• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Books You've Read

David Byrne

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Jun 27, 2016
Messages
9
What books have you read that have helped you grow or wake up ?
 
Science fiction books. Lots of them.
 
I'm not into fiction books. I prefer non fiction but only true crime or conspiracy theory type books.
 
I read a book over 30 years ago called How To Lie With Statistics. Changed how I thought about things.

I now hold an MA in a research subject, with a strong statistical component, and I'm still sceptical. :D
 
A bit predictable I know, but first reading Lord of the Rings, when I was around 14 instilled in me a sense of wonder and a burning curiosity to know what is around the next turn of the path or twist of the tunnel.

In later life, that sense of wonder was rekindled by reading the 'Culture' series of epic sci-fi novels by the late great Iain M Banks.

So I kind of toggle between being a lonely hilltops and stone circles kind of person to a futuristic, visionary high-tech aficionado.
 
What books have you read that have helped you grow or wake up ?


the Chimp Paradox was good. Although it did F all to help the England football team. :mad:

Illuminatus! - before everyone knew what the Illuminati was.

How's the shadow people David any better?
 
Look Back in Anger - this play by John Osborne inspired me with the idea that it was possible for people who weren't from Oxbridge to engage with the changing world in a fluent way.

The Liberal Heresy by Jose Ortega Gassett. A book which consolidated much of my political position.

Inside the Whale by George Orwell. a wonderful essay on ther relationship between culture (in this case writing) and what is happening in the wider world, that has always stayed with me

No More Sex War by Neil Lyndon. A journalists rhetoric against the injustices of second-wave feminism inspired me to think on my own two feet.

Self-matters: Living Your Life from the Inside Out by Dr Philip McGraw. It's easy, and fashionable, to sneer at self- help books but I picked this one up when I was really in the doldrums and it set me off on a quest of self-betterment. I later found better sources of inspiration, but this is one of them that started me off. I think the real value of such books lays not so much in the advice they give you as in the cheering encouragement which they contain.
 
I read a book over 30 years ago called How To Lie With Statistics. Changed how I thought about things. ...

Same here - only I read it 40-some years ago.

I recall reading a couple of similar books in the 1970's and / or early 1980's which addressed graphics / illustrations / charts per se. Those books' lessons (but not their titles ... ) stuck with me to this day (as a senior analyst / designer of data displays).
 
So many good books over the years.......when in college I read several books by Alan Watts that impressed the hell out of me....so I even started meditating along basic Vedanta styles and even did some Zen bench sitting for a few years. His ideas about the nature of reality led me to eastern philosophy and mysticism and I still use those models most of the time in my daily life when I'm not too busy being agnostic.

I just realized this is in the conspiracy forum.....hmmm.....well in that case I would have to list two authors who influenced my thinking on those kind of levels: Colin Wilson and RAWilson.
:cooll:
 
In my younger years I must have read most of the Janet and John books.
Can't remember anything about them now!

What does the all-knowing internet say?

This is from the Beeb in 2007:

This is Janet. This is John... all over again
By Finlo Rohrer
BBC News Magazine
999999.gif


Forget the modern updates, this Christmas you may find yourself getting a little literary slice of the 1950s.
Once upon a time, everybody learnt to read with Janet and John.

This apparently middle-class nuclear family featured Father - slicked hair, grey slacks, blank expression - and Mother - surprising Hepburn-esque cropped hair and primary colour clothes.

Then there was Janet - blonde hair in bunches, typically seen in a dress or a skirt - and John - curly reddish hair and always in shorts.

It was easy to imagine Father managing a small-town branch of Barclays, while Mother churned out jam for the WI. Over the years they have been wickedly parodied by Terry Wogan and others, and provided the backdrop for more inclusive views of family structure, such as Jenny lives with Eric and Martin.

o.gif

In 2001, when the books were "updated" for the modern generation, the perceived social stereotyping was toned down and more [ie any] ethnic minority characters were added.
But now the unashamedly middle England, middle 20th Century originals are back in print, and they are part of a major trend in publishing towards nostalgic facsimile editions of old favourites.

etc...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7092601.stm
 
Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III by William Dear was a book that made a huge impression on me as a teenage, as much as anything, for the insights of it's author, the private detective tasked with finding James Egbert.

There's something particularly rank and grotesque about the whole thing, particularly the way Egbert's family end up setting up and managing a foundation in his name after his suicide, after treating him like shite when he was alive.

The D&D slant on the story added spice, particularly the crazy early and unsafe attempts at what would now be called LARPing. Ignore the alleged movie version of this with Tom Hanks, I saw it around the same time and didn't realise it was meant to be an adaptation!

With hindsight, very reminiscent of Misty Bernall's She Said Yes of quite a few years later, Cassie Bernall, like James Egbert, was a person who seemed to be credited with very little identity of their own in life, and became intellectional property of sorts in death.

 
'Superfuel' By Richard Martin.

Made me ask the question 'If Uranium is so difficult to use, why doesn't the world use the plentiful Thorium to fuel it's nuclear power stations' ?

And the only answer is ...

Because you can't make bombs from Thorium.

INT21
 
'Superfuel' By Richard Martin.

Made me ask the question 'If Uranium is so difficult to use, why doesn't the world use the plentiful Thorium to fuel it's nuclear power stations' ?

And the only answer is ...

Because you can't make bombs from Thorium.

INT21
There is so much Thorium lying about as a waste by-product of the nuclear fuel industry.
It really is high time it was used for the purpose you suggest.
I think the real reason is because there are loads of people who are scared of the thought of more nuclear power stations.
 
My point is that we are still building nuclear power stations (But very few) and they use Uranium. Only a small amount of Thorium experimental power stations are being built.

If you get chance, read the book and the reason I mentioned is all the more obvious.

INT21
 
My point is that we are still building nuclear power stations (But very few) and they use Uranium. Only a small amount of Thorium experimental power stations are being built.

If you get chance, read the book and the reason I mentioned is all the more obvious.

INT21
I guess when Uranium finally becomes scarce (even more so than now), we may eventually use Thorium.
Yes, if it's true that the only reason why we are using solely Uranium is because of bombs - it's just a criminal waste.
 
As a kid and young teenager I was a huge reader and went through everything in the house. Luckily there were a lot of books, not all suitable for those of a tender age.

Anyway... as I've perviously mentioned, my father owned several weighty anthologies. One was Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural.
It was divided into Terror (soldier ant attacks, contract killers, the French Revolution etc) and The Supernatural (Ghosts, vampires, screaming skulls, curses, Satanic rites etc) and being about 9" thick, it kept the little Scargy busy for a LONG time.

This book set the standard for my future reading, for which I am grateful. It introduced me to some of the greatest writers in English and taught me about the fears of other cultures. Hair-raising. Many of the stories have been adapted or nicked for TV and t'fillums, usually rather toned-down.

It's available on Amazon for pennies if anyone's interested!
 
Back
Top