What are you reading?

I'm reading The Witcher and Blood of Elves.
They are perfectly entertaining books with a unique dark fantasy twist, but I don't see them becoming literary classics any time soon. (Now matter how awesome Geralt of Rivia is.)
 
I've decided to read a little Karl Marx, or at least snippets of his thought in The Portable Karl Marx edited by Eugene Kamenka. Right now reading a section of "On the Jewish Question". I'm reading through the selection a second time now, as the first time I was completely lost. But I take it the selection presented is ultimately more or less a critique individualism or what Marx seems to term "egoism" and how it relates to "political emancipation". I remember reading part of "On the Jewish Question" many years ago in my first semester as a philosophy major. Can't remember the first thing about it though so this is a bit of a refresher.
 
I've decided to read a little Karl Marx, or at least snippets of his thought in The Portable Karl Marx edited by Eugene Kamenka. Right now reading a section of "On the Jewish Question". I'm reading through the selection a second time now, as the first time I was completely lost. But I take it the selection presented is ultimately more or less a critique individualism or what Marx seems to term "egoism" and how it relates to "political emancipation". I remember reading part of "On the Jewish Question" many years ago in my first semester as a philosophy major. Can't remember the first thing about it though so this is a bit of a refresher.
Marx' Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy is rather dense, but it has some rather hilarious footnotes. When reading Marx, keep in mind Marx is not just writing, he is also reading TO you -- out loud -- and adding commentary as he does. Read Engels' Preface to Vol II of Capital, where Engles decribes how Marx took the conclusions of classical British Political economy and turned them on their heads. It is brilliant stuff.


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I hope to eventually work my way through a decent bit of the compilation, (at least the part concerning Marx's professional writings which includes some selections from Capital Vol. 1) . I do remember a few scant bits of Marx's conclusions in Capital, most notably the famous bit about the capitalist's profit being the unpaid wage of the worker. I have to say I'm looking forward to reading the featured bits of Das Kapital if I can get through "On the Jewish Question" without pulling my hair out. lol
 
I may be starting Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton. I say may because I have a library book I should finish first, but de Botton is ever-tempting..
 
I hope to eventually work my way through a decent bit of the compilation, (at least the part concerning Marx's professional writings which includes some selections from Capital Vol. 1) . I do remember a few scant bits of Marx's conclusions in Capital, most notably the famous bit about the capitalist's profit being the unpaid wage of the worker. I have to say I'm looking forward to reading the featured bits of Das Kapital if I can get through "On the Jewish Question" without pulling my hair out. lol

Oh, Gary, forgot to mention -- read Althusser's Reading Capital (with Etienne Balabar) which, while dense, helps you understand Marx a little better. Althusser also uses the Roy translation of Capital which us in French, and the only translation Marx himself edited.

It's on my mind because I am in seminar on Capital and even for a room full if practicing Communists, it takes a lot of work to get through.

Best wishes.

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Interesting, I was reading Wiki regarding Althusser. I have a question regarding him which I'll ask in the "Ask a Red Thread".

@Smellincoffee: Have you ever read de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy? I thought that was a pretty good read. Also made a great Christmas gift to a couple "non philosopher" friends of mine.
 
Zone One - Colson Whitehead
Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy - Christopher Hayes
Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in Village China - William Hinton & Fred Magdoff
 
Hey Masada, you're reading Fanshen! I hope that was based on my suggestion. Btw, look up the Hinton obit from the NYT, save for the wikipedia-like dumb errors, it's a good background on the book.

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I decided to reread the best children's book ever: The Phantom Tollbooth. Found an annotated version at a local library and immediately got lost in it for several hours.
Hey Masada, you're reading Fanshen! I hope that was based on my suggestion.
I beat you to it two years ago. :3
 
I just finished Martin A. Hansens Løgneren ("The Liar") which is about Johannes Vig, a clergyman and schoolteacher hanging out on Sandø ("Sand Island") with a small Christian community. The pace is kind of slow and very little actually happens, but the writer really understands the subtlety of conversations within intimate relationships and allows it to breathe without feeling weird at all. It is a very big book in Denmark and is considered a classic today.

Johannes is named as such probably inspired by Johannes of Søren Kierkegaard's Forførerens Dagbog (Diary of a Seducer) - and appropriately so. It feels like a retrospective of a seducer, as analyzing Forførerens Dagbog will showcase that he probably ends up in loneliness. Løgneren deals with themes of loneliness and detachment in an unadmitted way - Johannes of Løgneren really handles all of his relations superficially and never truly gets assimilated by the Sandø community.

When he actually manages to get an honest connection to someone, it becomes severed almost instantly, and he ends up a miserable lonely drunkard. The book is written in a very self-aware tone as if he was to convince the reader that he was, infact, not lonely, but the picture cracks once in a while, showcased in a sort of self-hate and the way he deals with small things - and the fact that he haven't even been honest to the reader the whole time.

Most of the book is kind of a lighthearted drag with not much happening, but the last two-three chapters really climaxed into a lot of "WTH this is just like me and this was his intention all along" moments. It felt insane - very exciting, but it scared me, as this Johannes character actually does a lot of things I do when handling sexual relationships, and I became more and more aware that the author of the book was pouring parts of his heart out through this Johannes character in a caricatured way - much like I do when I write.

I feel really strange after having read the book, both in a good and a bad way. It ended up really scaring me.
 
ReindeerThistle said:
Hey Masada, you're reading Fanshen! I hope that was based on my suggestion. Btw, look up the Hinton obit from the NYT, save for the wikipedia-like dumb errors, it's a good background on the book.

You are the latest voices to have urged me to read it. It also seems to gel really well with my massive man-crush on Subaltern Studies and peasants generally. (I think I would have made a really good Maoist back in the day).
 
Hey Masada, you're reading Fanshen! I hope that was based on my suggestion.
I beat you to it two years ago. :3
Wow, Dachs. Impressive book for a twenty year-old to read. I read it the first time in 1995 -- with only 3 years as a practicing Communist. Then I re-read it in 2003, I think close to when Hinton died and shivered when the obit writer called the village "Fanshen" instead of Long Bow. Oy!

You are the latest voices to have urged me to read it. It also seems to gel really well with my massive man-crush on Subaltern Studies and peasants generally. (I think I would have made a really good Maoist back in the day).
The CPC at least admits its litany of tragic mistakes without downplaying the tremendous accomplishments of the Chinese Revolution.

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@Smellincoffee: Have you ever read de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy? I thought that was a pretty good read. Also made a great Christmas gift to a couple "non philosopher" friends of mine.


Certainly! My introduction to de Botton was seeing the video series based on the book, and I found it so thought-provoking that I investigated its host. Consolations is one of my favorite books.
 
The Wasps. What an interesting read.
I decided to reread the best children's book ever: The Phantom Tollbooth. Found an annotated version at a local library and immediately got lost in it for several hours.
Annotated as in 'written over by all the previous readers' or as in 'commentaries from the author and/or editor'?
 
Just finished reading The Dictator's Handbook, a highly entertaining but informative and deep piece of political science.

Just started with Fyodor Dostoyevski's Crime & Punishment.
 
I've noticed that I have shifted over to reading a lot of biographies recently. My most recent pickup is on Earl Warren, but looking back at my reading list in the other thread I had books on Kennedy, Nixon, Teddy Roosevelt, Garfield, McKinley, Aaron Burr, and several other books that tended to focus more on individual characters than broader historical topics.

There are a few exceptions, granted, but I think there is enough evidence to call it a shift in reading habits.
 
I've noticed that I have shifted over to reading a lot of biographies recently. My most recent pickup is on Earl Warren, but looking back at my reading list in the other thread I had books on Kennedy, Nixon, Teddy Roosevelt, Garfield, McKinley, Aaron Burr, and several other books that tended to focus more on individual characters than broader historical topics.

There are a few exceptions, granted, but I think there is enough evidence to call it a shift in reading habits.

If you're in the mood, some highlights of mine from the last 6 years, viz. biographies.

#1 recommendation:
Fidel: My Life, as told to Ignacio Ramonet. It's a good read, though has bits critical of Stalin. You get Fidel's eye view of significant events of the lat 60 years. It's a good read.

#2: Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution: An Interview with Hugo Chavez by Marta Harnecker. A good look at the life and work of Chavez written while he was alive.

#3 Mandela's collection of essays (published when he was still banned and in prison), called No Easy Walk to Freedom is good, too, as well as Winnie Mandela's Part of My Soul Went With Him.

#4 Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom wirtten and published after his release. Very revealing.

Also, if anyone was once a fan of Teddy Roosevelt, The Imperial Cruise by James Bradley (who also wrote Flags of Our Fathers) will cure them of that. Teddy Roosevelt was a racist, racialist dandy from an old money family who made himself into a "rough and ready" icon -- he was a complete fake.
 
For some reason the browser screwed up my post. :(

The skinny: I don't know if my recent trend towards biographies is a mood or just an unconscious coincidence of recent book selections and recommendations, I've only just now noticed it.

I've been working through Edmund Morris' three-volume set on Theodore Roosevelt; I've finished the second on his presidency and plan to start the third on the post-presidency after the Earl Warren bio. It's not as flattering as one might naively expect a bio to be (don't know how it would compare to Bradley's take, haven't read that yet), especially with regards to the Battle at San Juan, his actions in Panama, and his general handling of diplomacy. It still tells everything "over his shoulder" though, so while it is a great adventure I can't help but feel there could be a little more meat to the analysis.
 
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