Current / Recent Books

[andy06shake]

Hi all!

I thought it would be fun and educational to share which books we are currently reading, have recently finished, and maybe a sentence or two synopsis, and what we thought of them.  Then we can learn what we are all into, and get some recommendations. 

I will start :)

Current:

The Fourth Mind by Whitley Strieber - UFO/metaphyics- First half deals with the biology and genetics of the 'grey (aliens)' using his personal experience and also the reddit document we are familiar with from the exobiologist. Second half shows how these paranormal and super normal abilities like telepathy and levitation that the greys show is actually something humankind used to have innately which was lost.  I think it's a really fascinating read and a lot of what he says ties in with my own brief encounter.  Highly recommended especially for the metaphysical and societal implications.

The Best of Weird Tales 1920's - fiction - my friend runs Centipede Press, who put together an extremely impressive hardcover book in slipcase of all the best stories picked by an accomplished editor, of the stories which appeared in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in the decade of the 1920's.  Very entertaining and also a blast from the past, you feel like you are back in the era, reading these as a contemporary.  Spooky and well done for the most part. 

To Rouse Leviathan by Matt Cardin - fiction - This is religious existential cosmic horror in the vein of Thomas Ligotti and HP Lovecraft but with a more ecclesiastical bent.  I have just begun it but it promises to teach me some things about how nasty the YHWH character can be and how true horror might be in trying to keep 'God' out rather than let Him in. 

Recently Finished:

The City and It's Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami. Fiction - this book deals with many common Murakami themes, such as loneliness, relationships, books and libraries, the subconscious, and existentialism.  The main foundation is based on a story that appeared in Hardboiled Wonderland, about shadows and losing them, in a city that only certain people can go to, once they 'lose their shadows' A very touching book and was very hard to put down.  He takes the initial idea from the 1980s that he wanted to flesh out, and it makes it into a completely new and better whole. 

Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on the Book of the Law by Aleister Crowley eidted by K. Grant and J. Symonds - occult/metaphyiscs - like the title says, a verse by verse interpretation on the received text of Liber AL vel Legis.  Ties in to the channeled verses, what AC thought the gods were telling him, in spheres of sociology, politics, physics, mathematics and more.  really dense and full of food for thought on cosmology and the universe we live in.

The Dark Lord by Peter Levenda - occult/ metaphysics - This one is really unique as it is a large essay making the case that HP Lovecraft, Aleister Crowley, and Kenneth Grant were all drawing on the same 'quantum field' of consciousness, the same 'magical current' and that Lovecraft was not writing fiction but channeling entities.   It shows how Thelema owes a lot to the Sumerian and older religions, the Typhonian current, and is a 'recension' of an ancient primal human spirituality.

I reread "Majestic" by Whitley Strieber not that long ago.

Think i might give "The Fourth Mind" a go.

[Oldcarpy2]

I'm going thru a full set of Charles Stross' The Laundry books.

[UltraBudgie]

Not going to start a thread about this, but I thought I'd mention the trend of Digital Social Reading (DSR). That is, reading chapter-by-chapter books within an online community and discussing as you go. I think it's interesting, and perhaps optimistic -- online isn't replacing books, but rather changing the way we approach them.

Also a shout-out to a Substack I like reading, Commonplace Philosophy. Jared Henderson does group read-alongs, with discussion threads and online video chats, for various philosophical and other texts. Good stuff!

[mangust96]

UltraBudgie Thank you, such https://ibb.co/6qCkWmR statistics  because the library is mainly Russian-language. In the genre "back to the USSR" more than 4000 books, from trash to masterpieces, from 1 to 43+ books in a cycle https://author.today/work/genre/back-to-ussr

[Moon68]

Decided on Asimov's "Foundation" series. Just started book 5, "Foundation and Earth".

[Shoshanna]

I am reading The Man From the Train by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James. It is a non fiction book about the serial killer responsible for a string of axe murders including the infamous Villisca axe murders.

He would either quietly break into a house through an open window OR hide in an outbuilding on the property, waiting for the man of the house to go out to do chores and then murder him before creeping into the house to murder the wife and children.

He killed everyone usually with just a single swing of the blunt side of an axe while they were sleeping. Not true in all cases as I said above he did kill some who were awake at the time, but he seems to have gotten a little sloppy in his later crimes.

This book is pretty good. Very thoroughly investigated and tied more cases to this man than I have been able to despite my special interest in this case.

It goes into historical context and investigation techniques used in the early 1900s and points out the IMMENSE difference between investigation in 1900 vs. 1912.

Back in the early 1900s, these investigations were OFF THE RAILS! Basically the police forces in these small towns and rural areas consisted of usually just a Marshal. Maybe a sheriff and a deputy. Very small police forces and no detectives anywhere. So these "private detectives" had to be hired if you wanted any investigation done at all. And these "private detectives" would just try to go undercover and infiltrate known criminal groups or get in with the "criminal element" in town and try and get info on the murders. Usually suspects were found within a couple days who had some tenuous connection to the victims and then it was the battle of the century to keep lynch mobs from killing these people before they even got trials.

These "private detectives" were motivated by the reward money or in some cases being paid by the local attorney office to investigate these crimes. So it was either a quick "solve" usually resulting in an innocent person being executed, or if the government was paying them, the investigation could go on for years, as long as they're getting paid.

One "private detective" actually brought a ventriloquist to throw his voice and make it seem like a guy's MULE WAS TALKING TO HIM in order to get info on the murders.

There was legit NO EVIDENCE against whoever got arrested in a lot of these cases, but a lot of times the lynch mobs didn't let anything even get to trial.

One thing that surprised me in the book was the relatively deep examination of the BRUTAL lynch mob murder of Cato and Reed, who were burned alive by an angry crowd for the murder of the Hodges family, this is a murder that is considered "solved" and that Cato and Reed did it, BUT the evidence presented in this book including the SIGNATURE of The Man From The Train of the kerosene lamp that was moved and missing it's shade points to him as being the actual killer. Nothing was stolen from the scene. Most of this evidence is glossed over when the Hodges case is presented because it doesn't fit with the theory that Cato and Reed did it.

I personally have never thought Cato and Reed were responsible for the Hodges murder mainly because Reed's wife's story makes no sense at all and that was the main basis for their arrest. More "evidence" was found such as mismatched shoes in the woods a distance from the house and one of the men had a bloody knife. But remember, these murders were committed with the blunt side of an axe, not a knife and there is no evidence of a knife being used at all. Two of the children were also burned alive when the perpetrator burned the house down.

Overall like I said this book is pretty good, very in-depth but if you are not interested in this case or the early 1900s era you probably won't be that interested in it.

[mangust96]

Arladaar, a 21-year-old girl has been writing books, well, "Calgary is 88" about a girl moving into a body from 2022 to 1986 and becoming a world champion in figure skating, there are many similar books. However, I really have a template breakdown, since a girl from 1986 got into the body of the one from 2022, they change, and this is what her new book Milan is about, how a schoolgirl from 1986 became an Olympic champion in 2026 in Milan ... and why are all my ex-girls beautiful, but stupid, although many of them are already grandmothers

[Moon68]

“American Gods” again.

[SurferSoul]

Currently reading The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P Hall, it’s quite the tomb! 
I’ve had the ebook version for ages but I much prefer actual books, I find scrolling to be easy and you can easily access the index a flick to chapters. Bookmarks are a doddle I just use spare roach material ; ) 

While it’s jam packed with all kinds of interesting subjects it’s a bit more like a collection of essays than a most regular books, so it’s like lots of mini books rolled into one. 

One of my all time favourite reads was The Master and The Margarita by some Russian guy, because it’s translated it takes a little getting into but not as bad as Irvine Welsh ha, anyway it is a masterpiece of imaginative fiction imo

[mangust96]

SurferSoul The Master and Margarita was written by Mikhail Bulgakov, there are several film adaptations, for example https://youtu.be/BirWu1PrSDc?si=HgGwc_b1MuxcvN22 turn on the translation of subtitles. His books "Fatal Eggs" (the book is better) and "Heart of a Dog" (the series is better) have also been filmed