Currently reading The Screwtape Letters (mom made me read it when I was 12, but always meant to read it again) and just finished Social Justice Fallacies by Thomas Sowell. He wrote it in 23 and most likely will be his last book considering his age.
Comments (59)
sorted by:
Monster Hunter International, which I bought ages ago for the book thing here and never really read. It's well written but I'm not sure the monster topic will be for me.
Before that I read a book on the Halifax explosion from WW1 that I'd picked up years ago in Halifax. Before that, 1984, which I'd read 20 years ago and not since. Next up I'm not totally sure, I've got some historical books to read or I may try to pick up some sort of military thriller type book, as that's something I think I'd like and haven't tried a ton.
MHI was a solid read for me at least, decent series too.
Heck yeah.
Check out Monster Hunter Memoirs, which is a spinoff series, too. I believe it's mostly written by John Ringo, and Correia came in after to clean things up and make it fit into the rest of the lore...and attach his name to it. In many ways I like it better. I like Correia, so I don't like saying that, but the tone is so much different, and it's much more grounded. I love MHI, but it can get overly goofy at times. Memoirs just feels a bit more serious, and with a more cohesive tone, and more likable characters. It's also got an overall arc, since, with the memoir format, it's set in the past and can time skip when it needs to.
Larry Correia is a fun follow on X too.
Sounds interesting and I need to learn more about WW1. Growing up we learned a lot about WW2 and my grandfathers were WW2 vets so I could talk to them along with other vets but not so much with WW1. I do know about the Christmas Truce. Need to look up Halifax Explosion
I like to buy books when I travel about things relevant to the places I'd been. I know one of the historical books I have I bought last year in Estonia and it's about a family who sailed across the Atlantic in a relatively small boat to escape the Soviets. Can't remember the name and I'm not at home right now.
Just finished the fifth Stormlight Archive book from Brandon Sanderson (I made a whole post about it a few weeks ago) and I was supremely disappointed that he jumped on the woke bandwagon, grafting trannies and gay shit onto a series that was relatively devoid of that nonsense.
I just finished it as well. I think it was the worst of the Stormlight books, and the part with R+R (spoiler alert) was just .. unspeakably cringe. It felt so forced and awkward. It's also the first Stormlight book to not get 5 starts on Amazon (albeit it gets 4.5).
I think Brandon has said that those two are going to be major POV characters in the next 5 books too. Bummer.
Brandon used to be religious and socially conservative. He was never rude or judgmental or anything, he just had his values, and he wrote them. Now that he is terminally online and his success is linked in large part to his social media success and his company (kickstarter, merch, etc.), he's swung hard in the opposite direction. I think it's probably another case of TDS.
Bottomline, I've read all of the Cosmere books at least twice. I think the newest Stormlight book was the worst of all (and not just for the gay interspecies romance), but I would strongly recommend the entire Cosmere...Mistborn, Warbreaker, Stormlight, etc.
The amount of cringe in the R+R relationship cannot be overstated. I had to skim through it just to make it to the next chapters every time they were doing their awkward autism flirting.
I remember that. I’ve wanted to read his books. Is it so bad that you won’t read any future Sanderson?
I think I'm done with Sanderson. I don't see it getting any better. He really committed to it by putting two of the main male characters into an inter-species gay relationship.
Man I knew he turned to garbage and had heard of a fair bit of what was in the book, but I didn't know it went that far.
I'm done with him. I don't think he'll ever come back from this shift.
Interspecies? Disgusting Parshendi on Human buttsex? Wtaf.
Ehh, At least I didn't care much for anything aside from book 1 Kaladin.
Kaladin is pretty much the only reason I finished the series.
I am currently reading "The Unaccountability Machine," by Dan Davies, which is basically about large systems (corporations, banks, governments, etc) and how they actually have a mind of their own, independent from the people working there, or ostensibly running them.
For fiction, I'm currently reading an old collection of Charles Stross novellas and short stories called "Accelerando," which is kind of about AI and general futurism. It was published in 2005.
Very interesting on both counts. Is Accelerando in Spanish?
No it is not! I do not know why it is titled in that fashion. I am only on the first short story/novella.
Fair warning: Stross's prose is a bit of an acquired taste.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando
Just about to finish up St. Thomas Aquinas’ commentary on the Gospel of John. My rule is always a “fun” book with a “serious” book so I’ve been reading the Eisenhorn omnibus concurrently.
Currently working through the Elric series and the Bible, just read a history book about the Templars and another about Franco.
Cool! I have the Elric series in my pending stack to read. I was told that if I liked Ice and Fire I’d like Elric.
That recommendation actually strikes me as very strange. I guess they both share a kind of "brutal realism" but they don't have too much in common I feel. That being said, Elric is very fun so far!
A lot of history about military equipment. Looking to read a book by Robert Ballard about the hunt for the Titanic and Bismarck soon.
When I used to play World of Tanks, I used to love reading about the history of the different variants in the game.
It's too bad they almost immediately abandoned all historical accuracy in the name of arcade fun. The tanks usually were given cannons they never were outfitted IRL, a lot of tanks in the game were straight up fiction, and the prototype and paper tanks dominated the actual gameplay while the IRL historic versions that dominated WW2 battlefields were relegated to uncompetitive also rans.
For whatever reason (probably mostly because I was mostly a console player), I never actually got into the more historically accurate games like War Thunder and Armored Warfare.
It's been so long I honestly can't recall the last book I read.
Scifi "Shards of Earth" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Before that a different fantastic series by same entitled "Children of Time." Also reading "Holocaust Encyclopedia" by Academic Research Media. Wierd, no author. Before that in nonfiction "Arianity" by Orion Starfire. Great book tying together Aryans, other races, atlantis, giants, ancient high technology, Jesus, other things.
Arianity sounds interesting. UFO/Paranormal/Ancient Civilizations are a guilty pleasure of mine and you do have reports of nordics or the whole Nordic theory with Antarctica or the Pleiades theory
These are re-reads but for me, I finished Without Remorse. And am almost done with Rainbow Six. Which has parallel elements to Covid and gain of function.
What is Without Remorse about? I got Rainbow Six hardback at an estate sale but haven’t read it yet
Without Remorse is the origin into one of the main characters in the Clancy universe origins. Without spoiling too much it is set towards the end of Vietnam War and a Navy seal is back in the U.S. and an issue develops with a group of black heroin/pimps dealers who wrong him and he gets revenge… without having remorse. It’s a good read. You could find the audiobook too. The Amazon movie is total blasphemy to the book and completely changes the entire story so don’t pay any attention to it.
Currently on The Monk by Matthew Lewis. Just finished Born in Blood which showed the fall of the Knights Templar and how the remnants created the rise of the Freemasons.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/823654.Born_in_Blood
That sounds fascinating. I actually first learned about Knights Templar through a PS1 game in 99. Thanks for the link.
I'm reading all the books of the Septuagint that aren't in the Protestant OT. I'm almost done with Maccabees and after I finish Baruch I'll be done. I have Cotton Mather's "On Witchcraft" waiting for me after that. He was the lead prosecutor of the Salem witch trials who basically is defending their actions and documenting what went down. I read the introduction and he said Colonial New England was so spirit-filled that no one drank alcohol, swore, or worked on Sundays. Their righteousness made them a target for the enemy. He also said there was an attempt on his life. Disclaimer: I don't believe the witches were just herbalist spinsters but I'd like to find out for myself from a first-hand account.
I’ve always wanted to read the Septuagint. I’ve read some apocryphal books like Gospel of Thomas and Enoch. That Salem book sounds interesting
There's only 7 missing books so it's a quick read. So far I've really enjoyed Soloman's Wisdom and the story in Tobit about Archangel Raphael. Once I get through this, my goal is to read through the rest of the OT from a Septuagint-based translation and see what stands out. My understanding is that the Masoretic text omitted scripture that points to Jesus as the Messiah. I also read that the Septuagint, besides being compiled before Christ, was translated by 70 Jews who were each separated individually so that (one of the Ptolomy's?) would get an accurate translation for his library.
Enoch is great! Check out Jasher and Jubilees too. I have a book full of Gospel apocrypha, I haven't completed it yet, but it's really interesting. The book of Adam and Eve is very sad. Do you have an opinion on apocrypha in general as being edifying or if we should avoid it? I've heard some pastors say the Bible is sufficient, but whose Bible, which translation? KJV is Masoretic, for example. Then unless you deep-dive into Enoch/similar, it makes no sense why The Lord would command the Israelites to destroy the inhabitants of the promised land, and I can see why non-believers/critics would say the Lord as described in the OT comes across as especially harsh. They use stronger words for Him, but you know what I mean.
That’s an interesting discussion. I’ve heard a number of theories concerning the God of the old and New Testament. I don’t see any harm in reading the apocrypha. I know the Bible quotes the book of Enoch and Jesus makes reference to Solomon casting out demons which is from an apocryphal book.
Yes, the Bible quotes Enoch and Jasher in a way that sounds like the books were common knowledge. Joshua 10:12-13 "On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar." Also 2 Cor 11:14 "And no wonder: for Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light." is similar to a story from the book of Adam and Eve. Apostle Paul as a Pharisee was educated on Jewish law, I believe had formal education for it, so you have to wonder what books they included in the curriculum.
Then there is the Gospel of Peter. I heard they didn’t put it in the Bible because it says he’ll is not eternal but I need to research that more
Interesting. That topic is a debate even in the mainstream Christian circles- whether a merciful God would have souls suffer for eternity. I don't have the answer. I also heard a criticism of Enoch where is supposedly says after he was taken up to heaven, he took on the name "Metatron" and we're encouraged to pray to him. But I don't remember reading that part, so I don't know.
I don’t remember reading about that in Enoch. As for hell I’ve heard all the theories from the universalists to the eternal torment and everything in between. That is a deep discussion
Forcing my way through Fulgrim which I find boring, chipping away at the Power Broker which is a tank. Trying to find my copy of House of Leaves to actually read it after owning it for almost a decade.
And for fun Harrassment Architecture.
Paperback or digital format, and do you know any good telegram groups to join?
Library lol and there are no good telegram groups.
My mom had me read the Screwtape Letters at about the same age, I'll have to go back and reread it too!
It’s really good. We also read Pilgrim’s Progress together when I was little. Another one you should check out.
Caines Law, and it's a struggle. Heroes Die is one of my favorite books of all time, and next two books were decent, but this last one is practically unreadable. I don't know what he was thinking with it. No wonder it crashed and burned.
I've been going through 33 Strategems of War and Mastery, both by Robert Greene.
I'm waiting for my copy of All Tomorrows to come in then I'm gonna read the fuck out of that nightmare fuel.
What’s that about?
After thousands of years of colonial war and genetic drift across a galactic empire mankind encounter a hyper advanced alien species that see humanity as infidels. They punish them all across the galaxy with a wave of their hand mutating humans into horrific organisms designed to maximize suffering or minimize intelligence then after fucking with humanity for a few hundred thousand years they leave and the human condition evolves over millions of years into further genetic drift, some going exintict others regaining civilization and beyond.
"what really makes you Ill". A complete expose of virus theory hoax. Next book is "draining the swamp". A book written by Harvey Barnard. Deep state has gone through a lot of effort to keep these book out of our hands
I am intrigued. Thanks!
I'm reading a book on AI, Dracula, Delicious in Dungeon, and Twitter for AI posts.
The previous books were a book on AI, Akira, and A Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol. How was that? I haven't read any Dickens since highschool.
It's way more interesting the more you know about history.
Love that book. Read it for the first time a few years ago and I watch it every Christmas season
Muppets are the best. I think Flintstones are way more accurate than they should be.
I really love reading, but I don’t have time for it.