What book are you reading atm??

Shenshen

K-9 wrote: »

Finished 1984, very good but from reading bits and pieces about Orwell, not that original. Seems a lot was owed to a Russian book called We.

The other thing is I finished 2 brothers by Ben Elton and when you consider the time frames, 1984 seems to be describing the Nazi regime, but a few years later. 2 Brothers is very good, its the book I always knew Elton had in him. Poignant, scary and plenty of dark humour. He does a good job of highlighting the stupidity of some of the laws, but people were willing to swallow it.

Things like the Nazi Youth, propaganda, censorship etc are in 1984 so taking it in that context, it doesn't seem very futuristic at all.

One thing that gets forgotten is that Germany was starting to recover from the hyper inflation and collapsed economy by 1928/29 but then the crash happened.

As a warning note though still very relevant.

That's an interesting take on 1984 - for all I know, Orwell was describing communism at the time. The surveillance, the constant propaganda, the indoctrinating organisations, the way the party tries to forces people's thoughts via language and manipulation of history and shared memory.
You didn't even have to go to Mother Russia to see all this, all of this happened even in the most mild-mannered satellite states.

The thing that struck me on re-reading it a few years ago was the way the Ministry of Truth is manipulating historical records. Particularly when alliances change, and the former enemy suddenly has always been the ally. I think there are very striking similarities between the novel and the way some media outlets will spin government policies and actions these days.
Just look to the US post 9/11.

Tar.Aldarion

Just finished Peter Singer on Effective Altruism - The Life You Can Save
This book is about effectively using your time and money to save the most lives possible, which charities are best and why, great book.

Peter Singer’s books and ideas have been disturbing our complacency ever since the appearance of Animal Liberation. Now he directs our attention to a new movement in which his own ideas have played a crucial role: effective altruism. Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profound idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the "most good you can do." Such a life requires an unsentimental view of charitable giving: to be a worthy recipient of our support, an organization must be able to demonstrate that it will do more good with our money or our time than other options open to us. Singer introduces us to an array of remarkable people who are restructuring their lives in accordance with these ideas, and shows how living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfillment than living for oneself.

The Most Good You Can Do develops the challenges Singer has made, in the New York Times and Washington Post, to those who donate to the arts, and to charities focused on helping our fellow citizens, rather than those for whom we can do the most good. Effective altruists are extending our knowledge of the possibilities of living less selfishly, and of allowing reason, rather than emotion, to determine how we live. The Most Good You Can Do offers new hope for our ability to tackle the world’s most pressing problems.

Going to read Freakonimcs or Guns, germs and steel next


Freakoniomics:

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?

What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?

How much do parents really matter?

These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to parenting and sports—and reaches conclusions that turn conventional wisdom on its head.

Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They set out to explore the inner workings of a crack gang, the truth about real estate agents, the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan, and much more.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, they show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing.

Guns, Germs and Steel:

In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.

jprboy

^^^^^

+1 for Freakonomics

You can then follow that up with SuperFreakonomics by the same authors.

K-9

Shenshen wrote: »

That's an interesting take on 1984 - for all I know, Orwell was describing communism at the time. The surveillance, the constant propaganda, the indoctrinating organisations, the way the party tries to forces people's thoughts via language and manipulation of history and shared memory.
You didn't even have to go to Mother Russia to see all this, all of this happened even in the most mild-mannered satellite states.

The thing that struck me on re-reading it a few years ago was the way the Ministry of Truth is manipulating historical records. Particularly when alliances change, and the former enemy suddenly has always been the ally. I think there are very striking similarities between the novel and the way some media outlets will spin government policies and actions these days.
Just look to the US post 9/11.

Well the timing was definitely Communism but I'd forgotten how shortly after WW2 and the Nazis it was. Probably wouldn't have occurred to me only I was reading 2 Brothers shortly afterwards, which is about 20's and Nazi Germany.

The Nazi Youth was the one that really reminded me of 1984, children informing on parents, I'm not sure if Stalin had a similar youth set up, Putin uses a similar idea these days.

Anyway its probably moot as both were opposite sides of the same coin. I think Orwell identified as a Social Democrat but despised hard left politics.

On the Ministry of Information, spin doctors would be the modern everday Government equivalent. The Thick of it is brilliant at portraying that, Yes Minister excellent as well, 35 years old and never dated at all.

Custardpi

1984 was about about the rise of Soviet Communism & the struggle between Stalinism & Trotskyite ideas, the latter having been cruelly crushed at the time the novel is set. The "daily hate" sessions mirrored the way Trotsky was vehemently denounced by the pro Stalinist press for instance. Orwell identified primarily as a socialist, though he fought with the anarchist POUM group in the Spanish Civil War. His own politics would have been pretty hard left but he still believed that everyone was entitled to their own point of view, so he was strongly opposed to the censorship & persecution of those who merely held the "wrong" opinions. These were tendencies which he observed in the Socialist movement of his time & which he sought to attack in both 1984 & Animal Farm. He was a supremely independent thinker above all.

SEPT 23 1989

Anger Is an Energy: My Life Uncensored by John Lydon

great read

Egginacup

K-9 wrote: »

Finished 1984, very good but from reading bits and pieces about Orwell, not that original. Seems a lot was owed to a Russian book called We.

The other thing is I finished 2 brothers by Ben Elton and when you consider the time frames, 1984 seems to be describing the Nazi regime, but a few years later. 2 Brothers is very good, its the book I always knew Elton had in him. Poignant, scary and plenty of dark humour. He does a good job of highlighting the stupidity of some of the laws, but people were willing to swallow it.

Things like the Nazi Youth, propaganda, censorship etc are in 1984 so taking it in that context, it doesn't seem very futuristic at all.

One thing that gets forgotten is that Germany was starting to recover from the hyper inflation and collapsed economy by 1928/29 but then the crash happened.

As a warning note though still very relevant.

Huh?

Ben Elton has written a slew of books....High Society, Dead Famous, Inconceivable, Meltdown to name but a few and all very good.

Birneybau

Egginacup wrote: »

Huh?

Ben Elton has written a slew of books....High Society, Dead Famous, Inconceivable, Meltdown to name but a few and all very good.

Yeah, K-9 is saying it is better than the rest.

Rob094

I like to cut between non fiction and fiction to feed the soul and simultaneously get a bit of learning into me :rolleyes: Just finished Freakonomics which I really enjoyed and currently reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Whether I finish it or not is unclear though as I'm having trouble warming to the ideas and the writing so I have We Were Liars lined up next for something a bit lighter as well as Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull for the inspirations.

david75

Just got my hands on a review copy of Fool's Quest, by Robin Hobb...the latest in here Fitz&The Fool trilogy...

it's brilliant so far.

Boom_Bap

I'm still reading Infinite Jest!! I must have started it a few months ago. I'm not a prolific reader these days and only getting through a few pages here and there. But I think it's making me enjoy it a bit more this time around as I'm digesting what is happening alot more.

GLaDOS

david75 wrote: »

Just got my hands on a review copy of Fool's Quest, by Robin Hobb...the latest in here Fitz&The Fool trilogy...

it's brilliant so far.

Very Jealous

Vojera

Me too! Although I'll probably wait until at least the second installment is out before picking it up.

david75

This is the second installment..you mean the final installment?

that i understand

GLaDOS

At least Robin Hobb doesn't make us wait 5+ years between instalments like some fantasy writers.

Corruptedmorals

I'm a month into Jordan's the wheel of time series and have just started book 5 the fires of heaven. I hear it gets slower and ploddy for the next few books...good thing I'm obsessed with what I've read so far, should carry me through I'm thinking.

baron von something

I can't wait until I catch up to the Fool trilogy. I was halfway through Assassin's Quest when my kindle packed in and typically my local library seems to have every other Robin Hobb book but Assassin's Quest

Tar.Aldarion

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

I'm a month into Jordan's the wheel of time series and have just started book 5 the fires of heaven. I hear it gets slower and ploddy for the next few books...good thing I'm obsessed with what I've read so far, should carry me through I'm thinking.

Was given the first book of that for my birthday and just started it, looking forward to it!

david75

baron von something wrote: »

I can't wait until I catch up to the Fool trilogy. I was halfway through Assassin's Quest when my kindle packed in and typically my local library seems to have every other Robin Hobb book but Assassin's Quest

try 2nd hand shops

david75

ScienceNerd wrote: »

At least Robin Hobb doesn't make us wait 5+ years between instalments like some fantasy writers.

and her books are a lot better on every conceivable level.

K-9

Egginacup wrote: »

Huh?

Ben Elton has written a slew of books....High Society, Dead Famous, Inconceivable, Meltdown to name but a few and all very good.

Dead famous is very good all right, a more modern Big Brother house!

endacl

Rob094 wrote: »

I like to cut between non fiction and fiction to feed the soul and simultaneously get a bit of learning into me :rolleyes: Just finished Freakonomics which I really enjoyed and currently reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Whether I finish it or not is unclear though as I'm having trouble warming to the ideas and the writing so I have We Were Liars lined up next for something a bit lighter as well as Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull for the inspirations.

Wouldn't worry about that. Just means you're not a prick.

scream

Tribesman of Gor by John Norman. Don't hate me!

Belle E. Flops

Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch. Love this series.

neris

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I've just finished Joshua Rubenstein's brilliant biography of Trotsky.

http://www.amazon.com/Leon-Trotsky-Revolutionarys-Jewish-Lives/dp/0300198329

I first investigated Trotsky when I was 17, and a friend told me he was the Russian Napoleon. This sparked my interest, but unfortunately every biography I started (and never finished) was as boring as a Tolstoy novel. How could such a great man be reduced to such a tedious telling?

Well finally, here is a great Trotsky biography (in less than 250 pages).

If anyone is considering reading Trotsky's biography, avoid Ivan Deutcher's 'classic' and go for this one instead.

In keeping with my interest in tyrants and would-be-tyrants, does anyone know of a good Franco biography?

Im in and out of a trotsky biography by robert service. Its hard going, boring and has taken me over a year to get to the half way point. I read his other books on stalin and lenin alot easier. Did read another one about trotskys murder before i started on that trotsky biog called "stalins nemises, the exile and murder of leon trotsky" by bernard patenaude. Was good read.

At the moment im reading Christ stoped at eboli by carlo levi

chases0102

Just finished reading 'I am Pilgrim' by Terry Hayes....what a fantastic book, a gripping crime story. A real page turner.

Can anyone recommend something similar?

Has anyone read 'I Let You Go' by Claire Mackintosh? Seeing some good reviews for it online.

sligojoek

Thank You Jeeves. by PG Wodehouse

EoghanIRL

Quick question.
Are the chronicles of narnia worth reading? Have the box set.

Miss Demeanour

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Quick question.
Are the chronicles of narnia worth reading? Have the box set.

Personally speaking no.....
Tried the hunger games?

EoghanIRL

Miss Demeanour wrote: »

Personally speaking no.....
Tried the hunger games?

Nope but a family member has them.
Worth reading ?