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!

  • Coca_Cola_but_Commie [he/him]
    ·
    1 month ago

    Just started Prisoners of the American Dream by Mike Davis. Only a few pages in but it seems very very good.

    After that I’ll probably read Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti.

    Then I’ve got Liberalism: A Counter History by Domenico Losurdo. It’ll be my first by him and I’m looking forward to it.

    After that I’ve been thinking about buying a copy of the new translation of Capital from Princeton University Press and finally taking a run at that. But I’ve got a copy of The Marx-Engels Reader that I’ve had sitting around for five years, maybe I should crack that open before spending more money.

    Or I might read the David McLellan Marx biography first, which I’ve also had sitting around for a while.

    Also in the midst a reread of A Song of Ice and Fire.