Social What are you currently reading?

[Burnt Offerings]

I've been checking out my grandfather's book collection recently (he died before I was born but left a pretty substantial library of old books which are now mine), I've been diving into an old compilation of Karl Marx's writings which is pretty good. It was published during the Great Depression and has a really nice introduction by Max Eastman, where he explains historical materialism in a really concise, accessible way and (rightfully imo) jettisons the German philosophical aspect of Marx's thought, the influence of Hegel and the dialectic and all that crap...

I've also been getting into The Antichrist by Nietzsche, edited & with an introduction by HL Mencken. A bunch of other books by Plato, Spinoza, Dostoevsky etc that I hope to get to at some point too! So many classics so little time lol

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I generally have two going at once (one paper book and one e-book)
Currently reading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (paperback). Haven't read anything by him before but have only heard really good things. About half-way through this and enjoying it so far.
On Kindle I'm reading a Body Horror anthology collection called Battered, Broken Bodies. Excellent so far.

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

Finished Cat's Cradle (my first Vonnegut). I wasn't blown away like I'd hoped (I've only ever heard very positive things about his work) but did enjoy it. I'd give it 4 stars (out of 5).
I liked it enough that I've started Slaughterhouse Five now.

Probably gonna read The Willow Tree next as it's the only Hubert Selby Jr novel I haven't read yet and although Last Exist To Brooklyn was not that great IMO, I have loved everything else by him.
I gotta be in a solid good mood to read his books, though, as they are usually VERY dark/depressing (if you've never read him and need an idea of how dark and depressing: he wrote Requiem for a Dream and the screen-play for the movie of the same name).

 

[Freeverse]

I just finished A Case of Need so the next in line is a battle among The Silent Patient, A Gentleman in Moscow and Animal Farm...

 

[Freeverse]

A bunch of other books by Plato, Spinoza, Dostoevsky etc

Doestoevsky is

 

[neversickanymore]

I just finished A Case of Need so the next in line is a battle among The Silent Patient, A Gentleman in Moscow and Animal Farm...

Started The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles today… it’s really good. Definitely going to roll A Gentleman in Moscow later this week.

 

[Freeverse]

Started The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles today… it’s really good. Definitely going to roll A Gentleman in Moscow later this week.

I've seen a lot of good reviews on The Lincoln... i guess it's gonna ba another entry to my TBR list.

 

[Freeverse]

Started The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles today… it’s really good. Definitely going to roll A Gentleman in Moscow later this week.

What are you sick at?

 

[neversickanymore]

What are you sick at?

What do you mean?

 

[Freeverse]

What do you mean?

Coz your nick is neversickanymore... is it just a nick or a reflection of you?

 

[neversickanymore]

Coz your nick is neversickanymore... is it just a nick or a reflection of you?

When I first joined I had just healed from a long 5 year pretty substantial illness and was kicking methadone and Xanax I no longer needed or wanted.. the second took over a year for full healing. So it’s a reflection of gratitude at not being sick anymore and a determination of never being dope sick again.

Welcome to BL Freeverse !! Though I see you have been around for a bit.

 

[JTemperance]

I've been leafing through You'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again by Julia Phillips, an infamous tell-all memoir about Hollywood that led to the author being banned from several restaurants when it was published in the early 90s. She was a pioneering female producer, with Taxi Driver and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to her credit, as well as a very credible freebase cocaine smoker. There are some entertaining anecdotes in it, to be sure.

 

[Freeverse]

When I first joined I had just healed from a long 5 year pretty substantial illness and was kicking methadone and Xanax I no longer needed or wanted.. the second took over a year for full healing. So it’s a reflection of gratitude at not being sick anymore and a determination of never being dope sick again.

Welcome to BL Freeverse !! Though I see you have been around for a bit.

I feel proud of you for doing the right thing. Kudos to you for staying strong! Keep it up!

 

[chinup]

Are you such slow readers? Are you starting the books and never finishing them(that's not reading, that's doing nothing)? Are you switching between the books? Are you aware that this is a very inefficient way of learning?

i usually have at least 2 books on the go. an 'improving' one and a 'for pleasure' one. the improving ones are for pleasure to but the distinction is that they are not suitable for bed time reading.

also have books that i'm kinda constantly reading, i.e. the dhammapada and a guide to the bodhisattva way of life. these are not suited to reading in one go because they are sets of short verses, each with its own message. they are grouped together into loosely related themes but its too much to read a whole group at once.

anyway, i came in here to ask for recommendations. both for improving books, and easier reads.

i'm just finishing time of the magicians by wolfram eilenberger. i'd identified continental philosophy as an area where i am woefully uneducated. having read this, it was a slog, and i'm content to remain woefully uneducated. i tried. its a great book and interesting to read about the work of inter war german philosophers, so don't be put off, its just not the way my brain works.

also reading the enchantress of florence by salman rushdie. i'm absolutely loving this.

if it will help with recommendations, i am mostly drawn to good writing rather than particular genres but have a soft spot for magical realism and popular science/history by people who actually know their shit. my favourite books for pleasure that i've read in the past year are:

entangled life by merlin sheldrake
XX by rian hughes
time travellers guides to 13th century, elizabethan england and the restoration by ian mortimer
this is london by ben judah
3 body problem trilogy
the premonition by michael lewis

improving:
highlanders by yo'av karny
godel escher bach, the eternal golden braid by douglas hoftstader
spike by jeremy farrar and anjana ahuja

any suggestions in either of these categories would be gratefully received.

 

[December Flower]

i usually have at least 2 books on the go. an 'improving' one and a 'for pleasure' one. the improving ones are for pleasure to but the distinction is that they are not suitable for bed time reading.

also have books that i'm kinda constantly reading, i.e. the dhammapada and a guide to the bodhisattva way of life. these are not suited to reading in one go because they are sets of short verses, each with its own message. they are grouped together into loosely related themes but its too much to read a whole group at once.

I see, fully understand that distinction
My brain just couldn't do much with the concept. For me it's "one book, then the next" - but if one has to read something for learning, and wants to read another thing for pleasure, I do get that. Not that I've ever done it, for me the learning books are the pleasure books

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

“This is what’s wrong with America,” he says, digging in.
“Entirely,” she says.

 

[neversickanymore]

I've seen a lot of good reviews on The Lincoln... i guess it's gonna ba another entry to my TBR list.

Finished Lincoln and am almost done with gentleman.. my take both are really good books. Lincoln ran away with it for me.. gentleman was good, but it came across as he was purposely writing like the Russian masters.. lol not like that’s easy but he pulled it off completely with a modern flare that kept it relivent and sustainable .. from the characters names and the references to the masters. Great book as well though. I bet he is a food lover or possibly a good cook. I loved his repition of her dress being shed, best panty drop literature ever. Love how he drags a finger through Russian glimpses of American culture and especially the takes on US movies as dumbfounding them as propaganda that seems to depict capitalism as it really is. That’s really too damn good and he easy wrote into the echelon of my literary heart.

 

[MydriHaze]

La Révolution Au Cœur, by Christian Olivier. It's about how a book fallen of the bag of a woman is picked up by a man in a cinema and how about it start to spread revolution all around. It's inspired by the pre-1917 russian revolution poetry, and there's an intervention of one of these poets at every chapter, follows by arts made by the collective Les Chats Pelés which Christian Olivier is part of, and by some poetry at hist sauce like it needs to be... Pretty heavy and light shit

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

What could lead me to kill him, I don’t know. If I had a drink something would open up, I’m sure. I will tell my lawyer that. I’ll tell that to the judge. Someone will understand me.

 

[MydriHaze]

What could lead me to kill him, I don’t know.

Kill who??