[Pants-of-dog]

Taking care of a baby full time makes your brain mushy, so I am rereading some classic pulp: the Barsoom books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, a not-so-guilty pleasure.

In my mental movie, it is all done with crappy sets and effects, like a movie from the sixties.

[Wellsy]

I can also recommend Jacques Ellul's book on propaganda too: Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes

I read this from the introduction when taking a quick glance before bed.
https://monoskop.org/images/4/44/Ellul_Jacques_Propaganda_The_Formation_of_Mens_Attitudes.pdf

To make his many original points, Ellul never relies on statistics or quantification, which he heartily disdains, but on observation and logic. His treatise is a fully integrated structure of thought in which every piece fits in with all the others - be they a hundred pages apart. In this respect his work resembles Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Idea, of which the philosopher said that the reader, really to understand the book, must read it twice because no page in the book could be fully understood without knowledge of the whole. This procedure can hardly be suggested to the reader in our busy days. But he ought to be warned that to leaf through this book will not suffice.

Would you agree with this summary and its recommendation?
Just thinking whether I have the time to try and power through this book. Or whether I could take it in smaller increments and whether should do as it says to read twice to really take in what is being communicated.

[Potemkin]

Would you agree with this summary and its recommendation?

Yes. Ellul's approach to his subject matter was very French, and the exact opposite of the Anglo tradition of empiricism. I've noticed that American 'thinkers' tend to be short on theory and long on facts and figures, which often results in superficial analyses which do little to challenge the status quo. Ellul belonged to a different intellectual tradition.

Just thinking whether I have the time to try and power through this book. Or whether I could take it in smaller increments and whether should do as it says to read twice to really take in what is being communicated.

You have to power through it from beginning to end, and then go back to the beginning and read it again, carefully. That's how I read any difficult text.

[Oxymoron]

Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock, awesome reexamination of civilization.

[Wellsy]

A Letter From Sydney - E.G. Wakefield
Wanting to refresh myself on how colonization lead to a more direct confrontation on the nature of capitalist production.

[Heisenberg]

I am currently reading - and thoroughly enjoying - this:

[MistyTiger]

I am reading this for class.

[Drlee]

Rereading Lynda Robinsons Lord Meren mysteries. Mind candy but happily set in ancient Egypt. What fun to read something that does not make me feel bad. So much news....

My sympathies Misty.

Gross profit margin
is sales less cost of goods sold
divided by sales.


Our heavy backpacks
Gives us great training to be
Someday a Sherpa…

[Decky]

How dare you copy me Heisenberg!

[fuser]

My first historical history book :

"The History of the Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides

Also I am not exactly reading but listening to many sci-fi audiobooks, currently I am listening to first non frank herbert's Dune i.e. "House Atreides".

[Ter]

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Hard science fiction
Enjoying it so far.

Fuser, audiobooks don't work for me, I am a visual person.

[fuser]

Well, you can't read anything on audiobooks but once you get habituated, several genres can be enjoyed through audiobook. They are specially good when traveling, I don't need to tell you but in this region its kinda tough to concentrate on books when you are traveling on a train or a bus. In that scenario, audiobooks are a much better and comfortable option.

[One Degree]

I can't handle audio books either. I could not read for quite awhile due to vertigo, so my son sent me a bunch of audio books. I can't do it. My mind wanders away.

Edit: Maybe because I am impatient and I read much faster than they talk.
Then again, the son who sent them to me loves audio books and his mind works much faster than mine.

[Drlee]

I really like audio books. They fill all of the spaces. And they are free.

[The Sabbaticus]

Oh, where?

Anyway, Game of Thrones, book four.

[Pants-of-dog]

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Hard science fiction
Enjoying it so far.

Fuser, audiobooks don't work for me, I am a visual person.

Seveneves is awesome!

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

I recently finished Childhood's End and The City and the Stars. Both were excellent. I'm generally not a fan of Clarke, but those are great. I just reread Solaris, and now I'm working on reading the Xelee Sequence (very creative and expansive science fiction) and Red Mars.

[Drlee]

Oh, where?

When you get a library card from our local public library you can download audio books. Only one person may listen to it at a time so it is like a paper book in that regard. I recently went through an affair with actor autobiographies. Kirk Douglas, Norman Lear, John Cryer andJohn Lithgow. Again. Easy to listen to and easy to turn on and off.

I find it harder to invest time in "serious" books as I get older. I mostly want to be entertained. An organization to which I belong has a book for discussion every month. Sometimes I find them ponderous. Too much work.

[The Sabbaticus]

We have an audiobook App that allows you to download books, but they can only be accessed through the App. (Supposedly.) But the available selection of books isn't exactly great. They also make use of LibriFox readings, which are amateur readings.

Anyway, Cersei is at times hilarious, paraphrasing: "she was raped by half of King's Landing and you figured it would be an honour to call her bastard child Tywin?" You can almost forgive Cersei for uttering such a thing in light of the profound stupidity of those that approached her.

Although obvious a bit-player and outclassed by the likes of Tywin (and his brother), Varys and Little Finger, she is still formidable. If the three siblings had united (Tyrion, Cersei and Jamie) they would have been able to step from under the shadow of Tywin.

[quetzalcoatl]

I recently finished Childhood's End and The City and the Stars. Both were excellent. I'm generally not a fan of Clarke, but those are great. I just reread Solaris, and now I'm working on reading the Xelee Sequence (very creative and expansive science fiction) and Red Mars.

What did you think of Solaris? I love the way he deliberately creates a universe so out of scale with human experience it becomes a mode of disorienting the reader. Lem's Chain of Chance and The Invincible are worthwhile if you run across them.