What Are You Reading Now?

[Pelado]

Thanks to you gentlemen - I will download All the Light.... right now and listen to it.

I'm about halfway through now. Pretty good so far.

[SeattleUte]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/04/amazon-coronavirus-book-ban/

[SteelBlue]

Deacon King Kong, by James McBride. Liking it so far. If you haven't read any McBride, do yourself a favor.

[Pelado]

I'm about halfway through now. Pretty good so far.

Finished All the Light We Cannot See the other night. I really enjoyed the book, but the last few chapters really got me.

Didn't realize until after reading the Acknowledgements at the end that the author is an Idaho resident.

[BigPiney]

I finished Little Eyes last night. Imagine if furbys had someone controlling them on the other end somewhere out in the world anonymously. Story was pretty good, not great, but still worthwhile and short. It has been recommended in a bunch of places and was on the Booker long list. Translated from Spanish, so SU might like it.

[SeattleUte]

I finished Little Eyes last night. Imagine if furbys had someone controlling them on the other end somewhere out in the world anonymously. Story was pretty good, not great, but still worthwhile and short. It has been recommended in a bunch of places and was on the Booker long list. Translated from Spanish, so SU might like it.

I’ll check it out. I heard them compliment it in the New York Book Review podcast, which could be a good or bad. Last night I finished War and Peace again, as part of the Public Space Book Club, and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. I’d read Tinker Tailor Solder Spy, but never The Spy Who in From the Cold. These re all excellent of course.

[Topper]

Reading Conscious Capitalism.

[Sleeping in EQ]

I'm starting Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I'm starting Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now.

An outstanding book. I revisited portions of it this past week, looking for more encouraging news than the current "things have never been worse" proclamations by the most extreme. The Equal Rights chapter (15) provides some comfort. I liked this short paragraph, among others:

But it's in the nature of progress that it erases its tracks, and its champions fixate on the remaining injustices and forget how far we have come. An axiom of progressive opinion, especially in universities, is that we continue to live in a deeply racist, sexist, and homophobic society--which would imply that progressivism is a waste of time, having accomplished nothing after decades of struggle.

Spoiler: Although we have far to go, things have improved considerably over the past fifty years, and the trend is positive.

[SeattleUte]

An outstanding book. I revisited portions of it this past week, looking for more encouraging news than the current "things have never been worse" proclamations by the most extreme. The Equal Rights chapter (15) provides some comfort. I liked this short paragraph, among others:



Spoiler: Although we have far to go, things have improved considerably over the past fifty years, and the trend is positive.

Agree with all this.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Any book that has the strong endorsement of both PAC and SU must be outstanding.

[Topper]

Any book that has the strong endorsement of both PAC and SU must be outstanding.

I am still working on Sapiens by Harari. I really like Nudge by Thaler.

[Mormon Red Death]

An outstanding book. I revisited portions of it this past week, looking for more encouraging news than the current "things have never been worse" proclamations by the most extreme. The Equal Rights chapter (15) provides some comfort. I liked this short paragraph, among others:



Spoiler: Although we have far to go, things have improved considerably over the past fifty years, and the trend is positive.

The best book I've read on this is by Gregg Easterbrooke. My favorite book of the last 10 yearsScreenshot_20200611-203948.jpg

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

[SeattleUte]

It’s interesting that Harari, Pinker and Easterbrook all develop essentially the same narrative—thanks to Christopher Columbus, the West broke of its Christian torpor and married imperialism, science and capitalism, which proceeded on a journey that, despite the terrible cost to the planet and human life at discrete places and times, ultimately arrived at a place where humans in the aggregate, in terms of standard of living, improving the planet, and longevity, are far better off since hunter gatherers, and everything keeps improving. But Harari’s takeaway is pessimism and nihilism, and the other two’s is purpose and optimism. Harari’s is by far the most engaging read, even though my own outlook is closer to that of the other two.

[SeattleUte]

2666. We’ll see how it goes.