What are you currently reading?

[AnotherSpin]

Maybe the best book I've read that is thematically connected to India. It's not simply about India in general, but especially about Kolkata, the first city I visited on a journey through India that lasted many years. I was lucky enough to spend some time in Kolkata, and it's a place I'd love to return to.

The feeling of India is something you sense immediately upon arrival, from the very first minute in the country. It's a sensation almost impossible to put into words, yet the author manages to capture it brilliantly. The way Chaudhuri writes is pure magic. How he does it, I honestly don't know. But then, magic isn't really something you're meant to understand, is it? Not with the mind, anyway.

Here the focus falls not on dramatic events but on the seemingly trivial: beads of sweat, the smell of fried rice, street dust, the click of a ceiling fan, the torpor of noon. These details evoke a meditative stillness, not a path to something else but reality itself. The narrative pares back surface layers to arrive at pure presence, nameless and formless.

Watching the family life in Kolkata isn't just the plot, it's like a practice of really seeing. The observer just watches life going on and through that gets closer to this non-dual awareness where the lines between self and others, subject and object, start to blur.

Chaudhuri describes these moments with such intensity that time seems to freeze and they become timeless. City, family, language, customs all come together into this one sense of being. All is one.

[Lisztianwagner]

Cover of the Italian language edition:

Michail Bulgakov
The Master and Margarita

[Karl Henning]

I've reached the end of this re-reading of Lord of the Rings. Do I re-read the appendices? I remember still quite vividly how eagerly I ate them up the very first time I read the book(s.) Maybe I shall.

[JBS]

Begun this


Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook is one of the most influential and least influential rabbis of the 20th century. That's because people tend to pick and choose what they want from his broad output, and pretend the rest doesn't exist. This book probes some of his newly published writings (90 years after his death there are still some that were never published or only published with cuts and edits intended to hide his more eccentric or controversial views) and some topics he wrote on that were neglected by earlier writers.

[Henk]

[hopefullytrusting]

Ivan Illich's Celebration of Awareness (helping me clarify the rest of my life)

[JBS]

Visit to a used book store I've never been to before. Large but unfortunately an hour's drive away, assuming no traffic jams on I95.



It should be noted that only the Orwell and Eight of Swords are the precise editions and covers. The Edgeworth is an earlier Penguin printing with a less interesting (because less comical) cover; the Radcliffe is an earlier OCT edition; the other two Carrs are completely different editions from the ones listed by Amazon.

[SimonNZ]

[AnotherSpin]

What do you think of the first book (The Soviet Mind)? It's been on my reading list for a long time.

[SimonNZ]

What do you think of the first book (The Soviet Mind)? It's been on my reading list for a long time.

I'll have to get back to you once I've finished the collection.

Ordinarily a roundup of Berlin essays would be easily recommended, but...this is published by the Brookings Institute, with a forward by the president of the Brookings Institute that makes a big plug for the Brookings Institute.
And I suspect the curating has an agenda beyond fandom of Berlin. Maybe that wont matter and the sharpness of Berlins mind will shine through anyway. Maybe so, but there is a warning light flashing for me that says there is a thumb on the scales somewhere here.

[Daverz]

Heard these guys on Sean Carroll's Mindscape podcast:

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/05/26/316-niayesh-afshordi-and-phil-halper-on-the-big-bang-and-before/

Got it to catch up on the advances in cosmology since I left university 30 years ago.

[Florestan]

I'll have to get back to you once I've finished the collection.

Ordinarily a roundup of Berlin essays would be easily recommended, but...this is published by the Brookings Institute, with a forward by the president of the Brookings Institute that makes a big plug for the Brookings Institute.
And I suspect the curating has an agenda beyond fandom of Berlin. Maybe that wont matter and the sharpness of Berlins mind will shine through anyway. Maybe so, but there is a warning light flashing for me that says there is a thumb on the scales somewhere here.

Even if published by the Heritage Foundation with a preface by Donald Trump, Isaiah Berlin would remains himself: one of the sharpest minds of the 20th century and one of the most cultured, intelligent & humane advocates of liberalism.

With respect to the topic at hand, I strongly recommend this book:



Illuminating, erudite, non-partisan --- excellent in all respects.

[SimonNZ]

Even if published by the Heritage Foundation with a preface by Donald Trump, Isaiah Berlin would remains himself: one of the sharpest minds of the 20th century and one of the most cultured, intelligent & humane advocates of liberalism.

I agree in principle, though in the scenario you give I'd be so highly suspicious that the text hadn't been altered or inconvenient passages removed that I'd avoid it and read a collection from a more reputable publisher.

Certainly anyone can avoid the introduction which may try to steer you to make conclusions that Berlin might have disagreed with. But there is also the possibility of misrepresenting the author by selecting only the essays that conform to a viewpoint. This is common with practically everybody's view of Orwell's politics, which selective readings can be made to bend to a variety of contradictory positions if taken as representative of the whole.

I've got a copy of Russian Thinkers at home, along with a couple of other collections, and I'll be getting to those sooner rather than later as the conversations book has whetted my appetite for a much better familiarity with his output.

[AnotherSpin]

Dark Vector by Ward Larsen. Solid spy thriller, mostly set in the lovely frozen hellscape of Siberia. A Russian test pilot flying a top-secret jet decides he's had enough of the Motherland and tries to defect to the West. Doesn't quite go smoothly, he crash-lands somewhere in the middle of nowhere, still heading toward freedom.

The Americans get involved fast, trying to extract him. Meanwhile, the Russians send in their usual welcoming committee: a brutal intelligence general and his team of loyal thugs, all happily operating without a shred of conscience.

The pace is fast, with plenty of action, clever spy stuff, and tough-as-nails characters. The Russians are portrayed pretty accurately, violent, dead-eyed, and completely unhinged animals.

If you're in the mood for a tense, punchy read where the good guys are clearly the good guys, and the villains are exactly what you'd expect from the FSB, this one delivers.

[LKB]

I've reached the end of this re-reading of Lord of the Rings. Do I re-read the appendices? I remember still quite vividly how eagerly I ate them up the very first time I read the book(s.) Maybe I shall.

A few hours ago ( before seeing Karl's post above ), by sheer coincidence I got out the fancy edition of The Lord of the Rings which I bought a while back, but never really even looked it over except to ensure it had arrived undamaged.

Since my semi-retirement began last month, I've been filling most of the newly-available hours with entertainments of various types. Reading, however, has not been among them, and Karl's post has prodded me into considering whether the time has come to re-immerse myself in The Great Tale.

I also recall someone asking for pictures of the edition I purchased, so I'll try to make that happen in this thread over the next couple days ( assuming I can avoid the perils of Middle Earth ... ).

[hopefullytrusting]

Just received my Palestinian bundle from Skate Pal: 100 percent of the proceeds go to Palestine



Cannot wait to crack both of them open - they are gorgeously produced (maybe the best looking books I currently own).

Here's the link if you are interested in the bundle: https://www.skatepal.co.uk/shop/p/skatepal-book-bundle

[JBS]

Just received my Palestinian bundle from Skate Pal: 100 percent of the proceeds go to Palestine



Cannot wait to crack both of them open - they are gorgeously produced (maybe the best looking books I currently own).

Here's the link if you are interested in the bundle: https://www.skatepal.co.uk/shop/p/skatepal-book-bundle

I liked the tea towel.

Whilst it is intended for drying dishes, dual-purpose functionality means it can also be used as a bandana or sweat-rag during summer skate sessions.

Based on a short feature inside the book, the graphic features a collection of chef motifs sourced from restaurant entrances all across the West Bank. The origin story of 'the winking chef' remains shrouded in mystery, but while his appearance flexes from Italian to Asian to Turkic, one thing is clear: he's always a sure sign you're about to eat well.

[Florestan]

If interested in the subject, this is a fascinating, eminently readable piece of cultural history.

[Papy Oli]

Completed : Mick Herron - Slow Horses (Slough House Vol.1)

Really enjoyed this and impressed how the TV series stayed so close to the novel. If anything the dénouement actually felt more rushed in the novel than the series. I couldn't help hearing the voices of Jackson Lamb and Lady Di Taverner as I read along (which, in the case of Kristin Scott Thomas, is not a bad thing really  )



On the go:

Graham Greene - Travels with my Aunt

About a quarter of the way in.
Mr Greene channelling Jerome K. Jerome with hilarious lines.

[SimonNZ]

Completed : Mick Herron - Slow Horses (Slough House Vol.1)

Really enjoyed this and impressed how the TV series stayed so close to the novel. If anything the dénouement actually felt more rushed in the novel than the series. I couldn't help hearing the voices of Jackson Lamb and Lady Di Taverner as I read along (which, in the case of Kristin Scott Thomas, is not a bad thing really  )

Seasons three and four deviate from the novels they are based on much more than the first two. Especially wrt Herron's habit of bumping off one or two favorite characters in every book. Someone must have decided that was bad for casting or audience engagement.

TD: finished:



Exactly the HYW book I had been wanting, one that isn't just military history with an unending sequence of battles, but thematic chapters on how different aspects of society changed across the generations it spans. A University Press book well written and engaging. Now I feel better prepared to approach Sumption's five-volume colossus.