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Grand unified books thread

Started by Syt, March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM

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Savonarola

Quote from: Syt on November 10, 2016, 01:11:57 AM
Quote from: Savonarola on November 09, 2016, 08:26:22 PM
How I hate it when the joke is on me. <_<

What's up next, "It Can't Happen Here"? :P

I hope it's not a sign, but one of the books I posted about here in the post before post I quoted was "The Origins of Totalitarianism."
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Malthus

Halfway though Jungle of Stone. It's a great read, though mostly taken from Stephens' own work, there's a lot of added detail.

The description of Catherwood's initial despair at attempting to draw Mayan sculpture really struck home to me - I've attempted the same thing, so I know exactly what he was talking about: the ornamentation and concepts are so alien to western-trained artists as to be basically incomprehensible; it is very hard to draw things you seriously don't understand, even with tools like a camera lucida (which I for one never used). Plus, the sheer complexity of it is daunting; plus he was drawing them in most uncertain conditions - in the middle of a malarial jungle during a civil war. Yet he eventually succeeded so well his drawings are still referenced today. 
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

The Brain

I like browsing Amazon. They have really good recommendations in different categories.

Women want me. Men want to be with me.

garbon

In Amazon's recommendations to me, there's DIY tools which is a picture of a lockpick set. :hmm:
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

CountDeMoney

Quote from: garbon on November 19, 2016, 10:05:15 AM
In Amazon's recommendations to me, there's DIY tools which is a picture of a lockpick set. :hmm:

Actually, that is a really, really helpful skill to learn. :unsure: You know, like a hobby.

11B4V

Quote from: The Brain on November 19, 2016, 09:39:36 AM
I like browsing Amazon. They have really good recommendations in different categories.



Didn't know you were a fan.
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

The Brain

Quote from: 11B4V on November 19, 2016, 03:38:43 PM
Quote from: The Brain on November 19, 2016, 09:39:36 AM
I like browsing Amazon. They have really good recommendations in different categories.



Didn't know you were a fan.

Gardening is my escape from the cares and worries of everyday life.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Archy

Quote from: garbon on November 19, 2016, 10:05:15 AM
In Amazon's recommendations to me, there's DIY tools which is a picture of a lockpick set. :hmm:
They think you're a gentleman master thief :lol:

garbon

Quote from: Archy on November 21, 2016, 06:20:25 AM
Quote from: garbon on November 19, 2016, 10:05:15 AM
In Amazon's recommendations to me, there's DIY tools which is a picture of a lockpick set. :hmm:
They think you're a gentleman master thief :lol:

Actually just looked again and it isn't only a lockpick set, it comes with a lock too as it is a practice set.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Grey Fox

That's a very marketable black market skill to have. Even excluding the gentleman cambrioleur career. People get locked out of their apartments all the time.
Colonel Caliga is Awesome.

garbon

Quote from: Grey Fox on November 21, 2016, 10:32:40 AM
That's a very marketable black market skill to have. Even excluding the gentleman cambrioleur career. People get locked out of their apartments all the time.

For a good portion of the year, one could break into my flat using a credit card. -_-

When I was in NYC, I had experience breaking into my apt via the fire escape and a window that couldn't lock. I also had visions of being killed SVU style given how they had plots involving such a break-in. :Embarrass:
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Syt

Ordered two books for Christmas:

Roger Crowley - Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Impire (really enjoyed his books Empires of the Sea, and the one about the rise of Venice)
Richard J. Evans - The Pursuit of Power: Europe, 1815-1914
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Malthus

Quote from: Syt on November 23, 2016, 09:12:52 AM
Ordered two books for Christmas:

Roger Crowley - Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Impire (really enjoyed his books Empires of the Sea, and the one about the rise of Venice)
Richard J. Evans - The Pursuit of Power: Europe, 1815-1914

Thanks for mentioning the new Crowley book - I too liked the other two. Will look into this.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Syt

In German,  there's still no alternative to the Bergengrün translation of War and Peace. It's the only one to make an effort to preserve as much of the French dialogue as possibleinstead of translating it, too.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.