What are you reading?

[wub]

or a history of the CIA's activities in South America throughout the 21st Century?

Not so much a book but this is worth a read;

cryptome.org/2012/05/cia-guerilla-psyops.pdf


Copy straight into your browser.

[magma]

Flitting between:



Sean Carroll - The Particle At The End Of The Universe

Nice history of the design, building and operation/results of the Large Hadron Collider... actually quite interesting to hear it told from an American perspective given that if America would've probably beaten Europe to the result if their government hadn't decided to spend all the money on bombs instead. Sean Carroll is often at the very edge of my comprehension (From Eternity To Here very nearly beat me and I'm still not convinced I understand a word of it), but this is written at the perfect level... entertaining, but challenging. Highly recommended.

And for light relief (thanks to wub for the tip off) :



Bob Holly - The Hardcore Truth

Genuinely entertaining 'tell-all' on the rasslin' business in the 90s and 00s. I don't tend to read autobiographies, but I've read two wrestling ones recently and I'd recommend this over Bret Hart's (still relatively entertaining) whine-fest. I think he co-wrote with a ghostwriter, but either way it's a fun read that's guaranteed to make your girlfriend give you the side-eye if you start enjoying it a bit too much.

[leeany]

Just finished reading Kafka's 'Der Prozess' (the trial) and now starting on Sartre's 'Nausea'

[NickUndercover]

Anybody here read Sidney Lumet's book 'Making Movies' ? Seriously tempted.

[TheIntrospectionist]

-

[HamCrescendo]

a history of the CIA's activities in South America throughout the 21st Century?
Thanks

not read them but Philip Agee's Inside the Company (written by a CIA whistleblower back in the 70s) and Schlesinger's Bitter Fruit (about Guatemala) are both well regarded.

A bit more general but very good is Edward Luttwak's 'Coup d'etat: A practical handbook.'

[SCope13]

Does anyone know any good books about either the history and evolution of trade unions (preferably with a greater focus on the UK) or a history of the CIA's activities in South America throughout the 21st Century?
Thanks

Deals with other stuff too, but this gives a really good overview of US involvement in SA

[exfox]

just ended sillitoe's loneliness of the long-distance runner. gonna read some andré du bouchet next - one of my favourite french poets

[wub]

Fear & Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72

Rereading as it's been a while. Probably my favourite HST book, some of the deep political stuff I occasionally need to stop and have a quick look on Google/Wiki to understand more of what he's talking about, especially in terms of how the delegate/nomination process for political candidates takes place, but a quality book overall.

[TheIntrospectionist]

-

[magma]

Does anyone know any good books about either the history and evolution of trade unions (preferably with a greater focus on the UK) or a history of the CIA's activities in South America throughout the 21st Century?
Thanks

Deals with other stuff too, but this gives a really good overview of US involvement in SA

Yep, worth reading. I found her a bit repetitive towards the end, but the points she's repeating are very relevant indeed.

Torture chambers in Ford Motor Company factories.

[DRTY]

[wolf89]

Finished the first volume of the Book Of The New Sun. Can't really say much about it as I've not read the second volume yet aside from that I'm enjoying it but it's pretty long winded and unclear about a lot of what's being talked about at times. I like it for that though. A fantasy (well science fantasy maybe as it's technically way in the future?) book set in a very different world written in first person by someone who seems to have a slightly odd way of experiencing things mentally shouldn't really be to instantly identifiable in my eyes anyway.

Having a break before the second volume by reading Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy starting with All The Pretty Horses (obviously as it's the first)


Read about a third of it this afternoon. Enjoying it so far although while the Dialogue is written in a way that makes it very fast and fluid to read (making it feel like an actual conversation) it's also at the same time not always that obvious to follow. Especially without the usage of any quotation marks being used to denote speech at all in the whole book.

[rorz9992]

I don't ever read fiction... I don't have the attention span.

Been reading 'How To Win Friends And Influence People'. I can understand the hype, it still holds its own today

[DiegoSapiens]

Ernst Junger - a dangerous encounter
i was so happy when i founded this book in a library, it wasn´t in the archives or anything so i was quite lucky. Junger writes like god, he is my favorite writer along with james elroy, really recommend it to anyone

[didi]

fiction - a passage to india - forster
non-fiction - the unfolding of language - deutscher

[wub]

Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story

Bought this as kind of a joke on the way through Gatwick last time, but honestly it was pretty fucking good. Basically his life story etc, lots of anecdotes on his movies, career, jokes he used to play on people, frank discussion on his steroid use, affair, his love child that he lies to his wife about for 14yrs etc. Did find myself reading it in his voice for most of the time though


The One Thing

More airport style pulp, good sections of why multitasking is a fallacy and how task lists should become 'success lists'. Pretty jokes and a piss easy read to pass the time.

[untightled]

charles bukowski - tales of ordinary madness

[magma]

David Santiuste - Edward IV and the Wars of The Roses

Hmm. Really good. Well written story of how Edward claimed and secured his throne and then an incredibly abrupt finish sweeping the execution of his brother, war with France and the aftermath of his death into a pretty disappointing "So, yeah, Edward went on to reign for another 10 years... loads of stuff happened but I'm just going to write The End."

Great up to that point though!

[Johnlenham]

Buddahism is confusing. From what ive got from it so far is that if you are a buddist, you dont belive in anything and the world around you is a construction of your mind and that their version of heaven, is the now. Not the present or the future.
Its pretty intresting, only picked it up as having been over to the side of the world where it kicked off, you see alot of statues and monuments but it seemed abit odd to walk into a shop and say "Give me a book on Buddah" liek youd ask for a bible or something.