BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

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ChaMerZ
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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ChaMerZ »

ric wrote:finishing up Green Mars. dope book. already bought Blue Mars. also bought this book called I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isnt) by brene brown empowerment queen of the moment who may actually have some good insights into acceptance and empowerment
nice. so the entire trilogy is stacking up pretty well huh?

i should give red mars another shot - oh who am i kidding i'm probably never going to read it again, so many good books to dig into now, just can't find the time.
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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ChaMerZ »

oh i'm currently reading cryptonomicon by neal stephenson. neal stephenson might just be my new favorite author. very smart guy with a plain, funny writing style. as for recommending it to others, its an enjoyable book overall but it would probably be more enjoyable if you have a computer science / math / programming background (like me). there's maad references to unix, ppl like alan turing, hilbert etc ...
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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by zappy »

how many awk references how many

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ChaMerZ »

zappy wrote:how many awk references how many
read to find out :)
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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by djjeffresh »

ric wrote:finishing up Green Mars. dope book. already bought Blue Mars. also bought this book called I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isnt) by brene brown empowerment queen of the moment who may actually have some good insights into acceptance and empowerment
brene brown is awesome, got to check that new book

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

@jeff fresh
DO NOT BUY THE BRENE BROWN SHAME BOOK. it sucks. I stopped reading it and I was pumped to read it. at least know that I will not recommend it to anyone but I am going to check out one of the others but I will read the first 40 pages before I buy it and hopefully that is enough to see whether it is total garbage. 40 pages was enough for this one and then I read more to confirm and then read ahead to reconfirm. twice.

@chamerz
in re mars trilogy
shit is dope but if you dislike excruciating detail don't bother. it's not THAT dope. there are pages and pages and pages discussing the barren martian landscape in excruciating detail. I am talking about like references to temperature chemistry physics and ecology every other sentence in all their dryness. that is honestly just the vehicle that drives huge swaths of the book forward.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ChaMerZ »

ric wrote:@chamerz
in re mars trilogy
shit is dope but if you dislike excruciating detail don't bother. it's not THAT dope. there are pages and pages and pages discussing the barren martian landscape in excruciating detail. I am talking about like references to temperature chemistry physics and ecology every other sentence in all their dryness. that is honestly just the vehicle that drives huge swaths of the book forward.
ric, here's a funny thing. I actually LOVED the bits where he devled into the technicalities of it and all that attention to detail, what got me was how robinson would casually switch from that to stuff like who had sex with who, typical "days of lives" / "bold and beautiful" romance drama - it was pretty jarring to me.

but i'm glad you are enjoying the series. if you like kim stanley robinson you should try reading some of larry niven's books (i don't know if you already have?)
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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

@chamerz
so I'm halfway through blue mars. let me say. red mars is necessary to read. but green and blue mars don't wallow in the Web of relationships. there is more movement in both of them. of course green mars still has a lot to establish so you get some of that but red mars is like.... an episode of Oprah sometimes. by the time you get to blue mars the story sprawls hugely and there is constant movement and more like... economy of ideas moving things forward

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ChaMerZ »

ric wrote:@chamerz
so I'm halfway through blue mars. let me say. red mars is necessary to read. but green and blue mars don't wallow in the Web of relationships. there is more movement in both of them. of course green mars still has a lot to establish so you get some of that but red mars is like.... an episode of Oprah sometimes. by the time you get to blue mars the story sprawls hugely and there is constant movement and more like... economy of ideas moving things forward
ric where you at with the series. what are you reading now. we need to know bro.

i'm still plugging away at cryptonomicon. haven't even reached halfway but ever since i moved closer to work my reading has reduced dramatically so i don't finish books as fast :owens: :owens:

(less commute time = less reading)
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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

@chamerz
I took a break from reading this past week to watch the wire again. I'm like 11/15s done with blue mars. it'll be done soon enough. I have a list of books in queue right now but next up for like 90% is rupi Kaur milk and honey which is poetry. also got this history book called ninja: 1000 years of the shadow warrior which looks dope because ninjas are sweet. got a John le Carre book in store.
got a couple philosophy books neitzsche and this dude Andre gorz got a little kissing handbook for fun got a book about women's fantasies as told by women for fun and got the thelonious monk biography in the stack. summer is gonna be dope. first gotta get a better job though.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ChaMerZ »

thelonious monk biography sounds tough. i added miles davis autobiography to my to-read list sometimes back but i don't know when i will get to that. let us know how your reading adventures go broski. i've never been too into poetry. i got a massive edgar allan poe that is literally like half poetry and i always skip the poetry section.
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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

no doubt. read the miles biography. will be worth it even if there is ridiculous or exaggerated shit

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by darkwingduck »

im probably the biggest lo head on the boards here at the P. Been in love with POLO since middle school. Never understood why or how I got turned on to Ralph Lauren, until STRESS magazine released a series of articles on the LOW LIFES in 95 96ish. It all started to make sense to me then. Later, The SOURCE mag tried to do the same articles but fell short. was super stoked to see this book. I haven't gotten it yet as its pre-order limited to 1500 copies, but damn, this book looks DOPE!!!!

During the late-’80s, two groups of teenagers from neighboring areas of Brooklyn came together to form a boosting crew with a common goal — accumulate as much Polo Ralph Lauren as possible, by any means possible.
Known as the Lo Lifes, they dressed themselves in the finest garments stolen from every upper-class department store in the tri-state area, while living a reality that was the complete opposite of what Ralph Lauren represented.
To the authorities the Lo Lifes were criminals, but to themselves and people on the streets, their actions signified something else. They aspired to be something greater, and empowered themselves by taking something that wasn’t meant for them and making it their own.
For the past five years Lo Life founder Thirstin Howl the 3rd and photographer Tom Gould have been documenting this culture. Interviews, archival pictures, and recent portraits of key players make up the first-ever book recounting how a group of kids in Brooklyn went on to influence mainstream rap stars and birth a movement of boosters and collectors of Polo worldwide.


Image

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

as soon as new York and Polo were in the picture instantly assumed thirsten howl didn't realize dude was just jacking shit but makes sense.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by darkwingduck »

Image

Rack-Lo's follow up to THIII's "Bury Me With The Lo On".

I haven't had a chance to dig in yet, but it looks like it'll be informative as its text heavy. Production-wise, its not as beautiful as BMWTLO. Can't really display them together as this book is way smaller than thirstins book.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

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Image

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Comedy Quaddafi
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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

Comedy Quaddafi wrote:I made a NY resolution to read 100 books this year.
I think I'm @ 120+ but it got real easy when I started to listen to audiobooks too

It's fun to keep a list of things you read because you might forget otherwise if youre just ploughing through them. I should get an account goodreads maybe but you can check out the list if you like. Some of the newer stuff is bork but I've been reading a lot of US stuff lately.

I forgot about Darkness @ Noon which was recommended here so I'm already on it :cas:
[2016] jon ronson - elephant in the room
[2016] søren ulrik thomsen - en hårnål klemt ind bag panelet
[2016] slavoj zizek - against the double blackmail
[2016] karina pedersen - helt ude i hampen
[2015] ulrik høy - høy på ord
[2015] jørgen leth - mine helte
[2015] michel houellebecq - submission
[2014] chimamanda ngozi adichie - we should all be feminists
[2014] rene girard - when these things begin
[2014] rene girard - the one by whom scandal comes
[2014] rod liddle - selfish whining monkeys
[2014] simeon lindstrom - the minimalist budget
[2014] mikael jalving - søren krarup og hans tid
[2014] svend brinkmann - stå fast
[2013] hans hauge - danmark
[2013] yahya hassan - digte
[2013] hassan preissler - brund mands byrde
[2013] karl ove knausgaard - sjælens amerika
[2013] jens christian grøndahl - den sibiriske måne
[2013] douglas murray - islamophilia
[2012] michael matthews - bigger, leaner, stronger
[2012] mark steyn - the [un]documented mark steyn
[2011] andrew breitbart - righteous indignation
[2011] søren ulrik thomsen - rystet spejl
[2011] mark steyn - after america
[2010] william mckeen - stranger than fiction
[2010] d. harlan wilson - they had goat heads
[2007] haruki murakami - what i talk about when i talk about running
[2006] mark steyn - america alone
[2005] louis theroux - call of the weird
[2005] harry frankfurt - on bullshit
[2005] neil strauss - the game
[2004] ian kerner - she comes first
[2002] christopher hitchens - why orwell matters
[2002] elena ferrante the days of abandonment
[2002] roberto bolano - antwerp
[2001] jon ronson - them
[2001] michel houellebecq - platform
[2001] christopher hitchens - letters to a young contrarian
[1999] christopher hitchens - no one left to lie to
[1998] hunter s thompson - the rum diary
[1998] michel houellebecq - atomised
[1996] calvin trillin - piece by piece
[1995] paul auster - the red notebook
[1994] michel houellebecq - whatever
[1992] thomas moore - care of the soul
[1990] robert bly - iron john
[1988] paulo coelho - the alchemist
[1987] steven heller - there is no such thing as hypnosis
[1986] milan kundera - art of the novel
[1981] tom wolfe - from bauhaus to our house
[1979] charles bukowski - shakespeare never did this
[1977] michael herr - dispatches
[1976] mikhail bulgakov - heart of a dog
[1975] tom wolfe - the painted word
[1973] harold bloom - the anxiety of influence
[1970] tom wolfe - radical chic & mau-mauing the flak catchers
[1967] ernest hemmingway - byline ernest hemmingway
[1966] hunter s thompson - hells angels
[1964] ernest hemingway - a moveable feast
[1963] farley mowat - never cry wolf
[1961] muriel sparks - the prime of miss jean brodie
[1960] karen blixen - skygger på græsset
[1958] chinua achebe - things fall apart
[1956] henry miller - quiet days in clichy
[1954] george orwell - collected essays of
[1953] ray bradbury - fahrenheit 451
[1953] william s buroughs - junky
[1952] ernest hemingway - the old man and the sea
[1948] john steinbeck - a russian journal
[1946] viktor frankl - man's search for meaning
[1938] jean-paul sartre - nausea
[1938] george orwell - homage to catalonia
[1937] george orwell - the road to wigan pier
[1936] dale carnegie - how to win friends and influence people
[1935] ernest hemingway - the green hills of africa
[1933] george orwell - down and out in paris and london
[1929] rainer maria rilke - letters to a young poet
[1928] h.p. lovecraft - call of chtuhlu
[1928] d.h. lawrence - lady chatterlay's lover
[1927] herman hesse - steppenwolf
[1926] ernest hemingway - the sun also rises
[1922] herman hesse - siddharta
[1918] h.l. mencken - a book of calumny
[1912] thomas mann - death in venice
[1911] edith wharton - ethan frome
[1910] rainer maria rilke - the notebooks of malte laurids brigge
[1903] jack london - call of the wild
[1900] inazo nitobe - bushido
[1899] joseph conrad - heart of darkness
[1890] knut hamsun - sult
[1886] robert louis stevenson - the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde
[1857] charles baudelaire - les fleurs du mal
[1845] prosper merimee - carmen
[1835] giacomo leopardi - canti
[1821] thomas de quincey - confessions of an english opium eater
[1816] benjamin constant - adolphe
[1774] johan wolfgang von goethe - the sorrows of young werther
[1759] voltaire - candide
[1716] yamamoto tsunetomo - hagakure
[1645] miyamoto musashi - the book of five rings
[1613] cervantes - dialogue of the dogs
[1295] dante alighieri - la vita nuova
[817] einhard - the life of charlemagne
[180] marcus aurelius - meditations
[150] the moral sayings of publius syrus, a roman slave
[-125] epictetus - enchiridion
[-335] aristotle - poetics
[-370] plato - symposium
[-406] sophocles - oedipus at colony
[-429] sophocles - oedipus rex
[-431] euripides - medea
[-442] sophocles - antigone
[N/A] sophocles - elektra
[N/A] poetry of sappho
[N/A] sun tzu - art of war
[N/A] sayings of confucius
[N/A] the dhammapada
[N/A] lao tzu - tao te ching
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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by djjeffresh »

history of the inca empire

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

djjeffresh wrote:history of the inca empire
oh that sounds fucking bomb. author?

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by djjeffresh »

ric wrote:
djjeffresh wrote:history of the inca empire
oh that sounds fucking bomb. author?
sorry didn't mean to mislead. i'm actually reading the illustrated encyclopedia of the inca empire. so yeah, lots of pictures and cool historical info, but it's what you might expect reading an encyclopedia is like. i enjoy that kind of thing but it might not the best choice if you are looking for something particularly engrossing from a storytelling perspective, nahmean? it's by dr. david jones.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

@jefffresh
sounds dope still. thanks for the look. I'll look it up.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

I thought Darkness at Noon was good anti-totalitarian lit but it did hammer the point home a bit brutally.

I also read Walden and really liked it. Definitely one of the very best books from 19th cent US.
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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

finally finished the Republic of Thieves (3rd locke lamora book).

heres the thing. it's got some cool shit in it. but it's also kind of a slog to read at times. he's not reinforcing that good shit enough. I want a story about thievery and con artists etc. there is that. but it's also a story about some other half boring shit. the end of the book actually has cool shit that really ought to have been more main material. more edge. that's what made the first one as good as it was. so far I feel like author is riding the wave of the first but he hasn't really captured the wave enough to keep the momentum or make another very high quality wave as a lot of what makes the second one what it is is the lack information and then *boom* surprising shit happens at the end. like some caper shit. let's just say if this shit were a movie I'd pan it as a failure as written but it gets a pass for now partly because it's a series of books.

I will say this. if then next one doesn't deliver ill stop giving a fuck.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

been reading a bunch of garbage in the name of experimentation. bad idea.

Just started the thelonious monk biography. finally back on track.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by sun ra »

ric wrote:Just started the thelonious monk biography. finally back on track.
The one by Robin Kelley is terrific. It also raised the bar for future biographers of any jazz musicians.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

@sun ra
yeah that's the one. real good stuff.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by sun ra »

Sheldon S. Wolin: Politics and Vision Expanded Edition
Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought

Incredible book, well written and enlightening. Highly recommended.
First heard of Wolin because of Chris Hedges who interviewd him few months prior to his death.

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by ric »

Signs Preceding the End of the World
by yuri Herrera
translated from Spanish to english
short but pretty good.
it's like an extended tone poem in some ways. some good images. some interesting shit happens. preachy at parts. not so compelling that you need to be reading it but still good

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Re: BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

Post by djjeffresh »

a farewell to arms. love it.

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Post by ric »

Got a kindle paperwhite. Not ecstatic about leaving books behind but if I want to read what I want to read and own it than I kind of have to at this point (thing is perfect for travel).

The undoing project Michael Lewis
Disappointing really. Fails to deliver on the promise of the first couple chapters. Ends up being a fairly interesting story told fairly well. No real sense of satisfaction upon completion. Last words are: unless you're a big Michael Lewis fan prolly best to ignore. A (nother) questionable book for this author when considering the authorship he's been pretty deliberate about establishing

Inside delta force by Eric Haney
Pretty cool stories of military shit. Grit. Discipline. Etc. The perspective of the author is cool because like to this guy a badass is someone who has an indomitable will. That kind of thing. The tone and voicing gives it the feel of a personable understated kind of authenticity.

Guts and Glory the vikings
Same guy who did that book badass. It's like a history book written by some guy who you're bsing with at the bar. Very cool stuff. Vikings were pretty dope.

Fuck Love one shrinks sensible advice for dating
Actually pretty good but leans a little bit close to the "practical" end of the spectrum where basically the authors (there's at least two authors) are like 'yeah beware charisma and a sense of humor but money? If the other person has a bunch of money let's be real you need to get on that gravy train'. Which on one hand clearly befits the title but on the other hand the title is supposed to be like funny haha and set you up for the no-nonsense yet funny approach to the subject matter.

Also read the 'leadership case studies' which supposedly use real life examples like belichick and Harbaugh and urban meyer. Etc etc. I read all the football coaching ones. They're mostly garbage. Avoid them. This is some shotgun attempt at selling shit using those dudes names. The author basically takes some articles he's read about the coaches and repackaged them into 'principles'. While it's cool reading some shit I hadn't read there's no access and no real secret revealing or nothing really legit cutting edge pulled out of these. It's just a hodgepodge collection of shit. Lots of typos too. Their value is that you get to read some shit these guys did at some point.

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