Which book are you reading now? Volume XIII

[SS-18 ICBM]

Just quickly ran through Able One by Ben Bova. It's about the US Airborne Laser program that was cancelled in 2014, instead being used against North Korean missile launches. The rationale for the launches is not clear, as there is no NK or Chinese military viewpoint and we are only given speculations by US officials at suicidal ways to expand PRC influence in Asia. It starts with a high-altitude nuclear explosion that takes out commercial satellites worldwide while dinging US military ones. This takes out American communications and even power in some areas, because fiber optics and radio are apparently not much of a thing in this fictional history. By the end I was just skimming over this collection of unnecessarily short chapters with their unlikable characters (uninspired dialogue, casual racism, tangential struggles) and contrived conflicts (hardliners in every government just because, poorly-integrated sabotage subplot, etc.)

 

[Synobun]

Has anyone here read Uprising by Amy Foster? Worth it?

 

[Traitorfish]

It is genuinely more interesting than it sounds.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Is council housing public housing?

 

[Arakhor]

Wikipedia to the rescue! (Basically, yes.)

 

[Takhisis]

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

 

[AmazonQueen]

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Is that based on the film?

 

[Takhisis]

What film?

 

[Arakhor]

No, which film. There were three of them.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Pfffft! Who cares about obscure books from authors that no-ones ever heard of.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

read some stuff recently.

Nicolai Gogol's The Nose, The Overcloak, Diary of a Madman, The Portrait. All are absolutely fantastic. My personal favorite would the the Nose.

Also read some philosophy: Byung Chul-Han's essay on tiredness called "Müdigkeitsgesellschaft", society of exhaustion

Roughly 2/5ths into Goethe's Faust.
Can't say I like it at all.

edit: read it now. Meh.

just.. how? Faust so easily likeable.. please tell me you at least enjoyed the witches going crazy and mephisto appearing as a poodle? Faust has probably one of my favorite quotes from any book ever:

"Da steh ich nun, ich armer Tor,
und bin so klug als wie zuvor"

my translation:

"there I stand, been made a fool, and am as smart as hitherto"

 

[Kyriakos]

read some stuff recently.

Nicolai Gogol's The Nose, The Overcloak, Diary of a Madman, The Portrait. All are absolutely fantastic. My personal favorite would the the Nose.

Also read some philosophy: Byung Chul-Han's essay on tiredness called "Müdigkeitsgesellschaft", society of exhaustion



just.. how? Faust so easily likeable.. please tell me you at least enjoyed the witches going crazy and mephisto appearing as a poodle? Faust has probably one of my favorite quotes from any book ever:

"Da steh ich nun, ich armer Tor,
und bin so klug als wie zuvor"

my translation:

"there I stand, been made a fool, and am as smart as hitherto"

I liked the Walpurgis night descriptions (in the mountain)
Nietzsche claimed somewhere that a lot of german literature presents the devil in a way which "would make french people think the author was from some village". I like ETA Hoffmann a lot; maybe Goethe has more value in the original language, but I found the plot of Faust (Faust part 1) rather boring...

 

[Josu]

Starting second volume of The Wheel of Time

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Nietzsche claimed somewhere that a lot of german literature presents the devil in a way which "would make french people think the author was from some village".

that's a good thing, right?

 

[Synobun]

Has anyone here read Uprising by Amy Foster? Worth it?

Not worth it.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

The Earth's Inner Core by Hrvoje Tkalčić starts off with a brief overview of theories about the Earth's interior, starting with Edmund Halley's concentric shells in 1686. The inner core (IC) was discovered nearly three centuries later by the Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann. Since then, the study of seismic waves using many mathematical methods such as ray approximations and normal modes has revealed greater complexity (and much disagreement) about the IC's heterogeneity, anisotropy, and rotation. The author calls for more seismic stations (some at the bottom of the ocean) and new methods of studying the IC such as looking at different types of waves and new analytic methods. Color insets are included for some figures and appendices outline a few mathematical model derivations. The main points of the book are clear even when one doesn't fully grasp the detail of the math involved.

 

[abradley]

Just finished
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A State of Disobedience
by

Tom Kratman

3.79 ·

Rating details · 475 ratings · 27 reviews



2060 in the so-called United States of America. A Body Politic transformed into a bloody stage for partisan revenge and state-controlled terror. One President vying for dictatorial power. One mild-manner governor determined to stop the madness, yet not sacrifice democracy in the process.

Like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln before her, Juanita Seguin is a leader slow to anger. But, like them, once pushed to the limit, she is indomitable in her resolve - and relentless in the fight for freedom.

Welcome to the Second American Revolution. You're in for the fight of your life!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19174213-a-state-of-disobedience

Good tale, has a bit of Waco like incident in it. First published in 2003, expect he was using Hillary as the model for the newly elected Dem President.

"It's Time to Remember the
Alamo All Over Again!

In the long war against terrorism, the US Government had taken on extraordinary powers. And now that the war was won, powerful forces in the government had no intention of relinquishing those powers. As in 1860, the country was on the verge of civil war. And as in 1860, a leader arose to save the country—but it was not the President this time. Instead, the Governor of Texas was the woman of destiny. And, though the Federal Government had more guns and troops, David was about to give Goliath a run for his money. . . ."

""Probably the most realistic depiction of a second American Revolution ever written." —John Ringo



Is it worth the price, yes, it's for free at Baen books.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I just finished Mark Fisher's "Capitalist Realism" and thought it was brilliant. Echoed so many points I had already been making in my head, but couldn't spell out easily. Big recommendation for @Lexicus and other people that might be interested in a fresh, brilliant new stream of marxist critique beyond the postmodern spectrum.

To me, this is the single most succinct book on modern capitalism and how it affects people psychologically as well as philosophically. It's such a short read I finished it in a single day.

 

[Lexicus]

Big recommendation for @Lexicus and other people that might be interested in a fresh, brilliant new stream of marxist critique beyond the postmodern spectrum.

I actually did read it about a year ago! Great book.

 

[EnglishEdward]

I have just finished reading:

Last Descendants

by

Matthew J Kirby

an Assassins Creed series novel.

It was quite entertaining, but with a very strange idea of what DNA is about.