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Grand unified books thread

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

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garbon

#2265
July 06, 2014, 07:35:39 PM
Mama Rice has been writing about werewolves lately.
"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

#2266
July 06, 2014, 10:20:36 PM
I'm reading The Summoner by Gail Z Martin.


It's a fun RPG story, all the traditional classes our covered too.
Colonel Caliga is Awesome.

Savonarola

#2267
July 23, 2014, 08:25:37 AM
I've been reading the Ralph Griffith translation of the Atharvaveda.  Some of his translations are odd; my favorite is a hymn entitled:

The hyperbolical glorification of the Vrātya or Aryan Non-conformist

I think I'll start calling myself "The Aryan Non-conformist."   :cool:
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

Gups

#2268
July 23, 2014, 10:42:04 AM
Read a Stephen King for the first time in more than 20 years. About some bloke that goes back in time to stop the Kennedy murder. It was absolutely shite.

Currently Teddy Roosevelt biog, early days but really enjoying it so far. Middlesex by Euginedes- ditto.

Razgovory

#2269
July 23, 2014, 10:44:37 AM
Quote from: Gups on July 23, 2014, 10:42:04 AM
Read a Stephen King for the first time in more than 20 years. About some bloke that goes back in time to stop the Kennedy murder. It was absolutely shite.


Does he become an Ayatollah or something?
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Malthus

#2270
July 23, 2014, 10:47:01 AM
Reading Heart of a Dog by Bulgakov. Entertaining, but nowhere near as good as Master and Margarita.

Read Notebook of a Country Doctor after seeing the TV series. Very, very good.
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

Gups

#2271
July 23, 2014, 11:03:34 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on July 23, 2014, 10:44:37 AM
Quote from: Gups on July 23, 2014, 10:42:04 AM
Read a Stephen King for the first time in more than 20 years. About some bloke that goes back in time to stop the Kennedy murder. It was absolutely shite.


Does he become an Ayatollah or something?

[spoiler]No. But for some unfathomable reason, saving Kennedy's life leads to major earthquakes everywhere in the world, the election of George Wallace and a nuclear war. But that's teh least of the books problems. It's a badly-written, turgid, over-long mess[/spoiler]

Razgovory

#2272
July 23, 2014, 11:05:21 AM
I can understand earth quakes, but George Wallace?  That's just absurd.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Razgovory

#2273
July 23, 2014, 11:10:18 AM
I probably should have used that spoiler thing before I talked about Kennedy Ennosigaeus.  Now that's a word you don't get to drop into conversation everyday!
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Habbaku

#2274
July 23, 2014, 11:25:00 AM
Quote from: Gups on July 23, 2014, 10:42:04 AM
Read a Stephen King for the first time in more than 20 years. About some bloke that goes back in time to stop the Kennedy murder. It was absolutely shite.

Currently Teddy Roosevelt biog, early days but really enjoying it so far. Middlesex by Euginedes- ditto.

The Stephen King Kennedy book was a pretty obnoxious read, yeah.  I could not stand the nostalgia for the '60s that he brought up at each opportunity.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

Admiral Yi

#2275
July 23, 2014, 06:39:27 PM
Attracted by the catchy blurb "What Really Happened: Iran 1953, Congo 1961, Pakistan 1971, Chile 1973," I picked up a copy of Foreign Affairs.

It confirmed what I already thought about Iran--the conventional wisdom is completely overcooked.  The article on Chile went even further in limiting US involvement than I had previously thought.  On the other hand, US involvement in the Congo (specifically the ouster of Lumumba and the installation of Mobutu--at the time the *29* year old commander of the Congolese army) was much more extensive than I had thought.  I don't know why they included the Pakistan article; it doesn't fit with the others.

Also picked up Enders Game in paperback.

crazy canuck

#2276
July 23, 2014, 09:46:04 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 23, 2014, 06:39:27 PM
It confirmed what I already thought about Iran--the conventional wisdom is completely overcooked.  The article on Chile went even further in limiting US involvement than I had previously thought. 

Also picked up Enders Game in paperback.

So you went with works of pure fiction for your summer reading.  :thumbsup:

The Minsky Moment

#2278
July 23, 2014, 10:32:20 PM
The CV on Iran is based on the fact that Kermit Roosevelt boasted about how effective the CIA was, I presume he could not published without vetting it first which would suggest some jackass at CIA thought it was good PR to overplay the US role

Anyway takeyh is pretty sharp so I certainly wouldn't say its "fiction"

The chile piece was a good read but the author conceded interest up front

The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Syt

#2279
July 27, 2014, 05:50:52 AM
http://www.historytoday.com/blog/2014/06/personal-history-habsburg-europe

QuoteDuring the 19th century nationalist academics argued that their peoples had historic rights to various territories (usually including vast areas claimed by other peoples), but Winder shows that such claims were ludicrous: after chaotic centuries of internecine warfare, resulting in the frequent devastation of districts and endless shifting around of populations, all Balkan 'nations' were effectively mongrels and no one could really claim a historic right to anything.
:lol:
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.
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