341–350 of 651 posts
2. "Seed of knowledge, stone of plenty". Mostly about the electromagnetic properties of ancient monuments and how electromagnetic fields can impact seed fertility. I can not believe how this is such an invisible book.
3. "Humankind. A hopeful history". I thoroughly enjoyed this fact based retelling of human history.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your post is basically my problem with how people talk about bad trips. You made the term "bad trip" ambiguous, scary and sound random. You're saying something might happen but no one can tell you what. Yeah that's horrifying, what is this horrible thing, Ill let my imagination run wild. But if you can be clear about the risks and how to avoid them I think you'll come out fine. I don't think if psychedelics were play…
I think you're entirely too dismissive of other people here, ironic for a thread on "How to change your mind" I've had to calm people down off of bad trips. Unlike what you say, it's something that totally happens with single drugs and non hallucinogenics. Hell you can have a bad trip on alcohol. It's all about the state of mind, and having an altered state of mind can make it much easier to start spiraling. This can…
- The Hail Mary Project by Andy Weir (of the Martian). Nice page turner and he's back to form with his third novel.
- Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. Enjoyable and fun; though arguably not his finest work. I might pick up his earlier work for re-reading over Christmas. Anathem probably, which I would recommend to anyone.
- Leviathan Falls (part 9 and the last one of the Expanse series). James S.A. Corey (the writer duo). The whole series was quite enjoyable and this is a fitting end to it.
Blood Meridian (or The Evening Redness in the West) by Cormac McCarthy. Quickly became my favorite book after reading it a second time. I've never read a book with more effective language.
Second McCarthy’s “effective language” attribution. I read The Road, and it was so sufficiently “effective” in its descriptions and it’s setting that I’m happy never reading another McCarthy book again. Glad I did once. I will watch the movies though!
Children of Time and the sequel Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Best sci-fi I’ve read in a while.
Really liked the first one. How is the second one? Sort of been avoiding it because of how much I liked the first, and not wanting to be disappointed.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. It's a great read, and I learned a lot about the early years of the US. It's also the book that Lin-Manuel Miranda used as a reference for the musical, so I watched the musical for the first time after reading the book, and it blew me away.
I have to admit - this is a mention of a topic I would not have expected to see on this site in a million years, but yes, this musical is fantastically entertaining, even with a complete ignorance of American history.
The new Graeber, Dawn of Everything Completely tears apart recent trendy anthro books like Sapiens for ignoring both old and very new research and tries to set a new framework for understanding humanity’s potential
I recommend “Against the Grain” and also “Pre Industrial Societies.” They give a really good perspective on human life and the structures we create. One of my favourite quotes is: the hallmarks of a state: appropriation, inequality and hierarchy.
Grains are the only agricultural product that can grow an early state, because it can be easily taxed, it’s fungible so you can pay with it, and people can’t run off with their field and canals to somewhere else.
It’s kind of a wonderful point that without the taxman there would be no civilisation.