-doc was in Leipzig, Germany, which was promised as a faculty position, which failed to materialize as described, so I ended up in North Carolina, and then in Virginia.

Impressive!

You and family might like:
film québécois japon - Google Search

I saw Kamataki, interesting, pottery as a way of living, cultural learning of Japon from an outsider's POV, reminded me of how martial arts (well some of them anyway) are also a way of living before the material aspect of it.

Sonkei.

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

Anyone in here is into the Red Pill ideologies? Just finished the Rational Male, many interesting concepts in there, I was already familiar with the vast majority of them though, but too many pseudo-scientific claims in that book for my liking.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Anyone in here is into the Red Pill ideologies? Just finished the Rational Male, many interesting concepts in there, I was already familiar with the vast majority of them though, but too many pseudo-scientific claims in that book for my liking.

I presume the red pill is a Matrix reference.

 

[overlords]

I presume the red pill is a Matrix reference.

I'm also unsure as to what he meant. Is this where we can discuss how they're not actually turning the frogs gay, but chemicals released into the environment are making them go hermaphroditic?

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

I presume the red pill is a Matrix reference.

Yep. The gist of it is that the social narrative about men and female nature is inaccurate, under the cover of equality of the feminist movement modern western civilization gives a false impression that men and women are essentially the same, but the reality is that we have seen primarily men being emasculated. Furthermore, the main backlash of the societal repercussions of women emancipation is that since women can now succeed to similar level to men economically and are supported by the state financially, men lost their provider leverage over women while women still kept their sexual leverage over men (men have higher sex drive) which give women the upper-hand over men, primarily in the dating world, women have become highly selective of who they are mating with and entitled to receive more privileges in a relationship. The red pill also expose you to the so-called truths about the fundamental male and female differences, the differences between an archetypical beta and alpha male (most men have supposedly turned into beta for the service of the female imperative), on how to operate effectively in the sexual market, identify what impact the sexual market value of men/women over time, on exposing female hypergamous nature, difference between female long-term and short-term mating strategy and the risks associated with entering in a long-term relationship with a woman considering the current state of our court system for men.

They have a popular subreddit if you want to learn more about it, if you write red pill or anything related on Youtube you will also find a lot of content.

I don't agree with every nuance, but it is an interesting perspective which definitely holds some truths, many of their views are rooted in evolutionary psychology concepts.

 

[overlords]

I don't agree with every nuance, but it is an interesting perspective which definitely holds some truths, many of their views are rooted in evolutionary psychology concepts.

The Jordan Peterson / Cathy Newman interview is a riot and you should check it out if you haven't seen it already.

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

The Jordan Peterson / Cathy Newman interview is a riot and you should check it out if you haven't seen it already.

Yeah I have seen it, Cathy Newman is a good example of the ill-informed/irrational (denial of biological male/female differences) skewed representation of reality in favor of women which the Red Pill attempts to expose and work as an opposite force.

 

[Runner77]

I happened upon this book further to the main character in the series "Goliath" referencing it:

It is quite possible that God’s Little Acre has now become my favorite book. It’s inspired me to read more of Erskine Caldwell’s novels. I can’t believe no one has recommended him to me before. He is a master at the art of character development. If you read it expecting your standard story structure of introduction, conflict and conclusion, you’ll be disappointed. Caldwell somehow manages to create a compelling story that centers on character development through conflict after conflict.

More from the above review, here: R.W. Ridley’s review of God's Little Acre

I find the whole story fascinating and how it became bigger than the book itself:

God's Little Acre contained scenes considered sexually explicit, leading the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice to take Caldwell and Viking Press to court for disseminating pornography.[1] Over 60 literary figures supported the book, placing pressure on the New York Magistrates' Court which ruled in favor of Caldwell's rights to freedom of expression.[1][2] Caldwell counter-sued the literary society for false arrest and malicious prosecution.

In 1947, the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, also banned the novel for being pornographic.

The book was banned in Boston upon the recommendation of the Watch and Ward Society in 1950, one of that society's final activities of censorship. (Boston continued censoring works into the 1960s.)

Its author was quite prolific:

Caldwell wrote 25 novels, 150 short stories, twelve nonfiction collections, two autobiographies, and two books for young readers.

Has anyone read it?

 

[VirginiaMtlExpat]

I love Ken Follett. His older war thrillers were very good, but his historical fiction novels are some of the best books I've ever read. I've devoured 'em all, starting with Pillars of the Earth, and have preordered every one since. His 20th century trilogy - the one you're reading - was great. I'd highly recommend his last one from 2017, A Column of Fire, which goes back to 16th century England and is actually better than the trilogy. Not that I have a particular love for that period, but the story and characters are so well-written you come away feeling like you've had a feast. Super satisfying.

I finished A Column of Fire, LShap. Good recommendation. I was blown away by the pervasive aspect of religion throughout society, as described in the book. In 2018, with the influence of the Church on the wane, it seems so remote, but back then this was no joke. Recently went to Granada, Spain for a conference, and there was a local exhibition of torture instruments used in the Inquisition. The high clergy had no problem throwing their weight around back then.

 

[WeeBey]

delete

 

[voyageur]

Farley Mowat's "My Father's Son." I started reading it because I know that my grandfather followed Farley's path, more or less, in WW2. My grandfather saw Auschwitz though, so he went a little further into the darkness, as Céline would say. Never really talked about the war, other than to say didn't know which side Italians were on, French were comme ci, comme ça, and like Mowat, hated the Zombies. A good book about Canadian military history, and inspiration for the social retreat of one of Canada's great wilderness authors.

 

[Chili]

Just finishing Victory at Vimy (Ted Barris), stories of the 1917 battle. There is a story in there about Conn Smythe which has me interested in reading his biography.

With the 100th anniversary of end of WW1 shortly, wanted to read a few related books. Just ordered 11th month 11th day 11th hour Joseph Persico.

Also reading Red`s Story by Red Storey, great book.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Dang, you guys are reading some heavy stuff, I'm feeling real derpy coming here to say I've been reading the Disaster Artist on a lark . I've been working a lot lately and I felt like something quick and light . It's decent all told, surprisingly heartfelt even at times. You really have to be familiar with The Room though.

 

[Andrei79]

Bumping this thread as I was looking for book recommendations for my next trip.

I saw some great ones here. I've been looking for digestible books on social and cultural changes in recent centuries around the world. Interested in knowing how migrations changed the landscape, how nationalism's evolved and how the forging of personal identity's changed up into our modern society. Pretty precise, but I've been pondering a lot about the state of where we are and its awakened ethical questions and how we've come to build this social system.

Just finished The Drama of the Gifted Child from Alice Miller (the title is not an accurate representation of the book, "Prisoners of Childhood" was the original title, they changed it for marketing purposes). Highly insightful read about childhood traumas. When people think of traumas they tend to associate traumas with severe incidents of abuse/neglect, but in reality the vast majority of individuals lived some form child abuse under the cover of what is wrongfully depicted as good parenting by the parents themselves(which is often reinforced by the society at large), therefore since we can't grasp how we have been traumatized we are still carrying those unresolved traumas with us without being aware of their existence. If you lost touch with some of the spontaneity you once had as a child, do not have an natural easiness to express the entire array of your emotions or do not have high self esteem of oneself independently of one outside circumstances, you most likely are carrying unresolved childhood traumas which are detrimentally impacting your life to this day. If you truly want to work on improving yourself this book is of greater use than any book that qualifies itself as self-help which I have read in the past. From my experience and intellectual observations, psychoanalytic healing has greater long-lasting positive effects on one life than being inspired to change one mindset toward a so-called scientifically proven desirable way of being.

This post was a great read. I've been meaning at some point to read it. It's not psycho-pop, but an accessible book by a credible author. I'd like to see how it ties into the rest of the field, which I'm more familiar with. At the surface level, they do seem to, but I haven't read it to catch the nuances yet.

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

Bumping this thread as I was looking for book recommendations for my next trip.

I saw some great ones here. I've been looking for digestible books on social and cultural changes in recent centuries around the world. Interested in knowing how migrations changed the landscape, how nationalism's evolved and how the forging of personal identity's changed up into our modern society. Pretty precise, but I've been pondering a lot about the state of where we are and its awakened ethical questions and how we've come to build this social system.



This post was a great read. I've been meaning at some point to read it. It's not psycho-pop, but an accessible book by a credible author. I'd like to see how it ties into the rest of the field, which I'm more familiar with. At the surface level, they do seem to, but I haven't read it to catch the nuances yet.

Through my in-depth study of evolutionary theories, my understanding of this is that; everything boils down to the interaction between the collective genotype of our species and the environment, as we are transforming our environment through technological means, culture is evolving along with it through that interaction. Therefore, if you desire to go to the core understanding of how our modern society has been evolving, you need to expand your understanding of how our evolved nature adapted for the most part to an ancestral pre-agricultural environment is responding to novel environmental changes of modernity.

If you deem that line of reasoning compelling to explore, I would recommend the book; Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. I heard an overview of it, didn't have the chance to read it yet, on my reading list, but I do know that for good reasons it got popular and received good reviews. That being said, if you are interested in studying anything related to human beings at an individual or social level, nothing beats a good evolutionary psychology book(if you haven't read one already) if you seek to find the root of causal explanation in my opinion, gives you a logical framework under which we operate that will help you make all sorts of connections as you are absorbing new knowledge, I would recommend; Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind. If you are further interested to simply but more precisely in learning about the effect of modernity propelled by deeper scientific understanding of the world through the generations, I would recommend Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.

 

[Gravity]

Reading Charlotte's Web again. Reminiscent of my childhood and it's incredible how such powerful stories and messages fade away as we age.

 

[Andrei79]

Through my in-depth study of evolutionary theories, my understanding of this is that; everything boils down to the interaction between the collective genotype of our species and the environment, as we are transforming our environment through technological means, culture is evolving along with it through that interaction. Therefore, if you desire to go to the core understanding of how our modern society has been evolving, you need to expand your understanding of how our evolved nature adapted for the most part to an ancestral pre-agricultural environment is responding to novel environmental changes of modernity.

If you deem that line of reasoning compelling to explore, I would recommend the book; Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. I heard an overview of it, didn't have the chance to read it yet, on my reading list, but I do know that for good reasons it got popular and received good reviews. That being said, if you are interested in studying anything related to human beings at an individual or social level, nothing beats a good evolutionary psychology book(if you haven't read one already) if you seek to find the root of causal explanation in my opinion, gives you a logical framework under which we operate that will help you make all sorts of connections as you are absorbing new knowledge, I would recommend; Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind. If you are further interested to simply but more precisely in learning about the effect of modernity through the generations at a social level, I would recommend Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.

I havent specifically read about evolutionary psychology. I have a decent base on most traditional psychology author. I've read most major works and articles from most major psychoanalytic and cognitive behavorial authors, as well as newer waves. I've met and had lunch with a few psychoanalytic researchers/authors too (lol), but will refrain from naming names. Its a small world where some of the giants in the field are actually very accessible.

One of the reason I've had the interest aforementioned is I've been reading on the phenomena of aculturation. I've been more in contact with native canadians in recent months and its fascination how theyve been shaped. It made me wonder how much the lack of true national frontiers and stability in Europe for centuries, with all their internal wars, migrations and the cultural dominance of some of the kingdoms/empires, might have shape their own worldview.

Sapiens was a book I kept seeing in my kindle feed but didn't know anyone who read it. It caught my eye because it had almost the same cover as Gombrich's fun, but brilliant book on human history. I think I'll give it a try.

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

I havent specifically read about evolutionary psychology. I have a decent base on most traditional psychology author. I've read most major works and articles from most major psychoanalytic and cognitive behavorial authors, as well as newer waves. I've met and had lunch with a few psychoanalytic researchers/authors too (lol), but will refrain from naming names. Its a small world where some of the giants in the field are actually very accessible.

Sapiens was a book I kept seeing in my kindle feed but didn't know anyone who read it. It caught my eye because it had almost the same cover as Gombrich's fun, but brilliant book on human history.

A read a good chunk of that literature as well, Carl Rogers especially has been really influential to me through his books.

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

One of the reason I've had the interest aforementioned is I've been reading on the phenomena of aculturation. I've been more in contact with native canadians in recent months and its fascination how theyve been shaped. It made me wonder how much the lack of true national frontiers and stability in Europe for centuries, with all their internal wars, migrations and the cultural dominance of some of the kingdoms/empires, might have shape their own worldview.

A read a bit on the process of acculturation of hunter-gatherer tribes to modern living. That book may interest you on acculturation; Affluence Without Abundance: The Disappearing World of the Bushmen.
And this scientific paper; Linking Social Change and Developmental Change: Shifting Pathways of Human Development, http://greenfieldlab.psych.ucla.edu/Cross-cultural_studies_files/Greenfield, Theory of Social Change and Human Development, 2009.pdf
Both have an hour+ long lecture on Youtube that you can find.

 

[DramaticGloveSave]

Thinking of reading The Shining since I already have the book and the film is one of my all time favourites. I know the book and film differ in parts, but generally I find reading the book after seeing the film to be such a chore.