Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Tolkien is high fantasy, but most Tolkien imitators are sword and sorcery.
Which book are you reading now? Volume XI
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I'm a few pages into Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Having immediately been struck by the impression that the author was trying to write a modern-day Walden, it turns out that the narrator is actually carrying and reading said book with him. Suspicion confirmed and curiosity aroused, I shall read on... behind (or underneath) that I have two of the (so far, all excellent) new Penguins - The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett on the sociology of equality and a scholarly-seeming biography of Eva Braun by Heike Goertemaker.
Terxpahseyton
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Hm interesting point. I just saw an opportunity to show newly acquired wikipedia knowledge and had to proceed.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
I honestly couldnt get into Walden. I didnt try very hard, but it was all just so... ughhh.
Zkribbler
Deity
All the Devils are Here; The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by McLean & Nocera
I had a copy before, but bookworms ate it.
This book traces the roots of the Financial Crisis of 2008 all the way back to the S&L crisis in the 60's.
I had a copy before, but bookworms ate it.
This book traces the roots of the Financial Crisis of 2008 all the way back to the S&L crisis in the 60's.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Howard Zinn - A People's History of the United States
Peter Irons - A People's History of the Supreme Court
Eric Foner - Give Me Liberty! An American History
Peter Irons - A People's History of the Supreme Court
Eric Foner - Give Me Liberty! An American History
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
Is Zinn's as good as my US History prof would have it?
Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
That's the only book I've read in english.
I don't know what to say about it, it's rather strange.
Overall the themes are probably "more worth" than the composition.
The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
It's very useful. But it doesn't pretend to be a complete history of the United States, it's social history, so it has a very specific focus - a focus which at the time of its writing (early 80s) was very sorely neglected in historical study. Zinn played a large part in shifting the pendulum in a different direction.
Nice. I picked up The Ballad of the White Horse recently. Maybe I'll read it this summer.
The books that I am currently reading are:
1) The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'0uverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R James
2) 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
3) Coleridge Poetical Works by E.H. Coleridge
1) The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'0uverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R James
2) 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
3) Coleridge Poetical Works by E.H. Coleridge
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Excellent book! Tell us what you think!
I am almost done the second chapter. So, I am not that farther in it. But from what I have read so far, it is really good. C.L.R James is doing an excellent job of not only showing the conditions of the slaves had live in, but also articulating the different racial relationships that existed between the different classes.
Also, have you read Robert Service's biographies on Lenin and Stalin? If so, I would like to know what you think of them. I had read them sometime ago and I didn't think they were bad.
Same here, I think that's why I gave up on reading a lot of the nickel fiction (mostly scifi and fantasy) that I used to read as a kid.
I can't get into a lot of philosophical tracts disguised as stories, or just plain ol' philosophical tracts.
I've only read Zinn's book as part of coursework years ago, but I have never picked up the other two. I'll have to check out the others.
Excellent choice!
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Yes. His book is full of nuance and it's great, because it avoids caricature. Once you get to L'Overture it gets amazing. I won't spoil the ending, in case you aren't familiar with that episode of history, but he does the perfect job of mixing lionization with sober critique and analysis of shortcomings. The whole book is outstanding. I use an episode toward the end in my lecture on Napoleon and the later parts of the French Revolution; when you're done with the book I'll tell you which one.
I've read more of the Stalin bio than the Lenin one. It's pretty great. I don't like all of Bob's work but his political biographies are good. He has one of Trotsky as well, to complete the trio, but it doesn't seem to get the praise the other two do. I own Stalin and Lenin, but not Trotsky.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
I just began reading the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. So far it looks good (and I think about Antilogic's former avatar every time I go back to reading it)
Oddly enough, I have Jean Edward Smith's biography on Grant, and when I start reading it, I'll likely switch my avvie back. So, in 1-2 weeks?
Also, I forgot to post that I am in the middle of A Country of Vast Designs by Robert Merry. I'm through his personal background, the 1844 conventions and election, and in the middle of his politicking to build his Cabinet. Merry does a great job detailing how this process worked, and there are some obvious and fascinating differences with the modern day.
Zkribbler
Deity
I'm maybe the only American who got through high school without reading Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck. Now that I've retired to a distant tropical isle, I got to feeling guilty, and so I sent away for it. It just arrived today. 
Narz
keeping it real
Its it more sci-fi type of fantasy or goblins & wizards?City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
I've only just started it, so it's too soon to give it a rating, but this may be one of my favorite books of 2014. I'm a sucker for good world- and character-building in fantasy novels (if I never read another Tolkienesque sword & sorcery story, I won't shed a tear), and Bennett seems to be in step with China Mieville, Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman. Of course it could all fall apart in the second half, but so far I'd recommend City of Stairs to anyone who likes alternative fantasy.
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