So I'm sort of anti-interested in philosophy, if that makes sense - I think it's mostly a blind alley and I'm kind of hostile to it. That's almost interesting in a different way?
What's the book like? It looks pretty self-helpy overall from the cover, but one must not judge based on that.
How about The Siege of Krishnapur? Or (less literary) Bernard Cornwell’s The Winter King. Both cracking reads and the second much smarter than you might expect.
Theo has some good options, but as I'm experiencing in this other book club I'm in, its really hard to stick with it for complicated smart-people books like Strategy of Conflict.
Maybe do something like the first Vorkosigan book? Its light, its easy, its fun, and I already own it.
My real recommend for fiction from this century is "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson.
It's a story of a man who, Abram-like, has a son-of-his-old-age. And the book is a long series of letters to his beloved son. (Because in his case, he knows he won't be around much longer.)
---
Has quotes like these:
"We human beings do real harm. History could make a stone weep."
“It is an amazing thing to watch people laugh, the way it sort of takes them over. Sometimes they really do struggle with it . . . so I wonder what it is and where it comes from, and I wonder what it expends out of your system, so that you have to do it till you're done, like crying in a way, I suppose, except that laughter is much more easily spent.”
“Any human face is a claim on you, because you can't help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it. But this is truest of the face of an infant. I consider that to be one kind of vision, as mystical as any.”
---
Oh yeah, the child is the result of a sharecropper-woman-turned-prostitute-who-leaves-that-to-become-a-vagabond* who finds her way to the town of Gilead and marries the educated-respectable-preacher-man, sort of hoping they will SAVE EACH-OTHER... though not in the Christian sense. Except possibly sort of!
It takes place in rural Iowa, it has the whole "People are really poor, and they live lives where they politely help make various things work for their neighbors w.r.t. the needs they can see, brush past each-other w.r.t to the deeper needs they can't see, and are a confusing mess about whether they seem to be people who are worshipping the Living God or who are Pharisees."
Also, memories of older generations... much of what the father writes is about when he was a child.
* (I don't expect lotsa people to read "Lila" for the backstory, but it trickles in.)
I'd be up for GIlead. Also interested in nonfiction books about American class structure in the Paul Fussell vein. Bobos in Paradise or Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class.
David W? I didn't see him recommend it. Yeah, its definitely long, but I tend to like long-ish web fiction.
If you liked WtC well enough, the same author is writing a new series called "This Used To Be about Dungeons" Which I'm enjoying... Or... at least I'm enjoying it enough to continue to read it.
I think... OK, so if we were doing things like WTC, we'd almost need two book clubs. Not because WtC wasn't good (it was) and not because I wouldn't complain constantly about it devolving into group touch sessions (it does, and I'd be awesome at complaining about it to you) but because it's such a niche fiction environment.
And it's not that we can't do that, but rationalist-litRPG is so narrow an interest band that maybe 10% of SSC/DSL derived readers might want that, tops. So we'd have to have some sort of more general something-or-other for, you know, everyone else.
This is AMAZING. So, the default is that the book would be non-fic, but super-classic stuff is on the table?
Mutual friend was telling me about "Moby Dick;" I don't think there are enough people besides me who love to read but have not yet read it (and of THAT cohort, who would finish the whole thing) to justify that one... but I'm thinking that's the category that is like "super-classic stuff."
First thing that comes to mind is, "So You've Been Publicly Shamed," by Jon Ronson. That book/author has issues, but what one doesnt?
(I should think of one or more thats "like but unlike The Benedict Option." I feel like "has Christian stuff but is of wider interest" might be somewhere relevant.)
> "I try to do some of this by being 24/7 available in the RC Advice section and by replying to most-or-all of the comments..."
OK, so super classic stuff isn't definitely off the table. But Moby Dick is off the table, because I've read it and it's a steaming pile of dumb; like 98% of the book is inaccurate whale anatomy. It's a slog and some weeks it would literally just be "I don't think whales work like that... I don't think anything works like that."
So, sorry to ignore this for so long. I think it's probably more likely we will do a book; I think that's probably easier for everyone to coordinate over a long period of time. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you are saying?
The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Would like to be notified too!
no suggestions but interested!
Responding to alert to update comment here: https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/book-club-the-one-where-we-vote-on/comment/5752587
I'll keep you in the loop!
If you are interested in philosophy, A Guide to the Good Life was a decent book on stoicism.
Responding to alert to update comment here: https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/book-club-the-one-where-we-vote-on/comment/5752587
So I'm sort of anti-interested in philosophy, if that makes sense - I think it's mostly a blind alley and I'm kind of hostile to it. That's almost interesting in a different way?
What's the book like? It looks pretty self-helpy overall from the cover, but one must not judge based on that.
You would probably like stoicism more than any other philosophy. Also, @Randy, I'll probably pick up that book at some point.
I reviewed it briefly on this old thread:
https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/01/08/open-thread-144-75/#comment-839816
How about The Siege of Krishnapur? Or (less literary) Bernard Cornwell’s The Winter King. Both cracking reads and the second much smarter than you might expect.
Czesław Miłosz's "The Captive Mind" is a worthwhile read, book club or no.
Responding to alert to update comment here: https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/book-club-the-one-where-we-vote-on/comment/5752587
It might just be my browser, but this isn't showing your profile anymore above the post.
Greaber and Wengrow - Dawn of Everything
Ligotti- Conspiracy Against the Human Race
Pink - Power of Regret
Responding to alert to update comment here: https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/book-club-the-one-where-we-vote-on/comment/5752587
I'll take a look!
Theo has some good options, but as I'm experiencing in this other book club I'm in, its really hard to stick with it for complicated smart-people books like Strategy of Conflict.
Maybe do something like the first Vorkosigan book? Its light, its easy, its fun, and I already own it.
Also, have you thought about doing an RC discord?
My real recommend for fiction from this century is "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson.
It's a story of a man who, Abram-like, has a son-of-his-old-age. And the book is a long series of letters to his beloved son. (Because in his case, he knows he won't be around much longer.)
---
Has quotes like these:
"We human beings do real harm. History could make a stone weep."
“It is an amazing thing to watch people laugh, the way it sort of takes them over. Sometimes they really do struggle with it . . . so I wonder what it is and where it comes from, and I wonder what it expends out of your system, so that you have to do it till you're done, like crying in a way, I suppose, except that laughter is much more easily spent.”
“Any human face is a claim on you, because you can't help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it. But this is truest of the face of an infant. I consider that to be one kind of vision, as mystical as any.”
---
Oh yeah, the child is the result of a sharecropper-woman-turned-prostitute-who-leaves-that-to-become-a-vagabond* who finds her way to the town of Gilead and marries the educated-respectable-preacher-man, sort of hoping they will SAVE EACH-OTHER... though not in the Christian sense. Except possibly sort of!
It takes place in rural Iowa, it has the whole "People are really poor, and they live lives where they politely help make various things work for their neighbors w.r.t. the needs they can see, brush past each-other w.r.t to the deeper needs they can't see, and are a confusing mess about whether they seem to be people who are worshipping the Living God or who are Pharisees."
Also, memories of older generations... much of what the father writes is about when he was a child.
* (I don't expect lotsa people to read "Lila" for the backstory, but it trickles in.)
I'd be up for GIlead. Also interested in nonfiction books about American class structure in the Paul Fussell vein. Bobos in Paradise or Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class.
Also, I'm not opposed to a Worth the Candle re-read
That's really long. I read it recently after David recommended it, though, so I wouldn't be opposed to seeing someone's reactions in real time.
David W? I didn't see him recommend it. Yeah, its definitely long, but I tend to like long-ish web fiction.
If you liked WtC well enough, the same author is writing a new series called "This Used To Be about Dungeons" Which I'm enjoying... Or... at least I'm enjoying it enough to continue to read it.
Sorry, I meant David Friedman.
I liked it, enough to make it up through most of the endings, but I'm also kind of tired of the genre for a bit.
I think... OK, so if we were doing things like WTC, we'd almost need two book clubs. Not because WtC wasn't good (it was) and not because I wouldn't complain constantly about it devolving into group touch sessions (it does, and I'd be awesome at complaining about it to you) but because it's such a niche fiction environment.
And it's not that we can't do that, but rationalist-litRPG is so narrow an interest band that maybe 10% of SSC/DSL derived readers might want that, tops. So we'd have to have some sort of more general something-or-other for, you know, everyone else.
I bet you if we did it we could get Nick and Woah on board...
This is AMAZING. So, the default is that the book would be non-fic, but super-classic stuff is on the table?
Mutual friend was telling me about "Moby Dick;" I don't think there are enough people besides me who love to read but have not yet read it (and of THAT cohort, who would finish the whole thing) to justify that one... but I'm thinking that's the category that is like "super-classic stuff."
First thing that comes to mind is, "So You've Been Publicly Shamed," by Jon Ronson. That book/author has issues, but what one doesnt?
(I should think of one or more thats "like but unlike The Benedict Option." I feel like "has Christian stuff but is of wider interest" might be somewhere relevant.)
> "I try to do some of this by being 24/7 available in the RC Advice section and by replying to most-or-all of the comments..."
<3
OK, so super classic stuff isn't definitely off the table. But Moby Dick is off the table, because I've read it and it's a steaming pile of dumb; like 98% of the book is inaccurate whale anatomy. It's a slog and some weeks it would literally just be "I don't think whales work like that... I don't think anything works like that."
Responding to alert to update comment here: https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/book-club-the-one-where-we-vote-on/comment/5752587
So, sorry to ignore this for so long. I think it's probably more likely we will do a book; I think that's probably easier for everyone to coordinate over a long period of time. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you are saying?