What are you reading?
Offline I was just curious as to what everyone here on the forums is currently reading or has just finished reading. I know that I usually like to read a few things, okay more than a few things, at once. I think thats because I have become ADD when it comes to learning new things, and start too many things before finishing other things. Anyways, this is what I am currently reading.
Just Finished Reading:
John Dean Conscience of a Conservative
Bart D. Ehrman Misquoting Jesus
Steven Pinker How the Mind Works
Currently Reading:
Steven LaBerge Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming
Orphans of the Helix Dan Simmons
Ancestors Tale Richard Dawkins
God The Failed Hypothesis Victor Stenger
Future Reading:
The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins
Daniel Dennett Kinds of Minds
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert Pirsig
Collapse-How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Jared Diamond
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
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That Dean book is Conservatives Without Conscience. I got it mixed up with the Barry Goldwater book.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Ishmail, by Daniel Quinn
Just finished reading:
-If the war continues by Herman Hesse
Currently reading:
-May man prevail? by Erich Fromm
-Will start re-reading this week: Genealogy of Morality by F. Nietzsche
-Don't know if audio books count, but: When will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? by George Carlin
Future reads:
-Weekend dessert: Creepy Susie by Angus Oblong (yay!)
-The God Delusion by, well you know who.
Apart from that I haven't decided, maybe some Kafka, or Voltaire, although I really want to read Capitalism and Schizophrenia: The Anti-Oedipus by Gilles Deleuze, provided I find a damn copy first.
Lenore, The Cute Little Dead Girl. Twice as good as Jesus.
How The Mind Works: Pinker
Doubt, A History: Hecht
The Pursuit of Pleasure, Tiger
Guns, Germs and Steel: Diamond
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Read (not in order):
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
god is not Great - Christopher Hitchens
The End of Faith - Sam Harris
Letter to a Christian Nation - Sam Harris
An Atheist's Handbook - Culberson
Christianity before Christ - John G Jackson
The Jesus Mysteries - Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy
Sense & Goodness without God - Richard Carrier
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J K Rowling
Reading:
The Jesus Puzzle - Earl Doherty
Coming next:
Dunno, suggestions anyone? Preferably things on the historicity of jebus and the bible, not a fan of philosophy.
Edit: I just found a text file on my computer with my list of next purchases, I'll quote it here for any interested.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
AU: http://nocleanfeed.com/ | NZ: http://nzblackout.org/
I suggest reading the book summaries, as detail is infinite, more less .... ummm , the philosophy of this NOW ! Awesome ..... now get over it .... work only for fun, as Bob Black suggested , (?) Yeah, I agree ...... read what ? for what ? Keep reading and sharing, and I suggest this ..... a cult fav ..... all for fun .....
http://www.zpub.com/notes/black-work.html
, that can be found in pod cast, with added spooky music to boot ..... I love that guy ....
Atheism Books.
I just finished Reading:
Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill
Rethinking Substance Abuse: William Miller and Kathleen Carrol
I just Started:
A Secret of the Universe: Stephen Gibson
and
Your Inner Fish: Neil Shubin
"Those who think they know don't know. Those that know they don't know, know."
I am reading
The Portable Atheist - Christopher Htichens
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Duma Key - Stephen King
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Understanding Human Evolution
Also some Critical Thinking book with a long title. I don't remember it exactly here at work. Learning How to Think Things Through, I think.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
I'm half way through The Quantum Brain - Jeffrey Satinover
Enjoyable so far.
The Archeology of Knowledge - Foucault
The Order of Discourse - Foucault
Signature Event Context - Derrida
Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
And for pleasure I've been working my way through Complete Stories by Franz Kafka.
The Dispossessed, Ursula LeGuin
The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq, George Packer
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling
The Night Country, Loren Eiseley
Yeah, for some reason, I usually have at least two books going at once, too -- usually, one fiction, the other non-fiction. This time, I have four, for some reason. It depends on my mood when I head off to bed (my usual reading time).
"Yes, I seriously believe that consciousness is a product of a natural process. I find that the neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who proceed from that premise are the ones who are actually making useful contributions to our understanding of the mind." - PZ Myers
Recently read:
Some Star Trek (intellectual huh?)
Now reading:
Climbing Mount Improbable-Richard Dawkins
To be read:
Everything by Richard Dawkins
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
Just finished reading:
Basic teachings of the great Philosophers by SE FROST JR.
and
Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by bobby henderson
Am reading now:
The Sword of Shannara by terry brooks
Future reading:
The rest of terry brooks series
Probly sometime in the near future Atheist Universe
Will do my yearly read read of Tolkiens Lord of the Rings
Zen and the Art of motorcycle maintenance is a good book, but reading it when your in 7th grade and you have no understanding for the most part of what he's talking about is bad...
A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle
That was probably my favorite book in high school. Takers and Leavers always struck me as a very Seussical dichotomy. I like the message that there is no one right way to live, and humans are innately inventive so there is still a very good chance we can right the global ship and invent the answers to the problems we now face.
The animistic and tribalistic slants kind of jump of on ideological tangents, but overall the book is great. I have also read Story of B(the sequel), My Ishmael, Beyond Civilization, After Dachau, and the Holy. The Holy is an interesting fiction book that deals with a search to find the Old "false" Gods of the pagans and other cultures like Pan, Baal, Molock, Ashtoroth and the gods that were worshipped before/alongside the Abrahamic God. Here is a quote from the book.
"Nowhere does it say they don't exist ... What it says is they're false gods ... gods not to be trusted."
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Past;
Art of War
Porn
Porn
Porn
...
Currently
Beserk
and
Vagabond
http://www.onemanga.com/Vagabond/
(im a whore for samuria ^_^ )
edit; wait... was it only supposed to intelligent material?
edit2;
Future (if i can find it...)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
probably the only damn thing in the world i will not obtain illegally
What Would Kharn Do?
I found this over at RD.net(yes I can post on both sites and not try to start a war like some people). Its an article about Richard Dawkins' favorite books. There are two mp3 files on there you can listen to.
Dawk's book list
Here is his list
Last Chance to See, by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwadine
The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan
Red Strangers, by Elspeth Huxley
The Creation, by Peter Atkins
Essay on Darwin's Illness, by Peter Medawar
The Tin Men, by Michael Frayn
The Black Cloud, by Fred Hoyle
And anything by Evelyn Waugh or P.G. Wodehouse
I haven't read these books, or even heard of them(other than the Sagan book which I have but have yet to read), but would like to check out. I thinks its always interesting to check out the influences of those who have influenced us.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
You are reading porn? Like short stories, penthouse letters, or erotica? Or do you mean you are watching and downloading internet porn?
If it is the latter, then that should be discussed in my future post...What is your favorite type of porn? Lol, jk. Although that would be an interesting topic. I would have to say I'm a big natural breast lover myself.
Why do these post topics always come back to sex? Oh well.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Reading now:
God's war (a new history of the crusades) - Christopher Tyerman
Just finished The Bush Tragedy by Jacob Weisberg. I didn't really enjoy it but I did learn a few things I hadn't known before.
I just started The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
Respectfully,
Lenny
"The righteous rise, With burning eyes, Of hatred and ill-will
Madmen fed on fear and lies, To beat and burn and kill"
Witch Hunt from the album Moving Pictures. Neal Pert, Rush
Cthulhutech and Lesser Shades of Evil.
Former is great all around, the latter has great ideas and setting material... but man, the mechanics suck.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Any DCP torrent release.
Fahrenheit is a classic! I just read that about 6 months ago and its sweet, short, and to the point.
I have the the portable atheist on cd, but the announcer's voice is put me to sleep after like 10 minutes. I think I might have to get the book.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Just finished reading
The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein
Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan
What we Believe but Cannot Prove by Various
The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking
Next up
The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg
Crusader Gold by David Gibbons (some nice light holiday reading)
How did you find that Stephen Pinker book? I thought it was pretty tough going at first, but the second half or so was much more readable. Also loved the ancestor's tale and God:The failed Hypothesis.
How the mind works is slow in the beginning because it more just describes how the mind works, like the mind's eye, its unique vision, how it processes info, makes analogies, and creates conclusions based on those processes. The latter half is a lot more speculative and emphasizes human language and its use in forming our current cultures. The second half is definitely better than the first, but still a good read.
I'm only about 40 pages into Stenger, but so far it is entertaining and informative.
As for What we Believe but Cannot Prove by Various, I read about that on Amazon awhile ago and it looked interesting. Let us know if its worth a read.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Currently Reading:
The God Delusion - Dawkins
Imagine No Superstition - Stephen Frederick Uhl
On hold:
Breaking the Spell - Daniel Dennett (this is a tough read - for me anyway)
Your god's silence speaks loud and clear
Right now I'm reading The Golden Bough by James Frazer and listening the King James on my iPod at work--know thy enemy. I normally read a few things at a time but Frazer requires dedication.
"The whole conception of God is a conception derived from ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men."
--Bertrand Russell
To be honest, I don't really think it's worth it. It was mildly interesting, to be fair, but the whole point about it was that it was a whole bunch of people speculating about all kinds of things. All kinds of conflicting unfounded beliefs. For example, Richard Dawkins believes, but cannot prove, that if there is complex life elsewhere in the universe, it will have got that way by some process of evolution. One person believes, but cannot prove, that babies are not strictly speaking conscious. Another person believes that babies are the most conscious of us all.
Some people write a few pages, some people only a paragraph or two. So yeah, mildly interesting, but the best thing about it for me was seeing who was in there, what their speciality/profession was and gaining a few good book recommendations that they had written on topics they were authoritative on.
So its just like a freeform scientist version, of "what if this is true, that would be cool, etc?" Yeah I think I'll skip it. thx
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
I'm up to the 6th book of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King and have also started reading Dune by Frank Herbert
Wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which one fills up first.
Yeah Stephen King was on NPR last month talking about the dark tower series. They are making a moviemovie of it and there is already a graphic novel series based on it. He has a band of fellow writers and he even said he was working on a play and a musical, I think with John Mellencamp. That guy does it all. I wanted to read the Dark Tower, but it is one of those things that you really have to put a huge chunk of time into. I liked IT, The Stand, Needful Things and a few more. The last thing I finished reading like that was Dan Simmon's Hyperion series.
Here is the interview: king
Dune is a classic scifi novel, and just a great all around novel. Its so much better than the adaptations, eventhough the adaptations were alright.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence by Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S.Wiley.
Next up: High Risk: Children Without A Conscience by Ken Magid.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
Is this reading for personal pleasure or related to school or your profession?
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
It's part of my CEs and I love love love what I do.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
I looked at trailiors for The movie and the mini series based on dune, and the main character Paul looks way too old in both of them! He's only 15, but he looks well into his 20's on the big screen version and the small screen version! son of a bitch!!
Wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which one fills up first.