Book Thread

[Freak Out]

I'm an avid reader and collect books as well as trade many at a local independent bookseller here in Anchorage so I figured I would start a thread about books we all have read lately and would recommend. I read a lot of non-fiction and finished this a week ago:

http://www.amazon.com/Free-Lunch-Wealthiest-Themselves-Government/dp/1591841917

The latest fiction I read was:

http://www.amazon.com/Three-Day-Road-Joseph-Boyden/dp/B000LMPL4W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199406445&sr=1-1

I'm just using the Amazon links because it's easy...otherwise I would buy from a local independent like:

http://www.wavebooks.com/catalog/index.php

If your lucky like OPF you can go to Powells...

http://www.powells.com/


:D

[Freak Out]

Anyone else buy advanced uncorrected proofs of books to read? If so where do you buy them?

[MJZiggy]

I haven't been able to read too much for the joy of it lately--mainly pattern and software books. Yum.

But if you're ever in Blacksburg, VA, there is a great little independent bookseller right on the main drag in town not far from the VT campus. Anyone know the name of that one?

[BallHawk]

We had somewhat of a thread on books here....

http://www.packerrats.com/ratchat/viewtopic.php?t=5838&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=kickass&start=20

You don't have to bump it, though. This thread'll do just fine.

Haven't read a fiction on my own accord in a while. I read To Kill a Mockingbird in school a month ago which was pretty good.

Last non-fiction was "The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures" by Donald Spoto. Guy does some really good analysis of Hitchcock's works.

[Harlan Huckleby]

I read a lot of fiction, except not much recently, concentration problems. brain malfunction.

Lets see, most recently I read a Phillip K. Dick book called "The Man in the High Castle." Its a novel set in post World War II USA where Germany and Japan have won the war and occupy the U.S. Life is not quite as horrible as you might expect. A lot of people would like this book.

[Fosco33]

I read lots of fiction and healthcare industry focused non-fiction.

Just got started on the Vince Flynn series - pretty riveting so far!

[Badgerinmaine]

Re. FreakOut's question: I sometimes read books that are uncorrected proofs. I get them one of two ways. One is I am on the (unpaid!) staff of a website called Front Street Reviews. Part of the my work with them is that the editor offers to send me specific books that publishers want reviewed. However, I also write reviews just for the fun of it, essentially. Here is a link to a review I wrote of a book I just finished about the old American Association Milwaukee Brewers:
http://www.frontstreetreviews.com/Brewers.html

The review also has a link to the other reviews I have written for them; I think I've written nine or ten so far. Click on my name if you want to see them.

The other place I get them is at academic conventions. I am a political science professor at the University of Maine at Farmington (what else would someone who grew up in Madison teach? :wink: ), and when I go to conventions, publishers often have books in the field that are in proofs stage (especially the more mass-market ones).

If you like books, you might also want to check out one of my favorite websites, Bookcrossing:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Badgerjim

My handle is Badgerjim there, as you may have guessed :mrgreen: The referral link will lead you to my "bookshelf", or you can just go straight away to bookcrossing.com . Not all the books I have on my shelf there are things I've read; many are ones my wife read or that I picked up to wild-release for people to find (which is a lot of what Bookcrossing is about).

[BallHawk]

Just a note, BM, your link the Frontstreet isn't working because it has 4 Ws at the beginning.

[BallHawk]

Fixed it the moment I posted it. :D

[Badgerinmaine]

My grad school adviser always thought I used too many words. This is one time I used too many letters. :wink:

(He once said to me, "Leaner prose, James! Leaner prose! You need to put your prose ON A DIET!") :P

By the way, I love the avatar--makes me think of the "Dramatic Chipmunk" (really a prairie dog, I know) YouTube video. Dah, dah, DAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[Badgerinmaine]

I'm an avid reader and collect books as well as trade many at a local independent bookseller here in Anchorage so I figured I would start a thread about books we all have read lately and would recommend. I read a lot of non-fiction and finished this a week ago:

http://www.amazon.com/Free-Lunch-Wealthiest-Themselves-Government/dp/1591841917


I heard that one mentioned on the radio this week.

[packinpatland]

For anyone who read Ken Follet's The Pillars of the Earth(1989), his sequel, World Without End, should be good. With it being 1014 pages...........I'll let you know in awhile :wink:

[Freak Out]

We had somewhat of a thread on books here....

http://www.packerrats.com/ratchat/viewtopic.php?t=5838&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=kickass&start=20

You don't have to bump it, though. This thread'll do just fine.

Haven't read a fiction on my own accord in a while. I read To Kill a Mockingbird in school a month ago which was pretty good.

Last non-fiction was "The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures" by Donald Spoto. Guy does some really good analysis of Hitchcock's works.

Sorry about that. I thought we had something like that going awhile back. :oops:

[Freak Out]

Re. FreakOut's question: I sometimes read books that are uncorrected proofs. I get them one of two ways. One is I am on the (unpaid!) staff of a website called Front Street Reviews. Part of the my work with them is that the editor offers to send me specific books that publishers want reviewed. However, I also write reviews just for the fun of it, essentially. Here is a link to a review I wrote of a book I just finished about the old American Association Milwaukee Brewers:
http://www.frontstreetreviews.com/Brewers.html

The review also has a link to the other reviews I have written for them; I think I've written nine or ten so far. Click on my name if you want to see them.

The other place I get them is at academic conventions. I am a political science professor at the University of Maine at Farmington (what else would someone who grew up in Madison teach? :wink: ), and when I go to conventions, publishers often have books in the field that are in proofs stage (especially the more mass-market ones).

If you like books, you might also want to check out one of my favorite websites, Bookcrossing:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Badgerjim

My handle is Badgerjim there, as you may have guessed :mrgreen: The referral link will lead you to my "bookshelf", or you can just go straight away to bookcrossing.com . Not all the books I have on my shelf there are things I've read; many are ones my wife read or that I picked up to wild-release for people to find (which is a lot of what Bookcrossing is about).

My children and I have been sharing reviews and recommendations on http://www.goodreads.com/ lately. I found a small independent that sold uncorrected proofs and was hooked right away. I've since bought some to keep as part of a collection but mostly want a cheap printing to read. :oops:

[MJZiggy]

I'd correct their proofs--for a fee, of course. 8-)

[Freak Out]

I'm an avid reader and collect books as well as trade many at a local independent bookseller here in Anchorage so I figured I would start a thread about books we all have read lately and would recommend. I read a lot of non-fiction and finished this a week ago:

http://www.amazon.com/Free-Lunch-Wealthiest-Themselves-Government/dp/1591841917


I heard that one mentioned on the radio this week.

A friend in a book store gave me a copy a few days before it was released...it's books like this that keep me emailing and calling (harassing) my congressional delegation.

[BallHawk]

By the way, I love the avatar--makes me think of the "Dramatic Chipmunk" (really a prairie dog, I know) YouTube video. Dah, dah, DAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

My only regret is that I didn't make it my avatar sooner. :D

[Deputy Nutz]

I just finished Double Crossed by Paterson. Another in the line of the Alex Cross novels. I thought he left a lot to be desired, I would only recommend it to people that are already reading the series, otherwise pick up another Cross novel by Paterson.

[packinpatland]

Patterson was better than he is now..........he just cranks them out too fast. He's become another Danielle Steele (yuk!) Proud to say, never read any of her stuff, just know that she seems to have a new one each month.
:roll:

[LL2]

The only books I read right now are the ones to my kids. I usually try to read one good novel a year, but last year I didn't get around to it. Working in the corporate rat race, having a family, and just too pooped many times gets in the way.

[packinpatland]

The only books I read right now are the ones to my kids. I usually try to read one good novel a year, but last year I didn't get around to it. Working in the corporate rat race, having a family, and just too pooped many times gets in the way.

Try to read them the oldies but goodies........you know....like 'Horton Hears a Who'
..............reading to your kids.........best time ever spent. :wink:

[MJZiggy]

I love Horton.... :hrt:

[GrnBay007]

Try to read them the oldies but goodies........you know....like 'Horton Hears a Who'
..............reading to your kids.........best time ever spent. :wink:

I can't tell you how many times I read Rainbow Fish to my kids...they loved that one. And there was some other one about a dog (not spot...lol) Can't remember the name....read over and over.

[MJZiggy]

Carl? I always had a problem with these people letting a rottweiler babysit children. Sure, they're smart dogs, but there's that whole opposable thumb problem...

Mine also like Sandra Boynton when he was really little.

[packinpatland]

The best part about the Carl books........they were never the same each time :lol:

[Freak Out]

Goodnight moon, Where the wild things are....those were the days... :hrt:

[Freak Out]

After seeing Master and Commander I got sucked into the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian....not for everyone but I like sailing and enjoy certain types of Military/Historical fiction from time to time.

[MJZiggy]

So much for your great "what books have you read lately" thread...It was a great idea, but if I recall the other thread took this direction too.

I did read Ladies with Options on the plane after October Wisconsin trip #1 this year...not horrible, but not exactly great literature either.

[Freak Out]

I thought both "Guns, Germs and Steel" and "Collapse" by Jared Diamond were very good books and enjoyed reading them.

[Freak Out]

The tales of the Otori set of books were pretty good. I originally bought one because of how it was bound and ended up getting drawn in. The book was tiny and a very soothing red color. Palm sized almost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Otori

[LL2]

Try to read them the oldies but goodies........you know....like 'Horton Hears a Who'
..............reading to your kids.........best time ever spent. :wink:

I can't tell you how many times I read Rainbow Fish to my kids...they loved that one. And there was some other one about a dog (not spot...lol) Can't remember the name....read over and over.

We have the Rainbow Fish book. We did a lot of those "buy 1 get 4 free" type of deals from Disney to Scholastic books and stocked up quite a library of books. I agree with reading the old classic children's books to kids.

[Freak Out]

Good review of a book that some on here might be interested in.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/books/review/Ali-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&8bu&emc=bu

January 6, 2008
Blind Faiths
By AYAAN HIRSI ALI


THE SUICIDE OF REASON

Radical Islam’s Threat to the Enlightenment.

By Lee Harris.

290 pp. Basic Books. $26.

Several authors have published books on radical Islam’s threat to the West since that shocking morning in September six years ago. With “The Suicide of Reason,” Lee Harris joins their ranks. But he distinguishes himself by going further than most of his counterparts: he considers the very worst possibility — the destruction of the West by radical Islam. There is a sense of urgency in his writing, a desire to shake awake the leaders of the West, to confront them with their failure to understand that they are engaged in a war with an adversary who fights by the law of the jungle.

Harris, the author of “Civilization and Its Enemies: The Next Stage of History,” devotes most of his book to identifying and distinguishing between two kinds of fanaticism. The first is Islamic fanaticism, a formidable enemy in the struggle for cultural survival. In Harris’s view, this fanaticism has acted as a “defense mechanism,” shielding Islam from the pressures of the changing world around it and allowing it to expand into territories and cultures where it had previously been unknown.

With few exceptions, Harris sees Islamic expansion as permanent. Although this point is arguable, he bravely attempts to make the case that the entry of Islam into another culture produces changes on every level, from political to personal: “Wherever Islam has spread, there has occurred a total and revolutionary transformation in the culture of those conquered or converted.”

In describing the imperialist nature of Islam, Harris suggests that it is distinct from the Roman, British and French empires. He views Islamic imperialism as a single-minded expansion of the religion itself; the empire that it envisions is governed by Allah. In this sense, the idea of jihad is less about the inner struggle for peace and justice and more about a grand mission of conversion. It should be said, however, that Harris’s argument is incomplete, since he does not address the spread of Christianity in the Roman, British and French empires.

The expansion of Islam is perhaps more potent than the expansion of the Christian empires (including Rome after Constantine) because the concept of separating the sacred from the profane has never been acceptable in Islam the way it has been in Christianity. The Romans, the British and the French went about annexing large parts of the world more for earthly or material gain than for spiritual dominance. Under these empires, the clergy was allowed to propagate its faith as long as it did not jeopardize imperial interests.

Harris goes on to argue that the Muslim world, since it is governed by the law of the jungle, makes group survival paramount. This explains in part the willingness of Muslims to become martyrs for the larger community, the umma — uniting peoples separated by geographical boundaries, with different cultures, heritages and languages. According to Harris, this sense of solidarity is sustainable only with the weapon of fanaticism, which obligates each member of the umma to convert infidels and to threaten those who attempt to leave with death. That is, the aim of Muslim culture, so different from that of the West, is both to preserve and to convert, and this is what enables it to spread across the globe.

The second fanaticism that Harris identifies is one he views as infecting Western societies; he calls it a “fanaticism of reason.” Reason, he says, contains within itself a potential fatality because it blinds Western leaders to the true nature of Islamic-influenced cultures. Westerners see these cultures merely as different versions of the world they know, with dominant values similar to those espoused in their own culture. But this, Harris argues, is a fatal mistake. It implies that the West fails to appreciate both its history and the true nature of its opposition.

Nor, he points out, is the failure linked to a particular political outlook. Liberals and conservatives alike share this misperception. Noam Chomsky and Paul Wolfowitz agreed, Harris writes, “that you couldn’t really blame the terrorists, since they were merely the victims of an evil system — for Chomsky, American imperialism, for Wolfowitz, the corrupt and despotic regimes of the Middle East.” That is to say, while left and right may disagree on the causes and the remedies, they both overlook the fanaticism inherent in Islam itself. Driven by their blind faith in reason, they interpret the problem in a way that is familiar to them, in order to find a solution that fits within their doctrine of reason. The same is true for such prominent intellectuals as Samuel Huntington and Francis Fukuyama.

Harris does not regard Islamic fanaticism as a deviancy or a madness that affects a few Muslims and terrifies many. Instead he argues that fanaticism is the basic principle in Islam. “The Muslims are, from an early age, indoctrinated into a shaming code that demands a fanatical rejection of anything that threatens to subvert the supremacy of Islam,” he writes. During the years that this shaming code is instilled into children, the collective is emphasized above the individual and his freedoms. A good Muslim must forsake all: his property, family, children, even life for the sake of Islam. Boys in particular are taught to be dominating and merciless, which has the effect of creating a society of holy warriors.

By contrast, the West has cultivated an ethos of individualism, reason and tolerance, and an elaborate system in which every actor, from the individual to the nation-state, seeks to resolve conflict through words. The entire system is built on the idea of self-interest. This ethos rejects fanaticism. The alpha male is pacified and groomed to study hard, find a good job and plan prudently for retirement: “While we in America are drugging our alpha boys with Ritalin,” Harris writes, “the Muslims are doing everything in their power to encourage their alpha boys to be tough, aggressive and ruthless.”

The West has variously tried to convert, to assimilate and to seduce Muslims into modernity, but, Harris says, none of these approaches have succeeded. Meanwhile, our worship of reason is making us easy prey for a ruthless, unscrupulous and extremely aggressive predator and may be contributing to a slow cultural “suicide.”

Harris’s book is so engaging that it is difficult to put down, and its haunting assessments make it difficult for a reader to sleep at night. He deserves praise for raising serious questions. But his arguments are not entirely sound.

I disagree, for instance, that the way to rescue Western civilization from a path of suicide is to challenge its tradition of reason. Indeed, for all his understanding of the rise of fanaticism in general and its Islamic manifestation in particular, Harris’s use of the term “reason” is faulty.

Enlightenment thinkers, preoccupied with both individual freedom and secular and limited government, argued that human reason is fallible. They understood that reason is more than just rational thought; it is also a process of trial and error, the ability to learn from past mistakes. The Enlightenment cannot be fully appreciated without a strong awareness of just how frail human reason is. That is why concepts like doubt and reflection are central to any form of decision-making based on reason.

Harris is pessimistic in a way that the Enlightenment thinkers were not. He takes a Darwinian view of the struggle between clashing cultures, criticizing the West for an ethos of selfishness, and he follows Hegel in asserting that where the interest of the individual collides with that of the state, it is the state that should prevail. This is why he attributes such strength to Islamic fanaticism. The collectivity of the umma elevates the communal interest above that of the individual believer. Each Muslim is a slave, first of God, then of the caliphate. Although Harris does not condone this extreme subversion of the self, still a note of admiration seems to creep into his descriptions of Islam’s fierce solidarity, its adherence to tradition and the willingness of individual Muslims to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the greater good.

In addition, Harris extols American exceptionalism together with Hegel as if there were no contradiction between the two. But what makes America unique, especially in contrast to Europe, is its resistance to the philosophy of Hegel with its concept of a unifying world spirit. It is the individual that matters most in the United States. And more generally, it is individuals who make cultures and who break them. Social and cultural evolution has always relied on individuals — to reform, persuade, cajole or force. Culture is formed by the collective agreement of individuals. At the same time, it is crucial that we not fall into the trap of assuming that the survival tactics of individuals living in tribal societies — like lying, hypocrisy, secrecy, violence, intimidation, and so forth — are in the interest of the modern individual or his culture.

I was not born in the West. I was raised with the code of Islam, and from birth I was indoctrinated into a tribal mind-set. Yet I have changed, I have adopted the values of the Enlightenment, and as a result I have to live with the rejection of my native clan as well as the Islamic tribe. Why have I done so? Because in a tribal society, life is cruel and terrible. And I am not alone. Muslims have been migrating to the West in droves for decades now. They are in search of a better life. Yet their tribal and cultural constraints have traveled with them. And the multiculturalism and moral relativism that reign in the West have accommodated this.

Harris is correct, I believe, that many Western leaders are terribly confused about the Islamic world. They are woefully uninformed and often unwilling to confront the tribal nature of Islam. The problem, however, is not too much reason but too little. Harris also fails to address the enemies of reason within the West: religion and the Romantic movement. It is out of rejection of religion that the Enlightenment emerged; Romanticism was a revolt against reason.

Both the Romantic movement and organized religion have contributed a great deal to the arts and to the spirituality of the Western mind, but they share a hostility to modernity. Moral and cultural relativism (and their popular manifestation, multiculturalism) are the hallmarks of the Romantics. To argue that reason is the mother of the current mess the West is in is to miss the major impact this movement has had, first in the West and perhaps even more profoundly outside the West, particularly in Muslim lands.

Thus, it is not reason that accommodates and encourages the persistent segregation and tribalism of immigrant Muslim populations in the West. It is Romanticism. Multiculturalism and moral relativism promote an idealization of tribal life and have shown themselves to be impervious to empirical criticism. My reasons for reproaching today’s Western leaders are different from Harris’s. I see them squandering a great and vital opportunity to compete with the agents of radical Islam for the minds of Muslims, especially those within their borders. But to do so, they must allow reason to prevail over sentiment.

To argue, as Harris seems to do, that children born and bred in superstitious cultures that value fanaticism and create phalanxes of alpha males are doomed — and will doom others — to an existence governed by the law of the jungle is to ignore the lessons of the West’s own past. There have been periods when the West was less than noble, when it engaged in crusades, inquisitions, witch-burnings and genocides. Many of the Westerners who were born into the law of the jungle, with its alpha males and submissive females, have since become acquainted with the culture of reason and have adopted it. They are even — and this should surely relieve Harris of some of his pessimism — willing to die for it, perhaps with the same fanaticism as the jihadists willing to die for their tribe. In short, while this conflict is undeniably a deadly struggle between cultures, it is individuals who will determine the outcome.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, is the author of “Infidel.”

[red]

the last book i read was "lies my teacher told me". which was very interesting. it deals with many things that our history books in school taught us, but also discuses certain items that the books "left out", to make certain people look much better.

and now i just started reading, 1984. i think its about the 1984 l.a. olympics

[Freak Out]

the last book i read was "lies my teacher told me". which was very interesting. it deals with many things that our history books in school taught us, but also discuses certain items that the books "left out", to make certain people look much better.

and now i just started reading, 1984. i think its about the 1984 l.a. olympics

Not Orwell?