but here's some I have recently read or have on the docket coming up:
To Kill A Nation (parenti's book on yugoslavia, honestly should be required reading)
The Anti-Communist Impulse (super early parenti, remains to be seen if it will be as good as his later work but I was grabbed by the intro a bit)
We, the Drowned (historical fiction recommended by someone on here, haven't started it yet)
If We Burn (the new Vincent Bevins book, about all the mass protest movements of the past 10-15 years and why most of them failed to achieve their aims)
Post about the capital order if you have thoughts or questions! I liked it but had nobody to discuss it with lol
Do you read any novels? Not to be like but they contain embedded knowledge about other people's experiences and can really help you escape a funk (or fall deeper)
a lot fewer recently but I used to. And We, the Drowned is kind of a novel I think? I feel like there's a lot of trash novels, and a lot of very good, but firmly escapist novels out there, and those categories have lost a lot of luster for me. Like I used to be a big John Green head but his archliberal worldview kinda doesn't do it for me like it used to, same with his brother hank. Its one of those things where if I can only make enough time to read one or two books every like 2 months, then I feel obligated to make the most of them by reading books that will teach me something or reinforce something or give me hope, politically, or whatever, which deprioritizes a lot of the stuff I used to read, like scifi and other novels. Plus I mostly get book recs from here, or from ambient exposure/references in media or articles, so those recs are slanted heavily towards theory
I might pick up grapes of wrath though and put it in the queue for whatever that's worth lol
and I never did finish American Gods despite trying for over a year. Fiction is ironically better in this regard but one thing I struggle with is that reading, even though I really enjoy it, sinks a lot of time and just doesn't grab out for attention like the internet does. I don't even go many places online besides here and youtube, but between those two there's basically unlimited content which is much more grabby than most books
This year I seem to have mostly read novels I was recommended in the process of chatting up other leftists: Perdido Street Station, Journey to the End of the Night, & How the Steel Was Tempered
I tried to reread Use of Weapons then Excession and was horrified to discover I now find Iain M. Banks annoying???
Read Hyperion and the anthology Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang because I heard it had a good short story which was mangled into the script for Arrival then went back and skimmed fucking uhhh Forever War by Joe Haldeman again because it's sort of historically significant as Vietnam War brainrot fiction. Briefly looked at Stranger in a Strange Land for the same reason. Tried to read Man in the High Castle but I just was not in the mood. I should probably pick back up on the scifi???
so far literally nothing. its been a bad week
but here's some I have recently read or have on the docket coming up:
Post about the capital order if you have thoughts or questions! I liked it but had nobody to discuss it with lol
Do you read any novels? Not to be like
but they contain embedded knowledge about other people's experiences and can really help you escape a funk (or fall deeper)
a lot fewer recently but I used to. And We, the Drowned is kind of a novel I think? I feel like there's a lot of trash novels, and a lot of very good, but firmly escapist novels out there, and those categories have lost a lot of luster for me. Like I used to be a big John Green head but his archliberal worldview kinda doesn't do it for me like it used to, same with his brother hank. Its one of those things where if I can only make enough time to read one or two books every like 2 months, then I feel obligated to make the most of them by reading books that will teach me something or reinforce something or give me hope, politically, or whatever, which deprioritizes a lot of the stuff I used to read, like scifi and other novels. Plus I mostly get book recs from here, or from ambient exposure/references in media or articles, so those recs are slanted heavily towards theory
I might pick up grapes of wrath though and put it in the queue for whatever that's worth lol
and I never did finish American Gods despite trying for over a year. Fiction is ironically better in this regard but one thing I struggle with is that reading, even though I really enjoy it, sinks a lot of time and just doesn't grab out for attention like the internet does. I don't even go many places online besides here and youtube, but between those two there's basically unlimited content which is much more grabby than most books
American Gods bored the SHIT out of me I couldn't finish it
lmao
I enjoyed it but I wasn't blown away by it, it wasn't a "can't put it down" book for me. I think it gets better but idk lol
This year I seem to have mostly read novels I was recommended in the process of chatting up other leftists: Perdido Street Station, Journey to the End of the Night, & How the Steel Was Tempered
I tried to reread Use of Weapons then Excession and was horrified to discover I now find Iain M. Banks annoying???
Read Hyperion and the anthology Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang because I heard it had a good short story which was mangled into the script for Arrival then went back and skimmed fucking uhhh Forever War by Joe Haldeman again because it's sort of historically significant as Vietnam War brainrot fiction. Briefly looked at Stranger in a Strange Land for the same reason. Tried to read Man in the High Castle but I just was not in the mood. I should probably pick back up on the scifi???
I think I also read Stories of your life and others... it is on my shelf at least
I honestly can't remember. My memory is shit for things like that.