Reading / Literature Club

#125

Ha, so what are you reading these days?

#126

will be checking this one out, sounds like my cup o’tea. thanks for the tip!

#127

Right now I’m reading AB Guide to Music Theory, The Daily Stoic, Sapiens and Recovery by Russell Brand.

I do read a lot of fiction but for some reason I’m on a massive psychology/self improvement hype at the moment.

Most of the stuff here applies to my tastes.

This might belong here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/09/comics-and-graphic-novels-of-2019-from-miracleman-to-scrooge-mcduck

#128

I recently read Anne Carson’s The Autobiography of Red. A really beautiful novel.

Autobiography-of-Red

Am also reading bits and pieces from Understanding Understanding by Heinz von Foerster. The details are over my head but I enjoy his ideas about noise and emergent systems.

Also recommend The Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway.

#129

Me too. I tried to get through The Fountainhead but couldn’t deal with her prose. “Predictable and didactic” sum it up well. Wasn’t an enjoyable read for me.

#130

Anthem is probably a 1 week read - it’s really short but doesn’t lack substance so I’d say it’s probably the perfect intro to Rand. Atlas is definitely a denser read but undeniably iconic and a must read :slight_smile:

#131

I don’t recommend you read Ayn Rand. Her philosophy is that the individual should dominate over all to the detriment of the group, that nothing matters but the self. Right-wing politicians use her ideology to justify all sorts of disgusting policies. And on top of that she’s just not a very good writer.

#132

I think a lot of teenagers get personally inspired by her books – believing in their potential and future achievement etc. They claim to not be affected by her politics or that they grow out of it. (Unless they’re the right wing kind that don’t want to.) Teenagers do go through phases.

A lot of them think books are boring in general, so they don’t know that she is way more boring than most. If you don’t mind that, you could read them with an anthropological curiosity. *Maybe just skim.

#133

For me, that’s all the more reason to read her. To understand the roots of an ideology I’m utterly confused and frustrated by. I’ve always felt like left wingers use the “she don’t write good” argument but I have a feeling her more banal passages ultimately end up making her more accessible to non ivory tower types ie conaervative midwestern middle class white Americans…who have a huge influence on international affairs, politics, globalism…that being said still haven’t read any Rand…

#134

What do u think of the Brand book? He strikes me as someone I could stomach better on paper than in video…

#135

Haha well I’m generally a Russell fan, but I would say that this book is probably a lot more easy to stomach for somebody who dislikes him than his other work.

The book is full of exercises, I don’t get on particularly well with that when reading. And although it’s helping me recognise flaws in my psychology, I don’t feel like they are invasive enough to do full self therapy exercises to address them immediately. I’m quite happy to use the book to recognise the flaws and then naturally try to iron out the kinks through journalling etc. at the moment.

So I’m smashing through the book without doing the exercises, then will shelf it, then if I notice I’m still having issues with any addictive or neurotic behaviours in the future I’ll likely pick it up again and maybe sit down at my desk and work through some exercises.

To conclude, it’s a good very basic psychology book with some spiritual points and questions mixed in. You’re not going to get fully detailed depth psychology or CBT in there, but it’s a nice high level approach to digging around and seeing what you can fix in your subconscious.

#136

wait wait wait, russell brand has written a self help book? russell brand? self help? and people are reading this?

#137

@bths80 i had a very similar wtf moment, as well. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

#138

When you’re a superstar ex heroin addict, you’ll be in position to judge people?

#139

this one is laugh out loud funny

#140

Just finished:

Currently reading:

#141

So funny enough i found this in a hostel and devoured it over the course of about a week recently. with DeLillo I always go back and forth - i slog through the white man’s burden / this is my pitiful privileged life / satire of the American Dream’s concept of winning to get those passages that hit me like a concussion grenade to the heart. This one had some good passages - I particularly liked the drunken mechanics’ orgy vomit piss fest that followed his on the road homage with the big Cadillac 'merica man. But the sections talking about film school, empty New York life/marriage, and cubicle dynamics didn’t really interest me and the whole shooting a film as a form of self-therapy for a meaningless empty childhood and adult life during your Saturn’s Return just fell kinda flat for me. That being said this dude came out of the blocks with a style all his own and some very fresh passages and perspectives. I liked it enough to finish, and forgive it for being an early book of his, but all the time was hoping it would get more counter cultural and less self-pitying. I guess i wanted my DeLillo to become Pynchon, which it never did. 3/5

#142

did u mean to say precocious?

#143

just finished this:

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2501-grand-hotel-abyss

was a great read, felt like a thriller. Mix of history, murder mysteries, and really well explained philosophy/critical theory

as @coldsholda once put it… jesus what would have Adorno thought of this:

#144

ha, nope, I meant precious. in other words, a little too pleased with itself.

the bits in part one (corporate/married life) were my favorite, not an endurance test in the least; more of an homage to those time-honored explorations of upper class East coast leisure of Updike or Cheever (or insert just about anyone writing fiction in America from the '20s on). his sense of humor is untouchable. I was howling.