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Topic: Suggestions for the Book Club (Read 1178 times) |
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David Lucifer
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Enlighten me.
  
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Re:Suggestions for the Book Club
« Reply #1 on: 2004-09-17 13:47:35 » |
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Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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Casey
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Revere the skeptic.
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Re:Suggestions for the Book Club
« Reply #2 on: 2004-09-17 13:56:50 » |
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Are we suggesting only non-fiction items? A certain theme? Or, are fiction pieces alright? I've got quite a few books on my reading list - all fiction, all gifts. I'll be more than willing to add them to the list if it's cool with everyone.
Later on,
Casey
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Mermaid
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Bite me!
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Re:Suggestions for the Book Club
« Reply #3 on: 2004-09-18 08:30:41 » |
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I think that this is the right time to read Orwell's 1984.
online book: http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451524934/qid=1095510288/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/104-1316611-3483963?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
this idea inspired by a friend of Mermaid who dropped a 1984 bit while denouncing Laura Bush...a 1984 snippet that appropriately describes someone in our midst, I believe.
At the table on his left the man with the strident voice was still talking remorselessly away. A young woman who was perhaps his secretary, and who was sitting with her back to Winston, was listening to him and seemed to be eagerly agreeing with everything that he said. From time to time Winston caught some such remark as 'I think you're so right, I do so agree with you', uttered in a youthful and rather silly feminine voice. But the other voice never stopped for an instant, even when the girl was speaking. Winston knew the man by sight, though he knew no more about him than that he held some important post in the Fiction Department. He was a man of about thirty, with a muscular throat and a large, mobile mouth. His head was thrown back a little, and because of the angle at which he was sitting, his spectacles caught the light and presented to Winston two blank discs instead of eyes. What was slightly horrible, was that from the stream of sound that poured out of his mouth it was almost impossible to distinguish a single word. Just once Winston caught a phrase -'complete and final elimination of Goldsteinism'- jerked out very rapidly and, as it seemed, all in one piece, like a line of type cast solid. For the rest it was just a noise, a quack-quack-quacking. And yet, though you could not actually hear what the man was saying, you could not be in any doubt about its general nature. He might be denouncing Goldstein and demanding sterner measures against thought-criminals and saboteurs, he might be fulminating against the atrocities of the Eurasian army, he might be praising Big Brother or the heroes on the Malabar front -- it made no difference. Whatever it was, you could be certain that every word of it was pure orthodoxy, pure Ingsoc. As he watched the eyeless face with the jaw moving rapidly up and down, Winston had a curious feeling that this was not a real human being but some kind of dummy. It was not the man's brain that was speaking, it was his larynx. The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words, but it was not speech in the true sense: it was a noise uttered in unconsciousness, like the quacking of a duck.
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LenKen
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Mi caca es su caca.
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Re:Suggestions for the Book Club
« Reply #4 on: 2004-09-19 01:25:02 » |
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Ooh, I agree with Señor Lucifer: Csikszentmihalyi’s book Flow is a must-read. It goes a long way toward explaining how to enjoy life to the fullest—and, although the theory itself is fairly complex, the gist of it is that you need a challenge that matches your skills. When reading, for example, you want to read a book that isn’t too easy (which would lead to boredom) or too difficult (which would lead to anxiety). The greatest enjoyment is had when your skills match the challenge at hand (when you’re between boredom and anxiety).
But Buss’s book, The Evolution of Desire, is pretty good, too. As is Robert Wright’s book about evolutionary psychology, The Moral Animal.
But—wait—doesn’t Sean Hannity have a new book out? Hmm, I’ll hafta check that out to see if it’s as edifying and enlightening as Limbaugh’s stuff. I’ll get back to you on that. 
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One man’s frozen sperm is another man’s low-carb ice cream. 
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fishsuit
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Bananaramapajamas
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Re:Suggestions for the Book Club
« Reply #7 on: 2005-04-17 13:01:51 » |
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How about The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker. In it he makes a case for human nature, that you wouldn't think he'd need to. He lays out the history of anti-human reasoning ironically often taken up by humanity's causes.
Also a brilliant book is Matt Ridley's The Red Queen. It focuses on sex as part of the key feature in the evolution of all life. He uses (this is a good trick) other species as examples to compare with humans so as not to tread on any nerves.
Another book I love and have started a post for is The Meme Machine which blows my socks off. Simply put this book will change your outlook on life, and most of all yourself. It can explain a great many of the activities that might seem automatic to you.
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