What Book Are You Reading? - Part VI

this winter i read or finished reading:

os ratos, by Dyonelio Machado

São Bernardo, by Graciliano Ramos

sagarana, by João Guimarães Rosa (re-read)

who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?, by Edward Albee

on formally undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and related systems, by Kurt Gödel

the wall jumper, by Peter Schneider

pocket guide to Germany, by the United States army service forces’ information branch

this is your brain on music: understanding a human obsession, by Daniel Levitin

Nietzsche: philosopher, psychologist, antichrist, by Walter Kaufmann

a general hiftory of the robberies and murders of the moft notorious pyrates, by Cap’n Charles Johnson

Macunaíma, by Mário de Andrade

i wish everyone here could read sagarana, or at least its first and last sections (stories? novels? chapters?). who’s afraid was a pleasant surprise to me — having been already struck deeply by the movie that goes by the same name. Albee takes the reader for a walk around a society which is so radically alien to me i can barely understand how come i’m able to speak its language. Gödel is brilliant, but his paper is over rated. the brilliance of his derivation is way more interesting than the limited conclusion he arrives to (and which, ever since, has been raped and stretched into meaninglessness by people who don’t completely understand it). i’m on to Taski now, and then out of my little mathematical expedition and back to the unsteady ground of philosophy, where these mathematical results co relate to Aristotle (on rhetoric), Descartes (on methodological criticism), Kant (on the problem of judgement) and finally Nietzsche and Sloterdijk (on the problem of language, society and sanity).

the wall jumper is an absolute must. let me repeat this in bold letters: the wall jumper is an absolute must. everyone should read it. everyone; everyone who lived through the cold war should read it, everyone born after its fall (or who was too young by then to understand it) must read it. read it. read it. read it. the penguin edition (in English translation) has a fabulous introduction, get that one if you (like me) can’t read the original. after you read that, go to this page and grab a copy of the now-long in public domain “pocket guide to Germany” ellaborated by the US army back in '45 or '46. it’s a couple of hours reading, tops. read it bearing in mind the current world affairs — the invasions promoted by China, Russia and the States all over the place. rejoyce. must read these.

this is your brain on music… that was a pleasant little best-seller. if you have a lazy weekend ahead of you and absolutely no will to go out (or if you’re crossing Europe back and forth on a train), get it.

the other three i’ve talked about before, in this topic.

now i’m reading: Machiavelli’s il principe (the prince) and Peter Sloterdijk’s critique de la raison cynique (critique of cynical reason; originally in German).

Bruno, though i never read Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, i always thought it had one of the best titles for anything ever. Seriously, i giggle just thinking about it.

As for me, still on Wolves of the Calla as far as The Dark Tower goes. Gotta return that to the library soon, might just ask them if i can buy it. I have a little spare cash.

If you ever get a chance to read Run by Ann Patchett, don’t.

I think i will do it …(darn reverse psychology … )
Im into book 2452 (i started at 2400) of the german Sci-Fi series “perry Rhodan” Now … Bruno: The Prince is a really … good ? , evil ? revolutionary ? …anyways a very interresting book from what i hear … I think I’m going to get it as soon as i have the chance .

seriously, don’t. it’s rubbish.

but if you enjoy a nice boring story with nice borng twists and turns and OH WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! A racial issue that is totally super important and meaningful (we promise!), then by all means, have at it.

But if you want something engaging, by all means skip it.

not that it’s all bad.

But it leaves you with a sense that you knew it all before, and it’s a story you’ve heard so much you’re downright sick of it. At least that’s how i felt.

actually, i’m reading it for school. it’s supposed to be important because “it’s a milestone in the philosophy of power” and “the foundational book of political science” and what have you. quite honestly, i don’t see it as groundbreaking, not really.

it’s just yet another treatise on power — how to grasp it, how to maintain it. it suits representative diets — modern-day democracies and dictatorships, as well as the anarcho-syndicalist and communist paradigms, being what i call “representative diets” — but that’s about it. it doesn’t teach you the ways of power in a manorial system (for that you’d have to read Sun Tzu’s art of war), and nor does it teach you how to be powerful in a pure democracy or into a straight anarchy — for that you’d have to consult Aristotle’s rhetoric.

but yeah, sure. read the prince, it’s no bad — in the same sense as going to a renaissance museum ain’t a bad thing. but quite frankly, in terms of political science and the philosophy of power, i’d keep to the german trio: Stirner, Nietzsche, Sloterdijk. now, these guys knew what power means.

Night Watch, T. Pratchett!
It’s nice to read Pratchett again now that I’ve got some more of his books

At the moment Im reading ingo swann’s book, the “father of remote viewing” - he is an incredibly good writer, everything just more and more fascinating as you go along. Its just like a big jigsaw.

Just finished “komt een vrouw bij de dokter” and the second book “de weduwnaar”. Books that make you laugh and cry at the same time. Written by Kluun, a Dutch writer. As far as I know they are translated in English for the ones that might be interested.

I’ve been dabbling at the start of Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. My father recommended it to me. I may wait a while to read that, as I’m definitely going to start The Brothers Karamazov again. And as always I’m reading The Gay Science when I feel like it.

i’m almost done with il principe and i’ve picked up Machiavelli’s mandragola which is such a lovely play. yesterday i also read book 10 of Plato’s republic (one of my favourite pieces of Plato, together with Phædro and Gorgias) because it had so much to do with what we were learning in Philosophy classes.

i’m also about to pick up grande sertão: veredas again. if anyone wants to join me in reading that, it’s one of the most incredible pieces of literature ever. there’s a translation to english called “the devil to pay in the backlands”. i’ve no idea whether its good.

I’m re-reading Wizard’s First Law by Terry Goodkind. It’s awesome with every word, and I heard it has a few sequels too

about ¼ into grande sertão. i’m completely taken aback, i’ve no words to describe it. it might as well be one of the finest pieces of literature i’ve ever been in touch with. everyone should read it. (apparently the translations to italian and german — both called Grande Sertão — are really good; the english one not as much).

Done with Night Watch now, I’m starting Monstrous Regiment tomorrow

I just finished with Breaking Dawn, a truly thrilling read.

Ive been reading the cirque du freak books. Im on book 4 now. They are great books.

I finally picked up Foundation by Isaac Asimov and started reading it. I also picked up Dune, but I’m already reading 6 books simultaneously, so I’m setting it aside for now. One of the six is Heart of Darkness, which I’m reading for school. I really like it so far.

“The Cult of the Amateur” by Andrew Keen. It’s a really interesting read and I agree with most of his views.

How many people here have read the Marked series? Now, that is a good read!

currently reading Peter Sloterdijk: no mesmo barco [on the same boat], if Europe rises; and João Guimarães Rosa: grande sertão: veredas. also some chapters of Robert Kurz’s com todo vapor ao colapso [full-power toward collapse, a selection of articles published in newspapers and in his Black Book of Capitalism], Hobbes’ leviathan, Kant’s critique of practical reason (it sucks) and Sloterdijk’s critique of cynical reason (it rocks).

the day after tommorow , the book to the film