Books. For the literati among us.

[Lasker]

I agree no one seems to be aware of this book.

I think you may have articulated my thoughts better than me. The book just had a feel to it that it was a touch out of time. Not yet a book I was reading that was set in a time period (I'd guess late 80s?) nor was it a book that held up to modern times. Like so many horror movies - "What if they just had a cell phone?" kind of a thing. In no way did it take away from my enjoyment. The book just felt odd. I also went into with no frame of reference or what to expect. Yeah maybe it is the use of the word yuppie, or the expected collapse of eco bad guys. I also think (based on greenpeace) that many of these organizations simply are bigger and more complicated than the story let on. Again that was part of the character's charm - that he convinced so many that he was powerful when really he had little means.

The sexism just felt like a character trait to me.

That's all I got.

I think you are right on about a certain temporal whiplash - it is kind of easy to forget that the book isn't in the present and then be suddenly jolted back to the 80s at certain moments. I had the same experience.

Honestly, I'm probably overreacting to the sexism thing. In the context of this book alone it is totally reasonable to put it down to a character trait, it is just something that started to bother me at one point when I was binging on Stephenson books and so I became maybe excessively vigilant when it comes to his works.

Back to the general thread, my library hold list has grown significantly thanks to all of you!

Oh, and FootyLovin I second the recommendation of Americanah. I actually liked her earlier book (OH GOD I'M THAT GUY) set in the Nigeria "Half of Yellow Sun" even more. As much as I enjoyed her view of America the romance in Americanah didn't quite do it for me - but talking to others I seem to be in the minority on that account. Really, they're both great.

 

[Syed Ashrafulla]

Another non-fiction book is "The Righteous Mind" by Jonathan Haidt, which is required reading for anyone who does political discourse. It's a strong book on why it can be so hard to convince others (or even yourself) that they (you) are wrong, especially when the topics are subjective. For example, the abortion debate is one of the toughest to deal with because it is nearly impossible for anyone on either side to change something as emotional and innate as their feelings towards abortion. Haidt provides an exceptional psychological explanation (the rider and the elephant) to the intractability of debates like those.

 

[Angela Miller]

Love the suggestions. Was also going to mention The Martian JCMore.

I'm particularly seeking fiction these days.

Gene can you suggest a preferred book to start with for each of Forsyth, Higgins, LeCarre, Clancy?

I'll say that for my money, you can't do better than It if you are starting on King.

Love the suggestions. Was also going to mention The Martian JCMore.

I'm particularly seeking fiction these days.
How Awesome FootyLovin and JCMore talkin to one another and i get to see it!!
Gene can you suggest a preferred book to start with for each of Forsyth, Higgins, LeCarre, Clancy?

I'll say that for my money, you can't do better than It if you are starting on King.

 

[mgarbowski]

Another non-fiction book is "The Righteous Mind" by Jonathan Haidt, which is required reading for anyone who does political discourse. It's a strong book on why it can be so hard to convince others (or even yourself) that they (you) are wrong, especially when the topics are subjective. For example, the abortion debate is one of the toughest to deal with because it is nearly impossible for anyone on either side to change something as emotional and innate as their feelings towards abortion. Haidt provides an exceptional psychological explanation (the rider and the elephant) to the intractability of debates like those.

I haven't read his books but I read every article by him or about him I can get my hands on. He's arguably the most insightful guy around when it comes to understanding "the other side" -- whatever that is to you -- in political discourse and arguments.

 

[FootyLovin]

I think you are right on about a certain temporal whiplash - it is kind of easy to forget that the book isn't in the present and then be suddenly jolted back to the 80s at certain moments. I had the same experience.

Honestly, I'm probably overreacting to the sexism thing. In the context of this book alone it is totally reasonable to put it down to a character trait, it is just something that started to bother me at one point when I was binging on Stephenson books and so I became maybe excessively vigilant when it comes to his works.

Back to the general thread, my library hold list has grown significantly thanks to all of you!

Oh, and FootyLovin I second the recommendation of Americanah. I actually liked her earlier book (OH GOD I'M THAT GUY) set in the Nigeria "Half of Yellow Sun" even more. As much as I enjoyed her view of America the romance in Americanah didn't quite do it for me - but talking to others I seem to be in the minority on that account. Really, they're both great.

In bizarrely different places, I've read pretty much everything Neal Stephenson and Chimamanda Adichie have written.

Agree. Half of Yellow Sun was brilliant, as was Purple Hibiscus. And for extra credit, here is her TED talk.

Neal Stephenson became one of my favorites when I read Snow Crash in my teens. I have no idea how it holds up to adult reading today, but for decades I've referenced it as one of my all time favorites. Also, a shout out to his Cryptonomicon which I also loved.

 

[FootyLovin]

Well I did say I thought it was intentional, but it doesn't matter in this case. Just one of those things. Still bugs me, but it's your thread.

Just for you.

Hopefully some shred of irony still pokes through.

 

[FootyLovin]

I haven't read his books but I read every article by him or about him I can get my hands on. He's arguably the most insightful guy around when it comes to understanding "the other side" -- whatever that is to you -- in political discourse and arguments.

This!

Jonathan Haidt is absolutely top notch brilliant. Plus I love him even more for the irony of spreading understanding with the last name Haidt.

 

[mgarbowski]

Just for you.

Hopefully some shred of irony still pokes through.

I will sleep better. Thanks.

 

[Lasker]

In bizarrely different places, I've read pretty much everything Neal Stephenson and Chimamanda Adichie have written.

Agree. Half of Yellow Sun was brilliant, as was Purple Hibiscus. And for extra credit, here is her TED talk.

Neal Stephenson became one of my favorites when I read Snow Crash in my teens. I have no idea how it holds up to adult reading today, but for decades I've referenced it as one of my all time favorites. Also, a shout out to his Cryptonomicon which I also loved.

That's what I get for playing the "liked their earlier stuff better" game - I admit I haven't read (or even heard of) the Purple Hibiscus, but it is now on my library list too. Who is literit now?

Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon are both fantastic - and I read them as an adult. Snow Crash made me laugh out loud at many points. It is a great read in conjunction with Neuromancer, since they deal with a lot of the same things in very very different ways. Some say Stephenson is self indulgent and - of course he is! - but I enjoy watching an author having fun. The part in Cryptonomicon where he writes out something like 8 pages of the weird furniture/stocking fetish diary of a character being eavesdropped on is one of my favorite moments. And the dogs in Snow Crash - I could go on and on. Cryptonomicon is where I started to get really irritated with Stephenson's engineer/technical competence worship, something that did detract slightly from my enjoyment of his books after that. But maybe at the time those were written the world needed a little more of that.

 

[Ulrich]

That's what I get for playing the "liked their earlier stuff better" game - I admit I haven't read (or even heard of) the Purple Hibiscus, but it is now on my library list too. Who is literit now?

Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon are both fantastic - and I read them as an adult. Snow Crash made me laugh out loud at many points. It is a great read in conjunction with Neuromancer, since they deal with a lot of the same things in very very different ways. Some say Stephenson is self indulgent and - of course he is! - but I enjoy watching an author having fun. The part in Cryptonomicon where he writes out something like 8 pages of the weird furniture/stocking fetish diary of a character being eavesdropped on is one of my favorite moments. And the dogs in Snow Crash - I could go on and on. Cryptonomicon is where I started to get really irritated with Stephenson's engineer/technical competence worship, something that did detract slightly from my enjoyment of his books after that. But maybe at the time those were written the world needed a little more of that.

Ha! Haven't thought about Cryptonomicon in years! Great book and I agree that sometimes he got too technical - but I can appreciate it since it grounds the info he's writing about. And to think, he wrote it years before the concept of

Spoiler

bitcoins

came to fruition!!!

Shit, just realized that's another book that a friend never returned....

 

[Lasker]

Ha! Haven't thought about Cryptonomicon in years! Great book and I agree that sometimes he got too technical - but I can appreciate it since it grounds the info he's writing about. And to think, he wrote it years before the concept of

Spoiler

bitcoins

came to fruition!!!

Shit, just realized that's another book that a friend never returned....

Oh, that was definitely on my mind when I was reading it.

Spoiler

It seems Stephenson was reading the same crypto forums as Satoshi and Assange. Funny that his vision was actually less radical than the reality of Bitcoin, since in the book the currency was backed by gold and Bitcoin is of course backed by nothing.

A while back I bought 6 Bitcoin at about $100 each. Held on for awhile but an unexpected. expense came up and I had to liquidate them for a tiny profit. A few months later they surged to over 1k each, and I cursed my unfitness as a member of the investing class.

 

[Keith Putnam]

On the Stephenson tip, I haven't been up to date since Anathem. How have the last few books been? I was super into the System Of The World cycle.

 

[FootyLovin]

Ha! Haven't thought about Cryptonomicon in years! Great book and I agree that sometimes he got too technical - but I can appreciate it since it grounds the info he's writing about. And to think, he wrote it years before the concept of

Spoiler

bitcoins

came to fruition!!!

Shit, just realized that's another book that a friend never returned....

Oh, that was definitely on my mind when I was reading it.

Spoiler

It seems Stephenson was reading the same crypto forums as Satoshi and Assange. Funny that his vision was actually less radical than the reality of Bitcoin, since in the book the currency was backed by gold and Bitcoin is of course backed by nothing.

A while back I bought 6 Bitcoin at about $100 each. Held on for awhile but an unexpected. expense came up and I had to liquidate them for a tiny profit. A few months later they surged to over 1k each, and I cursed my unfitness as a member of the investing class.

Not to mention that Snow Crash came out decades ahead of

Spoiler

Second Life

.

 

[FootyLovin]

On the Stephenson tip, I haven't been up to date since Anathem. How have the last few books been? I was super into the System Of The World cycle.

I generally like all his stuff. Though the last book - SevenEves - I couldn't get through. Seemed to me that it was at least 2 books where it would have been better without the last installment. I stopped reading around 700 pages in.

That said, I'll grab whatever he writes next as soon as it comes out. A long history of top quality with one book that went on too long doesn't sully the record in my mind.

 

[Goodfella]

I would offer 2 gems from Bill Bryson:

Down Under - Travels From A Sunburned Country
A Walk In the Woods

 

[Davo15]

I recently read a study on interactions between Hyena's and people in the Ethiopian city of Harar , Called Among the Bone Eaters, though my more normal fare leans toward fiction.

I'd recommend two all time favorites before they come to cinematic/televised life. Stephen King's Dark Tower series and Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Ironically with my avatar I'm currently doing the reverse with Game of Thrones and finally reading the books after watching the show since day one.

 

[CP_Scouse]

js

Some Non-Fiction to start:
The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction this book is barely 100 pages long and well worth it even if you weren't that interested in the French revolution. It obviously can't cover much detail but it hits the big picture very well and explains how this event shaped history worldwide for hundreds of years. Did I mention it's short? Few books offer more bang per page.

Alexander Hamilton

This is the bio that inspired the musical. Not short. It's the book that has always come into my head when someone asks for a recommendation long before the Broadway show. Well written and Hamilton is a fascinating figure. Born a bastard in the Caribbean, he attaches himself to one successful mentor after another until he becomes G. Washington's most trusted advisor, which kept him mostly out of combat in the Revolution (he would have preferred more action). And then he shaped the country as treasury Secretary, and founded the NY Post and The Bank of NY both of which continue today. Major rivalry with T Jefferson, with lots of petty nastiness.

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States Book 6) I don't know if it's the best Civil War single book history but it's the one I read and I liked it. Mostly plays things down the middle; towards the end when he discusses the effect of the war on subsequent events you can tell he has a moderately left outlook but regardless whether you like that it doesn't come off strong.

Modern Times Revised Edition: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties (Perennial Classics) Outstanding history of the 20th Century, first written through the 80s and then updated. Has a definite Anglo-American conservative outlook, but again whether you agree with him, the book is very worthwhile and you can adjust accordingly.

The Great War and Modern Memory Super WW One history.

Young Men and Fire Not history, but a great non-fiction story. This is the author who wrote the book A River Runs Through It, made into the Robert Redford/Brad Pitt movie. It's about a forest fire in 1949 Montana that killed most of an entire squadron of smoke jumpers. The author worked in the forestry service as a young man and this happened later, towards his middle age. The story fascinated him for 3-4 decades and when he was old he decided to devote his efforts to investigating what happened and telling the story, weaving in elements from his own life as well.[/QUOTE

just bought the French REvoloution book as well as a book on the Russian revlution by the same author

 

[FootyLovin]

js

js = java script?

 

[danger]

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki. Haruki Murakami. Fiction. Be warned that this is a bit long and could have gone at a faster pace, but was a generally fun, fascinating, fantastical journey.

I thought Colorless Tsukuru was actually fast for Murakami. Did you read 1Q84? It's long (published serially as 3 volumes in Japan, as I think some of his other novels have been) and lacked what I enjoyed about The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which was also fairly long. It lacked any of the aphoristic quality that WUBC had. Made me wonder how much impact the translation has. On 1Q84, there were a couple translators and I think they worked separately, not together, on the 3 volumes. I'm certainly no expert in Russian literature, but I know the Peaver/Volokhonsky translations of Dostoevsky's work have received a lot of accolades. I can't speak to the prior translations, but I thought all the P/V versions I have read were very well done

 

[FootyLovin]

Thank you all. I now have 22 new books on my reading list. I'll offer one last, since I've suggested all fiction so far.

• William Kamkwamba. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Nonfiction. Story of an African kid who couldn't afford to go to school so figures out on his own how to create electricity and more. Crazy, crazy story.