OS Book Club Pt II

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Here's my list

https://smile.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/17DGMA3M0M46X?&sort=default

Then stuff I already bought but haven't read yet and want to:

Spoiler

American Prometheus The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin (seriously, is this not the GOAT book title?)

The Arm by Jeff Passan

Ball Four by Jim Bouton

The Bad Guys Won by Jeff Pearlman

Black Panther Books 1 and 2 by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn

Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam

Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

The Extra 2% by Jonah Keri

The Federalist Papers

The Half Has Never Been Told Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist

How to Rap The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC by Paul Edwards (dude interviewed 104 rappers on their technique, I figure I'll love this)

Labor and Freedom by Eugene Debs

The Last Boy Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy

Leviathan Wakes by James Corey

A Lion's Tale by Chris Jericho

The Martian by Andy Weir

The Only Rule is It Has to Work by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

When the Garden was Eden by Harvey Araton (Knicks baby!)

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

**** man. Half of the books I own are still on my "to read list:"

Spoiler

Finn by Jon Cline
Archer Trilogy by Bernard Cornwell
William Shakespeare's Star Wars Trilogy - Ian Doescher (read enough to know I'll love it)
Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris (True Blood book 1...meh)
On the Road - Jack Kerouac (I've read about 3/5 of it once, but it got too meandering for me at the wrong time)
Lies My Teacher Told Me - James W. Loewen
All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
Lolita - Nabokov
Skydog - The Duane Allman Story - Randy Poe
Maplecroft - Cherie Priest
The Prestige - Christopher Priest
Blood of Elves - Andrzej Sapkowski (The Witcher series)
Oil! - Upton Sinclair
Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
The Once and Future King - T.H. White

Lots of interesting stuff on your Amazon list, too. The Du Bois are no-brainers. I feel like The Ways of White Folks would be interesting to read in comparison to Between the World and Me. Or maybe it would make me feel even more powerless. The Caped Crusade, Tao of Wu (RZA!), and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life also raised my eyebrows.

Going through your list made me realize there are some books/documents that I want to have in my library just because of their importance such as Thomas Paine, Adam Smith, Rousseau, Marx, etc. Not only to have for reference material, but the whole time frame in history of philosophers going back and forth about how to build a nation and govern is fascinating.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Oh I feel you on the Hughes, I'm reading a lot of these books for writing style more than subject matter. I just wanted something to read from Hughes and I don't think I can do a book full of poetry. A lot of the redundancy in themes is just because I originally set out to read stuff by authors instead of subject matter, it just so happened that the experience was so shared among all of them that it worked out that way.

100% agreed on the philosophical references. The fact that we can trace the origin of the ideas that we now take as a given back to their beginnings fascinates me, the whole evolution of human thought fascinates me.

Seeing Lolita on your list brings up another thing I've been battling with: literary classics. I'm trying to find a list to work from, I guess the Modern Library's top 100 is the one I'll go with. I'd never really thought about reading anything translated from another language, I'm interested to see how that holds up. Like if I read Anna Karenina will it mean anything to me. The best part is a lot of them are free on the Kindle Store because they're in the public domain so I don't have to worry about wasting money if I don't like them.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Good Reads is a good place to get recommendations or suggestion lists. My classic collection is a handful and those I only have because they were required for school. Lolita and Catch 22 (which I forgot to put on my "to read" list) are the only two "classics" that I've bought on my own.

I didn't even include "reference books" like the Bible and Quran on my list. Then of course I have things like How To Be Batman, Where's Waldo, etc on my shelf.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Finished Go Tell It On the Mountain.

Spoiler

It's a semi-autobiographical novel about a Black teenager in Harlem and his coming of age, deals a lot with religion, as Baldwin's dad was a preacher just like the main character's, you wonder how much is fiction. All these allusions to religion and the similarities in its importance in their lives, makes me wonder the literary effect of the King James Bible. How many generations of kids came up learning words out of that book the same way Malcom X did the dictionary, and how the way it was written would affect their linguistic development. Fiction so the thing that stands out is again, Baldwin's writing:

"Yes he had heard it all his life, but it was only now that his ears were opened to this sound that came from darkness, that could only come from darkness, that yet bore such sure witness to the glory of the light. And now in his moaning, and so far from any help, he heard it himself - it rose from his bleeding, his cracked open heart. It was a sound of rage and weeping from thine set free, but bound now in eternity; rage that had no language, weeping with no voice - which yet spoke now, to John's startled soul, of boundless melancholy, of the hitters patience, and the longest night; of the deepest water, the strongest chains, the most cruel lash; of humility most wretched, the dungeon most absolute, of loves bed defiled, and birth dishonored, and most bloody unspeakable death. Yes, the darkness hummed with murder: the body in the water, the body in the fire, the body on the tree. John looked down the line of these armies of darkness, army upon army, and his soul whispered: Who are these? Who are they? And wondered: Where shall I go?"

I need some cheer in my life after Baldwin week. I actually watched I Am Not Your Negro on Saturday too, so it's piling. (Good documentary BTW, the best parts of it though were old clips of Baldwin talking, the idea of Samuel L Jackson narrating a Baldwin unfinished book is great, but it loses something for 2 reason, first being that the best version of this would've been in the form of the finished book, and the second best would've had Baldwin narrating it.)

Regardless, looking up and down my list for something more cheerful and I guess I'll go with The Martian? It's probably not cheerful per se, but at least it's supposed to be funny, maybe that'll work.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

*Lovecraft Country plug here*

Not sure I would classify it as "cheerful", but I was happy overall. Its definitely interesting and has some clever twists throughout.

I went back and added some stuff from your list to my Amazon list along with a bunch of classic lit, political philosophy, and music instruction (all your hacking/coding texts inspired me). I'm a shade under 100 books on my list now.

I didn't have time to read any of the Baldwin selections, but I did flip through both the Baldwin collection and Destruction of Black Civilization. I know I'm going to be thrown back in my chair. Just the essay titles alone are enough to spark interest and conversations.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Lovecraft Country, in the on deck circle after The Martian. I just went on Wikipedia and saw HBO is adapting it with Jordan Peele exec producing, that's all the urgency I need. Gotta get out and read it before everyone I know tells me how great the show is lol. Maybe I'll go on an adaptation binge and read American Gods while I'm at it.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Really? That is great news. I was hoping for a movie as soon as I finished it. Hopefully HBO does it justice.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I read two of Baldwin's essays last night. I'm saving the longer, main essays (Notes of a Native Son, Nobody Knows My Name, The Fire Next Time, etc) after I read a couple of his "Other Essays" that interested me based on their title. Plus, I want to get a feel for his writing style before I dive into his more complex/complete works.

The first essay I read was titled Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood. It is an interesting read if a little broad as he maneuvers through his developmental years as a young man sexualized before he realized what that meant. Baldwin is kind of all over the place on this one and doesn't really stick to his main theme/thesis especially close, but it is still eye-opening and says A LOT about the expectations of men in America. This essay was published in 1985 in Playboy magazine so this was one of the last essays Baldwin published before his death.

I moved on from that to White Man's Guilt which was published in Ebony in 1965. So from one end to another almost literally. This essay is more concise and sticks to its themes very closely. Baldwin looks at the reconciliation of history to current events and how white people handle both. Considering this was written in 1965 it is somewhat disheartening to read as the same things he brings up are things Coates has mentioned in his articles and memoir. Baldwin's hypothethical "white man" dialogue hits even closer to home as current events (ie: New Orleans) has people literally saying the exact same things:

Spoiler

This is the place in which it seems to me most white Americans find themselves. Impaled. They are dimly, or vividly, aware that the history they have fed themselves is mainly a lie, but they do not know how to release themselves from it, and they suffer enormously from the resulting personal incoherence. This incoherence is heard nowhere more plainly than in those stammering, terrified dialogues which white Americans sometimes entertain with the black conscience, the black man in America. The nature of this stammering can be reduced to a plea. Do not blame me. I was not there. I did not do it. My history has nothing to do with Europe or the slave trade. Anyway it was your chiefs who sold you to me. I was not present in the middle passage. I am not responsible for the textile mills of Manchester, or the cotton fields of Mississippi. Besides, consider how the English, too, suffered in those mills and in those awful cities! I also despise the governors of southern states and the sheriffs of southern counties, and I also want your child to have a decent education and rise as high as capabilities will permit. I have nothing against you, nothing! What have you got against me? What do you want?

*the italics were in the essay

It is a great read with many questions that are unfortunately left unanswered. Similar to Coates I'm left with a sense of futility because I have no idea how to enact this change or even where to start to get the ball moving. I guess the removal of White Supremacist icons is a start, but systematically it has no tangible effect. Still its something that should be done.

I'm hoping to dive into Destruction of Black Civilization tonight or tomorrow since NBA playoffs are snoozing to the Finals.

[War Eagle!]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Total money makeover by Dave Ramsey. Started reading it about two years ago then got mad and never finished. Finished it today cover to cover.

The insight is sound, the discipline to do it takes lots of work. In my year of accepting responsibility I'm ready. Been preparing for two or three years but I'm ready to do it.

Had I not got mad and started two or three years ago I'd be on baby step 4 or so. All good though!


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[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

I started Destruction of Black Civilization last night by Chancellor Williams, but only read Part 1/Overview which details Williams' process, primary thematic questions, and skewers established education and scholars as often as he can. I thought this part of the text would be really dry, but its fascinating and he just drops bombs of information without batting an eye. Of course I expect him to go into further detail regarding those bombs (first democracy, literal white washing of history, Euro-centric learning), but early on its already eye/mind-opening. I caught myself involuntarily reacting to some of his more hard-line statements similar to a knee reflex. Its an uncomfortable confrontation, but one that is necessary.

Coates' quote "The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free" keeps swimming laps in the back of my mind.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Yeah that's one I really want to get into, the lack of a Kindle Edition has pushed it back lol.

Bill Gates just put out his 5 summer reads, so I'll make it a point to finish those before the summer ends. Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal, Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance (which I've heard a lot about and have had recommended to me before), Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harrari, and A Full Life by Jimmy Carter. I dunno if I'll read the last one, at least any time soon. I've already got a few president biographies to get through, can't prioritize Carter over Lincoln and JFK lol.

I've been getting through the Martian, I've actually had to do work this week and it's slowing me down. Its so uniquely written compared to most of the stuff I've read, it's really a great change of pace, more fuel for the idea of switching between fiction and nonfiction, or at least light and heavy books.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Hillbilly Elegy is fantastic. So many different ways of living/surviving. It wasn't as eye-opening as Between the World and Me since I'm fairly close to aspects of that way of living and I could related in more ways.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Finished The Martian, I needed it. Light and easy read, funny, Watney is such a great lens to see the story through. The transitions back and forth between what's going on back at JPL, on Mars, and on Hermes gave a great flow and kept from being too bogged down at any one time. The first chapter away from Watney basically started the book downhill to me and I had to keep going. The research behind this and the story behind the book is wild, and now I have to see the movie. Perfect change of pace from the dreariness of history. My favorite quote because of how it references my guy:

"By my reckoning, I'm about 100 kilometers from Pathfinder. Technically, it's 'Carl Sagan Memorial Station.' But with all due respect to Carl, I can call it whatever the hell I want. I'm the King of Mars."

Lovecraft Country, after which I'll do Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and then Founding Brothers.

[mjavon]

Re: OS Book Club Pt II

Hillbilly Elegy is fantastic. So many different ways of living/surviving. It wasn't as eye-opening as Between the World and Me since I'm fairly close to aspects of that way of living and I could related in more ways.

I just finished this on my last flight and I thought it was really good as well. Initially read it because I loved Born a Crime (Trevor Noah), and wanted to read something similar but from an entirely different perspective, and I'm glad I did.

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