-
6 votes
-
Mary Trump’s book accuses the US President of embracing "cheating as a way of life"
16 votes -
Nick Land's Fanged Noumena
5 votes -
Signs you're a Black character written by a White author
23 votes -
Dark Deleuze
4 votes -
Frog and Toad (and me)
13 votes -
16th century bookwheels, the e-readers of the Renaissance, get brought to life by 21st century designers
3 votes -
The Sober Lush: A guide to living decadently without alcohol
8 votes -
What are you reading these days?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
13 votes -
Manna, by Marshall Brain
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8
6 votes -
What do your bookshelves look like, and how do you organize them?
In a recent topic on ~books, I mentioned my own efforts at organizing my bookshelves, and took some pics to showcase that effort... and it got me curious what other Tildes users bookshelves looked...
In a recent topic on ~books, I mentioned my own efforts at organizing my bookshelves, and took some pics to showcase that effort... and it got me curious what other Tildes users bookshelves looked like, and what organization methods they use.
So, what do your bookshelves look like, and how do you organize them?
p.s. Feel free to also talk about anything related to this, e.g. what books you like the cover art of, what you do with annoyingly oversized books, ask others about particular books on their shelves, etc... :)
13 votes -
FiveThirtyEight Debate Club: What's the correct way to organize your bookshelf?
7 votes -
Remembrance - Emily Bronte
5 votes -
The weight of James Arthur Baldwin
7 votes -
The Boston Public Library needs help transcribing anti-slavery letters
5 votes -
Playlist of all Brandon Sanderson's 2020 Creative Writing Lectures from Brigham Young University
11 votes -
Is anyone else a Neil Postman fan?
I eventually recommend Neil Postman's writing to anyone I can. These books are absolutely fantastic, especially Technopoly, though I'd also recommend Amusing Ourselves to Death and The End of...
I eventually recommend Neil Postman's writing to anyone I can. These books are absolutely fantastic, especially Technopoly, though I'd also recommend Amusing Ourselves to Death and The End of Education (pun in the title intended).
One of Neil Postman's big contributions to how I think was by explaining an extended notion of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Instead of trying to insist that different human languages have different ways of communication, Neil Postman makes the assertion that different media, books, oral communication, TV, radio, the internet, have world-views embedded into them. So, you will (almost) never find a serious philosophical discussion in a film. Books, being linear can afford to give a cursory examination, and the person reading can follow at their own pace, while film can't do that. However, films are better at communicating emotion, so the stories in film are more experience/emotion/in-the-moment driven. Postman's argument was better, so ignore the weaknesses in my summary. I'm just trying to give some flavor to the type of things he wrote, like he also predicted how people would communicate on the internet.
The thing which really stands out to me is how Neil Postman was just a good thinker. He wasn't a one hit wonder for ideas. I'd be willing to read his thoughts on just about anything, even if I disagree. So anyway, read him! You won't have any regerts.
5 votes -
What are you reading these days?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
16 votes -
At ninety-nine years old, Al Jaffee says goodbye to Mad Magazine
7 votes -
"Pursuit as Happiness", a previously unpublished short story by Ernest Hemingway
5 votes -
What are you reading these days?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit. Previous topics Previous topics are listed in the wiki.
16 votes -
Tracking down all of Isaac Asimov's books
10 votes -
Any recommendations for reading classic non-fiction in modern times?
I've been on a long and steady roll reading classic literature, both fiction and non-fiction. I think it's important to get a perspective from earlier times that influenced our current culture and...
I've been on a long and steady roll reading classic literature, both fiction and non-fiction. I think it's important to get a perspective from earlier times that influenced our current culture and also because many of these works have withstood the test of time.
However, I'm having real trouble reading some of the non-fiction e.g. Plato's Republic and Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals. With both fiction and non-fiction I accompany my readings with Sparknotes to make sure I'm not missing anything important. In the case of non-fiction I often can barely get a cohesive thought out of the original text. In some cases the text is too old to be understood on it's own and in others the author has great ideas but poor writing (e.g. Nietzsche, famously). But Sparknote's is much too brief—I'd like a more involved experience.
My request is this: I'm looking for books (or resources to find such books) about classic non-fiction that
- distill the concepts without watering them down
- provide context with either modern culture and/or other works that are related
- are written for an intelligent layman; prose meant to communicate to a non-expert audience but with scholarly rigor
Basically, I read at a high level but I am not a professional scholar of literature, philosophy or history, yet I would like to have a bridge to such an understanding.
EDIT: I found this site to be exactly what I was looking for: https://plato.stanford.edu/index.html
10 votes -
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announce the winners of the 55th annual Nebula Awards
11 votes -
Four major US publishers sue Internet Archive for copyright infringement, alleging that it has illegally offered more than a million scanned works to the public
30 votes -
Spend some time down the rabbit hole of author-as-gameshow contestant, from Herman Wouk to John le Carré
3 votes -
What Would Lynne Tillman Do?
3 votes -
Like Christmas: New Zealand's post-Covid books boom
4 votes -
Official Overwatch Novel: The Hero of Numbani
5 votes -
A feud in wolf-kink erotic fanfiction raises deep legal questions about copyright and authorship
18 votes -
What are you reading these days?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit. Previous topics Previous topics are listed in the wiki.
14 votes -
We’re not polarized enough: Ezra Klein’s flawed diagnosis of the divisions in American politics
5 votes -
Let's be comrades: In her book "Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging", American political theorist Jodi Dean wants us to give the word "comrade" another try
3 votes -
Recommend me a book that _________
Here's a fresh new thread for book recommendations! The last thread from a year ago got bumped and saw some new top-level activity but few votes or responses on the new requests. I think it's...
Here's a fresh new thread for book recommendations! The last thread from a year ago got bumped and saw some new top-level activity but few votes or responses on the new requests. I think it's probably not visible in a lot of people's feeds due to its age, and I was planning on rebooting it anyway, so here's a fresh topic we can use for new recommendations that will be visible to all.
Top level comments should fill in the blank with some sort of descriptor identifying a kind of book you would like suggestions for.
Replies can then recommend books to that individual.
Examples of what top level posts might be are below. Get as generic, specific, abstract, or out there as you want!
- Recommend me a book that will make me cry.
- Recommend me a book with a great twist.
- Recommend me a book that deals with loss.
- Recommend me a book about the fall of the Roman Empire.
- Recommend me a book with a main character in her 80s.
- Recommend me a book to help me learn PHP.
Thread reading tip: use the "collapse replies" button to see only top-level requests.
19 votes -
Does “The Case Against Socialism” hold up? It does not. A brief look at Rand Paul’s new book
9 votes -
The GOP is the problem. Is ‘human identity politics’ the solution? (Book review of Ezra Klein’s 'Why We’re Polarized')
9 votes -
Algonquin Round Table: How the group of writers became a symbol of the roaring twenties
4 votes -
Science fiction builds mental resiliency in young readers
7 votes -
Our bookless future
11 votes -
The case for Stanislaw Lem
10 votes -
What business leaders are reading now
4 votes -
What are your favorite non-fiction audiobooks?
I'm about to finish my semester and, since I've been taking a lot of walks lately, I figured I should listen to some audiobooks. In particular, I'd love some suggestions for nonfiction audiobooks....
I'm about to finish my semester and, since I've been taking a lot of walks lately, I figured I should listen to some audiobooks. In particular, I'd love some suggestions for nonfiction audiobooks. I recently read Boom Town by Sam Anderson, a sort of pop history about Oklahoma City and its basketball team, and I listened to Silver Screen Fiend, by Patton Oswalt, about his addiction to movies.
Are there any audiobooks you recommend? Preferably they would be good books that also have particularly good audio versions (well-produced).
Thanks!
10 votes -
The real Lord of the Flies: What happened when six boys were shipwrecked for fifteen months
32 votes -
Jason Brennan's Good Work If You Can Keep It
6 votes -
What are you reading these days?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit. Previous topics Previous topics are listed in the wiki.
16 votes -
Harry Potter at home - Celebrities will be recording videos each reading a section of the first book, with Chapter 1 read by Daniel Radcliffe now available
10 votes -
Nick Carraway is gay and in love with Gatsby
23 votes -
Tildes' Book Backlog Burner Event: Final Update Thread
What is this? See here for full details on the event. Post Your Update How did your week go? What books did you get through? How did you feel about them? What's up next for you? Also, given that...
What is this?
See here for full details on the event.
Post Your Update
- How did your week go?
- What books did you get through?
- How did you feel about them?
- What's up next for you?
Also, given that this is the last update thread:
- How was the month overall?
- Did you enjoy the event?
- Any breakthroughs, standouts, or lessons learned?
- If we did something like this again, what would you change or want to see?
9 votes -
Terry Pratchett novels to get 'absolutely faithful' TV adaptations
15 votes -
One of Sweden's best-known authors, Per Olov Enquist, has died aged 85
8 votes