What are you reading?

[Mr. Magoo]

The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia- by Bernard Suits

deserves to be much more known that it is. Instead of Wittgenstein's "family resemblance" regarding games, Suits sets out to give a definition. I'm about 1/3 through the book.

[Nordic Beast]

The House of God

Samuel Shem MD

[Mr. Magoo]

Philosophical Foundations of Language in the Law- edited by Andrei Marmor and Scott Soames

[funk51]

vindicated by jose canseco. it's a story of a small time boy and his love of steroids.

[nic3000]

The Game by Neil Strauss. Just finished the 4-hour work week by Tim Ferris.

[James28]

The Wolf of Wall Street.

Don't know if it's all true but he would've made a great Getbigger

[P.I.P]

Way of the Wasp: How It Made America, and How It Can Save It, So to Speak

[dr.chimps]

Just finished 'Townie' by Andre Dubus III. A hyped memoir from 2011 I got on the remainder table. Pretty good. He nicely details his rough, AC/DC magic-marker-on-jean-jacket-upbringing. A wimpy son of an up-and-coming short-story/novelist, and absent father, he nicely describes growing up in various tough mill-town Mass. cities. The first 2/3rds of the book are really good, as our guy gets his shit together and decides to fight back, but the book falters when he decides to become a writer (like his dad!) and the road to doing so. No doubt he can now write - too bad he couldn't have polished that part of this book. 7/10

/recommended for mass-holes.  

[Mr Nobody]

Arnold Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding.

[Parker]

I will be reading this soon

[calfzilla]

Serious question:  does anyone know of any good books about why Jews are so successful with money and what their methods are? 

The closest thing I'm aware of is The Monk and the Merchant.

[Parker]

Serious question:  does anyone know of any good books about why Jews are so successful with money and what their methods are? 

The closest thing I'm aware of is The Monk and the Merchant.

Or you could go to synagogue...
Kinda simple, be frugal, keep your money in the family, in the community, and make shrewd business deals. Don't be wasteful or frivious.

[Kahn.N.Singh]

I will be reading this soon

Parker, I just took a look at this book. I confined my focus to Wilker's discussions of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Hegel. I've done reading on the so-called secularization thesis (for example, through engagements with, among others, Charles Taylor and Michael Gillespie). Although Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Hegel are, among others, extremely influential in the rise of secular liberal democracy, this is no groundbreaking secret. So I thought that if Wilker could acquit himself well in interpreting these notoriously difficult thinkers, the rest of his book might be interesting. Unfortunately, with regard to these thinkers the author has no idea what he's talking about. He puts forward the standard, blockhead reading of Machiavelli's Prince, and fails to note its more nuanced rendering, famously done by both Diderot and Rousseau, as a subtle critique of power in the guise of a guide for power (if the goal is to control the populace through coercion, fear-mongering, and rhetorical cunning, it's probably best to keep these strategies sub rosa). Wilker's treatment of Hobbes is just as bad. He fails to distinguish between law, license, liberty, and right (often conflating 'right' with the former terms -- an inauspicious exegetical sign). And his exposition of Hegel, though brief, exhibits major interpretive problems that would be too tedious to go into. These, albeit limited and localized, problems lead me to the conclusion that the book is less scholarly than polemical; and polemics is the last refuge of a dilettante.

I'm sure you are aware of these much better books:

[Parker]

Parker, I just took a look at this book. I confined my focus to Wilker's discussions of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Hegel. I've done reading on the so-called secularization thesis (for example, through engagements with, among others, Charles Taylor and Michael Gillespie). Although Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Hegel are, among others, extremely influential in the rise of secular liberal democracy, this is no groundbreaking secret. So I thought that if Wilker could acquit himself well in interpreting these notoriously difficult thinkers, the rest of his book might be interesting. Unfortunately, with regard to these thinkers the author has no idea what he's talking about. He puts forward the standard, blockhead reading of Machiavelli's Prince, and fails to note its more nuanced rendering, famously done by both Diderot and Rousseau, as a subtle critique of power in the guise of a guide for power (if the goal is to control the populace through coercion, fear-mongering, and rhetorical cunning, it's probably best to keep these strategies sub rosa). Wilker's treatment of Hobbes is just as bad. He fails to distinguish between law, license, liberty, and right (often conflating 'right' with the former terms -- an inauspicious exegetical sign). And his exposition of Hegel, though brief, exhibits major interpretive problems that would be too tedious to go into. These, albeit limited and localized, problems lead me to the conclusion that the book is less scholarly than polemical; and polemics is the last refuge of a dilettante.

I'm sure you are aware of these much better books:

yeah, I am aware of those books...

I haven't really read anything from Wilker, but from what you are saying, Wilker should "stay in his lane" so to speak.
I'm interested in this book due to what I see on a day to day basis.

[FitnessFrenzy]

Ultramarathon man

- Charles Bukowski - Post Office

[P.I.P]

Serious question:  does anyone know of any good books about why Jews are so successful with money and what their methods are? 

The closest thing I'm aware of is The Monk and the Merchant.

Jews, God, and History was pretty good.

[Mr Nobody]

Ultramarathon man

- Charles Bukowski - Post Office

The Post Office a excellent book.

[E-Kul]

Serious question:  does anyone know of any good books about why Jews are so successful with money and what their methods are? 

The closest thing I'm aware of is The Monk and the Merchant.

Inheritance and Incest

[Mr. Magoo]

How to Do Things with Words- by J.L. Austin

[Purge_WTF]

The Rantings of a Single Male: Losing Patience with Feminism, Political Correctness... and Basically Everything by Thomas Ellis. Great read for Black Knights and other non-manginas.

[kimo]

would like  to own theodore roosevelt book three by morris . i was alwasys fascinated by teddy roosevelt but somehow had a hard time with his biographers .

[funk51]

the underground football encylopedia

[Princess L]

I will probably start Moloka'i next week.

Compellingly original in its conceit, Brennert's sweeping debut novel tracks the grim struggle of a Hawaiian woman who contracts leprosy as a child in Honolulu during the 1890s and is deported to the island of Moloka'i, where she grows to adulthood at the quarantined settlement of Kalaupapa.

[Parker]

Verbal Judo
http://verbaljudo.org/verbaljudovisitourstore.html

Then, I'm gonna try some Verbal Aikido
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Aikido

[P.I.P]

Anyone read Er ist wieder da?

I don't think it's out in English yet?