I'm reading a biography on Crazy Horse right now. Fantastic. The author is admittedly biased, but he has the balls (or bias) to do what no other Crazy Horse biographer has had to do, which is using oral histories of the Lakota Sioux tribe as a reference. If you are as interested in American Indian history as I am, do yourself a favor and buy the book. It's The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History, written by Joseph Marshall.
i'll probably pick this up for my pops, and read it as well...he's obsessed with all things native american...also want to go to the crazy horse monument...i've heard its unbelievable
Finished Company Aytch by Sam Watkins, and All for the Union by Elisha Hunt Rhodes last week. Would recommend both for anyone interested in the Civil War.
Reading 20 Dollar Per Gallon by Christopher Steiner Pretty good so far, really goes in depth about how the massive expansion of the "middle class" is going to exponentially increase oil consumption through gas and consumable goods demand increases and how the slow jump in gasoline prices will actually help keep our planet sustainable into the future.
I have about 40 pages or so left of "God is not great" by Christopher Hitchens. I'd basically challenge anyone who is a firm believer in religion to read the book. He's incredibly knowledgeable about every religion and punches massive holes in all of them.
Ya probably wishful thinking on my part....but when the guy refutes every argument for every kind of religion with an incredible amount of well-written fact and detail, I would at least be interested in seeing someone's rebuttal.
Yeah I was joking; there are definitely religious people that read. But one of the things that made me finally stop believing in Christianity was reading the whole Bible. Funny how that works
I really don't want to ruin this thread, but there are plenty of books out there that build a good case for Christianity with an incredible amount of well-written fact and detail. It goes both ways. People will believe what they choose to believe. There are many brilliant people that are Christians; to insinuate that Christians don't read is pretty insulting, tbh. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Back on the topic, currently reading Gladwell's "What The Dog Saw." Not too far into it, but I'm really enjoying it so far.
Ya I wasn't insinuating that Christians don't read (the book isn't necessarily about Christianity anyway as much as it's about every religion) so not really sure why you took it that way. Anyway Gladwell is one of my favorite authors...love all 4 of his books.
Just reread the exchange before my post, and I definitely read it wrong. My bad. Didn't realize you were talking about reading that specific book... on my part.
It's the only book of his I haven't read. Love the other three. Heard him speak last year and he was great in person, as well. Isn't "What the Dog Saw" a collection of his articles?
About half way through In the Company of Soldiers now. Good read so far. Read Child of God by McCarthy before that. Holy fuck was that a dark novel. As expected though given the author.
Yes it is, which I didn't realize before starting to read it. I was a little disappointed at first, to be honest, but the articles are great reads. The way he thinks and approaches the things he writes about absolutely fascinates me.
He's my favorite author hands down. Do you know of anyone else that compares to his style? I'm looking for new books, but besides history, most of the stuff in this thread is fiction.
Get ready to spend 100 pages learning every exact detail that goes into the sailing and rigging of a sea vessel before any plot details are divulged
Just bought The Rising Sun-The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945 by John Toland. He won a Pulitzer for it so I'm guessing it's pretty good. Almost went with Ambrose's D-day book instead.
Just picked up Lone Survivor. Seems like a book I need to have read to be a good American. I looked for the Peter Singer book that Weimar suggested, but I guess I'll have to order that online.
And here we go... He's obviously not the #1 leading expert in his field but he offers a good, easy to read intro to his subjects for general readers. This is like the other day when I mentioned to a physics professor that I read Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time." Then he had to spend 15 minutes telling me why Hawking doesn't know shit and hasn't contributed anything to physics. I was like "Ok, to the experts he is dumb but I now know much more than I did when I picked up this book, so.....that was kinda my point."
Just read all 30+ pages, got some good recommendations. Thanks. I just got a Nook Color and trying to build up my library. Surprised no one has mentioned Robert E. Howard. He's my favorite author. Love all his "Conan" books as well as Solomon Kane. Anyone read this?: http://www.amazon.com/Sinister-Forces--Nine-Political-Witchcraft/dp/0975290622/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300320554&sr=1-1 Looks really interesting, but these things can be hit or miss.
No offense, but that's a rocky comparison at best. Hawking, while maybe not contributing to cutting edge physics research, hasn't done harm. Gladwell's work is just bad. Take Outliers, for example. He makes assumptions and then builds them to huge sweeping generalizations. This garbage about time invested to becoming an expert and similar arguments are based on very flimsy logical foundations. Things like Blink or whatever the one about "thinking without thinking" is downright wrong according to cognitive, neuro, and social psychologists. I can't give you a thorough rundown on the minutiae, but I can assure you that there are extensive arguments that display the flaws in his statements. The real problem, if you had to sum it up, is that people don't see gaps in his assumption to generalization processes and thus take what he's saying as "fact." At best, it's pseudo math/science crap. At worst, it's misleading to the uninformed consumer.
I can respect that. I haven't actually read his stuff btw, but I am into a lot of different subjects so I usually have to read the generalist account of things. That's why I took exception to what you said (and that physics convo...I was also like "If he is dumb why does he sit in Isaac Newton's chair at Cambridge?" Answer: "He stole things." I'm like it's science, everyone "steals." That's what it's based on.)
Not a discussion of books, but probably the greatest quote on books of all time: I was in Nashville, Tennesee last year. After the show, I went to a Waffle House. I'm not proud of it, I was hungry. And I'm eating, I'm alone and I'm reading a book, right? Waitress walks over to me: "Hey, what you readin' for?" Is that like the weirdest fucking question you've ever heard? Not what am I reading, but what am I reading... for. "Well, damn it, you stumped me. Why do I read? Hmm...I guess I read for a lot of reasons, and the main one is...so I don't end up being a fucking waffle waitress." -Bill Hicks
Disclaimer: I'm not trying to be an ass with my response, just a little debate. If people don't see gaps to his assumptions, is that his fault? You talk about his flawed logic, but it seems that most chapters of his books are based on some type of scientific study or a statement of facts. For Outliers, he talks about how an unusual amount of wealth originated from a single time period, such as the industrial revolution or the railroads. Or how Bill Gates, besides being intelligent, was also fortunate enough to have access to a super computer (at the time). The basic premise is that sometimes it takes more than talent to be successful...its also about "right place, right time". Not sure what is "hack"ish about that? Blink is basically about developing instincts. Again, its something that is developed over time. Compare Peyton Manning reading a defense to a rookie 1st round pick. Seems pretty logical to me and I'm not sure a cognitive, neuro, or social psychologist could convince me otherwise. Now if you were to say he gets rich by explaining other people's stories/studies, I would understand your opinion. Not agree, but understand. Same if you were to say that his basic premises could be explained in a much shorter format. I have to ask though...did you actually read his books? Cause you call him a hack, but I would assume if you felt that way you wouldn't have read Outliers AND Blink...
Not a hack. Certainly I do not subscribe to the same conclusions as he does, but he certainly makes subjects that one would not think overly interesting, very interesting.
I've been reading all the Jack Reacher novels, lol, which is funny cuz I don't usually read pop shit, but I like them. I hope they make some movies.
I am reading The Sportswriter by Richard Ford. I am sort of going down this list by Time of the best works of fiction from the last 25 years and reading them. I have read some of them previously like Blood Meridian, All The Pretty Horses, Beloved, etc.. http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/fiction-25-years.html
Just finished the Brothers Karamazov. Awesome, would recommend. Just don't do what I did and start it at the beginning of the school year. I've been picking away at it for a while now
Just finished Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The bunch of movies and spinoffs from the book do the novel no justice whatsoever. Alas, it was a very good read for those interested in Gothic Romanticism. I'm thinking about reading This Side of Paradise next, but lately I've been more interested in reading some good nonfiction history or science. Anyone have suggestions? I'd prefer ones that I could get through torrance, .pdf or .mobi formats.
One of the best books ever written. I teach writing and assign this every few years--always gets good writing back from my students. As Lawrence said, "...it is a great book, a very great book, the greatest book of the sea ever written. It moves awe in the soul." And most people hated it when it came out. Melville mostly retired after that due to the reception, relegating himself to writing shitty poetry but at least still coming out with 'Bartleby the Scrivener,' which is hilarious. And for the guy who mentioned Howard, he was badass. Conan and King Kull. Watch the film "The Whole Wide World." Not quite a bio, but a good movie. Howard was a fucked up guy. Donofrio plays him in the movie.
He really does an amazing job of concisely yet thoroughly breaking down the debates against abortion, physician-assisted suicide, etc. I think it's fairly cheap on Amazon. I should probably recommend more books in here but I never think about this thread...I don't read much fiction though, generally speaking.
This Side of Paradise is pretty good. I haven't read it in about seven years but I liked it then. I'd guess if I read it again now I'd get more out of it and like it better.
just finished Day of Infamy by Walter Lloyd. its fantastic. explains the attack on pearl harbor by the happenings/actions/attitudes of the people involved.
Just finished "I am Legend". Great book that got completely raped by Hollywood. The only thing from the book in that movie is the title and the main character's name.
Saw Weintraub on Jimmy Kimmel the other night promoting his book. Very quick and entertaining read. The guy had a pretty sweet life. When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man Jerry Weintraub (Author), Rich Cohen (Contributor)