Fighting Traffic by Peter Norton

Dacia by Ion Grumeza

Just finished Book 4 of Song of Ice and Fire.  Will start on Book 5 as soon as I find someone to borrow it from or can get it from the library.  Much as I enjoy G.R.R. Martin's work, I try not to financially support it directly, because I am a strident opponent of his stance on fanfiction (as a somewhat voluminous author of fanfiction myself).

 

In the meantime, I have some books in the Hollows series that I've been meaning to pick up again.

Watership Down.

 

(as a somewhat voluminous author of fanfiction myself).

 

Have you done any GRRM-based fanfiction?

 

No, and I'm not even all that interested in doing so.  His statements about it go far beyond just preferring that people don't write using his universe, though.  He asserts categorically that <a href="http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2010/05/george-r-r-martin-on-fan-fiction.html">he believes that any author that doesn't take legal action against fanfiction risks losing the copyright to their work entirely due to lack of defense</a>.  I am not a copyright law archmaester, but I'm not a novice, either, and I really don't see that at all.  Nevertheless, by saying such things, he not only stamps out amateur creative works based on his own universe, he actively tries to scare other authors into doing so as well.  I don't know if that has affected other authors or not, to be honest--the only other strident opponent of fanfiction that I know, Anne Rice, has been writing for longer than Martin and has no need to take advice from him.

 

I would think that if there were any truth to his assertion that he's just doing it to protect his legal rights, that law would be well-developed by now.  There are many fanfiction works based on J.R.R. Tolkien's world, for example, and that has been going on for decades now.  If that somehow means that the world of Tolkien is out of copyright, that's news to me, as well as to Middle-earth Enterprises (first owner of most of the IP).  It's probably also news to Fantasy Flight Games (which licenses the rights to produce board games based on the line), Vivendi, EA, and Warner Brothers (who have owned the rights to produce video games based on the line), New Line Cinema (film), and I have no idea how many other companies who certainly seem to think that the IP rights are valid (evidenced either by the fact that they're charging for them or that they're paying the charges).

I just started book 4 myself. I don't get too caught up in the wacky opinions of grumpy old men with three foot beards. He's a pretty good writer....although the pot might note its own color, since as I read I notice a lot of parallels to story lines / character types in the Wheel of Time series.

 

I will say this about GRRM. I've learned not to get too attached to anyone. I've thrown my book across the room 3x since I've started the series.

Just started Friends with Dahmer. Picked it up at Visible Voice in Tremont. Derf was there and he signed my book for me.  8)

I just started book 4 myself. I don't get too caught up in the wacky opinions of grumpy old men with three foot beards. He's a pretty good writer....although the pot might note its own color, since as I read I notice a lot of parallels to story lines / character types in the Wheel of Time series.

 

Hah!  Maybe, but while GRRM is pretty decent, I have to say that Jordan was better, and Sanderson has been doing a pretty good job finishing up that series.

 

(Perhaps coincidentally, that is one of the universes that I've borrowed some sandbox time in, for a literarily worthless BtVS/WoT crossover.  And while Jordan/Sanderson is good, Whedon is better yet. 8) )

Hah!  Maybe, but while GRRM is pretty decent, I have to say that Jordan was better, and Sanderson has been doing a pretty good job finishing up that series.

 

I realize Sanderson's using Jordan's notes to complete the series (why else would the final novel span into three 800+ page books), but his writing style seems a little fresher. Towards his last few novels, Jordan was focusing too much on minutiae. As a body of work, I've enjoyed the series, but it could probably have stood a 3,000 or so page haircut.

 

(Perhaps coincidentally, that is one of the universes that I've borrowed some sandbox time in, for a literarily worthless BtVS/WoT crossover.  And while Jordan/Sanderson is good, Whedon is better yet. 8) )

 

I tried writing my own fiction, once upon a time, but stories always ended up with me making out with the female characters. So it goes when a 12 year old tries writing the great american novel.

Hah!  Maybe, but while GRRM is pretty decent, I have to say that Jordan was better, and Sanderson has been doing a pretty good job finishing up that series.

 

I realize Sanderson's using Jordan's notes to complete the series (why else would the final novel span into three 800+ page books), but his writing style seems a little fresher. Towards his last few novels, Jordan was focusing too much on minutiae. As a body of work, I've enjoyed the series, but it could probably have stood a 3,000 or so page haircut.

 

Hah!  Maybe not 3,000 (that would be about four entire books), but a lot, admittedly.

Just finished Josh Ritters' Brights Passage today.  Next up, is Lying on the Couch.  It is by Irvin Yalcom, author of When Nietzsche Wept.  Hopefully it will be half as good as When Nietzsche Wept.

Can anyone suggest a good/definitive NF book on the transformative effect of the automobile on American culture?

Can anyone suggest a good/definitive NF book on the transformative effect of the automobile on American culture?

The book I mentioned, Fighting Traffic, focusses primarily on the transformation of the roadways in the first part of the 20th century.

This past weekend, I started a book called "The Mama's Boy Myth: Why Keeping Our Sons Close Makes Them Stronger." It's pretty good. Next up is Greg Allman's autobiography, which I got notification is in at the library. I need to read faster!

Can anyone suggest a good/definitive NF book on the transformative effect of the automobile on American culture?

The book I mentioned, Fighting Traffic, focusses primarily on the transformation of the roadways in the first part of the 20th century.

 

Thanks!

Has anybody read Small Gritty & Green ?

It got a fairly good review in The American Conservative.

Discusses recycling mid size industrial midwestern cities like Flint, MI & Youngstown, OH.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Gritty-Green-Industrial-Environments/dp/0262016699/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340479563&sr=1-1&keywords=small+gritty+and+green

This past weekend, I started a book called "The Mama's Boy Myth: Why Keeping Our Sons Close Makes Them Stronger." It's pretty good.

 

After my mom finished washing my clothes, and bringing me a snack, she ordered me to read it!  :wink2:

I suppose this could go in the YouTube thread, but since we've been talking about it here:

 

I just finished Richard Ford's latest novel, Canada. It's excellent. I've tried reading him before, having made a couple of attempts at Independence Day, but just couldn't warm up to it. I'll have to try again; he's an outstanding writer.

^Just watch the movie. It's worth it just for the scene where Randy Travis and Will Ferrell save the day.

 

I'm slogging through the Steve Jobs biography. I'm about a quarter of the way through it and at this point, I think I could sum up his life as 'brilliant innovator / total jerk'.

Desperation by King. Really a terrible book, but I might as well finish what I started.

Desperation by King. Really a terrible book, but I might as well finish what I started.

 

I'm on the same position lol.

 

I'm reading D. Koonts' "what the night Knows" and about halfway through its getting really unreadable.

 

But I have got to finish it in order to get back to reading M. Ende's "the neverending story" which I had stopped reading about a month ago also.

 

The Atlas of Pennsylvania....this isn't a coffee table book, its the SIZE of a small coffee table!  Dated, but still a great fun book for map freaks.

 

The Sangamo Frontier....frontier archeology in Illinois, made intelligble.  The author makes something dry interesting, probably the best archeology book ive read since "Arthurs' Britain"...and the author gives some good quick history of how the Illinois frontier worked...trade and settelment patterns, etc, as well as the usual material culture stuff one associates with archeology.

Reviving an old thread but I'm looking for my next flight of non-fiction related to cities, history, etc.

 

Anybody ever read "Trams or Tailfins"?

Dead Wake by Eric Larson

http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Cities-Travels-Metropolises-Exploration/dp/1585429341

 

Utterly fascinating so far.

Has anyone read, "Hillbilly Elegy: A culture and family in crisis"? The author lives in Columbus and is from Midddletown and KY. It's a NY Times best seller. I'm almost half way through. My cousin sent it to me through Amazon. She said it would help me understand our family. I'm not going to lie, it's sort of painful to read because it really hits home. It's a memoir that supposedly explains why Trump is in office. I guess I haven't made it that far, yet.It's really good book, though. If you have hillbillies in your family, you need to read this.

Has anyone read, "Hillbilly Elegy: A culture and family in crisis"? The author lives in Columbus and is from Midddletown and KY. It's a NY Times best seller. I'm almost half way through. My cousin sent it to me through Amazon. She said it would help me understand our family. I'm not going to lie, it's sort of painful to read because it really hits home. It's a memoir that supposedly explains why Trump is in office. I guess I haven't made it that far, yet.It's really good book, though. If you have hillbillies in your family, you need to read this.

 

So you don't consider it patronizing?  I've heard mixed takes on that.

 

A big part of why Trump is in office is the patronizing view the "progressive" left has of the white working class, especially those with a rural mindset.  The thing is, they face a lot of the same challenges as some minority groups.  The difference is you can only patronize the latter for so long, but you can't patronize them at all.  That's how a rich NYC recent-liberal got their votes.

^ The patronizing view of white rural America is not a progressive belief but a conservative strawman.

Has anyone read, "Hillbilly Elegy: A culture and family in crisis"? The author lives in Columbus and is from Midddletown and KY. It's a NY Times best seller. I'm almost half way through. My cousin sent it to me through Amazon. She said it would help me understand our family. I'm not going to lie, it's sort of painful to read because it really hits home. It's a memoir that supposedly explains why Trump is in office. I guess I haven't made it that far, yet.It's really good book, though. If you have hillbillies in your family, you need to read this.

 

So you don't consider it patronizing?  I've heard mixed takes on that.

 

I have no opinion on the book, or the author really. But I didn't like how NPR relied so heavily on his insights after the election instead of the rural Trump voters on why they voted the way they did. It made NPR, and by extension Progressives seem even more disconnected.

I didn''t find it patronizing at all. The author glorifies his hillbilly influence, more than anything else. I could write a very similar book and I promise you that reflecting on it would bring much more patronization than the glorification exemplified in that book. It's a destructive culture that persists and influences to this day.

 

Reacting to things in the worst way possible (and being proud of it,) the drug and alcohol addiction, content with laziness, the unwillingness to take personal responsibility (everything is someone else's fault.) Ridiculous things like putting Pepsi in baby's bottles. Those are appalachian staples. They're not ridiculous, antiquated stereotypes.

I didn''t find it patronizing at all. The author glorifies his hillbilly influence, more than anything else. I could write a very similar book and I promise you that reflecting on it would bring much more patronization than the glorification exemplified in that book. It's a destructive culture that persists and influences to this day.

 

Reacting to things in the worst way possible (and being proud of it,) the drug and alcohol addiction, content with laziness, the unwillingness to take personal responsibility (everything is someone else's fault.) Ridiculous things like putting Pepsi in baby's bottles. Those are appalachian staples. They're not ridiculous, antiquated stereotypes.

 

I recently found out from my dad that in elementary school, my mom used to put a little bit of coffee in my breakfast milk, and this was probably why I maintained better in morning classes than after lunch.  This was decades before Ritalin.

 

Not everything that sounds ridiculous actually is.

Yeah, I'm not sure what mental disorder or physical condition has symptoms which can be alleviated by a sudden massive spike in blood sugar and justifies mountain dew mouth and early onset diabetes as a milder side effect or consequence. 

 

I don't see any meaningful parallel between your story and what I was talking about.

Yeah, I'm not sure what mental disorder or physical condition has symptoms which can be alleviated by a sudden massive spike in blood sugar and justifies mountain dew mouth and early onset diabetes as a milder side effect or consequence. 

 

I don't see any meaningful parallel between your story and what I was talking about.

 

Caffeine.

I'm currently reading Ohio: A Personal Portrait of the 17th State, since it's the first book I've found that actually involves an Ohioan admitting he knows next to nothing about his state, so he sets out and visits all 88 counties and writes his impressions of the people and places he finds. It's particularly interesting because it was published in 1969, right when Ohio's inner cities had begun their decline but the economy hadn't completely collapsed yet.

 

This passage from the introduction pretty neatly sums up what I've struggled to put into words when trying to describe Ohio, both to outsiders and to fellow Ohioans:

 

Ohio - mother of eight presidents (although Virginia disputes this; both states claim William Henry Harrison); stomping grounds of Johnny Appleseed; birthplace of Clarence Darrow, Thomas Edison, James Thurber, and Clark Gable; seventeenth state; inventer of chewing gum; scene of the first minstrel sow; and creator of the fly-swatter - is geographically a 41,122-square-mile contradiction...

 

To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal. If he lives in the flattened-out and now-drained Black Swamp area in the northwest, the idea that southeast Ohio contains lonely and misty mountains strikes him as far-fetched. If he shivers on the shores of Lake Erie, buffeted by arctic winds that turn his lake to ice, that the Ohio River flowing so sweetly borders his tax duplicate seems ridiculous. The reverse is true. Dwellers in the mountain hollows on the edge of Ohio's national forest - which comes as a surprise to most Ohioans who didn't know they had one - flatlands do not belong here but in Kansas with Aunt Em. To those along the Ohio River the thought that Ohio plays host to ocean-going freighters is a pipe dream better left unpiped...

 

Question is, who are we to presume to write and photograph Ohio? We're both Ohio natives, but so are a lot of other people. Because we hail from the southwestern corner of the state, we are not overly familiar with the rest of the state. This is true of the rest of you, though, because we each know our own back yards better than we know the back yards of another city. Being strangers therefore to most of our native land we can view it with the mixed feelings of strangers and natives. Much of Ohio we had to unlearn. Akron had always struck us as a distasteful conglomeration of buildings from which automobile tires spewed; we could not imagine it as a beautiful city (Akron natives feel this way a little, as if shy about what Akron really is), but Akron surprised us by being one of the most charming cities in Ohio ... We did not, as I suggest, look upon Ohio dispassionately. If anything, we looked upon it with awe and pleasure. Because Ohio is a great state. And we, via this book, have just discovered most of it.

 

 

I read Stephen King's dull, rushed, forgettable Bill Hodges trilogy and now, halfway through the book, I see one of the major characters is also a protagonist in the Outsider. Damnit!! The mildly engaging book took a turn for the boring almost the moment the character was re-introduced.

 

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME PEOPLE. Better to read the Prey series which does a good job reinventing itself and introducing new major characters.

I've been reading all those 'classics' I should have read (but didn't) at school. The latest is Plutarch's Lives also called Parallel Lives. He writes a brief bio of a Greek and then a parallel Roman. I'm reading and really enjoying the Kaltwasser translation as modified by George Long. Two lessons: 1) not much in society really changes and 2) things don't stay bad.

Summer reading:  a trilogy by Simon Winder. Germania, Danubia, and Lotharingia. A history of German-speaking Europe as told through dynastic anecdotes. I love books with maps.

Amazon's got used copies at good prices.

10 minutes ago, Dougal said:

Summer reading:  a trilogy by Simon Winder. Germania, Danubia, and Lotharingia. A history of German-speaking Europe as told through dynastic anecdotes. I love books with maps.

Amazon's got used copies at good prices.

I just finished listening to the history of Rome Podcast which I picked up after reading The Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan, the host of the podcast. The book is about the decades and history of the leaders of the Roman Republic the generation right before the First Triumverate. It got me on an ancient history kick and I've been reading other books focusing around that time period through the fall of the Byzantine Empire, so this trilogy may be something I'll add to my list as im assuming it touches on parts of that period?

Going to finally force myself to finish reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand my father has been trying to get me to read since high school. I promised him I would before  he dies. Couldn't even finish watching the movie version. Ugh

 

edit. I told him I would read it this year if he bought the book for me for Christmas. He did but the paperback version.

Edited July 19, 20195 yr by Mildtraumatic

2 hours ago, KFM44107 said:

 It got me on an ancient history kick and I've been reading other books focusing around that time period through the fall of the Byzantine Empire, so this trilogy may be something I'll add to my list as im assuming it touches on parts of that period?

 

"Germania" begins during the Roman Empire; "Danubia" begins with the beginnings of the Holy Roman Empire around the tenth and eleventh centuries AD; and "Lotharingia" (which I have not yet begun) I *think* begins with the Congress of Vienna.

finished the Current Affairs Rules for Life. good book.

 

part 1 is a refutation of Jordan Peterson/Sam Harris/Steven Pinker type characters as well as schlocks like David Brooks.

 

part 2 is a defense of leftist principles and a "guide" for living life without being bound by rules.

is anyone reading i hear you paint houses by charles brandt ---- in advance of scorsese's the irishman coming on netflix? if so, is it any good?

 

i am finally reading snow crash by neal stephenson. it's dated cyberpunk, but still interesting. starts off with a bang, but now i'm in the middle and its kind of plodding along.

 

 

 

 

 

I finished Little Fires Everywhere by Shaker Heights native Celeste Ng a couple of weeks ago. She does a phenomenal, if slightly on-the-nose, job of writing Shaker into the novel as its own character, and the story itself is deeply moving. I'd definitely recommend picking it up. 

About to finish Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond. Very thought-provoking look into human history. While there's so much we don't know,the author does a good job of piecing the story together with exhaustive research. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel

 

The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate primarily in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example, written language or the development among Eurasians of resistance to endemic diseases), he asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures (for example, by facilitating commerce and trade between different cultures) and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes.

Just now, surfohio said:

About to finish Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond. Very thought-provoking look into human history. While there's so much we don't know,the author does a good job of piecing the story together with exhaustive research. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel

 

The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate primarily in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example, written language or the development among Eurasians of resistance to endemic diseases), he asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures (for example, by facilitating commerce and trade between different cultures) and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes.

This one has been on my list for a while.  If you borrowed this from CPL, please return it so I can get it. ?

G, G, & S is a classic read. Haven't read it myself. It was the required college freshman reading for the class before me, but we got a lame modern romance instead.

 

I'm currently plodding through Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. About 10 chapters of it was required reading for a high school class and I didn't really retain much of it. It's very necessary, IMO, but much more dense reading than I'm used to.

33 minutes ago, Cavalier Attitude said:

G, G, & S is a classic read. Haven't read it myself. It was the required college freshman reading for the class before me, but we got a lame modern romance instead.

 

I'm currently plodding through Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. About 10 chapters of it was required reading for a high school class and I didn't really retain much of it. It's very necessary, IMO, but much more dense reading than I'm used to.

 

I haven't gotten to the Zinn book yet, but it looks interesting. I can already appreciate that it's a pretty insightful approach. 

 

Here's one that I read last year. I recommend, as it's a fascinating account of the early relations between the Natives and the colonial British. Also worth mentioning is the class struggle among the colonists themselves; the common people who did all the work were essentially owned by the corporations that sponsored the voyages. 

 

Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of America’s Origin Hardcover – October 30, 2018

by Joseph Kelly

 

For readers of Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower, a groundbreaking history that makes the case for replacing Plymouth Rock with Jamestown as America's founding myth.

 

We all know the great American origin story. It begins with an exodus. Fleeing religious persecution, the hardworking, pious Pilgrims thrived in the wilds of New England, where they built their fabled city on a hill. Legend goes that the colony in Jamestown was a false start, offering a cautionary tale. Lazy louts hunted gold till they starved, and the shiftless settlers had to be rescued by English food and the hard discipline of martial law.

 

Neither story is true. In Marooned, Joseph Kelly reexamines the history of Jamestown and comes to a radically different and decidedly American interpretation of these first Virginians.

 

In this gripping account of shipwrecks and mutiny in America's earliest settlements, Kelly argues that the colonists at Jamestown were literally and figuratively marooned, cut loose from civilization, and cast into the wilderness. The British caste system meant little on this frontier: those who wanted to survive had to learn to work and fight and intermingle with the nearby native populations. Ten years before the Mayflower Compact and decades before Hobbes and Locke, they invented the idea of government by the people. 150 years before Jefferson, they discovered the truth that all men were equal.

 

The epic origin of America was not an exodus and a fledgling theocracy. It is a tale of shipwrecked castaways of all classes marooned in the wilderness fending for themselves in any way they could--a story that illuminates who we are today.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Marooned-Jamestown-Shipwreck-History-Americas/dp/163286777X

Edited September 6, 20195 yr by surfohio

Recently finished The Power by Naomi Alderman, a dystopian science fiction thriller with a gender-bent element (women develop bioelectric abilities that turn them into the stronger sex): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29751398-the-power.  It was marketed as a feminist dystopia in the Washington Post, appealing to readers of The Handmaid's Tale (https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-power-is-our-eras-handmaids-tale/2017/10/10/032a5866-ad05-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html), but I'm not sure that that categorization is spot-on.

 

On a much more escapist note, I've been plowing through Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels urban fantasy series, which starts with Magic Bites, though I'm several installments deep into the series now: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38619.Magic_Bites.  Before that, my escapist urban fantasy series of choice was the Agent of Hel series by Jacqueline Carey, starting with Dark Currents: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13507967-dark-currents.  Carey is among my favorite fantasy authors.

Stepping out of my bubble and reading Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent.