What are you reading?

[Mindful]

but also rescue their remains from dumpsters and give them proper burials.

Can’t bear to think of that.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Can’t bear to think of that.

The photos are unbearable.

 

[NoNukes]

I am editing my second book of short stories, so that is what I am reading.

 

[Disir]

I just got my copy of Pharmakon: Plato, Drug Culture and Identity in Ancient Athens by Michael Rinella. I'm pretty excited about starting that.

 

[odanny]

The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter. I'd definitely recommend it for the wealth of information the author gets from speaking to various experts, the writing is pretty good, nothing extraordinary for sure, but the book contains a lot of valuable info.

Amazon product

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

 

[lg325]

The True Believer - Wikipedia Interesting book on how mass movements come about. A relevant subject in today's world. It is by Eric Hoffer.

 

[Disir]

I just started Law, Violence and Community in Classical Athens by David Cohen.

 

[Sebastian Fahrner]

I just got my copy of Pharmakon: Plato, Drug Culture and Identity in Ancient Athens by Michael Rinella. I'm pretty excited about starting that.

Drug culture in ancient Greece? For real?

 

[lg325]

I just got my copy of Pharmakon: Plato, Drug Culture and Identity in Ancient Athens by Michael Rinella. I'm pretty excited about starting that.

Pharmakon: Plato, Drug Culture, and Identity in Ancient Athens examines the emerging concern for controlling states of psychological ecstasy in the history of western thought, focusing on ancient Greece (c. 750-146 BCE), particularly the Classical Period (c. 500-336 BCE) and especially the dialogues of the Athenian philosopher Plato (427-347 BCE). Employing a diverse array of materials ranging from literature, philosophy, medicine, botany, pharmacology, religion, magic, and law, Pharmakon fundamentally reframes the conceptual context of how we read and interpret Plato's dialogues. Michael A. Rinella demonstrates how the power and truth claims of philosophy, repeatedly likened to a pharmakon, opposes itself to the cultural authority of a host of other occupations in ancient Greek society who derived their powers from, or likened their authority to, some pharmakon. These included Dionysian and Eleusinian religion, physicians and other healers, magicians and other magic workers, poets, sophists, rhetoricians, as well as others. Accessible to the general reader, yet challenging to the specialist, Pharmakon is a comprehensive examination of the place of drugs in ancient thought that will compel the reader to understand Plato in a new way. Thankyou for sharing this. I would never have known of it. Interesting subject , I would like to read your thoughts on it once you have finished. I am recommending it to a friend.

 

[mosser]

Just picked up Updike's Rabbit at Rest, though it's been a while--years, in fact--since I read the Angstrom series. This is a poignant and engulfing read nonetheless. Makes me want to go back and read the previous books all over again, and I just might, because why not!
Other than that, I'm just doing some basic eco-related readings. Currently reading about the politics of classifying certain species as keystone species. Not suggesting that the classifications are inaccurate; just that the politics and practices governing this classifying exercise are deeply interesting.

 

[lg325]

1. Tolstoys "The Kingdom of God Within You" I read as a teen in high school in the 1970s. It would be good for those in the Christian Religion to read and discuss today and all others as well. Below are some reviews and comments on it. I enjoyed it.
   
   What does a nation established in Christ’s principles look like? Does it wage war? Does it maintain a standing army? Does it manufacture nuclear weapons? Landmines? Assault rifles? Handguns? Does it torture people? Waterboard people? Imprison people? Are there poor people in a Christian nation? Are there rich people in a Christian country? Does a woman die from hunger in a Christian nation? Does she die from a preventable disease? Does anyone aspire to wealth in a Christian nation? Does anyone aspire to power? When you give these questions anything more than cursory thought, they’re indeed troubling. Leo Tolstoy (of War and Peace fame) found himself struggling with these questions at the end of the 19th century as the nations of Europe rattled sabers and amassed massive armies in the lead-up to the first world war. Germany, Russia, France, and England all considered themselves Christian nations, yet each rallied for war, ready to murder each other by the millions against the direct prohibition of their God. Today the governor of Texas organizes public prayer for rain while also supporting the death penalty. A presidential candidate accentuates the words “under God,” while swearing allegiance not to that God but to a nation. With a cross pinned to his lapel, a politician fights to cut funding for services to the sick and to the poor. In the midst of this, the hard analysis that Tolstoy puts forth about what it truly means to be a Christian nation is more important than ever. In imagining a Christian society, Tolstoy looks not to Deuteronomy or Leviticus whose strict legalism lends itself to the loophole-seeking of the Pharisees, but to the Sermon on the Mount. He looks to Jesus’s commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.” Rather than a legal code, …
   Goodreads
   
   Mahatma Ghandi said of this book, "Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You overwhelmed me. It left an abiding imp…
   
   https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=02bd...V9LaW5nZG9tX29mX0dvZF9Jc19XaXRoaW5fWW91&ntb=1
   https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=e5d2...V9LaW5nZG9tX29mX0dvZF9Jc19XaXRoaW5fWW91&ntb=1
   https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=22e8...aVFZqTmpnMVhsNWVYaVJGYm5ScGRIa3lYMlZ1Ig&ntb=1
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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[Rocko]

I’m doing some light reading. James Paterson Triple Cross

 

[Mindful]

Finishing up His Dark Materials trilogy - The Amber Spyglass.

Phillip Pullman.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

"Amusing Ourselves To Death" -- Neil Postman

 

[Dante Reawakened]

rereading: Revolutionaries: A New History Of The Invention Of America: by Jack Rakove

rereading: Original Meanings: Politics And Ideas In The Making Of The Constitution: by Jack Rakove

rereading: The Supreme Court: The Personalities And Rivalries That Defined America: by Jeffrey Rosen

and 4 small things on history of city I am in: specifically the growth of the city and the arts

Just received another copy of: Original Meanings: Politics And Ideas In The Making Of The Constitution: by Jack Rakove

I've long been a drifter, and later/recently a brief stint as a nomad. Holding on to material belongings was given up long ago. So it's a treat to get a new copy

 

[B. Kidd]

Just received another copy of: Original Meanings: Politics And Ideas In The Making Of The Constitution: by Jack Rakove

I've long been a drifter, and later/recently a brief stint as a nomad. Holding on to material belongings was given up long ago. So it's a treat to get a new copy

Prior, you were in the looney bin a long time, weren't you??

 

[Dante Reawakened]

Prior, you were in the looney bin a long time, weren't you??

I got a pardon.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Prior, you were in the looney bin a long time, weren't you??

.


Yeah, that "nomad" shit just means he/she/it lives in his/her/its van.

.

 

[midcan5]

'Testimony: Inside the evangelical movement that failed a generation'

'Jon Ward’s life is divided in half: two decades inside the evangelical Christian bubble and two decades outside of it.

“A work of raw honesty and deep insight.” Kristin Kobes Du Mez, New York Times best-selling author of Jesus and John Wayne

Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation - Jon Ward

Testimony, Ward tells the engaging story of his upbringing in, and eventual break from, an influential evangelical church in the 1980s and 1990s. Ward sheds light on the evangelical movement's troubling political and cultural dimensions, tracing the ways in which the Jesus People movement was...

www.jonwardwrites.org

"Jon Ward’s honest, meditative, and beautifully written memoir shines a bright light on the often-obscured links between religion and politics in America." Yuval Levin