strutsulf

slevelt , 7 hours ago to bookstodon

recommendations please, @bookstodon and everyone else!

I am looking for a book to read that has enough mentions of music that I can use as a playlist for while reading. can be fiction or non-fiction.

examples: Ellis’ Invisible Man; Chang’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

I’m considering Bass Culture or Dilla Time, but will be grateful for any recommendations!

strutsulf , 4 hours ago

@slevelt @bookstodon Since no one's mentioned it yet: Hofstadter's Gödel Escher Bach (it mentions lots of music that isn't Bach as well).

ChrisMayLA6 , 2 months ago to bookstodon

I sometimes thought my father thought he could't die while he still had books on his pending pile (a stab at immortality I seem to be replicating)... so, it was strangely touching to see Tom Gauld has had similar thoughts.

#reading #immortality

@bookstodon

strutsulf , 2 months ago

@Africano @davidpnice @ChrisMayLA6 @ericatty @bookstodon Best selling point ever!

SallyStrange , 3 months ago to bookstodon

10 authors, of whose books I've read at least five:

Ursula Le Guin
Kim Stanley Robinson
Octavia Butler
N. K. Jemisin
Becky Chambers
Iain M. Banks
Martha Wells
M. R. Carey
Lois McMaster Bujold
Vonda McIntyre

#scifi #ScienceFiction #SFF #books

#10Authors5BooksEach
@bookstodon

strutsulf , 3 months ago

@SallyStrange @bookstodon
#10Authors5BooksEach
A bit surprised so few favourite authors from later years made it on the list...
SFF:
Douglas Adams
Iain M. Banks
James Blish
Samuel R. Delany
Philip José Farmer
C. S. Lewis
J. K. Rowling
Lemony Snickett
Tolkien
Jack Vance
Jules Verne

Swedish:
Bo Baldersson
Tage Danielsson
Åke Hodell
Åke Holmberg
Astrid Lindgren
Sjöwall/Wahlöö
Sven Wernström

Other:
Borges
Agatha Christie
Georges Perec
Plato
Proust
Shakespeare

bibliolater , 6 months ago to bookstodon

What is the most difficult #nonfiction or #academic #book you have ever #read? What made the #book so difficult for you? Would you #recommend others #read that #book?

#Question #Questions #Reading #AmReading #ReadingCommunity #Books #Ebook #Ebooks #Bookstodon @reading @bookstodon

strutsulf , 6 months ago

@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon Some 20th century philosophers, even of the rigorously analytical kind of persuasion and even when brilliant minds and making good sense in the end, were less than brilliant pedagogically. I read Whitehead’s short “Concept of Nature” recentishly, and it was tough going. (I am a philosopher at Gothenburg university.) I found it rewarding, but you need an interest in the stuff for it to be worth the trouble.

strutsulf , 6 months ago

@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon If you’re into speech act theory, you should definitely search out the very obscure 1979 book “Intention and Communication” by Thomas Wetterström. It’s almost unknown and almost unreadable. But it is also full of concepts and distinctions perfectly essential to speech act theory that you won’t find anywhere else (except for in Wetterström’s other, even more obscure works in Swedish!).

strutsulf , 6 months ago

@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon All in all, though, I guess the most difficult-to-understand things I read are student assignnments.

KitMuse , 6 months ago to bookstodon

I need your help #bookstodon. One of the classes I'm taking at the graduate level this semester is Religion & Science Fiction. I read more fantasy, and would like to do my research paper on something that's not obvious (like ST/BS5/Matrix/etc.) & I'd love to use more modern sf rather than the golden age classics.

Anyone have any interesting ideas for my research paper on regarding the intersection of religion and science fiction?

@bookstodon #sciencefiction #scifi #ReligiousStudies #academia

strutsulf , 6 months ago

@KitMuse @bookstodon You've already got more suggestions than you need, but "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller may serve your purpose very well.

wildmandrake , 7 months ago to philosophy

I wonder what my more #educated #philosopher friends think of this list.
Top 10 #Philosophy #Books - The ultimate philosophy reading list https://youtube.com/watch?v=p2wjwQug2Y0&si=ja_MxMLVBMNBdjWr

@philosophy

strutsulf , 7 months ago

@wildmandrake @philosophy It's ten classic and very influential books. I wouldn't rank Ayer's book up with the rest of them, though. Ayer's version of logical positivism is the one usually taught to philosophy students in English textbooks on the history of 20th century, but it isn't really representative of most or the best or the most influential works of logical positivism (from the likes of Carnap, Hempel, Neurath, or Waismann).

strutsulf , 7 months ago

@wildmandrake @philosophy Also, there's a heavy focus there on British empiricism, i.e. the tradition of Locke, Hume, and Berkeley. Not that they're not all worth reading, but if you want a grasp of the great variety within historical western philosophy, you'd do well to exchange Locke and Berkeley for Leibniz and Spinoza.