What Do You Read?

Aesthetics Literature
21

Reading Aristotle right now.

Though one of my favorite authors is Terry Goodkind. I’m eagerly awaiting the new one that’s due out early 2005.

Yeah, Goodkind is fantastic.

I read a whole lot of historical fiction - the Camulod Chronicles was stellar, about Arthur’s ancestors, down to him, and the new book in that series is released this September.

Harry Turtledove is also good.

If anyone here has read the Camulod Chronicles and has a suggestion anything like it (not about King Arthur, but about a soldier’s life told with roughly the same amount of detail to war, love, thought, etc.), I’d greatly appreciate any suggestions.

22

Yeah, Goodkind is fantastic.

I’ve just barely started the Sword of Truth series. My brother has loaned some of the books to me, and I’m about halfway through the first one. I’m enjoying it so far.

23

I’ve just barely started the Sword of Truth series.  My brother has loaned some of the books to me, and I’m about halfway through the first one.  I’m enjoying it so far.

Next book is released this January. ;D

24

I mainly read self-help besides Ayn Rand.

I regard Atlas Shrugged partly as a self-help book.

My favourite self-help books except Ayn Rand´s books:

“The 48 laws of power” by Robert Greene. To use in defense or offense or both, you choose. (“The Art of Seduction” describes power too)

“Optimal Thinking”. How to think. Don´t think positive. Don´t be optimistic. Embrace reality and do the optimal.

“The four agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. A lot of similarities to objectivism and marvellous. It´s “companion book” has great excercises in the “Domestication” section: you identifiy ALL of your ideas you hold as thuths and challenge them.

Dr Phil has sometimes speak very altruistic and in the book “Self Matters” he also writes things like “in order to take care of others you have to take care of and stand up for yourself first”. I focus on the “take care of and stand up for yourself first”. I have read a first part of the book and there he tempts me to to go my own way and he skillfully provokes exhiliration for my SELF - I haven´t read more than that but probably will. He truly excites me about myself and evokes passion for myself.

Gary Zukav wrote “Seat of the Soul”. Objectivism is replacing that as the source of my primary values. Anybody has an opinion of Zukavs ideas?

Do you read self-help? What do you think about it?

Have a great day!

25

Other than Rand..

I enjoy reading Camus’ fiction (not his non-fiction).. read most of it

I’ve started to take an interest in human evil (omg, heh).. read “The Aquariums of Pyongyang”.. picked up “The Rape of Nanking” and Wiesel’s “Night” (although it got messed up in the car)..

I read Robert Bork on and off.. political books as well, although I stay away from the blantant commericalized partisans (i.e. Hannity, Coulter, Moore, etc).. I enjoyed Larry Elder’s two books and John Stossel’s “Give me a Break”.. for the neo-conservative in me "An End to Evil (Perle, Frum).. for the neo-liberal “Capitalism and Freedom” (Friedman)…

I work for Barnes and Noble during the school year, so I’m always reading and buying books for myself although it’s cheaper sometimes to order used on Amazon.

Now that the semester is coming I’ll be reading alot of irrational, Post-Kantian BS from my profs :smiley: :lol:

26

Gary Zukav wrote “Seat of the Soul”. Objectivism is replacing that as the source of my primary values. Anybody has an opinion of Zukavs ideas?

I picked up “seat of the soul” once and leafed through it. Pure Hegelian social metaphysics. A total denial of individualism. Pure evil.

Good for you for choosing to replace it with more rational ideas.

27

I’ve read a bit of Heinlein. He really spoke to me in my youth, at least. I drifted away from him for the same reason that Betsy gave. That, and his polygamy. Yuck!

I’ve generally like the Science-Fiction genre, as it tends toward philosophical ideas and is generally pro-reason pro-technology. Asimov, Niven, Herbert, Heinlein, etc. I suppose some day I should re-visit it all with the more discerning eye that Objectivism gives.

28

“The four agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. A lot of similarities to objectivism and marvellous. It´s “companion book” has great excercises in the “Domestication” section: you identifiy ALL of your ideas you hold as thuths and challenge them.

The Four Agreements are:

  1. Be impeccable with your word.

  2. Don’t take things personally.

  3. Don’t make assumptions.

  4. Always do your best.

The Four Agreements is written by a shaman/faith healer who says that his book is based on ancient Toltec wisdom. Even if the historical gaps were small enough to allow his claim to be plausible (the Aztecs invented a lot of what we “know” about the Toltecs), I wonder why anyone would choose to base a belief system on “wisdom” from a culture widely credited with the introduction of mass human sacrifice.

TOLTEC PEASANT: This looks kind of scary. I’m not sure I want to go through with it.

TOLTEC PRIEST: Stay! You must be impeccable with your word. Now, relax and hold still–and don’t take this personally.

TOLTEC PEASANT: You’re holding a rather large knife in a threatening manner. Are you about to cut my heart out or something?

TOLTEC PRIEST: Don’t make assumptions!

TOLTEC PEASANT: Well, it’s just that without my heart, it would be kind of hard to go on living.

TOLTEC PRIEST: You can always do your best.

–Schefflera

29

Being a total computer geek, whom plans to [attempt] some major computing tasks (at least I would call OS design and ternary research pretty major), I read alot about computer science. Also I will be taking Electronics later in my degree, so I need a solid mathematical foundation (as if mathematics was not useful enough for Computer Science anyway).

That and Im abit of a maths geek as well. Reminds me of a quote:

“You can never have too much knowledge…but you can have too much ignorance though”

30

I go back and forth between Philosophy/Politics and Science Fiction. Just depends on what kind of mood I’m in. If I want to do some deep thinking, or just read a book that makes me optimistic about the future.

Of course, with AR I can do both :dough: That’s one of the reasons I love her books so much.

31

Vince Flynn is an excellent author. A no-nonsense CIA agent takes on islamist scum. Right now I am reading ‘Executive Power’.

32

I am currently re-reading Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. But my fictional interests have tended to be divided between modern thrillers (Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Jack Higgins); science fiction (Frank Herbert’s Dune series, the Dune prequels and sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, Kevin J. Anderson’s Saga of Seven Suns series); some horror (most of the works of Stephen King and Dean Koontz). I went through a period of liking Anne Rice’s works, I have read all of The Vampire Chronicles and her Mayfair Witches novels. While her obsession with anti-heroes and mysticism always left me cold, I found her storytelling style and her ability to develop vivid characters and moody atmosphere to be quite mesmerizing. Her mysticism turned to rather overt religiosity towards the end of her later novels, which has made me fairly disinclined to read anything further of hers. But ironically her anti-heroes (the vampire Lestat in particular) began to develop some heroic tendencies as time went on. Such a conflicted writer is Anne Rice!

I became fascinated with Frank Herbert’s Dune universe as a high school student and wanted to read all the Dune novels to the very end. Though Frank Herbert certainly did not intend such meaning, to me the Dune novels are a cautionary tale against religion and tyranny, and of the evils of altruism and mysticism especially when such toxic morality is held by those who seek power. Long before I discovered Ayn Rand’s works and Objectivism, I remember thinking of the Dune novels “Well no wonder such horrific atrocities are committed in this distant future when such messed up beliefs are held by such powerful people!”

When I was introduced to Ayn Rand’s works a couple of years ago, I began by reading Atlas Shrugged as many Objectivists do. I was, for lack of a better term, gobsmacked. For there, in the actions and philosophy of sublime heroes, was spelled out for me what I had always held to be my unspoken and unconsidered philosophy. I read The Fountainhead, We The Living and Anthem one after the other upon completing Atlas Shrugged. I have read (several times) The Virtue of Selfishness, The Voice of Reason, and Return of the Primitive.

I have recently read Terry Goodkind’s Wizard’s First Rule and will be reading the rest of the Sword of Truth series in the next little while.

33

I too read just about everything, but I really LOVE good science fiction.

Robert Heinlein: The Door into Summer and Job: A Comedy of Justice are great.

Isaac Asimov: I highly recommend the Foundation series. Especially the original trilogy. Another of his books that gets overlooked frequently is The Gods Themselves, one of his best.

Frank Herbert: Dune…enough said. I also really loved The God Makers.

These three are probably my favorites aside from Rand.

34

I’m glad to see that others besides me appreciate the Dune novels. I’m fond of Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum) and Maion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon series as well.

There is a series on the Roman Republic by Colleen McCoulloch that I highly recommend consisting of the following titles:

The First Man in Rome

The Grass Crown

Fortune’s Favorites

Ceasar’s Women

Ceasar

The October Horse

I like historical fiction, as well as straight history by such authors as Adrian Goldsworthy and Tobias Churton.

Tolkien goes without saying.

35

I’ve read a bit of Heinlein. He really spoke to me in my youth, at least. I drifted away from him for the same reason that Betsy gave. That, and his polygamy. Yuck!

Um, the “reason Betsy gave” seems to have slipped through the cracks…

Anyone remember what her first reason was for not liking Heinlein?

<*>aj

A generation that ignores history has no past and no future.

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,"the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked;contrawise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything - you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.

Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.

It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier.

To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.

The greatest productive force is human selfishness.

Anything free is worth what you pay for it.

What are the facts? Again and again and again - what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars fortell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” - what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!