Books for those who can read

Pinky · Post by **Pinky** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:14 pm

Hagbard Celine wrote:Devany is an accomplished academic in his field.

Hagbard is right. De Vany has a nice list of publications to his name.

Chr1stine · Post by **Chr1stine** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 4:02 am

I read Fooled by Randomness about a year ago. Loved it. Mr. Taleb is a very funny guy.

And I thought it was pretty funny that he always cited dentists to be the antithesis of randomness.

(I gave it to Lorraine when I finished...)

cleaner464 · Post by **cleaner464** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:41 pm

I finished up Adam Bede a few weeks back. Not as good as Middlemarch, but very entertaining. I'm going to start The Mill on the Floss this weekend, and I should be pretty much sick of George Eliot by the time I finish.

Sebunburfa05 · Post by **Sebunburfa05** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:45 pm

LOL!
http://amazing-videos.info/

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:25 pm

Why is this fucking robot posting all over?

Gene · Post by **Gene** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:30 pm

"The Battle of the Casbah" by General Paul Aussaresses.

A memoir by a member of the former SDECE, General Aussaresses details his campaign to eliminate the FLN from the capital of French Algeria.

General Aussaresses describes his use of torture, summary executions and police and intelligence methods to locate, detain, debrief and dispatch terrorists during the 1956 campaign against the Algerian FLN. General Aussaresses personally interrogated and executed FLN suspects while supervising the campaign against the FLN who were terrorizing Algiers.

General Aussaresses describes the French "Dirty War" in Algeria, which was authorized by the highest levels of French Government. He detailed the participation by such luminaries as Francois Mitterand, who was Minister of Justice during this time.

The memoir does not go into great details about methods but does describe General Aussaresses's feelings and motivations about dealing with Algerian terrorists. Given our current "War on Terror" this book is a good guide to what did work - the French crushed the FLN inside of Algiers driving them from the city.

For those who are interested, General Aussaresses trained US Special Forces during the mid 1960s. He also consulted with Chilean Security services during the 1973 liquidation of the Allende Government and its replacement by a military caretaker government under General Pinochet.

The Memoir is published by Enigma Books, ISBN 1-929631-12-X.

Gene

Gene · Post by **Gene** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 3:11 pm

About the Algerian Civil War?

"A Savage War of Peace" by Alistair Horne. I'm re-reading it right now.

"The Damned Die Hard" by Hugh McLeave. About the French Foreign Legion, which was created to conquer Algeria.

"Lost soldiers; the French Army and Empire in crisis, 1947-1962.", George Armstrong Kelly

These three are decent books.

The OAS (Organization Armee Secrete) was a result of the French Army rebelling against De Gaulle. They committed acts of terror both in Algeria and in France (Metropolitan France).

"The Secret Army" by Geoffrey Bocca

"Wolves in the City: The Death of French Algeria" by Paul Henissart

I've read both. They are good. Study of the OAS campaign shows a lot about the war and the French Army, especially French experiences under German occupation, in Indochina and in Algeria.

Gene

bill fox · Post by **bill fox** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:48 pm

Hagbard Celine wrote:
Skinny wrote:Fooled by Randomness. The hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and Life. By Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Great shit.
Whatever kind of fighter you are (markets, cage, ring, business, whatever) you should read that book to get the perspective right.
If you da bitch you can skip it.
Great book, however as a philosophy of life or business it needs tempering.

I'd go a little less then great. Certaily worth reading, rare enough in itself. Smart guy of a certain type. At heart a "math guy" with enough liberal education and pop cultural knowledge to do exctly what he accuses the "literary types" of doing to science.

A series of words typed randomly by a monkey that is the same series of words as the Iliad is NOT the Iliad. See "math types" think people are stupid, sort of the point of the book, and therefore usually discount concepts like authorial intenet and the key role existance plays in meaning.

I actually commited the exact sin he discribes, using a scientific concept I didn't really understand (some quantum physics thing) in a paper I was reading at a symposium in grad school. Luckily a smart prof put a big red line through it and explained that even if the anology I was making wasn't crucial to my point, if it was exposed as wrong by a real scientist at the symposium, my whole paper was shot anyway.

I feel a little like this about the book, but I would still say overall a good, thought provoking book.

Hagbard · Post by **Hagbard** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:13 pm

Bill,

My new years resolution is to try to only say nice things, especially in book reviews.

DBID · Post by **DBID** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:37 pm

I would like to recommend the Holy Bible as a book very much worth reading.

DB

Sua Sponte · Post by **Sua Sponte** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:27 am

bill fox wrote:Fooled by Randomness. The hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and Life. By Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

A series of words typed randomly by a monkey that is the same series of words as the Iliad is NOT the Iliad. See "math types" think people are stupid, sort of the point of the book, and therefore usually discount concepts like authorial intenet and the key role existance plays in meaning.

Properly applied, old saws like "A thousand monkeys typing away would be bound in all time to reproduce the works of Shakespeare" (happily the internet has put this myth to rest) intend to show that, once calculated, such items as great works of literature are hardly subject to chance occurance. This one ranks right up there with the misuse of poor Schrodinger's not quite dead or alive cat.

A good book about the human mind and it's differentiation from other 'machines' is "The Emporer's New Mind" by Roger Penrose. Godel has had two recent biographers, whose names elude me right now, that provide good reading about human intuition in the creative process, to put it ineloquently. "Godel, Escher, Bach" is another good read.

johno · Post by **johno** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:16 pm

Hollywood Station by Joseph Wambaugh. His best in years, maybe his best ever.

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:28 pm

The Life of Buddha by Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa, 12th Patriarch

beefheart · Post by **beefheart** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:10 pm

Lie-mans:

Remember the post that started this thread, Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:01 pm?

johno wrote:Genre: thrillers with a mystical bent.
Author: Michael Gruber
Titles: "Tropic of Night" and "Valley of Bones"

Mak tha Clawhammer might particularly enjoy the discussion of Christianity in Valley of Bones. A respectful, thoughtful treatment.

I finished "Tropic of Night" last week, so w/ "Valley of Bones" and "Night of the Jaguar" I have made the Michael Gruber Hat Trick.

I am presently re-reading Gene Wolfe's "Urth of the New Sun." I felt hypocritical reccommending it to Dr. AssLove and not having read it in 15+ years. This is the third time I have read this tetra/pentology and I consider it all time well spent.

Mrs. Beef just finished "Flags of our Fathers" and was thoroughly impressed, so my next read will be more down to earth.

DikTracy6000 · Post by **DikTracy6000** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:53 pm

BeefHeart wrote:Lie-mans:

Remember the post that started this thread, Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:01 pm?

johno wrote:Genre: thrillers with a mystical bent.
Author: Michael Gruber
Titles: "Tropic of Night" and "Valley of Bones"

Mak tha Clawhammer might particularly enjoy the discussion of Christianity in Valley of Bones. A respectful, thoughtful treatment.
I finished "Tropic of Night" last week, so w/ "Valley of Bones" and "Night of the Jaguar" I have made the Michael Gruber Hat Trick.

I am presently re-reading Gene Wolfe's "Urth of the New Sun." I felt hypocritical reccommending it to Dr. AssLove and not having read it in 15+ years. This is the third time I have read this tetra/pentology and I consider it all time well spent.

Mrs. Beef just finished "Flags of our Fathers" and was thoroughly impressed, so my next read will be more down to earth.

"Flags of our Fathers" is kickass. Bradley also wrote Flyboys which is next on my list. I have the utmost respect for all Marines, but it went up a couple notches after reading "Flags"

nafod · Post by **nafod** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:06 pm

The best memoir I've read is "Goodbye, Darkness" by William Manchester. He was a Marine in WWII, but then went on to become a History Prof and a writer. He wrote American Caesar (MacArthur) and The Last Lion (Churchill), both very well-known books.

Here's an excerpt on-line.
http://www.twbookmark.com/books/9/03165 ... 14777.html

Joe Galloway's eulogy of Manchester discussing the book

GoDogGo! · Post by **GoDogGo!** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:16 pm

I've been meaning to post it: for scifi/fantasy fans, check out Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" trilogy: "Titus Groan," "Gormenghast," and "Titus Alone."

The first two take place in a sprawling castle-complex the size of a small city, millenia old, and populated by a bizarre aristocratic family. A sociopathic kitchen boy escapes his servitude in this place and begins to scheme and murder his way up through the family's ranks.

It's sort of indescribable, really. The language can get a bit dense but it's worth it for the grotesque characters, plot twists, and the descriptions of the Gormenghast castle, as well as the Confucian rituals that drive the family's history. Just plain weird.

BBC did an amazing production of the first two books a few years ago; worth a rent.

The third book takes place outside the castle, and is almost unrelated to the first two. Not as good.

GDG!

Hank Scorpio · Post by **Hank Scorpio** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:24 pm

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz

After being totally brutalized by the Soviets and packed off to Siberia in 1941, this guy walked from a gulag several hundred miles north of Lake Baikal, south through Mongolia, etc., and ultimately to India.

stosh · Post by **stosh** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:55 pm

steamboatwillie wrote:The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz

After being totally brutalized by the Soviets and packed off to Siberia in 1941, this guy walked from a gulag several hundred miles north of Lake Baikal, south through Mongolia, etc., and ultimately to India.

Read that a couple years ago. One of those that's made a lasting impression on me for sure.

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 8:43 pm

I've heard great things about that book.

mrzero · Post by **mrzero** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:14 am

GoDogGo! wrote: BBC did an amazing production of the first two books a few years ago; worth a rent.

not a book but seconded.
I want to read the book at some point but too much tech-crap to read ATM.

GoDogGo! · Post by **GoDogGo!** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:00 am

mrzero wrote:
GoDogGo! wrote: BBC did an amazing production of the first two books a few years ago; worth a rent.
not a book but seconded.
I want to read the book at some point but too much tech-crap to read ATM.

For me it's the portrait of Steerpike the sociopath, plus how the castle is described and really acts as another character itself. Miles of corridors ankle-deep in dust, undisturbed for generations, that kind of thing.

GDG!

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 3:02 am

Jack wrote:
Fat Cat wrote:I've heard great things about that book.
There's an entirely unused (here) vocabulary of threatening and painful things one can endure or do to another human in the first two chapters alone.

Recommended reading for all IGXers on many levels.

I'll get there one day. Right now it's Psychology textbooks...oh, and

Gracie Submission Essentials by Helio & Royler Gracie

Kazuya Mishima · Post by **Kazuya Mishima** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 7:25 pm

Fat Cat wrote:
Jack wrote:
Fat Cat wrote:I've heard great things about that book.
There's an entirely unused (here) vocabulary of threatening and painful things one can endure or do to another human in the first two chapters alone.

Recommended reading for all IGXers on many levels.
I'll get there one day. Right now it's Psychology textbooks...oh, and

Gracie Submission Essentials by Helio & Royler Gracie

What do you think about the Essentials book so far? Mine just came in the other day, and I've barely scratched the surface.

Gav · Post by **Gav** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 7:31 pm

steamboatwillie wrote:The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz

Don't want to piss on anyone's fireworks but do a bit of googling on this. Apparently, it's not a true story.

IGX

Books for those who can read

Re: Books for those who can read

Re: Books for those who can read