What're ya reading?

[rcarlberg]

I'm an inveterate reader, coupla books per week. Always on the lookout for new pulp to consume. I read almost exclusively non-fiction, mostly science and political science and analysis. Stuff that helps me understand the world I live in (or try to).

Right now I'm 1/2 through Malcolm Gladwell's "Talking to Strangers" (2019) which is an odd mix of stories about the efficacy of torture, the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, the effects of alcohol on the brain, stories about spies who weren't caught and non-murderers who were. As with most of his books, the connections he makes between widely-divergent fields are brilliant.

[rcarlberg]

Before this I read Maggie Haberman's 600-page "Confidence Man" which was absolutely horrifying, but probably the moderators of this board won't let us discuss it.

[Quantum Cat]

Yep, I read that. Appalling and disgusting of course. That fact that it still breaths the free air is a complete travesty.

"Talking to Strangers" sounds interesting.

Right now, I'm reading what I believe is the Bukowski's last book "Shakespeare Never Did This" which is basically an account of his late trip to Europe, "Fully Automated Luxury Communism" by Aaron Bastani which is a fascinating look at political/societal possibilities in a post-scarcity world and "Composers: Their Lives and Works" by DK London / Penguin Random House. It's a nice survey of noted composers from late Medieval/Eary Renaissance to modern. It even has a nice two-page layout on one of my new favorites, Alfred Schnittke. It a hardback, nicely designed coffee-table kind of a book, but well done.

[mozo-pg]

https://www.progressiveears.org/foru...hlight=reading

[rcarlberg]

Thanks Mozo. That thread seems to be mostly (entirely?) fiction. Maybe mine can remain distinct?

[Dave (in MA)]

As usual.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

There's a lot of nonfiction discussed on the other thread (much of which is books about music, but not by any means all); this thread is pretty much redundant.

[moecurlythanu]

I'm reading Redundancy by Ben Therby IV.

[rcarlberg]

There's a lot of nonfiction discussed on the other thread (much of which is books about music, but not by any means all); this thread is pretty much redundant.

Oh okay. I retract the thread.