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Recommend me a book...
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2017-07-30 at 3:35 PM UTC
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2017-07-30 at 3:38 PM UTC100% this:
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2017-07-30 at 6:48 PM UTCThe Stand [1978/Unabridged]] is an epic read.The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire!
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2017-07-30 at 7:20 PM UTChaha of course obbe suggest sam harris
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2017-07-30 at 8:16 PM UTC
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2017-07-30 at 8:17 PM UTC
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2017-07-30 at 8:38 PM UTCBlood Meridian
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2017-07-30 at 8:47 PM UTC
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2017-07-30 at 8:59 PM UTC
Originally posted by Open Your Mind Tell me why you think I like it.
I'm actually pretty surprised you like Harris. He's (in)famous for the extent of his reductionism and anti-islamic sentiment, at least on the spectrum you'd expect to see in "public intellectuals". Many suspect his pseudo-buddhist inclinations to be a mere rhetorical device, a nice trick to pull out in dialog with abrahamic theists.
Originally posted by hydromorphone Anything else? Come on, Lanny, you read a lot… you can thank a post, but not take 10 seconds to recommend SOMETHING? Even Captain Failco fucking recommended something…
Malice? MQ? Fuck… Anybody?
Dune is one of my favorites pieces of fiction of all time, but I'm not sure i'd recommend it having reread it every couple of years since childhood. I maintain it's a book with a lot of depth, touching on real philosophical issues and is a superb example of world building in a time and genre where that wasn't commonplace. However there's something distinctly, uhhh, masculine(?) about it. It does deal with gender, it's commonly referred to as feminist fiction for the wealth of strong female characters, but I can't help but feel in retrospect that many of those characters were just male characters with different pronouns, missing all but the superficial characteristics of femininity.
That isn't to say I think it's not worth reading for that reason, or that lack of compelling female characters is reason not to read a book at all but rather it's just a novel that's written from the perspective of a young teenaged boy and many of its aesthetic choices are very clearly aimed at that demographic, so I'm not sure how much a person would enjoy it if they're not that.
I read a few of Raymond Chandler's books recently. I particularly enjoyed The Big Sleep. It's genre fiction through and through but it captures an era and an aesthetic just perfectly. -
2017-07-31 at 1:09 AM UTC
Originally posted by Lanny I'm actually pretty surprised you like Harris. He's (in)famous for the extent of his reductionism and anti-islamic sentiment, at least on the spectrum you'd expect to see in "public intellectuals". Many suspect his pseudo-buddhist inclinations to be a mere rhetorical device, a nice trick to pull out in dialog with abrahamic theists.
Maybe I just have more diverse range of interests than you have previously realized. Obviously I don't agree with all his opinions but I do think some of his opinions are interesting for sure. -
2017-07-31 at 1:15 AM UTCharris isn't anti-islamic you liberal nuglord, have you ever read the koran? harris is very straight shooting in his observations. I like him, but he can be overbearing with his psuedo intellectualism just like some people here. I tend to favor his cultural discussions more than the spiritual ones
the koran is totally fucked man but the good thing is most muslims dont follow it to a t. -
2017-07-31 at 1:21 AM UTCIshmael
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2017-07-31 at 1:26 AM UTCAnother pretty epic read is Shadowland [Peter Straub/1980].
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2017-07-31 at 1:29 AM UTCThe Stand
Altered States
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
The Door To December
Anything written by Michael Crichton. I haven't read a single book of his that I didn't like.
Same for John Grisham. -
2017-07-31 at 1:30 AM UTCA lot of Agatha Christie's stuff is very good. One especially stands out: "And Then There Were None".
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2017-07-31 at 1:31 AM UTC
Originally posted by Discount Whore 2.0 have you ever read the koran?
Fucking have you? I have. And I'm basically an anti-theist, but Harris is very underhanded in the way he talks about the Koran. Arabic is a tricky fucking language. The koran is not nearly as war-oriented or any of that shit as Harris says. I wish there was a good way to convey that to someone who doesn't understand a language like Arabic. The koran literally isnt even clear about ANYTHING. The whole book is absolutely unlike anything else in how flexibly worded it is. It is an incredible piece of Arabic literature in its technical literary technique and finnesse. Imagine a book as cleverly and literarily densely packed as, say, Ulysses by Joyce. The koran is like 5x that. HArris is a fucking moron. Ground lost is lost forever, and for some reason people have lost ground to the point where everyone takes the Koran being violent as an accepted fact and has to argue ahead of that. -
2017-07-31 at 1:33 AM UTC
Originally posted by Discount Whore 2.0 harris isn't anti-islamic you liberal nuglord, have you ever read the koran?
Is reading the koran supposed to convince me that islam condones violence? That seems to be Harris' take, and along with his dilettante ethics it seems entirely fair to call him anti-islamic. I mean if you want to talk more generally it seems he'd agree to the statement "the world would be better without religion" so he's anti-religion, although Islam seems to be overrepresented as a target of his criticism.harris is very straight shooting in his observations. I like him, but he can be overbearing with his psuedo intellectualism just like some people here. I tend to favor his cultural discussions more than the spiritual ones
He publicizes some very old ideas with dubious attribution, although I can't really disagree with many of the ideas themselves. His knowledge of prior work is generally pretty poor, although he's gotten less retarded with time (End of Faith opened with a statement essentially tantamount to "philosophy is bullshit" and two books later he seems to have grasped a very crude form of utilitarianism).The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire! -
2017-07-31 at 1:41 AM UTC
Originally posted by Captain Falcon Fucking have you? I have. And I'm basically an anti-theist, but Harris is very underhanded in the way he talks about the Koran. Arabic is a tricky fucking language. The koran is not nearly as war-oriented or any of that shit as Harris says. I wish there was a good way to convey that to someone who doesn't understand a language like Arabic. The koran literally isnt even clear about ANYTHING. The whole book is absolutely unlike anything else in how flexibly worded it is. It is an incredible piece of Arabic literature in its technical literary technique and finnesse. Imagine a book as cleverly and literarily densely packed as, say, Ulysses by Joyce. The koran is like 5x that. HArris is a fucking moron. Ground lost is lost forever, and for some reason people have lost ground to the point where everyone takes the Koran being violent as an accepted fact and has to argue ahead of that.
You obviously havent listened to harris enough if you think he believes the koran is 'war oriented' or perhaps you are being defensive of your culture. But I never got that impression.
I invite you to source the koran here, as im sure you know the koran better than anyone else on this site. -
2017-07-31 at 1:42 AM UTC
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2017-07-31 at 1:50 AM UTC
