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My 2012 reading list

Started by Cain, January 08, 2012, 07:55:50 PM

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Cain

For anyone who might be interested

The Clash of the Civilizations – Samuel P Huntington
The Rise and Fall of Great Powers – Paul Kennedy
False Dawn: Delusions of Global Capitalism – John Gray
The Strategy of the Roman Empire – Edward Luttwak
The Art of the Coup d'Etat – Edward Luttwak
The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin – Robin Corey
Obama's Wars – Bob Woodward
The Atlantic and Its Enemies: A Personal History of the Cold War – Norman Stone
The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern Future – Laurence C Smith
Against Progress, and other Illusions – John Gray
The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol I-XIV – various
Tragedy and Hope – Carroll Quigley
Diplomacy – Henry Kissinger
The Geopolitics of Resource Wars – Billon
Chinese Military Strategy in the Third IndoChina War – Edward C O'Dowd
On Political Order – Francis Fukuyama
Imperial Brain Trust: the Council on Foreign Relations and US Foreign Policy – Shoup and Minter
The Balance of Power in World History
A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya – Anna Politsyana
Patterns of Global Terrorism – Berkshire
Enemies of Humanity: the 19th century war on terrorism – Isaac Lands
Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby – John Prados
The Shanghai Badlands: Wartime terrorism and urban crime 1937-41 – Wakeman

Xooxe

Quote from: Cain on January 08, 2012, 07:55:50 PMThe Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin – Robin Corey

I'm half way through this and enjoying it so far. On three occasions I've had to put the book down through laughter, but that comes with the territory. Interestingly, Gray and Luttwak get their own chapter. Any influence on the rest of your list?

Cain

Partially, yes.  I've liked Gray, since his turn away from neoliberalism, and I've always meant to read more Luttwak (I'm sure I read several essays of his at University), just never got around to it.  Reading The Reactionary Mind over Xmas...well, I had money in my hand and an internet connection.  That is pretty much all it takes these days.

And yeah, Corey Robin can be kinda funny on occasions.  You wouldn't think he was a serious academic writer, but then, the blogosphere does a lot to loosen up a personality (Daniel Drezner went from writing books like The Importance of Strategy in American Policy to International Relations and Zombies after only a few years of blogging).

LMNO

1) You make me feel like a slacker, with a reading list like that.

2) Reactionary Mind was a real eye-opener to me.  I'm not sure if I agree with him to the extent that conservatives really, truly think in the way he says, but I certainly agree with him about what their actions result in.  Maybe there's no functional difference, but still...

Cain

Well, it's not to say I'm going to get through them all!  It's an aspirational list, as much as anything.

We need to have a discussion thread on The Reactionary Mind, I think, as it is a good read.

Kai

Out of inspiration from this thread, I just made up mine. Includes some things I never finished, some I should have read but didn't get around to, new stuff, old stuff, and a bunch of Steven J. Gould.

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the nature of history - S.J. Gould
Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie - L. Redniss
I Have Landed: The end of a beginning in Natural History - S.J. Gould
Field Notes on Science and Nature - M. Canfield
The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution - K. Devlin
On the Descent of Man - C. Darwin
The Selfish Gene - R. Dawkins
The Double Helix - J. Watson
The Insect Societies - E.O. Wilson
The Other Insect Societies - J. T. Costa
The Mismeasure of Man - S.J. Gould
Bugs in the System: Insects and their impact on human affairs - M. Berenbaum
An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles - A. Evans
Here Be Dragons: How the study of animal and plant distributions revolutionized our view of life and Earth - D. McCarthy
The Extended Organism: The physiology of animal-built structures - J.S Turner
Civilization and the Limpet - M. Wells
A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage and the Quest for the Color of Desire - A. Greenfield
Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geologic Time - S.J. Gould
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. --Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey

Her Royal Majesty's Chief of Insect Genitalia Dissection
Grand Visser of the Six Legged Class
Chanticleer of the Holometabola Clade Church, Diptera Parish

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Both of your reading lists look really interesting.

Sadly (well, not really sadly, but sort of), mine looks like it is going to be dictated by whatever my professors want me to read for the foreseeable future. Which currently includes:

A Beginner's Guide to Scientific Method - Stephen S. Carey
Knocking on Heaven's Door - Lisa Randall
Studying Philosophy: A Guide for the Perplexed - John Arthur
Social Problems - Eitzen, Zinn, & Smith
American Society: How it Really Works - Wright & Rogers
and an algebra textbook

I hope to sneak in Garbage Land by Elizabeth Royte if I have time. Maybe over spring break.


"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Placid Dingo

I haven't read a single book on those other lists.

Minimum I want to finish Off the fOllowing

Don Quixote
Venus in Furs
Three musketeers
Black Swan by Talib
Rebel journalism: the writings of Wilfred Burchett.
Eggs Butter Sugar Disaster by my friend Alicia L Wright
Haven't paid rent since 2014 with ONE WEIRD TRICK.

hirley0

Quote from: Placid Dingo on January 23, 2012, 08:16:38 AM
I haven't read a single book on those other lists.
i don't have an algebra text
530.11S318m (2000) page 121 Fig 8.9 page 84 Fig 7.6a
Maxwell's Conundruum  Walter Scheider Cavendish Press

DVD781.65DUKE DUKE ELLINGTON live in '58 6.9minof???


Oysters Rockefeller

Quote from: Placid Dingo on January 23, 2012, 08:16:38 AM
I haven't read a single book on those other lists.

Minimum I want to finish Off the fOllowing

Don Quixote
Venus in Furs
Three musketeers
Black Swan by Talib
Rebel journalism: the writings of Wilfred Burchett.
Eggs Butter Sugar Disaster by my friend Alicia L Wright

Don Quixote is awesome.
Three Musketeers is in my top ten for sure. Dumas was a genius. Albeit, a horribly cheap, immoral one who never paid his researchers or debts.


Also, Cain's list is...uhm...intimidating. I don't think I've ever read a serious non-fiction book, but a lot of those look interesting. I'll probably check out some reviews soon.
Well, my gynecologist committed suicide...
----------------------
I'm nothing if not kind of ridiculous and a little hard to take seriously.
----------------------
Moar liek Oysters Cockefeller, amirite?!

Placid Dingo

Quote from: Oysters Rockefeller on March 11, 2012, 04:18:27 PM
Quote from: Placid Dingo on January 23, 2012, 08:16:38 AM
I haven't read a single book on those other lists.

Minimum I want to finish Off the fOllowing

Don Quixote
Venus in Furs
Three musketeers
Black Swan by Talib
Rebel journalism: the writings of Wilfred Burchett.
Eggs Butter Sugar Disaster by my friend Alicia L Wright

Don Quixote is awesome.
Three Musketeers is in my top ten for sure. Dumas was a genius. Albeit, a horribly cheap, immoral one who never paid his researchers or debts.


Also, Cain's list is...uhm...intimidating. I don't think I've ever read a serious non-fiction book, but a lot of those look interesting. I'll probably check out some reviews soon.

I'm loving Musketeers. Not loving Quixote so much but I think i built up my expectations too much.
Haven't paid rent since 2014 with ONE WEIRD TRICK.

Oysters Rockefeller

Quote from: Placid Dingo on March 12, 2012, 12:28:25 PM
Quote from: Oysters Rockefeller on March 11, 2012, 04:18:27 PM
Quote from: Placid Dingo on January 23, 2012, 08:16:38 AM
I haven't read a single book on those other lists.

Minimum I want to finish Off the fOllowing

Don Quixote
Venus in Furs
Three musketeers
Black Swan by Talib
Rebel journalism: the writings of Wilfred Burchett.
Eggs Butter Sugar Disaster by my friend Alicia L Wright

Don Quixote is awesome.
Three Musketeers is in my top ten for sure. Dumas was a genius. Albeit, a horribly cheap, immoral one who never paid his researchers or debts.


Also, Cain's list is...uhm...intimidating. I don't think I've ever read a serious non-fiction book, but a lot of those look interesting. I'll probably check out some reviews soon.

I'm loving Musketeers. Not loving Quixote so much but I think i built up my expectations too much.

Yeah, Quixote is pretty hard to kick off. It gets a bit better as you go along.
Well, my gynecologist committed suicide...
----------------------
I'm nothing if not kind of ridiculous and a little hard to take seriously.
----------------------
Moar liek Oysters Cockefeller, amirite?!