391–400 of 1001 posts
Stranger in a Strange land: "Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."
Animal Farm was a really important book for me. I picked it up aged about 10 or 11 and I remember being really struck by how easily the pigs were able to exploit the other animals' grievances with humans to secure their own power. It felt like a grown-up story with some quite powerful, disturbing meanings under the covers. So I told my English teacher about it and all she told me in response was to go look up the Rus…
Does anyone have any recommendations for reading up on the Russian Revolution? Books, videos, or otherwise.
I'm not an historian or anything of that kind but I'm really interested about the Russian Revolution and I spent quite a few hours on finding the best books about it. My knowledge about those books mainly comes from r/askhistorians (highly recommended!) and academic journals such as the American Historical Review and the Slavic Review. I saw a few other people recommending Miéville's October and even Reed's Ten Days. Now, I'm not claiming those books are bad in any way (I own Reed's) but if you're interested in an historical analysis those are probably not your best shot. Miéville is a sci-fi author who describes himself as a socialist, so he is not trained as an historian and, at the same time, he's definitely simpathetic to the Revolution. Reed's book was written during the Revolution and is a great book if you look at it as a primary source, but it's definitely a partial one. If you're interested in a book of history, then I would recommend you either Fitzpatrick's "The Russian Revolution", which is a short (about 200 pages) book from one of the great pioneers of the revisionist school in soviet historiography. For a more recent (and longer) book I would take a look at S.A. Smith's "Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928". I want to make it clear: Miéville's and Reed's books are great, but one should approach them knowing the context. It's similar to another great book (highly recommended!) by Orwell: Homage to Catalonia. It's similar to Reed's Ten Days, but I would not recommend it as an history book. Hopefully, those recommendations should be enough, but if you have other questions feel free to ask. For a quick look about Soviet historiography, here is a _great_ article by Sheila Fitzpatrick (the author of one of the books I recommended above) reviewing 5 books that came out in 2017: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n07/sheila-fitzpatrick/whats-left
Once you know the context, you can appreciate more books like Reed's and Mièville too.
Happy reading!
One book that changed me was reading Master and Margarita in Russian for the first time. It was the first book I started reading I could not put down until the end. Gained a lot of appreciation for literature at that time. The other book that I enjoyed and changed me was ‘The Wisdom of Insecurity’ by Alan Watts. I was a fan of Alan Watts works through his lectures already and it was wonderful to hear his ideas in wri…
When you mentioned Alan Watts and his quote, I thought I'd share a small animated clip that presented that quote well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoTmNU_5A0
Ulysses, by James Joyce. It will change your whole conception of what language is and how it can be used. It’s not about the characters or plots; they are recycled from antiquity. It’s about the absolute mastery of interrelation between words and imagery. It is something that has a meaning entirely emergent of its’ own self referential structure, rather than what is being described , in a sense that is almost mathema…
My most recent example is Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, it made me realize how difficult it would be for us to communicate with, or even comprehend the motives of a sentient alien. I wrote a full review here: http://www.alphadevx.com/a/519-Review-of-Solaris-by-Stanisla...
Maybe it didn't change my mind about "everything," but it did change my mind about everything related to negotiating.
The premise is that "no," is not an answer to be feared and avoided - it's an answer to be sought out. Getting a "no" is a key part of understanding the other side's position.
Many of the techniques he teaches can be used in non-negotiation settings.
For example, consider the seemingly simple problem of asking good questions. The author advocates interrogative-led questions over leading questions:
- interrogative led: begins with "who," "where," "what," "when," and "why."
- leading: binary answer, and usually begins with "do" or "does"
Consider the difference between the answers you're likely to get by asking "Did you like the movie?" vs. "What did you think of the movie?"
When you ask someone an interrogative-led question, you acknowledge their agency and challenge them to think. When you ask a leading question, more often than not, you're trying to manipulate the other person. Worse, you will get much less helpful answers.
Works great for job interviews, and many other professional settings.
One oddity: I've seen interviews/presentations with author, but he's a surprisingly bad speaker. As a how-to writer he's one of the best I've read.
A rant. The question itself is kind of absurd if you think about it. But it leads to a nice parade of skimmed and unread books. Sorry, if I'm too cynical. I just have seen these questions about books thousand of times and every time I have the same feeling: that people are grossly overestimating the impact of the books they have read and they are just approval junkies. Surely, no book can change your thinking about a…
>Surely, no book can change your thinking about almost everything.
False, for me. Many books have significantly changed my thinking about one, many, or nearly all "things." If you're curious which ones and in what way, feel free to ask here or on my email address.
>I still haven't figured out why we love to discuss books so much. Is it egoism or need for approval?
I like to talk about the thoughts I have about things, including books. This is a sharing concept with my friends and partners - I enjoy hearing their opinions, bouncing ideas off them, and exploring topics. It gives me pleasure. It is not egoism, nor need for approval (I say with extreme confidence).
> Is it because we have to somehow justify hundreds of books we have bought and never actually read?
I don't have opinions on books I've never actually read, so this is an inapplicable statement. I also don't have hundreds of purchased, but unread, books. I have perhaps 20 purchased and unread, and about 50 on the immediate "want to read list" that are unpurchased and unread.
>Books become elements of decoration, just to show off and appear smarter perhaps.
This is not true for me.
> If they are stacked on the edge of your desk, that's even better, it portraits you as a restless intellectual adventurer.
There is nothing on my work desk but my notebook, phone charger, laptop, monitor, headphones, keyboard, mouse, and an empty coffee cup. At home, it's the same, minus the laptop, plus a bunch of postcards from friends jammed between two plants.
At this point, I'm convinced there is someone in your life you are thinking of, that annoys you, that has books on their desk. Perhaps they are legitimately annoying - it would be sad if this makes you hate all book readers.
> And when your guests arrive you make sure that they get a glimpse of your amazing "library".
My guest library is in the living room. It consists of cookbooks, a Haynes manual on the Suzuki SV650, and about 10 different picture books of cats, dogs, bridges, and infrastructure. Also, a D&D manual.
>and make some general remarks. Win-win. I'm sure you guys can relate.
Do you not discuss topics of shared enjoyment with other people? What makes "reading books" an unacceptable hobby discussed between friends?
Your rant gives me the impression that you believe people do things only to appear smarter, better, than others. I remember I used to think that way, because it didn't seem possible to me that "genuineness" could exist - nope, everyone is guided by primal urges. This isn't true. I hope you come to discover this one day.