Which book are you reading now? Volume XI

[Antilogic]

Chris Wickham - The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000

I skimmed through that a year or two ago. Never got around to reading it closely, but it's not a bad book. It is extremely content-dense.

I remember liking it. The Amazon reviewers and Integral have it right, though, this is a dense book--it's like drinking from a fire hose.

 

[Masada]

Yeah, it's quite dense. His Framing the Middle Ages weighing in at... a thousand odd pages and dealing with the same subject is vastly more readable.

 

[Glassfan]

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, 2011, 627 pages with illustrations.

One of the most fascinating personalities of this generation examined by one of our best contemporary biographers. Isaacson has written excellent, best-selling books on Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Henry Kissinger, and is well known for his critical, nonpartisan coverage (warts and all).

Steve Jobs, love him or hate him ("Colleagues referred to the hero/shithead dichotomy."), was one of the most successful, creative and influential asshats of our time. Apple, Pixar, the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, iCloud, -the "intersection of technology and creativity". A Hippie who became the 1%. A vegetarian who died of Cancer.

Very highly recommended.

 

[Antilogic]

I've finished up The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848. I thought this book would end with the revolutions in 1848, but apparently those were reserved for Volume 2. I found it was a good complement to Tim Blanning's book, especially given that Blanning refers to Hobsbawm's ideas in the first half of his work. Still have to finish Blanning's book, though, so we'll see whether or not the opinion holds.

 

[Mango Elephant]

My dad and step-mom both read Steve Jobs, and they recommend it, too.

I'm reading A History of Modern China (thanks, Aronax!), Sources of Chinese Tradition (basically just translated Confucian and Buddhist and other Chinese Philosophy works), Slaughterhouse Five (rereading), and Killing Pablo (about the Colombian drug lord). I tried reading 1Q84, but it sucked really hard. I got halfway through.

For 11th Grade English I have to read Grapes of Wrath, The Scarlet Letter, and Huckleberry Finn.

 

[mangxema]

Just finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Normally not my cup of tea, but I enjoyed it.

 

[1889]

Rick Atkinson's Day of Battle about WWII in Sicily and Italy. Turns out to be part two of a trilogy but is standing well on its own. The book so far seem to focus at the division commander level but the author has not ignored the larger strategic issues at the level of national leaders or the logistical demands of theater commanders. He also peppers the account with references to individual GI's and such. The only possible shortcoming is that it only really presents the Allied side, the Axis soldiers are just there to get shot. I'm enjoying it tremendously.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I've finished up The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848. I thought this book would end with the revolutions in 1848, but apparently those were reserved for Volume 2. I found it was a good complement to Tim Blanning's book, especially given that Blanning refers to Hobsbawm's ideas in the first half of his work. Still have to finish Blanning's book, though, so we'll see whether or not the opinion holds.

Just bought this the other day. Should compliment the rest of my "age of liberal revolutions" theme lately.

 

[Quintillus]

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, 2011, 627 pages with illustrations.

One of the most fascinating personalities of this generation examined by one of our best contemporary biographers. Isaacson has written excellent, best-selling books on Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Henry Kissinger, and is well known for his critical, nonpartisan coverage (warts and all).

Steve Jobs, love him or hate him ("Colleagues referred to the hero/shithead dichotomy."), was one of the most successful, creative and influential asshats of our time. Apple, Pixar, the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, iCloud, -the "intersection of technology and creativity". A Hippie who became the 1%. A vegetarian who died of Cancer.

Very highly recommended.

I recently read that book, too. It's definitely a good read, and I've never owned an Apple product in my life. It's fascinating to get that sort of a picture of someone so influential in the development of computers - and it's not just one picture, it's a whole bunch of viewpoints. But, the hero/shithead dichotomy referred to Jobs's view of others, not others' view of him.

Now I'm reading Dr. Zhivago. So far, I like it pretty well. Seems like it's on pace to be another 19th century Russian novel that I like quite well (others that I've read and enjoyed include Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Children, and Anna Karenina).

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Now I'm reading Dr. Zhivago. So far, I like it pretty well. Seems like it's on pace to be another 19th century Russian novel that I like quite well (others that I've read and enjoyed include Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Children, and Anna Karenina).

It would be difficult to write about the Russian Revolution in the 19th Century. Dr. Zhivago was written in 1957.

 

[Traitorfish]

Maybe they take the phrase "long nineteenth century" very seriously in Quintillus' part of the world?

Anyhoo, I'm just realising that I haven't posted here in a bit, so in no particular order I am reading or have recently been reading:

Theory as History: Essays on Modes of Production and Exploitation, by Jairus Banaji
Chavs: The Demonsation of the Working Class, by Owen Jones
The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus
Atlantic History: A Critical Reappraisal, edited by Jack P. Greene and Philip D. Morgan
Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism, by Steve Wright.
Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts, edited by Rosayln Diprose and Jack Reynolds
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Basic Writings, edited by Thomas Baldwin
The Merleau-Ponty Reader, edited by Ted Toadvine and Leonard Lawlor (you may have guessed I'm reading up on this Pontyfeller)
Death of Kings, by Bernard Cornwell

The last one is my grudging concession to the fact that not all books have to have citations.

 

[Ajidica]

Cities in Flight by James Blish.
Rather imaginative sci-fi that is pretty well written, given it came from the 50's. The basic plot is that in the future technology allows us to turn cities into spaceships, which then travel around the galaxy.
Unfortunately, the author really loves him some Spengler, so the book occasionaly derails into Spenglerian nonsense but on the whole it is a pretty good book.

 

[Supr49er]

John Irving - In One Person

 

[Antilogic]

Just bought this the other day. Should compliment the rest of my "age of liberal revolutions" theme lately.

Fun semi-related fact: according to the wiki, this guy coined the long 19th century idea.

 

[Cutlass]

A Rising Thunder. David Weber. The latest in the Honor Harrington series. Weber has sort of jumped the shark with this series. But having gone this far with it, and being able to get the books free from the library, I keep going.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Fun semi-related fact: according to the wiki, this guy coined the long 19th century idea.

Yes, as well as the Twin Revolutions. He's a Big Deal. And I love him.

 

[sophie]

Death of Kings, by Bernard Cornwell

lol, this is the next book I plan on picking up. It'll be a nice respite from the last 3 months of academic AS reading; I'll finally get to turn my brain off and enjoy 400 pages of boobies, nonsensical violence and Christian bashing. (maybe not so much that last one)

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Finished Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel. Plenty of fascinating information on agribusiness and the world food system. Kind of falls apart at the end though. One example would be claiming that war is the primary influence on food choices, simply because of scurvy and the invention of canning. That's like saying physics discoveries are driven by war because it created to the atomic bomb and radar.

Started A Concise History of Modern Korea, by Michael J. Seth. Title says it all, really. Great that it doesn't skimp on military events and maneuvers. Yeah, still staying away from any Muslim influence. I want to read about Southeast Asia next, but Islam's impact there is quite significant.

 

[Integral]

Death of Kings, by Bernard Cornwell

I'm reading Solomon's Knot, a book on institutions, law and economic development.

 

[Masada]

Yeah, still staying away from any Muslim influence. I want to read about Southeast Asia next, but Islam's impact there is quite significant.

In Search of Southeast Asia: Revised Edition. I still teach out of that workhorse <3.