Currently I'm reading Nina Burton's 'Livets tunna väggar' which translate to something like Walls of Life. It's a book by a Swedish writer who inherits her mother's summer house. When she wants to renovate it, she finds all sort of life around and in the house. She uses said life to teach you something about the intellect of various insects and animals, which goes deeper than humans normally think.
It's a very interesting book that makes me think about non-human life even more. Creatures that are thousands of times smaller than we are have such complex societal structures. Humans have overcommodified animal life for centuries now, seeing them as property and commodities instead of complex and intelligent life forms.
Damn bro.. So many ppl are reading several books at once apparently. I don't think my brain could manage so much information at once honestly o.O
I'm reading "Blackshirts and Reds" by Parenti. Am on page 119 rn, and I gotta say I still enjoy Parenti's simpler style of writing as opposed to Marx'.
Also I was surprised how Parenti went into detail abt czechoslovakia even. Specifically abt Vaclav Havél's privatization campaign. Never thought he'd go that direction. I feel like I learned a LOT through this book and I'll keep recommending it to everyone who hasn't read it. I think anyone can profit from reading this.
After I'm done with this book, I thought I might pick up Mao's "On Practice"? I read "Dialectical and Historical Materialism" by Stalin and "How to be a Good Communist" by Liu Shaoqi, so I hope that book might additionally help me understand philosophy more.
So many ppl are reading several books at once apparently. I don’t think my brain could manage so much information at once honestly o.O
I hardly have the attention span to only read one or two. I’m usually reading more. I like to have a break between different chapters of a book in reading something else. It helps me hold the information from each passage rather than blending a whole book together in my mind. It (most of the time) prevents me from getting bored in the middle of books.
That's a rly interesting perspective. I too feel like I can't remember important stuff from the books I read cuz the information mushes together in the end, but I never thought abt reading another book to counter that.
If you are gonna do Mao, I'd say grab Five Essays. It's got On Contradiction and On Practice both, which are always recommended for good reason, but it also has a few other really good works by him.
I'm trying to find it as an epud to add to my collection but I listened to the audiobook version which is on Spotify.
Currently reading Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media by Parenti :).
A great book, but also somewhat depressing. Even though it's quite old, it definitely still holds up. It kind of seems like nothing has changed.
The main thesis of the book holds up (how media manipulates narrative through different techniques) but id love to see a contemporary version of it with the current events like libya, Ukraine and now Palestine.
Its about the myth of the ukrainian genocide, im halfway throu but so far it tells the story of how the narrative was pushed by nazi germany and picked up by pro fascism american media magnate Hearst, whom also had Mussolini on his payroll lol.
Lo and behold when I search for this book, I'm recommended an entirely different book by Orwell. The book I'm looking for is maybe six results down even though the search terms match exactly, case sensitive, too. Not in stock. It's available in Walmart, apparently. Fortunately if I hold a finger in the air I can feel a breeze strong enough to fill a sail.
I’m currently only reading Things Fall Apart and Half-Earth Socialism. TFA is pretty good so far. I’m reading it for school. It’s about a pre-colonial African society, but later on in the book I think they get colonized. HES is so good and I’ll never stop plugging it or the game https://half.earth. If enough people read the book I think it could be really important. It debunks mainstream views of how to solve the climate crisis and argues that it can only be solved through a holistic political and social movement with the backing of science. It describes how planning is necessary and gives some history of socialist economic planning. It argues on behalf of Utopianism by showing how scientific socialism with a clear view of the future can forge a better path toward reconciliation with the earth. I’ve learned a lot so far, and it keeps making connections between ideas and thinkers I already knew a tiny bit about.
Cool! I love thinking about non human life. They're essentially aliens to me. I've tried to overcome some fear of bugs being on me so I can hold them. Also saw my first owl (that wasn't a brief glimpse at night flying) last week...I forgot their heads can turn 180° 😅
I'm reading "Laurus", a translation of a book by Eugene Vodolazkin. 14th century Russian medieval peasant boy becomes a holy fool on a pilgrimage for God in the midst of plague. I haven't read many books in my adult life but as far as I know, it's my favorite (second read).
Just started The Three-Body Problem, only read the first 2 chapters but I'm liking it already. I don't really know anything about the Cultural Revolution to be able to form an opinion on whether the author's depiction is plausible or not, so I'll just believe him for now. It's nice reading communist fiction for a change.
Currently reading Open Veins of Latin America. I knew of the exploitation the colonizers and imperialists did but reading the stats and stories of the earlier periods just makes my jaw drop. I also wasn't aware in the 1800s after Paraguay kicked out the Spanish, they were the only nation in the continent that wasn't controlled by foreign capital and were pretty self sufficient. Obviously that wasn't acceptable to the imperialists so the British helped fund Brazil and Argentina to start a war with Paraguay. Paraguay lost and have been under the boot of imperialists since then.
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr. It's a breakdown of the imperialistic history of the US that, as a student in the States, you never really heard a lot about. It covers the displacement of the Native Americans, guano islands, the colonization of Puerto Rico and the Philippines, post-WWII military bases, the English language, and stop signs.
Half-way through edible and medicinal plants. Lots of toxic plants in Canada. If you see a plant with white flowers growing in a dome over the stem, it’s one of five types that’ll either give you diarrhoea or outright kill you.
Spruce tree sap is also an antibiotic, in case you need to disinfect a wound.
If you see a bush with thorns, growing thorny bulbs, you can eat it as long as you strip the thorns off first.
Also listening to “propaganda” by Edward Bernays. It’s one of the most “mask off” things I’ve read.
I just finished Nagieb Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy, which was awesome. I'm now reading Histoire du phénomène Stalien by Ellenstein, while also reading a book on therapeutic relations. I also have Malcolm X's biography laying around for after.
Next major novel is wither 2666 by Bolaño, Der Zauberberg by Thomas Mann or something by Ngugi wa thiongo.
I finished The Origin of Family, Private Property and the State last week and then decided to finish this chunk of my deep dive in theory with Critique of the Gotha Programme.
My next big focus is gonna be in anarchist theory so I picked 2 small pieces to read through to get a basic understanding: An Anarchist Programmer by Errico Malatesta and Are You An Anarchist by David Graeber.
Before I actually jump in to that I wanna get a few more chapters knocked out of Inventing Reality and Killing Hope though. I'm having a hard time deciding on Conquest of Bread or Anarchy Works for my next book though.
I really really like the first three chapters which explain practically that the purpose of society should be for the benefit of all. After that point, he gets like hyper-fixated on minutaea like greenhouses and how much a shirt should cost.
Anarchy Works was recommended on a few reddit posts while I was looking for books to add. It seems like a modern take on the theory. Conquest of Bread has been on my list since I started reading theory because it's so highly regarded. The question is, do I wanna keep reading really old stuff and get the foundation or read something more modern for a change of pace?
Getting back into Homer’s Odyssey. I read a kid’s version in 4th grade and didn’t realize how much I missed out on. Ancient Greek Mythology and Literature was a lot more sexual than I thought and the exposition makes a lot more sense when characters explain stuff pages at a time instead of just in small paragraphs. Spectacular work of art, can’t recommend it enough. Other than that, on my break at work I read through Mao’s Little Red Book 📕.
I just started reading Stasi State or Socialist Paradise?: The German Democratic Republic and What Became of It, by Bruni de la Motte and John Green. It's a great analysis of the DDR.
Furthermore I'm reading Killing hope by William Blum. A great book about Amerikan interventions/coups.
And ofcourse the Communist Manifesto (again).
After those I want to read An Economic History of the USSR 1917-1991 and Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next).
Any reason in particular why you're going to look at An Economic History of the USSR 1917-1991? I'm keen on improving my knowledge of the USSR and would like to look at a retrospective account that isn't completely anti-communist. Have you heard that An Economic History provides something like that? I'll take a look myself if yours is a recommendation.
Is Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) the one by Dean Spade? I picked up and flicked through it last week. It's not bad. The parts I read were quite US focused but that's not necessarily a problem. I quite like the format of this series (it's got a similar design to two books by Malm) because they're not intimidating and easy to pick up and start.
The reason why I’m reading An Economic History of the USSR is because a Marxist-Leninist friend recommended it to me. It has some nice information, but I would recommend Blackshirts & Reds by Michael Parenti if you want some more general information. He gives a far broader field of information about the Soviet Union and the rest of the communist bloc.
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the next) is indeed the one by Dean Spade. And yeah, it is a little too much focused on the US, but I would still recommend it.
Furthermore, I would really recommend reading Stasi State or Socialist Paradise. I just finished it and must say that it is one of the better books that I have read this year. It’s a light read but still contains so many great examples and information. It’s a great book for when you’re waiting for the train for example.
Edit: I suspect what I may eventually come to find that this is essentially what socialism with Chinese characteristics is, but first I’ll need to learn more about what actually goes on in China.
I hadn't heard of Hernández before, but I was intrigued by the title so I gave it a listen. He said he doesn't subscribe to dialectical materialism and his entire framework of defining socialism without even considering the ownership of the means of production strikes me as deeply idealistic, so I'm not so sure how seriously I want to take his work.
He comes from a philosophy background, and I’m not really interested in his weird Kant vs Hegel diversion, but for his attempt to synthesize fiat money & socialism, which is what I suspect China has already achieved. China is allowing some limited private ownership of the means of production, and they have sovereign fiat money.
As far as I know (which isn’t all that much) fiat money/Keynesianism/MMT hadn’t yet been developed when Marx was writing on capital. I have a suspicion that these innovations may have “resolved” some of capitalism’s internal contradictions, such that it might never collapse on its own. For instance, did Marx consider that the State might just print money to bail out the too-big-to-fail monopolies indefinitely, or that the State might prop the monopolies up by becoming their buyer of last resort? American capitalism seems to have entered uncharted territory.
I was trying to read Anti-oedipus by Deleuze& Guattari, but now I'm actually reading their "what is philosophy" since I was pretty fucking lost. Maybe not lost, but not exactly prepared for the density.
Just Capital right now. Finished the Roman portion of Hudson's Antiquity - highly recommend this if you're into pre-capitalist history or if you are interested in debt.
This weekend I started Naomi and Natalie Evans, The Mixed-Race Experience: Reflections and Revelations on Multiracial Identity. It's good so far. Short paras. Lots of empty space due to paragraph breaks. Plenty of headings. Makes it very easy to read.
It's not a 'radical' book. I don't think I'm going to come across any references to Fanon. But I get the sense they're hiding their power level. There's been a bit of a boom in publishing 'anti racism' books and while I've learned something from the few that I've read, I've not been blown away. This one's good.
I'd recommend this one for what I've read so far. It's practical. There's some interview/(auto)biographical work about what it's like to be mixed and grow up in a while household/area for example. And some great observations about different kinds of microaggressions.
It's a bit more like Reni Eddo-Lodge and Akala (both of whom are cited). With all four authors you get the impression they're trying to lead you to the edge of liberalism with a question: if liberalism and capitalism won't work, what then? They leave it open for the reader to conclude with anti-capitalism without stating it. The second interviewee in The Mixed-Race Experience, for instance, seems to be speaking in coded dialectics and they let that come through.
Whereas a few others, like Jeffrey Boakye, are rooted in liberal thought. Capitalist realism kind of stuff. Not to be snuffed. But some of these up and coming authors don't want us to stage a revolution and their books are promoted to the heavens as providing a cure to an ill world. The world is ill, to be sure. But the liberal solution isn't viable.
On my walks, I've been listening to Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America in Spanish. Does that count as reading? It's hard going for me. My Spanish isn't good enough so I'm not sure how much I'm getting. The only thing I'm really getting are the pronouns and something called 'hipotesi'? I don't think that's a word so I must me missing something.
The producers made a weird stylistic choice. Every so often the narrator says, 'nota de autor' and a number. But I'm entirely unsure whether the text that comes before or after this is the footnote. And I can't work out when the footnote ends and when the narrator goes back to the main text.
Would be helpful if he spoke it in a different voice. Or just ignored them. I've had to stop listening to other audio books because the narrator read the footnotes like this. They really need to find another way. They should be read as endnotes or something at the very end of the recording.
I might have a look at Nina Burton. Have you heard of Robert Macfarlane? They sound similar.
I wanna read the "Open Veins.." in Spanish too for the same reason as you I'm currently reading Pablo Neruda's autobiography in Spanish which is phenomenal I highly recommend you get it.
"In deep shift"
I am trying hard to be more disciplined and study well.
Pablo Neruda autobiography in Spanish, to improve my fluency and he's a Chilean Poet who was a socialist, his life is fascinating.
A jazz theory book, i am trying very hard to learn but I need to practice more, hence why I'm reading the first book.
I have more books I'm ready to take on like
The 48 laws of power not because I want to use it on others but because I wanna be aware of how others use this mentality. But I haven't started.
I have a huge list of theory books I need to begin. I was reading Stalins book the principles of Lenin, I never got around to continuing past the first part but I loved it. I read Maos little red book briefly at a friend's house that is a very captivating read, I'm looking to get it.