Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Mikespice Mike]

The last day in asylum

[Pattern-chaser]

The Shining Ones. The second book of the Eddings' Tamuli trilogy.
A room of one's own — Virginia Woolf.
Blood of Elves — Sapkowski.
The Human Touch — Michael Frayn.

[Okewunmi Pelumi]

I have developed much interest in non-fiction books these days. So, I'm currently reading a Christian book titled 'Why God Allows Evil and Suffering.' I find the book philosophical because even the title captivated me to know what's inside... Anyways, I'm still reading and I find it so inspirational and mind-hacking.

[Chris_winW]

I totally get what you mean about the struggle of finding good horror reads. It's like trying to find a hidden gem in a haystack sometimes! John Langan's "The Fisherman" sounds intriguing, and I appreciate when horror books dive into deeper themes. Right now, I'm digging into Joe Hill's "NOS4A2," which has this chilling Christmas theme going on.

[Lagayascienza]

I'm reading Carlo Rovelli's White Holes. It's fun, interesting and sheds light on something that has bothered me about black holes for a long time. What eventually happens to the mass of a black hole? Most of it is shed by Hawking radiation but it turns out that it is possible that some squeezes or tunnels out through a white hole. I've always wondered whether this could be possible. I'm just getting onto the section where he starts talking about quantum gravity and dark matter and how a theory of white holes may help solve some mysteries about these.

I'll post my thoughts on the book as a whole when I finish it.

[Lagayascienza]

I have finished Carlo Rovelli's White Holes. It was a fun read about black holes and their theorized counterparts that spew energy back into the universe. Having approximately zero equations made it easy bed time reading.

I've just bought Daniel Dennett's I've Been Thinking, Kevin J. Mitchell's, Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will and Joseph E. LeDoux's The Four Realms of Existence: A New Theory of Being Human. These three books were reviewed in the current edition of Nature to which I subscribe. All three deal with consciousness and free will which are very live philosophical topics. I'm looking forward to getting into them. I just have to decide which one to open first.

[Xenophon]

Aside from this thread? "Uthark," a slightly iconoclastic treatment of the Nordic runes. "War as I Knew It," by Patton. Plus "Naos," a volume of the occult that I initially thought was dreck, then it just lately seized my attention again. Give it a gander.

[Pattern-chaser]

"Mage-born" by Stephen Aryan

[Xenophon]

I read Kafka's "The Trial" a long time ago. It took me a very long time to read, only to find that at the end of the book, nothing had changed and nothing had happened. If I were you, I would limit my Kafka reading to "Metamorphosis".

Well said. Actually, his "Vor Dem Gesetz" is even shorter and contains all the author's typical degenerate themes. Read that: less chance of infection. Kafka amounts to an unfunny version of Woody Allen, though---oddly---that unfunny aspect actually renders him rather the more bearable of the twain.

[Xenophon]

In any case, what are you reading?

Just finished reading 'A Dream For Peace' by Dr. Ghoulem Berrah. Talk about feeling inadequate after reading about his remarkable life, personal and indirect impact, and the people he met along the way. It's a 600-page life journey that left me shocked. I don't typically read memoirs, but this one kept catching my eye, so I went for it. Surprisingly, I recommend it. You actually come across peacemakers in politics, which is SHOCKING!

Actually it were well if man's kinds were to be subjected to a great many more real and present crises, right down to the neighborhood level.

[berlin]

I just finished my annual (ish, sometimes I skip) reread of The Silmarillion and decided to jump into something horror. I’m a huge horror buff, but the genre is one of the worst to try to find anything decent in. I can spend a week poring over reviews and synopses before I find a horror story I actually want to read.

In any case, I settled on John Langan’s anthology, “Corpsemouth and other Autobiographies,” which is a Lovecraftian-style cosmic horror/weird fiction style collection.

I chose this one because I really enjoyed Langan’s “The Fisherman,” wherein three fishermen tell their tale at a bar in the Catskills mountains, discovering that a sinister force connects their stories.

More than just being excellent supernatural horror though, Langan masterfully handles themes like loss and friendship; and while I often roll my eyes in some horror books thinking “I don’t care, can we get more monsters in my monster story please” (ahem Stephen King), I really felt the grief and the journey of the protagonists of The Fisherman. I’d recommend that book to anyone, even people that usually don’t go for genre fiction.

In any case, what are you reading?

Currently, I'm diving into "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern. It’s a beautifully imaginative novel with a magical and mysterious circus that only opens at night. The writing is enchanting, and the intricate world-building has me hooked. I'm also reading "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari, which offers a fascinating exploration of human history and evolution. Both books are keeping me thoroughly engaged—each in its own unique way. What are you reading?

[Pattern-chaser]

I'm currently enjoying "The Wood Bee Queen", a fantasy story by Edward Cox. I'm enjoying it.

[Pattern-chaser]

I wonder why my posts in this topic are subject to approval, when this is not the case in any other topic (that I've noticed)?



Edited to add: but this post went straight in without 'approval'?

[Xenophon]

Wyndham Lewis, "Hitler." One of the few intelligent things in English on that topic, though rather chatty in tone.

[David awunor]

Currently reading post on the Online Philosophy Forum.