Right now I'm reading:

Bullshit Jobs (2018) by David Graeber - I loved Debt but had low expectations for this one and was reluctant to read it (I expected it would just be an extremely padded out version of the essay, which I liked). I'm enjoying it a lot more than I expected, and I'm reminded how skillful graeber was at gently taking a reader along and path that is unambiguously radical, yet each individual step on the path seems casual and reasonable.

Western Marxism (2017) by Domenico Losurdo - it's good. It's Losurdo, if you've read him before this is about the same - very rigorous and orderly arguments that lead to some very powerful insights. I'm only 100 pages in so far but liking it and feel that this new English text might become a vital text once it gets read more widely

Exhalation (2019) by Ted Chiang. Science fiction short stories by one of the best to do it rn. I'm about halfway through, so far I enjoyed his first collection more (Story of Your Life and Others). I liked the first story quite a lot (The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate) but most of the rest of what I've read so has been dominated by one 100 page novella that felt kind of weak for the amount of real estate it takes up. I've heard a few of the later stories are real bangers though so maybe it will balance out.

As for what I'm excited to read next, I'm kind of spinning my wheels a bit. Might do Washington Bullets by Vijay Prishad, or maybe some Strugatsky Brothers. Open to suggestions!

  • 2Password2Remember [he/him]
    ·
    1 day ago

    im currently reading:

    1. il nome della rosa by umberto eco. i've already seen the show but the book is still pretty good. sherlock holmes but hes a monk in 14th century italy, what's not to like

    2. la peau de chagrin by balzac. taking a break from reading proust so i switched to balzac because apparently he was one of marx' favorite authors and i gotta say, despite being a fucking royalist, he has a way with words. the time flies by when i'm reading this book

    i'm about to start anti-duhring in preparation for learning more about dialectical materialism and, from there, how i can combine it with buddhism. going to apply my new reading/note-taking method, so i'm excited to see how that turns out. i suspect it's gonna take ages though lol

    Death to America