Book thread

[WTF]

Originally Posted by ..

Yeah, it's a rational bullshit bible -- it didn't even work for the author.

After Ayn Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged she got a serve depression, and was so lost that she remarked "John Galt wouldn't feel this, he would know how to handle this. I don't know." and "I would hate for him to see me like this. I would feel unworthy, as if I had let him down."

If only she could have lived long enough to hear Greenspan testify before congress that maybe just maybe their bible is flawed.

http://www.wowowow.com/post/greenspa...-crisis-128286

In other words, Ayn Rand’s theory of the "morality of self-interest" exactly parallels Alan Greenspan’s testimony today about his now-shaken belief in the ability of "self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder’s equity."
Early in his career, Alan was an avid Rand acolyte, a frequent guest at the Manhattan salon of the novelist and philosopher, and those who gathered to hear the litanies of like-minded notables were loosely known as "The Collective." It was there that the Rand philosophy of Objectivism was discussed in the context of current events, world markets and religion.
Today, 40 years after the heyday of those gatherings, Greenspan surprised many with his "Yes, I found a flaw" response to a grilling from the Committee. Responding to the clear failure of the notion of "enlightened self-interest" to stop the cascade of financial catastrophies that have roiled world markets, he said, "That is precisely the reason I was

[TexTushHog]

Originally Posted by Mr.Oneeye

On the origins of The Great War, there is probably nothing better than Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August" for the realpolitik . . . .

The Guns of August is an absolutely spectacular book and should be required reading for anyone who has even a passing interest in history. Probably the single best and most readable history book ever written. Period.

Originally Posted by Happy Diver

Now reading "The Arms of Krupp" by Manchester.

Although it's not Manchester's best book, The Arms of Krupp is still a good book. In fact, it's hard to think of a book by William Manchester that I don't like.

[FLWrite]

Originally Posted by TexTushHog

The Guns of August is an absolutely spectacular book ...

[..]

A hilarious book is "112 Gripes About the French"

[BadWolf]

Currently sitting at my reading desk are:
"The Caribbean" by James A. Michener
"Memoirs" by Pablo Neruda
"Spice: The History of Temptation" by Jack Turner

[pjorourke]

Just for the record, piling books on a desk is not the same as reading them. I know, I have done that.

[BadWolf]

hahaha PJ, quite right, and unfortunately they don't get as much attention as I would like...but I did finish "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho the other day - for about the tenth time

[Camille]

I've been working my way through the newer series of Andy McNab books. I know, I know...I shouldn't....but I find the process and procedures of such a clandestine world irresistable.

C

[I B Hankering]

I finished Rethinking the Great Depression by Gene Smiley last week. This is by far the best book I’ve ever read about the Great Depression. Smiley, unlike other authors I’ve read, explains what was happening economically in Europe, and he describes the plight of the American farmer before the Wall Street crash. Currently I’m reading The Complete Idiot’s Guide to The Great Depression by H. Paul Jeffers. It’s an interesting supplement to other books I’ve read. Jeffers’s book is a compendium of interesting trivia, but doesn’t offer much in the way of historical interpretation. It is, however, somewhat amusing, for instance, did you know Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor, was also his cousin? Similarly, it’s hard to believe that Edgar Bergen (an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist) and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, were popular “radio” stars appearing as part of the weekly The Chase and Sanborn Hour. Edgar and Charlie were on the air from May 9, 1937 to July 1, 1956. I knew this from previous stories I have seen and read, but I never before appreciated the irony. Likewise, the author mentions that tap dancers like the Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold—probably the two greatest tap dancers that ever lived, were regularly featured performers on the radio program, Horn and Hardart Kiddie Hour. Those were simpler times.


@ CaptainMidnight:
You wrote: “An old favorite of mine is Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay. And when I say old, I mean really, really old. The book was first published in 1841! Someone told me back in the 1970s that almost all serious students of markets read the book somewhere along the way.”

Mackay’s book is available for free on the internet now.

@ Camille:
You wrote: “Or any interesting WWI reads..fiction or otherwise. I've read "Intimate letters.." and also the war diaries of Douglas Haig...but I'm open to others and from any perspective/nationality.”

There is always the classic For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. Might I also recommend The Campaign on the Marne by Sewell Tyng or The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 by Sir Alistair Horne; both are excellent. Tuchman's The Guns of August is good, but I was expecting the book to be about the whole war (her A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century is great). I haven’t yet read Massie's Dreadnought (but his Peter the Great is very good), so I have no opinion—but I did just add it to my list. Lol

I must agree with Mr.Oneeye. The horror of the Great War was/is overwhelming. John Masefield, a contemporary English poet and writer, described the trenches of that terrible war as the “long grave already dug.” John Keegan, in his The Face of Battle, surmised: “there is something Treblinka-like about almost all accounts of July 1st [1916], about those long docile lines of young men . . . plodding forward across a featureless landscape to their extermination inside the barbed wire.” Yet, despite all of the horrors of the war, the slaughter did not extend to civilians in the way it did during WWII.

William Manchester’s The Arms of Krupp is on my list, but I haven’t managed to get to it yet—and likewise with Fall of Eagles: The End Of The Great European Dynasties by John Elliot.

@ Sisyphus, Mr.Oneeye and OliviaHoward

I’ve never read Beevor, but I highly, highly recommend Guy Sajer’s The Forgotten Soldier (a great war memoir which describes “the horror of World War II on the Eastern Front, as seen through the eyes of a teenaged German soldier”: it’s a classic) if you have not read it.

William Craig’s Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad and Cornelius Ryan’s The Last Battle (Berlin) are also excellent monographs. All of Cornelius Ryan’s books (A Bridge Too Far [Operation Market Garden: Arnhem] and The Longest Day[D-Day]) are great, as are John Toland’s (Adolph Hitler; The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945; The Last 100 Days: The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II in Europe; Infamy, etc.) and Stephen Ambrose’s WWII books (D Day: June 6, 1944; Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest; Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, etc.), I find, complement Ryan’s books very well. I recommend all of them.

[Camille]

Originally Posted by davec.0121

I just finished "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" -- the third of the Lisbeth Salander books. Very good, though not as good as the first. Don't even try to predict how it goes.

I agree completely. In the first book, I found the first 100 pages hard going because he is setting up all the characters slowly..and there were plenty weren't there? Then suddenly...whoooosh! it takes off. I found the second an easy read and the third quite hard work..just because of the sheer volume of people involved at this stage and all the complicated stories that had to be woven together. He did a great job though...I didn't feel as though any of it was a cop out. I know the Daniel Craig film of teh Dragon book is out next year...but the swedish version is supposed to be excellent and is running in many indy theatres/picture houses now. I just missed it in Boston....

[Camille]

Originally Posted by I B Hankering

@ Camille:
You wrote: “Or any interesting WWI reads..fiction or otherwise. I've read "Intimate letters.." and also the war diaries of Douglas Haig...but I'm open to others and from any perspective/nationality.”

There is always the classic For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. Might I also recommend The Campaign on the Marne by Sewell Tyng or The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 by Sir Alistair Horne; both are excellent. Tuchman's The Guns of August is good, but I was expecting the book to be about the whole war (her A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century is great). I haven’t yet read Massie's Dreadnought (but his Peter the Great is very good), so I have no opinion—but I did just add it to my list. Lol

I must agree with Mr.Oneeye. The horror of the Great War was/is overwhelming. John Masefield, a contemporary English poet and writer, described the trenches of that terrible war as the “long grave already dug.” John Keegan, in his The Face of Battle, surmised: “there is something Treblinka-like about almost all accounts of July 1st [1916], about those long docile lines of young men . . . plodding forward across a featureless landscape to their extermination inside the barbed wire.” Yet, despite all of the horrors of the war, the slaughter did not extend to civilians in the way it did during WWII.

Have you read "Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks. Granted, it's a novel but it's well worth a read. Agreed about WWI reading in general though I would (again) recommend "Intimate Letters...." very insightful reading with not as much doom and gloom.

C

[Guest053011]

If you enjoy books dealing with war, I highly recommend Paul Fussel's "The Great War and Modern Memory". As a cultural and literary historian, he examines the experience of British troops in WWI through their literature, and culture. It's a unique perspective, I've never read anything like it. How moving to understand their experiences through their own words. It captures reality that videos and photographs are blind to - a look into the souls of the people who lived it. This book is a masterpiece.

[I B Hankering]

@ Camille
No. I haven't read any of those books.BTW For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway is more of a love story than a war novel. The Sun Also Rises is my favorite book by Hemingway. Its setting is in post WWI Paris, and it's main character is an American war veteran and expatriate who is part of the "Lost Generation."

[Camille]

Originally Posted by Lauren Summerhill

If you enjoy books dealing with war, I highly recommend Paul Fussel's "The Great War and Modern Memory". As a cultural and literary historian, he examines the experience of British troops in WWI through their literature, and culture. It's a unique perspective, I've never read anything like it. How moving to understand their experiences through their own words. It captures reality that videos and photographs are blind to - a look into the souls of the people who lived it. This book is a masterpiece.

Lauren, if you liked that, you might also be another person interested in "Intimate Letters." If you look back through the thread, the full title is there with authors. The accounts are first hand from multiple cultural viewpoints as well as different places in society. The events are told using a collection of diary entries and letters. Very very interesting read. What amazed me most of all was that even though these people were clearly shocked and very confused at what was happening, they did not complain to the extent that people generally do today. I'm not talking about War..I'm just speaking in general. It really is rather humbling. It took a bit of digging to find the copy and I think I ended up getting it on Amazon..second hand copy..as I think it's now out of print.


Hankering..thank you!!! I will definitely get that book!!
The Faulks book is worth the purchase. It won many awards and is currently being made into a film.

C xx

[davec.0121]

..I didn't feel as though any of it was a cop out. I know the Daniel Craig film of teh Dragon book is out next year...but the swedish version is supposed to be excellent and is running in many indy theatres/picture houses now. I just missed it in Boston....[/quote]

All three of the books have been made into movies in Sweden - all excellent. I just saw the last one ('The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest') last week. It wasn't quite as good as the first two because they were tying up all the loose ends (and there are a lot), but still very, very good. The actress who play's Lisbeth is phenomenal. And I think that being in Swedish with sub-titles actually helps, rather than detracts from the impact.