Weekly “what are you reading” thread #26

I started “The Return of the Gods” because I'm a giant schizo rightoid wing cuck irl

1. The Return of the Gods explores the ancient religions of the world and how they are connected to end-time biblical prophecies.

2. Jonathan Cahn argues that the rise of pagan spirituality represents a return of the ancient gods who were once worshipped by various civilizations.

3. Cahn notes that the ancient gods are often associated with deception and immorality, and that their return signals a spiritual and moral decline in society.

4. The book explores the connections between ancient pagan religions and modern New Age movements, arguing that they share a common foundation.

5. Cahn ultimately points to the return of Jesus Christ as the only solution to the spiritual and moral crisis facing the world.

!christians !schizomaxxxers !chuds it's a good book

Just started Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons, continuing to enjoy the series.

Also reading A Brief History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russel.

Just finished Swamplandia by Karen Russell, it was an enjoyable light read, and Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neil which was a wild ride.

I just started this book. Don't know how it's gonna be, quality wise. Hope it'll be a good read

I'm reading a book on romania and a book about the history of the balkans because i had no prior education on the subjects.

The romanian history is intresting but i wish i had better access to the sources it draws from. Since its a concise histroy it mentions intresting things in passing to establish contuinitues to later expound upon later when they become relevant.

Starting the balkans book today- its much bigger and focused on the medevil period.

Still reading The Fellowship of the Ring. I'm really taking my time with it and enjoying Tolkein's obsession with describing the surroundings with neurodivergent detail. I am getting way more out of it this time than when I read it as a kid.

The Weird and the Eerie - Mark Fisher.

Intimations - Zadie Smith.

Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of inevitability

The main character is about to lobotomize some Chinese guy after forcefully transforming him into a sheep...

Beside some non-fiction (essays, letters, etc) I'm reading Snow Country and find it excellent. Don't think I ever read a book where love affair is a central point that grabbed me.

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore and holy frick is this book lame. Decent premise, I suppose, but it's not nearly as funny as it thinks it is and reads like it was written by the ultimate reddit incel.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through "The Dark Forest," the second Three Body book. After a slightly slow start I got really into it. I think it redeems the sophon infodump from the end of book 1. The science may be stupid, but the literary effects of 1. constant worldwide surveillance by aliens, 2. limiting human scientific advancement to currently understood principles, and 3. allowing the aliens' agents to communicate with them instantaneously are really interesting.

Cixin Liu's constant science infodumping invites the reader to apply more scrutiny than they otherwise would have. For example, the contrast between the Trisolarans' seeming mastery of physics, to the point of creating a flying supercomputer on the inside of a proton that can communicate instantaneously with another solar system; and their space armada that takes 400 years to reach Earth (and can't just create a home for them somewhere else). It's a very specific level of scientific development. Perhaps it's justified by some quirk of Trisolaran biology and culture. But this is the sort of contrast I'd find easier to accept if the author wasn't trying to make the science seem real.

One thing I found really interesting is that the sophons actually have almost no psychological effect on anyone in the book. There are a few times the protagonists think about them, but for the most part they serve the plot. I wonder if this reflects the Chinese (and American zoomer) acceptance that surveillance is everywhere and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

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I read the Withdrawal by Noam Chomsky, Apocalypse Never by Michael Shellenberger and am currently reading Manufacturing Consent by Chomsky and Consider The Lobster by David Foster Wallace. The first essay in Consider the Lobster on the AVN awards and the porn industry in in late 90s is legit one of the funniest things I've ever read