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My Current Obsession

DagwoodGum

Squirreling Dervish
For me books have to be how to books on whatever my latest obsessive interest is. Fiction only did it for me as a child when I loved to read stories about things I'd only yearned to experience and in lieu of that actual experience especially hunting, fishing, trapping, dogs, horses, biographies etc. Unfortunately this all set the table for a voracious appetite for Scientology books my latter years of high school and lead me down a path where I was fortunate to have some "OT" friends of mine concede to me that Scientology was indeed largely fiction or at least that the promised EP's were pure fiction.
Just don't have the time for fiction generally as my own imagination is about all I can handle, not in need of someone else's on top of that. But to each their own. Give me the visual format as in a movie any day over trying to set aside time to read books of any substantial thickness. I buy them all the time but rarely follow through with actually reading them unless I bring them to the doctor's office or on vacation and have to kill time.
 

Victoria

Patron Meritorious
Lol! Exactly ... have you read 'The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning' yet? Apparently it's all about decluttering. I haven't read it ... (the title was enough for me).

:D
The life changing magic of tidying up, was quite a bit more digestible in terms of titles.
Even if it did lead to me getting rid of all my skinny clothes because they no longer ‘ brought me joy’, but after I fully decluttered my house, the very next year I lost fifty pounds.
I think one thing may have led to another, but I still miss that one pair of jeans;)
 

lotus

stubborn rebel sheep!
Your chatting is nice!

I used to read a lot but lately I spend more time in listening classical music. (it makes my brain still, my heart feeling good and my body to relax) I still read a lot of scientific stuff though.

But I recenly stumbled upon few excerpts from Lang Leav - I love how she plays with words but mostly with emotional concepts.
One of my favourite excerpt is this one that is written on my kitchen chalk board wall, so I can see it day after day till I can move my mountains.

I think she mostly writes about love, but I pick up my favourite quotes from her work.

I love to read in english... it offers me a different approach to things, concepts, feelings, emotions at is it described a different manner than in french. Also american writers are very different to read than british. I love british for their intellectual way of playing with words though , and their unique sense of humour too.


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strativarius

Inveterate gnashnab & snoutband
Thanks for mentioning this. I had never heard of it but it sounded interesting.....very Edward Goreyesque! I'm about halfway through the first book now and I'm loving it :)
You're welcome! I'm sure you'll finish all three.

For anyone else who may be interested:

"Gormenghast is almost unanimously categorized as fantasy because of the atmosphere and pseudo-medieval setting. The series has been included in Fantasy: The 100 Best Books, Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels and 100 Must Read Fantasy Novels as one of the greatest fantasy works of the twentieth century.

The series has received widespread acclaim from the speculative fiction community and mainstream literary critics — Harold Bloom argues that it is a more accomplished work than the contemporary and better-known The Lord of the Rings." - Wikipedia
 

Helena Handbasket

Gold Meritorious Patron
My last fiction book was an oldie, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. While she makes a good case for industrialists to be let alone to do their money-making thing, she does go a bit overboard at times.

I'm currently reading The Populist Explosion by John B. Judis; it's about how populist movements are on the rise in Europe and the USA (Trump supporters, France's National Front, Germany's AfD, etc). He says how populism cannot be defined, but to me it's when large numbers of people are fed up with "politics as usual" -- they're discontented with the ruling class, those who run for office and assert that they "know what best for everyone else". The key issues seem to be the exporting of jobs in the USA and refugee immigration in Europe.


People are routinely flabbergasted at the things President Trump is saying and doing (I'm still waiting for him to say just one thing that makes sense), but remember who the alternative was -- Hillary Clinton, who was the very embodiment of politics as usual. (If the Democrats had any sense they'd welcome Bernie Sanders as their nominee in 2020.)

Helena
 

Bill

Gold Meritorious Patron
My last fiction book was an oldie, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. While she makes a good case for industrialists to be let alone to do their money-making thing, she does go a bit overboard at times.

I'm currently reading The Populist Explosion by John B. Judis; it's about how populist movements are on the rise in Europe and the USA (Trump supporters, France's National Front, Germany's AfD, etc). He says how populism cannot be defined, but to me it's when large numbers of people are fed up with "politics as usual" -- they're discontented with the ruling class, those who run for office and assert that they "know what best for everyone else". The key issues seem to be the exporting of jobs in the USA and refugee immigration in Europe.

People are routinely flabbergasted at the things President Trump is saying and doing (I'm still waiting for him to say just one thing that makes sense), but remember who the alternative was -- Hillary Clinton, who was the very embodiment of politics as usual. (If the Democrats had any sense they'd welcome Bernie Sanders as their nominee in 2020.)


Helena
Here we have a wonderful thread about books, the love of books... Please for the love of God, don't pollute it with politics! Please!
 

ILove2Lurk

Lisbeth Salander
. . .
I'm not necessarily well schooled in the classics, but I have an interest
in world history and and the history of thought. I'm finding this book
is really accessible and enjoyable for someone like me. An especially
illuminating and comforting read for today's moment in history. Simply
a great, great book. I can't say enough.

The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle,
and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization

2014 by Arthur Herman (700 pg. / 26 hours for audiobook)

Here's a pretty engaging video discussion about the book by the author.
And the reviewers in the video positively rave about it. Worth a look.

 

phenomanon

Canyon
My Kindle is my friend. There are bookcases in our every room, so adding more is not an option. If I added every book that I read to those already kept, it would fill a Library. Both my girls are readers, too. Today I am reading a novel set in Korea and Japan, and how the Koreans were treated as dirt by the Japanese. The title is "Pachinko".
 

Miss Ellie

Miss Ellie
I travel all over the country and audio books keep me going. On the road, in the air, in the hotel room... I listen to a wide variety of topics. I also use the library because I am so tight I squeak... why pay for something you can get FREE!

For those that still do the dead tree books, which I do from time to time & subscribe to two print magazines - when you are ready to purge. If you do not trade or sell to fund more books please consider donating them to the VA Hospital, regular hospital, clinic, senior center, etc. These places are always very appreciative of donations of this kind. Books and magazines of all types are welcome.

The ER at the local hospital breaks into cheers when I come in about every 6 to 9 months. I can fill the magazine rack in one visit. Not only do I subscribe to magazines I also get them as part of memberships I have in different organizations. I toss in interesting catalogs that I can not get off the mail list no matter how hard I try. A trip to the dollar store, I pick up a few coloring books & small packs of crayons - great for small kids. The local VA day clinic is also a drop point for me.

I think one thing every former sciobot has in common is that after being told for so long what to read, not read, think & feel we wrap ourselves in knowledge. We reach out to find out who we are now & what is in the world waiting for us. There are so many things I am interested in... and immerse myself in. There are no limits except those I put there...
 

Dave B.

Maximus Ultimus Mostimus
My latest rescue: Science & Literature in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by Paul Lacroix. pdf, kindle, download, etc. link

Saw it in the pile, handsome looking book. The ones that I rescue seem to speak to me, I knew it would be good just by looking at it but scanning through it before I bought it I could see it was a keeper. Very well written, fascinating historical information and folklore. 400+ woodcut illustrations.
 

programmer_guy

True Ex-Scientologist
My latest rescue: Science & Literature in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by Paul Lacroix. pdf, kindle, download, etc. link

Saw it in the pile, handsome looking book. The ones that I rescue seem to speak to me, I knew it would be good just by looking at it but scanning through it before I bought it I could see it was a keeper. Very well written, fascinating historical information and folklore. 400+ woodcut illustrations.
Does this book include important items from the life of Galileo? Just curious.
 
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