No. 5155Anonymous 16th May 2013 Thursday 9:13 pm5155What can you tell about a person by what they read?
Interestingly, I was logged into my library account and found a way to download a list of all of the books I have read over the last year.
What do you think of this as a reading list? I look back over it and see so many books I want to read again. What do you think the books I read reveal about my personality? As when I perused the list I saw some odd titles that actually go against some of my beliefs.
So here we go, here are the books I have read over the last year:
Bonded by blood,
By O'Mahoney, Bernard
Essex Boys, the new generation
Essex Boys, the new generation
By O'Mahoney, Bernard
Crime and punishment
Crime and punishment
By Dostoyevsky, F. M.
Adult Fiction
Nineteen eighty-four
Nineteen eighty-four
By Orwell, George
Adult Fiction
Commission, the uncensored history of the 9/11 i
Commission, the uncensored history of the 9/11 i
By Shenon, Philip
Knockoff, the deadly trade in counterfeit goods,
Knockoff, the deadly trade in counterfeit goods,
By Phillips, Tim
Wasting more police time, further adventures in
Wasting more police time, further adventures in
By Copperfield, David
Grand design
Grand design
By Hawking, S. W.
Physics of the impossible, a scientific explorat
Physics of the impossible, a scientific explorat
By Kaku, Michio
13 things that don't make sense, the most intrig
13 things that don't make sense, the most intrig
By Brooks, Michael
Elephants on acid and other bizarre experiments
Elephants on acid and other bizarre experiments
By Boese, Alex
Taming the infinite, the story of mathematics
Taming the infinite, the story of mathematics
By Stewart, Ian
Atomic, the first war of physics and the secret
Atomic, the first war of physics and the secret
By Baggott, J. E.
Essex boy, last man standing
Essex boy, last man standing
By Ellis, Steve
Spycraft
Spycraft
By Wallace, Robert
Regiment, the real story of the SAS
Regiment, the real story of the SAS
By Asher, Michael
Caught in the crossfire, Scotland's deadliest dr
Caught in the crossfire, Scotland's deadliest dr
By Findlay, Russell
Dead to the world
Dead to the world
By Harris, Charlaine
Adult Fiction
Never a hero to me
Never a hero to me
By Black, Tracy
Bad ideas?, an arresting history of our inventio
Bad ideas?, an arresting history of our inventio
By Winston, Robert M. L.
Flat Earth, the history of an infamous idea
Flat Earth, the history of an infamous idea
By Garwood, Christine
Universe, a biography
Universe, a biography
By Gribbin, John R.
How hard can it be?
How hard can it be?
By Clarkson, Jeremy
At Her Majesty's secret service, the chiefs of B
At Her Majesty's secret service, the chiefs of B
By West, Nigel
Julian Assange - the unauthorised autobiography
Julian Assange - the unauthorised autobiography
By Assange, Julian
SAS Operation Storm
SAS Operation Storm
By Cole, Roger
Skeptic's guide to conspiracies, from the Knight
Skeptic's guide to conspiracies, from the Knight
By Cook, Monte
Brief history of the Freemasons
Brief history of the Freemasons
By Ridley, Jasper Godwin
Adult Fiction
DarkMarket, cyberthieves, cybercops and you
DarkMarket, cyberthieves, cybercops and you
You're not unintelligent but are quite unacademic, not a high level of education in a specialist field. You've got a short attention span and would rather read about conspiracy theories and pop science. Possible schizotypal.
You read non-academic books, mostly ones about conspiracy theories and other /boo/ related materials. A huge number of the books you read are X facts about Y sort of titles. Some are about sciences but not in any depth.
Mostly conspiracy theory? It doesn't look that way in the list though does it? There are a few conspiracy books, even one about DEBUNKING conspiracy theories.
It's still a book about conspiracy theories and shows an interest in them. There's other stuff about spies and the SAS and freemasons and internet cryptological stuff which compounds it.
An individual book doesn't tell us much as it could have been borrowed for any reason, it's the trends that matter.
Smiths? I got these books from the library, in the reverse order of what they appear on this list. And I did not read them to "appear knowledgeable". Why would I do that?
And I would not say that the material is really "pop" as you put it. Some of it may be, yes, but not all of it.
Which of them would you say aren't pop?
I'll reiterate that the individual books are less important than the trend, which aside from conspiracies is essentially trivia.
Nothing on the list is particularly challenging and a lot of it is absolute rubbish. There are only three books there that would prove of genuine substance to a well-educated adult - Crime and Punishment, Nineteen Eighty-Four and A Brief History of Time.
The 120 Days of Sodom - de Sade
Men at Arms - Evelyn Waugh
Storm of Steel - Ernst Junger
Starting Strength - Mark Rippetoe (probably just referring to something)
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemingway
Metro 2033 - Dimitry Glukhovsky
Embedded - Dan Abnett
Officers and Gentlemen - Evelyn Waugh
Royal Flash - by George Macdonald Fraser
The Last Ringbearer - Kirill Yeskov
Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh
>>5182 You mean Salo? From what I can work out it's pretty different to 120 Days. 120 Days is just like a really long sickipedia joke. It's really quite funny.
>>5185 Well you could do worse than give it a shot, the prose in my translation (Austryn Wainhouse and Richard Seaver) is really nice.
120 days is set in 19th century France, Salo is WWII Fascist Italy iirc.
I don't remember it being anything like that. It was just a very long recounting of the most perverse things he could think of. They weren't all that graphic, it wasn't wank material, just a blow-by-blow account. It wasn't at all funny unless you find child rape and murder funny.
It has been a long time since I read it.
>>5192 I don't find child rape and murder funny. You may as well accuse anyone who watches action films as being people who delight in slaughter and bloodshed. 120 Days is outrageous, and I wouldn't read a paper copy in public, but that doesn't mean I can't laugh at the stuff in it.
What? I would accuse them of being people who enjoy watching slaughter and bloodshed. That makes perfect sense as they do. And I accuse you of finding child rape and murder funny, because you've just been telling us about how you laugh at it.
I barely ever read actual books, but when I do they're almost invariably factual books. Novels generally disinterest me although I have on occasion been known to read the odd bit of popular sci-fi. I suppose I value knowledge and understanding a lot more than I value any sense of emotion, morality, tension or conclusion that might come from a work of fiction. Last thing I read cover to cover was 'Britain BC - Life and death in Britan and Ireland before the Romans' by Francis Pryor
>>5194 The child rape and murder is 120 Days are funny because they are so ridiculously inventive and overheated. Difficult to describe why the healthiest response is laughter unless you have read it. The libertines and sadists are left looking like hopeless slaves to their own perversions.
I've read Justine and Juliette too and both of those are probably more dangerous morally - see the influence of the former on Brady and Hindley. To be corrupted by the 120 Days I think you'd have to be far gone already.
I hate to say this as it'll probably come across as prejudgement, but the synopses of de Sade's novels really do sound like teenlad scrawlings, imageboard 'banter' or extended aristocrats jokes.
>>5205 I don't know about his other novels but that wasn't how 120 Days was for me. I can't say more other than you shouldn't knock it before you try it and >>5197 is pretty spot on. It's the four libertines that are the source of mirth rather than the actual goings-on.
I see, yes. It's not normally like me to comment on something I've not looked into. I think I've just become so conditioned to modern media and the internet using shock value for cheap impact that I had a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. I'd actually be interested to know more.
More generally, I don't really like being snide. If anything I'd like to see this thread pulled back on course. I know .gs are a well-read bunch and I'd be interested to share reading lists. I'd post my own but I haven't read anything non-academic for months. I could post some of my favourite course books, if that counts, and I wouldn't mind some recommendations now that the term is done.
Fuck it I'll post what's on my kindle and the books beside my bed that I've either read or am halfway through. I went on a bit of a Foster Wallace binge after Infinite Jest hence the amount on my kindle.
Kindle:
Ulysses - James Joyce (currently 34% into it according to my kindle, enjoying it but haven't had the time to sit down with it properly the last few weeks)
I Am a Strange Loop - Douglas Hofstadter
Notes From a Small Island - Bill Bryson (Love a bit of Bryson but hadn't read this, think I read it after someone mentioned it on here)
NW - Zadie Smith
Oblivion: Stories - David Foster Wallace
Umbrella - Will Self
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again - DFW
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men - DFW
Consider The Lobster - DFW (I told you it was a binge)
The Butt - Will Self
The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson
Infinite Jest - DFW
Generation A - Douglas Coupland
Ghost Milk - Iain Sinclair
Voice of the Fire - Alan Moore
Surface Detail - Iain M. Banks
Excession - Iain M. Banks (Still genuinely sad about Banks, I fucking love the Culture novels)
Pile of books next to my bed:
Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson (think I only got about a third in and haven't gone back to it for a while)
The Internet is a Playground - David Thorne
Thomas De Quincy - Confessions of an English Opium Eater (read this ages ago, don't know why it's still in the pile because I'm lazy and messy.
The Book of the Dead - John Lloyd & John Mitchinson
Kurt Vonnegut - Armageddon in Retrospect
Feersum Endjinn - Iain M. Banks
Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
Outliers - Malcom Caldwell
James Gleick -Chaos
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson - G.I. Gurdjieff (this is right at the bottom of the pile and looking at the bookmark I got just over 300 pages in before giving up at the sheer headfuck of it. I still intend to finish it at some point.
Apologies for the big post but hopefully it might get the thread back on track. As this lad says >>5207 it could actually be interesting.
Let the snide mockery and belittling of my tastes begin.
>Let the snide mockery and belittling of my tastes begin.
The only snide mockery you'll get from me is about the fact that you alternated between Author/Title and Title/Author towards the end of your list. Not trying to be a git, it just irks me.
I moved that over to my ereader and had a quick look at it to make sure the formatting hadn't got garbled and I really thought it had done till I used Amazon's "look inside" feature and found it was supposed to be like that.
>>5209 >you alternated between Author/Title and Title/Author towards the end of your list. Not trying to be a git, it just irks me.
Ah bollocks, yeah that actually annoys me as well. I can only blame tiredness from work. Can't be fucked deleting the post now though.
>>5210 Never been on /lit/ at the other place, will read a Guardian article if it's linked somewhere and looks interesting. Don't really read any papers properly, just the odd article.
Yeah the Gurdjieff was interesting but a proper fucking slog and just so much hard work to get through, and I actually really enjoy books that are sort or hard work. But yeah I remember it just being purposely really fucking obtruse, which as far as I understand was Gurdjieff's intention.
>>5211 Yeah, the narrative is all over the shop. I enjoy that sort of stuff though, where you don't even really know what the fuck is going on for half the book and then it slowly starts to click into place. I can understand it not being to everyone's taste though.
