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Media Books
- Thread starter Shrug
- Start date
I have a slight Star Wars backlog. Of these I have read Master & Apprentice, Darth Plagueis, the Darth Bane trilogy, and (not pictured) Heir to the Empire. I will try to write down the Darth Bane trilogy before I write about anything else. Those were the first I read and I should write about them before I forget anything.
Path of Destruction - The cover art is great. I enjoyed the picture of Bane even though I haven't read anything about him yet. It felt very in-place for the character, especially later on in the book. Though it doesn't match his likeness exactly (no makeup), it works really well.
The story is great. Honestly I think it opened up a little slow in the beginning, but it really helps to paint a picture of the state of the galaxy from the perspective of someone stuck in legal slave labor to a mega-corporation that is endorsed by the Republic. Slavery is outlawed, but if you have debts to a Republic-recognized corporation you have to pay off those debts, and they accumulate and go to any children you have when in service to the company If you die, the debts compile onto the child. Wages are kept terribly low and the mining company owns everything you have. You cannot work your way out of it. It's even worse when Republic soldiers come and treat you like garbage because you work for an outer rim mining company. You could join the republic and pay off your debts to the company by being a soldier, sure, but anything you make is paid to the mega-corp, and the interest is terrible. The republic is not what it claims to be, protecting the galaxy from the Sith empire. It heavily endorses legal slave labor and promises nothing about ending it. Eventually our character has subtle brushes with the Force and wins an insanely improbable game of Sabaac, upsetting some drunken Republic soldiers.
Long story short, they try to jump him when he's going home and he ends up killing one of them but is now on the run. He can't go to the Republic for help (it's not like they've ever been help, anyway) and ends up joining the Sith army. He turns a terrible division into the most-feared group in the Army because of his powers and nets a great win for the Sith, though while disobeying a commanding officer. He gets thrown into Military Police jail (idr the name) and is found to have the Force and it shipped off to Korriban. Eventually he learns lightsaber techniques and some Force techniques from the teachers there but is disillusioned by the ancient texts. They hold great knowledge and the teachers are ignoring anything other than their own teachings and claims of "unity." The Sith have been at each other's throats (literally) for thousands of years and the current leaders are trying to make everyone feel equal in power. Bane knows this is a load of crap and tries to take down the star student. Bane loses. Hard. He is shunned from learning from teachers at the academy and resigns solely on secret lessons from the lightsaber instructor and from a new girl in school.
He eventually learns all of the different forms and masters the Force lessons better than Githany. The war is raging on and is close to ending so the Sith end up quickly rushing up to finish teaching the students even though they aren't quite ready and betow upon all of them the title of Lord. Githany tries to betray Bane and tries to make him kill the star student again after he tries to prove the masters wrong again about Sith lore, but he realizes this and she helps him kill the Sith student at the last minute. It's time for everyone to leave to go to war but Bane steals a master's ship and heads to the Unknown World where Darth Revan and Malak found the extinct Rakata and activated the Star Forge, starting the Jedi Civil war that almost ended up destroying all of the Jedi. He found a holocron from Revan and used it to learn the old Master's teachings. This is where he crafted the Rule of Two. He realized the Sith were weak in trying to be like the Jedi: "everyone is equal in power."Either you are strong and you win or you're not and you die. It is the way of the Dark Side. The stronger side.
The Sith leaders were privy to this because of a premonition from Githany and sent the combat master to take care of Bane. Bane destroys him. He knows he must destroy the Sith and he devises a plan to make them desperate enough to use something that would kill them without them knowing: the Thought Bomb. He feigns regret and submission and offers to meet on a planet to submit. Githany is sent with poison. She tricks him and he is about to die but then finds a healer whose daughter Bane threatened to make him heal Bane. Bane goes to the planet where the final battle of the war is taking place. He thinks he can actually help destroy a large portion of the Jedi. Perfect. He uses a technique taught to him by Revan. Before it finished, the leader of the Sith stops him and tries to finish the battle hand-to-hand. This is stupid. The Sith almost lose. Bane takes the leader's comm and tells the Sith blockade to attack the Republic. The blockade is defeated. The Sith leader, driven to insanity by the war, then convinces everyone to use Bane's knowledge to win the war: the Thought Bomb. Basically everyone pools together their life force and at the final moment they collapse in on each other and it takes with them 100 Jedi to be trapped forever in a vortex of horror.
Bane is disappointed that none of the Sith were worthy to be his apprentice but heads off to escape in secret because the Jedi think all of the Sith are finally gone. He runs into a little girl who was brought to this world because she and her cousins were Force-sensitive. Her plane got shot down and was being comforted by creatures that go nuts when the Dark Side is active. They were fine when they were comforting her but the Jedi were ordered to kill all of them (because of fear) and she got really and and killed a couple of Jedi. Bane found her right after this and took her in as his apprentice, starting the Rule of Two that has lasted 1,000+ years.
Long story short, they try to jump him when he's going home and he ends up killing one of them but is now on the run. He can't go to the Republic for help (it's not like they've ever been help, anyway) and ends up joining the Sith army. He turns a terrible division into the most-feared group in the Army because of his powers and nets a great win for the Sith, though while disobeying a commanding officer. He gets thrown into Military Police jail (idr the name) and is found to have the Force and it shipped off to Korriban. Eventually he learns lightsaber techniques and some Force techniques from the teachers there but is disillusioned by the ancient texts. They hold great knowledge and the teachers are ignoring anything other than their own teachings and claims of "unity." The Sith have been at each other's throats (literally) for thousands of years and the current leaders are trying to make everyone feel equal in power. Bane knows this is a load of crap and tries to take down the star student. Bane loses. Hard. He is shunned from learning from teachers at the academy and resigns solely on secret lessons from the lightsaber instructor and from a new girl in school.
He eventually learns all of the different forms and masters the Force lessons better than Githany. The war is raging on and is close to ending so the Sith end up quickly rushing up to finish teaching the students even though they aren't quite ready and betow upon all of them the title of Lord. Githany tries to betray Bane and tries to make him kill the star student again after he tries to prove the masters wrong again about Sith lore, but he realizes this and she helps him kill the Sith student at the last minute. It's time for everyone to leave to go to war but Bane steals a master's ship and heads to the Unknown World where Darth Revan and Malak found the extinct Rakata and activated the Star Forge, starting the Jedi Civil war that almost ended up destroying all of the Jedi. He found a holocron from Revan and used it to learn the old Master's teachings. This is where he crafted the Rule of Two. He realized the Sith were weak in trying to be like the Jedi: "everyone is equal in power."Either you are strong and you win or you're not and you die. It is the way of the Dark Side. The stronger side.
The Sith leaders were privy to this because of a premonition from Githany and sent the combat master to take care of Bane. Bane destroys him. He knows he must destroy the Sith and he devises a plan to make them desperate enough to use something that would kill them without them knowing: the Thought Bomb. He feigns regret and submission and offers to meet on a planet to submit. Githany is sent with poison. She tricks him and he is about to die but then finds a healer whose daughter Bane threatened to make him heal Bane. Bane goes to the planet where the final battle of the war is taking place. He thinks he can actually help destroy a large portion of the Jedi. Perfect. He uses a technique taught to him by Revan. Before it finished, the leader of the Sith stops him and tries to finish the battle hand-to-hand. This is stupid. The Sith almost lose. Bane takes the leader's comm and tells the Sith blockade to attack the Republic. The blockade is defeated. The Sith leader, driven to insanity by the war, then convinces everyone to use Bane's knowledge to win the war: the Thought Bomb. Basically everyone pools together their life force and at the final moment they collapse in on each other and it takes with them 100 Jedi to be trapped forever in a vortex of horror.
Bane is disappointed that none of the Sith were worthy to be his apprentice but heads off to escape in secret because the Jedi think all of the Sith are finally gone. He runs into a little girl who was brought to this world because she and her cousins were Force-sensitive. Her plane got shot down and was being comforted by creatures that go nuts when the Dark Side is active. They were fine when they were comforting her but the Jedi were ordered to kill all of them (because of fear) and she got really and and killed a couple of Jedi. Bane found her right after this and took her in as his apprentice, starting the Rule of Two that has lasted 1,000+ years.
The writing is pretty good, though I think it suffers from a lack of exposition in important parts. The story is explained well enough, but when something needs to happen, it just kinda happens and is over. It felt a little like it was missing something. It felt connected, but disjointed at the same time. The names and the characters all felt like they fit into the Star Wars universe just fine. The reasons and series of events all meshed well together and flowed into each other very seamlessly. This is common throughout the whole series. A lot of the stories and characters feel great, but then they need to end because the story is just... over. The only consistent characters are Bane and Zannah (the girl he found at the end of book 1). I will talk about the other two books later, but this is just the first one. Drew Karpshyn is a good writer and has good ideas. My only complaint is that I wish there was more to read about the characters and settings. It felt enough but not finished at the same time, if that makes sense. I am not sure on the history behind writing the books, like, if he was contacted to do one and it did so well he was contacted to do another, and then a final one. Or, if he really just wrote the books like this just because he could. Knights of the Old Republic was a great story that felt like it had a lot of paths to follow and things to talk about and it was satisfying. I think this series could have benefited overall with the same treatment.
Overall, I give this a solid 8/10. The worldbuilding is great and the storylines make sense. The characters are great and develop nicely (the main characters, especially). Unfortunately, some of the very likeable characters are killed off at the climax of their story. I don't doubt they deserve this heroic ending, but they would have fit in better if I had known more about them other than, "They are a great war general who is selfless, but has some flaws, but is still a really good guy." A whole 100 other Jedi followed him to their death so they could sacrifice themselves for the Republic. How is that not awesome? I am just left wanting for more. I want to be connected deeper with these characters. What else have they done? Could we not have had this been the conclusion to the trilogy? Will this happen in the next book, too? It could be a fault of mine, or it could be a fault of the writer. You choose.
I haven't really done book reviews before, so if someone has any tips on what to cover, it would be much appreciated. Hoping to get better as I go on.
My latest readings:
- Blindness by José Saramago
Excellent book with an interesting premise. It explores in depth what happens when everyone is blind, and describes the emotions felt in a way that makes you empathise with those struck by blindness. The struggles of being unable to see, and how people behave when they don't see. It's very crude in some points, and it is a book I 100% recommend everyone to read.
- Jealousy by Alfredo Oriani
A novel about a practicing lawyer and the main lawyer's wife falling in love. It explores both the sentimental aspect of such a treacherous love, as well as what happens when one of the people in the relationships has motivations that go beyond love. It describes well the slow descent to madness of someone who loves a person he can never consider as his, and from whom he even has a child,, but he has to keep it as a secret. Overall, it was a good book which I enjoyed, I'd recommend it if you're into this type of reading (think Wuthering Heights).
- Il Gioco degli Immortali by Massimo Mongai
I couldn't find out whether this book had an English translation, so I went with the Italian title, which would roughly translate to "The Game of the Immortals". This book is spectacularly mediocre, which is a damn shame, as some passages were excellent, but my god some parts were so incredibly dumb. For example the two populations that live in the forest were somewhat interesting, and overall seeing the main character come up with ways to stall the Genius were interesting, but some other parts were terrible. For example the part where the MC goes into the inverted pyramid in the ground and finds entire new civilizations, part human part cyborg, and they are all born out of assisted fertilization out of a human woman??? And why did the MC create a massive tank of death and never actually used it except to sleep in it?
It is clear the author had some heavy Sci-Fi influences such as by Asimov and Gibson, but please if you have to try and emulate these authors at least make sure your choices make sense within the context of the universe. I do NOT recommend this, even if you managed to find a copy in your language of choice.
- Primordia: L'alleanza by J. A. Wingdale
This is a book by an up and coming young Italian author, and it does not have an English translation nor it is known at all, so I'll keep this brief. Nice short fantasy novel that is the beginning of a series. It is well written and it has decent worldbuilding and characters, although it stops there: it is nice, but nothing I would recommend, at least for now. Hopefully the pace will pick up in the next entries of the series, and then it'll be great and something I'd recommend, but as of now I don't think I would.
I am currently reading "Berlin Alexanderplatz" by Alfred Döblin and I'm enjoying it, although I'm still at the beginning.
- Blindness by José Saramago
Excellent book with an interesting premise. It explores in depth what happens when everyone is blind, and describes the emotions felt in a way that makes you empathise with those struck by blindness. The struggles of being unable to see, and how people behave when they don't see. It's very crude in some points, and it is a book I 100% recommend everyone to read.
- Jealousy by Alfredo Oriani
A novel about a practicing lawyer and the main lawyer's wife falling in love. It explores both the sentimental aspect of such a treacherous love, as well as what happens when one of the people in the relationships has motivations that go beyond love. It describes well the slow descent to madness of someone who loves a person he can never consider as his, and from whom he even has a child,, but he has to keep it as a secret. Overall, it was a good book which I enjoyed, I'd recommend it if you're into this type of reading (think Wuthering Heights).
- Il Gioco degli Immortali by Massimo Mongai
I couldn't find out whether this book had an English translation, so I went with the Italian title, which would roughly translate to "The Game of the Immortals". This book is spectacularly mediocre, which is a damn shame, as some passages were excellent, but my god some parts were so incredibly dumb. For example the two populations that live in the forest were somewhat interesting, and overall seeing the main character come up with ways to stall the Genius were interesting, but some other parts were terrible. For example the part where the MC goes into the inverted pyramid in the ground and finds entire new civilizations, part human part cyborg, and they are all born out of assisted fertilization out of a human woman??? And why did the MC create a massive tank of death and never actually used it except to sleep in it?
It is clear the author had some heavy Sci-Fi influences such as by Asimov and Gibson, but please if you have to try and emulate these authors at least make sure your choices make sense within the context of the universe. I do NOT recommend this, even if you managed to find a copy in your language of choice.
- Primordia: L'alleanza by J. A. Wingdale
This is a book by an up and coming young Italian author, and it does not have an English translation nor it is known at all, so I'll keep this brief. Nice short fantasy novel that is the beginning of a series. It is well written and it has decent worldbuilding and characters, although it stops there: it is nice, but nothing I would recommend, at least for now. Hopefully the pace will pick up in the next entries of the series, and then it'll be great and something I'd recommend, but as of now I don't think I would.
I am currently reading "Berlin Alexanderplatz" by Alfred Döblin and I'm enjoying it, although I'm still at the beginning.
I thought I "gave up" books a long time ago...but I kind of realized there are some great stories I want to re-read, and some I haven't read yet at all.
Just nabbed all these from a bookstore yesterday. I've heard great things about the sprawl trilogy, stainless steel rat is extremely nostalgic, and I never read the ender novels as a kid and heard this was the best compliment to them since I already read the movie?
Also, I've been reading this extremely amazing webcomic for 5 years now and just decided to collect all the hardcover novelizations. Which is a tall task, considering the old ones are out of print and very very expensive to find used. But if the bookstore classifies it as a book then call me a book reader
Just nabbed all these from a bookstore yesterday. I've heard great things about the sprawl trilogy, stainless steel rat is extremely nostalgic, and I never read the ender novels as a kid and heard this was the best compliment to them since I already read the movie?
Also, I've been reading this extremely amazing webcomic for 5 years now and just decided to collect all the hardcover novelizations. Which is a tall task, considering the old ones are out of print and very very expensive to find used. But if the bookstore classifies it as a book then call me a book reader
This is just barely a "book", but I got a special thing in the mail today...Corocoro Comic's November 1996 issue. It's a very special comic, as it was what revealed Japanese Pokemon Blue to the public, and made it available via mail order until its re-release in 1999 alongside Pokemon Yellow. It's also gained notoriety among "Pokemon historians" for featuring sprites that didn't make it into the final game. It cost me ~4,000 yen including postage, or £28 GBP. Not bad.
The main reason I got this was for the purpose of scanning the sprites here and uploading them online. There are scans around currently, but they're not very good. Here's the page from the right image in full from zoidsland;
The main issue with the scan here is that it's more of a very close-up photo...which causes the specifics to be lost. My intention is to put the page into a proper scanner and produce higher-quality images. This way the sprites would be easier to reconstruct and use for things like ROM Hacks. More sprites came out in the December 1996 issue as well, but I can't find that one for the life of me.
If anyone's ever wanting to get Japanese books for some reason, then Kosho is definitely the place to go. It's where I got this, and while payment methods vary, it's still great and has some stuff you can't even hope to get internationally. Just know that you'll need either a very good translator - DeepL is quite good - or knowledge of Japanese. Have your email handy too, as many stores will often send invoices and communicate with you through it regarding postage. PayPal isn't really a standard payment option, you'll often do bank transfers.
On my masters course I have to write a dissertation in the summer so I've been reading some maths/financial maths theory to try and find inspiration. Before the last term started, I read Benoit Mandlebrot's book on fractal geometry where he attempts to apply it to the financial markets (The (mis)behaviour of markets: a fractal view of risk, ruin, and reward).
While I agree with his criticisms of certain schools of thought and a lot of the observations he makes, I didn't think there was enough evidence to agree with with his conclusions. I think the link between fractal geometry describing the stochastic processes of stock prices was a bit of a leap of faith, and in the words of my previous boss - whom I discussed this with - "this guy is an amateur".
RIP Mandlebrot though. Fractal geometry is cool outside of finance and there are loads of Youtube videos and books about his work on that. Check them out if you're a maths fan.
While I agree with his criticisms of certain schools of thought and a lot of the observations he makes, I didn't think there was enough evidence to agree with with his conclusions. I think the link between fractal geometry describing the stochastic processes of stock prices was a bit of a leap of faith, and in the words of my previous boss - whom I discussed this with - "this guy is an amateur".
RIP Mandlebrot though. Fractal geometry is cool outside of finance and there are loads of Youtube videos and books about his work on that. Check them out if you're a maths fan.
As an example of the quality diff...
My scan | zoidsland |
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What's up fellas, here are the latest books I have read:
- Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey
I'm torn on this book. On one hand I appreciate its narrative style, and the plot has some interesting events, on the other hand I did not enjoy it as much. I don't know why, but it felt like a slog, and the book is rather short. I appreciated the description of all the good and bad effects of the opium, but at the end of the book all I could think of was "so what?". It's a book with its ups and downs, some passages are amazing, some are awful, and it's a shame, because the narrative style is excellent.
I don't particularly recommend this book. I'm interested in "Murder as one of the Fine Arts" by the same author and I hope it's going to be more enjoyable for me.
- The Handmaiden's Tale by Margaret Atwood
I wish the book explained how the world's society worked more in-depth, but nonetheless I enjoyed it. It has an interesting setting and it is narrated from a powerless figure in a society that has lost every value by professing them to an extreme. I'm seeing some parallels to the current world, and the way some facets of society are operating at the moment.
It's how I'd expect a society ruled a certain way to become. The book is gritty and you can feel how tense the atmosphere of the world is. As I said, my biggest gripe with it is that I hoped for a bit more description of the events of the world; think "1984", you know a lot about it: the Ministries, the war between the superpowers, and how easily the masses were manipulated.
Granted, the protagonist doesn't really know much about the world because she isn't a funcionary of the government unlike Winston, but she still has memories about the old world. perhaps the news that she followed during the meetings with Serena Joy while waiting for the Commander could be expanded upon to include more worldbuilding, and they could have been interpreted by the protagonist to offer a better look into her personality and her efelings.
Regardless, This is a book I'd recommend to anyone, it is a great readm and it is .
- Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
Oh boy where do I start with this. This was quite the read, the book is filled up with nonsense (or...expressionism, if you prefer), but there is a method to the madness of the narration. Franz Bieberkopf is way too human, you can TELL he is human, very few books are able to make you feel like the protagonists are human, but this is one of the few. Most other books narrate of idealized individuals, they have idealized thoughts and are somewhat predictable in the way they face reality. I'd argue that even psychologically complex characters like Ōba from "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai, or Heathcliff from "Wuthering Heights" are not as human as Bieberkopf is.
Everything that happens to Franz, and everything he does makes sense, and shows off the multiple facets of the human soul, Franz Bieberkopf's soul in this case. It isn't a simple "oh I'm like this so I will act like that", but his decisions are...human. They aren't entirely logical, and he manages to make them sound like they make sense, and it is how mots humans operate.
The other characters in the book are also incredible, you can feel like they are real people, you can find something to appreciate in them even when they are disgusting, like Reinhold, Eva, and Mieze (for different reasons).
This book is a masterpiece. Read it. It is a 10 out of 10 for me, I'm in love with it. It's perfect. It is chaotic, but it also all makes way too much sense.
- Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey
I'm torn on this book. On one hand I appreciate its narrative style, and the plot has some interesting events, on the other hand I did not enjoy it as much. I don't know why, but it felt like a slog, and the book is rather short. I appreciated the description of all the good and bad effects of the opium, but at the end of the book all I could think of was "so what?". It's a book with its ups and downs, some passages are amazing, some are awful, and it's a shame, because the narrative style is excellent.
I don't particularly recommend this book. I'm interested in "Murder as one of the Fine Arts" by the same author and I hope it's going to be more enjoyable for me.
- The Handmaiden's Tale by Margaret Atwood
I wish the book explained how the world's society worked more in-depth, but nonetheless I enjoyed it. It has an interesting setting and it is narrated from a powerless figure in a society that has lost every value by professing them to an extreme. I'm seeing some parallels to the current world, and the way some facets of society are operating at the moment.
It's how I'd expect a society ruled a certain way to become. The book is gritty and you can feel how tense the atmosphere of the world is. As I said, my biggest gripe with it is that I hoped for a bit more description of the events of the world; think "1984", you know a lot about it: the Ministries, the war between the superpowers, and how easily the masses were manipulated.
Granted, the protagonist doesn't really know much about the world because she isn't a funcionary of the government unlike Winston, but she still has memories about the old world. perhaps the news that she followed during the meetings with Serena Joy while waiting for the Commander could be expanded upon to include more worldbuilding, and they could have been interpreted by the protagonist to offer a better look into her personality and her efelings.
Regardless, This is a book I'd recommend to anyone, it is a great readm and it is .
- Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
Oh boy where do I start with this. This was quite the read, the book is filled up with nonsense (or...expressionism, if you prefer), but there is a method to the madness of the narration. Franz Bieberkopf is way too human, you can TELL he is human, very few books are able to make you feel like the protagonists are human, but this is one of the few. Most other books narrate of idealized individuals, they have idealized thoughts and are somewhat predictable in the way they face reality. I'd argue that even psychologically complex characters like Ōba from "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai, or Heathcliff from "Wuthering Heights" are not as human as Bieberkopf is.
Everything that happens to Franz, and everything he does makes sense, and shows off the multiple facets of the human soul, Franz Bieberkopf's soul in this case. It isn't a simple "oh I'm like this so I will act like that", but his decisions are...human. They aren't entirely logical, and he manages to make them sound like they make sense, and it is how mots humans operate.
The other characters in the book are also incredible, you can feel like they are real people, you can find something to appreciate in them even when they are disgusting, like Reinhold, Eva, and Mieze (for different reasons).
This book is a masterpiece. Read it. It is a 10 out of 10 for me, I'm in love with it. It's perfect. It is chaotic, but it also all makes way too much sense.
I recently bought the first trilogy collection of Arsene Lupin by Maurice LeBlanc. Loved the anime growing up and recently watched the new Netflix series and loved it so I figured why the hell not get the source material, see if I like it as much as what it's spawned. :) Super excited to read them.
Recently got the His Dark Materials trilogy after having been a huge fan of Narnia. I was told it's the complete antithesis of the series and ngl it did not disappoint, really like the way the series make subtle allusions to religion (also a major theme in Narnia) but takes a completely different view on the matter, would definitely recommend the series to any fan of the fantasy genre.
Subtle’s not the word I’d use—if anything it’s the opposite lol: very openly anti-religion.
Also have you read either of the prequel books yet? I’ve read the first volume of The Book of Dust but haven’t got around to the second yet.
Nope, I've only started on the trilogy and I'm almost done with the first book, it's been on my list of books to read for almost 3 years so I'm glad i found the time to get to it lol
As a child I only read books unwillingly until I was about 10 and discovered people wrote books about animals. By the age of 12, I expanded into historical fiction. At 15, I read my first science fiction book, which while dated, remains a favourite to this day (I'm 61). That book was Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. I never stopped reading since then, though my main issue these days is increasingly bad eyesight so that I only read on my ipad (since there I can change the font size lol) These days I read almost anything except horror, paranormal romances and foreign languages...
I just finished reading Atlas Shrugged. All 3 books.
What a rollercoaster. I loved every second of it.
The book has it all: characters you love, characters you hate, an interesting theme, and excellent word-building. You can feel the despair in the world once the people in power manage to completely annihilate critical thinking from the population. Everyone just outsources their thoughts to their boss, nobody takes any initiative, the overwhelming majority of the population turns into a zombie.
My favorite character in the book is Hank Rearden, closely followed by Dagny Taggart. I feel like I could have also liked Ragnar Dannesköld a lot more if he appeared more often. Francisco D'Antonia is another excellent character, whereas I was not a fan of John Galt, I found him to be a bit too idealized.
I liked the way the author portrays people like Jim Taggart and Wesley Mouch. I also loved the way they realized what was wrong with their thought at the end of the book. It was liberating to read.
I think the extreme objectivism preached in the book is not practical in the real world, and relies on idealized human beings. I'm a fan of capitalism and free markets, but the individualism expressed in Atlas Shrugged goes way beyond that. It ignores some facets of human nature, and it doesn't work without some crazy social engineering. It has flaws that make it not worth pursuing to such an extreme degree.
The next book I'll read is going to be "La Quinda Essenza" by Paolo Borzacchiello, an Italian neurolinguist (think George Lakoff but Italian). Afterwards, I'll read "Breasts and Egg" by Mieko Kawakami, and then "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
I have read other books in the past month and a half, they were mostly non-fiction. Some of them don't have an English version, here's the list:
What a rollercoaster. I loved every second of it.
The book has it all: characters you love, characters you hate, an interesting theme, and excellent word-building. You can feel the despair in the world once the people in power manage to completely annihilate critical thinking from the population. Everyone just outsources their thoughts to their boss, nobody takes any initiative, the overwhelming majority of the population turns into a zombie.
My favorite character in the book is Hank Rearden, closely followed by Dagny Taggart. I feel like I could have also liked Ragnar Dannesköld a lot more if he appeared more often. Francisco D'Antonia is another excellent character, whereas I was not a fan of John Galt, I found him to be a bit too idealized.
I liked the way the author portrays people like Jim Taggart and Wesley Mouch. I also loved the way they realized what was wrong with their thought at the end of the book. It was liberating to read.
I think the extreme objectivism preached in the book is not practical in the real world, and relies on idealized human beings. I'm a fan of capitalism and free markets, but the individualism expressed in Atlas Shrugged goes way beyond that. It ignores some facets of human nature, and it doesn't work without some crazy social engineering. It has flaws that make it not worth pursuing to such an extreme degree.
The next book I'll read is going to be "La Quinda Essenza" by Paolo Borzacchiello, an Italian neurolinguist (think George Lakoff but Italian). Afterwards, I'll read "Breasts and Egg" by Mieko Kawakami, and then "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
I have read other books in the past month and a half, they were mostly non-fiction. Some of them don't have an English version, here's the list:
- "How To Fail at Almost Everything And Still Win Big" by Scott Adams
- "Parole per Vendere" by Paolo Borzacchiello (no English version afaik)
- "La Parola Magica" by Paolo Borzacchiello (same as above)
- "Don't Think of an Elephant!" by George Lakoff
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The deadness of this thread is tragic.
I've been dwelving into more philosophical matters recently which is why I haven't posted as much. My reading has slown down because it takes me longer to process what I'm reading.
Plus, after reading "Atlas Shrugged" I embarked on another very long read: The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Problem is I wasn't too much into it, and only read the first volume + about 25% of the second one. Still, it's a very fascinating read into the law and prison system in communist Russia from the end of the 1st world war. Good insight into how tyrannical governments operate.
I've been reading "The Problem With Political Authority" by Michael Huemer, a brilliant reading that I recommend to anyone disillusioned with these huge monsters that are current governments.
I've also been doing some soul-searching, and I've been reading Edward Feser's "The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism". I'm greatly enjoying the read, but I'm not well versed in the argument, which is why I'm taking my sweet time to read it. I often have to re-read chapters to fully understand what's written. Nonetheless, I find the philosophical inquiry into religion very interesting, I wish I studied this in school.
Back to fiction: I've just finished reading "The Hare" by Melanie Finn. I didn't enjoy it one bit. It had some interesting parts, but most of the book was spectacularly mediocre. Which is a shame, the author's writing style isn't without merit, it's just that the story she decided to narrate was trashy.
I'm starting a new book today, but I don't know which one yet.
I've been dwelving into more philosophical matters recently which is why I haven't posted as much. My reading has slown down because it takes me longer to process what I'm reading.
Plus, after reading "Atlas Shrugged" I embarked on another very long read: The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Problem is I wasn't too much into it, and only read the first volume + about 25% of the second one. Still, it's a very fascinating read into the law and prison system in communist Russia from the end of the 1st world war. Good insight into how tyrannical governments operate.
I've been reading "The Problem With Political Authority" by Michael Huemer, a brilliant reading that I recommend to anyone disillusioned with these huge monsters that are current governments.
I've also been doing some soul-searching, and I've been reading Edward Feser's "The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism". I'm greatly enjoying the read, but I'm not well versed in the argument, which is why I'm taking my sweet time to read it. I often have to re-read chapters to fully understand what's written. Nonetheless, I find the philosophical inquiry into religion very interesting, I wish I studied this in school.
Back to fiction: I've just finished reading "The Hare" by Melanie Finn. I didn't enjoy it one bit. It had some interesting parts, but most of the book was spectacularly mediocre. Which is a shame, the author's writing style isn't without merit, it's just that the story she decided to narrate was trashy.
I'm starting a new book today, but I don't know which one yet.
I'm back. Fresh as a flower.
My last 2 readings were:
- "Little Bandaged Days" by Kyra Wilde
Mediocre book about a woman's descent into madness. I didn't particularly enjoy it. The narration is exhausting and repetitive, and the characters might as well be replaced by plastic dolls since they never do anything.
Don't read this book.
- "The Woman in the White Kimono" by Ana Johns
I stumbled upon this by chance as it was included with my Amazon Prime subscription and I downloaded it. It's a touching story about love, bravery, and family struggles. Read it, it's very good! It's set in post-WWII Japan, with American soldiers stationing in the island. The struggle is between the main character Naoko, her love for an American soldier, and her family refusing to accept a gaijin (foreigner) as an husband of their daughter.
I started reading "Breasts and Eggs" by Mieko Kawakami but it bored me within the first 25 pages. That's super rare for me. I had to drop the book. I started reading "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand afterwards. I've only read chapter 1 but I'm already in love with the main character.
I'm also delving into "Knowledge, Reality and Value - a Mostly Common Sense Guide to Philosophy" by Michael Huemer as I really enjoyed his book I mentioned in my last post. I'm still a newbie when it comes to Philosohpy and this book is a great introduction to it.
My last 2 readings were:
- "Little Bandaged Days" by Kyra Wilde
Mediocre book about a woman's descent into madness. I didn't particularly enjoy it. The narration is exhausting and repetitive, and the characters might as well be replaced by plastic dolls since they never do anything.
Don't read this book.
- "The Woman in the White Kimono" by Ana Johns
I stumbled upon this by chance as it was included with my Amazon Prime subscription and I downloaded it. It's a touching story about love, bravery, and family struggles. Read it, it's very good! It's set in post-WWII Japan, with American soldiers stationing in the island. The struggle is between the main character Naoko, her love for an American soldier, and her family refusing to accept a gaijin (foreigner) as an husband of their daughter.
I started reading "Breasts and Eggs" by Mieko Kawakami but it bored me within the first 25 pages. That's super rare for me. I had to drop the book. I started reading "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand afterwards. I've only read chapter 1 but I'm already in love with the main character.
I'm also delving into "Knowledge, Reality and Value - a Mostly Common Sense Guide to Philosophy" by Michael Huemer as I really enjoyed his book I mentioned in my last post. I'm still a newbie when it comes to Philosohpy and this book is a great introduction to it.
most of what i read is scraps but i may as well give a recommendation from one of my courses
Russia's Military Revival - Bettina Renz. If you thought from the title it's making Russia some evil terrifying boogeyman, don't worry, it doesn't do that. Chapters 4 and 5 give a reasonable assessment of the tactical and strategic position of the modern Russian military and are less than 70 pages of text total, so, like, that's neat. 1 and 2 are good history, and 3 is some of both but a bit specific. Good read that gets GPer's stamp of approval on being well-written and structured.
Russia's Military Revival - Bettina Renz. If you thought from the title it's making Russia some evil terrifying boogeyman, don't worry, it doesn't do that. Chapters 4 and 5 give a reasonable assessment of the tactical and strategic position of the modern Russian military and are less than 70 pages of text total, so, like, that's neat. 1 and 2 are good history, and 3 is some of both but a bit specific. Good read that gets GPer's stamp of approval on being well-written and structured.
Finally got time to read "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie, found it at my local library with its original, and extremely racist, name which was surprising as it was renamed multiple times as far back as 1940. Although the name was very hard to ignore I really enjoyed the book! Its like THE most classic murder mystery "who did it" style that was really fun to go back to. Its the start of the typical "strangers in a mansion and one of them is a killer" that has been referenced countless times, but the plot was super fun to follow and dissect to find clues of who the killer could be with an ending and explanation that is crazy enough that it feels pretty satisfying, but also fully makes sense. Would recommend :)
Shoshana Zuboff's Surveillance Capitalism details how the modern economy is being increasingly driven by constant, "private" (in the sense of being undertaken by private corporations) surveillance of consumers and both the sale of data from that surveillance as a resource (termed "behavioural surplus"), and the means of manipulating consumer behaviour as a service. It's one of the most important books for understanding how democracies around the world are being actively threatened by the actions of a select few technology companies, and how this privatised form of surveillance is inevitably integrated into state-actor surveillance capabilities (as in the People's Republic of China) and intelligence operations, such as that undertaken by the Russian Federation to elect Donald Trump and instigate the United Kingdom's exit from the EU.
If anyone here has watched Psycho Pass or Westworld (pinging resident nerd Myzozoa ), think of this as a much more academic criticism of the surveillance economy than what was presented in the respective shows. Technology is literally at the point where political outcomes can be manipulated entirely by foreign actors so long as they 1) have enough psychometric data from target populations to create propaganda for specific psychological profiles; and 2) a platform from which to deploy that propaganda.
My primary criticism of Zuboff's work has been the inability to integrate analysis of some of the important non-western actors involved in these efforts. One of the biggest ones was Dmitro Firtash, who in addition to being the oligarch at the centre of Rudy Giuliani's legal trouble is also a major financial backer of Cambridge Analytica's parent company, the offices of the elections-focused subsidiary which were held in the same damn building as Firtash's own foundation lol
If anyone here has watched Psycho Pass or Westworld (pinging resident nerd Myzozoa ), think of this as a much more academic criticism of the surveillance economy than what was presented in the respective shows. Technology is literally at the point where political outcomes can be manipulated entirely by foreign actors so long as they 1) have enough psychometric data from target populations to create propaganda for specific psychological profiles; and 2) a platform from which to deploy that propaganda.
My primary criticism of Zuboff's work has been the inability to integrate analysis of some of the important non-western actors involved in these efforts. One of the biggest ones was Dmitro Firtash, who in addition to being the oligarch at the centre of Rudy Giuliani's legal trouble is also a major financial backer of Cambridge Analytica's parent company, the offices of the elections-focused subsidiary which were held in the same damn building as Firtash's own foundation lol
I read the first four books of the Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist: Magician: Apprentice, Magician: Master (I think those two are in one book but split in two because the one book is so long), Silverthorn, and A Darkness at Sethanon.
A really cool fantasy/adventure series! It tells a lot of things, among them kingdoms, war, religion, and magic. Really fun read, definately would recommend!
My class read that for our second quarter required normal. It was a fun read, except that there were worksheets, quizzes, entire vocab units, and a test about it.
A really cool fantasy/adventure series! It tells a lot of things, among them kingdoms, war, religion, and magic. Really fun read, definately would recommend!
My class read that for our second quarter required normal. It was a fun read, except that there were worksheets, quizzes, entire vocab units, and a test about it.
recently backlogged myself heavy on books going on a buying spree (LOL)
currently carry around At the Mountain Of Madness by Lovecraft (got his collection)
my kindle (main reads atm: Corey Taylor's books - and wrestling autobiographies)
and occassionally some occult books i have recently found interesting.
if anyone got some good psychological horror books im tryna find some [more] of those.
currently carry around At the Mountain Of Madness by Lovecraft (got his collection)
my kindle (main reads atm: Corey Taylor's books - and wrestling autobiographies)
and occassionally some occult books i have recently found interesting.
if anyone got some good psychological horror books im tryna find some [more] of those.
Recently got into Christopher Buehlman books - starting with Between Two Fires (omg so good) and Those Across The River (his first two books)
also got The Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence (Prince Of Thorns, King Of Thorns, Emperor Of Thorns)
(both of these are good for those who like dark fantasy books)
got the Young Bucks book for Kindle who like wrestling. Very backlogged in my wrestling book realm - main one I want to read I have ready waiting atm is Bill Apter's "Is Pro Wrestling Fixed?..." and my one wrestling book shame: Havent got the chance to read a Jericho book yet. (I KNOW I KNOW, SHAME ON ME)
and for collections Lord of the Rings, HG Wells, and a really nice printing of Edgar Allan Poe's works.
edit* oh and on my sisters bday she wanted to go to one of those crystals/tarot/magic shops and i got a book about the magic of the necronimicon; since i own it already, for morbid curiosity lol
also got The Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence (Prince Of Thorns, King Of Thorns, Emperor Of Thorns)
(both of these are good for those who like dark fantasy books)
got the Young Bucks book for Kindle who like wrestling. Very backlogged in my wrestling book realm - main one I want to read I have ready waiting atm is Bill Apter's "Is Pro Wrestling Fixed?..." and my one wrestling book shame: Havent got the chance to read a Jericho book yet. (I KNOW I KNOW, SHAME ON ME)
and for collections Lord of the Rings, HG Wells, and a really nice printing of Edgar Allan Poe's works.
edit* oh and on my sisters bday she wanted to go to one of those crystals/tarot/magic shops and i got a book about the magic of the necronimicon; since i own it already, for morbid curiosity lol
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