Topic: What is everyone reading?

[Ebor]

Seriously if I hear someone say 50 Shades of Grey is a good book I'm going to strangle them.

That thing started out as (I swear I am not making this up) fanfic for Twilight!!!

No I haven't read it, I will not read it, and I won't touch it with a barge pole.

Ebor (mentally gagging)

[stavros_388]

A History of God: The 4,000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, by Karen Armstrong

Save yourself the time. Guess when you have plenty though, what does it matter?

She is terrible.

She is not an Orthodox Christian, and she is certainly way too ecumenical and too liberal for my tastes. However, if you know this going in then you can still gain a lot from her. She is very knowledgable about religion and she is an excellent writer in my opinion.


Selam

I read a book of hers while waiting for a woman to get ready to go out, before I cared about Orthodoxy Christianity or being involved in anything "religious". While offering much laughter, it was terribly written.

It was a helpful exercise, as I was able to quickly gauge the woman's intellectual capacity and propensity to the worst sorta liberalism, when she explained to me how interesting and "informative" the text was and how she came to better understand "religious people" especially Christians.

The problem is not the ecumenicism. Aside from the writing, she belongs in the heap of trash of x studies, in this case religious studies, which doesn't properly understand its own history of thought, necessarily "Western", then attempts to reduce everything else in the world to its own uncritical understanding of its own metaphysics.

No thanks.

[/rant]

But as they say:



Which actually is just another installment in the patronizing toward the Black Man long series of tales of Whitey Knows Best.

Like I said, I've only read two of her books. One on Islam and the other was her autobiogrpahy "The Spiral Staircase." I found her writing highly readable and very informative. But then again, I am a simple man who likes to understand what I read the first time without having to read the same paragraph again and again to discern it's meaning (like I had to do with your post above. )


Selam

I, too, am a simple man. I have enjoyed a few of her books and am quite sympathetic to some of her views.

[Justin Kissel]

A History of God: The 4,000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, by Karen Armstrong

Regarding Karen Armstrong... interesting... so the iconoclastic guy doesn't like her, but the conservative/traditional Orthodox do. Something is wrong here 

[vamrat]

Religious Book - I have taken a break from reading the Gospels straight up and have been reading the Commentary on the Gospel of John by St. Theophylact, after rereading the Gospel itself.  Following this I will probably read the book of Galatians, I believe that is where I stopped in my reading of the New Testament in a straight line.

Non-Religious - Fireforce, a book written about the author's experiences in the Rhodesian Light Infantry in the Bush War.  I have gotten through the forward and the beginning of boot camp.  The book immediately gets off on a depressing note - in a psychiatrist's office in the mid-80's, several years after the end of the war.  He recounts several friends and where they are now...most of whom had committed suicide or died in the war.  This will probably be a very powerful read.

[biro]

I went to the library and found some old books by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Great! Now I don't have to get the audiobooks.

[Agabus]

I am also reading this, because as a convert I am obligated to read Pelikan:

Jaroslav Pelikan examines the biblical portrait of Mary, analyzing both the New and Old Testaments to see how the bits of information provided about her were expanded into a full-blown doctrine. He explores the view of Mary in late antiquity, where the differences between Mary, the mother of Christ, and Eve, the "mother of all living," provided positive and negative symbols of women. He discusses how the Eastern church commemorated Mary and how she was portrayed in the Holy Qur'an of Islam. He explains how the paradox of Mary as Virgin Mother shaped the paradoxical Catholic view of sexuality and how Reformation rejection of the worship of Mary allowed her to be a model of faith for Protestants. He considers also her role in political and social history. He analyzes the place of Mary in literature—from Dante, Spenser, and Milton to Wordsworth, George Eliot, and Goethe—as well as in music and art, and he describes the miraculous apparitions of Mary that have been experienced by the common people.

[Ansgar]

I finally decided to read The Hobbit 

[biro]

I finally decided to read The Hobbit 

Good for you! 

[Shiny]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

[biro]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

"Kinda makes my head hurt"

[Justin Kissel]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

[Schultz]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

Pretty much spot on.  I'm sad I never thought of this before.

[Big Chris]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

I was going to say 21st century West European politics, but this works.

[Papist]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

Wow. I've never heard it described this way, but this is spot on.

[Cognomen]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

Love it!!!

[orthonorm]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Alas, I shrugged.

[orthonorm]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

I was going to say 21st century West European politics, but this works.

Not so much. Ayn Rand and Objectivism is to economic theory what L. Ron Hubbard and Dianetics is to psychology.

[vamrat]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

+X

[Agabus]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

That's better than what I was going to go with, which is, "The asshole you hate the most in this story is supposed to be the one to which you look up."

[orthonorm]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

That's better than what I was going to go with, which is, "The asshole you hate the most in this story is supposed to be the one to which you look up."

Nice

[recent convert]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

That's better than what I was going to go with, which is, "The asshole you hate the most in this story is supposed to be the one to which you look up."

Nice

I do not know her entire philosophy other than that she seems basically a free market economist and and an atheist. The book "We the Living" was adapted to an Italian movie in 1942 & eventually banned by the fascists since it was inherently anti totalitarian. To be anti communist & anti fascist does not seem to bad . Guess I will have to investigate further. Coming out of russia an atheist after 1917 (or any time?) seems understandable..

[Agabus]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

That's better than what I was going to go with, which is, "The asshole you hate the most in this story is supposed to be the one to which you look up."

Nice

I do not know her entire philosophy other than that she seems basically a free market economist and and an atheist.

This is hardly the top of the iceberg, but:

"My views on charity are very simple. I do not consider it a major virtue and, above all, I do not consider it a moral duty. There is nothing wrong in helping other people, if and when they are worthy of the help and you can afford to help them. I regard charity as a marginal issue.What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue."

[From “Playboy’s 1964 interview with Ayn Rand”]

[Shiny]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

That's better than what I was going to go with, which is, "The asshole you hate the most in this story is supposed to be the one to which you look up."

Nice

I do not know her entire philosophy other than that she seems basically a free market economist and and an atheist.

This is hardly the top of the iceberg, but:

"My views on charity are very simple. I do not consider it a major virtue and, above all, I do not consider it a moral duty. There is nothing wrong in helping other people, if and when they are worthy of the help and you can afford to help them. I regard charity as a marginal issue.What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue."

[From “Playboy’s 1964 interview with Ayn Rand”]

O_O

[orthonorm]

Some us did only read Playboy for the interviews.

[Iconodule]

I hope that issue didn't come with an Ayn Rand centerfold

[orthonorm]

I hope that issue didn't come with an Ayn Rand centerfold

If so, it should be given to all young males within the Church to mount near their beds.

It would substantially decrease the frequency of "self harm" threads on oc.net.

[Shiny]

I hope that issue didn't come with an Ayn Rand centerfold

If so, it should be given to all young males within the Church to mount near their beds.

It would substantially decrease the frequency of "self harm" threads on oc.net.

Hahahahaha.

[Iconodule]

I hope that issue didn't come with an Ayn Rand centerfold

If so, it should be given to all young males within the Church to mount near their beds.

It would substantially decrease the frequency of "self harm" threads on oc.net.

For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs after seeing the Ayn Rand centerfold.

[Justin Kissel]

The Greatest Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of The Lord's Prayer, by John Dominic Crossan

[scamandrius]

Frederic Bastiat, The Law
J.B. Bury, Cambridge Medieval History
Milton Friedman, Free to Choose
J. Christian Adams, Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

[scamandrius]

I am also reading this, because as a convert I am obligated to read Pelikan:

Just because you're a convert does not oblige you to read the books of other converts.  Don't get me wrong:  I like Pelikan's History of Doctrine series, but I don't read him because he's a convert like me.  And, at the risk of sounding parochial, most books written from the convert perspective, I really cannot stand, especially Frederica Matthewes Greene and Clark Carlton to name a few.

[William]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

Satanism without the Satan stuff.

That's better than what I was going to go with, which is, "The asshole you hate the most in this story is supposed to be the one to which you look up."

Exactly what I thought when reading Anthem.

[Agabus]

I am also reading this, because as a convert I am obligated to read Pelikan:

Just because you're a convert does not oblige you to read the books of other converts.  Don't get me wrong:  I like Pelikan's History of Doctrine series, but I don't read him because he's a convert like me. 

I was being tongue-in-cheek, of course.

I am reading Pelikan because it is a subject in which I am interested, and he writes about the history of doctrine without the hackneyed polemic of some. FWIW, I'm fairly certain Mary through the Centuries was  written before his official conversion. Jesus through the Centuries certainly was.

 

And, at the risk of sounding parochial, most books written from the convert perspective, I really cannot stand, especially Frederica Matthewes Greene and Clark Carlton to name a few.

Let's be friends.

[Anastasia1]

Kingfisher Soccer Encyclopedia by Clive Gifford

[Anastasia1]

Also, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Soccer by D.W. Crisfield

[Shiny]

Also, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Soccer by D.W. Crisfield

Heh heh how is it? And why did you buy it?

[Justin Kissel]

Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World, by Sharon Waxman

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey by David Horowitz

http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Son-A-Generational-Odyssey/dp/0684840057

Very well written and hard to put down. I'm really enjoying it so far.



Selam

[Rufus]

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.

[OrthoNoob]

If you could describe Ayn Rand and Objectivism, what would it be?

As a person who recently read We the Living and is almost finished with Atlas Shrugged,

Rand preached autolatry. Pure and simple. The books are hymns of adoration to the self, punctuated periodically by boring sex scenes.

Now, understand: when I say the books celebrate self-worship, I don't mean that self-worship is "under the surface" or "the root of it all" or something like that. It's very much on the surface; she preached it largely without hypocrisy. That's what makes her so evil.

[Shiny]

^ Thanks for your insight.

Remember that scene in Crime and Punishment where Raskonliv has that dream about the horse being beaten to death? Am I deranged if I was laughing the entire time because of how cruel it was? I almost took in some pleasure by reading it.

I'm reading this:

[Volnutt]

Thanks a bunch, orthonorm. I now have the Diff'rent Strokes theme song stuck in my head 

Reading The Trial, Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, and a book about the Russian Revolution in preparation for class in the fall (just the last one, though having to read all three of them would make for an interesting class).

[Papist]

[HouseOfGod]

The Greatest Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of The Lord's Prayer, by John Dominic Crossan

Is this book good? Has anyone else read it?

[biro]

"Frozen Moment," Camilla Ceder.