Erik
The writing style was interesting. I didn't like the whole “so it goes” refrain throughout the book. This was an odd one because it's so insane. It's like hearing the thoughts of a crackpot for hours on end. I guess some people are into that since this book is so highly rated, but it wasn't all that rewarding to me. The Dresden bombings killed around 25,000 people, where Vonnegut writes of 135,000 dead. Perhaps that should be revised to reflect reality, but obviously that would be a bit odd posthumously, and the book's comparison with Hiroshima and Nagasaki wouldn't hold up as well, since both were more deadly than the modern estimates of Dresden's bombing, so that would all have to be removed/rewritten.
The “war is hell” message is very clear, and this book presents that rather well when it can stay on topic (not talking about aliens) for a few pages. The whole alien bit I thought was very scarce on detail, barely qualifying as sci-fi at all. It's interesting to think about creatures who can peek at any point in time, and who have proof that fate is real, but there's not really any good description of them in the book, and the interactions with them are mostly just as viewers of the human zoo.
I can't help but think that I completely missed the point here, and maybe reading this in more of a group context would help with that, but for now, I don't get it.
Not a huge fan of the style. It's just a bit too cartoon for my taste - would make a great anime. It's action-packed and rather techie, but I would have preferred if it was a bit heavier on the tech and a lot less heavy on action. Stephenson delivers this rather well with some of his other work, such as the Cryptonomicon.
This was a good (but long) read. I liked Dostoevsky's Brother's Karamazov better, but this one had its own twists and turns that made for a fun adventure. You don't really know until the very end what's going to happen, so it keeps you reading. I don't want to ruin any of it, but if you're up for a bit of a read in Dostoevsky's style, go for it.
The only things that really bother me about this style are the names, and the lack of place names throughout the text (X. prospect? V. Prospect? Come on!). Everyone has 2 names that are used interchangeably - for instance, the main character is Rodion Romanovich and Raskolnikov. All the names are similar too - there's an Ilya Petrovich and a Pyotr Petrovich in the book. This is just how Russia was, though, so it's OK. Just make sure to pay attention to who is who.
I enjoyed the pre-communist political discourse that's sprinkled throughout the book - particularly the first interview with Porfiry. I'll have to find a non-fiction source that elaborates the different political factions of the time and place someday.
This was a very interesting read about Ayn Rand. Basically biographical, Jennifer Burns does a nice job of remaining extremely unbiased and non-judgmental throughout the book. I found the book to be rather readable. I hadn't before realized how intriguing and turbulent her life was, and though I heard she had become a bit crazy towards the end of her life, I didn't realize the extent, and the book filled in the details nicely.
This book, necessarily, also details the birth of the libertarian/anarchist movement of the 1960's, which I found more interesting than Rand herself. The interactions between the Conservative movement and the libertarian “hippies” were quite enjoyable - especially the draft card burning.
Her behavior towards the end of her life makes me want to read her works concerning intellectual property, which seemed to be a major difference between her and many anarchists of the time, who she accused of stealing her ideas. Since most of her work is derivative of previous philosophers, I wonder what her criteria were for using their ideas in her own dogma. Does an author have to be dead in order to use their works freely, or at least offer their ideas up to the public domain specifically?
I also enjoyed learning about Rand's personal political beliefs, like her pro-choice stance, opposition to the feminist movement, and opposition to the draft. The beliefs that clearly distinguished her from the conservative right were at many times stark.
Overall, a great book for anyone wanting to investigate the roots of Objectivism and Ayn Rand.
This turned out to be a good recommendation from Jim. Though it looks like a daunting book, this one is written rather well, and keeps the reader engaged using short data-filled chapters. Basically, Bloom introduces us to the concept of the social superorganism that encompasses religion, politics, and family life. Rather than a single human going through life looking to simply have a child to continue on his/her genetic line, most of our species pursue an entirely different goal - learning (subscribing to new memes) as well as propagating (getting others to get on board). This extremely interesting concept is basically exclusive to humans, with a few exceptions mainly in primate behavior.
The book goes on to talk quite a bit about the history of memes, including specific religious history, economic history, military history, and political history. Much of this is very engrossing. He applies pecking order to the superorganisms, claiming that they are all striving to reach the top, usually by asserting their power over an inferior superorganism. He then argues that this implies the current leader in the pecking order must keep arms against those wishing to top it. He argues that Ancient China failed because of disarmament, and Britain's economy in the 19th century was overtaken by the Germans because of arrogance and incompetence of the pecking order leader.
He has some very strong negative opinions of Islam, many of which he justifies or attempts to justify in the book. There is a good discussion on the difference between Shiite and Sunni Muslims as well. Yet, it's hard to put him on one side or the other of the American political spectrum, as he makes many arguments against the Republicans' actions in the text.
Overall, this was a very good read, and I'm interested in reading his other work.
A very invigorating tale of some very odd people - people who make up a new being. By themselves, each piece of the being is special, and has some sort of power, yet together they are capable of anything.
I really enjoyed this book. It starts out really oddly, and it's hard to keep track of all the characters and the time changes (the story spans 20 years or so). Most of the book keeps you on the edge of your seat. The entire last section is a mystery, as you watch a previously insane man regain his memory.
I really enjoyed this book. There were sections where I wished for more detail, but the format of the series is to condense the material for the casual reader, so that was alright. This book presents good cases against many of the explanations for and solutions to the Great Depression, including Hoover being a do-nothing president, the New Deal getting us out, and WWII getting us out. The Austrian case is presented nicely, and authors such as Hayek, Mises, and Hazlitt are brought up.
The format of the book is a bit weird. The normal text flows page to page, but there are lengthy sections of text interspersed around the main body, so the reader constantly has to either skip over those sections or find a good stopping point in the main text so he/she can take in a box of related content.
I really liked the abundance of quotes from the era, many of which were humorous or very illustrative. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants a different side of the Great Depression than the mainstream.
This is a good read if you are interested in how one might rule over people. It has many interesting parallels with current times as well, and that makes it well worth a bit of your time. Though what people take away from it is generally the crude generalization that being strong is better than being loved, it's actually much more complicated than that.
Very dense reading, but valuable. von Hayek gives an excellent argument against all kinds of collectivism. He describes hundreds of parallels between 1940's England and America and 1920's Germany and Italy, which are really quite astounding. It's really hard to argue with any of the points he makes since they are all based on very valid and non-anecdotal logic. The biggest problem with the book is the writing style, but it's manageable.
Awesome book. I highly recommend to anyone interested in a non-Keynesian view of economics. Hazlitt goes over inflation, trade, labor, foreign exchange, social programs, and many other topics. He uses logic to explain his viewpoints, shedding all emotion from his arguments. Many, many fallacies are explained away almost instantaneously.
This is a very easy read for this type of material. It is clear and concise, and does not take a college degree to understand.
Flynn goes over a very detailed description of the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, and compares these seeds to the operation of the American federal government at that time. He rails against the concentration of power in the federal government, and calls the actions of FDR the beginning of a totality, and the impotence of the Congress a consent to fascism in America. He criticizes the threat of FDR to pack the Supreme Court with poisoned justices in place of those who were over 70. He also criticizes the appropriation of funds (3.3 billion dollars) to FDR which were to be used at his discretion. Most of his discussion centers around the warning signs of socialism, fascism, and national socialism, but at the very end he mentions communism. A supporter of McCarthy after the book was written, it's interesting that he comes out and says that fascism is much more dangerous.
All in all, a great book to learn about the American condition in World War II from a viewpoint that doesn't characterize FDR as a hero, as all our mainstream history books do.
I finally finished it. This was a very good book. Her philosophy, Objectivism, is pretty close to what I believe. The story is very intriguing, and even had me a little teary-eyed in some places. Her imagery is wonderful. It is a complete and utter romance with lassez-faire capitalism, with an extremely verbose brain-dump around page 900 that takes quite a while to absorb.
The book is basically a warning to those who wish to be free from the bonds of others. One should be able to live one's life without depending on his betters nor funding his lessers. While the book depicts an extreme failure of the political system, with an extreme economic failure following, it is not too far from what has happened in Russia and many South American countries. Bad investments should not be made on the basis of ‘need,' but rather on the basis of ability and viability, which directly corresponds to credit, which should never be issued to those who are unable to live up to the terms. Businesses should never be run by the government, and economies should never be planned.
Any believer in personal responsibility should read this book.
A good book detailing the rise and fall of youth culture, hip-hop, graffiti, medicine patents, and many other things. Also includes a great analysis of the open-source community and the economic and political motives behind all of it. It's a very music-centric book, linking what we see in the physical world of art with what we are doing online.
This book is available online as a free PDF.
A good study of all the counties in America and how discretionary and non-discretionary gun laws affect crime. His main conclusion is that non-discretionary concealed-carry laws decrease crime by a very significant margin, especially when viewed at the county level. He also goes into how they affect suicide rates, demographics, effects on different cities and population densities, and gun ownership. At the end, he spends quite a few pages iterating all of the criticism (personal and professional) that he has gotten over the study, responding to each point made.
The best manga ever (but I might be biased since this is the only series I've read). I have, in fact, read up through volume 32, but I thought it would be obnoxious and inflationary to put all of them in my read list.
This is an extremely bloody, scary tale of the greatest warrior of all time. The characters are pretty deep, and the action is constant.
This book is awesome. It reminded me of 1984 quite a bit since it deals with a futuristic culture, but instead of complete oppression like Orwell wrote about, Burgess depicts a society which still has lots of corruption. The complete disregard for human rights will shock you, but the punishment will shock you even more. The ending of the version I read left in an extra chapter that had been left out of previous American editions, and I must say that it leaves the reader with much more closure about the situation at the end of the book. I highly recommend this edition over others because of that. It's a real bezoomny book! Your glazzies will leak kroovy all over - it's horrorshow.