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What are you reading?

Started by Talulah, really!, October 04, 2017, 10:07:22 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

gilbertharding

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on January 07, 2020, 04:57:30 PM
The state of the left would be a lot better if people like him didn't spend quite so much energy attacking it.

I don't think he is attacking it. Well, not in the Strange Days episodes. It's a chronicle - with a central thesis that several (but not all) central (and peripheral) characters in the decade had a few loose cogs in the upstairs department - including Wilson, Nixon, Amin, Kissenger.

In the case of Wilson, in particular, he goes out of his way to point out the fact that he had good reasons to be paranoid.

It's not about politics - as much as it's about politicians.

In any case, what is wrong with criticism? As opposed to 'attack'?

Neville Chamberlain

Currently reading:

Landscapes of Communism by Owen Hatherley, a hefty, rambling, thoroughly immersive read full of crap pictures - so typical Hatherley, then!

Next up:

- Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
- Reykjavik Nights by Arnaldur Indriðason

Sebastian Cobb

I'm reading The Time Traveller's Wife. It appears to be a temporal soap opera and I feel the writer is not as good as she thinks she is but probably better than the book suggests.

touchingcloth

I haven't seen the series, but I've just finished The Handmaid's Tale. Excellent and affecting is all I'll say, as I'm sure many other have said it many times better.

touchingcloth

Quote from: touchingcloth on January 19, 2020, 12:25:42 AM
I haven't seen the series, but I've just finished The Handmaid's Tale. Excellent and affecting is all I'll say, as I'm sure many other have said it many times better.

On this, the ending where Offred
Spoiler alert
goes into a black van not knowing whether she is facing sanctuary or torture
[close]
is affecting me yet. The whole book has stuck to me.

Ferris

The Silmarillion, again.

Every bit as good as I remember.

Twit 2


Icehaven

Just finished Malcolm Gladwell's Talking To Strangers. I'm not a particular fan of his but we get asked for his books so much I feel a bit obliged to read them occasionally, and the way he writes lends itself quite well to taking extracts for reading groups too. It was largely his usual trick of cherry picking evidence to back up whatever point he's trying to make, but there were a few interesting mentions of studies and experiments that were worth further reading, particularly one in which participants picked out words from a sheet, and after denying that the words they picked gave any deeper insight into their personalities, went on to judge other people entirely by the words they picked.

Overall I could see his point, that we all usually judge people we don't know based on our own, by nature warped, terms, but that's hardly news to anyone who's ever met another human, so as always with him it feels like he's using selective evidence to support something that was fairly obvious anyway. 4/10.

touchingcloth

^ I've just read the prologue to Outliers after being given it for Christmas. I've never read a Gladwell before, but it was exactly the kind of thing you mentioned, and I suspect it's going to be the kind of popular science writing intent on giving you The Answer rather than going into much detail about the things which are currently unknown or not well understood.

Is it shit? Should I carry on reading?

daf

The Terror by Edgar Wallace - very readable but he's already used 'veritable' twice on the first page - tsk!



QuoteA dangerous gang of criminals is imprisoned after a daring robbery, although the ringleader who masterminded the crime disappears with the loot. Finally released after ten years behind bars, they are out for vengeance on the man who betrayed them, and the trail leads to a lonely house haunted by organ music and the spectre of a hooded figure who prowls its dark corridors.

That's the stuff to give 'em!

Icehaven

Quote from: touchingcloth on January 20, 2020, 09:12:51 AM
^ I've just read the prologue to Outliers after being given it for Christmas. I've never read a Gladwell before, but it was exactly the kind of thing you mentioned, and I suspect it's going to be the kind of popular science writing intent on giving you The Answer rather than going into much detail about the things which are currently unknown or not well understood.

Is it shit? Should I carry on reading?

Yeah, if only to decide if you like his style or not. I haven't read Outliers but it's probably his most popular book, and he's an easy read too so you'll zip through it. And yes you're right about the selective detail, you do get the impression he has the idea first then looks for something to back it up rather than the other way around. In Talking To Strangers he talks about the theory of 'coupling', which he doesn't get across that well, and which seems incredibly reliant on very limited and specific examples as evidence. From what I could make out it's basically that certain things only happen because of some other factor that isn't always obvious at first, so when the two are 'coupled', then it happens. One example he used was how the female suicide rate went right up between the 1940s and 1970s because gas ovens were becoming widespread and the gas was poisonous, so now women had this relatively easy, painless suicide method right there in their own homes, then after the gas was changed in the 70s and was no longer poisonous the suicide rate went right down again. I think his point was that if you just looked at the data of female suicide rates in the 20th century you'd not have a lot of insight as to why it peaked during those decades, but when you looked at the methods too, and could see that so many involved gas ovens, then you could deduce that female suicide rates were high because of this easy and available method. It might just be me being thick but it just seems like a rather convoluted and overthought way of describing a fairly basic concept of cause and effect, one thing leading to another etc. I don't know why that needs to be a theory with a name.

Small Man Big Horse

The Good Father by Noah Hawley - Fascinating insight in to how a person may react when their child (possibly) does something truly horrendous, most of it I loved a great deal
Spoiler alert
but the suggestion as to why the child committed a terrible act of violence doesn't sit well with me. It's not the only reason of course, but I can't help but wish it had been something else
[close]
. Still, the rest is fantastic, and the ending very affecting indeed.

Norton Canes

Just found the trilogy of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri novels for a fiver in the chazza on campus here.









Fantastic - or should I say Yangtastic (no)

Twit 2

Quote from: icehaven on January 20, 2020, 01:40:03 PM
Yeah, if only to decide if you like his style or not. I haven't read Outliers but it's probably his most popular book, and he's an easy read too so you'll zip through it. And yes you're right about the selective detail, you do get the impression he has the idea first then looks for something to back it up rather than the other way around. In Talking To Strangers he talks about the theory of 'coupling', which he doesn't get across that well, and which seems incredibly reliant on very limited and specific examples as evidence. From what I could make out it's basically that certain things only happen because of some other factor that isn't always obvious at first, so when the two are 'coupled', then it happens. One example he used was how the female suicide rate went right up between the 1940s and 1970s because gas ovens were becoming widespread and the gas was poisonous, so now women had this relatively easy, painless suicide method right there in their own homes, then after the gas was changed in the 70s and was no longer poisonous the suicide rate went right down again. I think his point was that if you just looked at the data of female suicide rates in the 20th century you'd not have a lot of insight as to why it peaked during those decades, but when you looked at the methods too, and could see that so many involved gas ovens, then you could deduce that female suicide rates were high because of this easy and available method. It might just be me being thick but it just seems like a rather convoluted and overthought way of describing a fairly basic concept of cause and effect, one thing leading to another etc. I don't know why that needs to be a theory with a name.

Here's an excellent withering review of this tendency of Gladwell:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/11/talking-to-strangers-malcolm-gladwell-review

touchingcloth

Quote from: icehaven on January 20, 2020, 01:40:03 PM
Yeah, if only to decide if you like his style or not. I haven't read Outliers but it's probably his most popular book, and he's an easy read too so you'll zip through it. And yes you're right about the selective detail, you do get the impression he has the idea first then looks for something to back it up rather than the other way around. In Talking To Strangers he talks about the theory of 'coupling', which he doesn't get across that well, and which seems incredibly reliant on very limited and specific examples as evidence. From what I could make out it's basically that certain things only happen because of some other factor that isn't always obvious at first, so when the two are 'coupled', then it happens. One example he used was how the female suicide rate went right up between the 1940s and 1970s because gas ovens were becoming widespread and the gas was poisonous, so now women had this relatively easy, painless suicide method right there in their own homes, then after the gas was changed in the 70s and was no longer poisonous the suicide rate went right down again. I think his point was that if you just looked at the data of female suicide rates in the 20th century you'd not have a lot of insight as to why it peaked during those decades, but when you looked at the methods too, and could see that so many involved gas ovens, then you could deduce that female suicide rates were high because of this easy and available method. It might just be me being thick but it just seems like a rather convoluted and overthought way of describing a fairly basic concept of cause and effect, one thing leading to another etc. I don't know why that needs to be a theory with a name.

Yeah I get you, and if he's suggesting that the dip was due to a lack of poisonous gas it seems like maybe he's missing <- I had started typing some of the things that idea might have missed but there are just too many and so I stopped. I assume he talks in that book as well about things like the chart showing how global temperatures are negatively correlated with the number of pirates on the high seas, which would be something only explicable in the light of all of the other evidence. But, er, "coupling" would seem way too simplistic and seems to be saying "don't just look at one piece of evidence, look at two" rather than "look at as much as you possibly can".

I like popular science books to still be a little bit dry and to go into the process as much as the results. Ben Goldacre's books are good for this, but I don't find them particularly quick reads because of it. I'll press on with Outliers and see if I'm a Gladwell fan.


Pingers

I'm currently reading The Good Immigrant, a collection of essays by 21 writers of colour in which they talk about their experiences of being other in predominantly white countries, blackness, whiteness, and managing more than one culture. A fantastic book which ideally would be read by all majority culture white people.

kalowski

I'm reading the forensically researched Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy by Serhii Plokhy. Amazing, eye watering stuff.

Norton Canes



Well I must say this is more risqué then I expected. Half a dozen pages in and the son of Pravin Lal has already accidentally let his towel drop and exposed his Nanoreplicator to a libidinous medical orderly. Let's hope he doesn't send a Probe Team to her Skunkworks. 


Ray Travez

The Things They Carried-  Tim O'Brien
This was mentioned in a review of Jarhead (book, not film), which I also liked. A group of interlocking war short stories, covering various characters in periods during, before and after, a kind of Vietnam war Trainspotting. I thought it was excellent. Read it all in one stint. I liked that he would pull out from the story at times, and question its authenticity, and whether it was even possible to have authenticity in a war story, as the impressions gathered during moments of conflict create illusions in perception. I'd like to read more from him, but such a queue, such a queue...

Captain Crunch

Quote from: Pingers on January 21, 2020, 09:14:42 PM
I'm currently reading The Good Immigrant, a collection of essays by 21 writers of colour in which they talk about their experiences of being other in predominantly white countries, blackness, whiteness, and managing more than one culture. A fantastic book which ideally would be read by all majority culture white people.

I've just finished that for book club.  A couple of them miss the mark but most of them are great.  The one about Bristol wankers was a particular highlight for me, having just escaped it. 

Captain Crunch

Really enjoyed the Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat, lovely rich surreal loop, five stars. 

An Arséne Lupin Omnibus by Maurice Leblanc. I've sold out to the French, sure, but it's a great book and I highly recommend to fans of detective fiction.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Is this the story of Johnny Rotten?

Yes, yes it is.

Just started reading John Lydon's autobiography, Anger is an Energy. Very interesting so far, about his poverty as a child and six months in a coma from meningitis, but at 500 pages I fear it may get boring later on. I mean, does anyone give a toss about what he's done for the last 30+ years fannying about in Los Angeles?

Pingers

The Vegetarian by Han Kang. A rollercoaster ride in 183 pages, what starts out like it's going to be about the power of refusal becomes something even darker. A very bleak assessment of male/female relationships in South Korea, laced with difficult questions of consent, insanity and the right to die. Not cheery, but very good.

buttgammon

Quote from: Pingers on January 30, 2020, 09:08:19 AM
The Vegetarian by Han Kang. A rollercoaster ride in 183 pages, what starts out like it's going to be about the power of refusal becomes something even darker. A very bleak assessment of male/female relationships in South Korea, laced with difficult questions of consent, insanity and the right to die. Not cheery, but very good.

That's a brilliant book! Have you read Human Acts?

Pingers

No, I've heard it's bleaker still and I'm on Dostoevsky now, give me a break mate!

buttgammon

Quote from: Pingers on January 30, 2020, 09:20:25 AM
No, I've heard it's bleaker still and I'm on Dostoevsky now, give me a break mate!

Yeah, it's grim as fuck but a good read so it's worth checking out when you're ready to head back into the abyss.

gilbertharding

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on January 29, 2020, 11:01:48 PM
Is this the story of Johnny Rotten?

Always puzzled by that line by the famous punk singer Neil Young. Even more perplexing, "...is this the story of *a* Johnny Rotten?"

QuoteI mean, does anyone give a toss about what he's done for the last 30+ years fannying about in Los Angeles?

Is this a common problem with rock autobiographies? The Kieth Richards one decidedly ran out of steam about halfway through.

gilbertharding

It occurred to me that I hadn't read any PG Wodehouse for a while.

My wife got me Summer Moonshine for Xmas, and I'm reading it now.

Evelyn Waugh once said to Graham Greene something about the folly of Wodehouse writing books without Jeeves and/or Wooster in them... so far I'm inclined to agree, although all the usual tropes and tricks are present and correct.