The Book Thread

[JTA]

Anyone reading anything interesting at the moment? I'm almost finished reading the book I'm on right now and don't know what to pick up next. Got any suggestions for the following topics:

1) Philosophy

2) Religion

3) History

4) Politics (ugh)

5) Fiction

6) Other

I'll start. Here's a few that I found especially interesting and enjoyable:

1) Philosophy
- Bertrand Russel - History of Western Philosophy
- Herbert Marcuse - One Dimensional Man
- Oswald Spengler - Decline of the West
- Martin Heidegger - Nietzsche (Currently trudging through Volume II of this beast)
... many more.

2) Religion
- Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
- Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition
- The Masks of God, Vol. 3: Occidental Mythology - Joseph Campbell

3) History
- Ernst Junger - Storm of Steel (intense book)
- Guy Sajer - Forgotten Soldier
- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

5) Fiction
- Air in the Paragraph, Line 12: The Weird, Paranoid, and Insane.

6) Other
- Tyr: Myth, Culture, Tradition - Volumes I, II, III

[JTA]

How could I have forgotten these:

5) Fiction
- Celine - Death on the Installment Plan
- Celine - Journey to the End of the Night

[neoplacebo]

I'm just about to finish re-reading Neil Sheehan's "A Bright Shining Lie - John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam," a "truth is stranger than fiction" tale of incredible self delusion and wishful thinking that permeated the US military and political organizations at the highest levels for about ten years. As for any recommendations, I say pick up any of Tom Clancy's novels; he's brilliant at weaving contemporary issues and concerns into realistic scenarios. He died a couple of months ago.....

[Wneglia]

I second the recommendation for Clancy's novels. Have read most, and just finished "Command Authority". I also like John Grisham, Vince Flynn (deceased), Brad Thor, David Baldacci, Nelson DeMille, among others. I read mostly fiction, but may try some non-fiction.

[JTA]

Alternatively, what's the worst book you've read?

[bannination]

I'm partial to physics and space, anything by Brian Greene, Steven Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, or Richard Feynman. Those are all light on the math and written for anyone, if you like to get into the details Leonard Susskind is the guy for that.

On the biological side anything by Richard Dawkins is usually a good read.


On the religion side John Shelby Spong is a brilliant guy. He maintains that God is real however dispenses with all the supernatural mumbo jumbo - virgin birth, etc that happened on earth. I still disagree with him, but he writes well and makes great points. He seems like a good guy, which is probably why he gets a lot of hate from his fellow Christians.

[JTA]

I'm partial to physics and space, anything by Brian Greene, Steven Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, or Richard Feynman. Those are all light on the math and written for anyone, if you like to get into the details Leonard Susskind is the guy for that.

On the biological side anything by Richard Dawkins is usually a good read.


On the religion side John Shelby Spong is a brilliant guy. He maintains that God is real however dispenses with all the supernatural mumbo jumbo - virgin birth, etc that happened on earth. I still disagree with him, but he writes well and makes great points. He seems like a good guy, which is probably why he gets a lot of hate from his fellow Christians.

I've been meaning to grab some books by Richard Dawkins. If you only had one to suggest, which one would it be?

[neoplacebo]

Alternatively, what's the worst book you've read?

The phone book. Luckily, they're about to phase out the white pages.

[bannination]

I'm partial to physics and space, anything by Brian Greene, Steven Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, or Richard Feynman. Those are all light on the math and written for anyone, if you like to get into the details Leonard Susskind is the guy for that.

On the biological side anything by Richard Dawkins is usually a good read.


On the religion side John Shelby Spong is a brilliant guy. He maintains that God is real however dispenses with all the supernatural mumbo jumbo - virgin birth, etc that happened on earth. I still disagree with him, but he writes well and makes great points. He seems like a good guy, which is probably why he gets a lot of hate from his fellow Christians.

I've been meaning to grab some books by Richard Dawkins. If you only had one to suggest, which one would it be?

Hard choice.... I guess I'd go with "The Greatest Show on Earth" http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Ear ... 525&sr=1-5

[Bungalow Bill]

I just reread Death on the Installment Plan last year. Wonderful book
and pretty funny too. I enjoy reading Balzac too.

An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume. Short and
fairly easy to understand, written by one of the early modern skeptics.

Language, Truth and Logic by A.J. Ayer. More difficult than Hume, but a
good primer on logical positivism.

The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood. One of the
main themes is that most of the Founding Fathers wanted people like themselves
to run the government and the "lower" class of citizens weren't fit to be in government
and should basically play a subservient role. Many were disappointed that things
didn't work out that way.

Case Closed by Gerald Posner. The best and most effective case made for
Oswald as the lone assassin.

I don't read books on religion. No doubt there are some good ones about the
history and sociology of religion, but I'm just not that interested in the finer
points of supernaturalism.

[O Really]

You guys are waaaay too deep for me. I spend a lot of time in the act of reading, work, news stuff, yada, so when I look for recreational literature it's usually in the form of audio books. In the car, on the plane, while waiting for something, whenever. So my criteria include - complex enough story to be interesting, but not so complex that it takes real concentration to keep up; believable and interesting characters that I can care about; overall high quality writing. Toward the top of my list are James Lee Burke novels. He is excellent at developing characters, giving detailed descriptions of locations and making you think you're right there. The story lines themselves are a little predictable, but the character development more than makes up for it.

And Grisham, of course, along with some on Wneglia's list.

[JTA]

I just reread Death on the Installment Plan last year. Wonderful book
and pretty funny too. I enjoy reading Balzac too.

An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume. Short and
fairly easy to understand, written by one of the early modern skeptics.

Language, Truth and Logic by A.J. Ayer. More difficult than Hume, but a
good primer on logical positivism.

The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood. One of the
main themes is that most of the Founding Fathers wanted people like themselves
to run the government and the "lower" class of citizens weren't fit to be in government
and should basically play a subservient role. Many were disappointed that things
didn't work out that way.

Case Closed by Gerald Posner. The best and most effective case made for
Oswald as the lone assassin.

I don't read books on religion. No doubt there are some good ones about the
history and sociology of religion, but I'm just not that interested in the finer
points of supernaturalism.

Death on the Installment Plan is probably one of the only books that caused me to physically bust out laughing.

[JTA]

You guys are waaaay too deep for me. I spend a lot of time in the act of reading, work, news stuff, yada, so when I look for recreational literature it's usually in the form of audio books. In the car, on the plane, while waiting for something, whenever. So my criteria include - complex enough story to be interesting, but not so complex that it takes real concentration to keep up; believable and interesting characters that I can care about; overall high quality writing. Toward the top of my list are James Lee Burke novels. He is excellent at developing characters, giving detailed descriptions of locations and making you think you're right there. The story lines themselves are a little predictable, but the character development more than makes up for it.

And Grisham, of course, along with some on Wneglia's list.

If you ever develop insomnia, pick up a copy of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

If you ever find yourself in need of a migraine, pick up a copy of Heidegger's Being and Time.

[JTA]

I don't read books on religion. No doubt there are some good ones about the
history and sociology of religion, but I'm just not that interested in the finer
points of supernaturalism.

I'm not a particularly religious individual myself, but I've developed a definite interest in Christianity recently. I'm not trying to find truth or God or trying to be saved or anything like that, I just find it interesting to study - the symbols, the philosophy, etc, in light of the obvious secularization of the world. What are the consequences, how will we confront the encroachment of nihilism, etc. Would we still remain Christian at the core despite our atheism? Is this something that also needs to re-evaluated and surpassed? How do we see ourselves in relation to our existence/the world? How has several thousand years of Christian thought influenced the way we see the world, if at all? Can we simply throw it away and proclaim we're free from Christianity? Is it that easy? Interesting stuff man.

"Christianity is Platonism for the masses." - Nietzsche. What are the consequences of this?

[Bungalow Bill]

I use to LOL at The Catcher in the Rye, but I haven't read it in
such a long time I don't know if it would still have that effect on me.

I'd put Hegel somewhere between Kant and Heidegger in terms of
difficulty. Kant is difficult, but I think it's more a difficulty of keeping
all the terms and divisions of his philosophy straight, at least in
the CPR, whereas Hegel is very hard to follow period to me.

I usually stick to the classic old timers--Dickens, Faulkner, James,
Dostoyevsky, etc. Raymond Chandler is a good crime writer. I've
never really had a need for audio books. I wish e-books had been
invented thirty years ago, then one wouldn't have to worry about
having enough space to store books.

There are probably many interesting books on the subject of
religion, but there is only so much time so I leave those out.

Book TV on C-Span on the weekends often has some interesting
talks by and interviews with non-fiction writers. A writer was on
last night talking about his recent book about Roger Ailes and Fox
News.

[JTA]

Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. What an amazing book.

[billy.pilgrim]

Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. What an amazing book.

Zola's Germinal


Do you read Faulkner?

[JTA]

I'm about 1/4 of the way through Steinbeck's East of Eden. This is the second book I've picked up by him. This dude is amazing! This book sounded really lame from reading the synopsis - bunch of family drama etc etc. But shit man, I highly recommend. I can't put it down! Has anyone else read it?

[JTA]

Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. What an amazing book.

Zola's Germinal


Do you read Faulkner?

I haven't read anything by Faulkner yet. What should I start with?

[O Really]

Steinbeck: I think Grapes of Wrath is best; also good is Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat.

Not a big fan of Faulkner, but I think in order to claim to be educated, everybody has to read something he wrote. Avoid "The Bear" like the plague.
And if you ever have the misfortune to be going through Mississippi and go through Holly Springs (close to Oxford), you can see Faulkner's environment live and preserved, with some of the original characters maybe still haunting the place.