Most original, exciting, fresh, mindblowing? Doesn't have to be theory, non-fiction, or even leftist. I just wanna get to know more exciting books.
My own answers:
Non-fiction: Debt - The Last 5000 Years and A Paradise Built In Hell were paradigm shifts for me, in a great way.
Fiction: Gonna have to be The Trojan War Will Not Take Place. Yes it's a play from 1935 but it was more interesting for me than many more current books, and the anti-war message is unfortunately still fresh.
Non-fiction: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein was really eye opening and difficult to get through. Shout out also to Fashionable Nonsense. It's pretty fun to dunk on the postmodernists.
Fiction: I found The Three Body Problem to be pretty interesting. Will probably need to find time to read the rest of the sequels.
The second book in the series (The Dark Forest) is by far my favourite of the three. Builds on the world of the first in a way that's so satisfying, has some great characters, and a truly fantastic ending. The third is a bit more hit or miss, but still worth reading to close it out. But man, The Dark Forest is just so so awesome.
Non-fiction: Marxism versus Liberalism: Comparative Real-Time Political Analysis (Marx/Engels vs Mill and Tocqueville, Lenin vs Weber and Wilson) by August H. Nimtz was awesome, as was First Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship: Elite Politics and the Decline of Great Powers (builds off of the wonderful Long 20th Century by Arrighi) by Richard Lachmann
Fiction: Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo, The Communist by Guido Morselli, and Stoner by John Williams
Anybody posting books and not giving you libgen/zlibrary links is a liberal.
Would you mind sharing your impression of Stoner? I read it a few years ago and was left with a lot of unresolved feelings. In particular I was sort of conflicted at finding it so uplifting and empowering despite being basically libertarian in how it presents individual responsibility and mastery-over-destiny.
I really enjoyed Stoner for the writing and the introspective nature of the idea that even the most banal life is a story worth telling. Also the tender moments where Stoner realizes he could've gone down a different path and still rejects it. I don't mind the individual responsibility too much because it accepts the early 20th century American ideal as fact, and only presents his choices within the bounds or already acceptable bourgeois society. Like we only see events from his very limited conception of what's possible, and it's very reasonable that given the material circumstances of his upbringing and his sheltered existence within the university system he wouldn't be able to conceptualize a broader horizon than libertarian individuality.
Thanks for taking the time to share! On more thought your explanation really resonates; I'm particularly thinking of when he says to himself 'at least she can drink' and I really felt his conviction. I think my main conflict was why I found those values so enticing. Probably I still want to believe in the american ideal on some level because it's such a comforting myth.
Yeah we're (assuming you're American) all programmed from birth to desire the American dream, so when we see it thoughtfully portrayed our lizard brains are like "yes yes yes qsmmmmmm" despite a deeper understanding of the fact that it's built on the slaughter and misery of millions.
Angela Davis - Women, Race and Class Karl Ove Knausgård - A Death in the Family
I finally got around to The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. So fucking good. Easily the best fiction I've read this year.
I am also about 1/4 through Capital, so it would be difficult to top that for most interesting non-fiction, though I also re-read Shock Doctrine and finally read Manufacturing Consent in the full this year.
Do it! It's the only book that's really made me question whether 'it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism'. In particular the way it presents neoliberal welfare capitalism as an aberration from an outside perspective is really exciting.
Fiction: Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson I still think Red Mars is the best one but it was cool nonetheless. Kind of meanders but if you read the first two you’re probably committed anyway.
Non-Fiction: The MotorCycle Dairies by Ernesto Che Guevara It’s not theory. However it was really neat seeing his journey across Latin America and i like the writing
I struggled through Green Mars last year but couldn't stand for another mention of regolith or any other geology term. They're just fucking rocks. I don't care!
Yeah the rock descriptions can get pretty tiring, that’s very fair lol
I had a really neat time reading green and blue mars since I took about a year off in between them and my fading memories of the events in the first book really put me in the headspace of the characters in the later books who had also started to forget and to mythologize. I can't think of a better way to have read it! My only complaint is there was not a single female character except maybe for Nadia whose personality didn't boil down to 'boys make me cRazY!'.
Non-Fic: Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology by David Graber. My dad gave it to me years ago and I finally got around to reading it a couple months back. I wanna read Bullshit Jobs and Debt now, to honor that cool dude.
Fic: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. Pretty much just wow, just an account of five years from now.
tbh with BS Jobs you should just read the essay. The book feels a bit like someone who got a book deal to expand a viral listicle. Admittedly, I only read the first two chapters of the book before I gave up on it, but it didn't feel like there was that much more there.
A Polish book "Ostre cięcie. Jak niszczono polską kolej". A book on how nearly all the governments (but especially the neoliberal ghouls) nearly completely dismantled Polish rail.
I’m currently reading Hurricane Season and am really enjoying it so far. I also have to recommend the requisite Blackshirts and Reds which I read due to a recommendation on here.
