What's The Best Book You've Read Recently?

[Burn Yesterday]

I'm reading a very excellent book written in 1946 about I can't tell you because it would never be permitted to exist today. It's totally charitable but nobody cares about that.

Not too long ago I tried to read Nietzsche. It was like Irwin Corey.

 

[hopdybob]

maak me niet down,ore in English, don't make me down

maybe not a book you would aspect.
but its a book, written by a experience expert who explains some specific behavior problems of people that have the down syndrome.
helping those that surround them why they do, what they do when they have some unexpected behavior.

written in a style like story's about different people in a novel.
not to technical but at a level that everyone can understand.

but i don't think its translated in english

 

[blowtorch]

Folk horror is like the wicker man, blood on satan’s claw, in the earth, witchfinder general kinda stuff.

Yes also Harvest Home, Midsomar, I do get it. Those pagan worship human sacrificial traditions are the biggest tell, and I do agree there's a particular vibe throughout all of those.

But why not Candyman? It's set in an urban context, but it's still about the evil that people have collectively decided to do , in effect making a communal sacrifice out of fear and ignorance

It sort of comes down to aesthetics and trappings, doesn't it?
Kind of like the difference between Iron Maiden and Britney Fox.They at first glance have way more in common than they do differences, yet I have several Maiden releases, and zero of BF. I happen to be drinking from a Maiden coffee cup this morning, as a matter of fact

I do hold that all horror is at least based in the folk tradition, strictly speaking, in the same sense that all music is in fact folk music, when you get down to it, despite trappings and aesthetics (modern country is a great example of this, when you think about it).

Again, labels are kind of dumb

 

[blowtorch]

I'm reading a very excellent book written in 1946 about I can't tell you because it would never be permitted to exist today. It's totally charitable but nobody cares about that.

My youngest son chose to do a book report on a certain autobiographical manifesto written in 1925.
His teacher was horrified. I was very amused, because I completely understood my son's motivation, and it was not one of empathy to the author, but rather to simply stir things up within the limitations of the rules, and by doing so hopefully to help people think outside the normal.

Which is what school should be about, yes?

 

[Jim622]

I just finished Texas Rangers Cult of Glory. It had a lot of information I didn’t know about. I’m halfway through In the Heart of the Sea right now and it’s hard to put down.

I just finished Heart of the Sea, two books ago. Pretty interesting survival story.

 

[blowtorch]

I just finished Heart of the Sea, two books ago. Pretty interesting survival story.

I enjoyed that. Well, maybe "enjoyed" isn't the correct term- it's pretty harrowing
I don't remember where I got inspired to read that, maybe from one of these threads, there's been several over the years.
Wasn't this story originally the inspiration for Moby Dick? Not the book, which is recent, but the true story itself

 

[uriah1]

Bone Labryinth
Tecumseh and war of 1812

 

[thunderbyrd]

My youngest son chose to do a book report on a certain autobiographical manifesto written in 1925.
His teacher was horrified. I was very amused, because I completely understood my son's motivation, and it was not one of empathy to the author, but rather to simply stir things up within the limitations of the rules, and by doing so hopefully to help people think outside the normal.

Which is what school should be about, yes?

i salute your son if he was able to get through that screed. i've tried a couple of times, out of curiosity, but never got very far.

hard to believe the world was turned upside down by such a poor writer/thinker.

 

[blowtorch]

i salute your son if he was able to get through that screed. i've tried a couple of times, out of curiosity, but never got very far.

hard to believe the world was turned upside down by such a poor writer/thinker.

he said most of it was very boring

his academic prowess amazes me. and I don't mean stupid grades, I'm talking about that academia which you learn only by self-discipline, and that which is it's own reward, not mere fulfillment of some dumb college credit

he knows 5 or 6 languages, not exactly fluently, but well enough to read/write/speak at some level

 

[Mike M]

Because she just died:

Re-read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, great book!

 

[BelindasShadow]

Terrence McKenna - True Hallucinations

 

[David Barnett]

The Red and the Black Stendahl
Metamorphosis Kafka
The Stranger Camus

 

[thunderbyrd]

Terrence McKenna - True Hallucinations

i've not read anything by McKenna but i've listened to him speak. he was an impressive intellect, IMHO. i'm not going to do the things he suggested (heroic doses), but the man truly pointed out a new frontier. but i'm not planning to follow it.

 

[BelindasShadow]

i've not read anything by McKenna but i've listened to him speak. he was an impressive intellect, IMHO. i'm not going to do the things he suggested (heroic doses), but the man truly pointed out a new frontier. but i'm not planning to follow it.

Even if one is not interested in experientially pursuing the path he forged, there is a wealth of intellectual ideas worth contemplating in his writings imo.

 

[Mowgli]

Just finished “Forged” by Dr. Bart Ehrman. It discusses, from an academic historian’s perspective the rather surprising current thoughts about the false authorships/false author attributions of large parts of the New Testament. It certainly dispelled a lot of my earlier indoctrinations! I’ve read several of Ehrman’s books and this is one of the more enlightening ones!

Presently engaged in several books but the two which are non-technical are works of non-fiction:

“Wastelands” by Corban Addison. It’s about a class-action nuisance lawsuit brought by a large number of poor Eastern North Carolina residents courtesy of a small but interested small town law firm versus wealthy and politically-connected Industrial hog farmers who have polluted the waters and air of the nearby residents for decades. A little more “David vs Goliath” than “Erin Brockovich” with more exposure of corruption. So far it’s pretty disturbing.

“Helen and Teacher” by the late great Joseph Lash. It’s about Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan (Macy). I have always admired Helen Keller but am beginning to admire Annie, too. Their triumphs over adversity are inspiring. Two very intelligent women.

Both books are very well written, well researched and incredibly thought provoking; exactly what good reads should do… make you both reflect upon the stories’ broader implications and feel something for the characters.

 

[cyclopean]

Yes also Harvest Home, Midsomar, I do get it. Those pagan worship human sacrificial traditions are the biggest tell, and I do agree there's a particular vibe throughout all of those.

But why not Candyman? It's set in an urban context, but it's still about the evil that people have collectively decided to do , in effect making a communal sacrifice out of fear and ignorance

It sort of comes down to aesthetics and trappings, doesn't it?
Kind of like the difference between Iron Maiden and Britney Fox.They at first glance have way more in common than they do differences, yet I have several Maiden releases, and zero of BF. I happen to be drinking from a Maiden coffee cup this morning, as a matter of fact

I do hold that all horror is at least based in the folk tradition, strictly speaking, in the same sense that all music is in fact folk music, when you get down to it, despite trappings and aesthetics (modern country is a great example of this, when you think about it).

Again, labels are kind of dumb

If it’s not participatory and concerned with the daily lives of the people who make it, it’s not folk.

 

[cyclopean]

i've not read anything by McKenna but i've listened to him speak. he was an impressive intellect, IMHO. i'm not going to do the things he suggested (heroic doses), but the man truly pointed out a new frontier. but i'm not planning to follow it.

I feel like I must be one of the only people into chaos magic who doesn’t care about hallucinogens.

 

[Linderflomann]

I seem to recall reading A Handmaid's Tale in about 1990. I have little recollection of the tale. I think I may have struggled to get though it. Seemed to have no lasting impact on me.

I read it a few years back. I thought it was great. The only think I didn't like was this epilogue thingy at the end. I felt like it explained too much, or provided too much context and it somehow annoyed me and made me wish she left it off.

 

[Mowgli]

i salute your son if he was able to get through that screed. i've tried a couple of times, out of curiosity, but never got very far.

hard to believe the world was turned upside down by such a poor writer/thinker.

It’s worth reading for learning purposes, IMO. God knows it’s a poorly written and reasoned book (even in German).

After that, I highly recommend one reading Edwin Black’s “War Against the Weak” (a history of the eugenics movement) if one wishes to truly understand what can happen when a sociopath with bad intentions takes a flawed idea, laden with good intentions, to the extreme.

A lot of educated people, both here in the US and in Europe, bought into this pseudo-scientific and terribly flawed idea; an idea which caused millions to both suffer and die.

This is where these two books overlap! The demonstration of the harm wrought by the exploitation of a flawed idea. Black’s book should be required reading for anyone seeking office everywhere.

 

[thunderbyrd]

It’s worth reading for learning purposes, IMO. God knows it’s a poorly written and reasoned book (even in German).

After that, I highly recommend one reading Edwin Black’s “War Against the Weak” (a history of the eugenics movement) if one wishes to truly understand what can happen when a sociopath with bad intentions takes a flawed idea, laden with good intentions, to the extreme.

A lot of educated people, both here in the US and in Europe, bought into this pseudo-scientific and terribly flawed idea; an idea which caused millions to both suffer and die.

This is where these two books overlap! The demonstration of the harm wrought by the exploitation of a flawed idea. Black’s book should be required reading for anyone seeking office everywhere.

this does sound like a book i ought to read. i think i will order it.