I need a new book.

strat a various · Jan 20, 2021

imwjl said: ↑

My problems are.

1) Tending to read non-fiction and behavioral economics stuff where it's complex and I go off into tangents reading the references and supporting material.
2) Staying with same authors.
3) Find lots of popular fiction too predictable.
4) Not often liking Sci Fi but did or do like Vonnegut and the David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, The Bone Clocks).

In consideration:

1) Finish Factfulness or buy it - the loan ran out.
2) More Yuval Noah Harari - Everyone should read his Sapiens book.
3) I should finish The Nutanix Bible but that's for work.
4) 1, 2 & 3 don't solve my almost always reading non-fiction.
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Straight Life: The Story of Art Pepper

The Legacy of Heorot

Vibro Chimp · Jan 21, 2021

You should finish Factfulness. It’s a good book and a quick read. Enlightenment Now is an equally good (but much longer) book that covers similar territory.
Moral Tribes is a good book about utilitarianism. Same goes for anything by Peter Singer.
As for sci-fi, check out Ted Chiang. Short stories that deal with philosophical subjects like free will.

Martian · Jan 21, 2021

Rocky058 said: ↑

I think I can promise you'll never forget this.

"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

- Jonathan Swift

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I agree with Rocky on this one. A funny and absolutely wonderful book. (And a sad and amazing story on how it came to be published. God bless Toole’s mother for making it happen.)

Martian · Jan 21, 2021

Pixies2005 · Jan 21, 2021

Whenever I get in a reading rut or drought I find picking up a collection of essays or short stories revitalizes me. It engages the brain, stretches the reading muscles with variety in a single volume

Harry Styron · Jan 21, 2021

1955 said: ↑

I was young but I had a gift for concentration and focus as long as something held my interest.

Problem was that I loved windbags and so I went and tried out their ideas like they were a science project. I didn’t mean to, it was just inevitable.

Most here I would surmise are past that age of drastic malleability, but I’ll blow some sails anyway.

Head butting hard objects for laughs didn’t help the formation of my prefrontal cortex I’m sure, and I wasn’t old enough to corral disparate concepts or precipitate long-term consequences, so I wouldn’t sleep for three days at a time and just chipped away.

Spoken word and poetry, speeches, manifestos, lectures, stand-up comedy, philosophy, performance art, psychology, literature, letters...I thought I just might find something if I looked hard enough, so I gazed into the abyss.

In the process I transformed the foundation of my value system for a time, which put me around troubled people and bad intentions with just enough wherewithal to drive and cook pasta.

I started listening to vocabulary tapes starting about age 10 and was recording them myself by the time I was 15 or 16 instead of doing homework.

Just wasn’t excited by school or schoolwork, didn’t see value in much of it. I read Beowulf and Chaucer and whatever I had to, but something was missing and Shakespeare had that ruffle thingy around his neck.

I could earn good enough grades phoning it in for the most part, but I didn’t want to be (and wasn’t) like people I saw all around me.

Furthermore, I was extremely driven to do things that no one I knew really liked to do. Conversely, I hated to do anything I didn’t feel was worth the trouble, which was pretty much everything responsible.

This line of thinking ultimately led to a life of working like a mule and sounding like an ass, which was all right by me as long as I could do my art and music, but didn’t put me in good graces with old money, groups, or the straight shooters.

I recorded some of my favorite books on cassettes and would listen to them over and over. I recorded Nietzsche’s work in its entirety, for instance.

I slept listening to tapes all night long every night. The Waste Land and Four Quartets I had mostly memorized.

My rebellious streak sought out the usual freshman fare like Plath, Huxley, Poe, Schopenhauer, Rimbaud, Kinsey, Skinner, Rand, Freud, Paglia, Jung, Pirsig, Stirner, Kerouac, and Sartre, and I did silly things like drive to Key West for one of Hemingway’s coconuts and performed public disruption experiments that were a pathetic nod to Dada and the Situationist Internationale.

Add to that all of the self-help I bought into like NLP, Napoleon Hill, biographies and peak-performance stuff, and I started to think “Hey, I might be someone special.”

It did work, I did do seemingly impossible things, but it changed who I really was and set my course on only what I wanted to do.

It’s a fearful thing to accomplish what you set out to do, as your loved ones die and people give up on “bringing you around” one by one.

There are reasons to be out and about doing errands at 4am, but I didn’t have very good ones. Music is a tough gig.

I had given up everything to try and be great, and in so doing, lost my unique voice.

I would imagine that writing is primarily a sedentary activity for many authors, therefore it stands to reason that there is only so much actionability to run with.

These ideas I was so crazy about, were they really just lazy ideas from people who didn’t know much about how to get along with people (or get along period) in the real world?

It is embarrassing to even document my blunders here, but I do so in the hope that others are reminded to be scrupulous and use discernment in everthing that goes into their minds, lest they Dance Russe for the wrong reasons and walk right past their shadow.
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Thank you for offering this biographic glimpse. You have at least partially explained how you developed your often stunning verbal virtuosity.

You have also explained the danger of taking literature and philosophy too seriously, because your immersion resulted in your having neglected learning practical life skills.

1955 · Jan 21, 2021

Harry Styron said: ↑

Thank you for offering this biographic glimpse. You have at least partially explained how you developed your often stunning verbal virtuosity.

You have also explained the danger of taking literature and philosophy too seriously, because your immersion resulted in your having neglected learning practical life skills.
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Thanks, I appreciate that coming from you.

icantplaywellyet · Jan 21, 2021

I enjoyed Sophie's World, On Intelligence, and Making Rumors, none of which are science fiction.

If you change your mind on science fiction, I have several that I could recommend.

Ed Storer · Jan 21, 2021

If you want to try some well-done sci-fi, the Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is a great collection. He's a true craftsman as a writer - he can finish the story and still leave the opening for the sequel.

Read the books in the order in which they were written:

Foundation.

Foundation and Empire.

Second Foundation.

Foundation's Edge.

Foundation and Earth.

Prelude to Foundation.

Forward the Foundation.

Another of my favorites is Kurt Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan.

Ed Storer · Jan 21, 2021

For historical fiction, I'll humbly recommend https://www.amazon.com/dp/1629014907/?tag=tdpri-20. I say "humbly" because it was written by my sister. She even traveled to Ireland to research the dialect. It's a good read.

SRBMusic · Jan 21, 2021

Raymond Carver short stories.
James M Cain novels
Charlotte’s Web (the most perfect book ever written, IMO. Every sentence is a perfect little prose jewel.)

SRBMusic · Jan 21, 2021

Stubee said: ↑

I love to read. I was on our library board for several years because they had an opening, and it’s one of my favorite places to hang out. I love books.

I read about all fiction and nonfiction. A close friend gave me a stack of outdoor books a bit ago after I’d taken him some reading while he was recuperating from a medical thing. I read that type of book very sparingly, but I was reminded again just how cool my friend is when I started reading his offerings. I don’t know if you fish, but to anybody that does or even has an interest in waters, go get this book and enjoy it. It’s a near existential experience. View attachment 810059
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If you like to fish, read The Founding Fish” by John McPhee.

Steerforth · Jan 21, 2021

Raymond Chandler. He’ll make you want to buy a trench coat and a fedora.

eddiewagner · Jan 21, 2021

Bill Bryson „Body“ is very good and I learned a lot.

Alex_C · Jan 21, 2021

This is a must read, imo. Hard Science and Philosophy about General Artificial Intelligence.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20527133-superintelligence

lowatter · Jan 21, 2021

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Road Less Traveled
The Shed
The Pearl
Flowers for Algernon
The book of Corinthians in the NIV
The Stand
Sorry if you've read these or that they are too old to mention here. Albeit...some are 8-9th grade readings but still great books if you've never read them. JMHOYMMV

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