The Transylvanian Trilogy: Volume I. They were counted. by Miklós Bánffy.

Selected Poems of Li Po and Tu Fu that I'm bringing on vacation :cool:

La invención de Morel by Adolofo Bioy Caseres

Answering Moral Skepticism - Shelly Kegan

Finally!

I really enjoyed that one. What did you think?

I place that book among the most over-rated books of all time. — Hanover

Agreed, along with "Moby Dick", "Red Badge of Courage",that Atticus/Gregory Peck yarn by what's her name..Harper's Crossing? , "My Brother Jack", and Xavier Herbert's "Poor fellow,My Country..or whatever it was called": just to deter the impression of national bias.
Basically, most of the high school "books/author you should read". Blatant brainwashing...as it was called way back then.

cynical smile

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
by Yuval Noah Harari

I really enjoyed that one. What did you think? — I like sushi

Yeah, definitely a classic.

Made me want to climb a mountain ... sadly, I still haven't :( More fool me!

Agreed, along with "Moby Dick", "Red Badge of Courage",that Atticus/Gregory Peck yarn by what's her name..Harper's Crossing? , "My Brother Jack", and Xavier Herbert's "Poor fellow,My Country..or whatever it was called": just to deter the impression of national bias.
Basically, most of the high school "books/author you should read". Blatant brainwashing...as it was called way back then. — kazan

I liked Moby Dick and to Kill a Mocking Bird.

“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”

I just thought Great Gatsby was greatly over-rated. My favorite hotel though is the Jekyll Island Club, which captures that Great Gatsby wealth thing. I'm going there this weekend to celebrate the independence of my great nation from the oppressive Brits. For hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.

Made me want to climb a mountain ... sadly, I still haven't :( More fool me! — I like sushi

Find a metaphorical mountain to climb. You're less likely to die.

Currently reading:

Naming and Necessity, by Kripke - Feels like I should get through this.
The Magician of Lublin, by Isaac Bashevis Singer - Half way through it. Still trying to find out how the piece of shit main character Yasha is going to be given some redeeming quality.
Wittgenstein on Forms of Life, By Anna Boncopagni - it's one of the Cambridge "Elements" books where it concisely address a topic five people care about.
The Brothers Karamazov - I think I'll post this everytime because I'll never get through it. The problem is I can't remember what I last read with all the names and stuff. Maybe I'll just enjoy a Wiki read of it.

The Transylvanian Trilogy: Volume II. They Were Found Wanting by Miklós Bánffy.

started The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties by Timothy Brook a few days back

Donald Davidson's "Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation." An anthology of his essays, so small self contained chunks, but still dense. Each paragraph or so I end up with a 20 minute ChatGpt conversation. Maybe that's ironic because AI seems to understand fully composed sentences without reliance upon Davidson's theory of meaning, which seems to require belief, which AI lacks.

Modernity and the Holocaust by Zygmunt Bauman.

I've been meaning to read Bauman for years, and I happened upon this one, which happens to work very well in support of the Adorno reading, since it provides a concrete sociological grounding for Adorno’s abstractions.

The nutshell is that the Holocaust was not a break with, or a regression from, modernity, but represented its hitherto unsuspected potential. But Bauman seems significantly more optimistic than Adorno.

EDIT: The suspicion arises that sociology, a paradigmatic product of modernity, was itself in some sense implicated in the Holocaust. Bauman so far hasn’t made that claim explicitly but it seems to be an underlying worry.

In Ascension by Martin McInnes

Una magia modesta by Adolfo Bioy Casares.

A collection of fabulous short stories written with the excellence that Casares was known for.

Jungle Tales by Horacio Quiroga.

A beautiful compilation of fables. Some of them are infantile, but they are pretty good. Quiroga was one of the most important narrators of Uruguay.

Came upon this word in Japanese that has no English equivalent:

"Tsundoku (積ん読) is a Japanese word that describes the act of buying books and letting them pile up without reading them."

Less than Nothing by Slavoj Žižek.

Sort of a last word from him. He has played a kind of jester in the past. Not here. A scene upon the agora.

Embarrassingly just picked up Spinozas Ethics

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

The Transylvanian Trilogy: Volume III. You are torn to pieces. by Miklós Bánffy.

Excellent! I really enjoyed reading this trilogy. I learnt many things about the Austro-Hungarian Empire and why the First World War happened. A great compilation of witnesses from that period of time. :up:

The Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

El Bataraz by Mauricio Rosencof.

James by Percival Everett

A retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s viewpoint. In the first chapter, Jim is on Miss Watson’s porch paying close attention to Tom and Huck’s shenanigans. They believe Jim is asleep but of course he needs to stay woke.

Had to drop the newest Murakami after reading 30% of the book, his quality has dropped quite a bit since 1Q84, this meditative side is very boring to me.

Now nearly finished with Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, very good.

Had to drop the newest Murakami after reading 30% of the book — Manuel

It doesn’t get any better after 30% so you’re not missing anything.

It doesn’t get any better after 30% so you’re not missing anything. — praxis

That was the vibe I was getting too, thanks for confirming it. Too many books to read to finish one you are not enjoying.

:up: