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Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

Started by Thurnez Isa, December 03, 2006, 04:11:35 PM

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Cain

All I'm going to say is Tyrion absolutely shines in this book. 

Jasper

I'm getting ready to read Eastern Standard Tribe by Doctorow.  I read the first page in the bookstore and I was sold.

Captain Swampass


Rumckle

Collapse by Jarred Diamond
It reads as smoothly as Guns, Germs and Steel, and is almost as interesting. It is pretty interesting to draw parallels between past societies and current times.

I'm also halfway through Natural-Born Cyborgs by Andy Clark, I really like Andy's stuff, and this book is just as well worded, and interesting as his journal articles, but it is a bit repetitive (though I just may find that because I've read several of his articles). It is pretty cool if you are into modern philosophy of mind or transhumanism, also he mentions Transmetropolitan.
It's not trolling, it's just satire.

Cain

Jared Diamond made a point in interview shortly after the Lehman Brothers collapse that is worth keeping in mind:

"Any society where the elite are entirely seperated from the concerns and pressures of the majority of that society will eventually collapse".  He didn't qualify "under it's own stupidity", but I believe it was implied.

Cain

Andrew Roberts - The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War.

Not seen anything to justify the tagline yet, but it's a relatively decent read.  This is not surprising, since Robert seems to believe he is still living in the Second World War.

Cain

Still making my way through The Storm of War, but I've also started on Maury Terry's The Ultimate Evil.

Terry's thesis is that David Berkowitz alone was not responsible for the "Son of Sam" killings, as is popularly believed.  Instead, there was at least three killers involved in the crimes, and while Berkowitz is certainly guilty of some of the killings, he was performing them under coercion (Berkowitz's bizarre behaviour during the killings, including numerous arson attacks designed to draw attention to himself and land him in prison on a lesser charge, are indicative of this).  Furthermore, the group killings have a cult undertone to them, and are related to the Process Church of the Final Judgement (or their Four P splinter group...or both) and a number of murders on the West Coast, including possibly those of the Zodiac Killer.

I have it on good authority from someone who has read the book, and is well connected in the New York occult scene (indeed, he was in New York during the murders and went to the same school as Berkowitz, albeit at a different time) that while Terry's analysis is poor, due to his lack of knowledge of the occult and the complications that arise from Berkowitz's testimony, Berkowitz having converted to a fundamentalist form of Christianity while in prison, his raw data is unassailable and, if taken on that evidence alone, makes for compelling reading.

I'm also inclined to believe some elements of this, if only for the reason that, as serial killing, the Son of Sam murders are so damn odd.  Serial killers almost never use guns, especially not in their more mature "cycling" phases of violence.  The literature on this is quite clear...speaking of which, Berkowitz was remarkably well read on the psychology of serial killers, including a book written by the psychologist who examined him after his arrest.  And the murder of several people involved in the case after Berkowitz was already in prison is pretty much concrete proof that, if nothing else, he had accomplices.

Thurnez Isa

Wait till you get to the point that Maury claims the cult try to recruit the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
Through me the way to the city of woe, Through me the way to everlasting pain, Through me the way among the lost.
Justice moved my maker on high.
Divine power made me, Wisdom supreme, and Primal love.
Before me nothing was but things eternal, and eternal I endure.
Abandon all hope, you who enter here.

Dante

Cain

Quote from: Thurnez Isa on July 02, 2011, 04:29:52 PM
Wait till you get to the point that Maury claims the cult try to recruit the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.

Heh, the killer cult?  I somehow doubt it.  The Stones did, as far as I'm aware, hang with people very close to the Process Church, and I believe some of their more regular groupies belonged to the group.  But then I'm not convinced that the Process Church itself are the culprits.  "Four P" is a creepy as fuck offshoot, but there is so little real evidence I find any talk about them suspect.  Plus there is the whole "dead dog" thing.  Lots of dead dogs...but the Process, as far as I can tell, loved dogs.

I know the Process were also involved with Manson, so along with their frankly bizarre theology they're good fodder for conspiracy theories and talk about satanism.  But this is exactly the kind of thing my friend warned me about with the book, so I'm kinda expecting it.  Hell, even only a couple of hundred pages in it seems quite obvious he has a stick up his arse about "satanism".  But so far, concentrating as he is on the description of the killer(s) at each scene and the ballistics, he's on fairly solid ground.

Brotep

Rereading Northrop Frye's Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake, and if I can get my Kindle working again I'll be able to finish Artaud's The Theatre and Its Double

BadBeast

"Shot in the Heart" by Mikal Gilmore. I haven't read a good biography for ages. And this is pretty good. It's written by the brother of a notorious killer, and it's about where those murders began.
Heartbreak, hatred, poverty, madness and abuse. From 180 years ago, the stains of religious intolerance reach down through the generations, culminating in unavoidable toxicity.

I never knew that much about the Mormons either, this book's quite an eye opener on more than just the murders. (They were pretty well covered in Mailer's "Executioner's Song" anyway) But it's really interesting as a piece of American History. Well written too.   
"We need a plane for Bombing, Strafing, Assault and Battery, Interception, Ground Support, and Reconaissance,
NOT JUST A "FAIR WEATHER FIGHTER"!

"I kinda like him. It's like he sees inside my soul" ~ Nigel


Whoever puts their hand on me to govern me, is a usurper, and a tyrant, and I declare them my enemy!

"And when the clouds obscure the moon, and normal service is resumed. It wont. Mean. A. Thing"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpkCJDYxH-4

Prelate Diogenes Shandor

Now I'm alternating between The 1001 Arabian Nights, Mark Twain's What Is Man, and Other Essays, Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species, and Nietzsche's The Antichrist.
Praise NHGH! For the tribulation of all sentient beings.


a plague on both your houses -Mercutio


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It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would plunge us back into the darkness -H.P.Lovecraft


He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster -Nietzsche


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You are a fluke of the universe, and whether you can hear it of not the universe is laughing behind your back -Deteriorata


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Placid Dingo

Finished some GREAT stuff recently. Voltaire's Candide is now a favorite, and the Chekov short story Ward 6 is right up there with it.

On top of my usual mass reading list, I'm on Chrome Yellow by Huxley and a piece called This is Mohummad.
Haven't paid rent since 2014 with ONE WEIRD TRICK.

Bu🤠ns

Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment - George Leonard

Rumckle

Quote from: Cain on June 25, 2011, 05:40:55 PM
"Any society where the elite are entirely seperated from the concerns and pressures of the majority of that society will eventually collapse".  He didn't qualify "under it's own stupidity", but I believe it was implied.

Just finished Collapse, and that seems to be the gist of it. Also, societies that refuse to disband harmful traditions are likely to collapse (though the two are probably closely related).

Also recently finished Geekspeak by Graham Tattersall, which is a nice little book on Fermi calculations (aka Back-of-the-envelope calculations). It is pretty easy to read, and is mostly based around examples, but it gets you into a good mindset of doing similar calculations for yourself.

Just about to start reading Psychogeography by Will Self, looks pretty interesting.
It's not trolling, it's just satire.