What are you reading? Books, articles or publications of any kind!

johnny said:
Yeah, I don't know about inherent distrust for socialists. Franco was no better than Caballero. Those that committed the White Terror and the Guomindang weren't socialists and neither was Pinochet nor the folk of the GW Bush administration, but I wouldn't trust any of those folk or many others. I find it easier to just not trust people in general, that way you don't miss anything.

I've got to get back and finish Beevor's book on Spain, got distracted at about page 300.
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Oh don't get me wrong, there are creeps on all sides. But the Socialists/Communists/Soviets/Maoists/Naxalites are next level evil and just seem to stick around forever. The Fascists/Royalists/Catholics while very good at erasing people, just don't have that demonic stamina for sausage grinding over the long term.

The White Terror was shit but was little leagues compared to the great leap forward and the cultural Revolution. My parents saw China just as the Cultural Revolution ended and couldn't believe how desolate China was. And yet the CCP is still in charge.

Chiang's son introduced parliamentary democracy in Taiwan, and I was there to see the whole country turn out to honour him (voluntarily) on his funeral procession. The same sort of thing happened in Spain, Chile, Argentina, Portugal etc etc. I'm sure the historians have some sort of grouping for these countries like fascist light.

The Spanish civil war is confusing as fuck, the Beevor book tries it's best to make sense of it.
TLDR: one set of assholes want to take the levers of power from the old set of assholes. Unfortunately the new set of assholes have an inner circle of assholes white anting the less noisome new assholes. This allows the old assholes, who have an established pecking order to win.

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Oddjob said:
Oh don't get me wrong, there are creeps on all sides. But the Socialists/Communists/Soviets/Maoists/Naxalites are next level evil and just seem to stick around forever. The Fascists/Royalists/Catholics while very good at erasing people, just don't have that demonic stamina for sausage grinding over the long term.

The White Terror was shit but was little leagues compared to the great leap forward and the cultural Revolution. My parents saw China just as the Cultural Revolution ended and couldn't believe how desolate China was. And yet the CCP is still in charge.

Chiang's son introduced parliamentary democracy in Taiwan, and I was there to see the whole country turn out to honour him (voluntarily) on his funeral procession. The same sort of thing happened in Spain, Chile, Argentina, Portugal etc etc. I'm sure the historians have some sort of grouping for these countries like fascist light.

The Spanish civil war is confusing as fuck, the Beevor book tries it's best to make sense of it.
TLDR: one set of assholes want to take the levers of power from the old set of assholes. Unfortunately the new set of assholes have an inner circle of assholes white anting the less noisome new assholes. This allows the old assholes, who have an established pecking order to win.

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Don't disagree with a lot of that, except that I put the fascists/right in the same league as the soc/com left - fundamentalism and abuse of power is all the same in the end. I also think that there is a strong argument for the close relationship between Mao/Xi's China and fascism as they share a lot of characteristics, such as autarky, extreme nationalism, righteous violence, racism/othering, cult-like leadership, etc. etc. My hunch is that if I knew more about Stalinism, I'd probably feel the same way.
 
johnny said:
Don't disagree with a lot of that, except that I put the fascists/right in the same league as the soc/com left - fundamentalism and abuse of power is all the same in the end. I also think that there is a strong argument for the close relationship between Mao/Xi's China and fascism as they share a lot of characteristics, such as autarky, extreme nationalism, righteous violence, racism/othering, cult-like leadership, etc. etc. My hunch is that if I knew more about Stalinism, I'd probably feel the same way.
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Your hunch would be correct.

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A recent (now distant memory) holiday allowed me some serious reading time

The Witcher - The Last Wish
The Old Man and the Sea
For Whom the Bell Tolls

all great reads
 
For whom the bell tolls has been mocking me from the shelf for two years now. Have to get to it one day.
 
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This was the last book I read and was absolutely great (Australian author too).
71MpprKt2HL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

Fiction/novel - rough jist is it's set in a post-apocalyptic earth and dark-angels roam the earth looking to kill the last survivors. Small pockets of humans still survive (mostly) underground. Intertwines the lives of many different characters, very sharp observation of human character and how different ones interact, and the dialogue uses subtle variations of current language to mimic how language evolves over centuries, and there's some subtle references to Australian topography/flora in the general description of scenery which is a nice touch for our audience. Slow starter but incredibly thoroughly thought out.
 
steve jobs' pancreas said:
The Old Man and the Sea
For Whom the Bell Tolls
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Both solid books. Have you read fiesta? That's my pick of his works.


johnny said:
For whom the bell tolls has been mocking me from the shelf for two years now. Have to get to it one day.
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Do it. Then back it up with some refreshments and a listen to ride the lightening.



I'm currently reading a japanese ski resort guide book from 1992. It's interesting seeing how the ski industry has changed and learning a little history about some of the areas I go to. It's also interesting seeing how people organised holidays before the internet.
 
catching this up

- The Witcher series: was pretty good, waiting for the Witcher 4 game now (will need a console upgrade);

- The Harry Potter series: surprised myself how much fun this was to read after the first book (first one feels a bit juvy);

- Foundation by Isaac Asimov: this was great, hankering to read the series now;

- Necronomicon by HP Lovecraft: a bunch of "scary" supernatural stories. Its a bit ye olde which I feel adds to the atmosphere of the stories, super fun, never know what each story is going to be about and because they are short it's always changing - still going in this one, will be a reader in between others.
 
steve jobs' pancreas said:
catching this up

- The Witcher series: was pretty good, waiting for the Witcher 4 game now (will need a console upgrade);

- The Harry Potter series: surprised myself how much fun this was to read after the first book (first one feels a bit juvy);

- Foundation by Isaac Asimov: this was great, hankering to read the series now;

- Necronomicon by HP Lovecraft: a bunch of "scary" supernatural stories. Its a bit ye olde which I feel adds to the atmosphere of the stories, super fun, never know what each story is going to be about and because they are short it's always changing - still going in this one, will be a reader in between others.
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I need to get back onto the Isaac Asimov Foundation series.

I tried reading back in highschool but it was tough going and I gave up on it, but I've been watching the series and I've been enjoying that.
 
steve jobs' pancreas said:
catching this up

- The Witcher series: was pretty good, waiting for the Witcher 4 game now (will need a console upgrade);

- The Harry Potter series: surprised myself how much fun this was to read after the first book (first one feels a bit juvy);

- Foundation by Isaac Asimov: this was great, hankering to read the series now;

- Necronomicon by HP Lovecraft: a bunch of "scary" supernatural stories. Its a bit ye olde which I feel adds to the atmosphere of the stories, super fun, never know what each story is going to be about and because they are short it's always changing - still going in this one, will be a reader in between others.
Click to expand...

I read the entire series to my daughter yonks ago, there is huge step up in quality after the first book and she gets better as it goes on.

They are not really my cup of tea, despite being a massive fantasy and sci-fi nerd, however my daughter loved them & I wouldn't trade the time we spent reading them together for anything.

I'm also a massive Lovecraft fan, never got into Asimov, must try again at some stage.

Currently I'm going through the Cosmere books by Brandon Sanderson, reading them in published order so jumping around a bit. Up to the Way of Kings so far.

I am really enjoying these so far.
 
The Fourth Wing series by Rebecca Yarros - Dragons , magic , sexy time etc etc - yes its fantasy , but Dragons and fighting etc
possibly YA , but the there is blood and violence and erotic portions - ( bit shallow tbh )

I enjoyed it -read the whole series - has apparently been prepared for a movie/ series thingo

but haven't been able to read lately as cant concentrate for long bits, still brain training
 
For @beeb - just reading back thru the posts - have a look at
Tin Men by Christopher Golden - might not be right up your alley - but the genre suits - ai / end of times alternate reality etc

www.goodreads.com

Tin Men

A military thriller for the drone age: Brad Thor meets …
www.goodreads.com www.goodreads.com
 
F G said:
I read the entire series to my daughter yonks ago, there is huge step up in quality after the first book and she gets better as it goes on.

They are not really my cup of tea, despite being a massive fantasy and sci-fi nerd, however my daughter loved them & I wouldn't trade the time we spent reading them together for anything.

I'm also a massive Lovecraft fan, never got into Asimov, must try again at some stage.

Currently I'm going through the Cosmere books by Brandon Sanderson, reading them in published order so jumping around a bit. Up to the Way of Kings so far.

I am really enjoying these so far.
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Asimov is in the 'Hard Sci-Fi' category and is sometimes fairly dry in his prose. There is a noticible lack of Star-Trek style gravity plates, and gobbldigook tech solutions to crises (eg: Inverting the polarity modulation of the transverse anti-matter encabulator),
at least in the few Asimov novels I have read. I didn't get into the Foundation series, but after watching the TV adaptation,
I might give it another go.
 
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