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

[blarneylad]

Anyone read Anthony Robbins' book about money?

I’ve read it. When it first came out. Awesome read very informative. But more central to finance USA style. Goes into depth about different ways to invest like index funds, annuities, life insurance. And he highlights a simplistic portfolio breakdown that lines up with Ray Dalio investment style

 

[Prometheus1]

Just finished up It..not crazy about the last few hundred pages..

Just Started Mists of Avalon..so far, so good

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

I mostly remember It being a LONG read, much more so than you would expect from that genre. Just an endless book. King pretty much admits now in interviews that he wrote it during the worse of his substance abuse issues and he wasn't bothering with editing his ideas all that much at that point in his career. He just left everything in and said : f*** it, let's do another line of blow and start the next book.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Just finished up It..not crazy about the last few hundred pages..

Just Started Mists of Avalon..so far, so good

King is probably the worst bestselling author at writting endings. Most of his endings suck. The worst was the end of the Dark Tower series.

It's the reason I stopped reading King a long time ago. You invest so much time reading what is often up to 1000 pages only to end-up with a major letdown.

 

[ngc_5128]

King is probably the worst bestselling author at writting endings. Most of his endings suck. The worst was the end of the Dark Tower series.

It's the reason I stopped reading King a long time ago. You invest so much time reading what is often up to 1000 pages only to end-up with a major letdown.

I often hear that people hated the ending of The Dark Towers series, but I absolutely loved it! I am also let down by his endings quite often. I think the last one I read was Cell. That one put me off for quite a while. For the most part, I find his short stories much more enjoyable and I suspect it is because they have satisfying endings.

 

[Prometheus1]

I haven't read The dark tower .. Want to give it a try but I've had others tell me about the poor ending unfortunately. Guess ill have to make my own opinion

 

[NotProkofievian]

King is probably the worst bestselling author at writting endings. Most of his endings suck. The worst was the end of the Dark Tower series.

It's the reason I stopped reading King a long time ago. You invest so much time reading what is often up to 1000 pages only to end-up with a major letdown.

Well, there was that one time he ended a book with an 11 year old gang bang. I mean, who saw that one coming?

 

[QuebecPride]

Thanks for answer. The books on psychology of money are not about personal finance tips like the books you talked about though.

I did not talk about Wealthy Barber (and second book Wealthy Barber Returns), but they are good books about personal finance. Some specific investment advice is dated in wealthy barber regarding picking mutual funds, but he updates it in his second book. Having specific advice for Canadians is nice.

The guy from Rich Dad Poor Dad is a liar, so his book must be read with caution. Don’t buy any product from his company.
The Ultimate Hypocrite: Robert Kiyosaki and His Company's Bankruptcy

Trust me, I know Behavioral/Psychology of finance is a whole different subject than personal finance although it can be related . As a MSc. Finance Student here in Edinburgh I have had a class of Behavioral Finance. Nudge by Thaler is in my bookshelf, I should read it this Summer.

I wasn't aware for Kiyosaki. I did not buy his book though, as I rented it at my local library a couple years ago.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Trust me, I know Behavioral/Psychology of finance is a whole different subject than personal finance although it can be related . As a MSc. Finance Student here in Edinburgh I have had a class of Behavioral Finance. Nudge by Thaler is in my bookshelf, I should read it this Summer.

I wasn't aware for Kiyosaki. I did not buy his book though, as I rented it at my local library a couple years ago.

My mom and her family are from Dundee, not all that far from Edinburgh. I go visit my relatives there every year around Christmas . It's by the River Tay, real beautiful, in that rustic Scottish sort of way. Rains all the damn time though but that's Scotland for ya

 

[NotProkofievian]

Trust me, I know Behavioral/Psychology of finance is a whole different subject than personal finance although it can be related . As a MSc. Finance Student here in Edinburgh I have had a class of Behavioral Finance. Nudge by Thaler is in my bookshelf, I should read it this Summer.

I wasn't aware for Kiyosaki. I did not buy his book though, as I rented it at my local library a couple years ago.

You should. Misbehaving is a good read.

 

[Runner77]

About to reread Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume. Highly recommend all novels by Robbins.

Curious about your comment in respect of rereading books. How often does that happen?

Do you find it's a matter of reliving a pleasant experience when say, you really enjoyed a book many years ago and rather than explore something new, you'd rather reread since there are a lot of details you don't remember anymore? I've done this with certain films, like The Shawshank Redemption -- I've seen over 30 times and never get tired of it, but books not so much.

 

[Runner77]

My mom and her family are from Dundee, not all that far from Edinburgh. I go visit my relatives there every year around Christmas . It's by the River Tay, real beautiful, in that rustic Scottish sort of way. Rains all the damn time though but that's Scotland for ya

Sounds like the premise for a novel that you could write, from a Canadian perspective. And touch on the immigrant experience. How close do you relate to the country on account of being there every year? What have you discovered? Do you feel a greater attachment every time you go, etc. So many things that could be said, from the unique perspective of someone who has family there, the whole dynamic is intriguing for someone on the outside looking in, like a reader who's never been vs. what probably looks like a routine experience for you after having gone there so many times.

I don't know if you have writing ambitions, but was just using that as an example of how there are things we're privy to in our lives that may fascinate others but we don't necessarily appreciate the impact. They say we're at our best when we write about what we know. If nothing more comes out of your experience, it's still sounds like something enriching and you're lucky to have it. Thanks for sharing.

 

[groovejuice]

Curious about your comment in respect of rereading books. How often does that happen?

Do you find it's a matter of reliving a pleasant experience when say, you really enjoyed a book many years ago and rather than explore something new, you'd rather reread since there are a lot of details you don't remember anymore? I've done this with certain films, like The Shawshank Redemption -- I've seen over 30 times and never get tired of it, but books not so much.

It's a mood thing most of the time. I have a rather large library of books and like to make use of them.

I was in the mood for something clever and humerous and realized its been 20 years since I read Tom Robbins. Jitterbug Perfume is my favorite so that's the one I grabbed.

I still have the first adult book I ever read which is a magnificently illustrated version of Robinson Crusoe. I've had it a very long time and the proof is my name written inside the back cover in barely legible green crayon.

 

[Runner77]

Is there a book that you started many years ago, forgot about it or just never got to finish, it ended up in a box or in the back of a bookshelf?

I have such a book and shamefully am looking for it after having completely forgotten about it.

It was recommended to me by an English couple who I had met while spending extended time in Europe and who I was taking a class with at the time. They were very bullish about D.M. Thomas,, The White Hotel.

I'd be curious to know if anyone has read this book or if you have heard of the author.

 

[Runner77]

It's a mood thing most of the time. I have a rather large library of books and like to make use of them.

I was in the mood for something clever and humerous and realized its been 20 years since I read Tom Robbins. Jitterbug Perfume is my favorite so that's the one I grabbed.

I still have the first adult book I ever read which is a magnificently illustrated version of Robinson Crusoe. I've had it a very long time and the proof is my name written inside the back cover in barely legible green crayon.

My version of one of those early books I had fond memories of is The Pearl by John Steinbeck. I wonder how I'd react to it, if I read now, with so much more life experience -- I wonder if the some of the same elements would impact upon me as they once did. I remember it being a short, simple book but engrossing nonetheless. It's fascinating how your perspective evolves over time and how your reading of the same book many decades later, has you discovering new aspects that were always there but you didn't quite see them the same.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Sounds like the premise for a novel that you could write, from a Canadian perspective. And touch on the immigrant experience. How close do you relate to the country on account of being there every year? What have you discovered? Do you feel a greater attachment every time you go, etc. So many things that could be said, from the unique perspective of someone who has family there, the whole dynamic is intriguing for someone on the outside looking in, like a reader who's never been vs. what probably looks like a routine experience for you after having gone there so many times.

I don't know if you have writing ambitions, but was just using that as an example of how there are things we're privy to in our lives that may fascinate others but we don't necessarily appreciate the impact. They say we're at our best when we write about what we know. If nothing more comes out of your experience, it's still sounds like something enriching and you're lucky to have it. Thanks for sharing.

It's kind of an ambiguous relationship in my case because I'm only ever there for short periods of time, once or twice a year really. My mom left Dundee in the mid-sixties when she was a very young woman and she never really put that much emphasis on her heritage when I was growing up. I only actually started to get a better feel for my own Scottish heritage through classic literature, reading Robert Burns and Walter Scott notably. Certain passages would really move me in ways I didn't quite comprehend and after a while I'd be like : ''I guess this means I really am one of theirs'' , you know ? Now that I'm older I notice that stuff a lot more.

 

[groovejuice]

My version of one of those early books I had fond memories of is The Pearl by John Steinbeck. I wonder how I'd react to it, if I read now, with so much more life experience -- I wonder if the some of the same elements would impact upon me as they once did. I remember it being a short, simple book but engrossing nonetheless. It's fascinating how your perspective evolves over time and how your reading of the same book many decades later, has you discovering new aspects that were always there but you didn't quite see them the same.

That is the beauty with rereading a great book or rewatching a brilliant film after a time. You'll rediscover the genius and pick up nuances and subtleties previously overlooked.

 

[QuebecPride]

My mom and her family are from Dundee, not all that far from Edinburgh. I go visit my relatives there every year around Christmas . It's by the River Tay, real beautiful, in that rustic Scottish sort of way. Rains all the damn time though but that's Scotland for ya

Cool! Yeah I've been to Dundee with my hockey team (Edinburgh Eagles) when we played St. Andrews Uni team this Fall. We're going there again for our varsity game against them in a couple of weeks. Dundee is probably the best hockey rink I've played on in the UK (others are Sheffiled, Bradford, Notthingham). Couldn't tell you much of the city though as I've only been there at night.

 

[QuebecPride]

You should. Misbehaving is a good read.

It's on my reading list for sure. Loved Michael Lewis' book about Tversky and Kahneman (The Undoing Project). I'll probably read Kahneman's Thinking fast and slow eventually as well.

 

[NotProkofievian]

It's on my reading list for sure. Loved Michael Lewis' book about Tversky and Kahneman (The Undoing Project). I'll probably read Kahneman's Thinking fast and slow eventually as well.

I tried to pick up Thinking Fast and Slow a couple times, but the bookstores were always out of it. Of course, I got the idea to read Kahneman from Thaler. They're interesting dudes, for sure.

...maybe I'll just read their papers lol.

 

[dackelljuneaubulis02]

If you are an advanced reader and you are a fan of psychological/suspense books read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

My favorite book of all time.

I enjoyed it. It's a tad over-hyped by some who tout it as one of the best novels ever. It's very unique and as much as you can say some of his typograhical innovativeness can be gimmicky, it actually works well with the novel. The Whalestoe Letters section is down right terrifying and heartbreaking. Definitely where you can see the writing is top-notch. I still haven't read his other one the Only Revolutions. Hasn't he come out with another one?

Some of it is actually quite readable. It's just when he gets you reading World documentaries backwards and what not hahaha.

I am currently reading Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s third and final installment of "The Gulag Archipelago" and before that I read Aldous Huxley’s "Brave New World".

After Solzhenitsyn’s harrowing series, I’m gonna move on to either Fyodor Dostoevsky’s "The Idiot" or the anthology of the collective works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Decisions decisions...

Peterson fan!

Have you read Dostoevsky before?

If you haven't, I really recommend starting with The Brothers Karamazov.

The Idiot is not incredibly suspenseful and quite dense, probably not the best place to start for Dostoevsky beginners.

Really? Brothers is one of his most dense isn't it? It's truly one of the best novels ever written. He's an absolute magician. No writer has any right to be that readable while being one of the most profound minds that's ever existed.

Anyone ever read Chuck Palahniuk's old books? Not the recent ones as he now caters to teen girls... but the old ones like Rant, Lullaby, Choke and and and Fight Club?? Really good dark satire if anyone is into that.

I read Choke awhile ago and didn't much care for it. He's a little too frat-boy or something like that

What a coincidence! Dr. Jordan Peterson also steered me to the book. I've been following him for about a year and a half. Most of his psychological insights into story is a rehash of my college and university humanities courses. I went to school when the humanities weren't teaching post modernist garbage. I have been a big reader of Jung and Nietzsche so I had a strong affinity to Dr. Peterson's lectures. I had been struggling with a story that had the same subject matter that is covered in Ordinary Men. So when Peterson mentioned it I jumped on it. I'm in my third reading. I need to get the right tone and that book captures it perfectly. The boundary that divides good from bad doesn't run between me and you but rather through all of us. That's the through line for my story and I want to tell it without slipping into propaganda.

It's an utter shame that Jung is painted as a 'pseudoscientist' nowadays. Reading his autobiography, "Memories, Dreams, and Reflections" was one of the most profound experiences of my life.

Love Peterson. I get why he's problematic for some and at times he even has me raising my eye brows at some stuff he says/does but it's amazing his detractors just don't understand him.

I usually have a couple of books that I read at the same time, one that takes some time and after thought and one that is a bit "lighter". Right now I read "Sapiens, a Brief History of Humankind" by an Israeli historian named Yuval Noah Harari and "Sea of Rust" a sci-fi novel by C Robert Gargill.

I read Homo Deus and Sapiens is now ready for me at the library. All in all I liked Homo Deus. He oversimplifies a lot which is understandable considering how broad and wide-ranging he is but he's still an interesting writer.

Eugenics wetdream. Wonder what Huxley would make of today's social and biological sciences and the new vision and paradigm of human nature.

If you're really interested in understanding human nature, there's no better time than now, and no outdated philosophy or fictional dystopia will ever come close. All those books I read in my early 20's just misguided how i saw human nature.

Huxley was actually pro-Eugenics in his younger days. There's an interesting collection of essays on that issue compiled in a book called 'The Hidden Huxley". Haven't read it in awhile but it was still interesting to see his thoughts on that.

Just finished 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheeps?', by Philip K. Dick, and I loved it. Short but dense, love the way he writes, you really are into the action, into their heads... at some points, you just get into some maelstrom where you don't really know what's happening then you get out and understand it was a simple thought by a character.

Before that, managed to get into '1984' (George Orwell). Knew his work for a while, just didn't take the time to read this book. I see plots and deception everywhere now. (already did, but it only was amplified, and I love it hahaha)

Read 'Dune' (Frank Herbert) a couple months ago (had it on the shelves for a while before finally deciding to kick in). Damn masterpiece... loved the movie when I was a kid, still love it despite its obvious flaws compared to the book, but the book itself, damn...

Now beginning 'The Last Wish' (Andrzej Sapkowski), The Witcher story from the beginning essentially, got all 7 books of his before christmas, so I'm off to a nice trip.

PKD's the best. Love 'Valis'. 'Do Androids...' is great. Not like Blade Runner much at all. I still love both.

It's bizarre that I haven't read '1984' yet but I'm going to soon. 'Animal Farm' was great.

About to reread Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume. Highly recommend all novels by Robbins.

I tried Robbins' awhile ago and I quickly got fed up with how wordy he was. It felt self-indulgent. But, I could definitely try it again. It felt like Pynchon but without the substance. I could easily be wrong. I gave up VERY quickly on him lol. Too quickly to form any opinion on him that could be taken seriously.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

Huxley was actually pro-Eugenics in his younger days. There's an interesting collection of essays on that issue compiled in a book called 'The Hidden Huxley". Haven't read it in awhile but it was still interesting to see his thoughts on that.

Indeed, he had also a very interesting grandfather. Thomas H. Huxley was called "Darwin's Bulldog" among other things because Darwin was a very shy and withdrawn man who hated the limelight and Huxley did and took those debates. He had a few public debates with a bishop and once when the archbishop asked if it was through his grandmother or his grandfather that Huxley was related to apes, Huxley supposedly said something like "I am not ashamed having an ape as an ancestor but I would be ashamed to be connected with a man who uses his position to obscure the truth" When the bishop later fell off his horse and died and when Huxley heard of the accident, he said something like: "Once the bishop's brain came in contact with reality, it proved fatal"

Btw a fine book about Darwin is Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist by Adrian Desmond and James Moore.

 

[QuebecPride]

I tried to pick up Thinking Fast and Slow a couple times, but the bookstores were always out of it. Of course, I got the idea to read Kahneman from Thaler. They're interesting dudes, for sure.

...maybe I'll just read their papers lol.

Amazon should have it, if you don't mind buying books from them. I should probably read their papers as well, but of course they're less accessible than the books.

 

[buddahsmoka1]

Really? Brothers is one of his most dense isn't it? It's truly one of the best novels ever written. He's an absolute magician. No writer has any right to be that readable while being one of the most profound minds that's ever existed.

Yes, it is dense. But so is most of his work. Why I think it's probably the most accessible as a beginner of Dostoevsky is because the plot is really riveting, so it drags you in. Which can't really be said for all his work - which is great, but takes a lot more patience.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

Curious about your comment in respect of rereading books. How often does that happen?

Do you find it's a matter of reliving a pleasant experience when say, you really enjoyed a book many years ago and rather than explore something new, you'd rather reread since there are a lot of details you don't remember anymore? I've done this with certain films, like The Shawshank Redemption -- I've seen over 30 times and never get tired of it, but books not so much.

I do that all the time. I have read Asimov's Foundation series at least 3 times, Rendezvous with Rama twice, I read the Darwin biography I mentioned in an earlier post twice, first in Sweden, then later when I moved to the US after being around religious people in Virginia for 3 years I needed some "fresh air", I found the Southern Baptists very hypocritical. I felt very stupid when I went to a dinner and they were saying prayers, I just stared at the food. I have nothing against religious people, live and let live. I have problems when they try to save me or knocking on the door (Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons).

Anyway, back on track. If I really like a book the chance of me re-reading it is pretty good.