Is that what you call it? I think of it more like the slow climb to the main drop on a rollercoaster, only without really knowing that you’re on one.
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It’s the standard work on the subject aimed at a non-specialist readership and will get you pretty much up to date on the research literature while being very readable.
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Three of Basho’s travelogues. Why? I enjoy his haikus and enjoy traveling Japan myself.
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Awesome thread!
Some weeks ago I finished The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, and although I was sceptical first, it turned out to be actually really really good book about creativity! More in the zen literature category than music. Highly recommended for all musicians who tend to think about music not only in technical and engineering terms.
Now I just started reading A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr., which seems both funny and deep. There’s just something about old sci-fi that I really love. Also, someone called this one of the most philosophical sci-fi books, so I just couldn’t resist. I only have read the beginning yet, but I have a good feeling about this one!
The next in the pile is a novel by the Icelandic writer Sjón. I picked it up in the library after returning from Iceland this summer. And speaking of Icelandic writers, one of the most important books I’ve read in the last couple of years is On Time and Water by Andri Snær Magnason, which I absolutely recommend to everyone. It is basically about the end of the world (or the oceans), but somehow it is at the same time quite hopeful.
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Just finished The Grand Design. It was a gift. Nice book, worth reading, but the second half is too philosophical to me. I still like Brief and Briefer History of Time more.
Now I’m ready to jump back to the Pirkle’s book because the world needs more delays!
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As the world’s leading fan of both Little Lulu and Nancy I thought I’d see how the intellectuals feel about this stuff. Boooooring. Any real comics person could easily tell you that (some of) these funny girl comics sold like a motherfucker and frequently portrayed awesome feminist ideals. Take my previous sentence, make it 190 pages and throw in a few big words and you have this book. So far. I rarely quit a book so we’ll see if it gets interesting. BTW, I’m not necessarily saying there’s anything wrong with this book, just that it’s for noobs.
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Found this on our library app. I typed “health promotion” (I’m studying it) just to see if there’s something interesting and so far this has been nerdy enough to keep me satisfied.
I also started The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James. He seems like an interesting thinker, so giving it a shot. Did like his book Pluralistic Universe.
And yeah, just finished the first Berserk book. That was awesome, good old 80-90s ultra violent demon manga!
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Hilarious trip!
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Of all things:
Gotten the usual smattering of Marx and Engels before, but realized my background was pretty week. I didn’t realize the interrelations at first between Marxist thought and liberation theology. Hoping to dive deeper.
Anyway, this seems like a good collection of stuff with notes.
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Have finished “reading” for the second time Robert Greenberg’s Great Masters lectures on Beethoven’s life and his music:
as well as, for the first time, Simon Cann’s FM synthesis book:
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I’d also highly recommend “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman, and “The Flavor Bible” by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen A. Page. The former has two variants (either the Basics edition which has full color pictures and talks a bit more about meal planning and theory, or the full version which is more of a traditional recipe book), and the latter is used by professional chefs (as told to me by a fair few professional chefs)
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Oh nice. So glad I stumbled across this.
I stumbled across a musician called Asenath Blake on Bandcamp a year or so ago (https://asenathblake.bandcamp.com/) and though I don’t listen to much metal it somehow clicked a lot so I got all her releases and went to check out her website. I read a few interviews and she’s so on-brand into witchcraft that I started to think she might actually be a witch. Her website is all puzzles to solve to get into the next bit via a password and I love stuff like that. I spent ages solving one after the other, reading more and more about her and finally got through to the last puzzle which involves reading her mind and got stuck.
In all these things she mentions Welsh horror writer Arthur Machen a lot so I got a book of his horror stories and started reading them and they’re wonderful.
I wrote to Asenath Blake to thank her and she wrote back a really nice (still on brand) email and said regarding the puzzles on her website that “Many seem to fail like you at the telepathic stage” which made me laugh and appreciate her even more.
So yeah, I’m still on the Arthur Machen short stories.
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Like some other folks a few months ago, I am working on Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun (currently halfway through The Claw of the Concilliator)
I am doing a read-along with the Shelved by Genre podcast, where the hosts are all Wolfe fans and academic media studies people. (They also commissioned a radio-play version of Dr. Talos’ play as a standalone episode)
Just bought and started to read it.
Looks cool
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Enjoy !
I’m reading Greco-Roman Associations, Deities & Early Christianity edited by Longenecker now. Fascinating stuff, if you’re interested in that sort of thing. It wasn’t assigned at seminary, but was one of those “must get” books after reading a review given my interests in the period piqued by a couple of excellent classes and a very good professor.
I’m finding It a real page-turner.
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Just finished the Beastie Boys Book
https://a.co/d/d4h4zii
Why? Why not!
It was a good read, entertainingly written and highly informative. I’ve been listening to their back catalog a lot recently, and the book sheds quite a bit of l if it on the context of production and tours. Highly recommended.
Next up is Red Star Rogue. I almost bounced after reading the introduction’s jingoistic recounting of 9/11, as I feel that the GWOT greatly exaggerated the risk of terrorism at the global scale. But I find naval history and warfare fascinating, so I’ll see how far into this I can get.
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Just finished Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Not sure why I waited so long to read it, total knockout and has reignited my interest in novels.
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