OT: The Good Book: What are you reading right now?

[PaulD]

Nick Noltes biography.

Just started it. Looks good.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

1984. 1/3 in.

Heard there’s a movie too, will check it out later. Book is interesting, how true it is in present day.

Ol' George had it all wrong, though.

Big Brother isn't always watching and listening.

He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed. He's making sure your imagination withers. Until it's as useful as your appendix. He's making sure your attention is always filled. And this being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world.

(Quoted from Chuck Palahniuk's novel, Lullaby)

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Does anyone have a good dystopia novel to suggest?

I've read most of the old stuff out there. Looking for more recent ones I've not read and don't know about.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Does anyone have a good dystopia novel to suggest?

I've read most of the old stuff out there. Looking for more recent ones I've not read and don't know about.

Cormac McCarthy's the road perhaps ? Be warned though, it's a stone cold bummer . Like, you'll want a good long hug after finishing it, just to feel good about life again . It's not quite a distopian novel in the traditional sense so it might not fit what you're looking for though.

 

[ngc_5128]

Does anyone have a good dystopia novel to suggest?

I've read most of the old stuff out there. Looking for more recent ones I've not read and don't know about.

Over the last few years, here are three of the ones I enjoyed:

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Cormac McCarthy's the road perhaps ? Be warned though, it's a stone cold bummer . Like, you'll want a good long hug after finishing it, just to feel good about life again . It's not quite a distopian novel in the traditional sense so it might not fit what you're looking for though.

Oh it is dystopian. Like City of Ember is dystopian. Like any post-apocalyptic world is dystopian.

And yes, you are right, I'm looking more for the dystopian government variety.

And...

I've read the Road already. And also saw the movie, but thanks anyway for the suggestion.

Did McCarthy write other dystopias? I never bothered to check since i'm no fan and read the Road when a friend lended it to me.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Over the last few years, here are three of the ones I enjoyed:

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

Oh thanks. Haven't read or heard of any of those. Ill check em out.

 

[cashinstinct]

The best books I read this year thus far

Psychology of decisions:
- Payoff : the hidden logic that shapes our motives - Dan Ariely
- Scarcity: the new science of having less and how it defines our lives (alternative title:
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much) - Sendhil Mullainathan, and Eldar Shafir

Productivity:
- Turning Pro: tap your inner power and create your life's work - Steven Pressfield

Health (french)
- Désordonnances : Conseils plus ou moins pratiques pour survivre en santé - Alain Vadeboncoeur
- Lève-toi et marche ! Le remède miracle existe et il est gratuit - Denis Fortier

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Did McCarthy write other dystopias? I never bothered to check since i'm no fan and read the Road when a friend lended it to me.

Not that I know of no, that was a pretty unique foray into a different style for him. He's generally western/bleak drama oriented.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

The best books I read this year thus far

Psychology of decisions:
- Payoff : the hidden logic that shapes our motives - Dan Ariely
- Scarcity: the new science of having less and how it defines our lives (alternative title:
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much) - Sendhil Mullainathan, and Eldar Shafir

Productivity:
- Turning Pro: tap your inner power and create your life's work - Steven Pressfield

Health (french)
- Désordonnances : Conseils plus ou moins pratiques pour survivre en santé - Alain Vadeboncoeur
- Lève-toi et marche ! Le remède miracle existe et il est gratuit - Denis Fortier

You've read a few books about scarcity... ever read about a Resource Based Economy or Natural Law Economy?

You should read Peter Joseph's The New Human Rights Movement.

And if you really want to understand pay-off, Id suggest Robert Sapolsky's Behave.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

Does anyone have a good dystopia novel to suggest?

I've read most of the old stuff out there. Looking for more recent ones I've not read and don't know about.

Revelation Space is a series of Sci Fi novels and short stories and right now I am on the 2nd book (Chasm City) and it is one of the more dystopic readings I have come across. Nightmarish but after a while it is hard to stop reading it.

Revelation Space universe - Wikipedia

 

[cashinstinct]

And if you really want to understand pay-off, Id suggest Robert Sapolsky's Behave.

Thanks for suggestions

At 790 pages, I hope I will understand well after reading this

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Revelation Space is a series of Sci Fi novels and short stories and right now I am on the 2nd book (Chasm City) and it is one of the more dystopic readings I have come across. Nightmarish but after a while it is hard to stop reading it.

Revelation Space universe - Wikipedia

Thanks dude ill check it out

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Thanks for suggestions

At 790 pages, I hope I will understand well after reading this

It should be mandatory in high school.

 

[VirginiaMtlExpat]

Reading Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett. This trilogy is fun to read because ordinary protagonists find themselves interacting with historical figures, and the behavior of these historical figures is quite believable. In this one, we have the following, just to name two countries...
American

Real historical characters
John F. Kennedy, 35th US President	Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th US President
Jackie, his wife	Richard Nixon, 37th US President
Bobby Kennedy, his brother	Jimmy Carter, 39th US President
Dave Powers, assistant to President Kennedy	Ronald Reagan, 40th US President
Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy’s press officer	George H.W. Bush, 41st US President
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference	J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Russian:

Real historical characters
Nikita Sergeyevitch Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union	Leonid Brezhnev, Khrushchev’s successor
Andrei Gromyko, Foreign Minister under Khrushchev	Yuri Andropov, successor to Brezhnev
Rodion Malinovsky, Defence Minister under Khrushchev	Konstantin Chernenko, successor to Andropov
Alexei Kosygin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Runner77]

Reading Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett. This trilogy is fun to read because ordinary protagonists find themselves interacting with historical figures, and the behavior of these historical figures is quite believable. In this one, we have the following, just to name two countries...
American

Real historical characters
John F. Kennedy, 35th US President	Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th US President
Jackie, his wife	Richard Nixon, 37th US President
Bobby Kennedy, his brother	Jimmy Carter, 39th US President
Dave Powers, assistant to President Kennedy	Ronald Reagan, 40th US President
Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy’s press officer	George H.W. Bush, 41st US President
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference	J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Russian:

Real historical characters
Nikita Sergeyevitch Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union	Leonid Brezhnev, Khrushchev’s successor
Andrei Gromyko, Foreign Minister under Khrushchev	Yuri Andropov, successor to Brezhnev
Rodion Malinovsky, Defence Minister under Khrushchev	Konstantin Chernenko, successor to Andropov
Alexei Kosygin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

I had just bought the trilogy two weeks ago but had not gotten around to starting it. Thanks for the positive review, it'll incite me to get to it as soon as I finish my current readings.

 

[Runner77]

Going on the lighter side, I'm reading two books currently.

One is the Keith Richards's autobiography, "Life". He may have been smashed out of his brain at times but dammit, he remembers everything quite well. A good read, enjoying the parts about how he grew up and his influences.

Also concurrently reading The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix. It's about a dysfunctional family in NY. The relationship between 4 siblings unravels on account of an inheritance they are supposed to get soon but that is being compromised by the actions of one sibling in particular. However, they all have their warts and their self-destructiveness has kept my interest. Hoping it holds up til the end.

 

[viceroy]

Somewhat controversial Sci Fi writer Harlan Ellison has passed away at 84.

Was never a huge fan of his. Actually my favourite thing I ever read of his was a movie review of "The Rocketeer". He ripped that movie to shreds and his insights in storytelling were fascinating. I always meant to try to find more of his non-fiction work. In addition he was a personal friend of Dave Stevens the creator of the character.

I guess James Cameron and co got scared that he'd be crazy enough to sue them, which he most certainly was

James Cameron is a genius because he knows who to steal from. Terminator 2 is based on the Iron Giant, Titanic on Romeo and Juliet, Avatar on John Carter of Mars and True Lies was simply an adaptation of a French movie.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

James Cameron is a genius because he knows who to steal from. Terminator 2 is based on the Iron Giant, Titanic on Romeo and Juliet, Avatar on John Carter of Mars and True Lies was simply an adaptation of a French movie.

In the case of Terminator 1 it's really based in the loosest of ways possible on the Ellison short story. The time travel thing is there but outside of that it doesn't read at all like a similar narrative.

 

[Habs Icing]

Going on the lighter side, I'm reading two books currently.

One is the Keith Richards's biography, "Life". He may have been smashed out of his brain at times but dammit, he remembers everything quite well. A good read, enjoying the parts about how he grew up and his influences.

Also concurrently reading The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix. It's about a dysfunctional family in NY. The relationship between 4 siblings unravels on account of an inheritance they are supposed to get soon but that is being compromised by the actions of one sibling in particular. However, they all have their warts and their self-destructiveness has kept my interest. Hoping it holds up til the end.

I heard a funny comment about "Life" from Malcolm Gladwell in one of his recent talks. He said he noticed two contradictory themes Richards was making about himself in the book. 1) That he was a rebel all his life and 2) all the good looking women were trying to go to bed with him. Gladwell's rejoinder was if you're truly a rebel none of the good looking women will want to sleep with you. I found it funny because that's an insight that I would not come up with if I read Richards' book even though once it came out of Gladwell's mouth I realized it was true.

NB Gladwell referred to it as an autobiography which now makes me think it may not be the same book.

 

[Runner77]

I heard a funny comment about "Life" from Malcolm Gladwell in one of his recent talks. He said he noticed two contradictory themes Richards was making about himself in the book. 1) That he was a rebel all his life and 2) all the good looking women were trying to go to bed with him. Gladwell's rejoinder was if you're truly a rebel none of the good looking women will want to sleep with you. I found it funny because that's an insight that I would not come up with if I read Richards' book even though once it came out of Gladwell's mouth I realized it was true.

NB Gladwell referred to it as an autobiography which now makes me think it may not be the same book.

My bad, it's an autobiography. I'll correct my post.

 

[Habs Icing]

Somewhat controversial Sci Fi writer Harlan Ellison has passed away at 84.

Man, how did I miss this news until now? I wouldn't say he was one of my favourite Sci-fi writers but I did enjoy a lot of his work. He was definitely a character.

 

[BehindTheTimes]

Brain Droppings: George Carlin, gone way too soon. Still love myself some Carlin, never gets old, perhaps the greatest comedian of all-time.

 

[THE HOFF]

just wanted to post this : joseph stiglitz's freefall . A vulgarized approach on the 2008 crisis from a nobel price winner in economics (who's also a great university teacher). It was candy for my eyes.

i've been into cooking books recently ....''reading'' Ivan Ramen right now and learning so much ...

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Brain Droppings: George Carlin, gone way too soon. Still love myself some Carlin, never gets old, perhaps the greatest comedian of all-time.

That's the only Carlin book I have and read.

I miss Carlin. All my favorite comedy quotes are from him. Im an agnostic atheist and I love telling believers that I leave symbols for the symbol-minded.

My favorite quote from Brain Droppings was the one about how having asian symbol tattoos doesn't make you more enlightened.