Must read books

[FarangBa]

Hmmm. Interesting!

compiling list now

[vinnie97]

Huxley: Brave New World

Read this one semi-recently...interesting social commentary and eerily dystopian.

[Deff Gordon]

Originally Posted by FarangBa

Hmmm. Interesting!

compiling list now

i think you would enjoy that Shock Doctrine book.. although i don't agree with her "inherent evil" attitude of capitalism (i certainly don't think you will either), but it's an amazing book none the less.

andy is reading it right now as well.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by name change request

yeah, funny enough but i'm more in line with xian's taste in books than da's... hmmm. i seriously doubt i could make it through a book of Warran Buffet's essays... but who knows. i read a book of letters between Thoreau and a friend though.

that looks interesting... i might check that out

You're more interested in abstract notions. David is a very concrete thinker and analyst. His concerns are less form than function and result. You generally come at issues in the reverse (at least from my experience with you here.)

Couple things about Burke... it covers the first part of the revolution from a very elitist Brit perspective (he was not a populist) but one that had already adopted a parliamentarian form of government over a hundred years prior and been through a protracted revolution of its own. It needs to be understood in the context of its day - neither you nor I would be satisfied with Burke's form of democracy/republicanism though he did advocate in Parliament on behalf of the grievances from the colonies. He was an aristocrat through and through but also believed in the consent of the governed... but had a more limited notion of whose consent was sufficient. Still, very interesting perspective on contemporary historical events. He is often regarded as a godfather of liberal conservativism / classical liberalism before those terms took on the meanings we generally apply today. The governemt exists to protect the liberty of the governed who consent in order to receive that protection. A compromise in spheres of autonomy.

Originally Posted by name change request

um... and i have three bookcases filled with books... or almost filled, i sold a crapload to half price books a couple months back. there is always something fascinating and fun to read about it if you go look.

My library is filled with stacks of: "to read," "fuck reading it; sell it," "already read it - find a place to put it" and "read it sell it." They occassionally topple. That is a source of much annoyance and dismay that usually sees the "fuck it" pile get bigger.

Originally Posted by elNastioBananaHando

Hey fuck you! I've used her philosophy to justify me being a selfish asshole to all the girls I've dated and letting them know that if my needs are met first they will be taken care of..... if I feel like it. Its worked wonders for me Xian.

fixed

Originally Posted by elNastioBananaHando

Next 100 Years by George Friedman.

Whacky in parts but overall very interesting. Much of it solid analysis, some of it reads like editor encouraged fantasy. Still, I think it belongs on the list.


more....


I'd probably toss some early Greeks in there from the Athenian school... the playwrites to a lesser extent but the plato/aristotle/socrates stuff more prominently just for the foundation... commentaries would probably be better.. That's some dry ass shit.

Porphyry - classical age egypt Alexandria, iirc, for help w/Plotinus who is tough to get through but entirely necessary imo if you want to really understand St. Augustine. It is my belief, and I don't think it controversial, that St. Augustine's belief and explanation of the trinity are deeply bound up in Plotinus' cosmology... which of course had direct impact on Aquinas and the Scholastics.

RAMBAM - Rabi Moshe ben Maimon - Moses Maimonides: Spain, 12th century. Same era as Averroes who I recall little of at this point. RAMBAM was a prememinent torah scholar in the Muslim world... Spain, through north Africa. Genius stuff in every regard. His analysis of language in the torah - composed of three letter roots with multiple possible interpretations offers incredible insight into the written tradition and more. He wrote commentaries on the law and pretty much everything. They are akin to cliff's notes for the torah only longer and more complicated. See the Mishneh Torah.

Samuel Pepys (said Peeps) just for his diaries.

Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich: not his own writings but commentaries, criticism etc about him. The greatest diplomat of his era lived through the French Revolution, Napoleon, multiple European revolutions etc etc etc and was understood as the greatest (imo) diplomat of his era. He helped establish the notion of balance of power which helped europe avoid major wars for a couple generations

Giordano Bruno: A much more insightful thinker (and right) than Copernicus. Burned at the stake by the Inquisition around late 1500s. Probably made it easier for Copernicus. Understood the notion of the cosmos as infinite, heliocentrism etc etc

Jan Hus: Kind of an early Martin Luther and military leader - developed a combat technique of circling wagons... burned at the stake too.

Heloise and Abelard... the story of their relationship

The Icelandic Sagas... Prose Edda, Heimskringla, etc

Neibelungeleid

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock stories

Turgenev: Fathers and Sons... because a classical Russian novel should be on the list and this one is mercifully short (still requires cribs for all the various names for each character)

[elNastioBananaHando]

HAHAHAHA! So true Xian so true. *Puts Giant Globe of World over back and shrugs*

[jtoosweet]

Good to Great by Jim Collins

[Dribbles]

48 Laws of Power
The Art of War
Can't Stop Won't Stop history of Hip hop
Frames of Mind the theory of multiple intelligences

[matt]

everybody poops

[PETA]

Le Petit Prince

and edit... I got Bruno and Copernicus reversed chronologically I think... no matter I guess

[david austin]

Originally Posted by PETA

You need a kick in the nuts for that god awful piece of shit... you know what? I don't give on rat's ass who John Gault is and I find Any Rand's moral philosophy about as bankrupt as any self serving line of bullshit every created to justify being a complete asshole to anyone at anytime in order to do nothing but please yourself and justify it on that bankrupt theory. She was a fucking cunt and her writing is only slightly less tedious than her character was atrocious.

How's that

HATER

Originally Posted by PETA

David is a very concrete thinker and analyst. His concerns are less form than function and result.

HATER 2.0



One of the hardest things I am having to overcome in my initial essays is taking the concrete and forming abstract notions to better describe to a reader. I am having to go waaaaay back to basic teaching principles... Like in early mathematics where most children learn arithmetic by assigning a concrete number to something abstract... Usually fingers.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by david austin

HATER

Me and officer Barbrady

Originally Posted by david austin

HATER 2.0



One of the hardest things I am having to overcome in my initial essays is taking the concrete and forming abstract notions to better describe to a reader. I am having to go waaaaay back to basic teaching principles... Like in early mathematics where most children learn arithmetic by assigning a concrete number to something abstract... Usually fingers.

lol - such is the problem when you're focused on producing an actual result that can be relied upon