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Reading Minds: The CoastGab Book Club

Started by PhantasticSanShiSan, October 23, 2008, 12:06:30 AM


albrecht

Thumbing through and laughing about some of these. Cleaning out the garage and found a box of bizarre oldies. Though some are still influential and referenced today by politicians, radio hosts, and the fringe. And some are influential, I guess, for good or bad.

"Steal This Book" Abbie Hoffman (I actually did steal this one, if you count not returning a borrowed copy 30+years ago from someone who saidI read it whilst drunk. Funny but the stuff won't work much anymore-the "man" caught on to slugs in public phones and those malatovs would likely burn you first!)

"None Dare Call It Conspiracy" Gary Allen (seed of much alternative radio today, like Alex?)

"Rules for Radicals" (1972) Saul Alinsky (obvious popular now in some circles)

"Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders" , U.S. Riot Commission (1968)

"Robert Strange McNamara" (1967)- A "Liberty Lobby" book, John Bircher type,

"Hitler's children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Gang" (1977) (people forget terrorism in the west isn't new)

and various and sundry other titles like from Paladin press and some far-right/far-left stuff now "banned" I kept just for the hell of it cause found a bunch of them cheap at a garage sales years ago. Interestingly, I noticed that many of these books were owned by the same lady, particularly the "Liberty Lobby" books that she wrote her name, in very clean cursive but obviously an elderly lady, on the inside covers with address even. Like if they were ever lost- please return- like I did with a prized book as a child.




coaster

Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery. It's not as enjoyable as  Philbrick's other books, but its still a very detailed account of Charles Wilkes and his exploring expedition. If you are into history and/or adventure, its worth a read.

Soldiers it's about secret transcripts of German POWs during wwii.... Interesting what they talked to each other about in the prison camps....


http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0307958124/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/176-7889785-8191249?linkCode=as2&ref_=as_at&tag=thedailybeast-autotag-20

zeebo

Quote from: West of the Rockies on March 05, 2014, 01:36:19 PM
That was a fun read, Zeebo (and, yes, I did just use "read" as a noun -- I will go commit hari kari now)....

Heinlein was a very interesting cat... I think he had a thing for much older men and younger women (actually, girls)....  Cannibalism pops up now and again in his writing, too.  I think a Ph.D. thesis could be written about his politics/world view.

Yeah I thought it was a kick, and had some wry humor and observations about us Earth-based humans.  And yep there are some eyebrow-raising elements which I think was his way of showing that social conventions are more flexible than we think when faced with more extreme living conditions.  What I found really interesting politically-speaking was not so much the theory but instead all the tactics they were using - which I'm sure are similar to what goes on every day in the halls of power.

coaster

Found a nice online library. So far I've found every book I've searched for. Older books and new releases.
https://openlibrary.org/

albrecht

Quote from: coaster on March 16, 2014, 02:07:09 PM
Found a nice online library. So far I've found every book I've searched for. Older books and new releases.
https://openlibrary.org/
That is awesome. Thanks for the link.


Contact by Carl Sagan.  Agent : Orange, Onan, and Zeebo discussed this in the Astrophysics topic. When I saw a hardcover copy for $3 through a used book dealer, purchase was automatic.

zeebo

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (1972).  Evocative and dreamlike sketches of places that seem both strange and somehow familiar.  It's hard to categorize but worth checking out.

BobGrau

Reread Dune in preparation for finally reading the sequels... but then got sidetracked into rereading the Dark Tower series yet again  ::)
Listening to The Science of Discworld 4: Judgement Day by Terry Pratchett, Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart at work, and Genghis Kahn and the making of the modern world by Jack Weatherford whilst playing Civilisation IV.

bateman

Reading this excellent book about the capture of Rudolf Höss.

http://youtu.be/4GZgkDslluU

The Gödelian Puzzle Book: Puzzles, Paradoxes and Proofs
by Raymond Smullyan, 2013.

Just finished Supergods by Grant Morrison and immediately afterward burned through all 11 issues of Jack Kirby's New Gods from 1971.

Moving onto Chris Hadfield's book next.

I enjoyed the Hadfield book, AO.  It's a bit dry in spots; he writes like you might expect such a science-based person to write:  short on descriptive detail and very fact-driven.  Still, it is motivating and very informative!

Quote from: West of the Rockies on April 06, 2014, 12:33:03 PM
I enjoyed the Hadfield book, AO.  It's a bit dry in spots; he writes like you might expect such a science-based person to write:  short on descriptive detail and very fact-driven.  Still, it is motivating and very informative!
I'm lookiing forward to it!


George Drooly

Quote from: Agent : Orange on April 06, 2014, 11:50:33 AM
Just finished Supergods by Grant Morrison and immediately afterward burned through all 11 issues of Jack Kirby's New Gods from 1971.

The former: Total garbage
The latter: Total genius

BobGrau

Quote from: George Drooly on April 07, 2014, 12:19:41 AM
The former: Total garbage...

I'm a huge Morrison fan, but I can quite imagine that people more detached than myself might find SuperGods rambling, obscure and indeed slightly boring. Morrison's big strength is his dialogue rather than the themes he's obsessed with, I wish he'd do something a little more mainstream someday, prose or a movie perhaps.

Quote from: BobGrau on April 07, 2014, 01:14:44 AM
I'm a huge Morrison fan, but I can quite imagine that people more detached than myself might find SuperGods rambling, obscure and indeed slightly boring. Morrison's big strength is his dialogue rather than the themes he's obsessed with, I wish he'd do something a little more mainstream someday, prose or a movie perhaps.

Quote from: George Drooly on April 07, 2014, 12:19:41 AM
The former: Total garbage
The latter: Total genius

Also a huge fan, which is why I picked up Supergods. I was disappointed by it. All of Morrison's interviews that I've read and watched have been insightful and his ideas are great, but reading his own words about it all was just a bit too (self-promoting? arrogant? self-important?) for me. I got something more from it that I usually don't get from his interviews, and I could have done without that. I dunno.

The best thing to come from the book was that I got off my ass and read The New Gods, which was on my "must-read" list for a long time. I'm going to head back for the few Jimmy Olsen issues Kirby did as well as The Forever People, which I'm also looking forward to. My favorite New Gods issue was "The Glory Boat", where the pacifist dude sacrifices himself to save his family, including his crazy war mongering Dad from the fish monsters from Apokalips. All kinds of awesome insanity. And holy god, can Kirby draw fight scenes too.

BobGrau

Someone mentioned Craig Ferguson on another thread, shortly after that I was looking for something to read and found I already owned his American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot. He starts by talking about Laura Bush's underpants. Good enough for me.


PS The last 2 or 3 Dark Tower novels feel rushed as hell upon re-reading. I understand him being freaked out by the accident of course, but he should have held back those versions for publishing if he died too soon, and kept working on the story at the same pace as he had before. Perhaps then Roland could have used a door to go back to Jericho Hill and pick up his horn.

The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus, by Dr. Gary Habermas and Dr. Michael R. Licona

A very comprehensive look at the historical evidence in favor of the resurrection of Jesus.


Speaking of Grant Morrison, Agent Orange wrote:  All of Morrison's interviews that I've read and watched have been insightful and his ideas are great, but reading his own words about it all was just a bit too (self-promoting? arrogant? self-important?)

I feel that way about some of Richard Feynman's work (especially, Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman)....  Passages are so braggy and self-indulgent.  Still, if I had an iota of his accomplishments, I'd probably strike a similar tone.  But it doesn't always make for enjoyable reading.

Quote from: West of the Rockies on April 07, 2014, 12:44:15 PM
Speaking of Grant Morrison, Agent Orange wrote:  All of Morrison's interviews that I've read and watched have been insightful and his ideas are great, but reading his own words about it all was just a bit too (self-promoting? arrogant? self-important?)

I feel that way about some of Richard Feynman's work (especially, Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman)....  Passages are so braggy and self-indulgent.  Still, if I had an iota of his accomplishments, I'd probably strike a similar tone.  But it doesn't always make for enjoyable reading.

I really hate finding that, especially from someone I admire. It doesn't make for enjoyable reading.

George Drooly

Morrison is a derivative, pretentious cueball.

Kirby was an goddamned freak, an idiot savant genius.

Quote from: George Drooly on April 08, 2014, 01:12:06 AM
Kirby was an goddamned freak, an idiot savant genius.
Quote from: Agent : Orange on April 06, 2014, 11:50:33 AM
Just finished Supergods by Grant Morrison and immediately afterward burned through all 11 issues of Jack Kirby's New Gods from 1971.

The Kirby stuff is pretty amazing and gets better with age, surprisingly. The idea of interlinked comics that New Gods was part of was taken by Jim Shooter and turned into big $$$ for Marvel. Secret Wars, Inferno, Acts of Vengeance, the Infinity Gauntlet. And the Infinity Gauntlet and the Thanos War (1973-1974) look awful similar to Kirby's work. "Kirby inspired" to be kind.

I think Kirby realized that the traditions of the old world were filled with old gods. Norse and Egyptian mythology, Indian mythology and the East Asian Animism and to some extent, the Saints of the Catholic Church were a pantheon, and we were living with the Nuclear Family and a single god dominated our lives. Kirby recognized that the idea of many gods had a deep appeal on the human psyche, and these superheroes were intended to become our new pantheon of gods.

zeebo

Anyone like me who's been curious about James Joyce's Ulysses, but totally lost on how to approach it, might get a kick out of this series of 5-minute podcasts by Joyce enthusiast Frank Delaney.  I've zipped through the first 20 or so and I'm finding it quite fun and interesting. 

He's basically going through it line-by-line, and unpacking references and meanings and linguistic details along the way, and since it's a long, dense, multi-layered book, it's gonna take a while.  He's been doing the blog for about 4 years, roughly one podcast per week, so he's up to about 200 podcasts, but the whole project is expected to go another twenty years! 

The book is public domain so you can find it at project gutenberg or wherever, and read along as he recites passages in his great Irish accent.  It's inspiring me to try and tackle it again, after several failed attempts.

Re: Joyce (episode 0 - introduction)


maureen

Quote from: zeebo on April 10, 2014, 02:12:50 AM
Anyone like me who's been curious about James Joyce's Ulysses, but totally lost on how to approach it, might get a kick out of this series of 5-minute podcasts by Joyce enthusiast Frank Delaney.  I've zipped through the first 20 or so and I'm finding it quite fun and interesting. 

He's basically going through it line-by-line, and unpacking references and meanings and linguistic details along the way, and since it's a long, dense, multi-layered book, it's gonna take a while.  He's been doing the blog for about 4 years, roughly one podcast per week, so he's up to about 200 podcasts, but the whole project is expected to go another twenty years! 

The book is public domain so you can find it at project gutenberg or wherever, and read along as he recites passages in his great Irish accent.  It's inspiring me to try and tackle it again, after several failed attempts.

Re: Joyce (episode 0 - introduction)
Bravo!! what a lovely adventure!! Reading Joyce is a fascinating word fest . I also have seen how Joyce uses the language of the colonizer to create a new voice for Ireland. Finnegan's Wake is a linguistic liberation. And Ulysses is grand!!

zeebo

Quote from: maureen on April 10, 2014, 12:11:56 PM
...Finnegan's Wake is a linguistic liberation.

That's putting it mildly.  :)  I've read through some of it, and at first you think maybe it's nonsense, and yet something in your brain tells you something is being communicated, however strangely or indirectly.  Sometimes I like to just scan through it for interesting tidbits like this one:  "The whool of the whaal in the wheel of the whorl ..."  I don't know what it means but it sounds cool.  8)

Quote from: zeebo on April 11, 2014, 05:56:29 PM
That's putting it mildly.  :)  I've read through some of it, and at first you think maybe it's nonsense, and yet something in your brain tells you something is being communicated, however strangely or indirectly.  Sometimes I like to just scan through it for interesting tidbits like this one:  "The whool of the whaal in the wheel of the whorl ..."  I don't know what it means but it sounds cool.  8)

After reading Joyce you should listen to some rap music. Its a really good combination.

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