Discussion questions:

What new books are you reading?

Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?

Question of the week:

What books are you eager to read that you haven’t read yet?

Enjoy!

  • HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Not books, but mostly been reading other people’s worldbuilding posts lately. Been really on a kick developing my fictional worlds and have been really interested in what others have created as well!

  • ghostOfRoux();@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    I’m about 20% through Inventing Reality and still struggling to stay engaged. I might put it down for a bit and start Killing Hope or Fraud, Famine, and Fascism.

    I bought the entire Paper Girls series and that arrives today.

    I also just bought the Peter Kropotkin collection with some freebie kindle credits I had. I had a digital copy of Conquest of Bread but it was pirated. I don’t know when I will get to reading any of them.

    • SovereignState@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Killing Hope should be classified as a must-read for anyone serious about anti-imperialism. Rogue State is an invaluable sister piece.

      Just do not let the anger you will feel consume you. William Blum’s work is instrumental in understanding the evils of empire, and once you delve into the nitty-gritty of shit like the psychological terror operations unleashed on the Philippines and Guatemala, there is no turning back. There is no return to the comfort of ignorance. The U.S. is the primary contradiction.

      • ghostOfRoux();@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        I think this sells me on Killing Hope. I’m jaded as it is and am aware quite a bit of what the US has done. I mean People’s History, Untold History of the US, Blackshirts and Reds, and even my fairly based college history professors have helped in that regard. I’m eager to be more angry lol. I might start it tonight if I can get to a stopping point on Inventing Reality. I can come back to that later. It ain’t going anywhere.

    • Makan ☭ CPUSA@lemmygrad.mlOPM
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      1 year ago

      I have a book about Freud and what a fraud he was and how he had ramifications for today because people still look to him and Jung and psycho-analysis… but I haven’t gotten around to it… yet.

  • citsuah@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Started reading Fanon’s ‘Wretched of the Earth’. So far just reading the preface by Jean Paul Sartre which is already very good, I imagine this was ground breaking and very exciting when it was released, during the time of great optimism in the “third world”, the Bandung conference etc. For fiction I’m reading The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin. I really struggle with fiction generally. I usually find it very hard to pursue fiction for some reason.

  • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Im like 80% in Confessions of an economic hitman by John Perkins. Book is good and is easy to consume, tho his views are way too idealistic. His testimony is great but i can’t stop thinking that he is one of those guys that believes that this is not real capitalism but corporatism, as if it was a completely divorced economic system.

    • lemmyseizethemeans@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Well To Be Fair he was in the system. He only got ‘out’ as it were because of a girlfriend he met in central America who had a conscience. One of those things you know. You are so in the system that even though you’re shown the reality of how awful it is, you still want to believe it was somewhat ok because of whatever. Like libs that get a taste of radical thought, they’re so preprogrammed…

      But still. Straight line from the tactics of economic hit men to Jeffery Epstein. Shit never ended and is still happening today

  • LVL@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Currently reading The Last Wish, which is a bunch of short stories following Geralt from the Witcher. Really enjoying it so far and if anyone here is a fan of the games or watched the show you’ll like it. The short stories will also be recognizable if you watched the show as well.

    • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      I read the first two books of the Witcher and had a lot of trouble getting into them. I’ve loved other fantasy books but never enjoyed the Witcher when I read it

              • Makan ☭ CPUSA@lemmygrad.mlOPM
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                1 year ago

                Because of the smut.

                I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.

                The excerpts I’ve read make GRRM look like the characature that people say he is.

                • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  I didn’t like that part of the whole series and I have a hard time looking past it in what I read of his. (I would absolutely pay for a censored version of the works if that was ever made available)

      • LVL@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        Yeah I heard people with similar opinions, that’s why I think I’ll finish this book and then read the other short story book (Swords of Destiny I think it’s called) and then just stop there.

        • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          I mean if you like the first two, there isn’t a harm in trying it to see if you do but I just personally didn’t

  • KrupskayaPraxis@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    I’m reading the Bible right now, not because I’m religious but because I was curious. I’m at Leviticus right now. Genesis and Exodus were entertaining but currently I’m only reading about laws which is a bit boring, to be honest.

  • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    I finished ‘Custer died for your sins’ yesterday, which was good, though a bit dated. I’m just about finished with ‘I am Malala’ which is better than I thought. I’m almost halfway in ‘settlers’ which is good. I’m halfway in ‘The Fall’ by Albert Camus, which is ok, and the first fiction I’ve read in a bit. I’m also reading ‘The Dialectical Biologist,’ though I’ve taken a break, and I don’t think I’ll finish ‘Karl Marx’s eco socialism’ right now. I probably prefer fiction though I mostly read non-fiction because it seems more important. I’m eager to read ‘Four thousand weeks: time management for mortals,’ ‘socialism or extinction,’ ‘half earth socialism,’ and ‘parable of the sower.’

    • Makan ☭ CPUSA@lemmygrad.mlOPM
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      1 year ago

      Settlers by J. Sakai is the one with the bad citations and is dated nowadays.

      I would suggest Fight Like Hell by Kim Kelly for the other side of the story when it comes to the labor movement in the United States.

      • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        I know Settlers is dated now, I just wanted to see what all the hype was about. It’s got some good information but I definitely want to look into the more reasonable and well sourced works of Gerald Horne among others.

          • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            By the way, I had just noticed your absence for almost a month just a few days ago, so it’s funny you happened to come back now.

            • Makan ☭ CPUSA@lemmygrad.mlOPM
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              1 year ago

              I never intended to leave. I love this place. But I am a mod now of Hexbear. So that also takes priority. But I’ve also been pushingn for Lemmygrad a long time now. And I will continue pushing for it. So there’s that.

  • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Just finished Chapterhouse Dune. I’ll try to find Brian’s sequels at a library if I can, or maybe Foundation.

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Reading Ordinary Monsters right now, it’s a fun dark fantasy novel. I generally enjoy both fiction and non-fiction for different reasons. I like to pick a fiction and non-fiction book to read. Next non-fiction book I’m planning to read is I Am a Strange Loop.

    • Makan ☭ CPUSA@lemmygrad.mlOPM
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      1 year ago

      By Tom Clancy?

      But it’s anti-communist trash at that! There’s better garbage out there. And you might even find a hidden gem in the meanwhile. Don’t do this to yourself… You have so much to live for! Plus, here, have this coupon!

      • InterKosmos61@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        Yeah I know, but it’s entertaining anti-communist trash

        besides, my copy is a hand-me-down from my mother, it’s not like I’m giving Clancy any of my money

  • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    I’m starting The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and will probably finish it quite quickly.

    I overall prefer non-fiction as I like to learn things while reading.

    I really have been wanting to read Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne (author of The Scarlet Letter, classic Statesian novelist)

  • SirSnuggleBottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    Just began A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. It is about the end of the Trojan war and possibly the aftermath (? Not sure yet) from the point of view of the women of Troy and Greece. Currently at Chapter 10/43, enjoying it so far. Interesting getting the female perspective of the ancient (mythological?) war.

    This is the first non-fantasy/sci-if book I’ve read in a while. Will be getting back to that after this probably, I never seem to deviate too far from those genres.

  • Tatar_Nobility@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Heh, I’m still going at de Beauvoir’s magnum opus, the second volume to be exact. However, I did read in the meantime al-Kawakibi’s works and I am in the midst of writing an essay analyzing the employed language in relation to the inflitration of Western modernity into the Ottoman Empire.

    I hope I can finish de Beauvoir by the end of the month (very unlikely) so I can get my hands on Capitalism as Civilization: A History of International Law by Ntina Tzouvala.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Oh Ntina Tzouvala’s work is great. Let me know what you think when you get round to her book. It’s in paperback now, so more affordable than it was at first. Unless you mean a PDF, in which case there are probably copies online.

      • Tatar_Nobility@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Indeed she is. Though that didn’t stop some communists criticizing her for her individualistic bourgeois philosophy.

        • Makan ☭ CPUSA@lemmygrad.mlOPM
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          1 year ago

          Her work was also presaged or done better by communist authors who themselves were female as well but none of the communist books really struck it big.

          Her’s did though.

          Still, whatever one may think, she did support the May '68 protest movement, which many famous French philosophers never did…

          • Tatar_Nobility@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            The importance of her book is in the breakthrough it accomplished in deconstructing the millenia-old patriarchal/paternalistic logic which indiscriminately governed (Western) society. So it definitely merits its critical acclaim.

            By the way, she supported the PRC since its establishment and visited China in the fifties. She wrote an investigative book about her visit entitled The Long March.

      • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        I’m not sure if she was a Marxist. Her chapter on historical materialism and Engels in The Second Sex is… problematic.

          • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            Go on… I’m happy to be wrong. I only read that chapter but I wasn’t overly impressed.

            • Makan ☭ CPUSA@lemmygrad.mlOPM
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              1 year ago

              No, I wasn’t doubting you; I said “Oh boy” because it’s such a pity and I can only imagine what the author took issue with Engels on, considering that he’s something of a punching bag even among Marxists.

              • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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                1 year ago

                Oh, I see. That’s one of those phrases that can mean a lot of things! When I get time, I’ll have another look and see what the beef was.

              • Tatar_Nobility@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                If you’re curious to know, she argues, unlike Engels in his Origin of the Family, that the rise of private property and the social relations of production are a useful yet insufficient explanation for women’s servitude.

                According to her, the women’s material (physiological) incapacity in the production process constitute an inherent disadvantage only if viewed through a certain perspective (e.g. historical materialism). In other words, women’s alterity isn’t intrinsic to her biological sex, but rather the consequence of the imperialist human consciousness which seeks to objectively accomplish its sovereignty.

                Basically, the classical doctrines of Marxism are based on a modernist tradition which seeks to uncover “objective truths” which conflict with de Beauvoir’s deconstructionist portrayal of women’s conditioning in the West.