What are you reading?

[NoahLutz]

On 10/25/2024 at 10:03 PM, NoahLutz said:

How the West Won was fascinating.  There are so many things accepted as conventional wisdom that it challenged.  It gets some details a bit off, but the extensive notes allow you to check everything.  Because the topic is so broad, it can jump around a bit, and the author obviously has a point of view, but it is always interesting and it is always backed up with evidence.  

 

I’m still trying to read as much as I can before it leaves Kindle, so I went through Brainwashed (not good and not worth it) and will finish an interesting translation of Gilgamesh today (Stephen Mitchell - not accurate, but an engaging and understandable rendition).  Then I will try and finish John Gardener’s Grendel tomorrow or the next day and then either Xenophon’s Anabasis (inspiration for the movie and Lin-Manual Miranda album “The Warriors”) or Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.  

 

I’m going to lose at least 3 books because they are all leaving Kindle at the same time, which annoys me.  Couldn’t they have warned me a little earlier so I wouldn’t spend two weeks cramming like I was in college again?

Grendel was funnier than I thought and took a bit longer than I thought, but I’m glad that I read it.  I can’t tell if the book is endorsing an existentialist view or lampooning it (I read that the author envisioned Sartre as Grendel), but either way it reminded me how vapid, pompous, and simple-minded existentialism and nihilism are, and it gave me a few laughs on the way, so it was worth the price of admission.  

 

I’ve decided to move on to Reflections on the Revolution in France and am about 40% through it.  I figured that I would be buying Anabasis anyway, so I just need to see if I like the translation and then move on.  Burke is a strange cat, and the book (an adaption of letters he wrote) is a bit of a mess.  He is moving between defenses of the monarchy and tradition, condemnation of the philosophy (or lack thereof) of the French Revolution, and interesting concepts on liberty, government, and morality.  He jumps from impassioned and hilarious emotional appeals, to calculated and empirically driven proofs.  It forces me to stop reading for a while and reflect on what he is actually saying and why.  

 

I will note, however, that people made fun of his criticisms when he wrote this (1790), and virtually everything he wrote came true in 1793.  

 

I will also note that his constant use of “Jewry” as an insult is weird and off-putting.  

[Rhyta]

15 hours ago, NoahLutz said:

I spoke too loosely.  The books are still available, I just need to pay to see them after they are removed from some free-list that we get as one of our perks for being a member of something.  I’m not sure if it related to Kindle Unlimited or whatever the Audible membership is, but the books are no longer free.  After reading or listening to them, I am deciding whether or not to buy them, which I usually have done.  So their plan is working.  Dirty capitalists!

Ok, I see. I am not a Kindle user, I still use a Nook. 

[NoahLutz]

On 10/27/2024 at 11:26 PM, NoahLutz said:

Grendel was funnier than I thought and took a bit longer than I thought, but I’m glad that I read it.  I can’t tell if the book is endorsing an existentialist view or lampooning it (I read that the author envisioned Sartre as Grendel), but either way it reminded me how vapid, pompous, and simple-minded existentialism and nihilism are, and it gave me a few laughs on the way, so it was worth the price of admission.  

 

I’ve decided to move on to Reflections on the Revolution in France and am about 40% through it.  I figured that I would be buying Anabasis anyway, so I just need to see if I like the translation and then move on.  Burke is a strange cat, and the book (an adaption of letters he wrote) is a bit of a mess.  He is moving between defenses of the monarchy and tradition, condemnation of the philosophy (or lack thereof) of the French Revolution, and interesting concepts on liberty, government, and morality.  He jumps from impassioned and hilarious emotional appeals, to calculated and empirically driven proofs.  It forces me to stop reading for a while and reflect on what he is actually saying and why.  

 

I will note, however, that people made fun of his criticisms when he wrote this (1790), and virtually everything he wrote came true in 1793.  

 

I will also note that his constant use of “Jewry” as an insult is weird and off-putting.  

I’m now 40% through a biography of Edmund Burke by Jesse Norman.  I just got to the part on the French Revolution, and it is an interesting, if not great, read.  Unfortunately, I have to finish it before October 31, so I’m on a deadline.  I don’t want to buy this one, I don’t think, so I really want to finish it.  

 

Reflections on the Revolution in France was really a mixed bag for me.  It was often hilarious, insightful, and beautiful, but it was also often meandering and repetitive.  I find Burke’s core philosophy a little difficult to understand, and even reading his biography is not clearing it up for me.  Still, many of his predictions turned out to be 100% true, so I have to give it up for him for that.  Add the eloquent prose and often persuasive hyperbole and humor, and it was definitely worth the time.  

[NoahLutz]

On 10/29/2024 at 10:11 PM, NoahLutz said:

I’m now 40% through a biography of Edmund Burke by Jesse Norman.  I just got to the part on the French Revolution, and it is an interesting, if not great, read.  Unfortunately, I have to finish it before October 31, so I’m on a deadline.  I don’t want to buy this one, I don’t think, so I really want to finish it.  

 

Reflections on the Revolution in France was really a mixed bag for me.  It was often hilarious, insightful, and beautiful, but it was also often meandering and repetitive.  I find Burke’s core philosophy a little difficult to understand, and even reading his biography is not clearing it up for me.  Still, many of his predictions turned out to be 100% true, so I have to give it up for him for that.  Add the eloquent prose and often persuasive hyperbole and humor, and it was definitely worth the time.  

The biography of Edmund Burke was also a mixed bag.  The first half of the book is a breezy biography.  As I didn’t know much about him, it was interesting.  It was well-written and engaging.  The second half of the book looked to connect Burke to modern conservatism.  While the argument is overall persuasive, sometime the specific connections were tenuous or so attenuated that it seemed like an argument in search of an example and not pure analysis.  Still it was interesting.  

 

I checked out a translation of Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great (Cyropaedia) by Larry Hedrick and was really unsure of what to think.  On the one hand it was interesting and easy to follow.  On the other hand, it was clearly not a translation, but an interpretation with an eye to use the source material as a way to teach leadership qualities to modern people.  I may come back to it after reading an actual translation, or immediately before I do.  

 

My last assignment, before it leaves on November 4, is to finish The Annals by Tacitus.  It jumps between fascinating insights, boring minutiae, epic retellings of history, and hilarious or biting criticism.  This one is taking me longer as I’m going through two translations.  In reality, the deadline is false because I already own one of the translations and I think I will buy the other even if I don’t finish before it is removed.  And the translation I own is usually the better: more accurate to my eye, and more vividly expressed.  

[Turbine Freight]

On 10/7/2024 at 5:50 AM, NoahLutz said:

How is it?  They based the HBO series on this, right?

 

 

I'm sorry I don't know about the HBO thing, I hardly watch any TV.

 

It's a good read, although I must say neither Jefferson nor Hamilton come out of this at all well.

 

I wish someone would write as considered a biography about Abigail Adams. She comes across as an exceptional woman.

 

 

[NoahLutz]

On 11/3/2024 at 5:27 AM, Turbine Freight said:

It's a good read, although I must say neither Jefferson nor Hamilton come out of this at all well.

Given the rough and tumble nature of politics at the time and that they were political rivals, that isn’t surprising.  Plus, if you think media now is bad, it was astounding what the papers would write back then.  

[NoahLutz]

On 11/1/2024 at 6:43 PM, NoahLutz said:

The biography of Edmund Burke was also a mixed bag.  The first half of the book is a breezy biography.  As I didn’t know much about him, it was interesting.  It was well-written and engaging.  The second half of the book looked to connect Burke to modern conservatism.  While the argument is overall persuasive, sometime the specific connections were tenuous or so attenuated that it seemed like an argument in search of an example and not pure analysis.  Still it was interesting.  

 

I checked out a translation of Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great (Cyropaedia) by Larry Hedrick and was really unsure of what to think.  On the one hand it was interesting and easy to follow.  On the other hand, it was clearly not a translation, but an interpretation with an eye to use the source material as a way to teach leadership qualities to modern people.  I may come back to it after reading an actual translation, or immediately before I do.  

 

My last assignment, before it leaves on November 4, is to finish The Annals by Tacitus.  It jumps between fascinating insights, boring minutiae, epic retellings of history, and hilarious or biting criticism.  This one is taking me longer as I’m going through two translations.  In reality, the deadline is false because I already own one of the translations and I think I will buy the other even if I don’t finish before it is removed.  And the translation I own is usually the better: more accurate to my eye, and more vividly expressed.  

The Annals was overall well worth it, and I’m glad my false deadline pushed me to read it.  So much of what we take for granted about history is recorded there, whether it was Boadica’s revolt in Britain, the early flourishing of the Christian Church in Rome, or Nero performing Greek tragedies as Rome burned.  It also gave insights into the economics of the day, the impetus for law giving, and the mores of the elite.  It was very interesting.  

 

I moved onto “An Inspector Calls”, which was atrociously bad.  It seemed like the type of thing that someone wrote to make fun of people who were socialists.  It constantly tells you what to think rather than allowing you to learn from the characters’ actions.  It was so heavy-handed that I actually laughed out loud a few times.  I can’t imagine how the education system was convinced to force this down so many students’ throats.

 

I think I’ve earned a more enjoyable read, and started The Martian.  So far, so good.   

[NoahLutz]

On 11/4/2024 at 2:57 PM, NoahLutz said:

I think I’ve earned a more enjoyable read, and started The Martian.  So far, so good.   

It seems the movie was remarkably faithful to the book.  As I loved the movie, I loved the book.  It is not particularly well written, nor are the characters other than Watney particularly memorable, but it is exciting to see how each challenge is overcome with knowledge, ingenuity, and resilience that I’ll never have.  

 

Now for something a little weightier: War and Peace.  I’ve never read Tolstoy before, and this and Anna Karenina have been on my list for so long that I feel I can’t just keep putting it off because it is monstrously long.  I chose different translations for an audiobook and book, so I can compare as I go along.  So far, so good, but there are a lot of characters and I haven’t really figured out who is who yet.   

[Turbine Freight]

On 11/4/2024 at 6:41 AM, NoahLutz said:

Given the rough and tumble nature of politics at the time and that they were political rivals, that isn’t surprising.  Plus, if you think media now is bad, it was astounding what the papers would write back then.  

 

 

The press attacks from both sides are well covered in that bio.

[Turbine Freight]

[TheAccountant]

Ralph Nader - Lets Start The Revolution:  Tools for Displacing the Corporate State and Building a Country that Works for the People

 

Ralph is 90 or older & still going.  Decent book.  Nothing earth shattering through.

[Rhyta]

Started My Effin' Life again.  Got stuck on it last year, trying to listen to the audio and then read the book once I got it.  Decided I needed to hear it, so I am listening again.  It is enjoyable and listening to Geddy narrate it is great.

[Richard Reyes]

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell. Half way through. So far it's decent but I'm wanting it to go bigger, weirder, darker, more glorious. Something.  It needs more kick. Maybe the kick is still coming. 

[pjbear05]

Capture Or Kill by Don Bentley (Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series).

[pjbear05]

What Have We Here?  Portraits of a Life, by Billy Dee Williams. 

[TheAccountant]

Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America by Brendan Ballou

 

Ever wonder what Private Equity firms are?  Read this book.

Ever wonder how Private Equity firms make the money they make?  Read this book.  Spoiler - they are parasites.  They are leaches.  They attach themselves to other entities (companies and having read this book, I would argue society) and drain the life from them.

Ever wonder about Private Equity impact on other companies?  Read this book.  Spoiler - The author mentioned a long list of companies private equity took over and drove into bankruptcy.  Many of the companies I remembered and when he mentioned when private equity took them over I was like "hmmm, thats about when I remember the company starting to go down hill".

Ever wonder about the impact of private equity on both the country and its people?  Read this book.

Ever wonder how to fight back?  The author has a long list of things that could be done.  He brakes it down by state and by Federal government agency.

 

Very interesting book.  The author also does not get hyper detail driven so you don't have to be involved with finance or tax's or an attorney to understand how private equity works.   Well written.                                                                                                              

 

[pjbear05]

Confronting The Presidents:  No Spin Assessments From Washington to Biden, by Bill O'Reilly, and Martin Dugard. 

[TheAccountant]

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris  Hedges.

 

When Hedges speak, I listen.  What he writes, I tend to read.  This was one I had never gotten around to but finally did.  Worth taken the time to read it.  Plus the art work by Joe Sacco was very good.

[NoahLutz]

On 11/16/2024 at 11:50 PM, pjbear05 said:

What Have We Here?  Portraits of a Life, by Billy Dee Williams. 

How was it?  And, more importantly, what percentage of it was about Star Wars?

[NoahLutz]

On 11/5/2024 at 8:15 PM, NoahLutz said:

Now for something a little weightier: War and Peace.  I’ve never read Tolstoy before, and this and Anna Karenina have been on my list for so long that I feel I can’t just keep putting it off because it is monstrously long.  I chose different translations for an audiobook and book, so I can compare as I go along.  So far, so good, but there are a lot of characters and I haven’t really figured out who is who yet.

Some travel and more time involved in consuming news seriously slowed down my reading.  The book is insanely long, and I’m only on page 277 of 1350.  Still, I can see why it’s a classic already.    

[JARG]

On 11/3/2024 at 10:41 PM, NoahLutz said:

Given the rough and tumble nature of politics at the time and that they were political rivals, that isn’t surprising.  Plus, if you think media now is bad, it was astounding what the papers would write back then.  

Yup. Jefferson was once described as a "howling atheist" who was going to take your bibles away.

[JARG]

On 11/5/2024 at 4:15 AM, NoahLutz said:

It seems the movie was remarkably faithful to the book.  As I loved the movie, I loved the book.  It is not particularly well written, nor are the characters other than Watney particularly memorable, but it is exciting to see how each challenge is overcome with knowledge, ingenuity, and resilience that I’ll never have.  

 

Now for something a little weightier: War and Peace.  I’ve never read Tolstoy before, and this and Anna Karenina have been on my list for so long that I feel I can’t just keep putting it off because it is monstrously long.  I chose different translations for an audiobook and book, so I can compare as I go along.  So far, so good, but there are a lot of characters and I haven’t really figured out who is who yet.   

I read Anna Karenina last year. That told me that one book by Tolstoy was enough for me, thank you very much.

[NoahLutz]

4 hours ago, JARG said:

Yup. Jefferson was once described as a "howling atheist" who was going to take your bibles away.

It seems that his critics were directionally right as Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists was misused to unconstitutionally remove the Bible from schools, even if it took 150 years to get there.  

[pjbear05]

On 11/26/2024 at 10:58 AM, NoahLutz said:

How was it?  And, more importantly, what percentage of it was about Star Wars?

Good.  Star Wars and related, maybe 20%.  The book was all encompassing; his artwork (painting) other movies (Lady Sings The Blues, Mahogany, Bingo Long's Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings), that he was James Baldwin's first choice for the title role in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, even a short bit regarding the commercials for Colt .45 Malt Liquor ("works every time).

[pjbear05]

On 11/26/2024 at 3:05 PM, JARG said:

Yup. Jefferson was once described as a "howling atheist" who was going to take your bibles away.

Jefferson also went at it with Patrick Henry, who, while supporting religious freedom, wanted America defined as supporting an established church (per Riley & Dugard's Confronting The Presidents.)