*DAMN R6 Forum

     The old crowd is getting older, so I'm thinking this topic will be more successful now than it would have been years ago. Talk about what you're reading now, or what you've read recently, or what have you.

     I'm currently reading Conquistador, by S.M. Stirling. A soldier returns from WWII and takes up residence in San Francisco, where he begins tinkering with a war-surplus shortwave set while he recuperates from a battle wound. He accidentally opens a portal to the same location in space and time but on an alternate Earth where Europeans never came to the New World. He gathers his war buddies and they start a country over there, and manage to keep the secret for sixty years. Stirling's quite the author, and I'm digging it.

     I'm also reading Slave Species of God, by Michael Tellinger. It's nonfiction, about ancient Sumerian tablets which show that humanity was created through genetic manipulation and crossbreeding by an advanced alien culture to be slave labor in gold mines. Very tinfoil-hat, and very obviously written without the help of an editor, but when Tellinger gets on-topic instead of linguistically wandering, it's eerily compelling.

     I'm also rereading Transmetropolitan, the best American comic book I've ever read. Five years of nearly unadulterated genius. I loves it, and you should too.

Loth, youre becoming a hero of mine..i will absolutely respond to your thread..i just need sleep right now.

Thanks for opening what ive wanted to open for months now,
yet balked at the prospect of an entirely empty thread.

Loth has always been a hero of mine 12 orgasms doesn't come easy... but I did when he... erm.. nevermind!

I'm workin on a giant stack of books I wanna read before I die. But right now I'm reading...

Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut- Big Vonnegut fan always a great satire on why we all suck.

The Assassins A radical sect in Islam, Bernard Lewis- The story of history's first terrorists. Really interesting background especially with present day issues.

The Life of Pi, I don't remember- I have to read this book for college... apparently its about a double major of zoology / religion gets stuck on a lifeboat with a 450 pound bengal tiger ??? I haven't got to that part yet but we will see I guess.

Alamut by Vladimir Bartol- GREAT BOOK. I haven't even really cracked into it but its a fictional novel about a young man who trains to become an assassin. I really can't put it into words better than the inside flap so here ya go:


I recommend it to all and I'm gonna add those books to my stack Loth.

     Oo, Alamut sounds really good.

     And FYI, I've been improving my technique.  ::bussi::

Here are some of my recent tops


Freakanomics
Basically an economist analyzes data and numbers to come to conclusions to everyday things.  For example, he used data to determine the structure of drug dealing in chicago is very similiar to McDonalds or other fast food corporations. Violent crime has gone down in recent years not due to better policing or effectiveness, but it's actually directly correlated with roe v. wade. Also schools that base teacher performance on student scores actually just help their students cheat.

 Just read it and be a bit amazed at how a different approach at looking at problems can actually find better answers.


Gangs of Chicago
Basically the follow up book to gangs of New York which the movie was loosely based.

Armarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People
Basically a biography of the worlds best gambler. The guy never had a real job and is now a rich rich millionaire. He got most of his earnings by making bets he couldn't lose. The man was smart as shit and good at poker. A great read, he beat world class tennis players by forcing them to play with frying pans as raquets and ping pong champions by playing with coke bottles.

     Oh crap, I've been meaning to read Freakonomics. I've heard nothing but good about it.

Life of Pie: I finished reading this book for the third time just recently. It is easily on of my favorite books. Its about, as mauti said, a boy (not double major in anything while story takes place) who is stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, a hyena, a zebra, and an aringateng(spelling?). Word to the wise while reading this book... Pay close attention to what the author says before getting stranded, especially in terms of animals having human characteristics and outlook on religeon. It will make you appreciate the ending so much more. When reading it a second time, I caught so much more that I had missed in the first reading.

Freakonomics: while I don't agree with some of the authors conclusions on some subjects it is still an interesting read. I just didn't like all the figures but what can you expect from a book that deals with the economics of everyday life.

Books I'd like to suggest would be anything by Chuck Palaphniuk. Chuck would be best known for authoring Fight Club. I have read all his works and enjoyed both  Survivor and Lullaby the most, though I consider Chuck to be one of my favorite authors.

Survivor tells the story of the last survivor of a religeous suicide cult whose survivng members are forced to go into hiding when they start dying off one by one.

Lullaby is about a group who discovers the "culling song" which is a lullaby that causes those to hear it to die and the groups journey to find all the copies of the song and to destroy them.

Both books show aspects in the writing that you will notice even if you have only seen the movie Fight Club and not read the book.

AMEN on the Chuck books..my wife and i just finished Choke.

Son of an insane mother grows up, neurotic as all fuck, getting by in life earning money from pretending to choke on food so people can save him..thereby becoming obligated to him..

Has bizarre friend, with bizarre job (recreates colonial life in small real-time colonial village) while visiting his insane dying mother in an Old Folks Home..Has bizarre and grandiose delusions..
bizarre ending..Chuck has s styly Id imagine would be a bit surprisng for most...raw as hell...brilliant.

my current reading selections aren't as good as yours, but in an attempt to keep this thread going...

the cyborg's handook  a collection of articles on cybernetics, A.I., technology and how humans show signs of becoming more mechanical, and technology begins encroaching on humanism.

Moneyball .... for the 4th time.  A introspective and economical and statistical view of major league baseball from the lens of the General Manager genius, Billy Beane.

Using Analytical skills and Reasoning to forge Content Standards  Yes... I'm a teacher.

Choke was a great read and was the book that got me turned onto Chuck P as an author. I love his darkly humourous style that continues on through all of his books.

Gulag Archipelago-By Solzhenitsyn
Author's existence in the Gulag archipelago

The Great Game- By James Hopkirk
Academic book regarding the geopolitical games undergone in Central Asia during the nineteenth century.

Mud, Blood, and Poppycock - Gordon Corrigan  - An interesting take in Britain's involvement in WWI.  Corrigan argues that for Britain (note, just Britain), the war was not as destructive and demoralizing to the country as it was for the other nations involved (particularly France and Germany).  An interesting statistic he gives is that 1.5% of the British population was killed in the war, whereas 3.7% of France's population, and 3.23% of Germany's population was killed during the conflict. 

Interesting reading, if a little dated.

Aryan Christ by richard Noll-

A novel look into the real life and historical influences behind C.G. Jung, and his popularised concepts of anima, animus, collective unconscience, personal, national and religious archetypes and what they actually meant to him as a personal religion, not a sanitized psychological practice... Contrasts his private personally held beliefs with the views and language he presented to the public concerning his poineering of personal analysis. Publically he pretended to be a christian for mass consumption, but privately, he was an avowed pagan, (with an PASSIONATE dislike of Christianity and Judaism) with a tower built at his home within which he would practice pagan renewal rituals for over forty years...with sexual rituals and strict polygamistic adherance..

Helped a lot to explain how germany was so suceptible to the Historical/Mythological imagry of the Nazi party, and its origins..(including the swastica) which surprisingly, merely originated as a development of the ideals of a Germanic mythology of Wotan, and a biologically, genetic myth structure that merely served (before Nazi Hijacking) to help unify the germanic tribes that previously had been scattered in purpose and hsitory. (circa late 1800s) HEAVILY influenced by ancient anglo saxon religions that worshipped the sun as actual God. He later regretted the embrace of HIS symbolism by the Nazi party..realizing that he (unwittingly) helped them rise to prominence..

Highlighted Jungs private Cult-leader status among his believers, and the ways in which he grabbed and wrested control away from the Freudian schools of thought that proceeded him.

Summary was that (according to Jung himself) he was actually a reincarnation of an ancient God known as the Mithraic "Deus Leontocephalus"...a specifically Aryan christlike redemption figure with a lions head. Jung heavily relied upon a spiritual advisor whom he met with in his mind over the second half of his life by the name of Philemon..a crippled wise man who along with  Salome, provided the path to his God Realization and pre-eminence. He consulted with both figures as a formal practice, claiming that they gave him secret knowledge that made him aware of his GOD-hood...
He publically presented as an enlightened psychologist, but demanded to be revered as a redemptive historical ressurection figure..

Amazing stuff..not a complicated read.

kama sutra in the house

Reading a book called "The Mental Game of Baseball". Great insight into the mental aspects of the sport I love.

Walter Moers:

Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher (the city of dreaming books)
Rumo
and currently the 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär (13 1/2 lives of captain Bluebear)

Fantastic phantasy books! If they are available in english I can only recommend it to everyone.

     Sheix, that sounds crazy and fascinating. Mauti, those books are available in English, and the Amazon summaries sound really cool.

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, and the new Noam Chomsky book!

lol, no Title cookie?
Noamie is the schnizzle..

     I finished Conquistador. Solid ending; I am pleased. I'm now reading Time Storm by Gordon R. Dickson. The Earth is suddenly thrown into chaos as moving walls of temporal discontinuity appear, disappearing virtually all of humanity in one fell swoop. A band of survivors struggle to cope with the changed world and figure out wtf is going on.

Three Kingdoms

I first came across the historical/ forklorical/ fictional story on some old nintendo games that went by the title "Romance of the 3 kingdoms" by Koei. Then after working with chinese for the last 7 years and coming to the realization that it was based on more fact then fiction I became intrigued and ordered the 4 book set.

Basically the books follow the war to unite China across it's three huge waring families after the fall of the Han Dynasty. It entails the stories of thousands of generals and characters who are all historically based and had pivitol roles in the long ordeal. The folklore parts include abnormal powers and things like that come along with historical legends.

I would compare this so far to Greek works like the Iliad and the Odyssey. Not a read for who doesn't like epics or the sometimes confusion of translated texts.

I also recently finished:
Why Do Men Have Nipples
A quick tongue and cheeck book i finished during the long horrid hours of jury duty. It's basically a good read that scientifically answers many of the common questions and myths to somewhat medical questions like: why do farts ignite, why do women grow beards, How do people in wheelchairs engage in sexual intercourse and Do microwaves cause cancer?"
Packed with a lot of funny ass questions and answers that would make you pretty good at a dinner party or something...

Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner

Just about finished with this one. Cadillac Desert relates to the reader the relatively short history of the western United States, and the key role that water development has played in turning a place unsuited for human settlement into an ever-growing oasis of cities and malled-out suburbs. Water development includes things like irrigation farming, aquifer maintenance, aqueducts--but most of all, dams.

The first half of the book is organized in more-or-less chronological order, from the times of exploration and Manifest Destiny in the 1840s (when frontiersmen realized irrigation was the only chance at making the land reasonably fertile), into the New Deal periods of the 1930s (when the first major projects were built), and up through the 1960s (when things started falling apart). At this point, the book becomes less history textbook and more investigative journalism as it delves into some almost unconscionable scandals that have taken place since the 1960s. As the few good damsites become occupied, lies, political manipulation, misreporting of feasability and cost, risk of dam failure and misappropriation of taxpayer money become necessary (and commonplace) to continue to justify many of the frivolous projects that the Bureau of Reclamation nevertheless continues to push with a very real religious conviction (most employees in the Bureau are Mormons, who feel it is their divine duty to build water projects). Interspaced among all of these events are biographies of some very interesting characters, as well as one very interesting chapter about water development in Los Angeles.

The book becomes slow at times, but is captivating at others. Although there, Mr. Resiner succesfully keeps any prophecies of widespread water shortage and doom for the masses to a minimum. Overall, Cadillac Desert a very interesting exposé of the history of water development in the west, and perhaps what it to come. Highly suggested read for anyone living in the West.

Next up on my list is Gravity's Rainbow by Tom Pynchon.

...and Dianetics, by L. Ron Hubbard.  ;D

The Art of War by Sun Tzu - great book had some excellent storries and metaphors that relate not only to war but also to everyday life.   Having written these 13 chapters in 5th century B.C. im fascinated at how it survived to this day.  Just as a warning for you, i was recently at a boarders and another version of the art of war caught my eye.  If you want to get the full effect of the book dont buy the versions with selected quotes, by the whole thing.  I suggest James Clavells edition which is just an add on of Lionel Giles first translation.

Yeah, great book juggler. Now go out and watch an 80's movie called Wallstreet. They reference the book a lot on how to be a stock trader and a cut throat business person with Sun Tzu's tactics. That movie actually popularized the book a lot which I figure has lasted to this day. Outside of military academies, nobody has to really read it.

If you also read the "Three Kingdoms" book I posted a few posts before, he is also a significant player within the book as a master student/strategist/leader.

Oh not sure if anyone mentioned this book:

Fast Food Nation

Damn good book with great insight to the fast food industry. If you like fast food, reader beware, you may not shove another burger into your face again.

Yes damn good book but it had me going vegan for about a month after reading it. The man who lost his arm... terrible story but good book.

One Hand Clapping by Anthony Burgess

and

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

     I finished Time Storm, now I'm on to "The 13 Crimes of Science Fiction", an anthology of thirteen science fiction stories in the mystery genre, corresponding to the thirteen types of mystery stories: hard-boiled detective, psychic detective, spy story, analytical detective, whodunit, why-done-it, how-done-it, inverted, locked room, cipher, police procedural, trial, and punishment. I bought it a while back and my eyes fell on it recently, so it's its turn.

Myths of Light- Joseph Campbell

Comparison/Contrast of eastern Mythology against Occidental mythology (western).
The fundamental difference being, that The Eastern metaphors for The Eternal internalize god, and internalize salvation, and internalize creation. God is All, we are part of the All, therefore we are god. (little g). salvation comes from mastery of the self, and sublimations of all desire and fear. The world came forth from these tendencies of the soul, and migration to the light must include the overcoming of these tendencies which brought forth the material world. God was (unconscious) then started becoming conscious (a fractal with a simple starting equation of +1 or perpetual forward movement..under this premise...in time everyting, literally all possiblilities will eventually be realized )...Once conscious, he became afraid...afraid of its (our) own lonliness, and from this a desire to recognize something other than self and be recognized..therefore the self split to make a companion..ie Light/Dark..and in that both sides came from the ONE, they are both part of the ONE. Good/Evil, light/dark, all dichotomies are ultimately self contained (yin yang & the circle that contains them both). The ONE splits into the many to recognize itself (out of fear of being alone for eternity-see old testament yahweh creating, and declaring himself master of all, creating man to worship him), and this is a DESIRE..That desire then multiplies into creating all of everything...which includes us.

Then in our infancy, the world and all phenomena appear to be separate, which leads to more desire and fear, and we create Gods and Demons to account for examples of Good/evil, light/dark experiences, and explain the world of phenominality and in this we create an Creator/Created dichotomy; we begin to feel separate from our creator, as opposed to a physcal COMPONENT of that GOD, which creates fear of separation and desire for return to unity...but as we examine the universe, and religion, and science, we begin to realize that that there IS an underlying UNity...But we are conditioned to have gods and demons. Eastern thought teaches us to recognize these all as projections of the lonely FIRST self, and we begin to sublimate the fears of these projections, to realize them as just that...projections of the self.The Tibetan Book of the dead, urges man to face the demons and love them for thir terrible ferocious appearance...at that, they will submit, and let you pass...you hace recognized the reflection in the miror so to speak. Then We begin to recognize the unity of our matter, and existence, projections, fears, desires, ..everyting...it all begins to recoalesce into a personal "Unity Theory". Upon sublimation of the emotions that create the feeling of Dichotomy, between you/me, light dark, good evil...fear and desire begin to leave...and the world of phenomenon is now seen as the world of our created/creating self..therefore everything we see, is US.

Since we are god, we are eternal and immortal (the witness, or spirit, not the body) hence no longer fear death. Since we no longer fear death and recognize our immortality, we realizse that we contain EVERYTHING in the universe and have no want of anything, since nothing is external now...we are freed from desire...

It is my sincerest belief, that now as i re-read the bible..This is the true intent of the red text. (Jesus spoken words) When read that way, the bible become almost buddhist in nature..

I have horrified friends and family alike, by declaring a formal rejection all of the bible NOT written as quotations of Jesus. (the rest, like understanding the old testament, or the validity of alternate intuitive religions, explanations of God stories, miracles, the multitude of taught paths to God, i ask for forgiveness for my non understanding, and ask that someday I can tell fact from fiction, fact from myth...as it stands now, i have neither the tools nor the wisdom to decide what is true in those anceint words..so i say...forgive me for not understanding, and since i dont want to be mislead...Ill suspend the need to examine what i cant grasp) But i ask to keep faith in the principle of +1 and that in time, regardless of my wayward wandering, as long as i do not REJECT (ie i commit to receiving +1)... i will return Home.

 If you read just that red text, an amazingly different book will emerge. One more eastern than western by a far shot. No separation from God, no original sin keeping us from heaven, no punishment (that is unless you reject the search for god)..only forgiveness, grace, and a warm welcome into the Kingdom (ie internal PEACE), and a promise of that same immortality promised by the far east..We are GOD.

Jesus said it..and was crucified for it..Has to be a valid message in that, even if the rest is a mythology.

THAT alone was the message, and our ONLY task..was to help lesssen the suffering of others, so that everyone would find some comfort on their way to the realization, that its all ok,we live forever, this happens forever, and there is no way to do it wrong....  A river cannot one day simply reject the direction of its flow..it just flows.

...No judgement of others, no incitement to hate or murder or control, no dogma..just a request from the eternal 'whatever'..to give me a little faith, that there is more to it all, that the dirt and the blood, and the screaming is really more a GAME, than an ENDGAME...hence freedom..freedom to live forever thru the frequency field of time, and once you realise that, you are no longer led away from evil as a fear prospect, but a practical one.

I think.