What are you reading?

[dr.chimps]

Just finished David Finkel's 'The Good Soldiers,' which is an account of 15 months with the 2-16 battalion in Baghdad, part of George Bush's 2007 Iraq 'surge.' Oh boy, is this book sobering. Soldiers are killed, morale and mission belief take beatings and no one comes out of this mess a better person than when they went in, including the upbeat battalion commander. The chapter dealing with those soldiers hospitalized in San Antonio for burns and missing limbs really belies Bush's, or anyone's, military optimism like nothing else. Finkel's writing is excellent - ie. he stays out of the story almost completely and lets the events and soldiers tell their own story. This book tells the other side of the 'Mission Accomplished' narrative, the one not reported on the front pages. Harrowing, but superb.  

[garebear]

Just finished David Finkel's 'The Good Soldiers,' which is an account of 15 months with the 2-16 battalion in Baghdad, part of George Bush's 2007 Iraq 'surge.' Oh boy, is this book sobering. Soldiers are killed, morale and mission belief take beatings and no one comes out of this mess a better person than when they went in, including the upbeat battalion commander. The chapter dealing with those soldiers hospitalized in San Antonio for burns and missing limbs really belies Bush's, or anyone's, military optimism like nothing else. Finkel's writing is excellent - ie. he stays out of the story almost completely and lets the events and soldiers tell their own story. This book tells the other side of the 'Mission Accomplished' narrative, the one not reported on the front pages. Harrowing, but superb.  

Great book!

Incredible combat accounts in that one.

[CalvinH]

Dalton Fury-Wild Tier One

[magikusar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silver_Spike

[Roger Bacon]

Here is Part 1 of 4, watch all 4.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GexZF5VIMU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GexZF5VIMU</a>

Hey thanks!!

For some reason I missed this post!

[Kahn.N.Singh]

Foreign Affairs has an excellent group of reading lists for a variety of topics in international affairs. Typically, each list includes a healthy mix of history and contemporary analysis:

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/reading-lists

What to Read on
Greased and Ready for
a Chick-Banging
HighQ Tbombz
An annotated Foreign Affairs syllabus
by the author of the doctrine of double-dildo effect.*

*Which was developed by the author in the insightful,
but underappreciated, Strap-Ons and Its Discontents:
The Political Benefits of Deep Tissue Massage (OUP).
Noted for its sheer brilliance, the seminal work opens:
"One end goes in her; one end goes in me."

 

[Roger Bacon]

In the Garden of Beasts - Erik Larson

Heinrich Himmler - Peter Longerich

[garebear]

This is short but good.

Any HST fans up in this bitch?

[CalvinH]

The Last Man Standing-Vince Flynn

[funk51]

sam huff nfler bio.

[garebear]

You've probably seen this, but if you like Thompson, you'll like this job-seeking cover letter:


Vancouver Sun

TO JACK SCOTT, VANCOUVER SUN

October 1, 1958
57 Perry Street New York City

Sir,

I got a hell of a kick reading the piece Time magazine did this week on The Sun. In
addition to wishing you the best of luck, I'd also like to offer my services.
 
Since I haven't seen a copy of the "new" Sun yet, I'll have to make this a tentative
offer. I stepped into a dung-hole the last time I took a job with a paper I didn't know
anything about (see enclosed clippings) and I'm not quite ready to go charging up
another blind alley.
 
By the time you get this letter, I'll have gotten hold of some of the recent issues of
The Sun. Unless it looks totally worthless, I'll let my offer stand. And don't think
that my arrogance is unintentional: it's just that I'd rather offend you now than after
I started working for you.                                                                                             [Haha!]
 
I didn't make myself clear to the last man I worked for until after I took the job. It
was as if the Marquis de Sade had suddenly found himself working for Billy
Graham. The man despised me, of course, and I had nothing but contempt for him
and everything he stood for. If you asked him, he'd tell you that I'm "not very
likable, (that I) hate people, (that I) just want to be left alone, and (that I) feel too
superior to mingle with the average person." (That's a direct quote from a memo he
sent to the publisher.)
 
Nothing beats having good references.

Of course if you asked some of the other people I've worked for, you'd get a different
set of answers.

If you're interested enough to answer this letter, I'll be glad to furnish you with a list
of references -- including the lad I work for now.
 
The enclosed clippings should give you a rough idea of who I am. It's a year old,
however, and I've changed a bit since it was written. I've taken some writing courses
from Columbia in my spare time, learned a hell of a lot about the newspaper
business, and developed a healthy contempt for journalism as a profession.
 
As far as I'm concerned, it's a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and
vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden
with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant
mediocrity. If this is what you're trying to get The Sun away from, then I think I'd
like to work for you.
 
Most of my experience has been in sports writing, but I can write everything from
warmongering propaganda to learned book reviews.
 
I can work 25 hours a day if necessary, live on any reasonable salary, and don't give
a black damn for job security, office politics, or adverse public relations.
 
I would rather be on the dole than work for a paper I was ashamed of.

It's a long way from here to British Columbia, but I think I'd enjoy the trip.

If you think you can use me, drop me a line.

If not, good luck anyway.

Sincerely, Hunter S. Thompson

No, I hadn't seen it. Thanks for posting. Good stuff.

[The True Adonis]

Finished Ender's Game which was very good, and jumped right into the The First Law trilogy by John Abercrombie.

It's not my genre, but the characters were so througoughly enjoyable to me, that I've already on the  third book.   Pretty good stuff.

I used to run into Orson Card all the time and he knew me very well by name.  Nice fellow but I will never understand his aversion to gay people.  Its very strange actually.

[Grape Ape]

I used to run into Orson Card all the time and he knew me very well by name.  Nice fellow but I will never understand his aversion to gay people.  Its very strange actually.

Never knew about this.  Is it well known, or something you picked up on?

[dr.chimps]

Never knew about this.  Is it well known, or something you picked up on?

I've read some of his op-ed pieces over the years. As well as the gay thing, his views on women are a little nasty. He's a Mormon and I think that informs a lot of his views. I once e-mailed his website and asked if he would ever be anywhere near me, thinking I could get my Ender's Game signed - 'no' was the polite reply.   

[Tapeworm]

Sincerely, Hunter S. Thompson

 

[magikusar]

reading 'Learn you a haskell for great good'

functional programming

web site building tool www.happstack.com is the endgame to make awesome websites without a relational database.

[magikusar]

fuck hunter s thompson

boring book fear n loathing

commy art zz boring so trying hard to be cool and avoid fun with girls

sexless

[garebear]

fuck hunter s thompson

boring book fear n loathing

commy art zz boring so trying hard to be cool and avoid fun with girls

sexless

You hate HST?

And just when I thought I couldn't hate you anymore....

[dr.chimps]

You hate HST?

And just when I thought I couldn't hate you anymore....

[garebear]

All of his books are great. A level honesty rarely equaled when writing a memoir.

[magikusar]

You hate HST?

And just when I thought I couldn't hate you anymore....

hate I think is too strong

What is the feeling when something is overrated?  What is the word for that?  it escapes me now....

Gare I notice you react strongly to pro capitalism stances.   Are you a european socialist or something? or just a hardcore democrat from usa ?  or what?

I am a east coaster living on beach in socal and made it on the free market.  Super tall german frnech irish russian guy with blue eyes.   I think ayn rand is right except about israel. 

Where do you get your views? Any particular source?

[CalvinH]

Mathew Dunn-Sentenial

[oenguinseatsocks]

So just how many books do you read at once?

that many

just finished the gods themselves.  had a pretty cool premise but for some reason asimov chose to focus on the least interesting possible aspects.  needs more splosions too

[garebear]

hate I think is too strong

What is the feeling when something is overrated?  What is the word for that?  it escapes me now....

Gare I notice you react strongly to pro capitalism stances.   Are you a european socialist or something? or just a hardcore democrat from usa ?  or what?

I am a east coaster living on beach in socal and made it on the free market.  Super tall german frnech irish russian guy with blue eyes.   I think ayn rand is right except about israel. 

Where do you get your views? Any particular source?

No, I don't get my views from a particular source, but rather through reading history.

Any extreme isn't viable. Sure, capitalism does ensure innovation, because most people do things to enrich themselves rather than to better those around them. However, pure capitalism has a tendency to put great wealth in the hands of very few. It also produced sweat shops, child labor and slavery.

Communism doesn't work, as history has shown over and over, because people won't have any motivation to work harder.

As is nearly always the case, the truth lies in the middle and the devil is in the details of finding the right balance.

HST isn't a great author because of some philosophical force, he is just amazing with the English language and is one of a kind - a rare type of truth teller.

[Mr Nobody]

Not a damn thing.