Evenings Getting Shorter - Time to Choose a New Bookclub Book

[quote="905"]I could handle the Persians and I don't exactly have a veto here. Or do I...

While not immediately taken with the idea of a fiction set back then, I was a fan of Nicholas Guild's 'The Assyrian', so it might be an idea I could adjust to.[/

I'm happy to read anything you recommend. I would be delighted with either Perle, Rome/history or Patten. The Red Book is very short. I might start a little thread on it as a Not the Book Club read to see if I share Ard-Taoiseach's opinion.

Is it Persian Fire then?

Let's not be too hasty. Why not have a poll like last time?

cactus flower wrote:

I'm happy to read anything you recommend. I would be delighted with either Perle, Rome/history or Patten. The Red Book is very short. I might start a little thread on it as a Not the Book Club read to see if I share Ard-Taoiseach's opinion.

All the historical books I've mentioned are good reads and they'll go down easy as we enter Autumn. You should also share my disregard for Marx and Engels' views on the world. Marx's thinking was full of faults not least of which were his failure to anticipate the rise of the middle class, the fact that working conditions have improved as time has gone on and he overstates the importance of labour as a factor of production.

cactus flower wrote:

Gray sounds well worth a read, but perhaps not upbeat...

Cookie - any book you think would get us thinking?

Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations. Though you probably should have read that instead of the skreaking Klien nonsense.

P.J. O'Rourke's book about Smith and Wealth might be an interesting read too or if you want some heafty Smith stuff John rae's biography of Smith, Life of Adam Smith.

To avoid more economic/finance stuff one suggestion which might be a runner on the history side of things, I read "What Kind of Nation" by James F. Simon recently. It's about the conflict between Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall. Historically very interesting ans still relevant today as it explores the places and roll of federal government.

Also, our very own Richard Crowley's No Man's Land, Dispatches from the Middle East. It's a great book for anybody interested in the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. There are a few issues which bothered me but I won't go into those incase it's chosen.

I've also just started Enron, Anatomy of Greed, The unshredded Truth from an Enron insider by Brian Cruver. As I say I've just started it so I don't know what it's like but I read The Smartest Guys in the Room a while back and it was a seriously good read.

I know it's been suggested before but if you want one to get you thinking, get the tempers flared and the arms gesticulating wildly then Ayn Rand is worth a read. Even if you don't agree with her Objectivism the books are excellently written thrillers and they do brink up many issues which could sustain a conversation or two.

I mentioned Perle earlier so I'd suggest the most relevant of his writings would be a recent co-written book, An End to Evil, How to Win the War on Terror. That'll get poor Naomi squealing.

And I mentioned him earlier. kahn's On thermonuclear war. If you'd read it at the height on the cold war you'd never sleep again... or maybe you would sleep more soundly... who knows! But given that the nuclear threat while on the face of things has abated it's not gone away and it's more and more likely that it will become an bigger issue than it is now once we have a confirmed Islamic bomb. It could be worth a read too and would be less devisive then some of the others suggested.

If I were to make one choice it would be What Kind of Nation.

cactus flower wrote:

Is it Persian Fire then?

Persian Fire would be an excellent choice.

cactus flower wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Or we could confirm Cookie's suspicions by reading

What's the point? It's discredited rubbish.

Have you read it, Ard-Taoiseach? I haven't read it for years. You could dismember it with incisive analytical counterpolemic.

Would you be shocked to find I own a copy.

Persian Fire is an excellent choice!

cookiemonster wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Gray sounds well worth a read, but perhaps not upbeat...

Cookie - any book you think would get us thinking?

Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations. Though you probably should have read that instead of the skreaking Klien nonsense.

P.J. O'Rourke's book about Smith and Wealth might be an interesting read too or if you want some heafty Smith stuff John rae's biography of Smith, Life of Adam Smith.

To avoid more economic/finance stuff one suggestion which might be a runner on the history side of things, I read "What Kind of Nation" by James F. Simon recently. It's about the conflict between Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall. Historically very interesting ans still relevant today as it explores the places and roll of federal government.

Also, our very own Richard Crowley's No Man's Land, Dispatches from the Middle East. It's a great book for anybody interested in the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. There are a few issues which bothered me but I won't go into those incase it's chosen.

I've also just started Enron, Anatomy of Greed, The unshredded Truth from an Enron insider by Brian Cruver. As I say I've just started it so I don't know what it's like but I read The Smartest Guys in the Room a while back and it was a seriously good read.

I know it's been suggested before but if you want one to get you thinking, get the tempers flared and the arms gesticulating wildly then Ayn Rand is worth a read. Even if you don't agree with her Objectivism the books are excellently written thrillers and they do brink up many issues which could sustain a conversation or two.

I mentioned Perle earlier so I'd suggest the most relevant of his writings would be a recent co-written book, An End to Evil, How to Win the War on Terror. That'll get poor Naomi squealing.

And I mentioned him earlier. kahn's On thermonuclear war. If you'd read it at the height on the cold war you'd never sleep again... or maybe you would sleep more soundly... who knows! But given that the nuclear threat while on the face of things has abated it's not gone away and it's more and more likely that it will become an bigger issue than it is now once we have a confirmed Islamic bomb. It could be worth a read too and would be less devisive then some of the others suggested.

If I were to make one choice it would be What Kind of Nation.

What might be fun would be to match Wealth of Nations up against Das Kapital.

Everything on your list sounds interesting. It would be good to have something we don't all agree on, for better discussion perhaps?
Any views on Ard-Taoiseach's suggestions ?

cookiemonster wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Or we could confirm Cookie's suspicions by reading

What's the point? It's discredited rubbish.

Have you read it, Ard-Taoiseach? I haven't read it for years. You could dismember it with incisive analytical counterpolemic.

Would you be shocked to find I own a copy.

As you seem a very well-read person, Cookiemonster, I would be surprised if you didn't.

cactus flower wrote:

Any views on Ard-Taoiseach's suggestions ?

Well, as you know, AT and I... we agree on little.

cactus flower wrote:

As you seem a very well-read person, Cookiemonster, I would be surprised if you didn't.

It's filed along side Anne Coulter and Naomi Klien in the "Know your enemy" section.

Also, I mentioned Richard Crowley's book I shoudl also suggest Jimmy Carter's Peace not Apartheid. Or indeed anything Carter has written. I love Jimmy Carter!

cookiemonster wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Any views on Ard-Taoiseach's suggestions ?

Well, as you know, AT and I... we agree on little.

I agree!

OH! OH! OH! We should all read an Ann Coulter book. She's fucking gas! Seriously. Read Godless, the church of Liberal or How to speak Liberal.

Boney little nutjob.

cookiemonster wrote:

OH! OH! OH! We should all read an Ann Coulter book. She's fucking gas! Seriously. Read Godless, the church of Liberal or How to speak Liberal.

Boney little nutjob.

How about Slander? That'd be a hoot.

The one where she went baldheaded for Clinton was interesting, as far as her work goes but she was on the ledge at that stage but anything after that she'd well and truly jumped.

Even if it's not choses, AT, you should give What Kind of Nation a go. It's the roman struggle in a relatively modern age.

cookiemonster wrote:

The one where she went baldheaded for Clinton was interesting, as far as her work goes but she was on the ledge at that stage but anything after that she'd well and truly jumped.

Even if it's not choses, AT, you should give What Kind of Nation a go. It's the roman struggle in a relatively modern age.

I'll have look for What Kind of Nation in the shop. I have €20 worth of book-tokens and they are gonna be spent come hell or high water!

The bargain basement in Hodges Figgis is your friend.

cookiemonster wrote:

The bargain basement in Hodges Figgis is your friend.

It is indeed. I'll pop into Town this week and procure this tome of which you speak.

cookiemonster wrote:

OH! OH! OH! We should all read an Ann Coulter book. She's fucking gas! Seriously. Read Godless, the church of Liberal or How to speak Liberal.

Boney little nutjob.

On that recommentation Cookie, I'm sure a lot of people will take a look.

Had to change thread title - too short - apparently must be more than ten letters. mod.

cactus flower wrote:

Had to change thread title - too short - apparently must be more than ten letters. mod.

Bastards.

I have a theory that authoritarian rule is being propogated by unwitting but rule-bound websites. Like in Brave New World we're all expected to get the subconcious hint.

905 wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Had to change thread title - too short - apparently must be more than ten letters. mod.

Bastards.

I have a theory that authoritarian rule is being propogated by unwitting but rule-bound websites. Like in Brave New World we're all expected to get the subconcious hint.

Its not a rule, its just a limitation, I think. Bloody computers.

cactus flower wrote:

905 wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Had to change thread title - too short - apparently must be more than ten letters. mod.

Bastards.

I have a theory that authoritarian rule is being propogated by unwitting but rule-bound websites. Like in Brave New World we're all expected to get the subconcious hint.

Its not a rule, its just a limitation, I think. Bloody computers.

It's probably some programming requirement.