Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Xooxe]

Erich Fromm - The Fear of Freedom

I'm liking it but I prefered Wilhelm Reich's The Mass Psychology of Fascism which was released a few years later in 1944. Besides the differences in their ideas about authoritarianism, it's pretty obvious to me that they were influenced by each other to a slight extent.

Fromm makes the case that since the transition from merchantilism in the middle-ages - where people mostly knew and were certain about their relationship with society - capitalism, along with the freedom it brings, has severed our sense of belonging to something greater. He details the emergence of Lutherism and Calvinism as reactions to this shift and then looks at sadism and masochism in the authoritarian character.

[Cain]

Sounds similar to Hannah Arendt as well, who claimed atomized, modern society is what allowed fascism and communism to become totalitarian dictatorships (to massively oversimplify).

Not reading them yet, but I just placed orders for The Romance of the Three Kingdoms with money from my birthday and Xmas.  The Romance is essentially the Chinese version of the Iliad, a hugely influential work filled with larger than life figures set against the backdrop of a massive war.  Starting with the disintegration of the Han Dynasty, it follows the breakup of China and the scheming and battles from various factions that arose during the time. 

[Richter]

God's Demon by Wayne Barlowe.

[VIDEODROME]

John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies.   

The book is a lot different then the movie and has even more weird shit going on.

[Z³]

John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies.   

The book is a lot different then the movie and has even more weird shit going on.

I've been looking for a copy of this book for quite some time, nice Tetsuo avatar btw.

For me, Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein.
I feel I've neglected Heinlein long enough, and this is the only one I have laying around the house.

[Iason Ouabache]

"Time Enough for Love" was the second Heinlein book I read.  I don't really remember the plot very much but I know that there was incest involved.  Heinlein really liked incest for some reason.

I've finally reading through "Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Pretty interesting so far.

[indigoblade]

The  Eragon series by Christopher Paolini (got it for christmas) currently Elder is the book I'm on. The kids a pretty good writer for his age and, what can I say, I'm a fantasy/Sci-Fi buff. Also Howling Moon from the sazi series by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp. I hope you may find these to be good reads.

[the last yatto]

http://www.mirc.com/khaled/books.html

I'm currently reading Tank Girl: The Gifting by Martin and Wood, Galileo's Finger by Peter Atkins, Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich, Empire by Hardt and Negri, Darwin by Desmond and Moore, and By The Sword by Richard Cohen.
Next on my list: Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama. Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner.
One of my favourite authors is  Stanislaw Lem, his works, classed as science fiction, are an intelligent and dazzling study of the effects of technology on humanity.
I recently finished reading Diary of a Genius by Salvador Dali, Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, Shroedinger's Cat Trillogy by Robert A. Wilson, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, The Bridge by Iain Banks, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, The New Feminism by Natasha Walter, and Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman, and re-read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams (pay no attention to the fish stuck in my ear).
May I recommend:
   Deterring Democracy by Noam Chomsky
Orientalism by Edward W. Said

The Palace of Wisdom by Robert Marshall-Andrews
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Searching for the Emperor by Roberto Pazzi
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem
The Embedding by Ian Watson
Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Nothing Sacred by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Ringworld by Larry Niven

Cosmogenesis by David Layzer
The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453 by Donald M. Nicol
What is Life? by Erwin Schroedinger
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn
Signifying Nothing: The Semiotics of Zero by Brian Rotman

[Cain]

Not reading them yet, but I just placed orders for The Romance of the Three Kingdoms with money from my birthday and Xmas.  The Romance is essentially the Chinese version of the Iliad, a hugely influential work filled with larger than life figures set against the backdrop of a massive war.  Starting with the disintegration of the Han Dynasty, it follows the breakup of China and the scheming and battles from various factions that arose during the time. 

Arrived today.  So far so good.  I'm actually reminded in part of Fire and Ice, simply for the level of backstabbing side-swapping nastiness that has gone on so far.

Turns out the complete novel is 1300 pages, too.  This may take a while...

[whatc]

Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Eye and Mind
Crazy beautiful text. Im devouring this almost mindlessly.

Crudely translated excerpt:

"..while working on his favourite problem, wether velvet or wool, a real painter sets even unwillingly all solutions to every other problem questionable. His research is always all-encompassing, no matter how limited it might seem. When a painter has reached a new level of skill and knowledge, He will perceive a new area, where everything that, which He has been able to express earlier must be stated in other ways. He will find, that He had not found what He thought He had and so, He must keep on searching. The thought, that Painting could be universal and total, that all Painting has been completed, is insane. Even if the world would exist for millions of years, painters should, if they existed, keep painting it. That painting of a world can never become finished."

[Cain]

He was a great philosopher, I hear.  Very influential in existentialism and postmodernism.  I have some stuff of his, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[whatc]

Inspirational ~60 page afternoon snack
I took a few aesthetics courses last year and when we got to phenomelogy His name came up.
From my very limited knowledge of philosophy, He strikes as the most "discordian" thinker so far.

[Cain]

He was Foucault's philosophy teacher at one point, as well.  That was where I first heard of him, and since then I snagged a couple of e-book downloads about his work.  Its more of an introduction and explanation, though I'm sure if I dug around I could find the actual books as well.

[Z³]

"Time Enough for Love" was the second Heinlein book I read.  I don't really remember the plot very much but I know that there was incest involved.  Heinlein really liked incest for some reason.

I've finally reading through "Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Pretty interesting so far.

I just got done with this, and yeah, there is a lot of incest. In fact, its about a six hundred page long joke, and the punchline is incest.
If Heinlein is considered to be worth reading, I'm pretty damn sure its not because of 'Time Enough For Love'.

I'm at the local library atm,  I'll see if they have Black Swan. If not, I will find something else and probably edit this post.

[the last yatto]

http://www.eriswerks.org/steal.html this book