#20278 - 02/12/09 06:20 PM
What are you reading right now?
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Zoid
member
Registered: 01/24/09
Posts: 109
Loc: USA - New Jersey
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I am always curious as to what people are reading, even if, like ceruleansteel currently, you're mainly reading textbooks. So let this be a thread where you can simply announce what you're reading, say a few words about it if you wish, learn what others are reading and post comments thereof. Also on topic will be announcing any books you have on order but haven't received yet.
I'm reading "My Rise and Fall" by Benito Mussolini. There are noticeable similarities to Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," which I had previously read. Both men depict themselves as virile, decisive, and insightful, to a heroic degree. Both depict themselves as utterly altruistic, humble servants of the fatherland. Both demonize the Socialists. Both paint the prior political regime as hopelessly corrupt and incompetent. Both wax reverent toward soldiers in general and dead soldiers in particular. There is definitely a formula here.
I have the following on order and will comment on them as I delve into them:
Kurt Saxon: "The Poor Man's James Bond" (a recommendation from ceruleansteel)
Robert Green: "The 48 Laws of Power"
Robert Green: "The 33 Strategies of War"
Raymond B. Cattell: "Beyondism: Religion from Science" (a recommendation from Fist)
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#20286 - 02/12/09 09:53 PM
Re: What are you reading right now?
[Re: Zoid]
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Draculesti
member
Registered: 09/18/07
Posts: 279
Loc: Rockville, Maryland
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Currently I am reading a couple books on music. The first book is called Musical Form and Musical Performance by Edward T. Cone. I won't go into details, but it is, as its title suggests, centered on the formal structure of music and how musicians can shape a musical performance around it. Cone is very astute in his observations. For instance, he likens a musical composition to a piece of visual art, specifically a painting, and observes that much like the frame that delimits the space of a painting (though the subject of the picture, conceivably, can encompass far more than the artist chose to depict) our musical frame is silence, that which precedes and follows a performance.
The other book is called Music, Science, and Natural Magic in Seventeenth-Century England by Penelope Gouk. It is a look at how the English viewed science and music, which was, at the time, within the sphere of the sciences rather than the arts as it is today. Indeed, Gouk points out that most of the writers on the theory of music of the period (theory here differing from modern concept of music theory as chord progressions, counterpoint, melody, harmony, etc.) where those like Newton. I'm not very far in the book yet, but it seems to be a fairly interesting read.
I am also reading the highly controversial and highly contested "autobiography" of great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich as related to Solomon Volkov. There is much debate in the music community amongst scholars with regard to the authenticity of this book, due to some of the things that are said "by" Shostakovich, for one thing. However, as my music history professor pointed out several years ago, if it was an inauthentic document, then surely Shostakovich's son would have contested it (which he has not).
Those of a more general readership probably won't find the first two interesting, but Shostakovich was a fascinating person and a masterful composer (ref. Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 [Bernstein's recording], his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and any one of his string quartets, which contain some of his most introspective and personal music, particularly his "autobiographical" Quartet no. 8) so I would recommend it to even a general reader; it does not, as far as I know, contain an overabundance of musical terminology.
I also just finished rereading a book on Vlad Ţepeş (1435 - 1476) titled Dracula: The Prince of Many Faces - His Life and Times by Raymond T. McNally and Radu R. Florescu. This man is the real life figure whose acts of justified cruelty gave way to a tradition of horror stories which eventually culminated in Bram Stoker's famous novel. It focuses on the socio-political climate of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as well as Romanian territories (Wallachia, for one) which the Turks were trying to use as a beachhead for their campaigns to secure a foothold in Europe, and how this affected Dracula's accession to power. I highly recommend this book to anyone, but specifically those who are interested in this period and Turkish expansionism, as well as this fascinating historical figure.
_________________________
The Holy Trinity: Me, Myself, and I.
Homo Homini Lupus
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#20305 - 02/13/09 05:48 AM
Re: What are you reading right now?
[Re: Zoid]
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Fabiano
member
Registered: 09/06/08
Posts: 374
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Last books I recently read :
"The Prince" N. Machiavelli
"Why we can't be good" J. Needleman
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#20317 - 02/13/09 12:30 PM
Re: What are you reading right now?
[Re: Morgan]
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Draculesti
member
Registered: 09/18/07
Posts: 279
Loc: Rockville, Maryland
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I find "Confessions..." a bit rough to get through. Crowley is quite verbose, and he goes on an awful lot about mountain climbing, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but after 400+ pages with little else (a few episodes with regard to his dealings with Mathers and the Golden Dawn, and his work with the book of Abra-melin )to break the monotony, it starts to get rough. Definitely a labor of love, in my opinion. I have yet to finish it, though, so I will keep plodding along.
I have yet to finish "Philosophy in the Boudoir." Unfortunately, it is in storage right now... 
I have read "120 Days in Sodom" and while it is certainly a book about sexual depravity, one could also see it as a study in amorality and cruelty and criminal behavior, especially of the sexual variety. In addition to Vlad the Impaler, Sade is a personal hero of mine.
_________________________
The Holy Trinity: Me, Myself, and I.
Homo Homini Lupus
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