What book are you reading?

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- TheDashingRabbit
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #840 - October 06, 2012, 11:08 PM

Picked up a copy of Hitch 22 - A memoir from the library on Thursday.

The first two chapters about his mother and father are just so filled with passion and written so eloquently.

I can't wait to see what gems the rest of the book holds.

In my opinion a life without curiosity is not a life worth living
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #841 - October 07, 2012, 10:51 AM

The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness - Only got it today based on a recommendation. Can't wait to dig into it.

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405120193.html

Its cheaper on amazon. though.

Left the forum: http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=22997
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #842 - October 11, 2012, 08:39 PM

Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham, a biography by Agnes De Mille.

I can't put this down. Absolutely stunning.

Too fucking busy, and vice versa.
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #843 - October 11, 2012, 08:48 PM

Currently:

Once I'm done with the above:

"I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want."
Muhammad Ali
- billy
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #844 - October 28, 2012, 01:32 AM

I just downloaded Kitab Al-Tawhid (Book of Monotheism) by Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab - yes, that Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism, for only 77p from Kindle.

Should be an interesting look into the mind of the founder of salafism / wahabbism

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/B008ZSMWQY/ref=sib_dp_kd#reader-link

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
God is Love.
Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
- Serendipity
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #845 - October 30, 2012, 02:44 PM

I'm currently reading 'Imam Abu Hanifa's Al-Fiqh al-Akbar Explained.' It's about Islamic theology, and is quite interesting.

Quote from the intro: 'Studying philosophy without prior grounding in Islamic theology is disconcerting and can make one question his or her faith. Certain extreme cases - Allah forbid- end in outright apostasy. Only sincere believers who are blessed by Allah are saved.'

'Let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.'

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- Stardust
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #846 - October 30, 2012, 02:53 PM

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Viktor E. Frankl

'Life is just the extreme expression of complex chemistry' - Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #847 - October 30, 2012, 05:53 PM

Quote from: Serendipity on October 30, 2012, 02:44 PM
I'm currently reading 'Imam Abu Hanifa's Al-Fiqh al-Akbar Explained.' It's about Islamic theology, and is quite interesting.

Quote from the intro: 'Studying philosophy without prior grounding in Islamic theology is disconcerting and can make one question his or her faith. Certain extreme cases - Allah forbid- end in outright apostasy. Only sincere believers who are blessed by Allah are saved.'

Been there, done that!

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

- John Keats
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #848 - October 31, 2012, 03:52 PM

Quote from: Serendipity on October 30, 2012, 02:44 PM
I'm currently reading 'Imam Abu Hanifa's Al-Fiqh al-Akbar Explained.' It's about Islamic theology, and is quite interesting.

Quote from the intro: 'Studying philosophy without prior grounding in Islamic theology is disconcerting and can make one question his or her faith. Certain extreme cases - Allah forbid- end in outright apostasy. Only sincere believers who are blessed by Allah are saved.'

Read and studied it under a "Shaykh".
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #849 - October 31, 2012, 04:13 PM

Quote from: Sprout on October 04, 2012, 08:10 PM
Dreams from my father by Barack Obama

Great book, very well written and very interesting.

^My parents bought me that some years ago, I wasn't interested in politics much so never read it. Sitting on the bookshelf back at home.

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Viktor E. Frankl

'Life is just the extreme expression of complex chemistry' - Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #850 - October 31, 2012, 04:36 PM

Well, I loved it, I finished it and am reading again, but you might not like it.

"Nobody who lived through the '50s thought the '60s could've existed. So there's always hope."-Tuli Kupferberg

What apple stores are like.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8QmZWv-eBI
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #851 - November 03, 2012, 01:16 AM

Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Hecht

Quote
In the tradition of grand sweeping histories such as From Dawn To Decadence, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and A History of God, Hecht champions doubt and questioning as one of the great and noble, if unheralded, intellectual traditions that distinguish the Western mind especially-from Socrates to Galileo and Darwin to Wittgenstein and Hawking. This is an account of the world's greatest ‘intellectual virtuosos,' who are also humanity's greatest doubters and disbelievers, from the ancient Greek philosophers, Jesus, and the Eastern religions, to modern secular equivalents Marx, Freud and Darwin—and their attempts to reconcile the seeming meaninglessness of the universe with the human need for meaning,

This remarkable book ranges from the early Greeks, Hebrew figures such as Job and Ecclesiastes, Eastern critical wisdom, Roman stoicism, Jesus as a man of doubt, Gnosticism and Christian mystics, medieval Islamic, Jewish and Christian skeptics, secularism, the rise of science, modern and contemporary critical thinkers such as Schopenhauer, Darwin, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, the existentialists.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
God is Love.
Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #852 - November 03, 2012, 08:46 AM

I need some inspiration, I'm starting with Malcolm Gladwell again. What the dog saw and other adventures.

"Nobody who lived through the '50s thought the '60s could've existed. So there's always hope."-Tuli Kupferberg

What apple stores are like.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8QmZWv-eBI
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #853 - November 03, 2012, 08:49 AM

Malcolm Gladwell sucks. He strings a bunch of semi related studies together to form a "grand narrative". He's not really that good.

So once again I'm left with the classic Irish man's dilemma, do I eat the potato or do I let it ferment so I can drink it later?
My political philosophy below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwGat4i8pJI&feature=g-vrec
Just kidding, here are some true heros
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBTgvK6LQqA
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #854 - November 03, 2012, 08:51 AM

I like him, but fair enough. I agree that sometimes the conclusions are wrong but I at least like the stories.

"Nobody who lived through the '50s thought the '60s could've existed. So there's always hope."-Tuli Kupferberg

What apple stores are like.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8QmZWv-eBI
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #855 - November 03, 2012, 09:48 PM

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

- John Keats
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #856 - November 03, 2012, 09:55 PM

Quote from: Omaar Khayaam on September 15, 2012, 07:00 PM
Anna Karenina.

Sweet! And Keira Knightley is playing Anna in a new Hollywood-movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPGLRO3fZnQ

Whats most fascinating with this novel is that Tolstoy started with an intention of condemning the main character Anna, but it ended with a criticism of the hypocrisy that the society was filled with and sympathy with Anna. At the end of the day - the fault lies not in the individual (Anna), but society, culture and traditions.

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

- John Keats
- Jema
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #857 - November 08, 2012, 06:23 PM

Fascinating stuff.

Started from the bottom, now I'm here
Started from the bottom, now my whole extended family's here

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- Kodanshi
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #858 - November 08, 2012, 10:11 PM

Gay Animal Porn? Nice!
- billy
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #859 - November 08, 2012, 10:28 PM

Just read tonight the first chapter of a book called 'God Against The Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism" by Johnathan Kirsch.

Its really brilliant. Mostly focuses (so far) on Christianity, Judaism, Rome, Greece, Egypt. But just reading this Biblical stuff is a reminder of how much the god of Islam, and Islam itself, echoes the spirit of Old Testament Christianity.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
God is Love.
Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #860 - November 08, 2012, 10:33 PM

"Old Testament Christianity"

Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West.
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #861 - November 08, 2012, 10:43 PM

I mean the jealousy, fury, rage, anger and punishing fearsome nature of the Biblical god.....

There's no other way you can cut it - there is an exclusivist intolerance hard wired into monotheism

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
God is Love.
Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
- deusvult
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #862 - November 09, 2012, 12:01 AM

The Lincoln Douglas Debates [Paperback]

Quote
The seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held during the Illinois senatorial race of 1858 are among the most important statements in American political history, dramatic struggles over the issues that would tear apart the nation in the Civil War: the virtues of a republic and the evils of slavery. In this acclaimed book, Holzer brings us as close as possible to what Lincoln and Douglas actually said, Using transcripts of Lincoln's speeches as recorded by the pro-Douglas newspaper, and vice-versa, he offers the most reliable, unedited record available of the debates. Also included are background on the sites, crowd comments, and a new introduction.A vivid, boisterous picture of politics during our most divisive period.This fresh, fascinating examination.. deserves a place in all American history collection.-Library Journal

So once again I'm left with the classic Irish man's dilemma, do I eat the potato or do I let it ferment so I can drink it later?
My political philosophy below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwGat4i8pJI&feature=g-vrec
Just kidding, here are some true heros
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBTgvK6LQqA
- Jema
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #863 - November 09, 2012, 02:13 PM

Quote from: Kodanshi on November 08, 2012, 10:11 PM
Gay Animal Porn? Nice!

It's all for the sake of science. I promise.

Started from the bottom, now I'm here
Started from the bottom, now my whole extended family's here

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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #864 - November 09, 2012, 02:17 PM

Serendipity find in the library.

James Hider The Spiders of Allah.

Amazon reviewer notes:

Quote
In Britain going to church on a Sunday counts as religious extremism

He terrifyingly as an atheist notes how al - Qaeda etc are acting out Hollywood horror movies but in real life.

Quote
the vast Hollywood blockbuster that al - Qaeda engineered on Sepember 11, 2001, the terrorist ratings spectacular to beat all others

Quote
In religion, we are all extras in god's everlasting extravaganza

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #865 - November 09, 2012, 03:07 PM

Quote from: billy on October 28, 2012, 01:32 AM
I just downloaded Kitab Al-Tawhid (Book of Monotheism) by Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab - yes, that Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism, for only 77p from Kindle.

Should be an interesting look into the mind of the founder of salafism / wahabbism

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/B008ZSMWQY/ref=sib_dp_kd#reader-link

It;s free here: http://www.islamicweb.com/beliefs/creed/abdulwahab/

I was given the link ages ago by a wahhabi chick from Leeds, ah the good ol'times.

Left the forum: http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=22997
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #866 - November 09, 2012, 03:19 PM

Quote from: Serendipity on October 30, 2012, 02:44 PM
I'm currently reading 'Imam Abu Hanifa's Al-Fiqh al-Akbar Explained.' It's about Islamic theology, and is quite interesting.

Quote from the intro: 'Studying philosophy without prior grounding in Islamic theology is disconcerting and can make one question his or her faith. Certain extreme cases - Allah forbid- end in outright apostasy. Only sincere believers who are blessed by Allah are saved.'

That is actually a fallacy, its a No-True Scots Man Fallacy.

Basically its rhetoric. Only "sincere believers" these are non-nonsensical terms, any believer by definition is sincere, and "blessed by Allah are saved". So say a Muslim who happens to read philosophy, and then abandons Islam (due to logical reasoning) will always be considered insincere, or not blessed by Allah. That kind of reasoning is purely fallacious.

no true scotsman
You made what could be called an appeal to purity as a way to dismiss relevant criticisms or flaws of your argument.
In this form of faulty reasoning one's belief is rendered unfalsifiable because no matter how compelling the evidence is, one simply shifts the goalposts so that it wouldn't apply to a supposedly 'true' example. This kind of post-rationalization is a way of avoiding valid criticisms of one's argument. - http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/no-true-scotsman

Normally, I encourage reading books from all-sides including lopsided partisan nonsense, but with an intro quote like that, my mind would just explode by way of me, face-palming my way through the entire book at "gem" like quotes, like those.

Firstly, if you're going to read anything start with reading critical thinking and logic, and then from there move onto other stuff.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Critical-Thinking-Skills-Developing-Effective/dp/0230285295/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352475071&sr=1-1

Left the forum: http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=22997
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #867 - November 10, 2012, 11:26 AM

My book is free on Kindle this weekend if anyone's interested.

I'm promoting poverty - my own.

UK site: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008FWBYEQ
US site: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008FWBYEQ

Thanks again to Abood and Deusvult who actually bought the damn thing. It meant a great deal to me.
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #868 - November 10, 2012, 02:09 PM

I had no idea you were an author. That looks great. Nice one. Keep at it.

"Nobody who lived through the '50s thought the '60s could've existed. So there's always hope."-Tuli Kupferberg

What apple stores are like.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8QmZWv-eBI
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Re: What book are you reading?
Reply #869 - November 11, 2012, 12:29 PM

Thanks, Sprout.

I'm about a third of the way through a rough-as-fuck first draft of the next one - set in the Caribbean, so very drunk and politically incorrect. Apologies in advance.

The book's free at the above links till midnight Sunday Los Angeles time (whenever the hell that is).
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