What Non-Fiction Are You Reading?

[Miss Shelby]

Well double post

[LarsMac]

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

[Crumb]

Originally Posted by Miss Shelby

Well double post

A most mysteriously single double post...

[Crumb]

I have recently become interested in origin of life research. I don't really know much at all about it except that it involves biochemistry and I do not know biochemistry. Any good up to date introductory books on the subject? Some level of scientific literacy can be assumed.

[LarsMac]

My Daughter the Teacher says Paul Davies - Origin of Life is a pretty good starter

[Miss Shelby]

Taming the Tongue. Her name is Deborah P. Something. It’s a thirty day devotional about, well, keeping your mouth shut unless it’s edifying or necessary. It’s a Lent thing for me so hopefully you won’t hear much from me in the next month or two and then more hopefully forever. Unless I have something nice to say. I’m trying.

[Miss Shelby]

Originally Posted by Crumb

A most mysteriously single double post...

Idk what happened there. I just saw this

[LarsMac]

Games of Greed - Torsten Dennin

An interesting review of The Con, and a particular focus on Bernie Madoff and his adventures.

[viscousmemories]

Books I read in February:

• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman
• Writing Down The Bones: Freeing The Writer Within, by Natalie Goldberg
• The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, by Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird
• How To Live On 24 Hours A Day, by Arnold Bennett
• The Antidote: Happiness For People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, by Oliver Burkeman

Also, I asked ChatGPT 4 to identify the 5 main themes common to all the books I've read this past year and this was its (very accurate) response. It has me thinking about the possible uses of AI to help young people figure out where their natural interests converge when planning a course of study or to help anyone young or old to figure out whether they would like to change direction in their life, studies, or career.

Based on the list of books provided, the five main themes common to these books are:

Politics and Socialism: Many of the books on the list discuss socialism, its history, and its role in today's society. They explore topics such as anticapitalism, Marxism, and the challenges faced by socialism in the modern world.

Race and Identity: Several books in the list address issues related to race, identity, and their impact on society. They delve into subjects like antiracism, white supremacy, and the history of racial discrimination in the United States.

Culture and Media: A number of books on the list examine the role of culture and media in shaping our society. They discuss topics such as online culture wars, the demonization of Africa in Western media, and the influence of rap music on contemporary American culture.

Philosophy and Critical Thinking: Many books in the list touch upon philosophical themes, exploring topics like the demand for dignity, the politics of resentment, the role of meritocracy in society, and effective thinking strategies.

Personal Development and Self-Improvement: Several books on the list focus on aspects of personal development and self-improvement, such as building good habits, time management, finding happiness, and improving writing skills.

[ceptimus]

Because I'm trying to program obsolete LEGO sets to solve Rubik's cube, I bought a bunch of old books on Ebay about how to program and use the obsolete LEGO 'brains'.
The best book, by far, was Lego Mindstorms NXT Power Programming - Robotics in C second edition by John C. Hansen.

[LarsMac]

The Big Myth, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway
How American Business taught us to loathe Government and love the Free Market

[Crumb]

Death by Todd May

Inspiration for some of the final season of The Good Place. Todd was a philosophical advisor on the show.

[vremya]

I'm reading Appalachian Reckoning right now. It a regional response to JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, which I haven't read and don't intend to. It's really good.

[viscousmemories]

I read these books in March/April:

• Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do?, by Michael Sandel
• Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential, by Tiago Forte
• The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us To Loathe Government And Love The Free Market, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
• Postcapitalist Desire: Mark Fisher, the Final Lectures, edited by Matt Colquhoun
• Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Elite Capture: How The Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else), by Olufemi O. Taiwo
• The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust In The New Gilded Age, by Timothy Wu

The Big Myth is really extraordinary work. It's a big fat book and about 1/3 of it is just endnotes, so very thoroughly researched. The topic is how a handful of people created and promoted the enduring religion of "market fundamentalism", or what we commonly refer to as 'lolbertarianism'. I liked it well enough that I bought their first book too, Merchants of Doubt.

[vremya]

I thought Nickel and Dimed was really good. And really sad.

[Ensign Steve]

Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track

I saw an ad on LinkedIn for a workshop about making the transition from IC (individual contributor) to management. I panicked and googled "can I stay IC forever" and that book came up, so I bought it.

[specious_reasons]

I'm reading The Engagement: America's Quarter Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage by Sasha Issenberg

For this month's book club. Fuck, it's long, and I'm maybe 1/5 through it. I keep on thinking I'm going to skim it, and then I don't.

[viscousmemories]

Books I read in May/June:

• Marxism and Psychoanalysis, by Reuben Osborn
• Introducing Slavoj Zizek: A Graphic Guide, by Christopher Kul-Want & Piero
• After The Ivory Tower Falls: How College Broke The American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics and How To Fix It, by Will Bunch
• Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (And Why We Don't Talk About It), by Elizabeth Anderson
• How Capitalism Ends: History, Ideology, and Progress, by Steve Paxton

[LarsMac]

I just picked up "My Friend Anne Frank" by Hannah Pick-Goslar

[Crumb]

I can't race through a book a week like some people. Also I read a lot of fiction. I am currently reading The Sacred Depths of Nature (Second Edition) by Ursula Goodenough.

[viscousmemories]

Books I read in July:

• The Second Founding: How The Civil War and Reconstruction Remade The Constitution, by Eric Foner
• Going Into Business With Emma Goldman: 18 Anarchist Lessons For Business And Life On The 150th Anniversary Of Her Birth, by Ari Weinzweig
• Welcome To The Desert Of The Real, by Slavoj Zizek
• The Politics Of Bitcoin: Software As Right-Wing Extremism, by David Golumbia

[specious_reasons]

Been trying to get through Policing the Open Road by Sarah Seo. Absolutely nothing wrong with this book, but for my ability to stay awake reading non-fiction.

[Kevlar]

I've been reading American Prometheus because of all the Oppenheimer hype. Fucking type is so small I had to buy reading glasses for the first time ever. Of course, now that I've discovered reading glasses, I use them all the time for all kinds of things.