Been meaning to read it for about 15 years!

Quote from: Don Gately on April 29, 2020, 09:13:52 PM
Just getting stuck into "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro.

I have this on my "I'll read that next" shelf for about 6 months now. It just seems like a bit of a daunting undertaking. Even the physical size itself, 1500 pages, it's huge. And mine is a hardback. I might be lifted clean off the toilet bowl by the weight of it. 

Robert Moses is an interesting character for sure. I was due to go to NYC for a holiday and was going to read "The Power Broker" beforehand so I could see in the flesh what he accomplished. That's been knocked back a bit now.

Caro's interview on Conan O'Brien's podcast is very enjoyable.


Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is pretty stark. The book just covers up to around the age of 15 or so, christ knows how mental the rest of her life will be if she ended up writing another seven memoirs. I read both this and Albert Camus' The Outsider at the weekend, both of which I highly recommend. I'm know on Peter Marshall's history of anarchism, which I've started a few times before, always broken up by having to move house, so hopefully this isn't a bad omen.

Quote from: Black Shepherd Carnage on May 05, 2020, 02:23:51 PM
Been meaning to read it for about 15 years!
It's the kind of thing you would fly through, had me snorting with laughter plenty of times.

After going back over the last few pages of this thread I saw the Tolkien discussion I missed somehow. But it did lead me to start a reread of the Silmarillion. I wanted something to go with some music while reading, so it's Tolkien, epic BM, Tangerine Dream and era 1 Mortiis for the next while. Onwards!  :)

Quote from: StoutAndAle on May 05, 2020, 04:08:28 PM
Quote from: Don Gately on April 29, 2020, 09:13:52 PM
Just getting stuck into "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro.

I have this on my "I'll read that next" shelf for about 6 months now. It just seems like a bit of a daunting undertaking. Even the physical size itself, 1500 pages, it's huge. And mine is a hardback. I might be lifted clean off the toilet bowl by the weight of it. 

Robert Moses is an interesting character for sure. I was due to go to NYC for a holiday and was going to read "The Power Broker" beforehand so I could see in the flesh what he accomplished. That's been knocked back a bit now.

Caro's interview on Conan O'Brien's podcast is very enjoyable.

Thanks, mine is hardcover too! Good read so far.

Quote from: Scáthach on May 05, 2020, 08:19:21 PM
Quote from: Black Shepherd Carnage on May 05, 2020, 02:23:51 PM
Been meaning to read it for about 15 years!
It's the kind of thing you would fly through, had me snorting with laughter plenty of times.

After going back over the last few pages of this thread I saw the Tolkien discussion I missed somehow. But it did lead me to start a reread of the Silmarillion. I wanted something to go with some music while reading, so it's Tolkien, epic BM, Tangerine Dream and era 1 Mortiis for the next while. Onwards!  :)

What Tangerine Dream album would you recommend? The Summoning album Minas Morgul is pretty cool on the BM front.

Another cool album is the Bo Hansson LoTR album  :abbath:

I needed a break from reading some heavy stuff and am bursting through Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. I haven't read it since I was a teenager, I don't think, and it's a ripper.  I also couldn't resist peeking at a few pages of What is Life by Schroedinger last night,  thus kind of fucking up my original plan.

Two great works!

Quote from: Pedrito on May 05, 2020, 09:42:04 PM
Another cool album is the Bo Hansson LoTR album  :abbath:
Ooh, Summoning is going on the list. Thank you. For Tangerine Dream this eve, I have Phaedra lined up. Its quite mellow, but has a real face melting modulating section in the middle. It's perfect because I'm still just at the creation myths part of the Silmarillion.
Don't know the Bo Hanson one, will check it out. Cheers Pedrito.

I'm currently on 'A people's history of the United States' by Howard Zinn. It's  flawed in some respects, his socialist agenda is clear within a chapter, but it's very engaging for a book about history,  and the slew of reading and research done is clearly enormous.

The 'great men', the civil war are background rather than foreground for what ordinary American experiences were like, insofar as he can emit them through proxies and commentators of the time.

He's as red as a slapped arse, but if I can appreciate the  accessible yet thorough and enormous breadth of the work, pretty much anyone could!

Speaking of US history, I recently read a book called Left Behind by Diane Ravitch, a critical history of the progressive education movement in the States. I think you'd get a lot out of it. The author is impressively transparent about her own convictions yet manages to deliver a very balanced account.

 
Quote from: Eoin McLove on May 05, 2020, 09:44:49 PM
I needed a break from reading some heavy stuff and am bursting through Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. I haven't read it since I was a teenager, I don't think, and it's a ripper. 
Started on a few Discworld the last while too, haven't touched some of them in 20 years or so. Forgot how much I love them, finding there's a lot of jokes and nuances I never got when I was younger but make sense now so it's nearly like reading them for the first time again

Is it 'left back'? I've never read that, but she is the epitome of 'esteemed' in that very niche field.

Sorry, Left Back, yes.