Show Off Your Bookshelf

**Frownland** · 05-16-2021, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Thanks for reviving this thread and showing us your bookshelves. I found them fascinating to look at.

Shared with Marie:
I've also read Capote, Collins (if it's The Moonstone peaking out from behind your speaker), Kafka, Burroughs, Camus, T.Mann, Joyce, Vonnegut, Dostoyevski and Lovecraft.
Shared with Frownland:
...er, well, I also keep my books on shelves, so we definitely have that in common!

lol

The bolded are all hiding somewhere on my shelves so there'd at least be something for you there. We do have some crossover with Umberto Eco, but I remember you not being a fan of his. I feel like Joseph Heller would be up your alley and I'm working on getting all of his works.

**Marie Monday** · 05-16-2021, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Thanks for reviving this thread and showing us your bookshelves. I found them fascinating to look at.

Shared with Marie:
I've also read Capote, Collins (if it's The Moonstone peaking out from behind your speaker), Kafka, Burroughs, Camus, T.Mann, Joyce, Vonnegut, Dostoyevski and Lovecraft.
Shared with Frownland:
...er, well, I also keep my books on shelves, so we definitely have that in common!

yep, it's the Moonstone. I read it shortly after I commented on Wilkie Collins' female characters in my riot grrrl journal and now I kind of need to revise my conclusions. It led me down a Wilkie-Collins-accidentally(?)-wrote-gay-characters rabbit hole, turns out I'm not the only one having such theories

Also I should clarify that the books called 'Voorouders' are my grandfather's account of my family history and Het Groene Eiland is basically a commie children's book

**Marie Monday** · 05-16-2021, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I just ordered volume 1 of Kapital so if anyone wants to start a Kapital reading group I'd be down.

definitely, let's just include it in the MB book club. That thread needs a bump anyway

The Batlord · 05-16-2021, 06:16 PM

Let's make Lenin proud.

Lisnaholic · 05-16-2021, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Yeah but Kapital is supposed to be an in depth economic description of how capitalism works. They're two different works with two different purposes with Kapital being an economic science work where socialism beforehand had been a philosophical movement without the receipts to properly call out capitalism as an economic system. At least that's my understanding.

I think you might be in for a surprise, Batlord. Frownland mentions that there isn't much "dry economics" in it. Some years back I read this Life of Marx:

Repected Brit author, Francis Wheen said it was bizarre that any country would use Das Kapital as a basis for an economic model, on account of its lack of accurate analysis. If I remember right, he says it'd be like using Lord of The Rings as the basis of a country's foreign policy.
I hope that's not a spoiler, and that you'll find it more interesting, while being less definitive, than you expect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

The bolded are all hiding somewhere on my shelves so there'd at least be something for you there. We do have some crossover with Umberto Eco, but I remember you not being a fan of his. I feel like Joseph Heller would be up your alley and I'm working on getting all of his works.

Haha! Good to know there is some overlap between us, Frownland, and t hanks for remembering my opinion of Umberto Eco.

I'm sorry to say that Joseph Heller disappointed me as well; not altogether surprising given the quantity of hype that there used to be around Catch 22.
At least there is some more common ground that I bet we share: biographies of Zappa and Beefheart. In case you want proof, exhibit A is a photo of my bookshelf :post #8 in this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marie Monday

yep, it's the Moonstone. I read it shortly after I commented on Wilkie Collins' female characters in my riot grrrl journal and now I kind of need to revise my conclusions. It led me down a Wilkie-Collins-accidentally(?)-wrote-gay-characters rabbit hole, turns out I'm not the only one having such theories

Also I should clarify that the books called 'Voorouders' are my grandfather's account of my family history and Het Groene Eiland is basically a commie children's book

I remember The Moonstone as being a very agreeable, sedate read, but I haven't read anything else by him.
I should also clarify that you have way more Dutch language books than me.

rostasi · 05-16-2021, 06:52 PM

About 30 years ago, I used to try to learn Dutch by reading Marten Toonder.
Wasn’t all that successful.

SGR · 05-16-2021, 07:00 PM

I've got three bookshelves of varying size - and I have a goddamn pylon of books stacked in my closet. Mostly softcover novels. I'll take a picture here soon and post it. But my main, large bookshelf has lights in it with a remote control so that I can adjust the hue, tone and strength. It's pretty nice.

I own quite a few of the Easton Press biographies on US presidents, which I'm rather proud to own. They look great on the shelf. And I've never met anyone in real life who knows more about Chester Arthur than I do, which is always a plus.

**Frownland** · 05-16-2021, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

I think you might be in for a surprise, Batlord. Frownland mentions that there isn't much "dry economics" in it. Some years back I read this Life of Marx:

Repected Brit author, Francis Wheen said it was bizarre that any country would use Das Kapital as a basis for an economic model, on account of its lack of accurate analysis. If I remember right, he says it'd be like using Lord of The Rings as the basis of a country's foreign policy.
I hope that's not a spoiler, and that you'll find it more interesting, while being less definitive, than you expect.

I could see that being an agreement with Marx but it's more likely that his reading of the book doesn't distinguish between Marx describing things as they appear versus how they are. That seems to be the source of most disagreement on its veracity.

Quote:

Haha! Good to know there is some overlap between us, Frownland, and t hanks for remembering my opinion of Umberto Eco.

I'm sorry to say that Joseph Heller disappointed me as well; not altogether surprising given the quantity of hype that there used to be around Catch 22.
At least there is some more common ground that I bet we share: biographies of Zappa and Beefheart. In case you want proof, exhibit A is a photo of my bookshelf :post #8 in this thread.

No Beefheart material here, but I do have Zappa's autobiography.

Looking at your older post, we also share Orwell essays, writings on Gandhi, and an appreciation for science based books. I have some Newton, Einstein, Hawking, Feynman, Sagan, Hofstadter, Darwin, Shannon, Gleick, and others. I see a lot of soldier stuff in your collection, so you'd probably get a kick out of my WWII books too.

SGR · 05-16-2021, 07:21 PM

What's your favorite WWII book that you've read, Frown?

**Frownland** · 05-16-2021, 07:33 PM

The Origins of Totalitarianism by CIA Agent Arendt led me to the Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression files, which includes Bettelheim's Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations. That's the most interesting writing on the subject I've encountered.

As far as full books go, Anatomy of Fascism stands out as the best-written and among the most intriguing. Ordinary Men is great too. I eventually want to tackle The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich but I've got a few doorstops I need to chew through first.

05-16-2021, 07:33 PM	#50 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	The Origins of Totalitarianism by CIA Agent Arendt led me to the Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression files, which includes Bettelheim's Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations. That's the most interesting writing on the subject I've encountered. As far as full books go, Anatomy of Fascism stands out as the best-written and among the most intriguing. Ordinary Men is great too. I eventually want to tackle The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich but I've got a few doorstops I need to chew through first. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

05-16-2021, 06:52 PM	#46 (permalink)
rostasi . Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 4,007	About 30 years ago, I used to try to learn Dutch by reading Marten Toonder. Wasn’t all that successful.

05-16-2021, 07:00 PM	#47 (permalink)
SGR No Ice In My Bourbon Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: /dev/null Posts: 4,326	I've got three bookshelves of varying size - and I have a goddamn pylon of books stacked in my closet. Mostly softcover novels. I'll take a picture here soon and post it. But my main, large bookshelf has lights in it with a remote control so that I can adjust the hue, tone and strength. It's pretty nice. I own quite a few of the Easton Press biographies on US presidents, which I'm rather proud to own. They look great on the shelf. And I've never met anyone in real life who knows more about Chester Arthur than I do, which is always a plus.

05-16-2021, 07:21 PM	#49 (permalink)
SGR No Ice In My Bourbon Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: /dev/null Posts: 4,326	What's your favorite WWII book that you've read, Frown?