What are you currently reading?

Started by facehugger, April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 6 Guests are viewing this topic.

Kullervo

Quote from: Haffner on March 20, 2008, 06:42:25 AM


I understand, Corey, but I don't ever want to pretend like I'm putting on airs. Or that my opinion is particularly important. I just wanted to put in my two cents, and I was probably kind of dumb to do so in the first place.


One of the most laughable parts in that book is that age old saw about the questioning of Christ's historical existence, a position very few secular scholars take seriously these days. Nietzsche actually jeopardized the validity of his overall philosophy by blaming the "invention" of Christianity solely on St. Paul, as a "plot" to undermine the Roman Empire. As if the "secret" wouldn't have been out by now. It's so dumb it brings tears of hilarity to my eyes.

OOOPS there I go again.

I will probably eventually read it anyway. I don't read philosophical texts to support what I already know or to be edified, but to gain a greater perspective.

Haffner

Quote from: Corey on March 20, 2008, 06:51:57 AM
I will probably eventually read it anyway. I don't read philosophical texts to support what I already know or to be edified, but to gain more perspective.



You said it, and I admire you for putting it so well.

There was a time I even read LaVey's Satanic Bible and the ultimately despicable Extermination Zone by Randall Phillips.

Florestan

Quote from: erato on March 20, 2008, 06:48:59 AM
Of some threads that led to great disagreement.

You can easily ignore them altogether.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Haffner

Quote from: Florestan on March 20, 2008, 07:08:53 AM
You can easily ignore them altogether.



I wonder if people whom claim to have such a hard time ignoring certain topics (obviously I'm not referring to erato) tend to reveal more than they'd like to about themselves via their "protest too much" adamance.

Bogey

There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

bwv 1080

#1085


By the guy with the gun to his head - becoming one of my favorite authors, this is the fourth book of his I have read (Europe Central The Atlas and The Ice Shirt being the others).  This is part of his Seven Dreams series detailing clashes between European and Native Cultures in North America.  This one deals with the Inuit, contrasting Franklin's ill fated 19th century expedition with the Canadian government forceably relocating them in the 1950s to desolate islands in the high artic so that Canadian sovereignty over the Islands would be secure and then to modern settlements with inuit kids huffing gasoline and leading rather hopeless lives

val

PLATO:   "The Statesman"

It is impossible to me to read this Dialogue without thinking of Karl Popper's critic. If we accept Plato's question "who should command the State",it is difficult not to agree with him when he answers: "the better, the few enlightened."
But as Popper says, that is not the essential question. We shall ask "what system provides us the best means to get ride of a bad government?". And here, the answer is obvious: Democracy, that Plato's despises so much.

Florestan

Quote from: val on March 24, 2008, 02:20:31 AM
PLATO:   "The Statesman"

It is impossible to me to read this Dialogue without thinking of Karl Popper's critic. If we accept Plato's question "who should command the State",it is difficult not to agree with him when he answers: "the better, the few enlightened."
But as Popper says, that is not the essential question. We shall ask "what system provides us the best means to get ride of a bad government?". And here, the answer is obvious: Democracy, that Plato's despises so much.

Yes, but democracy is also the answer to the question "what system provides us the best means to elect a bad government".  ;D :D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

val

But we also can replace it by a better government without a bloodbath.

Florestan

Quote from: val on March 24, 2008, 04:39:08 AM
But we also can replace it by a better government without a bloodbath.

Yes.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

orbital

Not reading as much as looking but I got that amazing book by Jill Greenberg called "Monkey Portraits". They contain some fascinating close-up shots of various types of monkeys and apes.
http://www.amazon.com/Monkey-Portraits-Jill-Greenberg/dp/0821257552

Some of the pictures can be seen on Greenberg's website:
http://www.paulkopeikingallery.com/artists/greenberg/index2.htm

SonicMan46

Last year, purchased The New Bach Reader (1998), revised & expanded by Christoph Wolff (original first released in 1945 by Hans David & Arthur Mendel, both deceased) - this is an 'unusual' book; a variety of sections beginning w/ a short outline of Bach, followed by sections w/ compilations of letters, documents, etc. on Bach (many by Bach, himself), and a later section of Forkel's bio of Bach (based on correspondence w/ Bach's two elder sons); Bach is also looked at in the latter half of the 18th & first part of the 19th centuries - this is not a book to be read from 'page to page' - I skipped through the pages picking 'what' seemed of interest to me - this is a book that you would come back to as a reference depending on various aspects of Bach that may be of interest to you - check HERE for plenty of Amazonian comments - worth a look if present in a bookstore or a library checkout -  :D


Kullervo



The one I have is not the one pictured, but a very old Modern Library edition.

MN Dave

An entertaining science fantasy.


Haffner



Haffner

Quote from: MN Dave on March 25, 2008, 08:23:16 AM
Here's the second book.

http://www.amazon.com/World-Too-Near-Book-Entire/dp/1591026423/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b



But when you wrote "entertaining" in review, I wonder if that's just a "bare, minimally acceptable" rating.

MN Dave

Quote from: Haffner on March 25, 2008, 08:27:35 AM


But when you wrote "entertaining" in review, I wonder if that's just a "bare, minimally acceptable" rating.

Being entertained is all I ask when I read something like this. It's a lot of fun so far.

MN Dave


Bogey

There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz