Right before the school year ended I got half way through Bob Woodward's State of Denial. It's a very competent look inside the Bush White House like his previous ones. Good, but not great.
I couldn't finish however becuase I had to deal with giving and grading finals and then right at the end of school I went a little crazy and printed out about 100 old articles on Iraq that I'm trying to get through.
Is it too much to hope that some SoulStrutteur has read both, and can tell me which one to start with?
hmmm.... i read both a while ago and honestly, it's a tough call. I'd say start with the Kernodle (Soul on Soul), this one probably edges the other one out. But i think both are worthwhile, and it's not redundant to read them both.
Good to know I have Albert Einstein in my company.
Well...sort of. He famously said, "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings." He certainly rebukes Christianity (and all the Abrahamic religions, among others), but he doesn't completely discard the notion of some sort of higher organizational power...it's just much more in the background than most religions would argue.
That said, I do want to read Dawkins' book. How is it so far?
I think Einstein believed the notion of a 'personal' or interventionist god was absurd; the idea that there is or was a supernatural intelligence that designed or maintained the world, was something he rejected. I think instead he declared himself to be religious in the sense that he was in awe of the beauty of the natural world and the scientific principles that govern it. I think he uses the term god loosely and almost deceivingly.
Having said that, yeah, the book is very interesting and usually convincing. The second half displays his huge boner for Darwin and it gets very technical (afterall, his day job is evolutionary biology). So, if that's up your alley, you'll dig it.
Actually just finished "The Road." Usually whatever book I end up buying in an airport just because I'm bored ends up sucking holy shit, but "The Road" was really enjoyable.
Right now reading "The Illustrated Man" for the 100th time.
Is it too much to hope that some SoulStrutteur has read both, and can tell me which one to start with?
hmmm.... i read both a while ago and honestly, it's a tough call. I'd say start with the Kernodle (Soul on Soul), this one probably edges the other one out. But i think both are worthwhile, and it's not redundant to read them both.
I once read a Josephine Baker bio simultanious with reading her autobio. Kept pace chronologically.
Good to know I have Albert Einstein in my company.
Well...sort of. He famously said, "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings." He certainly rebukes Christianity (and all the Abrahamic religions, among others), but he doesn't completely discard the notion of some sort of higher organizational power...it's just much more in the background than most religions would argue.
That said, I do want to read Dawkins' book. How is it so far?
I think Einstein believed the notion of a 'personal' or interventionist god was absurd; the idea that there is or was a supernatural intelligence that designed or maintained the world, was something he rejected. I think instead he declared himself to be religious in the sense that he was in awe of the beauty of the natural world and the scientific principles that govern it. I think he uses the term god loosely and almost deceivingly.
Having said that, yeah, the book is very interesting and usually convincing. The second half displays his huge boner for Darwin and it gets very technical (afterall, his day job is evolutionary biology). So, if that's up your alley, you'll dig it.
This is a very Jewish belife. I don't know how prevelant this was pre WWII. Post WWII I think it is dominant.
There is a Jewish belife that after G-d created the universe G-d left the universe and left us on our own. In so doing the universe was torn and it is our mission on earth to heal the rip in the universe by doing good deeds. A good philosophy to live by no matter what your religous belifes.
I really do enjoy reading, but where the hell do you guys find the time to do all this reading??? Between me working,loving music,having a social life and sleep. How do you all get away with it??? I barely get one book finish within a few months. Basically i'm finding a little bit of time before goin to bed on certain nights of the week.
I really do enjoy reading, but where the hell do you guys find the time to do all this reading??? Between me working,loving music,having a social life and sleep. How do you all get away with it??? I barely get one book finish within a few months. Basically i'm finding a little bit of time before goin to bed on certain nights of the week.
I can't do books in the bathroom, it's .. i'd never wanna handle one after you came out droppin the kids off at the pool, but i would love a widescreen tv right in front of me to watch sports for those moments!
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
Finished this a week or two back:
maybe best music history book ever, easily the most intriguing one I have read in a loooooong time. Several references in it to THIS book:
which I am just starting....so far pretty good.
Also reading this in fits:
Barney Hoskyns is a good writer. His biog of The Band is great, and his analysis of the rise and fall of the Laurel Canyon singer/songwriter movement, "Hotel California", is worth a look if you like "Waiting For The Sun".
I've just finished this, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I mentioned it in the Amy Alehouse thread, as it seemed kinda pertinent to some of the discussion, but I reckon a lot of Strutters will find something interesting in here.
I really do enjoy reading, but where the hell do you guys find the time to do all this reading??? Between me working,loving music,having a social life and sleep. How do you all get away with it???
I think Mark Anderson is great. I love how dorky and bookwormed, and how accepting of himself, he is. He's great. Did you see the Kerri Koch Don't Need You documentary? Anderson is interviewed in it, and relates an episode that chokes him up in such a way that he himself is surprised by the reliving of the events as he talks about it. A beautiful man. I'm listening to his records on Dissonance right now... He's funny, too. Transexual advice columinst, rural Montana, dykes, The Electric Chairs "Are You Man Enough to be a Woman" and Woddy motherfucking Guthrie's liberation theology!
Is it too much to hope that some SoulStrutteur has read both, and can tell me which one to start with?
hmmm.... i read both a while ago and honestly, it's a tough call. I'd say start with the Kernodle (Soul on Soul), this one probably edges the other one out. But i think both are worthwhile, and it's not redundant to read them both.
I once read a Josephine Baker bio simultanious with reading her autobio. Kept pace chronologically.
the Mingus and Mary Lou books paralleled each other several times...
The Road was dope. Don't be scared off by the big O.
Bangkok 8 was also great, a recommendation from Goatboy on here. I read Bangkok Tattoo immediately after, and am going to cop the new one when it goes to paperback.
Currently reading the third installment of Phillip Kerr's Berlin Trilogy; another Goatboy rec, it is more Brit crime fiction set in Germany during WWII. Fun, smart, and not too challenging for the summer time.
Also working on my crossword game. Finished my first ever Saturday Times yesterday.
I think Mark Anderson is great. I love how dorky and bookwormed, and how accepting of himself, he is. He's great. Did you see the Kerri Koch Don't Need You documentary? Anderson is interviewed in it, and relates an episode that chokes him up in such a way that he himself is surprised by the reliving of the events as he talks about it. A beautiful man. I'm listening to his records on Dissonance right now... He's funny, too. Transexual advice columinst, rural Montana, dykes, The Electric Chairs "Are You Man Enough to be a Woman" and Woddy motherfucking Guthrie's liberation theology!
I picked it up partly because of my love for music histories, and partly because I felt guilty that I knew almost NOTHING about the punk rock scene in the city that I now call home. I was a Minneapolis-by-way-of-Mankato punk rock kid growing up, and while I was into West Coast stuff like DK and Circle Jerks, Bad Brains was the only DC stuff I cared for at the time. Minor Threat and a lot of hardcore left me cold compared to Minutemen and Husker Du, so DC punk always seemed, well, kinda lame to me.
Reading about the DC scene now, at my advanced age, I can see the parralells to other punk scenes as well as the glaring, unique, specific identity DC carved out in alternative/indie/punk over the years. Anderson and Jenkins provide helpful counterpoints to each other, and as a result the story takes on more dimension than it might otherwise. The way Anderson spins the stories really makes you feel like you were there, or at least being told what happened the next day from an informed friend who may be prone to hyperbole but who is at least honest and well-intentioned.
I still don't really feel great affinity for any of the actual music of DC bands apart from Bad Brains....and the ubiquitous nature of Ian Mackaye on the scene begins to wear on the reader after awhile. The Bad Brains stories are truly wild and recommended reading. You almost can't believe what you are seeing!
Comments
I read excerpts of this, good but not good enough to buy the whole thing.
Currently reading:
So far I like it much more than "Breakfast of Champions" maybe even more than "Slaughterhouse 5."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/...=283155&s=books
Next up is that Lucio Fulci tome...
The writing is really corny and bad and it was surprisingly not as X rated as I'd hoped.
Very beautiful impressionistic writing by a Polish Jew between the wars.
Hitchens is a really entertaining public intellectual who you love when you agree with him and hate when you don't.
I wasn't entirely blown away by this in comparison to others of his from the same time period.
Reread this for fun and loved every second of it.
this one is by far the best book I've read in years. Totally devastating and highly recommended.
currently reading these:
yea, I agree - I got it as a gift and it's a nice light snack.
Damm, I didn't know that even existed, and now I see that there are is a second MLW biography available:
Is it too much to hope that some SoulStrutteur has read both, and can tell me which one to start with?
I couldn't finish however becuase I had to deal with giving and grading finals and then right at the end of school I went a little crazy and printed out about 100 old articles on Iraq that I'm trying to get through.
hmmm.... i read both a while ago and honestly, it's a tough call. I'd say start with the Kernodle (Soul on Soul), this one probably edges the other one out.
But i think both are worthwhile, and it's not redundant to read them both.
I think Einstein believed the notion of a 'personal' or interventionist god was absurd; the idea that there is or was a supernatural intelligence that designed or maintained the world, was something he rejected. I think instead he declared himself to be religious in the sense that he was in awe of the beauty of the natural world and the scientific principles that govern it. I think he uses the term god loosely and almost deceivingly.
Having said that, yeah, the book is very interesting and usually convincing. The second half displays his huge boner for Darwin and it gets very technical (afterall, his day job is evolutionary biology). So, if that's up your alley, you'll dig it.
Right now reading "The Illustrated Man" for the 100th time.
I once read a Josephine Baker bio simultanious with reading her autobio. Kept pace chronologically.
This is a very Jewish belife. I don't know how prevelant this was pre WWII. Post WWII I think it is dominant.
There is a Jewish belife that after G-d created the universe G-d left the universe and left us on our own. In so doing the universe was torn and it is our mission on earth to heal the rip in the universe by doing good deeds. A good philosophy to live by no matter what your religous belifes.
bathroom?
Barney Hoskyns is a good writer. His biog of The Band is great, and his analysis of the rise and fall of the Laurel Canyon singer/songwriter movement, "Hotel California", is worth a look if you like "Waiting For The Sun".
I've just finished this, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I mentioned it in the Amy Alehouse thread, as it seemed kinda pertinent to some of the discussion, but I reckon a lot of Strutters will find something interesting in here.
im married...
How is this book?
I think Mark Anderson is great. I love how dorky and bookwormed, and how accepting of himself, he is. He's great. Did you see the Kerri Koch Don't Need You documentary? Anderson is interviewed in it, and relates an episode that chokes him up in such a way that he himself is surprised by the reliving of the events as he talks about it. A beautiful man. I'm listening to his records on Dissonance right now... He's funny, too. Transexual advice columinst, rural Montana, dykes, The Electric Chairs "Are You Man Enough to be a Woman" and Woddy motherfucking Guthrie's liberation theology!
the Mingus and Mary Lou books paralleled each other several times...
bout to cop
Shit has me cracking up on the train looking like an asshole....
How is this, might have to add it to the list?
Reread stranger last year and really enjoyed it, but havent read much else.
read it! there was a thread about camus a few months ago; you might want to visit that for more varied advice. but, again, i say read it!
Bangkok 8 was also great, a recommendation from Goatboy on here. I read Bangkok Tattoo immediately after, and am going to cop the new one when it goes to paperback.
Currently reading the third installment of Phillip Kerr's Berlin Trilogy; another Goatboy rec, it is more Brit crime fiction set in Germany during WWII. Fun, smart, and not too challenging for the summer time.
Also working on my crossword game. Finished my first ever Saturday Times yesterday.
I picked it up partly because of my love for music histories, and partly because I felt guilty that I knew almost NOTHING about the punk rock scene in the city that I now call home. I was a Minneapolis-by-way-of-Mankato punk rock kid growing up, and while I was into West Coast stuff like DK and Circle Jerks, Bad Brains was the only DC stuff I cared for at the time. Minor Threat and a lot of hardcore left me cold compared to Minutemen and Husker Du, so DC punk always seemed, well, kinda lame to me.
Reading about the DC scene now, at my advanced age, I can see the parralells to other punk scenes as well as the glaring, unique, specific identity DC carved out in alternative/indie/punk over the years. Anderson and Jenkins provide helpful counterpoints to each other, and as a result the story takes on more dimension than it might otherwise. The way Anderson spins the stories really makes you feel like you were there, or at least being told what happened the next day from an informed friend who may be prone to hyperbole but who is at least honest and well-intentioned.
I still don't really feel great affinity for any of the actual music of DC bands apart from Bad Brains....and the ubiquitous nature of Ian Mackaye on the scene begins to wear on the reader after awhile. The Bad Brains stories are truly wild and recommended reading. You almost can't believe what you are seeing!