What 📔book are you reading right now?

I read the entire Cradle series by Will Wight over the summer at the behest of my second-cousin once-removed (we happened to meet on X and only realized we were related much later).

How was it?

(And welcome back, BTW 😃)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

How was it?

(And welcome back, BTW 😃)

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I liked it! The characters are very engaging.

And thank you! It's Fall and this is when I usually circle back around to Tolkien. Just like Bilbo and Frodo, I like the Fall.

My favorite season. Many people begin a reread around Hobbit Day -- some going so far as to try to follow along with the calendar. I've tried it, but ended up getting way ahead. 😄

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

My favorite season. Many people begin a reread around Hobbit Day -- some going so far as to try to follow along with the calendar. I've tried it, but ended up getting way ahead. 😄

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You'd have to slow WAY down.

Just to give you @Ent more to add to his shelf , I'm currently reading The Will of the Many by James Islington. Very good epic fantasy so far, about 1/3 of the way in.

Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein. I was expecting it to have a bit more action, but it's okay.

After that, read Harry Harrison's riposte, Bill, the Galactic Hero -- an expansion of the story originally published in Galaxy magazine as "The Starsloggers", in which form it became, along with 1984, my bible for high school. A quote for every situation could be found in one of those.

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

After that, read Harry Harrison's riposte, Bill, the Galactic Hero -- an expansion of the story originally published in Galaxy magazine as "The Starsloggers", in which form it became, along with 1984, my bible for high school. A quote for every situation could be found in one of those.

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I'll definitely give it a read.

God Emperor of Dune. I was a bit disappointed with Children of Dune, but hopefully God Emperor will turn out to be better.

Vorondil said:

Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein. I was expecting it to have a bit more action, but it's okay.

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Did you finish it, or are you still reading it?

Idril Celebrindal said:

God Emperor of Dune. I was a bit disappointed with Children of Dune, but hopefully God Emperor will turn out to be better.

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Ummm...no, it's not.

I'm reading The Secret Life of the Mind - a book purporting to help us understand "how our brain thinks, feels, and decides."
The subtitle intrigues me, because its words and syntax IMPLY the brain 'does its thing all on its own" - without being under our control.
It has an impressive table of contents, and seems to cover many arenas connected to the work I'm doing on not "how we think" but on "how to think" - indicating WE control the activity of the brain - i.e. how we think - rather than the other way around.

While it's true many just 'let their brain do all the work' as it has been pre-programmed by many things, from the womb onward, I reject the hypothesis it MUST be that way. Rather, it has BECOME that way unchallenged - both unintentionally by parents and society, they also being formed and made compliant by their own history, cultural exposure, and education - and intentionally by the System and the Machine, who see it essential to insure a compliant citizenry conditioned and prepared to help maintain their power.

But the mind is a muscle and CAN be retrained, just as any other muscle, once we see the need. Its "muscle memory" then also becomes our 'natural' way of thinking - just as our lack of any meaningful training on how to use it has positioned us in the condition we find ourselves in now.

I suspect this work will be illuminating and have many useful connections to my work in a number of ways.
The author, Mariano Sigman, is a physicist and "leading international figure in the cognitive neuroscience of learning and decision-making." It will be interesting to see what his 270 pages of information have to say.

I am all ears. (And bark, twigs, leaves, sapwood, heartwood, and the like.)
"Teach me, I'm yours."
I will apply my own principles of learning to his work and give it full and due consideration.

I will just ask you three questions:
1. Why is it every government in history has ultimately taken control of the education system in its country? and;
2. When was the last time you ever heard of, took, or were offered a class dealing truthfully and fully with "HOW to think" rather than "WHAT to think?"
3. Why do you think this is?

Deimos said:

Did you finish it, or are you still reading it?

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I finished it yesterday.

Vorondil said:

Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein. I was expecting it to have a bit more action, but it's okay.

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OK (wanted make sure you had finished it before I wrote this)
There's action in it but it is, finally, not an "action story",; , that is, he didn't write it primarily as such.
The story is the vehicle whereby he expresses his views of citizenship, government , the military, education, merit vs privilege, justifications for using force, society's success (or failure) in producing men and women of virtue; i.e, his weltanschauung. The action is secondary.

I liked it; have read it perhaps 2 dozen times.
A number of people (not a few) have said he wrote it as a satire, as a criticism of "fascism."
Nope.... Not a satire and not a criticism of fascism.
Concerning all the topics I mention above, what he says about them he really believed.

Deimos said:

OK (wanted make sure you had finished it before I wrote this)
There's action in it but it is, finally, not an "action story",; , that is, he didn't write it primarily as such.
The story is the vehicle whereby he expresses his views of citizenship, government , education, merit vs privilege, justifications for using force, society's success (or failure) in producing men and women of virtue; i.e, his weltanshauung. The action is secondary.

I liked it; have read it perhaps 2 dozen times.
A number of people (not a few) have said he wrote it as a satire, as a criticism of "fascism."
Nope.... Not a satire and not a criticism of fascism.
Concerning all the topics I mention above, what he says about them he really believes.

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I did enjoy it, it just wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. As Holmes would say, ''It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data''.

Vorondil said:

I did enjoy it, it just wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. As Holmes would say, ''It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data''.

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If you have seen the sorry excuse for it that is the movie your expectations are totally understandable.
If you haven't seen the movie, don't bother.

Deimos said:

If you have seen the sorry excuse for it that is the movie your expectations are totally understandable.
If you haven't seen the movie, don't bother.

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I haven't seen the film. Thanks for the heads-up, I won't be watching it.

Vorondil said:

I haven't seen the film. Thanks for the heads-up, I won't be watching it.

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😄 You are young and have many years ahead of you.
Watch it if you like, at least knowing that you can ( currently ) afford the waste of time.
I watched a few clips on YT, as I had heard that the director and screenwriter treated it as a satire.
I was decidedly unimpressed at what I saw, and especially at how they portrayed Zim. Also it was early "woke"; Flores was a woman.
It had a 100% sex Integrated military in combat, something RAH was adamantly against.
He did have women in combat but they they weren't on the front lines.
Recall what he said it took to be a pilot, about temperament, reaction times, very high IQ, etc (and Johnnie boy was clearly lacking , which he himself [the character] readily admitted.)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

After that, read Harry Harrison's riposte, Bill, the Galactic Hero -- an expansion of the story originally published in Galaxy magazine as "The Starsloggers", in which form it became, along with 1984, my bible for high school. A quote for every situation could be found in one of those.

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RAH has a quote for every situation also.
Full disclosure: not a fan, most emphatically NOT.A.FAN , of the later Heinlein stories; totally creepy and even gag-inducing (besides not being very well written.) You know of what I speak, Gandalf, Squinty.
(I do like his Juvenile works and have about 80% of them on my shelves)