What are you reading now? (Chapter 2)

[Clinton Huxley]

Started on the first volume of Sir Steven Runciman's history of the Crusades and have got Blind Descent by James Tabor ticking away in the background.

[Coito ergo sum]

Proceeding on through the Foundation series, I am at book 5.

[anna09]

I just started this today. It dispells the myth that one must be an extrovert in order to be successful.

[anna09]

I think I'm going to start this one today. Anyone read it?

[Bella Fortuna]

Never heard of it but am anxious to hear what you think. That other WWII book I read that you'd posted about I really liked.

[JimC]

"Dangerous Davies, the Last Detective" by Leslie Thomas

[apophenia]

I've decided to repopulate my Bloom County collection, which I threw out in order to reduce the clutter (at building management's request). I intend to buy one volume of the five volume Complete Bloom County set each month or every other month. At retail, they are $40 each, which I figured could be beaten by shopping online. Unfortunately that means I'll have to wait for its arrival. (In the meantime, my blu-ray copy of Rebecca arrived, and I recently acquired Aliens and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on blu-ray. Aliens is the movie I use to calm me down when I'm tense or anxious. I wonder if it will be less or more calming in HD?) And along with that, I purchased a DVD release of the first 37 Tom & Jerry cartoons (uncensored).

Beyond Bloom County, I picked up a Dilbert book (It's Not Funny If I have To Explain It). I passed up the one with the funniest title: "Your Accomplishments Are Suspiciously Hard to Verify".

Several assorted volumes have come in, including the book on fake quotes I've been, um, quoting, and "A World Lit Only By Fire", which is a cultural history of the Middle Ages, and most exciting (to me anyway) an intro textbook on evolutionary psychology.

On the 27th, one of my atheist groups will be discussing "The Age of American Unreason" by Susan Jacoby, which appears to be a documentation of anti-intellectual trends in contemporary American society.



I picked up two, for lack of a better term, coffee table books. Light frivolous reading. One on the history of the jet fighter and one on the military technology of WWII. And one of my philosophy groups is discussing Ayn Rand and Objectivism, which means I'll have to open the dusty tomes in which I keep the necessary incantations to make the old girl spin in her grave. Last month it was Sartre. I guess this is the spring of "populist philosophers of no real importance to philosophy".



(And finally, the magenta cover for my nook color arrived, which means I will soon be populating it with eBooks.)

[apophenia]

I've misplaced the bookmarks I cribbed from the used book store, so in the meantime I've marked my place in my new Dilbert book with a flyer from the Church of Scientology which I had handy. Seems fitting.



Pointy-haired Boss: "Wally, have you even read our mission statement?"

Wally: "Yeah, but I don't subscribe to a literal interpretation."

[Hermit]

I think I'm going to start this one today. Anyone read it?

No, but I've read Wer einmal aus dem Blechnapf frißt (Who Once Eats Out of the Tin Bowl), his relentless condemnation of what passed for criminal justice in Germany during the 1920s. The author lead an extremely unfortunate life. I am surprised that he could write anything at all, let alone the amount of writings he managed to get published.

[apophenia]

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Fleet Problem XX"

[anna09]

Just so everyone knows, this was excellent! One of my favourites.

Reading this now for a class. . .

[Animavore]

Got this from the library...



I wanted to take a break from so much factual stuff, I fear it's cramping my imagination, so I went for some fantasy . Plus I totally picked it for its cover..

I hope it's good.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

V Amphibious Corps Landing Force, Iwo Jima : general staff section reports. Appendix 1 - G-1 report. Appendix 2 - G-2 report. Appendix 3 - G-3 report. Appendix 4 - G-4 report. Annex Baker.

[apophenia]

This for an upcoming philosophy group:

"The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, lamented St. Paul, and this engrossing scientific interpretation of traditional lore backs him up with hard data. Citing Plato, Buddha and modern brain science, psychologist Haidt notes the mind is like an "elephant" of automatic desires and impulses atop which conscious intention is an ineffectual "rider." Haidt sifts Eastern and Western religious and philosophical traditions for other nuggets of wisdom to substantiate—and sometimes critique—with the findings of neurology and cognitive psychology. The Buddhist-Stoic injunction to cast off worldly attachments in pursuit of happiness, for example, is backed up by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's studies into pleasure. And Nietzsche's contention that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger is considered against research into post-traumatic growth. ..."

This author showed up on my radar as some of his work was referenced in Sam Harris' The Moral Landscape, and I found the work referenced reminiscient of the work of a Kahneman or Tversky, and likely at home in any work on bounded rationality. I seem to recall getting a bad feeling about this book, but hopefully I've just got my wires crossed. I've already had to endure two bad books this year; I could use a break or two.



The Happiness Hypothesis - Jonathan Haidt


(Oh, in case anyone was thinking of reading Jacoby's The Age Of American Unreason, I urge you to reconsider. It was the most bullshit filled pretentious crap I've read in quite some time.)