Fiction or Non-Fiction, academic or casual, theory or non-theory, feel free to mention books of any genre and on any topic.

Previous week’s thread.

  • truly
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    3 days ago

    My current books are Losurdo’s Stalin, Age of Capital by Hobsbawm, Wolf Hall, Crime and Punishment, and L’étranger. I find I read most when I’m at a low point, it’s the only thing that can occupy my brain.

    One thing that interests me about A Black Legend that so far has only been mentioned tangentially is his idea of the second Thirty Years’ War. I’ve been trying to come up with arguments against the author’s sobering historiography of Stalin, I’ve read comments before about the demystifying affect of a dialectical materialist world view and I think I’m having one of those moments where it’s sort of clicking in my head the degree to which we live in a world of propaganda.

    I think my thoughts are not formed enough for Age of Capital, despite having read Age of Revolution not long before. It is a dry series and indulges very little in unsupported arguments, which makes for long, arduous, and nuanced reading.

    Wolf hall is an historical fiction set in 1500’s England. We witness the dialectic between Thomas Cromwell’s home and political life play out, at an infliction point of the 16th century. We see the effects of worldwide events such as the plague both on him and society. The prose is competent and more interesting than series of books such as Game of Thrones, but not approaching the complexity of books such as war and peace.

    Crime and punishment has made me cry a couple of times despite me being 100 pages in.

    L’étranger est un roman qui tout le monde lit quand ils sont en train d’apprendre le Français. Le roman est d’aliénation, un sujet ce qu’était dans mon pensées depuis longtemps.