uziq
Member
+492|3422
a miracle of geography, if anything.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
Went to Barnes and Noble since it looks like I will be spending some more time inside for a little while. Had to drive to Staten Island. Selection was meh. Never doing that again. I got two books though.

First is
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lRHE38T6S.jpg
The Living Dead is a 2020 horror novel authored by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus. The book was unfinished upon Romero's death in 2017 and Kraus was hired to complete the novel using Romero's notes and incorporating an old short story by Romero. Wikipedia
Going to start this one ASAP.

Second book is
https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388537491l/55191.jpg

A "full-dress history of the war by one of our most distinguished military writers" (NEW YORK TIMES), WORLD WAR I takes us from the first shots in Sarajevo to the signing of the peace treaty in Versailles and through every bunker, foxhole, and minefield in between. General S.L.A. Marshall drew on his unique firsthand experience as a soldier and a lifetime of military service to pen this forthright, forward-thinking history of what people once believed would be the last great war. Newly introduced by the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, David M. Kennedy, WORLD WAR I is a classic example of unflinching military history that is certain to inform, enrich, and deepen our understanding of this great cataclysm.
I doubt this book has some special insight into the war but my knowledge of World War I isn't deep.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3422
read christopher clark. he is an astonishingly good historian on that period.

Last edited by uziq (2021-12-29 15:44:41)

unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

B&N has big stores but selection on any one thing can be sparse given their use of space and number of categories. At mine, the kid's area in back is spacious, there's a starbucks, and part of the floor is taken up by tables with new releases on display. Sci-fi and fantasy share a corner with two double-shelves of manga, and another several have stuffed animals, puzzles, board games, and brain teasers. If I want to find books 1-15 on a particular series, you'd better check their online catalog, especially if you're driving all the way out somewhere to visit one.

Still, it's a better experience than book shopping on Amazon. Even with shelf-wear, they're going to be in better condition than some amazon shipments. Amazon wants to be like "oh we're so customer oriented," well treat your people better and hire help so they're not throwing stuff in boxes like wired line chefs chucking onions into a soup.

Mentioned before, but the little recommendation and anecdote placards lining the shelves at B&N are also very cute.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

B&N has big stores but selection on any one thing can be sparse given their use of space and number of categories. At mine, the kid's area in back is spacious, there's a starbucks, and part of the floor is taken up by tables with new releases on display. Sci-fi and fantasy share a corner with two double-shelves of manga, and another several have stuffed animals, puzzles, board games, and brain teasers. If I want to find books 1-15 on a particular series, you'd better check their online catalog, especially if you're driving all the way out somewhere to visit one.

Still, it's a better experience than book shopping on Amazon. Even with shelf-wear, they're going to be in better condition than some amazon shipments. Amazon wants to be like "oh we're so customer oriented," well treat your people better and hire help so they're not throwing stuff in boxes like wired line chefs chucking onions into a soup.

Mentioned before, but the little recommendation and anecdote placards lining the shelves at B&N are also very cute.
Walking around the store with a bookish friend/girlfriend is fun. They even have a Starbucks to get a snack at and talk. I will give them credit for that. Fond memories.

The store being like half anything but books is probably how they keep the whole thing running. That and gift cards to nerdy relatives. The little cards telling you a bunch of the books on the shelf are signed was cool.

Funny things...Hitler had his own shelf in the World War 2 section. All of the presidents had to share a section meanwhile Hitler gets like 10 different books. Somebody also rearranged the history section to hide the 1619 book. I picked up a book titled "The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783" and behind it somebody hid the 1619 book. Also behind "WASPS: The Splendors and Miseries of an American Aristocracy" was two 1619 books. Funny choices to hide those 1619 books. Why not just take them to the Manga section?
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX

uziq wrote:

read christopher clark. he is an astonishingly good historian on that period.

Isn't he this guy?

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/005/848/Aliens.jpg

Just older and mirrored?

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2021-12-29 16:18:31)

Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
uziq
Member
+492|3422
he's a ployglot australian with a deep interest in culture, so he might as well be talking about aliens as far as you're concerned, yes.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
I know several languages.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689

Dilbert_X wrote:

I know several languages.
Then why haven't you bagged yourself a foreigner wife? In all seriousness. God has given you all of the gifts to get a foreign broad to come live with you.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Walking around the store with a bookish friend/girlfriend is fun. They even have a Starbucks to get a snack at and talk. I will give them credit for that. Fond memories.

The store being like half anything but books is probably how they keep the whole thing running. That and gift cards to nerdy relatives. The little cards telling you a bunch of the books on the shelf are signed was cool.

Funny things...Hitler had his own shelf in the World War 2 section. All of the presidents had to share a section meanwhile Hitler gets like 10 different books. Somebody also rearranged the history section to hide the 1619 book. I picked up a book titled "The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783" and behind it somebody hid the 1619 book. Also behind "WASPS: The Splendors and Miseries of an American Aristocracy" was two 1619 books. Funny choices to hide those 1619 books. Why not just take them to the Manga section?
That's amazing! On Amazon, you won't find something like passive-aggressive Karens hiding books because they heard something scary about it on a Fox during a CRT bash.

I Helped Fact-Check the 1619 Project. The Times Ignored Me.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ … ake-122248

Weeks before, I had received an email from a New York Times research editor. Because I’m an historian of African American life and slavery, in New York, specifically, and the pre-Civil War era more generally, she wanted me to verify some statements for the project. At one point, she sent me this assertion: “One critical reason that the colonists declared their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery in the colonies, which had produced tremendous wealth. At the time there were growing calls to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire, which would have badly damaged the economies of colonies in both North and South.”

I vigorously disputed the claim. Although slavery was certainly an issue in the American Revolution, the protection of slavery was not one of the main reasons the 13 Colonies went to war.

I was concerned that critics would use the overstated claim to discredit the entire undertaking.
A bit of a long read but worth it.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Walking around the store with a bookish friend/girlfriend is fun. They even have a Starbucks to get a snack at and talk. I will give them credit for that. Fond memories.

The store being like half anything but books is probably how they keep the whole thing running. That and gift cards to nerdy relatives. The little cards telling you a bunch of the books on the shelf are signed was cool.

Funny things...Hitler had his own shelf in the World War 2 section. All of the presidents had to share a section meanwhile Hitler gets like 10 different books. Somebody also rearranged the history section to hide the 1619 book. I picked up a book titled "The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783" and behind it somebody hid the 1619 book. Also behind "WASPS: The Splendors and Miseries of an American Aristocracy" was two 1619 books. Funny choices to hide those 1619 books. Why not just take them to the Manga section?
That's amazing! On Amazon, you won't find something like passive-aggressive Karens hiding books because they heard something scary about it on a Fox during a CRT bash.

I Helped Fact-Check the 1619 Project. The Times Ignored Me.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ … ake-122248

Weeks before, I had received an email from a New York Times research editor. Because I’m an historian of African American life and slavery, in New York, specifically, and the pre-Civil War era more generally, she wanted me to verify some statements for the project. At one point, she sent me this assertion: “One critical reason that the colonists declared their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery in the colonies, which had produced tremendous wealth. At the time there were growing calls to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire, which would have badly damaged the economies of colonies in both North and South.”

I vigorously disputed the claim. Although slavery was certainly an issue in the American Revolution, the protection of slavery was not one of the main reasons the 13 Colonies went to war.

I was concerned that critics would use the overstated claim to discredit the entire undertaking.
A bit of a long read but worth it.
Amazon has been trying to sell me the book ever since I looked up books on the American Revolution. (Thanks a lot, Hamilton)

I see the National Review article headlines about how wrong the book is and never open them. I don't trust right wingers to not commit historical abuse in the name of righting another case of historical abuse. I have never read any of the 1619 articles in the NYT either. You probably know way more about the book and the controversy than me. I would be all ears if you want to share your thoughts. I did read some criticism in the wiki article on it.

The word "Project" being there in the title of the book is a big turn off. The whole thing is part of a political project and/or movement that I don't fundamentally agree with. Based on the second hand things I have heard about the book it does seem to promote a narrative of black victimhood that I think hurts race relations more than it helps. This may sound extreme but I think Hamilton has done more to smooth out the black-white divide in this country than a 1000 books like 1619. Giving blacks or whomever ways to connect and be proud of our fundamental history, even if that view is a little distorted, definitely helps more than harping on about our country's original sin.

I understand I have my own biases and privileges yadda yadda. What do you think?
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

I think if you want to read it, do so with the knowledge that it muddles some stuff up I guess.

Surprisingly level-headed excerpt from The Federalist:

“Hannah-Jones, though, was livid, and let Kingsbury and Stephens know it in emails ahead of publication,” the Post reported. “One the day the NAS called for the revocation of her Pulitzer, she tweeted that efforts to discredit her work ‘put me in a long tradition of [Black women] who failed to know their places.’ She changed her Twitter bio to ‘slanderous and nasty-minded mulattress’ – a tribute to the trailblazing journalist Ida B. Wells, whom the Times slurred with those same words in 1894.”

The revisionist project, which has attracted sharp scrutiny since its publication last year, has since maintained full editorial support from the newspaper despite major corrections to its essays and leagues of historians debunking its primary claims.

After a group of leading historians objected to the Times’ project’s false information, the magazine’s Editor in Chief Jake Silverstein wrote back that “historical understanding is not fixed.” In other words, the Times doesn’t care what historians with decades of experience think if it counters the religious narrative that critical race theory demands.
Of course the title of the article, "fake history," fulfills the above, previously-quoted prediction:

I was concerned that critics would use the overstated claim to discredit the entire undertaking.
It's my understanding that this book, in spite of criticisms, is already being used in schools? I'm surprised you haven't skimmed through.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
I think I will pass. I don't need to read 1000 pages of negativity. I prefer my negativity to be in mp4 format.

From what I understand, the NYT puts together lessons online based on the book that teachers can take "off the shelf" and use. Some districts and schools in America's "black cities" probably use the stuff since it is free, nobody will object, and the kids aren't learning anything in the school anyway.

I don't use that stuff. For the sake of self-preservation, and my own attempt to not alienate the non-black kids*, we talk very little in my classes about race and racism. I teach the nasty stuff like (1) It was a different time and things are much better now, and (2) We are all Americans and part of western civilization so everything bad the west has done just led to us having nice things. I dress up #2 better than that but you get it. Maybe some National Review readers can send me $36 if I made a book about it.

* Arab, Asian, and Hispanic kids also don't want to dwell too much on this negative race stuff. It's Black Lives Matter not Minority Lives Matter after all. Bellum omnium contra omnes
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3422
using hobbes in the same paragraph as talking about the achievement of american liberal democracy. i'm not sure you've read hobbes.

Last edited by uziq (2021-12-30 00:14:51)

SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
Hobbes said we need a Leviathan to force people to read CRT.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3422
hobbes said we need a strong form of absolutist kingship to keep allt aht 'bellum omnium' stuff from spilling out of the pot.

perhaps not the best advertisement for the 'american way of life, the nice things of which we got through some slavery but it wasn't so bad, after all'.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus -  Jonathan Calvert, George Arbuthnott

Wholly damning account of the UK response to COVD.

Hipsters like uziq should read this to understand that you really need to follow the science, not let humanities prats ramble off and do whatever they want when lives and economies are on the line.

Its staggering that the liberal govt here is no repeating most of the same mistakes.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2022-01-10 23:03:43)

Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
uziq
Member
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well done, you read 3 books last year and feel entitled to rant at ‘humanities hipsters’.

whose a clever boy! have a biscuit. now roll over and let me tickle your tummy.

just think - no humanities hipsters - no trained investigative journalists - no zippy little toilet seat reads for you to scoff at - and, more importantly, no holding power to account. wowsers! seeing society in terms of undergraduate qualifications really opens the third eye!

Last edited by uziq (2022-01-10 23:39:08)

Dilbert_X
The X stands for
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Aaaaand the authors disagree with you on literally every issue.
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uziq
Member
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well done, one polemic written by two times journalists.

maybe you’re confusing toilet seat reads for actual research. don’t worry, it’s a common mistake made by people without enough school.

where have i said that the government should ignore scientists?
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
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Pretty well the two most respected investigative journalists in the country - but by all means dismiss them as ignorant plebs as is your wont.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
uziq
Member
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i value good investigative journalism. that’s why i don’t denigrate their fine education and humanities skillset.

what’s funny is how smug you are because you’ve read one ripping yarn on covid. you’ll be telling us now you know it How It Is because of a hardcover book you picked up at the petrol station.

we’ve been here before. dilbert ‘reads a bestseller once and becomes an expert on the AIDS epidemic’.

Last edited by uziq (2022-01-11 00:18:43)

Dilbert_X
The X stands for
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Honestly couldn't care less, all the medical experts they spoke to support my view of how this should have been dealt with and rubbish yours.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
uziq
Member
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well done! what will you do with the ‘hindsight 20/20’ prize money?

no shit: asking scientists and medical experts for their ideal pandemic response doesn’t often accord with political reality.

maybe you should learn to read a little more deeply? the book rightfully does the job of exposing political ineptitude, corruption, and any number of blunders; but it hardly means one can run a country just by listening to the scientific advisory bodies.

funnily enough, david nutt was dismissed from his govt advisory role on drugs when he pointed out the best scientific counsel, according to all known evidence. it seems like you want to pick and choose in your fervid little tabloid ingrate’s imaginary war between ‘politicians and experts’.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
This Nutt guy is out on a limb all by himself though, writing endless self-referential papers to himself based on pinpoint data.

I think consulting with the wide scientific community is probably a better way to run a country than basing policy on what Cicero would have done.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!

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