I saved myself some money doing my own reno recently, so treated myself to a fresh copy of Max Weber's two volume Economy and Society (at 120 CDN). I've been trawling my local book store waiting for it to appear for a couple years, but lately I've realized that it's just not going to happen. Realistically I could just use the library, but I really wanted my own copy.
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This is just what I needed after a year of poetry and being locked out of the library: dense, challenging text. I'm planning to go end-to-end across both volumes, page by page, despite it being about 1500 pages long.
It may also spur some more extensive reading in Sociology. I've been doing a bit of research and came across some more names: Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck, and Zygmunt Bauman, who all came after Weber, Marx et al.
For something a bit more fun, I pulled The Sexual Sensitivity of the American Male off of my shelf last night. You'd think it'd be an interesting read, but honestly.. not much of it was very surprising. I had a similar experience with Kinsey's Sexual Behaviour of the Human Female. When you boil it down people just like having sex with each other.
TSwizzle
Let's Go Brandon!
Just rattled through a few books I found on my kindle.
Animal Farm, I’ve read this many times over the years and it’s still one of my favorite books.
The Naked Sun by Asimov. Meh, a space age Whodunnit. It was ok
2001 A Space Odyssey. Fantastic book and I’m trying to hunt out a streaming service to watch the movie.
Childhood’s End also by Clarke. Just getting into it and enjoying it. Seems there was a tv miniseries made based on the book. I’d like to check that out.
Animal Farm, I’ve read this many times over the years and it’s still one of my favorite books.
The Naked Sun by Asimov. Meh, a space age Whodunnit. It was ok
2001 A Space Odyssey. Fantastic book and I’m trying to hunt out a streaming service to watch the movie.
Childhood’s End also by Clarke. Just getting into it and enjoying it. Seems there was a tv miniseries made based on the book. I’d like to check that out.
bilby
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Obviously Clarke is legendary, but IMO his most underrated work is "A Fall of Moondust". I just love that book. Rama and 2001 get all the raves, but I rarely see Moondust mentioned anywhere. It's still my pick of his work, and it is even more impressive when you realise it was written in 1961, when project Apollo was still a new idea, and mankind on the Moon still almost a decade in the future.
Fall of moondust is an excellent sci-fi thriller.
I love The Naked Sun, as well, but Asimov did better.
Rob
I love The Naked Sun, as well, but Asimov did better.
Rob
I finished a Sister Fidelma mystery, Blood in Eden.
She's a nun in 7th century Ireland, and also a legal advocate/official detective for her brother, who happens to be a king. She solves crimes with Brother Eadulf, an English priest, who is basically her Watson.
Rob
She's a nun in 7th century Ireland, and also a legal advocate/official detective for her brother, who happens to be a king. She solves crimes with Brother Eadulf, an English priest, who is basically her Watson.
Rob
bilby
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Just finished Children of Time, and am now reading the sequel, Children of Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Tchaikovsky is a master of making the truly alien relatable, if not always pleasant; And of making the truly human relatably unpleasant in mind-bending ways.
I have been on a bit of a binge of his scifi; I read his excellent and very weird The Expert System's Brother a few years ago, and made a mental note to look up the rest of his work, but then completely failed to do so until now.
Walking to Aldebaran is also well worth a read.
Tchaikovsky is a master of making the truly alien relatable, if not always pleasant; And of making the truly human relatably unpleasant in mind-bending ways.
I have been on a bit of a binge of his scifi; I read his excellent and very weird The Expert System's Brother a few years ago, and made a mental note to look up the rest of his work, but then completely failed to do so until now.
Walking to Aldebaran is also well worth a read.
bilby
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I am not reading There is no Antimemetics Division by qntm.
And nor are you.
This is not your first day.
And nor are you.
This is not your first day.
Do you read it like any book or do you just catch glimpses of it while you're thinking about something else?
Politesse
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A classic! Basso's Wisdom Sits in Places is my favorite ethnography of language, but all of his essays are excellent.
DrZoidberg
Contributor
So, please tell us. What exactly does "Uga-chaka" mean?
Politesse
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It's a Standard Amercian English (SAE) word meaning, roughly, "I am a racist, and I laugh at racist jokes".
Tried to read Henry Bushwick's book on Johnny Carson. I'd thought it was a biography, but it's not. That misunderstanding is on me. It's instead a memoir of Bushwick's time working with Carson, which ended badly, so it's a bit of a hatchet job and contains a lot more gossip than I like in biographies. Gave up after about thirty pages plus a bit of skimming.
Rob
Rob
spikepipsqueak
My Brane Hertz
This month I'm reading books that have been lying around for decades and I've never gotten around to.
Shogun. Game of Thrones. Handling Sin.
Having fun.
Shogun. Game of Thrones. Handling Sin.
Having fun.