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Books

I have started reading "12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos" by Jordan Peterson

Rome I still have your book hopefully I'll get to it this summer.
 
Read The Picture of Dorian Gray recently. A little gay for my taste. But seriously, it must have been pretty wild (pun intended) to read back in the late 1800s. It was a good take on duplicity and vanity and corruption and all that. I would hate to see what my portrait would look like.

Also, I read The Godfather for the third or fourth time, and it was enjoyable as usual.
 
Just finishing up 'Homo Deus' by Yuval Harari. Also read his first book 'Sapiens' a few months back. Just absurdly creative writing on the nature of human cognition, how it developed, what it really consists of and where it is going. Some of his musings on the future are pretty far out, but it blew my mind when he described EXACTLY how effective Facebook was going to be in the political process - as soon as the next election - when he wrote this in 2015. Really, really recommend these two books.
 
Reading The Guns of August about the first month of WWI by Barbara Tuchman. Here is a paragraph about how French General Joffre ran his initial meeting after the Germans declared war. Whole paragraph is good, but bolder is the best:

On August 3, the day Germany declared war, the generals assembled in a meeting summoned by Joffre, hoping at last to hear him explain the totality of Plan 17 and of the strategy they were to carry out. The hope was vain; Joffre waited in benign silence for remarks. At last Dubail spoke up, saying that the offensive laid out for his army required reinforcements which were not allowed for. Joffre replied with one of his cryptic phrases, “That may be your plan; it is not mine.” As no one knew what this meant, Dubail, thinking he had been misunderstood, repeated his remark. Joffre, “with his customary beatific smile,” replied in the same words as before, “That may be your plan; it is not mine.” The truth was that to Joffre what counted in the immense chaos of war was not the plan but the energy and verve with which it was carried out. Victory, he believed, would come not out of the best plan but out of the strongest will and firmest confidence, and these, he had no doubt, were his.
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Well, Duke is called 'the Blue Devils' after 'les Diables Bleus', which was the nickname of the French soldiers under Joffre. K is just channeling his inner frog when he speaks, surprised he hasn't yet spoken of playing with the proper elan. Interesting that the French, in addition to thinking verve would save the day, also decided to go into battle without pesky reinforcements or much of a game plan. K would have made a perfect French general.

Also, Guns of August is the best historical book about war ever written IMO. All of Tuchman's books are great.
 
Tuchman is great. We used her book "Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45" as a textbook in one of my undergrad courses. Highly recommended if you are interested in the CBI theater of WWII, which is not widely discussed but very politically relevant today.
 
I'm about 40% through the book and it is so good. I can't believe it took me so long to get it.
 
I can totally see K saying this to Nate James

“That may be your plan; it is not mine.” As no one knew what this meant, Dubail, thinking he had been misunderstood, repeated his remark. Joffre, “with his customary beatific smile,” replied in the same words as before, “That may be your plan; it is not mine.”
 
ZackM said:
I just started listening to A Short History of Nearly Everything. Man, it is fucking awesome if you're into science and the history of science. So many wonderful anecdotes and tidbits about the great scientists throughout time. It does a great job of showing how science evolved and how different fields emerged as new discoveries inspired new questions.
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I am about halfway through this. The chapter on Clair Patterson is excellent
 
Finished Katrina: After the Flood (G. Rivlin) lastnight.

Still amazed that a Federal government took so long to determine the scale of the disaster. A decent portion of the book was focused on which demographics would benefit from a rebuilt/revitalized city (this was told from multiple perspectives); it was interesting to read about the politics which influenced major rebuilding decisions. There seems to be some significant success stories with the redevelopment...conversely, some neighborhoods were/are being left behind.

On the positive side, the efforts of sometimes ad hoc community groups and individuals who worked together and tried to rebuild in parts of the Lower 9th ward and east NO are inspiring to read about.

I had forgotten about Mayor Nagin's felony charges.
 
Over the past few years I've been reading a lot of books every adult should have read a long time ago. Most of them I can really appreciate despite not being a literary buff. However, I just finished "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac, and man, I mostly found the characters to be annoying and irresponsible more than anything. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more in my early 20s instead of now at 35, married with two kids.
 
That's a book best read between 16 and 21.

There are other books about immature or annoying characters you can enjoy as an adult. Catcher in the Rye is an example. You're not supposed to take the character at face value. There's a lot of built-in irony. But On the Road is tough for an adult because it's utterly sincere and it's clear that Keruoac wants you to like him.
 
I just read Call of the Wild for the first time. I'm not sure what to make of it, but it was really fun to read.
 
I already had this image of Jack London's California in my mind, sort of a romanticized ideal of an unspoiled surf paradise. As it turns out, there's been plenty of people ruining California for 150 years.
 
I don't get the vibe many of you are interested in books about rock and roll, but - give the Beastie Boys book a chance. Lots of good stories about the guys growing up as well as early 80s NYC culture. I'm about 1/3 of the way through it.
 
My next book up is Jeff Tweedy's memoir. I've read a little bit of it and his writing is truly excellent.
 
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