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What's on your night stand that's good to read?

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Yes, I searched and know that there are 2 threads, here and here, that already ask what you read, in general.

I'm more interested in what you're reading right now.

I have a bad habit of starting lots of books simultaneously, so here goes:

The Objectivist Forum - great read. Highly recommended.

Viable Values (Rand's Normative Ethics is on deck)

John Adams - McCullough's great bio

A Town Called Alice - Shute (recommendation from TOF)

Triathlon Training Plans (yes, I have the bug again)

My Treo is loaded up with Cooper's Leatherstocking series (thanks tjgl!), of which I just finished The Deerslayer while on vacation.

Your turn.

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I'm reading a couple as well:

Cold mountian-charles frazier

Auto Repair for Dummies

and How to Stay Alive in the Woods-Bradford Angier

I can't stay focused on any book that isn't by Ayn Rand, so I kind of tend to keep all of them in my car, to read in traffic. Thats not too good of a habit either...

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Think (a periodical on philosophy)

Sidhartha by Herman Hesse

1776 by McCullough

The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury (highly recommended, especially the three-page story titled "The Lake")

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (sp?)

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1776 by McCullough

What are your thoughts on 1776? I've been pretty impressed by McCullough as a biographer. The founding is a period of interest for me (I have Founding Brothers and Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, also "on deck")

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Currently on my night stand and/or in my backpack:

The Objective Standard - Spring 2007 Issue

Hownblower and the "Hotspur" by C.S. Forester

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

The Art of Non-Fiction by Ayn Rand (for OAC class)

Tape lectures currently in my car:

The History of Philosophy by Leonard Peikoff (I'm on lecture 24 of 24!)

Psycho-Epistemology I by Harry Binswanger

All good stuff!

--Dan Edge

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What are your thoughts on 1776? I've been pretty impressed by McCullough as a biographer. The founding is a period of interest for me (I have Founding Brothers and Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, also "on deck")

I think it's fantastic, it definitely makes the people in the narrative more human and familiar. I have a whole new respect for George Washington and I never even knew of the greatness of some of our other founding fathers like Nathanael Greene. I also, begrudgingly, have a slightly greater respect for King George III as well.

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The Fantastic Voyage by Kurzweil

Another to add to my science list I think. How are you finding it so far? I used to do market assessments for pharmaceutical opportunities and after learning about the impact of metabolic disorders (obesity related diabetes, etc), and what is already known about maintaining cardiac health, I fully plan on being a fit octogenarian.

A Steady Trade by Tristan Jones, Meltdown by Patrick J Michaels

How much does this focus on sea life vs Wales? If it is a book for adventure sailors, I'm there I think. my great grandfather ran away from home in Norway at age 14 to sail in the merchant marines, and I think I got some of his blood because sailing is zen for me.

Any thoughts on the Hornblower series? (Another sailing series!) Looks very interesting.

I think it's fantastic, it definitely makes the people in the narrative more human and familiar. I have a whole new respect for George Washington and I never even knew of the greatness of some of our other founding fathers like Nathanael Greene. I also, begrudgingly, have a slightly greater respect for King George III as well.

When you look at everything that had to happen in a short period, and the technology available at the time, it makes me appreciate how important ideas and their transmission were, and how broadly the right sorts of ideas were actually held. Makes today's culture seem so spiritually poor.

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Any thoughts on the Hornblower series? (Another sailing series!) Looks very interesting.

Howdy,

The Horatio Hornblower series is classic, particularly if you are into military history. It's difficult to get used to all the sea-faring terminology ("Stay the main tops'ls, wear the ship, and put her on the starboard tack, if you please!"), but it's fun. You follow the hero, Horatio Hornblower, from his career as a lowly Midshipman all the up to Admiral through many books in the series. Hornblower is brave, intelligent, calm, rational, tough, witty, and a man of integrity. He's one of those classic heroes. I can't get enough! "Hotspur" is the third book in a long series, and I will eventually own them all.

--Dan Edge

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Ah, but I know the sea-faring jargon. Luff the jib and come about! :D

Thanks, I'll put them on my list!

Edited by KendallJ
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These look really interesting to me. How are they?
I ought to have given a synopsis for each, rather than just titles. Better late than never...

The Mind's Best Work - Perkins (Highly recommended)

A good text by a Harvard psychologist that compiles a lot of research on creative-thinking; not a "self-help" book. Objectivists might classify it as a book about particular "psycho-epistemological" processes. It tries to answer things like: what type of thought processes take place during creative thinking? How are they similar to or different from other types of thinking? Was recommended by Harry Binswanger in one of his lecture courses.

Envisioning Information - Tufte (Nice enough)

The book is light reading, about the design of diagrams, screens, maps, graphs, page-design etc. Tufte presents lots of examples and tries to induce some principles from them. I preferred Tufte's other book "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information"; but that's partly because that subject area of more personal interest (that "Quant Info" book was specifically about business graphs, climate graphs, and the like).

The Collected Verse of Edgar A. Guest - Guest (Okay, if you like poetry)

Guest is not the best poet ever, and his poems tend to be light and simple. Still, he's good for a light read, and very consistent.

The Bottomless Well - Huber and Mills (Good, if you're serious about the subject)

This book is an antidote to those who propound the "peak oil" theory. However, don't think it simply repeats the ideas in Julian Simon's "Unlimited Resource". This is not light reading; the target audience is someone who wants an in-depth understanding of current technologies like electric cars, home-based power plants and possible future directions

Aside: Kendall, thanks for starting this thread. It's nice to have a thread where one can briefly share values like good books, without having to do a lengthy review.

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I recently finished this and I thought it was, well, slightly better than average. B- material.

I agree; however, Jen, you skipped the part about telling me what was on your night stand that was good to read. :D

My Barnes & Noble wish list is only half full yet.

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...You follow the hero, Horatio Hornblower, from his career as a lowly Midshipman all the up to Admiral through many books in the series. Hornblower is brave, intelligent, calm, rational, tough, witty, and a man of integrity.
I enjoyed the videos of the Hornblower series. Our local library has many of them.
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Presently reading Brian Simpson's "Markets don't fail!". I will do a book review eventually.

Finished reading Robert Jordan's "Knife of Dreams" the other day - yay, he actually moved the story along... a bit.

Yestereday I nicked a library copy of Michael Chrichton's "State of Fear" from my parents, which I have two weeks to devour before it has to go back.

JJM

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Presently reading Brian Simpson's "Markets don't fail!". I will do a book review eventually.

This one is on my nightstand too (ok I didn't list everything!). I find it a bit academic, but very essentialized. Good starter point to develop arguments for capitalism.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am currently reading -The Nature of Physical Reality- by Henry Margenau (published 1950, McGraw Hill). Margenau disposes of logical positivism by showing the necessity of constructs that are not the immediate products of perception. In short, we have to think abstractly to do physics at all. He also dispatches Kant and the Synthetic A Priori with no reference at all to Popperian falsification. An interesting book, even if it is a bit dated.

Bob Kolker

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  • 2 weeks later...
I agree; however, Jen, you skipped the part about telling me what was on your night stand that was good to read. :lol:

Sorry, Kendall, I don't have any books on my nightstand, I finish them too quickly!

I did just finish reading Freedom & Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull, and I'm re-reading Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett (not his best book but I'm a big Pratchett fan). I haven't been reading much lately because I'm broke, I just moved, and I'm working on my novel.

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