EPTWhat Are You Reading 2014 - Page 9
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Shiragaku
Hong Kong4308 Posts
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
Finished : The Dictionnary of the khazars. I recommend it, despite it being postmodern, it's certainly lots of fun. Also The Cyberiad is really really hilarious, thank you sam!... | ||
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packrat386
United States5077 Posts
On January 24 2014 16:22 Shiragaku wrote: I guess it is fair to say that this thread is officially in hospice now? I dunno about you guys, I think the thread is going fine. We're all mourning Sam, but he wasn't the only poster here. | ||
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Surth
Germany456 Posts
// Currently reading random extracts from about 40 different north american and british "classics" for exams phase. oh well. | ||
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Deleuze
United Kingdom2102 Posts
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Shiragaku
Hong Kong4308 Posts
On January 25 2014 22:59 Surth wrote: Noooo not mah sam. I need someone to explain deleuze to me! :X // Currently reading random extracts from about 40 different north american and british "classics" for exams phase. oh well. Check dis shit out | ||
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dmnum
Brazil6910 Posts
Now I'm reading the secret weapons by cortazar. | ||
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xPulsAr
Japan107 Posts
On January 23 2014 09:53 Clbull wrote: A quick question for those on this thread. Has anybody read into past life memory/reincarnation research and can recommend any good authors who can shed light upon or can come close to proving or debunking the subject once and for all? I'm not looking for authors who look into hypnotic regression because there are many issues with it that discredit its value as evidence; I'd much perfer those who investigate cases of these memories occurring naturally in children. I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but topics such as reincarnation, memory etc. are covered by all those philosophical/scientific/religious controversies about the soul of human beings. Example: Meno written by Plato. It analyzes inborn knowledge / regathering knowledge prior to birth, memory etc. based on the immortality of souls as a premise - and tries to show this with an experiment, proving that even a slave has inherent knowledge about subjects such as geometry. (The first part of the book focuses on finding a definition for the word virtue; irrelevant to this topic). The astonishing hypothesis by Crick, debunking metaphysical views about any non-physical entities related to the brain and consciousness. The only two books I have personally read regarding this topic. | ||
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stroggozzz
New Zealand81 Posts
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packrat386
United States5077 Posts
On January 26 2014 10:50 stroggozzz wrote: why do you need a book to debunk reincarnation theories? Cant you just use your observational/critical thinking skills? Its not like there is some obvious logical step you can take to show reincarnation doesn't exist. I don't personally believe it, but offering good proof against it is harder to do. | ||
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Clbull
United Kingdom1439 Posts
On January 26 2014 10:50 stroggozzz wrote: why do you need a book to debunk reincarnation theories? Cant you just use your observational/critical thinking skills? The only two ways it's really been 'debunked' are through neuroscience which is still a relatively new field of science that doesn't hold a hugely complex understanding of how the human brain, consciousness, etc. works but does suggest that consciousness is a product of the brain due to how the brain processes certain functions of the human body; and through the vast majority of scientists disregarding any sort of evidence suggestive of reincarnation, no matter how compelling. At the same time, the only scientific thing I can think of that supports it is quantum mechanics simply due to how it shakes up the concept of materialism present in ordinary physics and even then it's just people trying to use the entirely unexplored theory of quantum consciousness as a way of saying you could live again in theory. My observational/critical thinking skills tell me there is something out there because as people like Ian Stevenson, Carol Bowman and Jim Tucker have observed; there certainly seem to be children appropriating the memories of a deceased individual as their own. Stevenson has further observed that in a few other cases, birth defects and birth marks can and have corresponded with fatal wounds taken in the previous life. A lot of scientists have chalked down their evidence to things such as confirmation bias, fraud, cryptomnesia, pure coincidences, anecodtal evidence etc; but the fact is that these researchers have studied these cases scientifically with painstaking levels of accuracy, have taken the necessary precautions to ensure there isn't fraud at play, are mainly talking to children between 2 and 5 years old when they first start having these memories which greatly reduces the chances of everything being cryptomnesia and have observed thousands of verified cases across the world to the point where it cannot simply be chalked down to coincidence. Finally, the physical evidence does exist in the form of things like birth marks which do not yet have a complete scientific explanation for their occurrence. As for why it happens? Nobody knows. Could consciousness have evolved to transcend the body? Could this be telepathy? Could this be a quantum phenomenon? Could this be the will of a deity? There doesn't seem to be an observable answer to any of these questions and while the evidence is certainly suggestive, it's not conclusive. On January 26 2014 08:05 xPulsAr wrote: I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but topics such as reincarnation, memory etc. are covered by all those philosophical/scientific/religious controversies about the soul of human beings. Example: Meno written by Plato. It analyzes inborn knowledge / regathering knowledge prior to birth, memory etc. based on the immortality of souls as a premise - and tries to show this with an experiment, proving that even a slave has inherent knowledge about subjects such as geometry. (The first part of the book focuses on finding a definition for the word virtue; irrelevant to this topic). The astonishing hypothesis by Crick, debunking metaphysical views about any non-physical entities related to the brain and consciousness. The only two books I have personally read regarding this topic. Thanks but no thanks. I'm not really looking for philosophical books on the subject. Philosophy cannot really be taken as scientific fact in most cases and facts are what I am looking for. I may look at the Crick hypothesis though. | ||
Flicky
England2670 Posts
Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning by Stephen D. Krashen The first time I've read an academic collection of papers and so on, but this was super interesting. Lots of very interesting experiments involving language acquisition and learning which makes a nice change from the guessing I've been reading up until now. I have Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition ready to go next. I just finished Die Alchemie der Unsteriblichkeit was a very average book. A typical ending to a weak crime book in that the thief is caught and everything resolved in the last 10 pages. Big B-move style plot holes, characters being introduced for about 10 pages then killed in a boring way and a detective that ultimately prevents 0 murders. Reading now: Leviathan Erwacht James Corey (translated of Leviathan Awakes Le Avventure di Pinocchio This book is wacky. If you've only seen the film, read this thing. Crvenkapica Croatian translation of Red Riding Hood. Croatian is hard. | ||
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dmnum
Brazil6910 Posts
All in all a decent book, however I can't stand cortazar's prose. Maybe it was the translation, but by comparing it with the original(My spanish is decent enough that after reading the work in portuguese one time I can understand the original without a problem) it seems only minor things were changed. I still have hopscotch sitting on my shelf so I'll end up reading it sometime. Flicky have you studied russian? | ||
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packrat386
United States5077 Posts
+ Show Spoiler + And my first book for this year, Love and Math: ![[image loading]](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/11/19/science/19SCIB/19SCIB-popup.jpg) This was a birthday gift from my parents and I’m halfway in. It’s partly a biography of a young mathematician overcoming discrimination and finding his passion in soviet Russia. The other part is a sort of an explanation as to why he enjoys math so much. I find the biographical element really interesting, but so far the math has not been terribly engaging. I understand that he’s trying to avoid the kind of nitty gritty detail that makes people hate math in school, but it often leaves me feeling like it hasn’t really been explained. We’ll see how the rest goes. Happy New Year Folks! Finished: Love and Math This book could have been 2 books, one of which I would gladly read, and one of which I would gladly leave on the shelf. The far more interesting part of this book was the biography of the author, who beat the odds and anti-semitism of his home country (soviet russia) to become a mathemetician. His story of working on mathematical discoveries as a side job and sneaking into the best university to read papers and attend lectures, was compelling and interesting. On the other had his presentation of mathematics was largely boring. I get what feels like a real sense of the passion that he has for math, but I find that his descriptions are too general for me to feel like they've been really explained. Part of my distaste may also stem from the fact that I don't find discussion of these sorts of concepts that interesting to begin with, so it would take a lot for the author to win me over. I would recommend the book to someone who really enjoys abstract math, but otherwise just get a good biography instead. Next I'm going to read The Stranger ![[image loading]](http://www.hihimag.com/hi/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Camus.jpg) Since a lot of people on here seem to like it (I'm looking at you corumjhaelen). Should be good! Finished: The Stranger Excellent book. I had read a little bit of existentialism before this, so I wasn't unprepared for the content. That said the presentation was great. I really loved the descriptions of the protagonist just experiencing life in the moment. I don't think I need to give a detailed review of this book since half of the people here seem to have read it but, 5/5 would binge read again. I ditched sixty stories because it didn't look very good in the library (sorry sam). Instead I picked up This Side of Paradise ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/This_Side_of_Paradise_dust_jacket.gif) I've heard from some that it is actually better than gatsby. Should be good. Finished: This Side of Paradise Quite a good book. My major criticism is that the plot doesn't move very well, but otherwise the writing is excellent. The portrait of a lost young man hits close to home. decided to pick up the screenplay, The Seventh Seal ![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/716A37B9C5L.gif) I've always wanted to see the movie, but never have. My uncle gave me the book. Should be good! Finished: The Seventh Seal Pretty short, but also pretty good. Really left me wanting to see the movie. I also enjoyed the mildly existential overtones. Not a whole lot to say about this other than that the imagery was amazing and the story itself was the good kind of heavy. On the topic of existential overtones, I picked up ![[image loading]](http://artfromtheashes.blog.sbc.edu/files/2012/03/images1.jpg) except in its The Fall because I'm reading the English version (even I'm not that pompous). Should be good! Finished: The Fall Another excellent book. I'm genuinely sorry that I didn't start reading Camus' work earlier after having read this. I found the narrative style really cool (always being talked to about the past, makes it seem like an oral history). I also enjoyed the wholehearted endorsement of brothels in this book, all of my friends enjoyed hearing about the feeling of satisfaction that comes from lying drunk between 2 sleeping prostitutes. Great book. I picked up Across the River and Into the Trees ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Hemingriver.jpg/200px-Hemingriver.jpg) because I'm on a quest to read everything that hemingway ever wrote. Should be good! | ||
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Surth
Germany456 Posts
On January 27 2014 09:14 dmnum wrote: Well, cartas de mamá and los buenos servicios didnt work at all, las babás del diablo was awesome, el perseguidor was ok(I would need to be more acquainted with charlie parker's life to really form an informed opinion on it tho) and las armas secretas was nice. All in all a decent book, however I can't stand cortazar's prose. Maybe it was the translation, but by comparing it with the original(My spanish is decent enough that after reading the work in portuguese one time I can understand the original without a problem) it seems only minor things were changed. I still have hopscotch sitting on my shelf so I'll end up reading it sometime. Flicky have you studied russian? Whaaaat :O I think Hopscotch is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I couldnt think of greater prose o: | ||
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Flicky
England2670 Posts
On January 27 2014 09:14 dmnum wrote: Flicky have you studied russian? I haven't touched Russian at all I'm afraid. | ||
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dmnum
Brazil6910 Posts
On January 27 2014 22:17 Surth wrote: Whaaaat :O I think Hopscotch is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I couldnt think of greater prose o: what language did you read it in? if it was in english I would probably understand, gregory rabassa is an amazing translator, but because of the differences between english and spanish it reads quite differently in the original(spanish and portuguese are almost the same language tho, so the translation is 1:1 in most places). | ||
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123Gurke
France154 Posts
![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HYBK0P5JL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_SX385_SY500_CR,0,0,385,500_SH20_OU03_.jpg){kind=icon} | ||
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Surth
Germany456 Posts
On January 28 2014 04:49 dmnum wrote: what language did you read it in? if it was in english I would probably understand, gregory rabassa is an amazing translator, but because of the differences between english and spanish it reads quite differently in the original(spanish and portuguese are almost the same language tho, so the translation is 1:1 in most places). German. It's funny that you say that though, because I bought the english version to gift it to a professor of mine, and I had a look inside it, and I must admit I didnt like the translation. There was one word particular in the ohmygod humongously perfect chapter 41 which was totally utterly wrong, the word didnt convey at all what was meant to be conveyed... :D Oh well.  Was supposed to read afternoon, a story by Joyce, but the online links dont work.sigh. | ||
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Nyxisto
Germany6287 Posts
![[image loading]](http://sffbookreview.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/drawing-of-the-three.jpg) I really enjoyed the first book, although I haven't read much by King except IT and Carrie. | ||
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