Interesting - - I will google this when I get the chance.
It’s a similar thing though…I trusted Kahneman and Tversky, maybe a little too much or maybe the things that were wrong don’t really subvert the general picture. I think with Pinker, the things that are wrong do subvert the general picture.
Hmm.
I guess it depends on what level you are taking his thesis.
I.e. yeah. It’s clear that theres isnt a simple trend from more violent to violent over time.
On the other hand. It’s clear that there have been significant changes over time, there are big mega trends that impact violence, and studying what drives and changes violence are important things to look at.
Re watched the Spielberg hanks The Pacific recently
Read the books behind it. Helmet for my pillow was ok
With the old breed was a really good book. Just drops you right into the K35
They don’t really know where they are what they are doing or anything. No grand arch to the book. Just real life soldiering and man it sounds terrible
Also read Guadalcanal diary. It’s nice because he’s a professional writer. Not as gritty as with the old breed but still interesting
After reading all these book I also would have dropped nukes on Japan. Can’t even imagine trying to invade the mainland.
catching up on my reviews from apparently a long time ago.
I stopped pretty early on Ghost wars, it was alot, will come back to it at some point.
Red Screen by Stephen King - some super short story that i think was free, i honestly don’t remember but i love all stephen king so read it if you like him
Billy Summers by Stephen King - great story about a hitman, not standard stephen king fare but like i said i love all his stuff
Where Men win glory: the odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer- I’ve read a lot of Krak now and love all his stuff, didnt know much about Tillman to be honest other than seeing random things occasionally in recent years but seemed like a good guy that made a mistake joining the military. Good read though.
Leaving Isnt the hardest thing by Lauren Hough - i found this through seeing her on twitter i believe and her article that went viral about working as a woman cable repair tech. Basically autobiographical about her shitty childhood and getting kicked out of the military for being gay. Depressing stuff mostly but shes a great writer and i am subscribed to her substack where she writes mostly about random stuff going on in her life, shes about to set off on a van trip around the country with her dog and gonna write a book about it, similar to Travels with Charley etc except not fake.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera - pretty famous novel i think? I had tried it once before and stopped but was able to get into it this time and liked it alot, had some things that hit home with me about love/women/life etc. I identified with the main male character a bit which might not be a good thing but its a good book.
The Indifferent Stars Above: The harrowing sage of the donner party by Daniel James Brown - great history read, if you’re interested in the Donner party read it.I knew most of the deets from a podcast but still good.
The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who you Think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are by Brene Brown - i gave this a good review on Good reads but thinking about it now i think its meh, not sure why
Red Rising by Pierce Brown - read this cuz two of my bests friends rave about it, it was good but its hard for me to get into fiction that requires me to read 6 more books or something to finish the story. Its pretty standard sci fi revolution of the oppressed story imo
Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright - this one took me a couple tries too, maybe even 3, it was good learning about some history on buddhism and science and stuff, still makes me want to try meditation but i just dont think i can do it
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - people rave about this story but i thought it was pretty shit, maybe it goes over my head but i dont think so.
Why Zebras dont get ulcers: The acclaimed Guide to stress etc by Robert Sapolsky - really dense science about stress and how the human body reacts and stuff, great stuff if you’re interested in that topic
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo - i had read her previous book i think called So you want to talk about Race or something along that line, both are great but especially this one wouldn’t be anything new to most here
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - i don’t remember particulars about this but i liked it alot, she also has a new one that came out called The Candy House which ties into this one in some way that i started and need to finish. Both have this style where each chapter is basically about one person or from their point of view and then the next chapter picks up from a person that was in the previous chapter and goes on their story and then connects to another from that persons story etc, I think its pretty cool. I think Goon squad won the pulitzer.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - I had been excited to read this one for a while and finally went for it and loved it. People said its dark and just gets darker and they aren’t wrong but thats my jam. its about 4 close male friends in new york and their struggles in life, really moving imo. its also quite long. Looking forward to trying some other stuff from her.
Warrior Dreams by James William Gibson - i think i might have gotten this rec from here, if not twitter maybe. Basically about the rise of warrior/gun culture in US stemming from vietnam, pretty solid read although the last section is about how paintball is bad basically because it lets people cosplay war i guess but meh. Pretty good before that.
Moms House, Dads House: Making two homes for your child by Isolina Ricci - good book if you’re getting divorced.
The Institute by Stephen King - liked this one a lot, if you like King read it
Hegemony or Survival: Americas Quest for For Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky - this one pretty old but i found it at used book store so i read it, pretty good learning a good bit about stuff we did in South and Central america wrecking shit that I wasn’t aware of.
Requiem for the American dream by Noam Chomsky - nothing that people here aren’t already aware of/supporting imo and pretty high level/light reading.
Hollywood Park by Mikel Jollett - Mikel is lead singer of the alternative rock band The Airborne Toxic event which I love. Their last album goes together with the book. Its autobiography dealing mostly with his childhood starting with living in the synanon cult before his mother escapes with him and his brother and a pretty shitty childhood from there on out, plenty depressing in many parts but i loved it.
Tear Down this Myth by Will Bunch - history on Reagans rise to presidency and his presidency, solid but nothing special. most will not be a surprise to people here
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - I think this is discussed upthread maybe but i liked it a a lot, good hard sci fi which is more my jam.
The Egg by Andy Weir - very short story about i guess a theory of what life is about, would recommend if you’re into that sort of thing.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer - I think someone here talked about tackling this one since its mammoth, but great history on Hitler and WW2. Picked up some stuff I didn’t know about his rise and all the politics surrounding his rise to chancellor. I’d be lying if I didn’t just skip over some of the super detailed stuff about the jockeying for power and double dealing in the nazi movement etc. If you’re interested in this subject its a must read.
Play Optimal Poker 1 and 2 by Andrew Brokos - great theory heavy poker books on GTO etc. would recommend if you want to play against good players
American War by Omar El Akkad - post apocalytpic type novel about a 2nd civil war started over the north banning fossil fuels, found it on twitter maybe, didnt think it was that great and would not recommend, there just wasn’t much to the story imo and the characters were kinda hollow imo.
The Cruelty is the Point: The past, present and Future of Trumps america by Adam Serwer - I love Adams writing for the atlantic and I’m sure most people are aware of him and the cruelty is the point article but would recommend this as it has additional writings by him that don’t that appear in the atlantic i believe.
White Fragility: Why its so hard for White people to talk about Racism by Robin Diangelo - White author that does diversity training for corporations etc, basically about how white people reject diversity training alot in corporations etc, won’t be surprising to most here but would be recommend still.
The Last book on the left: Stories of murder and mayhem from Historys most notorious serial killers, can’t really recommend unless you like the last podcast on the left which is basically comedic true crime and some history, i love the podcast though its basically a podcast in book form.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson - i thought this was fine but pretty general, people rave about it.
Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami - short stories about men that lost women in their lives through different ways, I liked it alot and would recommend if you like short stories, one of the stories was turned into the highly acclaimed Drive my Car movie. I made it about halfway into 1Q84 gonna give it another go sometime soon hopefully.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman - old sci fi that is basically based on authors experiences in vietnam but set in a sci fi war in the future. This is reread from years ago, I thought it was worse the 2nd time around though honestly. It wasn’t as deep in the characters and lover story as I remembered. I would recommend though if you like sci fi, pretty quick and easy read.
Everything is Ok by Debbie Tung - graphic novel about author dealing with depression and anxiety, right up my alley even though I don’t hardly read graphic novels just due to the subject matter and i was i going through a hard time myself a couple months ago when I read it mostly due to work being crazy. Would def recommend if you are into graphic novels about dealing with anxiety/depression/therapy, its short and easy read, think i found it in the good reads nominees for this year.
Into the Wild by John Krakauer - like I said above I love all his stuff and had always been intrigued by this story reading articles and i watched the movie in the last couple years too and liked it. Would recommend still if you are interested. Spoiler below about some newer findings relating to the story I like the kid and sad he died. I think it was pretty clear he didn’t want to die/wasn’t a suicide, he just got unlucky although he certainly could have been more careful like having a map of the area and such but obviously thats not what he wanted to do. The version i read had a couple updates at the end about some of the authors and other peoples research and he believes from that the kid didn’t make a mistake and what killed him mostly was some roots of a plant that people didn’t realize was poisonous and was not known in the book he was using
Diary of an Oxygen Thief by anonymous - found this at used book store and it sounded like some shit i might like about a guy that basically decides to hurt women in his relationships intentionally by getting them to love him and then leaving them and then ends up getting fucked over by a woman he falls for but i give it 1 star, can’t recommend, the writing is atrocious and the story didn’t redeem the writing, it is quick if you want to give it a try and let me know what you think.
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles - a lot of people love this guys books, this is first for me and I can’t recommend really unless you just nostalgic for post WW2 america shit which seems like the author is nostalgic for. The story and ending were meh i thought.
The Colorado Kid by Stephen King - this is one of his three hardcase crime novels which are like old pulp crime novels. this one is the worst of the three for sure I liked it enough and it’s quick and easy read but lots of people will not like the ending and possibly not the story either.
That catches me up to where I am now, I read 29 books/stories last year and trying for 50 this year. 6 so far this year and I’m working on the 1619 project book now and enjoying it but its long af. I’ve tried for 50 every year since 2018 and never made it. I tend to read more in the winter for obvious reasons I think. Gonna try hard this year.
2018 - 45
2019 - 28
2020 - 17
2021 - 17
2022 - 29
Re King, I started The Green Mile this week. Kindle says I’m 20% into it, and I’m only just liking it. It’s constantly at the top of the “Best of SK” lists, which is why I chose it, so my expectation for it is perhaps unreasonably high. So far, there’s been a lot of ink spent talking about a urinary infection and a field mouse. Lol.
I plan to read 11/22/63 and Salem’s Lot next. After that, I’d like to re-read The Stand and The Shining. I finished The Stand almost a year ago, and I still think about it on a daily basis. Kinda weird but it was just one of those books that got deep into my bones.
Any other King recommendations, I’m all ears. Besides The Stand and The Shining, I’ve read Cujo, Misery, and On Writing.
I loved loved 11/22/63, I was always fascinated by Kennedy assassination so I read that soon as it came out. I don’t remember if I read the green mile but clearly it didn’t hit me hard if I did.
My personal favorite is under the dome, I think a lot of people don’t like the ending but I was fine with it.
I really enjoyed 11/22/63 too, and I’m not a big JFK assassination information consumer. I had hopes for Fairy Tale but was quite disappointed by that one.
I’ve read The Long Walk and Pet Sematary. Really liked the former and mostly liked the latter. The ending of PS was bad, but otherwise a good book.
the long walk was the first of his I ever read, I like it a lot
This is a really good book. Only SK could write this book.
11/22/63 or Under the Dome?
11/22/63
Under the dome is ok. Standard king
The JFK book is top 5 for me from king.
Top 5 is fair, under dome is more standard king for sure with the small town Maine shit.
I really liked needful things too.
Also full dark no stars was the first group of his short stories I read and it’s my fav. Let it bleed and different seasons are great too, different seasons has a bunch of well known stories that turned into movies.
Needful things js amazing
Loved bag of bones too
Dark tower (all of them I also love)
He’s got a lot of great novels
+1 to bag of bones
Just finished Against the Grain https://www.amazon.com/Against-Grain-History-Earliest-States/dp/030024021X/ref=asc_df_030024021X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312039872799&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3031444918694440388&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031080&hvtargid=pla-492021024933&psc=1®ion_id=373786&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=62149175916&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312039872799&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3031444918694440388&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031080&hvtargid=pla-492021024933 about early agriculture and the first cities/sedentary societies. It’s written by the agriculture professor who also wrote the highly regarded Seeing Like a State, Why Certain Schemes to Improve Humanity Have Failed.
It strikes me as a deeper version of The Dawn of Everything and has a lot of provocative ideas, like early agriculture was just living in places with a lot of natural crop growth, early city life was like worse than hunter gatherer society, there’s no clean distinction between nomadic and sedentary societies (they can go back and forth) and that ‘barbarians’ were not organized, unitary groups, but just ‘others’ in relation to people who kept records, etc. The author has a lot of novel takes, most of which are interesting and reasonably well supported.
I’m continuing to ‘read’ on Audible but I feel like I gain about 50% of the information I would with actual reading. (Partly because I listen while playing things like Valheim.)
Against the Grain is awesome. More recently I read Weapons of the Weak by Scott and it was good, but much more academic - detailed in depth case study - and, honestly, hard to get through. I read one or both of Seeing Like a State and The Art of Not Being Governed - I think the latter for sure - it’s been a while.
I’m only 100 pages in The Dawn of Everything and it’s like 700 pages…I didn’t mean what I wrote as a review, just my impression so far.
Bag of Bones is so good. Normally I am not as patient with King taking so long to find a direction for the story, but the extended scenes of grief and flashbacks get me every time. One of the few I’d recommend you search for on audiobook because King did the narration.
My favorite King story is a very very short story that he published in Penthouse in 1976, and then in 1978 in the short story collection Night Shift: “The Ledge”
King employs a first person narrator and opens with the protagonist, Stan Norris, in the clutches of Cressner, a wealthy, cruel criminal overlord. Cressner intends to get revenge on Norris, who has been having an affair with his wife. Instead of killing him outright, Cressner reveals his penchant for striking wagers, and offers a chilling ultimatum: if Norris is able to circumnavigate the 5-inch ledge surrounding the multi-story building where Cressner lives in his penthouse, he can have his wife and $20,000. If Norris refuses…
Soon after adapted into one of the short films in the anthology movie Cat’s Eye.
Another comment about The Dawn of Everything and James C. Scott is this is what Scott said about TDoE:
Not content with different answers to the great questions of human history, David Graeber and David Wengrow insist on revolutionizing the very questions we ask. The result: a dazzling, original, and convincing account of the rich, playful, reflective, and experimental symposia that ‘pre-modern’ Indigenous life represents; and a challenging rewriting of the intellectual history of anthropology and archeology. The Dawn of Everything deserves to become the port of embarkation for virtually all subsequent work on these massive themes. Those who do embark with have, in the two Davids, incomparable navigators.