Repug's book of the month club

[heurisdick]

Originally Posted by SittinOnDubsWGW

Overall, it was OK. The writing style slows down my reading speed by quite a bit. There are a lot of little things that you have to think about in order to figure out exactly wtf Pygmy is talking about at times. The fact that all of his dialogue is completely broken english and weird could easily turn people off pretty quickly.

I used to read Palahniuk every chance I got. Then I read Snuff and Pygmy. It seems like he's just writing about and describing gross shit in (impressive) detail for shock value lately. I've given up on him.

[heurisdick]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde

Just finished The Greatest Show on Earth last night:

This book was significantly different from The God Delusion, in that it goes back to Dawkins' more scientific writing and has a lot less speculation. It is basically a 400+ page textbook on experiments and observations offering proof of evolution on Earth. It doesn't speculate too much on the origin of life, only what comes after it and what has happened. There are still anti-religious overtones, but rightly so, as (and he repeats this quite often throughout the book) 40% of Americans still believe that the Earth was created by a god less than 10,000 years ago.

Hopefully, this book will be the coup de grace to almost any form of creationism and intelligent design, but that's quite a bit of wishful thinking. We're all taught in science classes and perhaps TV shows the basic underlying concept of evolution; this is the first book i've read that has solidified it as scientific fact, and not a "theory" in the "hypothetical" sense, but a theory in the scientifically proved, time and time and again, sense. I would highly suggest it to anyone with a desire to deeply understand our origins.

I read this one. And then I heard about a creationist version that came out shortly after called "The Greatest Hoax on Earth" to take on Dawkins argument by argument. I thought I'd mention it since you seem interested in the topic. If not just for the comedic value. We're talking hardcore, earth under 10,000 years old, stuff here.

Would've added a picture of it.... but don't know how

[Beebs]

I am a huge fan of travelogues and geographic/ethnographic books, especially on the Balkans and Eastern Europe. This book is a bit light on the Balkans as he wrote a book called "Balkan Ghosts" which covers the area in-depth, but it does do a good job of introducing them so you don't need to be well read on the area to read the book. So while I've read a lot about the Balkans, the rest of the books scope is somewhat new to me in this type of book, and I find it very interesting.

The general format is he describes a town when he first gets there, goes over the past, present, and future of the area in an interview with a local, describes the journey to the next place, compares the two places, and then repeats.

Originally Posted by Amazon Review

The master of the hardheaded travelogue, Robert D. Kaplan returns with a book on what he calls "the New Near East," an area stretching from the Balkans to Central Asia that "might become the seismograph of world politics" in the new century. That doesn't sound like good news: "The pitiless history of the Near East [is] dominated by marauding armies and earthquakes while peace treaties have merely formalized temporary stalemates on the ground." Kaplan has made a career of writing about the world's trouble spots "without illusions"--his books Balkan Ghosts and The Ends of the Earth are at once influential and pessimistic.

Eastward to Tartary is a fascinating exploration of places Kaplan has not written about in depth before: "Third World Europe" (Romania and Bulgaria), Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and the confusing conglomeration of countries and peoples in the Caucasus. Smart observations leap off almost every page. "In every Arab city I have ever visited, people were polite and honest, running after you to return a loose coin you have left at a soft-drinks stand," he writes. So why hasn't democracy taken hold in the Islamic world? "The very perfection of the Islamic belief system begot a naive absolutism that made the compromises of normal political life impossible." In an aside on ancient Assyria, Kaplan notes, "The theme is always the same: Highly militarized and centralized states and empires, so indomitable in one decade or generation, hack themselves to pieces or are themselves conquered in another." Then he reminds readers that Assyria once bestrode present-day Iraq and Syria--a "hauntingly appropriate" coincidence. And surprising facts abound: "Turkey represents the most stable governmental dynasty in world history, with the Turkish soldiery able to trace the roots of its power to the Roman emperors." Fans of Kaplan's previous books won't want to miss this one, and neither will new readers interested in this part of the world. --John J. Miller

[Mr. Blonde]

There are always refutations of Dawkins' books that take swipes at religion. The God Delusion had it's counterparts, The Dawkins Confusion and The Dawkins Delusion? (creative, I know) -- both argued more from a philosophical standpoint than a religious one (though the bias was painfully apparent), focusing on the fact that Dawkins is not a philosopher, therefore he should STFU and stick to hard science. I disagree with the implied notions that a person experienced in one field can't dabble in another, but both works did offer some pretty fair philosophical points in regard to Dawkins' borderline absolutism.

I'm not sure how I would fare with a creationist book under the facade of science, however. Common sense alone makes my brain hurt thinking about the Young Earth viewpoint...let alone an entire book about it. Might leave that one alone.


I recently finished A Brief History of Time, which was a really good read -- but very time consuming for me, especially in relation to the size of the book (200pgs). Then again, it is Stephen Hawking, and it is mostly about quantum theory and advanced theoretical physics. Very good book, learned a lot about physics and astronomy I was already somewhat acquainted with but didn't understand the inner workings of. The book is extremely well written.

This winter I want to read his newest book, The Grand Design, to hopefully drive home a lot of the points he made in BHoT, and see what he's learned in 20 years since.

I've decided to take a short break from non-fiction for a while. Recently started up Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. They are extremely enthralling books.

The plot takes place about around 10,000 years in the future, when humanity has conquered most of the Milky Way and has ruled it in the form of a Galactic Empire:

The premise of the series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept of mathematical sociology (analogous to mathematical physics) devised by Asimov and his editor John W. Campbell. Using the law of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale; it is error-prone on a small scale. It works on the principle that the behaviour of a mass of people is predictable if the quantity of this mass is very large (equal to the population of the galaxy, which has a population of quadrillions of humans, inhabiting millions of star systems). The larger the number, the more predictable is the future.
Using these techniques, Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises. To shorten the period of barbarism, he creates two Foundations, small, secluded havens of all human knowledge, at "opposite ends of the galaxy".

I'm on the second book now, and I can burn through this kind of reading exponentially faster than I can non-fiction, which is depressing, but probably common.

[Beebs]

Originally Posted by Repugnant Abomination

Homage to Catalonia is political journalist and novelist George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War, written in the first person.

This looks excellent, it is well in line with my interest of geopolitics. I find the autonomous regions / nationalities / nations (all contentious words based on use) in Spain very interesting and have sort of picked my way through "A Basque History of the World."

The different autonomous regions have their own soccer teams that play friendlies (can't play competitive tournaments as they aren't part of FIFA, since Spain represents them) once in a while. Catalonia and the Basque region have the best teams; the Catalans could be one of the better teams in Europe and the Basques could hold their own as well.

[heurisdick]

I'm reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance right now. Pretty good book. It is taking me longer than it should because it's very easy to just read one chapter and put it down. It's a pretty philosophical book that delves into the whole right brain vs left brain, science vs art, logic vs creativity realm. It's starting to get pretty abstract now, but starts out easy to read and really interesting.

[Repugnant Abomination]

Originally Posted by Beebs

This looks excellent, it is well in line with my interest of geopolitics. I find the autonomous regions / nationalities / nations (all contentious words based on use) in Spain very interesting and have sort of picked my way through "A Basque History of the World."

The different autonomous regions have their own soccer teams that play friendlies (can't play competitive tournaments as they aren't part of FIFA, since Spain represents them) once in a while. Catalonia and the Basque region have the best teams; the Catalans could be one of the better teams in Europe and the Basques could hold their own as well.

I highly recommend it to anyone, and you in particular, knowing your interests and ideology.

[angry pancake]

"Blood In The Cage. Mixed Martial Arts, Pat Miletich, and the furious rise of the UFC".

The title says what it's about. Fucking awesome in that it goes into detail items that many casual MMA fans would know about, such as the sale to Zuffa, the origins of the UFC, sanctioning and what not. Also intertwines Miletech's story along with the UFC's story back in forth to keep knuckle draggers from getting too bored. In telling the stories Wertheim keeps the two seperated except for the obvious overlapping when Miletech fought in the UFC. My first concern was that the book was gonna suck Miletech's dick and hail him as the savior or somesuch of the UFC. Not the case. It's two tales related by a common thread for the most part. A good read and a quick read without too many big words. Even Shaw could appreciate this book.

[Mr. Blonde]

Just finished this book. Overall, a really good read. I learned a lot I didn't previously understand about both Koreas and I liked the author, Michael Breen's, delivery a lot. He is a former journalist who has been to North Korea several times and is now a consultant for businesses interested in dealing with North Korea.

He currently lives in Seoul and had a lot to say about South Korean culture too, and was very blunt and matter-of-fact about the kinds of concepts and cultural oddities that I have observed but haven't been able to put into such succinct words, but I like that he didn't pussy-foot around the "respecting their culture" bullshit and said it how it is.

Anyways, the book gives a fantastic insight into North Korea and helps to illustrate that the North Korean situation, and especially Kim Jong-il, is much more complex than your average swinging dick tends to understand it. I learned a lot about Kim Jong-il and his history, and he is actually an extremely interesting character, not to mention very intelligent. I never thought the guy was retarded or anything, he does run a country [poorly] after all, but the level of manipulation and patience he has exercised is pretty astounding.

One of my favorite anecdotes in the book was in regard to a film director and starlet, who were also formerly a married couple, who his regime kidnapped and kept in North Korea for years before they escaped. The things they told reporters and wrote after escaping about the regime really blow your mind, i'll try to type some of it out soon.

The most interesting, although extremely angering chapter in the book is the one that talks about the shit that goes down in the gulag. The prison and work camps in North Korea truly sound like terrible places to be, on par with concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Pretty disgusting stuff in there.

In any case, it's a great book, and it's only about 180 pages. For anybody who is interested in a basic history of Korea and a better understanding of North Korea, I highly recommend it.

Thanks for the book, DJ FC!

[angry pancake]

I'll trade you Kim il for the ufc book whenever you're finished

[Repugnant Abomination]

Rabbit, Run is a 1960 novel by John Updike. The novel depicts five months in the life of a 26-year-old former high school basketball player named Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, and his attempts to escape the constraints of his life. It spawned several sequels, including Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit At Rest, as well as a related 2001 novella, Rabbit Remembered. Both Rabbit Is Rich (1981) and Rabbit At Rest (1990) received the Pulitzer Prize. He is one of only three authors (the others being Booth Tarkington and William Faulkner) to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once.

The book...What can I say - it was difficult. The plot is thin, the writing dense, the subject matter mundane, and yet it was moving and very often infuriating. I would describe reading it as a constant balance between slogging through and marveling at. I definitely recommend reading something by Updike at some point in your life, as he is truly one of the literary giants of the 20th century, but his style's not for everyone.

[thekremlin]

Anyone ever read Norman Mailer? The Naked and the Dead blew me away when I was in High School, I had never read writing that good. Executioner's Song is very good as well. If you like Updike you should like Mailer.

[Ironic Mustache]

It's basically a bunch of case studies regarding neuroplasticity. It's not really heavy on the science aspect, so anyone with even a basic understanding of neural functioning won't have any kind of problems enjoying it at all. Pretty interesting shit. There's one study of a chick born missing her entire left hemisphere, who now functions well enough that you wouldn't even know anything was wrong just by talking to her. This is particularly awesome because two of the more important areas of speech are located in the left hemisphere. I highly recommend.

[Mr. Blonde]

Holy shit. Did she just have a hole in half her head then, or was it filled with something or what?

[Repugnant Abomination]

A classic of the Gothic Horror genre, right up there with Dracula and Frankenstein. It's written in the style you'd expect from a Victorian novel, but even if it's not your style I'd still recommend this book. While the premise is simple enough (though shocking for its time, I'm sure) it's well done, and I think we all relate to it. It's very universal.

This story represents a concept in Western culture, that of the inner conflict of humanity's sense of good and evil. In particular the novella has been interpreted as an examination of the duality of human nature (that good and evil exists in all), and that the failure to accept this tension (to accept the evil or shadow side) results in the evil being projected onto others.

The work is commonly associated with the rare mental condition often spuriously called "split personality", wherein within the same person there are two distinct personalities. In this case, the two personalities in Dr Jekyll are apparently good and evil, with completely opposite levels of morality.

It's only about a hundred pages, so it's a nice quick read. Check it out if you haven't.

[Mr. Blonde]

I read that with my students last year and was surprised to find out that Mr. Hyde isn't actually a huge, beastly monstrous version, but rather a small, pure evil, sickness inducing version. Hollywood and TV studios really went to town on that one.

[Mr. Blonde]

Just finished this a couple days ago:

I was vaguely familiar with the book, but I started getting more interested after watching some of Krauss's lectures online. I was never a Star Trek fan really, of course I watched some growing up when there was nothing else on but mostly I just regarded it as a bunch of people in pajamas being really boring. Which, to be fair, is a pretty accurate description.

That being said, this book is pretty damn good. A lot better than the more-abstract style of writing in regard to physics and astronomy, and I had seen enough Star Trek to visualize things a lot better than I would have otherwise. As a surprising side-effect, I am now really interested in Star Trek and have recently begun watching The Next Generation.

If you've ever liked the show and want to know more about physics, it's a great read.

[vaga1220 *]

I really don't like that Wesley Crusher cunt bag. As far as Westleys are concerned, Westley from The Princess Bride is far superior in every important way.

[Saint DH]

I don't think anyone likes that piece of shit. I can't believe they made him an officer.

[Mr. Blonde]

I can't fucking stand that kid. No way such a little fuck would be that smart IRL. Regularly outsmarts Data and a thousand or so years of space technology. What a bunch of bullshit.

[Mr. Blonde]

The Wesley - Television Tropes & Idioms

[Saint DH]

I was once a fairly (extremely) large trekkie (I still think the show is awesome). Of course, I'm only referring to the original and the next generation. The spin offs after that were pretty much shit. I don't know if you're watching the episodes in sequential order, but if you're not, I highly recommend watching "Q Who?" and "The Best of Both Worlds" part 1 and 2. The latter episodes are regarded as some of the best episodes with a story that has cinematic qualities. The Borg kick fucking ass.

[Mr. Blonde]

I am familiar with a lot of star trek concepts but not much with the continuous storyline. I'm am definitely going sequentially and thus far I pretty much hate the Ferengi. They are cocksuckers, I don't even know why the Federation bothers.

[DJ FC]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde

I am familiar with a lot of star trek concepts but not much with the continuous storyline. I'm am definitely going sequentially and thus far I pretty much hate the Ferengi. They are cocksuckers, I don't even know why the Federation bothers.

The Ferengi are Jews. Klingons are Black. And Vulcans are Asian.

[DDTempest]

I'm in the minority among people who enjoy Star Trek ... I prefer Deep Space Nine ... its a bit darker and has space Nazi's (Cardacians). Plus a bald pimp nigger captain that kicks ass ... also Worf shows up eventually.