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RE: Books
July 21, 2018 at 3:50 pm
(This post was last modified: July 21, 2018 at 4:10 pm by Angrboda.)
My philosophy group is discussing Rupert Sheldrake's Science Set Free which is the American title of his The Science Delusion in which he maintains that science is hobbled by unflinching devotion to 10 "dogmas" that are treated as unimpeachable. Beyond that, I'm reading a lot about early Christianity. I also recently acquired an electronic copy of Richard Carrier's On the Historicity of Jesus Christ, which I've owned a physical copy of for some time, but haven't bothered to read. I tend to be more likely to read at the computer if I read at all, so maybe this will prompt me to start on it. I've also picked up a copy of Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels to try and fill in some detail in my understanding of the early history of Christianity, but I don't know how much of that I will read.
I'm not much of a reader. I generally only read books when motivated to do so by participation in a book club or reading group.
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RE: Books
July 21, 2018 at 5:40 pm
Chick Tracts.
Being told you're delusional does not necessarily mean you're mental.
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RE: Books
July 21, 2018 at 5:41 pm
Currently not reading anything; waiting for a couple of authors new books to be released.
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RE: Books
July 21, 2018 at 7:06 pm
(This post was last modified: July 21, 2018 at 7:07 pm by Astreja.)
I recently finished Naked Lunch by Burroughs.
There currently is no book in my designated reading area (the dining room table), so I've resorted to glancing at the 2018 Observer's Handbook from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and reading whatever cookbook or magazine my daughter has left open on the table (currently The Science of Good Cooking).
Time for another book to make the trip downstairs to the dining room. (scans unread items in bookcase) Ah. The Art of War by Sun Tzu gets the nod.
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RE: Books
July 21, 2018 at 10:37 pm
(This post was last modified: July 21, 2018 at 10:37 pm by Fake Messiah.)
Speaking about culinary books I'm re-reading "How To Cook And Prepare Christian Children" and especially that part where you have to cook Baptist and Evangelical children in an actual Holy Water because they are less Christian than Mormons and Catholics.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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RE: Books
July 22, 2018 at 1:32 am
(July 21, 2018 at 2:58 pm)The Gentleman Bastard Wrote: (July 21, 2018 at 1:52 pm)DodosAreDead Wrote: There's probably an existing thread for this though... :/
Several, actually, and all of them fall in the exception to the necroposting rule. Exactly what I thought. Never mind now.
I'm doing A level Psychology right now, so I'm trying to read as many books about psychology as possible, but skipping all the theoretical academic stuff. There's enough of that in the textbook.
The word bed actually looks like a bed.
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RE: Books
July 22, 2018 at 5:38 am
Bryson's 'A Short History Of Private Life'.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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RE: Books
July 22, 2018 at 8:29 pm
Currently reading a book called The Reason Why. It's about the Charge of the Light Brigade, as commemorated in the Tennyson poem, Remarkably, I'm about halfway through it, and the Crimean War hasn't even started. It's like reading a book about Gettysburg and having the first half (at least) devoted to the Pre-Confederacy exploits of Longstreet and Pickett.
Also, in Door County, I look at all the bookstores to see what's there. As of today, I've looked through all of them. Three used, one new, and a couple souvenir shops. When I come back down on Saturday, this is what my reading queue will look like:
Not included in the photo (due to being purchased in Illinois beforehand):
- Medea, by Euripides (tr: Robinson)
- Goodbye, Columbus and Other Stories by Philip Roth.
- Prejudices, First to Sixth series by H.L. Mencken.
Of course, due to the intricate by-laws of the Reading Queue, I will likely be looking at the little book of insults before getting into the Mencken.
Overall, while the fiction to non-fiction ratio is skewed unusually in the favour of Non-Fiction, the breadth of the subject matter is pretty standard for me.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
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RE: Books
August 10, 2018 at 1:07 pm
I just read Fight Club. Was inspired to do so by an article posted here which speculated that the term snowflake came from that book. The moive followed the book very closely, so there weren't many major surprises, but there were some additional insights into the lead's thoughts. Very enjoyable.
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RE: Books
August 10, 2018 at 3:05 pm
David Fitzgerald's Jesus Mything in Action.
Similar to On the Historicity of Jesus but Fitzgerald is a more amusing writer. There are, after all, only so many ways to say that bible bullshit is bullshit.
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