Which book are you reading now? Volume X

[SS-18 ICBM]

Been exploring Pakistan, by Owen Bennet Jones. Written 2002, so nothing about recent events. Still an interesting history, but then again, I'm a layman in the subject so what would I know of its accuracy? Anyway, I've seen an account of Musharraf's coup that read like a political thriller, two armies facing off at the roof of the world, the bloody birth of a new nation, and a subcontinent rocked by supercritical nuclear fission.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Can't seem to find Death and Life of Great American Cities, so I've switched to The Ascent of Life: The Ten Greatest Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane. Good so far.

 

[Radio Noer]

I now have to read A Tale of Two Cities for Brit Lit, I'm most definitely not thrilled

 

[Arakhor]

There are worse books. It could be The Mayor of Casterbridge or Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

 

[Godwynn]

Nemesis - Isaac Asimov

 

[NickyJ]

After murdering my mind by reading Don Quixote for six months and pondering what idiot decided to call it a classic, I have begun reading Is Paris Burning?. It is a much, much better book.

 

[Traitorfish]

Finished The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. Can't say that I'm on board with many of his political prescriptions, but his commentary on colonialism and postcolonialism is pretty interesting.

Started The English Civil War by Dianne Purkiss. What it says on the tin, nothing too heavy.

 

[madviking]

The Maias
Eça de Queiroz

 

[Cutlass]

Daron Acemoglu, Why Nations Fail

One-sentence version so far (ch2): Acemoglu provides a political foundation on which to rest The Mystery of Capital.

Just finished this. Very interesting. And generally supportive of the long time Cutlass world view that freedom and democracy is critical.


Essentially the thesis is that political inclusiveness is necessary for economic freedoms that allow for nations to become wealthy. And then wealthy nations can lose that wealth if they then lose the inclusive political and economic institutions.

Some economic growth may be possible without inclusive politics. However that always has limits because the limits on economic freedoms follow from the limits on political freedoms. And so non inclusive states encounter limits to growth below true national prosperity.

 

[Glassfan]

On Sill's recommendation, read The Swarm, by Frank Schatzing, 2007, 898 pages. This is a very "modern" book - bad Americans; unrelenting environmentalism; and an alien adversary perfectly justified in wiping-out the evil human race.

Spoiler :

In the end, the human race is undeservedly spared, though I don't know why.

Yet a good read, I'd recommend it. It's old-fashioned sciency(sic) fiction.

 

[Antilogic]

Finally had a little free time and finished John Julius Norwich's third volume of Byzantium. Don't want to spoil the ending, but it's a tragedy.

 

[Verarde]

I finished Dune this week. I think I'll go pick up the next book now. Also going to grab The Bourne Identity.

 

[Radio Noer]

I powered through Hunger Games yesterday, a nice, easy read.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Been delaying posting here for a while.

Finished:
This Will Kill You, by HP Newquist. Various ways to die described in terms of numbers, how horrifying it is, and other facts. Pretty interesting, and the bite-sized entries help with attention span.

The Dirt on Clean, by Katherine Ashburg. Hygiene in the West, from Roman times to today. Could have looked more closely at other hygienic traditions, but still a good read nonetheless. We've come full circle to being clean after forgoing bathing in the Middle Ages, even surpassing the Romans strigiling for hours with our tendencies to be too sterile.

Working on:
Airborne, by Tom Clancy. It's about XVIII Airborne Corps in general, and the 82nd Airborne Division in particular as a representative of modern airborne warfare. It was written in 1996, so some details are outdated such as XVIII Airborne Corps still using divisional instead of brigade-sized elements. Most jarring has to be the excitement about the RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopter. Which was cancelled. Fascinating read so far, except for the occasional "USA #1" and "You won't give the military all the funding they want? Why do you hate freedom America our troops?" outbursts. Though I'm not sure if the latter attitude was due to the situation in Taiwan at the time. Maybe he did think America needed to prepare for conventional conflict with China.

 

[Josu]

Finished: a nobel about Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. Quite interesting and very documented. Enjouyed a lot.
Started: La estrategia del perro loco. Israel, Irán y la bomba nuclear by Íñigo Sáenz de Ugarte. Traduction of title is Mad dog's strategy. Israel, Iran and the nuclear bomb. Quick overview (about 50 pages, just readed a few) about the future war on Iran, the nuclear program and how did Israel get the bomb. I think I will finish it this week.
Uuh yes, a whole week for 50 pages, but I am going to be too busy to read.

Next one will be first book from Millenium, in English as I think I have to practice it, haven't read it in basque or spanish

 

[Kozmos]

Finished Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Not bad, but I wish the ending was a bit more elaborated. For a stand-alone book though its great. Moving onto Cryptonomicon from the same author. Hopefully it will make me learn more about encryption.

Also the Book of the five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. Something different for a change.

 

[Hygro]

Finished Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Not bad, but I wish the ending was a bit more elaborated. For a stand-alone book though its great. Moving onto Cryptonomicon from the same author. Hopefully it will make me learn more about encryption.

Also the Book of the five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. Something different for a change.

I need to reread the Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon. The Diamond Age was good but I'd understand it better now that I'm out of high school. I tried Cryptonomicon in 8th grade because I loved Snow Crash so much (favorite book), but 500 pages into it I was like, I don't know what's going on or what I've been reading. So I just put it on hold and never resumed it.

 

[Integral]

Finished
Otaku: Japan's Database Animals. Studies otaku culture from 1970-2000, highlighting the rise of character-centric, rather than narrative-centric storytelling.

Working on
Why Nations Fail (finished chapter 4)
Shi'ism: Religion of Protest
After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam

 

[Antilogic]

Let's see... I have started two books now:

-Eric Hobsbawm's Age of Revolution, Vol. 1/4 - It was recommended in either the history recommendation thread or one of the prior versions of this thread years ago, finally got around to getting a copy.

-Tim Blanning's Pursuit of Glory - It focuses on revolutions that made modern Europe, but only a part of the book is devoted to military matters. The rest is on industrialization, shipping, communication, etc.

Both are interesting enough that I will be reading more, but I'm not far enough along to deliver anything more specific.

 

[Hygro]

Working on
Why Nations Fail (finished chapter 4)

Is that the old one, or is that the new one? There's like two, with opposing names that I think contradict each others' claims (help me out here).