August 6th, 2011 / 1:43 pm
 Random

5 nonfictions I want to read right now

Anybody read any of these??

 

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19 Comments

  1. August 6th, 2011 / 5:46 pm NLY—

      I’ve read Gombrich’s little history, and it’s really quite marvelous, I think.

  2. August 6th, 2011 / 6:03 pm alexisorgera—

      this is what i hear. good.

  3. August 6th, 2011 / 6:33 pm Anonymous—

      I clicked to look inside. 

  4. August 6th, 2011 / 7:03 pm David Duhr—
  5. August 6th, 2011 / 8:32 pm alexisorgera—

      sorry.

  6. August 6th, 2011 / 8:32 pm alexisorgera—

      Yeah, really good piece. Thanks.

  7. August 6th, 2011 / 11:55 pm deadgod—

      Capitalism only ‘works’ when it’s propped up by socialistic means.  Fiscal ‘conservatism’ never works.

  8. August 7th, 2011 / 12:18 am guest—

      Thanks for the link. I spent some time looking at Red Lemonade press, mentioned by Lutz in that piece. It looks interesting but also a bit awful, the social networking aspect looks  a bit awful. You see the authors–the three featured ones mentioned in the LA Review–toiling in the comment fields, having to chivvy and mollify and opine and above all just having to respond to the people who are ‘following’ their work. My nightmare. 

      Here too I guess featured writers toil in the comment fields, though not so much when somebody hijacks a thread to expatiate on something tangential–but at least here at HTMLGIANT toiling in the comment threads is not the price of publication of your books. 

      Threads, I guess they’re called. Comment threads. Not fields. 

  9. August 7th, 2011 / 12:30 am alexisorgera—

      Fields is way better. Toiling in the comment fields. So…earthy.

  10. August 7th, 2011 / 12:52 am deadgod—

      It’s a drag when a hijacker colors outside the lines, like by providing a link to a magazine article on an unassigned subject.  What a palaver!

  11. August 7th, 2011 / 3:34 am Justin Hamm—

      A Little History of the World is excellent. It’s world history complete with all the wonder that subject ought to evoke and zero academic pretense. It’s like your dad is telling you the history of the world as a bedtime story.

  12. August 7th, 2011 / 3:37 am FormerCity—

      I’ve been trying to get the acquisitions librarian at the library I work at to order The Believing Brain for our shelves, but she doesn’t seem down with it. Instead I just processed 23 Minutes in Hell, the true story of one mans time spent in hell before returning. Cool.

  13. August 7th, 2011 / 1:26 pm Guestagain—

      (Note to self: do not open this site on Sunday morning)
       
      Capitalism only ‘works’ when it’s propped up by socialistic means.
       
      Socialistic means only work when propped up by capitalism, it’s symbiotic, so you are halfway to the fiscally moderate epiphany, so congratulations Herr deadgod.
       
      Fiscal ‘conservatism’ never works.
       
      Fiscal ‘conservatism’ works in spectacular fashion for those fiscal conservatives who can play, but nobody else. If fiscal conservatism never works for anybody, it would have no advocates. Ideology is date raping your analytical skill, and this is sad.

  14. August 7th, 2011 / 3:15 pm Mj—

      I am going to read The Believing Brain, however, I have come to realize and champion, as well as develop theories and a reservoir of data, that my many ‘super’natural (prefer preternatural — but even then that definition is assuming that these experiences are outside the natural order, which is impossible given its inception within the natural order) experiences are truth to the fact this is not some brain-belief being imposed upon an external reality, but my brain/body/self acting as it should act which is a filter, a conduit. I will read it with interest, but with the same skepticism the author approaches the opposition.

  15. August 7th, 2011 / 3:53 pm deadgod—

      a)  Oh, the god ‘moderation’:  there’s spherical-Earth theory, and there’s flat-Earth theory, and the truthful model is somewhere in between . . .

      Given the historical determination today of the political economy of accumulation:  yes; socialization of the means of production is entwined with private ‘ownership’ of the fruits of others’ labor.

      Is there even one fiscal con or libertarian or teabagger who understands the degree to which infrastructure is socialized?  –that is, who comes to your “halfway” point?

      Here’s an example:  The fiscal con solution to having the ‘most efficient’ water supply is to replace a publicly-regulated utility with a competition between Pepsi and Coke – who don’t acknowledge the degree to which their profits depend on that public utility by paying a ‘competitive’ price for the water they need – to deliver potable water to every fawcet.  What’s the midway point – the “moderate” location – between a world without cholera and a world with Colawater?

      No congrats at all for mistaking a parasite for a symbiont.

  16. August 7th, 2011 / 4:08 pm deadgod—

      b)  Fiscal ‘conservatism’ “works” for those ignorant of the degree of socialization of the foundation for any accumulation at all in the same way that flat-Earth theory works for people who never reach the edge.

      (A theory “working” does not mean ‘a proponent rationalizes or ignores its contradictions to her or his benefit‘.)

      Fiscal ‘conservatism’ has the same “advoca[cy]” that slavery had, which I don’t call “work[ing] in a spectacular fashion”.

      Your analytical skill is still a virgin, which isn’t even sad.

  17. August 7th, 2011 / 9:49 pm Jhon Baker—

      I’ve not read any of these but now I want to read all of them.

  18. August 8th, 2011 / 12:52 pm Donald—

      I don’t even know much about it (beyond the flap matter) but it’s sitting on the bookshelf in my Dad’s office and every time I’m there I feel inexplicably drawn to it. It’s a weirdly beautiful/alluring book.

  19. August 10th, 2011 / 12:32 pm The Weight of Moderation | Joseph P. Wood—

      […] friend Alexis posted this yet awesome list of 5 books she wants to read on HTMLGiant. Obviously, I’m taken with her suggestion of naked, but not for what you might […]