What Book Are You Currently Reading?

[The Dragonslayer]

So what book are you currently reading?

I'm reading Hrafnkel's Saga & Other Stories right now.

[Vulpix]

Interesting :thumbs up!

The question for me should be: what books are you currently reading :tongue? I have the habit to start various books :p.
Currently I'm reading a photography book and "The 10-day MBA" . Oh, and also a book on the ongoing financial crisis, and I am probably going to start reading a novel by Dean Koontz or Stephen King soon :D.

[Aragorn]

One of the best:

Der Untergang des Abendlandes, by Oswald Spengler, German edition, copyright 1922.

[Steelhammer]

'Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors' by Nicholas Wade

and 'The Ethnic Phenomenon' by Pierre van den Berghe


It takes me a long time to read a book, so this may not change for some time...:embarrassed

[Oisín]

Gods and fighting men - Lady Gregory
The autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone - Abridged & edited by Sean O'Faolain

[The Dragonslayer]

Thanks for the comments so far. I've seen this topic before on other forums. It's a good way of sharing what we are reading with others. I've gotten good book recommendations off of such threads before. All of these books sound interesting. I hope you enjoy them and get something out of them. I often am reading more than one book at a time. I'm an avid reader. It's one of my favorite hobbies. I would say it's more than just a hobby though.

[Lars]

I just finished all the Harry Potter books in their original language. I first read them in Danish. :D

So I'm now ready for something a little more serious!

Tankens Magt
Vestens idehistorie
https://www.laererbogklubben.dk/wcsstore/LBK/upload/products/fs/9788703015927_fs.jpg

In English that means 'The Power of Thought - History of Ideas in the West

It's about the ideas that formed Europe from ancient Greece to now. There are three books which each covers a period.

Book one - Classical antiquity to 1600
Book two - 1600 to 1918
Book three - 1918 to present day

The book is structured in a system of seven scientific fields, including technology, science, politics and law, aesthetics and art, language and society, philosophy and religion/theology. These seven pillars are each divided into nine time periods, so that the whole story can be read chronologically.

2.468 pages/5 kg. It's a beast.

They are very beautifully made.

[The Dragonslayer]

Hey Lars. That looks amazing. I hadn't heard of that before. It looks fascinating. It certainly does look beautifully made. I'll definitely have to check it out.

[Saksenland]

Lord of the Rings, by Tolkien

[Lars]

Hi guys

Many have written to me where to get the books and similar questions.
Warning! The three books are written in Danish.

Some information:
Redaktion/editors: Hans Siggaard Jensen, Ole Knudsen, Frederik Stjernfelt, Tekstredaktion/text editorial: Claus Bratt Østergaard, skribenter Lars Erslev Andersen m. fl.
3 bind/volumes (2468 sider/pages), illustreret/illustrated
Udgiver/Publisher: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ISBN-13: 978-87-595-2671-2
ISBN: 87-595-2671-8
Pris/Retail price: kr. 1999,00 (267 Euros)

I am a member of a book club which had a special sale so I only paid 500 kr. (67 Euros)

I've seen the books on various websites and book stores at 1500 kr. (200 Euros)

More than 50 writers are behind the 2,500-page work "Tankens Magt" that's to be considered as a supplement to The Great Danish Encyclopædi.

[The Dragonslayer]

Hi guys

Many have written to me where to get the books and similar questions.
Warning! The three books are written in Danish.

Some information:
Redaktion/editors: Hans Siggaard Jensen, Ole Knudsen, Frederik Stjernfelt, Tekstredaktion/text editorial: Claus Bratt Østergaard, skribenter Lars Erslev Andersen m. fl.
3 bind/volumes (2468 sider/pages), illustreret/illustrated
Udgiver/Publisher: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ISBN-13: 978-87-595-2671-2
ISBN: 87-595-2671-8
Pris/Retail price: kr. 1999,00 (267 Euros)

I am a member of a book club which had a special sale so I only paid 500 kr. (67 Euros)

I've seen the books on various websites and book stores at 1500 kr. (200 Euros)

More than 50 writers are behind the 2,500-page work "Tankens Magt" that's to be considered as a supplement to The Great Danish Encyclopædi.

Wow! I guess that would keep me from reading any of them then.

[Allenson]

I just started reading The Morality of Everday Life by Thomas Fleming.

Fleming is one of the leading thinkers in the paleoconservative movement in the US.

http://calitreview.com/142

[WhiteHaven]

Some woman's biography that was born into polygamy and then fled it after she was married and had 8 kids blah blah, interesting book, its one sided but eh gotta find something new to read.

[Nastrander]

I'm currently re-reading "The Journey Home" by Edward Abbey.

This passage caught my eye:

-------------------------

On a pleasant evening in May 1966 you could have seen in the comfort
and convenience of your living room (on channel 13 WNET, educational
TV) a guerrilla soldier being slowly choked to death with water filled
rags, while American officers stood by watching, and heard when it was
over (the prisoner refused to talk) one of the officers mutter
sheepishly near Bernard Fall's tape recorder .... "Well that's the way
it goes"

-------------------------

Looks like water boarding was the torture of choice during the Viet Nam
war too.

[The Dragonslayer]

I'm currently reading The Great Betrayal by Pat Buchanan.

[Whiteboy]

I am Reading March of the Titans, History of the White Race by Arthur Kemp

[DarkZarathustra]

Homer - "Iliad", just finished thirteen chapter. I came to the episode of battle before ships of Achaeans.

Also I re-read now "Beyond Good and Evil", again found there alots of brilliant thoughts which sparkles when you dug them out of the lines...

[Skandi]

I'm reading multiple books too! I try not to but as I spent my time split between two houses it just sort of happens, and then there's the "toilet" books

The Failure of race relations in America, (got my flatmate to read this one too)

My Family and other animals Gerald Durrel (Light reading)

The Vikings, Julian Richards (interesting but pretty much just a list of finds)

[Gundwane]

recently finished re-reading Ken Follett's absolutely wonderful historical novel, Pillars of the Earth, which basically is the story of Tom Builder and his family - Tom was a mason and master-builder who always dreamed of building a beautiful church or cathedral during the time of King Robert/Queen Maud and later King Henry - in the 1100's. Nowadays I have the habit of doing my reading 1n the "THRONE-ROOM", aka "toilet," hence a thick book like that does take a long time to get through. Now I'm into Harlan Coben's "THE WOODS," a great "whodunnit" - also a long novel.

I still buy the occasional Reader's Digest, and then an excellent weekly mag, Vrouekeur, which is a good family mag. I also occasionally buy Puzzle Corner Special, a British publication, just to make a break from reading and the internet, especially the latter, as I do translation work for a publishing firm to supplement our pension, but it does tend to make one become word-weary, and that's when I take a break, solving puzzles, either in printed form or on-line (www.puzzler.co.uk) or playing light computer games.

My heavy reading days are a thing of the past...

[lei.talk]

I'm currently re-reading "The Journey Home (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%22journey+home%22+%22edward+abbey%22)" by Edward Abbey.
...

Looks like water boarding (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding) was the torture of choice during the Viet Nam war too.at the west point of the south (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Military_Institute)
and many other military academies and installations

this "torture" was a common initiation-technique
used to welcome new-comers
in to the ranks.

perhaps, the modern (http://www.goarmy.com/downloads/games.jsp) video-game (http://www.goarmy.com/aarmy/index.jsp) military (http://www.americasarmy.com/)
has stopped this.

it is difficult to feel any sympathy
for terrorists or guerillas

subjected to the same unpleasantness
my father used
to teach my younger brother
not to cry (as an infant).

my father - as do many parents, over a half-century later -
acted on the antiquated notion
that pain was utile
in driving the evil spirits from a child's body.
*

[Psychonaut]

I just got this in the mail yesterday:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c4/c20326.jpg

[Jamt]

I have recently finished reading Night Dogs by Kent Anderson and I like it. It is a book that newer will be translated to Swedish, it’s simply to disturbing. I found the book from being recommended and reading Sympathy for the Devil, a book about the Vietnam War by the same author.

Night Dogs is about crime/police in Portland Oregon USA in the seventies. But it is more than the regular crime novel. I think it is a piece of literature. And yes, the author is both ex Special Forces in Vietnam and a police officer in Portland.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Dogs-Kent-Anderson/dp/0099277670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228620033&sr=1-1

[Eldritch]

I'm reading Man in the Dark, the latest novel by one of my favourite authors, Paul Auster (who unfortunately is a NYC Jew, but that's not his own fault).

Not as good as The Brooklyn Follies from a few years ago, but still .... okay.

Next is Linnunaivot ("Bird Brain") by Finnish science fiction author Johanna Sinisalo.

http://www.faber.co.uk/site-media/onix-images/thumbs/89_jpg_280x450_q85.jpg

[Eldritch]

I just got this in the mail yesterday:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c4/c20326.jpg

Ubik and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch are both great.

The other two are okay too, although Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is somewhat overrated, mostly because of the equally overrated film based on it.

[Psychonaut]

Ubik and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch are both great.

The other two are okay too, although Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is somewhat overrated, mostly because of the equally overrated film based on it.

That's pretty much what I've heard. I bought the volume mainly for Ubik and The Man in the High Castle. I'm nearing the end of the latter and an very pleased with it. I've not read much alternate history before and this is very well imagined.

[Eldritch]

I've not read much alternate history before and this is very well imagined.

Why not try Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream next? ;)


This is a novel that is in many ways unique in science fiction. It's an alternate history within an alternate history. Spinrad postulates a world that is almost entirely communist-dominated, where Adolf Hitler did not in fact rise to power in Germany in the 1930's, but instead emigrated to the United States a decade before, becoming an illustrator for the SF pulps, then a popular SF novelist in his own right.

The bulk of The Iron Dream comprises the complete text of Hitler's final, posthumously published novel Lord of the Swastika. That story concerns a young, genetically pure "trueman" named Feric Jaggar who lives in an alternate Earth which has suffered thermonuclear war and whose population is mostly made up of mutants and the evil, telepathic "Doms," whose agenda is to infiltrate the idyllic haven of Heldon (the fatherland of the Truemen) and corrupt its genetically pure populace. Jaggar was born outside Heldon itself (like Hitler, a German born in Austria), and upon reaching manhood he travels to Heldon to pronounce his genetic purity and claim his legal citizenship.

But no sooner has Jaggar crossed the border than he discovers the horrible subhumans have made greater headway than he realized, and in almost no time at all, Jaggar attracts a fanatical following of angry Truemen and founds the Knights of the Swastika. Massive rallies follow, and Jaggar's hereditary right of leadership is proven to the masses by the fact that he alone is able to wield the legendary Truncheon of Held (like only Arthur could wield Excalibur, you see). Thenceforth, we witness the ghastly pageantry as millions of loyal Truemen follow their fearless leader on his quest to destroy all genetically impure peoples in their path.

[lei.talk]

after eldritch reminded me (http://forums.skadi.net/showthread.php?p=604135#post604135) (at the nordish portal) -
my copy was unboxed
and re-read:

magnificent!
totally enthralling!
one of spinrad's most impressive accomplishments (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%22The+Iron+Dream%22+%22Norman+Spinrad%22).

http://www.sfreviews.net/large_covers/iron_dream.jpg
To make damn sure that even the historically naive and entirely unselfaware reader got the point, I appended a phony critical analysis of Lord of the Swastika, in which the psychopathology of Hitler’s saga was spelled out by a tendentious pedant in words of one syllable.

Almost everyone got the point…

And yet one review appeared in a fanzine that really gave me pause.
“This is a rousing adventure story and I really enjoyed it,” the gist of it went.
“Why did Spinrad have to spoil the fun with all this muck about Hitler?”
*

[Cosmic Nordic Supremacy]

The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Profane-Nature-Religion/dp/015679201X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228766448&sr=8-1)
The Doctrine of Awakening (http://www.integraltradition.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=31)
Metaphysics of War
(http://www.integraltradition.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=6&products_id=170)
The Indo-Europeans (https://excalibur.bnp.org.uk/acatalog/General_History.html)
Heathen Imperialism (http://www.integraltradition.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=231&osCsid=050836eb51ec9d89e271ff6f18bd95a7)
The Devil's Guard (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devils-Guard-George-Robert-Elford/dp/0440614236/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228766047&sr=1-1)
Three Aspects of the Jewish Problem (http://www.integraltradition.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=146)
Bolshevism from Moses to Lenin (http://www.library.flawlesslogic.com/eckart_1.htm)
Action! Race Wars to Door Wars (http://www.racewartodoorwar.com/)
Searching For Vedic India (http://www.integraltradition.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_id=195&osCsid=050836eb51ec9d89e271ff6f18bd95a7)
The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome
(http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-City-Religion-Institutions-Political/dp/0486447308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228766282&sr=8-1)

And a number of other books, actually. I read a lot.

[GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS]

I'm reading Erik Wallin's "Ragnarök", about the fighting on the eastern front in the winter and spring of 1945, from the point of view of a Swedish volunteer in the SS, himself.

As there are many previously unseen photos from that time, and an extensive list of other Swedish volunteers in SS, Organisation Todt, and Wehrmacht (!), this is priceless. It is invaluable information. It's been translated to German, but not to English, as far as I know. Unfortunately.

[Loyalist]

I'm presently reading The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust by Heather Pringle, and Steel Inferno: 1st SS Panzer Corps in Normandy by Michael Reynolds.

[Eldritch]

The Devil's Guard (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devils-Guard-George-Robert-Elford/dp/0440614236/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228766047&sr=1-1)



That's a great book. I'd recommend it for anyone interested in warfare and military history.

[Hrolf Kraki]

The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians

The Mother Tounge: English & How it Got that Way

[Lars]

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams
http://www.stuffgeekswant.com/images/hitchhiker.jpg

Having read the first two novels in this trilogy in five parts:confused::D I think I already can recommend this piece of literature to anyone with a sense of humour.

[Loyalist]

Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell.

[Aemma]

Interesting :thumbs up!

The question for me should be: what books are you currently reading :tongue? I have the habit to start various books :p.
Currently I'm reading a photography book and "The 10-day MBA" . Oh, and also a book on the ongoing financial crisis, and I am probably going to start reading a novel by Dean Koontz or Stephen King soon :D.

Oh I'm notoriously bad for doing that too, Arctic Fox. You aren't a Gemini by any chance, are you? :p

Books I'm reading now...most recent (and a Yule gift): Queen Emma and the Vikings. The next one will be my other Yule gift: Emma: The Twice-Crowned Queen.

Others as works in progress shall we say: Njal's Saga, The Eddas, Lament for a Nation, The Normans, The Long Emergency, various gardening books, and Kate Mosse's Sepulchre. I pick one of them up as the mood strikes. :)

Happy Reading All!...Aemma

[Loki]

Books I'm reading now...most recent (and a Yule gift): Queen Emma and the Vikings. The next one will be my other Yule gift: Emma: The Twice-Crowned Queen.


Does this Queen Emma have anything to do with your username? :)

[Aemma]

Does this Queen Emma have anything to do with your username? :)

Absolutely everything!!! :D

Cheers for now!...Aemma

[Psychonaut]

I just started on one of my Yule gifts, The Franks (http://www.amazon.com/Franks-Peoples-Europe-Edward-James/dp/0631179364), by Edward James:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ECFSN918L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

[HawkR]

Right now I'm readin 4 books at the same time.

At work: Stalin by some Montewhateverjewdude
In car: Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler(duh!)
At home: Frøya by some swede, update soon and another one(comic book)

[Aemma]

I just started on one of my Yule gifts, The Franks (http://www.amazon.com/Franks-Peoples-Europe-Edward-James/dp/0631179364), by Edward James:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ECFSN918L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

HA! I tried getting this book online a few months ago and they told me it was out of print!!!

Psychonaut, you got this through Amazon, did you? The buggers! :mad:

I've been looking high and low for this thing! (*/me grumbles and mutters to herself)

Well, whatever you do don't spoil the ending for me eh? :tongue

:lightbul:...Aemma storms off to Amazon.com to check things out

Addendum: Ha! Just bought it online; a Yule gift from my hubby. Had to get it through the US though for some reason. Will be shipping out of Maryland soon enough! Yippee!

[Psychonaut]

HA! I tried getting this book online a few months ago and they told me it was out of print!!!

Psychonaut, you got this through Amazon, did you? The buggers! :mad:


I asked my wife and she did get it through Amazon. I guess we know who's Amazon is better now . . .

Amazon.com > Amazon.ca

∴ USA > Canada

:taped-shut: :zip-lip: :icon_cheesygrin:

[Beorn]

Having fulfilled my childhood adoration for all things Alexander with the novel The Alexander Trilogy-Mary-Renault, (http://www.amazon.com/ALEXANDER-TRILOGY-Mary-Renault/dp/0140068856) I decided to read further about the historical character of Alexander and came upon the author Paul_Cartledge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cartledge) who is a renowned Professor of Greek History at Cambridge University. The name of the two books I read were Alexander the Great (http://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Great-Paul-Cartledge/dp/1400079195) and Thermopylae the Battle That Changed the World (http://www.amazon.com/Thermopylae-Battle-That-Changed-World/dp/1585675660).

Two very good and informative books about Alexander and the Greek resistance to the Persian invasions.

I am now reading the funny and very insightful book by Kate Fox - Watching the English. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/product/0340818867)

[Aemma]

I asked my wife and she did get it through Amazon. I guess we know who's Amazon is better now . . .

Amazon.com > Amazon.ca

∴ USA > Canada

:taped-shut: :zip-lip: :icon_cheesygrin:

LOL! Without a doubt, my friend, without a doubt! LOL!

Cheers for now...Aemma

[Psychonaut]

I just got my first copy of the journal The Occidental Quarterly in the mail today. After seeing that it was published under the imprint of the Charles Martel Society and glimpsing the contents of their sample articles, I thought I'd give it a shot. Now that I've read some of the articles and see that both Alain de Benoist and Kevin MacDonald are regular contributors, I have to say I'm hooked. :D

http://www.theoccidentalquarterly.com/images/toqmastheadnew.gif

[Vulpix]

Good stuff Psychonaut :thumb001:! I'm a fan too :D.


I just got my first copy of the journal The Occidental Quarterly in the mail today. After seeing that it was published under the imprint of the Charles Martel Society and glimpsing the contents of their sample articles, I thought I'd give it a shot. Now that I've read some of the articles and see that both Alain de Benoist and Kevin MacDonald are regular contributors, I have to say I'm hooked. :D

http://www.theoccidentalquarterly.com/images/toqmastheadnew.gif

[Oisín]

The Fenian Anthology - Joe Ambrose (http://www.tcd.ie/Library/Shop/product.php?productID=1736)

This title contains quotes, quips, extracts and speeches from some of Ireland's greatest patriots. While the original Fenians were a secretive republican organisation founded by John O'Mahony, this volume seeks to broaden that moniker and to reclaim what for centuries has been used by oppressors and occupiers as a term of abuse to demean those who believe in a free Ireland. It is also an attempt to give readers a taste of the literary talent of our finest patriotic writers.From speeches in the dock and poems to extracts from memoirs and moral novels, Irish patriots produced some of the finest Irish writing. At once a record and a cultural history, "The Fenian Anthology" features excerpts from the speeches of many of Ireland's political heroes including Pearse and Emmet and extracts from such classic texts as "Knocknagow" by Charles Kickham and "The Felon's Track" by Michael Doheny.

[Red Skull]

'Revolt Against the Modern World' by Julius Evola

[TheGreatest]

Right now I'm readin 4 books at the same time.

At work: Stalin by some Montewhateverjewdude
In car: Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler(duh!)
At home: Frøya by some swede, update soon and another one(comic book)


Hehe I do the same. I bring some politically correct book to school (I.E. Gun Steel and Germs), than I switch to the real stuff when it's alone time ;)

[Lars]

I just bought 'De islandske sagaer' (The Icelandic sagas), which contains 13 sagas over 1220 pages.
https://www.samlerens-bogklub.dk/wcsstore/BKStorefrontAssetStore/Upload/CommonProducts/ml/9788703010205_ml.jpg

Egils saga
Gunløg Ormstunges saga
Laksdølas saga
Fostbrødre saga
Njals saga
Kormaks saga
Hallfred Vanrådeskjalds saga
Sagaen om Gretter den Stærke
Viga-Glums saga
Gisle Surssøns saga
Snorre Godes saga
De sammensvornes saga
Grønlands- og Vinlandsrejserne

and

Nordiske myter og sagn (Nordic myths and legend)
https://www.samlerens-bogklub.dk/wcsstore/BKStorefrontAssetStore/Upload/CommonProducts/ml/9788700696921_ml.jpg

[Loyalist]

The Nazi Seizure of Power by William Sheridan Allen.

[Ladejarlen]

"Nordisk mytologi" by H.R Ellis Davidson

[Pino]

Gods of the blood: Pagan revival and white seperatism

[Brynhild]

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini - the follow-up from Eragon and Eldest. He has some very interesting leanings towards the Norse and Celtic myths that reflect in his writings, something I always appreciate!

[Soldier of Wodann]

Almost done with For My Legionaries - C.Z Codreanu


I've also been reading a collection of works by H.P. Lovecraft.

[Aemma]

I asked my wife and she did get it through Amazon. I guess we know who's Amazon is better now . . .

Amazon.com > Amazon.ca

∴ USA > Canada

:taped-shut: :zip-lip: :icon_cheesygrin:

Ohh I finally received it 2 days ago and just cracked it open yesterday for a bit but fell asleep early so I couldn't really look at it much :(

I'm looking forward to reading it though. It seems chockful of good bits! :)

Cheers!...Aemma

[Aemma]

Gods of the blood: Pagan revival and white seperatism

Oh I have this book and have read it in its entirety (This is an accomplishment for me since I have so many books on the go all at once :D).

I'd love to know what you thought of it, Pino. Perhaps we can chat about it once you're done reading it. I found that there were some interesting ideas in it but some a bit far-fetched.

Anyway, looking forward to reading your thoughts about it. :)

Cheers for now!...Aemma

[Aemma]

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini - the follow-up from Eragon and Eldest. He has some very interesting leanings towards the Norse and Celtic myths that reflect in his writings, something I always appreciate!

Great books from what I've read about them. We bought the first 2 for our son a couple of Yules ago and none of us has read them yet.

Perhaps I should crack them open eventually...maybe this summer for something different to read. :)

Thanks for the feedback Bryn. :)

Cheers!...Aemma

[Ulf]

Gods of the blood: Pagan revival and white seperatism

Have this as well, though I've not read it. :embarrassed

Currently working my way through Moby Dick.

[Aemma]

Have this as well, though I've not read it. :embarrassed

Currently working my way through Moby Dick.

Oooo would love to have your opinion about it too Ulf when you get through it. :)

Hmm Moby Dick...I don't have it and I haven't read it. :( My turn to :embarrassed :D

Cheers!...Aemma

[Ulf]

Oooo would love to have your opinion about it too Ulf when you get through it. :)

Hmm Moby Dick...I don't have it and I haven't read it. :( My turn to :embarrassed :D

Cheers!...Aemma

Herman Melville is one of the most long winded writers I've ever read. That said, his prose and characters are awesome.

I'll have to break out that book and put it on my list. It'll be a while before I get to it though. :D

[Piparskeggr]

Hail all;

Some...my wife and I have several thousand books...

Reading: "Take Back Your Government!" by Robert Heinlein, 1992, Baen Books - "The Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys" by Conn and Hal Iggulden, 2008, Harper-Collins Books - "The Children of Hurin" by JRR Tolkien, 2007, Houghton-Mifflin

Rereading: "The Nine nations of North America" by Joel Garreau, 1981, Avon Books, "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius, 1964, Penguin Classics - "The Nature of the Gods" by M Tullius Cicero, 1972, Penguin Classics - "The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine, 1974, Citadel press

Recently read: "Thud!" by Terry Pratchett, 2005, Harper-Collins Books - "John Wayne - American" by Randy Roberts and James Olseon, 1995, The Free Press - "King Philip's War" by Eric Schultz ad Michael Tougias, 1999, The Countryman Press

As I have written before, I am grateful to my mom and dad for teaching me to read before I entered grade-school...coming up on 48 years...

"Knowest how to read?
Knowest how to write?"

- from the Havamal...

Pip

[Lars]

Popular Music from Vittula

[Psychonaut]

S.S.O.T.B.M.E.: An Essay on Magic by Ramsey Dukes

I just got a hard copy in the mail yesterday and am really enjoying his thoughts.

http://www.ravenoir.com/images/R141.jpg

[HawkR]

Still reading "Frøya, Sagaen om Valhall" (Froya, The Story about Valhall) and soon finished:( I really liked that book, but it got two follow-up's:) Just finished Dragonero and Raptor Red:)

Today I might gonna start on Horngudenes Tale (The Speach of the Honred Gods) or maybe jump into some norse facts:)

[Vargtand]

I don't read books, except for school literature. I think I've read a grand total of 10 books or so in my life :p

[Baron Samedi]

I'm reading Coronado: Stories by Dennis Lehane.

Fantastic writer. Same guy that wrote Mystic River.

[Allenson]

The Maine Woods

By Henry David Thoreau. Great stuff. :thumbs up

http://www.oberlin.edu/library/special/virtualexhibits/19c-bookcovers/images/mainewoods_b.jpg

http://i.usatoday.net/travel/_photos/2008/01/22/thoreau-topper.jpg

[Aemma]

One of the many I have on the go:

Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos by Rudolf Steiner. I am very much enjoying his ideas about spirituality and auras. ;)

:book2:

[SPQR]

I'm currently reading Steven Pressfields Tides of War.

[Eldritch]

Just got this, didn't start reading it yet:

http://media.us.macmillan.com/jackets/258H/9781845118297.jpg

From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths by Heather O'Donoghue. It's a pretty slim volume, so I ought to be done with it in a day or two.

From Amazon:


Whether they focus on Thor's powerful hammer, the mysterious valkyries, the palatial home of the gods - Asgard - or ravenous wolves and fierce elemental giants, the Norse myths are packed with vivid incident. But at the centre of their cosmos stands a gnarled old ash tree from which all distances and times are measured. When the old tree creaks, Ragnarok - the end of the world and of the gods themselves - is at hand. It is from this tree that Odin, father of the gods, hanged himself in search of the wisdom of the dead: a disturbing image of divine sacrifice far removed from the feasting and fighting of his otherworld home, Valhalla. This is the first book to show how the Norse myths have resonated from era to era: from Viking-age stories of ice and fire to the epic poetry of Beowulf; and from Wagner's "Ring" to Marvel Comics' "Mighty Thor". Heather O'Donoghue considers the wider contexts of Norse mythology, including its origins, medieval expression and reception in post-medieval societies right up to the present. "From Asgard to Valhalla" is a book that will intrigue and delight anyone with an interest in how the Norse myths have so profoundly shaped the western cultural heritage.

[Freomæg]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519VK5SY9HL._SL500_.jpg

Rivetting stuff. It's a study on the hidden astrological meanings of many of the world's myths and stories - a method used to transfer the vast knowledge of our distant ancestors to us, intact.

[lei.talk]

THE ODYSSEY: A MODERN SEQUEL (http://www.scribd.com/doc/10986184/The-Odyssey-A-Modern-Sequel-by-Nikos-Kazantzakis)
by Nikos Kazantzakis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikos_Kazantzakis)
translated by Kimon Friar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimon_Friar)
Simon & Schuster (824 pp.) $10

Masterpieces of literature are hard to come by and even harder to recognize. This is particularly true when they are written in verse, and when they presumably lose their pristine shine in the process of translation. It has taken 20 years for The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel to reach English in hexameter from its original modern Greek. The poem has not been translated into any other language and so is virtually unknown outside its native Greece. But in it, chances are, U.S. readers have a masterpiece at hand, in a fine translation.

When author Nikos Kazantzakis died last year at 74, he was known to U.S. readers mostly for his novel Zorba the Greek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorba_the_Greek), a flashing testament to the proposition that every minute of life should be lived to the sensuous, sensual hilt. At least twice, reportedly, he failed to win the Nobel Prize by the narrowest of margins. By taking for his own the name of Homer's poem, by adopting Odysseus as his own hero, Kazantzakis has underlined the audacity of his undertaking. His 33,333 lines measure its vastness. But the poem's real boldness lies not so much in affinities or in size as in what it sets out to do: to relate man to the earth and his own appetites, to describe his need for God and the tortuous spiritual route of the search, and finally to show how man attempts to exorcise his private and worldly devils in a never-ending quest, not for peace of mind but for freedom of soul.

The Birth of Doubt
Author Kazantzakis begins just about where Homer left off. Odysseus has come home, slain Penelope's suitors and re-established his authority. Now Penelope, whom he has not seen for 19 years, bores him. His gentle son Telemachus seems soft and dull and disapproves of his cunning, brutal father who lives as if life were a permanent state of war. With five devoted and adventurous companions, Odysseus builds a new boat and leaves his island home to begin a second odyssey, which is to end in a spiritual trial by fire and death.

He has no plan, no itinerary. He visits Helen of Troy and her husband Menelaus in Sparta. Helen is still beautiful, but the King has become a fat and greedy landlord whose subjects are on the edge of revolt. Helen and Odysseus are, up to a point, two of a kind. When he suggests that they run off, she agrees, and they slip away to Crete. There the King is old and sterile; there, too, the people talk revolution and the blond barbarians from the north are muscling in. The old King marries Helen, and Odysseus, after adventures of fierce brutality, leaves Crete without her and sails to Egypt.

Already Odysseus has begun to question, to doubt. To his surprise, he begins to find newborn sympathies with slaves and common folk. The old Greek gods have become objects of scorn, and what started as a mindless search for adventure has now become a journey of selfdiscovery. In Egypt he and his pals thieve and loot, fight against the depraved rulers and finally lead a ragged army to the headwaters of the Nile. There Odysseus builds a Utopian city-state in which marriage is outlawed, children are held in common, and the old and weak are left to die. At first all goes well under Odysseus' rule; then the city is destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Odysseus becomes an ascetic who wanders over Africa, famed as a holy man but farther from God than ever. He sets off in a skiff and sails into the Antarctic, recapitulates his life and dies full of wisdom, humility and doubt, not having found his soul but having gained nobility in the search.

"Then flesh dissolved, glances congealed, the heart's pulse stopped,

and the great mind leapt to the peak of its holy freedom,

fluttered with empty wings, then upright through the air

soared high and freed itself from its last cage, its freedom.

All things like frail mist scattered till but one brave cry

for a brief moment hung in the calm benighted waters:

'Forward, my lads, sail on, for Death's breeze blows in a fair wind!'"

Beyond the Pagan World
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel is a huge repository of bloody adventure, eroticism, brutal sights and sounds, magnificent descriptions of the earth, sea and sky and all their wonders. Man's coarsest appetites and his noblest aspirations exist side by side in Odysseus, and he is as ready to seduce a simple girl by pretending to be a god as he is to admit his doubts about himself and the human condition:

"I'm not pure, I'm not strong, I cannot love, I'm afraid!

I'm choked with mud and shame, I fight but fight in vain

with cries and gaudy wings, with voyages and wiles

to choke that quivering mouth within me that cries 'Help!'

A thin, thin crust of laughter, mockery, voices, tears,

a lying false façade—all this is called Odysseus!"

Kazantzakis takes his hero far beyond the pagan world that Homer's knew. He confronts him with characters reminiscent of Buddha, Christ, Faust and Don Quixote so that Odysseus can try his own view of God and man against theirs. He agrees with none of them, thus underscoring Kazantzakis' belief that each man must make his own spiritual odyssey; no one else can make it for him, no ready-made belief can serve for each individual. The search is one for freedom—freedom from the demands of Odysseus' heart and mind. Kazantzakis seems to say: not until Odysseus is delivered from doubt, fear and even hope can he reach anything close to serenity. That he is never delivered does not matter; God may even be the search for God.

Rivalry with God
Many a devout reader may find this note jarringly impious and pessimistic. Kazantzakis is neither. Like Zorba, Odysseus exults in life, and even during his lowest moments he is seldom without gusto. There are times when he thinks he is better than God, times when he thinks that man ought to help God rather than the other way around. He never accepts defeat:

"'You fool, how in your greatest need can you abandon

most glorious man who lives and fights to give you shape?

You fill our hearts with cries and vehement desires,

then sink your ears in silence and refuse to listen;

but man's soul will fight on, you coward, without your help!'

His heart leapt high, spurned Death, and in the black air cut

a thousand roads to fly through on a thousand wings,

then, screeching like a hawk, strove to unwind what fate had woven."

Kazantzakis labored on and off over a period of twelve years to produce a book of singular power and beauty. Translator Kimon Friar, a poet and scholar of Greek descent, received from Kazantzakis himself the ultimate praise: that the translation was as good as the original. Whether or not that is so, as it now reads, The Odyssey is by all odds the most impressive literary achievement of many a year. It bears out the feeling Kazantzakis once expressed, in describing a form of spiritual conversion he underwent during a solitary retreat in the mountains: "Since then I have felt ashamed to commit any vulgar act, to lie, to be overcome by fears, because I know that I also have a great responsibility in the progress of the world. I work and think now with certainty, for I know that my contribution, because it follows the profound depths of the universe, will not go lost."

Time (http://www.time.com/time/)
Monday, December 8, 1958half a century ago, my mother asked
"This is not like those books you and Grandpa read.
Are you certain you want this one?"

I was wrong:
the whining, confusion and self-doubt
was - to me - repulsive, but,

it was an impressive fictionalised baring of the author's "mid-life crisis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manopause)".
*

[Osweo]

Odna na krayu sveta.
Marina Galkina
'Alone on the Edge of the World'
http://fortis.mami.ru/compass/books/img/bk_51-1201434820.jpg
A young woman walks across Kamchatka and Chukotka all by herself. I'm only on page 30, and she's already met about that number of Bears!

Very few photos, but enough to get the idea and be very jealous that you haven't got the guts to go out there on your own yourself!
http://skitalets.ru/books/odna_galkina/fig2.jpg
http://skitalets.ru/books/odna_galkina/fig4-1.jpg
http://skitalets.ru/books/odna_galkina/fig5-1.jpg
More here:
http://skitalets.ru/books/odna_galkina/index.htm

[Ulf]

How to Build Your Own Low-Cost Log Home.

Next, How to Build a Stone House.

I'm a little closer to having a mountain fortress. Then I'll disappear! :icon_lol:

[Lars]

I just bought Franz Kafkaz Samlede Fortællinger (Kafka's collected stories).
A set with two books.
http://plus.politiken.dk/Uploaded/1936/Kafka_1+2_250_20000.jpg
First volume contains the 43 stories, Kafka published himself, while the second volume contains his abandoned stories, several of which are unfinished, others mere fragments.


But I just began reading Dan Brown's Angels & Demons.
http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/files/2008/06/angels-and-demons.jpg

I'm at page ~60 and I think the setting and story is quite entertaining. But, I don't think his writing style is very good. It's very dry and clumsy. But I hope I can finish the book without being to annoyed by it. ;/

[Beorn]

I had just finished reading the riveting:

http://www.thecommentary.ca/images/books/Pringle.jpg


Very, very interesting, and a good insight into the workings of the Ahnenerbe in the build up and duration of the second world war.

It was funny figuring out the bare faced lies of the author in amongst the truths.

[The Lawspeaker]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fQt9mKX5L._SS400_.jpg

Living in Japan (by Alex Kerr)

So rich and unique is traditional Japanese architecture that it’s hard to improve upon. Yet contemporary Japanese designers and architects keep finding new ways to refurbish and take inspiration from the ways of old. Whether it’s a pristinely preserved traditional house or a cutting-edge apartment, the best Japanese homes share a love of cleverly designed spaces and warm materials such as wood, bricks, and bamboo. From a thatched roof farmhouse occupied by a Zen priest to Tadao Ando’s experimental 4x4 House, Shigeru Ban’s conceptual Shutter House, and a beautiful homage to bamboo in the form of a home, this book traverses the multifaceted landscape of Japanese living today. Also included is a list of addresses and a glossary of terms, such as tatami.

[Hrolf Kraki]

Odna na krayu sveta.
Marina Galkina
'Alone on the Edge of the World'
http://fortis.mami.ru/compass/books/img/bk_51-1201434820.jpg
A young woman walks across Kamchatka and Chukotka all by herself. I'm only on page 30, and she's already met about that number of Bears!



That would be pretty awesome, I must say.

[Creeping Death]

Im reading my power bill :cry

[Mikey]

The Brigade, by H A Covington, tremendous!:thumb001:

“No one is coming. Couldn’t be more perfect. All right, let’s do it. Masks.” The two Volunteers pulled navy blue wool ski masks down over their faces and got out of the SUV. At an even pace they walked toward the dimly seen couple going toward the restaurant entrance, who were a bit more ahead of them than Zack had anticipated. They might have had to run to catch up, but the man stopped to close his umbrella in the well-lit doorway. They were perfect targets. “God, please don’t let anyone open that door right now,” whispered Zack in silent prayer.
When they were five feet behind the two expensively dressed people, some sound or sense made the Goldmans both turn. They stared at two men coming out of the darkness just beyond the pool of friendly light and laughter, masked so that only the black of their eyes could be seen, and leveling revolvers at them. The two gunmen said nothing, but Jacob Goldman gasped out in a strangled cry, “You!”
All four of them understood what Jacob Goldman had said. He did not know or recognize the men who were about to put him to death. They had always been far beneath him, part of the scenery he saw from the window of his luxury car or a plush office suite, animals who through some accident of nature resembled God’s Chosen People in outward form, but whom the sages of Torah assured him were beasts without souls. Yet he knew who they were, and why they were here. Four thousand years of racial instinct crackled in a moment of cosmic, hideous recognition and knowledge. A timeless drama was once again about to be played out, an ancient debt was once more to be paid, and blood was about to be spilled once more in humanity’s longest war. The men before Jacob Goldman could have been wearing Roman armor, or Crusaders’ chain mail, or Cossack leather and furs, or the black tunic of the SS. Now they wore denim jeans and ski masks, but oh, yes, he knew them. Now he was going to die, because they knew him as well, knew him for what he was.
At the head of the plank bridge on the shore, Charlie and Lee Washburn had the windows rolled down in their Toyota. They heard the shots and saw the muzzle flashes in the rain. A minute later, the Yukon rolled by them, and Zack waved a friendly thumbs-up out the window. Charlie pulled around and followed him up 39th Street and out onto the main road, Zack turning left and he himself right. They would go to the de-briefing rendezvous by separate routes."

entire novel available online free here;

http://www.mediafire.com/?84ztmxxxmnr

[The Lawspeaker]

https://www.webshopboekhandel.nl/Webshop/ProductImages/9789050188722.jpg


Hoera! Een nieuwe president, written by former Dutch America-correspondent Charles Groenhuijsen paints a picture of the incredible corruption in American politics but also shows the positive sides in comparison to the Dutch systems (the direct participation, rerendums etc).
This book also tells of the many scandals, the most influential politicians, the race between Hilary and Obama, and between Obama and McCain and gives the Dutch reader an insight into the American soul and (political) culture.

Quite an interesting read.

[Absinthe]

The House on the Borderland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_on_the_Borderland)


Plot introduction

In 1877, two gentlemen, Messrs Tonnison and Berreggnog, head into Ireland to spend a week fishing in the village of Kraighten. While there, they discover in the ruins of a very curious house a diary of the man who had once owned it. Its torn pages seem to hint at an evil beyond anything that existed on this side of the curtains of impossibility. This is a classic novel that worked to slowly bridge the gap between the British fantastic and supernatural authors of the later 19th century and modern horror fiction. Classic American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft lists this and other works by Hodgson among his greatest influences.


:thumbs:

[The Lawspeaker]

http://www.clarebooks.co.uk/usrimage/ryokan.jpg

RYOKAN - A Japanese Tradition (By Gabriele Fahr-Becker)

Staying at the Ryokum is much more than staying at a Japanese Hotel. Rather it is a journey in time where the visitor is a guest in old Japan. The aim of the Ryokan is to act as a mediator between the traditional arts and culture of Japan which is still largely unknown in the West, in an attempt to make them more accessible to a wider audience. The book contains many hudreds of superb colour photographs.

[Silverfern]

The Leopard Spot the second book written by Thomas Dixon Jr in 1907 about the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and Civil War in America.

[MarcvSS]

The Leuchter report...

First technical and chemical analysis of concentrationcamps Birkenau, Maidanek and Auschwitz...

[Aemma]

The Portable Nietzsche by Walter Kaufmann from the Viking Portable Library Series as well as a great e-book provided to us by our friend Psychonaut called De la Religion du Nord de la France avant le Christianisme by Louis de Baecker published in 1854. A delightful read thus far. Thank you Psy! :)

:book2:

[Absinthe]

Angels, Demons & Gods of the New Millennium (http://www.hermetic.com/webster/angels-review.html). Lon Milo DuQuette. Samuel Weiser, Inc. York Beach, Maine, 1997

Brief intro:

The boyfriend and me are in the process of setting up a mutual home, so we recently bought new furniture.
Thus, as soon as we got the new bookcases he decided to dig up all the books that he had stashed in boxes and put away in a musty basement for the last decade or so.

Unfortunately, more than 2/3 of his book collection were ruined by humidity :(

In the remaing 1/3, I discovered true gems, pertaining to the occult, religious studies and horror (lovecraftian) fiction.

So I have been reading like crazy during the last weeks :D (finished 3 books in 2 weeks, that's quite a record for me) and the last book I took up reading was this one...

Turns out it is more of a guide in the Hebrew Qaballah than anything else.

I decided to read it anyway. It starts off as a very interesting read, comparing eastern and western esoteric traditions and all that...

I just finished reading a rather boring and complicated chapter explaining various Qabbalistic methods of deriving certain 'divine'....names? conclusions? by adding numbers that correspond to letters (my Gods, what a headache) and it all sounded so arbitrary and ridiculous to me...
Of course who am I to judge an ancient tradition, I'm just saying it is beyond my kind of reasoning. And it sounds like an awfully bureaucratic and logistic a method to get in touch with the divine..! :eek:

Anyways, the horrible chapter is now over and now I am reading one about the Age of Aquarius. Hopefully this one shall be more interesting. :)

[Frigga]

Conan The Freebooter, by Robert Howard, and L. Sprague de Camp. I've been enjoying the series so far, they're really fun!

[The Lawspeaker]

https://www.webshopboekhandel.nl/Webshop/ProductImages/9789026321719.jpg



The Prince- by Niccolò Machiavelli


The Prince shocked Europe on publication with its ruthless tactics for gaining absolute power and its abandonment of conventional morality. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) came to be regarded as some by an agent of the Devil and his name taken for the intriguer 'Machevill' of Jacobean tragedy. For his treatise on statecraft Machiavelli drew upon his own experience of office under the turbulent Florentine republic, rejecting traditional values of political theory and recognizing the complicated, transient nature of political life. Concerned not with lofty ideals, but with a regime that would last, The Prince has become the Bible of Realpolitik, and still retains its power to alarm and to instruct.

[Eldritch]

http://www.idyllspress.com/images/thursdaylarge.jpg

The Man was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton .

Some schools of literary criticism think there's an appropiate age at which people should read certain classics. This book proves them right: I should have read this back when I was a Weltschmerz-ridden teenager. :coffee:

[Barreldriver]

I'm currently reading "American Lion" it's about U.S. President Andrew Jackson.

[Hrolf Kraki]

The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok and his Sons.

Read it last night. It was pretty awesome.

[Lars]

Dune
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AQR71BZlL.jpg

I've read ~15 pages and many many new words have been introduced already. Thankfully there are a glossary, on 28 whole pages, called Terminology of the Imperium in the back of the book. (Oh, I'm reading it in English. I'm not even sure if it has been translated into Danish.:confused:)

[Psychonaut]

I just picked up two of the old Elric graphic novels that First Comics put out in the early 80s. I just love P. Craig Russell's art. It's psychedelic style goes great with Moorcock's writing and will go great with the Moorcock inspired music by Hawkwind that I'm about to put on.

http://homepage.mac.com/antallan/images/russell/elric.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v393/Vivat_Grendel/Elric.jpg

[Hrolf Kraki]

I'm currently reading "American Lion" it's about U.S. President Andrew Jackson.

I almost bought that book the other day. Andrew Jackson sounds like an interesting president. How's the book thus far?

[Barreldriver]

I almost bought that book the other day. Andrew Jackson sounds like an interesting president. How's the book thus far?

It's pretty good, and it makes you wonder about every president we've ever had. It's very "revealing" to say the least, and it sort of advocates the South's cause during the U.S. Civil War going in depth about the issues that had sparked it before the slavery issue was even really a thought, during the Jackson Presidency the South was denied new road construction so they could be up to par with the Yanks and have access to the new trade routes and the North was illegally taxing the South and then using the money to fund Northern inerests, a feller by the name of Calhoun, Jacksons former Vice President I believe, was supporting secession from the Union(at this time the thought was mainly amongst the Carolinians), slavery wasn't even a thought at that time, it was a political ploy all crafted by the bastard Abraham Lincoln. What was more of a thought was Injun rights even more so than freeing the nasty slaves, heck I can garuntee you though the slaves weren't treated as bad as portrayed by modern scholars, here's my logic, say a farmer gets a new plow and tractor, he won't beat the darn thing to crap and starve it/not maintain it would he? no, so why would a slave owner do the same to his farm equipment/the saves? It's poor business.

[Barreldriver]

I am also starting to read The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

[Absinthe]

I am also starting to read The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Are you one of those people, like me, who start reading a book, put it aside for something else, read a chapter and dump that two, pick up something else and so on, and never get to finish any of them? :D

[Barreldriver]

Are you one of those people, like me, who start reading a book, put it aside for something else, read a chapter and dump that two, pick up something else and so on, and never get to finish any of them? :D

Sort of, but I tend to finish the books regardless.

[Hrolf Kraki]

Are you one of those people, like me, who start reading a book, put it aside for something else, read a chapter and dump that two, pick up something else and so on, and never get to finish any of them? :D

I used to be terrible about doing that! I´ve since made it a point to finish every book I start. Although I haven´t returned to the Barbarian book I was reading and I still have 2 chapters left. :o

I´m currently reading two books.

The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche

Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin

[Manifest Destiny]

I'm reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. The way this country is headed, I also feeling like I'm living that book.

[Tolleson]

Bernard Cornwell's Azincourt.

Sweetheart's Day present from Aemma. :)

[Baron Samedi]

About to start reading "Futhark" by Edred Thorsson.

And "How to DJ Right: The Art and Science of Playing Records" by Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster.

[Sarmata]

"Bases of Psychiatry":D

[Ulf]

I'm doing another re-read.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3205/2470985090_d874780059.jpg?v=0

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n8/n41987.jpg

I want to get the new editions that have come out with new artwork, I want a hardcover version of Elric..

[RoyBatty]

I'm reading a Russian translation of Vera Henriksen's Sagaens kvinner on my phone on the way to work in the mornings. Needless to say it's a bit of a struggle. :rolleyes:

[Barreldriver]

I want to finish by books on the History of the Celts and Celtic Myths, but I keep starting different books, I've still got a few chapters of American Lion left, and some more Asatru and mythos books to finish.

[Psychonaut]

I just got my copy of the nearly impossible to find Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer by John C. Lilly, M.D. in the mail today. I'm so excited to read the magnum opus of the psychonaut who created the sensory deprivation tank.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/3d/24/1a78228348a02c9880244110.L._AA240_.jpg

[RoyBatty]

I just got my copy of the nearly impossible to find Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer by John C. Lilly, M.D. in the mail today. I'm so excited to read the magnum opus of the psychonaut who created the sensory deprivation tank.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/3d/24/1a78228348a02c9880244110.L._AA240_.jpg

It's not exactly related to what you're talking about but perhaps you'd be interested in the film "Altered States" if you haven't seen it already.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080360/

[Psychonaut]

It's not exactly related to what you're talking about but perhaps you'd be interested in the film "Altered States" if you haven't seen it already.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080360/

Not related?! That movies was based on Lilly's work with the isolation tanks! I love it. It's a semi-realistic, if not overly paranoid, look at the kinds of psychological changes that occur during psychonautics. I give it two thumbs up.

[Baron Samedi]

I'm going to read the RITES OF ODIN soon!

Just to see how terrible it is....

[Barreldriver]

I'm going to read the RITES OF ODIN soon!

Just to see how terrible it is....

Never heard of it, will it bring the lulz?

[HawkR]

Right now I'm reading "Halo: The Cole Protocol" and "My kingdom Norway" by me:D (Haven't finished writing it though)

[Osweo]

I'm reading a Russian translation of Vera Henriksen's Sagaens kvinner on my phone on the way to work in the mornings. Needless to say it's a bit of a struggle. :rolleyes:

Christ, Man! Start with Kids' books or fairy tales! :eek:

[The Lawspeaker]

http://images2.speurders.nl/images/13/1310/13104202_1.jpg


Russian Journal- by Andrea Lee (1981)

At age twenty-five, Andrea Lee joined her husband, a Harvard doctoral candidate in Russian history, for his eight months’ study at Moscow State University and an additional two months in Leningrad. Published to enormous critical acclaim in 1981, Russian Journal is the award-winning author’s penetrating, vivid account of her everyday life as an expatriate in Soviet culture, chronicling her fascinating exchanges with journalists, diplomats, and her Soviet contemporaries. The winner of the Jean Stein Award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters–and the book that launched Lee’s career as a writer–Russian Journal is a beautiful and clear-eyed travel-writing classic.

[RoyBatty]

Christ, Man! Start with Kids' books or fairy tales! :eek:

I tried those and couldn't understand them either! LOL!!!!!! Now I'm just giving it a couple of weeks of word recognition / conditioning practice.




Not related?! That movies was based on Lilly's work with the isolation tanks! I love it. It's a semi-realistic, if not overly paranoid, look at the kinds of psychological changes that occur during psychonautics. I give it two thumbs up.

I felt a bit guilty about inserting a film in a book thread :)

[Octothorpe]

I just finished "Promised Land, Crusader State" by MacDougall, and it's the best monograph on foreign policy I've ever read! I'm suggesting that all my students read it. For fun, I've just started "Northwest of Earth," a collection of all of C. L. Moore's stories about Northwest Smith (planetary romances of the 1930s). After that, a book on the War of 1812 (one of my ancestors fought in that one).

[Frigga]

I'm reading The Body Ecology Diet, Recovering your Health, and Rebuilding Your Immunity by Donna Gates. It's about replenishing your intestinal gut flora so that you are no longer in a state of toxicity from the overpopulation of "bad" yeasts like candida, and other fungi. Homemade fermented vegetables figure promiently in the diet, along with milk kefir, and young coconut water kefir, to starve the detrimental flora in your body, and allowing the benefical bacteria, viruses, yeasts, and fungi, to flourish, allowing your body to fight pathogens.

http://www.bodyecologydiet.com

:)

[Groenewolf]

Currently I am rereading these two :


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F2AAMXYPL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

and

Hoe hoort het eigenlijk (http://www.bol.com/imgbase0/large/BOOKCOVER/FC/9/0/2/3/0/9023012194.gif)

[lei.talk]

it is ironic how many books are gifted to me.

many as a refutation (from the inarticulate)
and a few - intended as a pleasure
for one of my philosophy.

i have received an other copy
of s. m. stirling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._M._Stirling)'s draka anthology:


https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514o3VG0IuL.jpg (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%22the+domination%22+stirling)
The Draka, on the other hand, view themselves as a master race (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_race) and unlike the Nazis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism) (who believed that their mere racial heritage made them superior), are keenly aware of the effort they must make to maintain this status; in the manner of ancient Sparta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta)...
- wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Domination)
https://i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0317/41/1398624039606.jpg (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%22Gwendolyn+Ingolfsson%22)
*

[Holtlander]

I'm reading a book called De Grijze Wolven (the Grey Wolves) it's going about the turkish mob in the Netherlands, and there links to fascist en nationalist groups, it's actually realy interesting.

[Aemma]

I recently picked up a book entitled Globalization by Alex MacGillivray from the "A Brief History of..." series. I have barely cracked it open but hope to get a sound and balanced history of the globalisation phenomenon.

http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Globalization-Incredible-Shrinking/dp/0786717106/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238341113&sr=8-1

Cheers All!...Aemma

[Lars]

Just finished Jens Bjerre's Forsvundne verdener
http://images.saxo.com/ItemImage.aspx?ItemID=914644&Width=339
Globetrotter, documentary director, and member of Royal Geographical Society, Jens Bjerre has compiled his fascinating memories of three of the places and people who have made the greatest impression on him: the Bushmen in the Kalahari desert, the Australian aborigines and cannibals in New Guinea.

and Ender's Game
http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/storage/endersgame.jpg
Intense is the word for Ender's Game. Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses -- and then training them in the arts of war... The early training, not surprisingly, takes the form of 'games'... Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games... He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet?

I just started reading Ender's Shadow
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n1/n5730.jpg
It is a parallel science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card with a plot covering some of the events in Ender's Game from the point of view of a supporting character named Bean

On my to read list:
McCarthy, Gormac: Road
McCarthy, Gormac: No country for old men
Kolloen, I.S.: Hamsun. Sværmer og erobrer (Knut Hamsun: Dreamer & Dissenter)
Thoreau, H.D.: Walden
Kristensen,Tom: Hærværk (Hacov)
Jensen, Johannes V.: Kongens fald (The Fall of the King)

[Birka]

"The Tenants of Time" by Thomas Flanagan.

A novel about the 1867 Fenian Uprising.

[MarcvSS]

By Maaike Homan; "Generatie Lonsdale, extreem-rechtse jongeren in Nederland na Fortuyn en van Gogh"

In English; "Generation Lonsdale, extreem rightwing youths in the Netherlands after Fortuyn and van Gogh"

[Murphy]

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesteron, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.

[Loyalist]

Grenadiers: The Story of Waffen-SS General Kurt "Panzer" Meyer by Kurt Meyer.

[Barack Obama]

I have a couple of recommendations. First The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (http://www.amazon.com/Audacity-Hope-Thoughts-Reclaiming-American/dp/0307237699). And secondly Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (http://www.amazon.com/Dreams-My-Father-Story-Inheritance/dp/1400082773/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238462025&sr=8-1) These are the books that launched me on the path to the White House. You could say they are the Mein Kampf of the multiracial 21st century.:)

[Birka]

I just started rereading "The Hobbit" for the umpteenth time. I think Tolkien gets better with each reading, and I am savoring it like a fine brandy or single malt scotch.

[Psychonaut]

I'm reading Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious by Carl G. Jung. It's an amazing collection of essays dealing with many facets of the collective unconscious and specific archetypes that Jung theorizes dwell within.

http://members.tripod.com/merlinravensong2/jung1.jpg

[Murphy]

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.

I've just finished A Game of Thrones by Martin, and i'm about half way through The Two Towers: Book Three of The Lord of the Rings and should be finished Chesterton's Orthodoxy in a few days.

I'm just after ordering The City of God by Augustine of Hippo. It should be here by the time I finish Chesterton.

[Elveon]

Harrap's English-French Compact Dictionnaire LOL
FFF

[Galloglaich]

Scots Mercenary Forces in Ireland (1565-1603), An Account of Their Service During That Period, of the Reaction of Their Activities on Scottish Affairs, and of the Effect of Their Presence in Ireland, Together With an Examination of the Gallóglaigh or Galloglas by Gerard A. Hayes-McCoy

I've read some of Hayes-McCoys other stuff, but this one has eluded me for some time. I've wanted to read it for years. It was originally printed in 1937, and has only undergone one small reprint in 1996. Copies are pretty scarce. I was finally able to track down a copy through the WorldCat and my university got it for me through inter-library loan. I really needed it for my senior thesis, as this book is pretty much a definitive in the field and is referenced in the bibliography of just about every serious work undertaken since. I'm really enjoying it and realize that now I have to fork out the $70-$150 for one of the few used copies that I've seen for sale. Also, one of the longest titled books I've ever seen.

[Rasvalg]

Black Angel by John Connley

[Groenewolf]

A biography of Karel the Saxonbutcher by Aat van Gilst.


http://www.nnbh.com/base/26/images/groot/9059117026.jpg

[SwordoftheVistula]

I've just finished A Game of Thrones by Martin

I've never read the book, but played the board game based on it a couple times, which I found enjoyable.

[Murphy]

I've never read the book, but played the board game based on it a couple times, which I found enjoyable.

It's actually quite a good read :)! Martin is one of the very few contemporary fantasy authors I actually enjoyed.

[bousch]

band of brothers :thumb001:

[Barreldriver]

Celtic Myths and Legends, and The World According to Garp :P

[Rainraven]

What I'm reading? That would be Geographic Information Systems and Science - Longley and Goodchild et. al.
No it's not by choice and no I wouldn't recommend it! :coffee:

[Murphy]

I've just ordered the Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Aquinas's shorter Summa, his own concise version of his Summa Theologica, an introduction to Thomas Aquinas and his works, The Confessions of Augustine of Hippo and an introduction to Augustine.

Also on the list is C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and Miracles with Chesterton's Everlasting Man!

[Sol Invictus]

Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. Basically a bunch of guidelines and advice from a warrior who lived in the era where the transition from warrior class to a time of soldiers hit Japan. Really good reading.

One of the opening lines from Hagakure..

..Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day, when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears, and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day, without fail, one should consider himself as dead..
-Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Besides that, I try to make a habit of reading Marcus Aurelius every night before bed lately though.

[Eldritch]

Lately I've been reading nothing but books by Finnish authors, whose names would mean nothing to other Apricity members.

One of them has such a cool cover I can't resist posting it though. :D

http://www.kom-teatteri.fi/images/kioski/SalminenKalavale.jpg

[Treffie]

Lately I've been reading nothing but books by Finnish authors, whose names would mean nothing to other Apricity members.

One of them has such a cool cover I can't reasist posting it though. :D

http://www.kom-teatteri.fi/images/kioski/SalminenKalavale.jpg

Is that Salford on the cover? :D

[Absinthe]

Is that Salford on the cover? :D
:rolleyes: Have you even seen Salford? If anything, she's the last person expected to be seen dressed like this :rolleyes:

[Treffie]

:rolleyes: Have you even seen Salford? If anything, she's the last person expected to be seen dressed like this :rolleyes:

Yes, I've seen her :thumb001:

[Ladejarlen]

Filth by Irvine Welsh

[Brynhild]

An Illustrated History of Australia - sorry, no cover to show. It covers the time from the Aboriginal Dreamtime to current. It's 400 pages thick and about A4 size, so I'll be reading that for a while. :D

[The Lawspeaker]

http://www.vaidilute.com/books/gimbutas/gimbutas.jpg


I am reading this (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?p=36590#post36590) book that I posted in the Bookshelf-section.




Introduction


In the lands occupied by the ancient Balts the geography I was of many kinds. A long stretch of the Baltic Sea with windblown dunes and white sand beaches, embellished with tiny bits of glittering amber, lay to the west. Along the sea shore and along the larger rivers discharging into the sea — the Vistula, Nemunas (Niemen, Memel), Daugava (Düna, Dvina), and their tributaries — were lowlands and the most fertile lands covered with alluvial deposits. Through the ages, the sea coast and these larger rivers were the means by which the Balts were able to communicate with central and western Europe. Farther east, eastern East Prussia (present Masuria in northern Poland), eastern Lithuania and eastern Latvia were surrounded by the moraine belt left over from the last ice age, with many lakes, rocks and a sandy soil; and beyond it to the east were the up, lands, called Byelo-Russia, the Smolensk-Moscow and central Russian ridges, intersected by the valleys of the upper Dnieper and its tributaries and by the river system of the upper Volga basin. To the south, in present southern Byelo-Russia, these uplands were — as they still are — girdled by the swampy area of the Pripet River basin. There are no high mountains in this whole area; the highest points reach only 200 or 300 metres above sea-level.
The lands along the Baltic Sea belong to the central European climatic zone. Then, to the east, begins the transitional zone between oceanic and continental climate, and all the eastern parts combine the continental climate with rather cold winters and warm summers. The period encompassed in this book falls within the limits of the Sub-Boreal and Sub-Atlantic climatic zones. The Sub-Boreal climate, c. 3000–c. 500 B.C., was somewhat warmer and less humid than the Sub-Atlantic,





etc etc..

[Hrolf Kraki]

I've just ordered the Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Aquinas's shorter Summa, his own concise version of his Summa Theologica, an introduction to Thomas Aquinas and his works, The Confessions of Augustine of Hippo and an introduction to Augustine.

Also on the list is C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and Miracles with Chesterton's Everlasting Man!

I just read Thomas Aquinas´s Summa Theologica as well as Augustine´s Confessions.

Aquinas was pretty good. Augustine was absolute crap.

In case you wanted a heads-up on what to expect. :p

[Loki]

http://media.washingtontimes.com/media/img/photos/2008/08/11/20080810-220920-pic-786678702.jpg

[Loki]

http://media.washingtontimes.com/media/img/photos/2008/08/11/20080810-220920-pic-786678702.jpg

Damn, Aemeric didn't seem to notice. I was trying to see what his reaction would be. :p

[Gooding]

I am currently reading two books.1: "Lords of the North" by Bernard Cornwell. This, so far, is dealing with England in the Dark Ages, with a young Saxon lordling named Uhtred who's leading an army of Saxons to rescue his sister from a Dane named Kjartan.Obviously I'm on Uhtred's side, as my Englisc ancestors have all been traced to the South and West of England..where the Anglo-Saxon heptarchies once held sway.My surname is also of Old English (Anglo- Saxon) origins, so yeah, I'm rooting for Uhtred!:thumb001::D
2:" The Discovery of France", by Graham Robb.This traces the histories of the regions, peoples and histories of the nation now known as France.I've so far discovered that not only were languages and dialects rife in France, but that the concept of "France" is fairly new.Evidently, certain nobles held their lands as independent nations from time to time.This fascinates me.:thumb001:

[Psychonaut]

Evidently, certain nobles held their lands as independent nations from time to time.This fascinates me.:thumb001:

This is especially true of "France" during and prior to the Hundred Years War. If you're lucky enough to be able to trace any of your French lines back that far it gets very interesting trying to determine which principality that ancestor actually would've belonged to since the borders changed every few decades. I found that this series of maps (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1754&highlight=historical+maps) was extraordinarily helpful in working out those kinds of details.

[Ulf]

Damn, Aemeric didn't seem to notice. I was trying to see what his reaction would be. :p

He's probably on a plane. Give him a few hours before he arrives.

[Gooding]

This is especially true of "France" during and prior to the Hundred Years War. If you're lucky enough to be able to trace any of your French lines back that far it gets very interesting trying to determine which principality that ancestor actually would've belonged to since the borders changed every few decades. I found that this series of maps (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1754&highlight=historical+maps) was extraordinarily helpful in working out those kinds of details.

That would be interesting!:) Unfortunately, the best I can do is trace back to the town and province in France that the immigrant and occassionally the immigrant's parents came from. Here's an example, courtesy of my distant cousin, Alex Pecot who spent a lot of money to put this info up on rootsweb.
ID: I268
Name: Alphonse Auguste Perret (first generation ancestor)
Sex: M
Birth: 1734 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Death: 1770 in Edgard, St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana
Change Date: 4 DEC 2006

Father: Jean Baptiste Perret b: 1700 in Grenoble, Dauphine, France
Mother: Marie Anne Morrel b: 1700 in Grenoble, Dauphine, France

Marriage 1 Marie Anne Pujole b: 1734 in Cannes Brulees, Louisiana
Married: 13 AUG 1754 in Destrehan, St. Charles Parish, Louisiana
Children
Alphonse Perret b: 20 OCT 1757 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana(ancestor)
Alexis Perret b: 1758 in Edgard, St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana
Joseph Perret b: 22 NOV 1759 in Edgard, St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana
Pierre Charles Perret b: 18 JAN 1766 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Noel Perret
Marie Anne Perret
Pierre Pujol Perret b: 18 JAN 1766 in Edgard, St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana(ancestor)

I'm descended from many siblings of many lines. The Pujoles were a Bordeaux family, either Gascon or Aquitainian.

[Tabiti]

"Dyavoliada" by Michail Bulgakow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bulgakov).
All his writenings are a must for the opposers of communism!

[Thorum]

Just started this last night (Der Schimmelreiter, 1888):

http://www.theodorstorm.co.uk/i/dykemasterCvr.jpg


COVER ILLUSTRATION: Schimmelreiter im Sturm auf dem Aussendeich by Alexander Eckener (oil painting, 1941)

[Äike]

"Wikmani Poisid" - Jaan Kross

It's an Estonian book that talks about 10th graders in a very old Estonian school, in the 1930's. It's quite interesting. Students back then were a lot smarter then the current ones.

[The Lawspeaker]

I am now reading a Dutch guide book about Norway:

Capitool Reisgidsen- Noorwegen (http://www.bol.com/nl/p/boeken/noorwegen/1001004001986316/index.html#product_images)

It gives accurate descriptions of towns, villages and areas as well of museums, natural sightings and other touristic attractions, shows the reader some of the more interesting parts of Norwegian life, culture and cuisine and contains a lot of maps of regions and cities.

Etc etc

[Hrolf Kraki]

Just started this last night (Der Schimmelreiter, 1888):

http://www.theodorstorm.co.uk/i/dykemasterCvr.jpg


COVER ILLUSTRATION: Schimmelreiter im Sturm auf dem Aussendeich by Alexander Eckener (oil painting, 1941)

I just got done reading Theodor Storm´s Immensee.

[Thorum]

I just got done reading Theodor Storm´s Immensee.

Hey there friend, long time!! Hope you are well.

Thanks for your comment. I will make a note of the book you mention and pick up a copy...:thumb001:

Take care comrade...

[Thorum]

"Wikmani Poisid" - Jaan Kross

It's an Estonian book that talks about 10th graders in a very old Estonian school, in the 1930's. It's quite interesting. Students back then were a lot smarter then the current ones.

Wasn't this a movie too?

[The Lawspeaker]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/SophiesWorld.png


One of my favorite books when I was a teenager: Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder ( I am reading a Dutch translation).


Sophie's World (Sofies verden in the original Norwegian) is a novel by Jostein Gaarder, published in 1991. It was originally written in Norwegian, but has since been translated into English (1995) and many other languages.
Mostly consisting of dialogues between Sophie Amundsen and a mysterious man named Alberto Knox, interwoven with an increasingly bizarre and mysterious plot, Sophie's World acts as both a novel and a basic guide to philosophy.


Plot summary

Sophie Amundsen (Sofie Amundsen in the Norwegian version) is a fourteen year old girl living in Norway in 1990. She lives with her cat Sherekan, her goldfish, a tortoise, two budgerigars and her mother. Her father is a captain of an oil tanker, and is away for most of the year. He does not appear in the book.
Sophie's life is rattled as the book begins, when she receives two anonymous messages in her mailbox (Who are you? Where does the world come from?), as well as a post card addressed to 'Hilde Møller Knag, c/o Sophie Amundsen'. Shortly afterwards she receives a packet of papers, part of a correspondence course in philosophy.
With these mysterious communications, Sophie becomes the student of a fifty-year-old philosopher, Alberto Knox. He starts out as totally anonymous, but as the story unfolds he reveals more and more about himself. The papers and the packet both turn out to be from him, although the post card is not; it is addressed from someone called Albert Knag, who is a major in a United Nations peacekeeping unit stationed in Lebanon.
Alberto teaches her about the history of philosophy. She gets a substantive and understandable review from the Pre-Socratic Greeks through Jean-Paul Sartre. Along with the philosophy lessons, Sophie and Alberto try to outwit the mysterious Albert Knag, who appears to have God-like powers, which Alberto finds quite troubling.
Sophie learns about medieval philosophy while being lectured by Alberto, dressed as a monk, in an ancient church, and she learns about Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in a French café. Various philosophical questions and methods of reasoning are put before Sophie, as she attempts to work them out on her own. Many of Knox's philosophic packets to her are preluded by more short questions, such as "Why is Lego the most ingenious toy in the world?".
Alberto takes Sophie from Hellenism to the rise of Christianity and its interaction with Greek thought and on into the Middle Ages. Over the course of the book, he covers the Renaissance, Baroque, Enlightenment and Romantic periods, and the philosophies that stemmed from them.
Mixed in with the philosophy lessons is a plot rather more akin to normal teenage novels, in which Sophie interacts with her mother and her friends. This is not the focus of the story, however; it simply serves to move the plot along. As Albert Knag continues to meddle with Sophie's life, Alberto helps her fight back by teaching her everything he knows about philosophy. This, he explains, is the only way to understand her world.
This is laced with events which appear scientifically impossible, such as Sophie seeing her reflection in a mirror wink with both eyes, or actually seeing Socrates and Plato. Being a book based on philosophy, however, it promises—and delivers—an explanation for everything in the end, when Sophie and Alberto Knox escape from Albert Knag.
The explanation is that the aforementioned Hilde has been given a book titled Sophie's World as a birthday gift. Sophie and Alberto are merely characters existing within the world of the gift book. Utilizing the newfound philosophy of the book, Sophie and Alberto are able to transcend their own reality to that of the "author", Albert Knag and his daughter, Hilde. This is an example of both metafiction and an unreliable narrator.
However, Alberto, always equipped, has an argument behind this: they are merely shadows in the book, but are capable of free thought and speech; the major just writes it down.

[Äike]

Wasn't this a movie too?

Yes, even a movie has been done about the book.

[RoyBatty]

Lord Edgware dies - Agatha Christie

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Lord_Edgware_Dies_First_Edition_Cover_1933.jpg

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

[Óttar]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MKCzaBKcL._SL500_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jEKhp1SSL.jpg

[Lars]

I'm currently reading the Danish translation of The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

http://www.litteraturnu.dk/billeder_univers/2573.jpg

The road is about a father and his ten-year son, who wanders alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the world, apart from the ashes in the wind. It is so cold that rocks crack, and when the snow falls, it is gray. The sky is dark. Their goal is the coast, although they do not appreciate what awaits them - if anything at all. They have nothing with them, only one gun to defend themselves against the lawless gangs, the clothes they have on and a cart with canned food - and each other. And ofcourse the road ahead of them.

I'm one page 87 of 260 and so far I've been sick to the stomach several times. His descriptions are bleak yet so beautiful. McCarthy really does a great job getting the reader to feel for the father and the boy.

What a page-turner. :)

[Gooding]

I'm currently reading "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius.I find it quite inspirational.

[Eldritch]

I'm currently reading "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius.I find it quite inspirational.

I read it three years ago. I was going through a pretty bad patch atm, and that book did help rise above my current predicaments and view my situation objectively from an outside context.

[The Lawspeaker]

Het Behouden Huis (De overwintering op Nova Zembla)
by A. D Hildebrand


The story of the failed 1596-1597 Dutch expedition to find a route that would avoid the Portuguese and Spaniards by attempting to find a North Pole route through the ice to the Indies. The expedition failed horribly and took 4 lives including that famous explorer William Barentz when one of their ships crashed and froze into an iceberg and the crew was forced to spend the winter on the frozen island of Novaja Zemlja.

The story was one of my favorites when I was a child and I got this book from (I think) when I was around 9 or 10. It is the oldest book (at least of the books I always had) in my collection.

[Eldritch]

Het Behouden Huis (De overwintering op Nova Zembla)
by A. D Hildebrand


The story of the failed 1596-1597 Dutch expedition to find a route that would avoid the Portuguese and Spaniards around by sailing to the Indies around the North Pole. The expedition failed horribly and took 4 lives including that famous explorer William Barentz when one of their ships crashed and froze into an iceberg and the crew was forced to spend the winter on the frozen island of Novaja Zemlja.

The story was one of my favorites when I was a child and I got this book from (I think) when I was around 9 or 10. It is the oldest book (at least of the books I always had) in my collection.

Didn't they eventually make to the Russian Czar's court, where some of them were beheaded? Then one of them made it to Sweden, where he worked as a cartographer for the Swedish court? Or am I thinking about something else altogether?

[The Lawspeaker]

Didn't they eventually make to the Russian Czar's court, where some of them were beheaded? Then one of them made it to Sweden, where he worked as a cartographer for the Swedish court? Or am I thinking about something else altogether?
I am afraid you are thinking of something else altogether. The 1596/1597 expedition was rescued by a Russian ship in June 1597 and ended up in Kola where they met up with a Dutch captain and former member of the expedition (initially there were two ships) that repatriated them.


An interesting detail is that the head of the expedition, Dutch nobleman Jacob van Heemskerk would die in the Battle of Gibraltar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gibraltar) (1607) which would become a major Dutch victory.

[Birka]

Just started "Mammoth" by John Varley. He mostly writes science fiction and this one is sort of in that class.

[Óttar]

I have to find a way to focus on reading.. All the flashing lights and eye dialations from computer screens and the TV, (as well as the iPod for that matter) have made me fidgety and unable to focus. The Hindus book by Doniger is fascinating, but I've been neglecting reading from a book the past couple of days. I also saved "Men Among the Ruins" by Julius Evola as a txt file, and I've been reading that on my computer screen... I think the Kindle and computer screen reading like that will become more popular as people increasingly develop ADD. Perhaps this will be good to invest in in the stock market. Anyone else having this problem, or perhaps found a solution to this phenomenon?

[Elveon]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Portrait_of_Percy_Bysshe_Shelley_by_Curran%2C_1819 .jpg/180px-Portrait_of_Percy_Bysshe_Shelley_by_Curran%2C_1819 .jpg

The Devil's Walk

1.
Once, early in the morning, Beelzebub arose,
With care his sweet person adorning,
He put on his Sunday clothes.

2.
He drew on a boot to hide his hoof,
He drew on a glove to hide his claw,
His horns were concealed by a Bras Chapeau,
And the Devil went forth as natty a Beau
As Bond-street ever saw.

3.
He sate him down, in London town,
Before earth's morning ray;
With a favourite imp he began to chat,
On religion, and scandal, this and that,
Until the dawn of day.

4.
And then to St. James's Court he went,
And St. Paul's Church he took on his way;
He was mighty thick with every Saint,
Though they were formal and he was gay.

5.
The Devil was an agriculturist,
And as bad weeds quickly grow,
In looking over his farm, I wist,
He wouldn't find cause for woe.

6.
He peeped in each hole, to each chamber stole,
His promising live-stock to view;
Grinning applause, he just showed them his claws,
And they shrunk with affright from his ugly sight,
Whose work they delighted to do.

7.
Satan poked his red nose into crannies so small
One would think that the innocents fair,
Poor lambkins! were just doing nothing at all
But settling some dress or arranging some ball,
But the Devil saw deeper there.

8.
A Priest, at whose elbow the Devil during prayer
Sate familiarly, side by side,
Declared that, if the Tempter were there,
His presence he would not abide.
Ah! ah! thought Old Nick, that's a very stale trick,
For without the Devil, O favourite of Evil,
In your carriage you would not ride.

9.
Satan next saw a brainless King,
Whose house was as hot as his own;
Many Imps in attendance were there on the wing,
They flapped the pennon and twisted the sting,
Close by the very Throne.

10.
Ah! ah! thought Satan, the pasture is good,
My Cattle will here thrive better than others;
They dine on news of human blood,
They sup on the groans of the dying and dead,
And supperless never will go to bed;
Which will make them fat as their brothers.

11.
Fat as the Fiends that feed on blood,
Fresh and warm from the fields of Spain,
Where Ruin ploughs her gory way,
Where the shoots of earth are nipped in the bud,
Where Hell is the Victor's prey,
Its glory the meed of the slain.

12.
Fat—as the Death-birds on Erin's shore,
That glutted themselves in her dearest gore,
And flitted round Castlereagh,
When they snatched the Patriot's heart, that HIS grasp
Had torn from its widow's maniac clasp,
—And fled at the dawn of day.

13.
Fat—as the Reptiles of the tomb,
That riot in corruption's spoil,
That fret their little hour in gloom,
And creep, and live the while.

14.
Fat as that Prince's maudlin brain,
Which, addled by some gilded toy,
Tired, gives his sweetmeat, and again
Cries for it, like a humoured boy.

15.
For he is fat,—his waistcoat gay,
When strained upon a levee day,
Scarce meets across his princely paunch;
And pantaloons are like half-moons
Upon each brawny haunch.

16.
How vast his stock of calf! when plenty
Had filled his empty head and heart,
Enough to satiate foplings twenty,
Could make his pantaloon seams start.

17.
The Devil (who sometimes is called Nature),
For men of power provides thus well,
Whilst every change and every feature,
Their great original can tell.

18.
Satan saw a lawyer a viper slay,
That crawled up the leg of his table,
It reminded him most marvellously
Of the story of Cain and Abel.

19.
The wealthy yeoman, as he wanders
His fertile fields among,
And on his thriving cattle ponders,
Counts his sure gains, and hums a song;
Thus did the Devil, through earth walking,
Hum low a hellish song.

20.
For they thrive well whose garb of gore
Is Satan's choicest livery,
And they thrive well who from the poor
Have snatched the bread of penury,
And heap the houseless wanderer's store
On the rank pile of luxury.

21.
The Bishops thrive, though they are big;
The Lawyers thrive, though they are thin;
For every gown, and every wig,
Hides the safe thrift of Hell within.

22.
Thus pigs were never counted clean,
Although they dine on finest corn;
And cormorants are sin-like lean,
Although they eat from night to morn.

23.
Oh! why is the Father of Hell in such glee,
As he grins from ear to ear?
Why does he doff his clothes joyfully,
As he skips, and prances, and flaps his wing,
As he sidles, leers, and twirls his sting,
And dares, as he is, to appear?

24.
A statesman passed—alone to him,
The Devil dare his whole shape uncover,
To show each feature, every limb,
Secure of an unchanging lover.

25.
At this known sign, a welcome sight,
The watchful demons sought their King,
And every Fiend of the Stygian night,
Was in an instant on the wing.

26.
Pale Loyalty, his guilt-steeled brow,
With wreaths of gory laurel crowned:
The hell-hounds, Murder, Want and Woe,
Forever hungering, flocked around;
From Spain had Satan sought their food,
'Twas human woe and human blood!

27.
Hark! the earthquake's crash I hear,—
Kings turn pale, and Conquerors start,
Ruffians tremble in their fear,
For their Satan doth depart.

28.
This day Fiends give to revelry
To celebrate their King's return,
And with delight its Sire to see
Hell's adamantine limits burn.

29.
But were the Devil's sight as keen
As Reason's penetrating eye,
His sulphurous Majesty I ween,
Would find but little cause for joy.

30.
For the sons of Reason see
That, ere fate consume the Pole,
The false Tyrant's cheek shall be
Bloodless as his coward soul

[Psychonaut]

My copy of H.P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the West by S.T. Joshi just arrived today! The book is a sort of philosophical biography of Lovecraft, which looks at the sources of his thought and shows how it eventually developed into the kind of cosmicism that is manifest in his fiction. It looks like it'll be an utterly fascinating read.

http://www.wildsidebooks.com/thumbnail.asp?file=assets/images/large/joshi-lovecraft-decline-large.jpg&maxx=300&maxy=0

[The Lawspeaker]

I am going to take my Norwegian textbook with me so I can read it in bed: På vei (by Elisabeth Ellingsen and Kristi Mac Donald)

--TEKSTBOK Norsk og samfunnskunnskap for voksne innvandrere

[Groenewolf]

Reread :

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51smrKSwQFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

[Tabiti]

Currently reading about ships and harbours (have a test in Monday) :D

[Gooding]

I'm currently reading "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene.This book deals with String Theory from a molecular level to a cosmic one.

[lei.talk]

...it's better to be poor but to own/control one's lands
than to be "seemingly rich", yet,
owe everything to the banks and foreign "investors"
who own and control most of the country
including the politicians who run it.

Capitalism enslaves people just like any other 'ism does.
It just does it in a more subtle way.


https://i.imgur.com/wnclYl0.png (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%22false+economy%22+%22alan+beattie%22)
watch now! (http://www.booktv.org/watch.aspx?ProgramId=HI-10479)
*

[Gooding]

I just bought " The Last Kingdom" by Bernard Cornwell and "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. They both promise to be enthralling works.I liked " Lords of the North" and I appreciate Cornwell's depth of imagination and historical knowledge of that period. A few secular friends told me that Dawkins is hilarious and insightful in his book, so I thought I'd try it out and see what points he had to raise.

[Aemma]

I recently picked up a guilty pleasure type of book twilight by Stephenie Meyer. :vampire

[Loyalist]

I recently picked up a guilty pleasure type of book twilight by Stephenie Meyer. :vampire

Really? :rolleyes:

If you like it though, I would also suggest Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It's not dissimilar, albeit more "adult", and it seems as if the Twilight series is a ripoff of this book. I actually just saw the movie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_the_Right_One_In_(film)) last night too, although it's in Swedish of course.

[Treffie]

Really? :rolleyes:

If you like it though, I would also suggest Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

Can't wait to see that film!

[Eldritch]

Re-reading (none of my holds at the local klibrary have arrived yet):

Caricature: Nine Stories by Daniel Clowes. Weltschmerz doesn't come any better than this.

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-comics-2006/3941-1.jpg

[Óttar]

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/Kalidasa/HistoryofGerman.jpg

[Lars]

I finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road) a few weeks back and it was a very good book. So I bought yet another book by the author.

http://www.chrissloley.com/USERIMAGES/cormac-country.jpg

It's pretty grim. :wink A MAN'S (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Country_for_Old_Men) BOOK!

[Aemma]

I just picked this book up a few days ago and am looking forward to starting it:



http://i43.tinypic.com/1qla41.jpg



That Familiar Ring
By Elizabeth Hand
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 5, 2009

THE LEGEND OF SIGURD AND GUDRUN

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Edited by Christopher Tolkien

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 377 pp. $26

In his classic essay "On Fairy-Stories," J.R.R. Tolkien wrote of his childhood reading experiences that "best of all [was] the nameless North of Sigurd of the Völsungs, and the prince of all dragons. Such lands were pre-eminently desirable. . . . The world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever cost of peril." Tolkien's friend C.S. Lewis was likewise enthralled of what he termed "pure 'Northernness' . . . a vision of huge, clear spaces hanging above the Atlantic in the endless twilight of Northern summer, remoteness, severity." This "pure Northernness" is the heart of "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun," two previously unpublished poems that now appear for the first time in a book scrupulously edited by Tolkien's son Christopher. A former lecturer in English at Oxford and editor of the many posthumously published volumes of his father's work, Christopher Tolkien brings a scholar's eye for nuance and interpretation to this dense yet fascinating volume.....


Read more here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/04/AR2009050403462.html

[Gooding]

I am now reading "The Pale Horseman" by Bernard Cornwell, "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins and "A Devil's Chaplain" by Richard Dawkins.

[Lars]

I'm re-reading CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS's God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. I read it some years ago in English but I recently got hold of the Danish translation. I think it's nice to read a work in one's mother tongue, to really grasp the content of it.

http://gorzelak.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/hitchens_2.jpg

In the book the criticism of religion falls into four main areas:
Religion gives a false description of man's appearance and our cosmos
Religion requires an unreasonable suppression of human nature
Religion leads people to commit violence and to show blind obedience to authority
Religion is hostile to science and freedom of research

[Osweo]

I'm re-reading CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS's God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

Hehe, your avatar even looks a bit like him! :D

I believe he's Jewish, or at least of some Jewish ancestry, yes? Is this prominent in the book? You might guess that he's one of those who's gotten all frustrated at some of the absurdity's of the religion, and is now lashing out, a little too bitterly. Do you get that impression at all? It's just me guessing. :)

He writes the odd good thing in the Daily Mail, our conservative newspaper, but also the odd predictable fluff. Hell, a man's got to earn his keep, I know, and can't be inspired every day!

[lei.talk]

I believe he's Jewish, or at least of some Jewish ancestry, yes? Is this prominent in the book? You might guess that he's one of those who's gotten all frustrated at some of the absurdity's of the religion, and is now lashing out, a little too bitterly. Do you get that impression at all? It's just me guessing. :)is guessing worse than assuming?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens,_Christopher#Ethnic_identity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens,_Christopher#Antitheism
*

[Osweo]

is guessing worse than assuming?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens,_Christopher#Ethnic_identity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens,_Christopher#Antitheism

I haven't mentally caught up to the 'Google Age' yet. But it's okay; there's always some public-spirited chap who'll do these things for you. :thumb001:

I'm not sure I really believe all he says about himself, mind...



Guessing has at least a dash more humility than assuming!

[Óttar]

Religion requires an unreasonable suppression of human nature

This, I think, is Abrahamic religion's chief crime. That, and forcing a religion on other people. So what if he gets all worked up? More people would do good to get worked up about stupidity.

Any scientist or person who readily believes in parthogenesis (virgin-birth) and physical resurrection of the dead as anything other than allegory immediately deserves to have all credibility rent asunder.

[Eldritch]

The Filth

Written by Grant Morrison; art by Chris Weston and Gary Erskine

http://www.megatonik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/thefilth.jpg

I came across this trade paperback while browsing idly at the local library today. I'd never heard of this title before, or of the people behind it, but it seemed promising, so I checked it out.

However, about 40 pages into the thing it simply comes across as a pretty lame Watchmen knockoff -- all the way to the artwork that imitates Dave Gibbons's style.

Insofar as there is any plot, the story seems to deal with a man who may or may not be called Gary Feely, an undercover operative for a "global sanitation agency" called The Hand.

Pages that do not contain either a verbal or graphic reference to either some unpleasant bodily excretion or some aberrant sexual act are a vanishing minority among those that do. I suppose that's meant to show how unconventional and outrageous it all is. ;)

[Äike]

http://s.ohtuleht.ee/multimedia/images/000115/277866cf-3112-4ba3-8b03-caabed2367ee.jpg

[Tabiti]

"Modeling and Optimisation of Transport Processes" - niiiiiceeee:D
Quite deep philosophical...

[Loyalist]

Sarum: The Novel of England by Edward Rutherford.

http://i41.tinypic.com/281fls.jpg

[Frigga]

I just finished reading Fool by Christopher Moore, which is a retelling of King Lear, from the point of view of Pocket. It was an absolute riot! My brother in law went in on buying the book with me, and he hated it, so maybe that makes me like it more! :D

[Psychonaut]

The Filth

Written by Grant Morrison; art by Chris Weston and Gary Erskine

http://www.megatonik.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/thefilth.jpg

I came across this trade paperback while browsing idly at the local library today. I'd never heard of this title before, or of the people behind it, but it seemed promising, so I checked it out.

However, about 40 pages into the thing it simply comes across as a pretty lame Watchmen knockoff -- all the way to the artwork that imitates Dave Gibbons's style.

Insofar as there is any plot, the story seems to deal with a man who may or may not be called Gary Feely, an undercover operative for a "global sanitation agency" called The Hand.

Pages that do not contain either a verbal or graphic reference to either some unpleasant bodily excretion or some aberrant sexual act are a vanishing minority among those that do. I suppose that's meant to show how unconventional and outrageous it all is. ;)

I read this a few months ago and was taken aback at just how bad it was. I do like Grant Morrison's writing (especially We3 and Animal Man), but this book was like he took every single bit from The Invisibles that I hated and magnified it.

[Eldritch]

http://kimbofo.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/the_road_3.jpg

I read this twice in a row yesterday, the first (but certainly not the last) thing I've read by this author.

The Road isn't a post-apocalyptic novel, it's post-post-apocalyptic story, set in fimbulwinter long after even most of the survivors have died out, and the cities looted empty many times over already.

The two protagonists, "the man" and "the boy" (the latter was born in the immediate aftermath of the apocalypse, and thus has never known the world as it was before), make their way down "the road" towards the coast, with nothing but a tarp to sleep under, a shopping cart of scavenged food, and a revolver with a single bullet in it. It's never made clear what they expect to find, and the reader gets the impression they don't know either -- they simply have to keep moving because if stop they'll die.

The utter hopelessness, misery and despair of The Road is so remarkable it borders on magnificent. Despite the endless descriptions of starvation, exposure, illness and frantic escapes from gangs of marauders reduced to cannibalism, the really crushing moments are the ones where McCarthy injects small but lethal doses of existential despair (the man wondering if God exists, and if he does, does he have a neck so he could break it?).

McCarthy writes in short, matter-of-fact sentences with no punctuation at all. The story also isn't broken up into chapters, it simply goes on and on with no pause, paragraph after paragraph, each one of them like a different scene from the same nightmare.

[Frigga]

I've read this story. It's the only Cormac MacCarthy book I've ever been able to finish. Blood Meridian just overwhelmed me. But, The Road is very good.

[Groenewolf]

I have finished reading :


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51x8kgopz5L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

Some of the books I received this weekend include :

Morphology of the folktale - V. Propp
In naam van het volmaakte - Ronald van Raak
In defense of elitism - William A. Henry III
The doctrine of awaking - Julius Evola
Eros and the mysteries of love - Julius Evola

[Eldritch]

Will start this one later today:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/3/38/20061102105907!Cloud_atlas.jpg

This may very well be pretentious, contrived BS like most UK SF is, but I'll give it a try anyway.

[Elveon]

Some books on Boolean algebra and Pascal (prog):D

[Electronic God-Man]

The Nibelungenlied.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jEKhp1SSL.jpg

[Groenewolf]

Finshed reading :


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FSY6RNRCL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

[lei.talk]

http://i41.tinypic.com/2cdc03t.jpg (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%22ezra+levant%22+shakedown)
*

[SwordoftheVistula]

The Nibelungenlied.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jEKhp1SSL.jpg

What translation do you have, and how is it? I got a copy of The Nibelungenlied some years ago, the story was great, but the writing (or translation) was so terrible as to render it unreadable, eventually I just gave up.

[Electronic God-Man]

What translation do you have, and how is it? I got a copy of The Nibelungenlied some years ago, the story was great, but the writing (or translation) was so terrible as to render it unreadable, eventually I just gave up.

I'm reading that exact version pictured. The Penguin Classics edition translated by Arthur Thomas Hatto. It's pretty good so far. The translation is certainly readable.

[Svarog]

I am impatiently waiting for the new books of Songs of Ice and Fire, definitely my favorite book ever, if i want misery i'll skip Russian realist, there is enough of it in my life itself, same with all other 'emotional' books, man, call me dumb but i stopped reading long time ago, i have covered most of the European literature, most of it in languages books are written in, but now, thanks but no, i need books like Martin's and the real deal i'll just find in life, the only bad thing is that my vocabulary won't improve since without reading you're gonna go around and talk like a chimp

[Tabiti]

Some books on Boolean algebra and Pascal (prog):D
People still learning Pascal? Because we had only C++ in university (and Visual Basic in high school), since many consider Pascal as already old for use...

[Psychonaut]

What translation do you have, and how is it? I got a copy of The Nibelungenlied some years ago, the story was great, but the writing (or translation) was so terrible as to render it unreadable, eventually I just gave up.

I felt the same way about both the Niebelungenleid and Parzival. Great stories, but difficult writing.

[Osweo]

I felt the same way about both the Niebelungenleid and Parzival. Great stories, but difficult writing.
I've got two translations in the heavy 'quoth' 'hied' and 'byrnie' style. I actually enjoy that in itself, as a bit of a bridge to the older languages these things were first wrote in. But then again, I've always been one to get waylaid and distracted by the fascinating superficialities of things...

[Birka]

Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. A civilized read.

[Jamt]

A World Made by Hand, by Howard Kunstler.

I am reading it for the second time now. The story is about a world after peak oil, economic collapse and so on in a small community on the Hudson River USA. I like the story a lot because it does not paint a totally negative picture of the world to come.

[Elveon]

People still learning Pascal? Because we had only C++ in university (and Visual Basic in high school), since many consider Pascal as already old for use...


Pascal is an imperative programming language that is characterized by a clear syntax, rigorous and facilitate the structuring of programs. Clarity and rigor are that Pascal was until recently often used in teaching.

Besides the syntax and its rigor, the Pascal language has many common points with C . The basic language Pascal was designed for educational use only, and was quite limited, but the developments that have experienced a comprehensive and effective language.

It's just a back to basics for me; I agree with you but I am interested in this language although it is outdated. Latin is still taught at school, although it's an "extinct language", this is a sort of hobby for me

[Rainraven]

http://images.contentreserve.com/ImageType-100/0292-1/{0B759B27-3408-4760-9879-77BF64D4A616}Img100.jpg

One of the few authors who actually manage to keep me interested in fight scenes :thumb001:

[lei.talk]

...of government-intervention collapsing an entire market-sector:



https://i.imgur.com/QzsU3Tp.png (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%22housing+boom+and+bust%22+%22thomas+sowell%22)



an irrefutably erudite and ineluctably ratiocinative author (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell)
*

[Psychonaut]

The Center of the Cyclone: An Autobiography of Inner Space by John C. Lilly M.D.

To quote the books introduction:


In the province of the mind, what is believed to be true or becomes true, within limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind there are no limits. This is one of the major messages I wish to give you about inner trips, whether by LSD, by meditation, by hypnosis, by Gestalt therapy, by group work, by studies whatever means one uses. This is what the book is about.

http://www.lysergia.com/FeedYourHead/Lilly_CenterOfCyclonefr.jpg

[Aemma]

A World Made by Hand, by Howard Kunstler.

I am reading it for the second time now. The story is about a world after peak oil, economic collapse and so on in a small community on the Hudson River USA. I like the story a lot because it does not paint a totally negative picture of the world to come.


I enjoyed reading his non-fiction work, The Long Emergency. He presents some interesting theories/views with respect to peak oil theories.

Sounds like I would enjoy this work of fiction then. Thanks Jamt. :)

[lei.talk]

https://i.imgur.com/VUWNLk0.png (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%22Money%2C+Greed+and+God%22+%22jay+w.+richards% 22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=)
Watch now (http://www.booktv.org/watch.aspx?ProgramId=PC-10489)!

Today I did what I do every day: I enjoyed the fruits of capitalism
along with the political and personal freedoms supported by it and which support it.

https://i.imgur.com/Dj1n53O.png (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%22empire+of+wealth%22+%22john+steele+gordon%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=)
*

[Eldritch]

I'm reading a very tattered and yellowed copy of La Vey's Satanic Bible. I was in the reservation queue for it in the HelMet (https://www.helmet.fi/search~S9/X) system for over a year.

I wasn't expecting much, but even so I was astonished by how trivial, lame and dumb this is. Give me a week of browsing through the religion section of any library, and another week of banging at the keyboard, and I can guarantee you what I'll hand over to you will be far superior to this piece of s**t.

[Psychonaut]

I figured I'd do a bit of "light" reading... :D

Gordon M. Shepherd's textbook on Neurobiology:

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/25580000/25585275.JPG

[lei.talk]

Originally Posted by Lenny
Sorry, but wikipedia is not a legitimate source.:rolleyes: Cite the original studies from an Academic journal for that claim about Hungarians, or toss your post in the garbage heap.

This is one of the reasons to hate Wikipedia. Any clown with an axe to grind can edit it, and whatever they write attains instant legitimacy in the eyes of 95%+ of people.

While on the subject of badmouthing Wikipedia:
-I once heard wikipedia described as a "group blog", I think that's very accurate.
-Since the loudest voice wins on Wikipedia, it becomes a huge echo-chamber for the Ruling Ideology of today (since most people were socialized to stridently believe therein); reinforcing all sorts of propaganda.
Look at the sources at the bottom and draw issue with those. Just because people can edit wikipedia doesn't mean what they write will be shown. They do have moderators there fact checking. Don't get pissed off when the truth runs counter to your opinion.
https://i.imgur.com/PJYMKv3.png (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%22wikipedia+revolution%22+%22andrew+lih%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=)
Watch now (http://www.booktv.org/watch.aspx?ProgramId=PC-10371)!
https://i.imgur.com/Z3OcN9l.png (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales)
Whereof one cannot speak,
thereon one must remain silent.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein)
*

[Ladejarlen]

Reading a book about Eichmann

[Psychonaut]

Dr. Who's thread on the vacuous nature of contemporary society due to the lack of heroes inspired me two go out and pick up a few books about one of my heroes, Thomas Jefferson.

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis

https://www.randomhouse.com/images/dyn/cover/?source=9780375727467&height=300&maxwidth=170

and The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson by Thomas Jefferson

http://www.randomhouse.com/images/dyn/cover/?source=9780375752186&height=300&maxwidth=170

[Cato]

"A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons" by Geoffrey Hindley.

[lei.talk]

Originally Posted by Rhobothttp://i40.tinypic.com/eqtc9w.jpg (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?p=51401#post51401)
I think that blond hair and blue eyes originated in northeastern Europe
after the last Ice Age.
I don't think they were ever prevalent in southern Europe.

Cochran and Harpending write about this in the 10,000 Year Explosion (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%2210%2C000+Year+Explosion%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=).

The non-Europeans (Near Easterners and North Africans)
with whom the people of Italy and Greece mixed
were largely Caucasoid,
and the majority of this mixing seems to have occurred in prehistory.


https://i.imgur.com/f3EwMxf.png (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_enUS281US281&q=%2210%2C000+Year+Explosion%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=)
*

[National_Nord]

"History of Hellenism " by Johann Droyzden

[Eldritch]

I'm reading Lulu in Hollywood, by Louise Brooks. Not only was she drop-dead gorgeous in her time, but her writing is also witty and sharp.

Some of you may have noticed that a certain other Aprician is obsessed with her. ;)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0816637318.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_30PRmkOl4ro/SeM51KSh6uI/AAAAAAAANrk/nLt8iJKZT5Y/s400/garconne_louise_brooks3.jpg

[Cato]

"Akhenaten and the Religion of Light" by Erik Hormung, translated by David Lorton.

[The Lawspeaker]

https://www.webshopboekhandel.nl/Webshop/ProductImages/9789036614399.jpg

100 Most Beautiful Cities in the World- A Journey over Five Continents.
By W. Maass, A. Benthues and H.J. Neubert

This book takes you through the 100 most beautiful cities on the planet and provides the reader with beautiful pictures of it's highlights.

[Cato]

"The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories," a Lovecraft anthology from Penguin.

[Gooding]

"Norse Mythology" by John Lindow

[Zankapfel]

"Elektrische Vorschubantriebe in der Automatisierungstechnik" ... for school :shrug:

[Tabiti]

"All Quiet on the Western Front" - Erich Maria Remarque

Yeah, I know it is antiwar and was banned by the Third Reich...

[Ladejarlen]

Read 1984 the other day, reading "I was Dr. Mengele's assistant" now.

[HawkR]

Breaking dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight series:D Damn good books too:)

[Eldritch]

I'm reading Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. It's good, possibly even better than The Road (can't really tell 'cause I haven't finished it yet), but to be honest his style can get quite exhausting, so it has to be read slowly. It's also littered with words I've never even heard before, mainly related to riding equipment and articles of clothing.

[Cato]

Still reading the Lovecraft anthology (almost done). Donald Tyson's Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred is up next.

[Frigga]

I'm reading The Doula Guide to Birth, as I'm interested in becoming a doula (due-lah) which is basically a labor assistant, coach, advocate, and supporter. I'm not interested in medical training. Very informative reading about the birthing process, as I've yet to have children. I was originally thinking of becoming a midwife, but I don't think that I'd want the medical responsibilty.

[Ladejarlen]

Finished "I was Dr. Mengeles assistant" last night, before that I read 1984 and a book on Eichmann.

[Rachel]

Finished "I was Dr. Mengeles assistant" last night, before that I read 1984 and a book on Eichmann.

1984 Is a great book i loved it and read it from time to time and always walk away with something diffrent, if you enjoy reading 1984 you might also enjoy Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. it was actually written in 1931 and published in 1932 which i find quite intresting.

But as for me I am currently reading Norse Myths by Kevin-Crossley Holland it is taking me a while because the myths and lore about our faith seem to confuse me and need to be re read more then once.

[Phlegethon]

"Elektrische Vorschubantriebe in der Automatisierungstechnik" ... for school :shrug:


http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/products/a42/a42_bm.gif

[Phlegethon]

"Akhenaten and the Religion of Light" by Erik Hormung, translated by David Lorton.

Erik Hornung.


"History of Hellenism " by Johann Droyzden

Droysen.

[Cato]

Erik Hornung.

Eh, that's what I thought I typed. :thumb001:

[Aemma]

I was re-reading one of my favourite coffee table books about gardening called Paradise Found: Gardening in Unlikely Places written by Rebecca Cole and photography by Helen Norman. It is amazing what kind of uplifting soul-feeding oasis one can create with just a few pots, some good soil, and several of Jord's gifts to admire and nurture. This book is truly a feast for the eyes. :)