What are you reading/Recently read

[fsvr54]

I've recently gotten back into reading in a big way (after an almost four year hiatus). Any of my ISH brethren also allured by the literary arts? I love anything pertaining to history (non-fictional or fictional) or with beautiful prose, but in general anything erudite.

Currently reading this masterpiece:




Recently read these two mind blowingly good books:



and




Reading keeps the mind sharp and fresh well into old age. Get your shit together fellas

[rufuspaul]

Just finished "Medallion Status" by John Hodgman and currently reading "The Guest List" by Lucy Foley.

[Wally450]

Currently reading A Promised Land by Barrack Obama.

[Thorpesaurous]

CHAOS by Tom O'Neill
I picked this up and read it after hearing him interviewed on Rogan. Rogan was obsessed with this book. It was one of those things where for months he would ask other guests if they'd ever heard of it. It's a massive sprawling book. It took something like 20 years to finish. It started as a research article for I believe The New Yorker magazine into the Manson case, and wound up with him never stopping the research. He shoots down the traditional Manson case by Bugliosi, who prosecuted the case and wrote the best seller Helter Skelter based on it. He eventually connects Manson as an unwilling participant in the CIAs mind control MK Ultra program with some pretty convincing evidence, not to say he was an agent or anything, but moreso he was broken by them and learned their techniques as they were used on him unwittingly through a clinic with definite CIA connections in San Francisco when he was younger.
If you're familiar with the Manson case, it's a lot of re-hashing, which for me made it a bit boring for a while. When Rogan did the interview, he hadn't finished the book, and had actually only gotten to the part that I had interest in, O'Neil's digging up of CIA agent Jollie West.

Frankly listening to the podcast is more engaging than the book, and then you can finish up the book's last 150 pages or so. But it is really interesting, just a bit dry in how it's written. Rogan's drawing it out of him is faster and way more interesting.


DEVOLUTION by Max Brooks.
This was fiction right in my wheelhouse. Brooks, the son of comedy all timer Mel Brooks, wrote one of my favorite fictional books of the last decade or so, World War Z. Devolution is his take on Bigfoot, another topic I always find intriguing. It's written a bit like Z, in that it's mainly First Person recounting of an event, but rather than the bouncing from one person to another's recounting of the Zombie outbreak, which is one of my favorite things about Z, it focuses in a single event. A group of wealthy yuppies move to a remote living community on Mt Ranier, a volcano eruption cuts them off from the rest of the world, while driving a small family of hungry and also desperate Bigfoot toward their small group of houses. It is told from first person, almost exclusively through diary entries from a young wife, after the fact. I actually listened to it more than read it, and it's read extremely well by pretty well known actress Judy Greer, who I generally like.

It's not as good as Z, but for light pulpy fiction, I was extremely happy with it. It should translate into a better movie than Z did.


BEING LOLITA: A Memoir by Allison Wood.
This was a little more of a personal choice to read. This was written by a girl, probably ten years younger than me, who went to the same high school I went to. At the time she was in High School, I had a friend who was teaching there (more acquaintance really, but someone I grew up, played little league sports with and stuff, knew since we were probably 8 or so, and we went to middle and high school together). There were rumors while he was teaching that he was a little too hands on with some of the students, and as it turns out, this girl went on to become an author, and decided to recount her history with him. Suffice it to say, the rumors were true. It's not as if he forced her, but the level of manipulation is pretty vile. And this was a girl was not in great mental health at the time. She's a really good writer, and did the reading of the audiobook herself, and was really good at that too. Even without a connection to the subject, it's a solid read.

[Cleverness]

[Axe]

Planning to read the last season by phil jackson someday. Just too lazy af rn

[Rolando]

Reading a book that was written in the 50's about Shamanism. This was probably the first real attempt at compiling all the traditions world-wide.



Getting back into reading during the lockdown has been really benefitial. The internet just does not have comparable depth to that of reading books. This gives me an advantage, mentally, over the majority of people. Reading books is part of how I became who I am. It is nice to get back to it.

[fsvr54]

Reading a book that was written in the 50's about Shamanism. This was probably the first real attempt at compiling all the traditions world-wide.



Getting back into reading during the lockdown has been really benefitial. The internet just does not have comparable depth to that of reading books. This gives me an advantage, mentally, over the majority of people. Reading books is part of how I became who I am. It is nice to get back to it.

Awesome man! I agree about reading providing depth that the film or internet just does not reach.

[bladefd]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...8-the-deserter

[Nanners]

The last couple books I read were Hate Inc by Matt Taibbi and The New Right by Michael Malice... also a few books on training hunting dogs since thats recently become my new side hustle/hobby.

[fsvr54]

Reading The Greek Experience by C.M. Bowra. Fantastic survey on ancient Greek peoples and culture; probably the most influential culture on the Western World (along with Roman or the wider Greco-Roman culture).

[Smoke117]

Floating Dragon by Peter Straub

[fsvr54]

How is it?

The Greek Experience was very good, highly recommended for those interested in history, culture and antiquity.

Starting this today: