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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 1:06 am

Thanks Dr. Who, I was trying to decide if I should post something similar... Laughing

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 1:36 am

Someone had to. When you get a slow pitch up the middle, you have to swing for the fence.

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 1:41 am

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:11 am

I bought Under Fire (sort of) by O. L. North in hardback on Amazon for two cents. Its OK for the price.

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:47 am

tandenberg wrote:

Any suggestions for a novel-type work for my next undertaking?

For me, the problem with reading philosophy is that the authors were rarely writing in English and I therefore rely on translations of their work. Translating something that is difficult enough to understand in it's own mother tongue means that "foriegn" philosophical works are often hard going and not all make an easy cross-over to English.
Look for a philosopher who speaks/spoke your language. For me, Bertrand Russell is a good one. He was Welsh, but as English was his first language, I find him nowhere near as difficult as Kant, Schopenhauer, etc.

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:34 am

Might depend on whether classical philosophy, which in most parts I find easier to understand, or modern philosophy (I have only dealt with Nietzsche and, if you want to count him as one, Lichtenberg.). The antique dialogue approach to it, all in all, comes much more natural to me. - There surely are some good translations of GCL or Nietzsche out there, somewhere Wink

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:37 pm

Kant isn't hard to understand through translation, since he takes time to explain all his big or potentially ambiguous words. It's just that enlightnment-type style of writing, like the Declaration of Independence or Jonathan Swift, that throws me off. They like dense, run-on sentences where you forget what the beginning of the sentence was by the time you got to the end of it.

Speaking of Swift, A Modest Proposal isn't all that long and it's a hilarious read once you realize that he's facetiously explaining how eating babies would solve all of Ireland's problems. Dark/black humor and satire are right up my alley. I think it needs a new portmanteau: Darktire? Blacktire? Blatire. That has a nice ring to it.

edit- "Writing" is not quite the same as "riting". Damned homophones.

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:48 pm

Michael Shermer - Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

Immanuel Kant was a real piss-ant
who was very rarely stable
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
who could think you under the table
David Hume could out-consume
Wilhelm Froederich Hegel
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
who was just as sloshed as Schlegel

There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya
'bout the raising of the wrist
Socrates himself was permanently pissed

John Stewart Mill of his own free will
on half a pint of shandy was particularly ill
Plato they say could stick it away
'alf a crate of whisky every day
Aristotle Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle
Hobbes was fond of his dram
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart:
"I drink, therefore I am"

Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:42 pm

I love Python songs.

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:42 pm

I forgot to mention my still growing collection of the first circa 200 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Duck_pocket_books Embarassed

Unbelievably, I started this over 20 years ago. I guess I´ll have to continue til the Beagle Boys make it.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:14 am

I like the Beagle Boys! Very Happy

They remind me of some lads I've baited... Laughing

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 12 Jul 2008 Posts: 18

I've just started "Devil May Care" by Sebastion Faulks, the new James Bond novel.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:10 pm

Boy I dont know if I should even post what I'm reading. theres all that brainy stuff. now I feel like I should be riding on the short bus.
I.m reading a book from my youth. The Mad Scientists' Club. by Bertrand R. Brinley it was my favorite book when I was 8,9,10, years old. and I alway stuck in my mind. I looked for about 20 years at every used book store I came across. One day I finaily found it. it's one of those books that gets the imaganation of a young boy going. the kind that you dont find anymore. when the kids would go out and play in the woods, build a tree house. spead all day outside playing,exploring, use a stick and a string and worns you dug up to go fishing. were they didn't have to have playstations and X-box's to have fun. like how it was when I was a kid. back in the day. if you sead. I'm bored your dad would find you a chore to do so you "wouldn't be bored" you would make your own fun. a couple of freinds a old flat bottom jon boat. you were pirites on the open sea.
Ok the old guy will stop remanicing about the old days now.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:28 pm

^^You should check out Shermer's books. They are an easy read about tough subjects. Dawkin's books are bit harder to read because of his style, but are also some very good books. I have not read God Delusion, but from what I have heard I would just be agreeing with it. In other words it wouldn't add much to what I already know.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:33 pm

I've seen excerps of God Delusion I dont think I would like it to much. a lot of stuff that goes agaist my beleafs. i'm more a facts and triva person. I love my uncle John's bathroom readers. or humor book. and a big Dilbert fan.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:45 pm

The complete guide to Electroplating.

Starts off ok, dips a bit in middle, but picks up towards the end. Not much of a plot.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:53 pm

Is that the book with a nice shiny chrome cover?

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 2:31 pm

I'm constantly rereading Pratchett of some sort. Re-reading Mort as I break the Audible audiobook into bite-sized mp3s to go on a CD for the car. Just finished re-reading Equal Rites while doing the same.

I'm reading the first book in the Septimus Heap series for the first time, Magyk by Angie Sage. I'm not quite far enough to decide whether I'm all that wild about it, yet.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:58 pm

Cross by James Patterson

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 5:37 pm

I'm re-reading THE WATCHMEN by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons for the umpteenth time. Also the latest by Gerald Seymour - Time Bomb, although I'm struggling with that as its not really engaging me.

The last one I finished was the new James Bond, which was OK.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:16 pm

^^I thought you would say Ink Blots... Shocked

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:17 pm

^^^ been there, done that. They're all pretty butterflies.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:43 pm

The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene ... don't want to look stupid in front of my lads Wink

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith.
Started reading it a while ago but at the time I was too depressed to get into any books.
Catching up now, it's the school holidays, the kids are out, eldest has borrowed the car so time for a cuppa, a biscuit and a read.

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