What have you read lately?

    Roman Lives by Plutarch. This is a compilation of biographies of interesting Roman figures. This book has been a blast to read, Plutarch focuses more on the personality, vices and virtues of the person instead of just describing historical events. It feels very personal and is a fun light read. Hard to believe it was written almost 2 thousand years, it feels very contemporary, but that could be in part thanks to the great translation. It's very interesting to discover how the Romans viewed reality too, definitely very differently than we do.

    If you have never heard of Sulla look him up. What an interesting fella.

    I meant to post weeks ago, but I have finally finished IT.

    I bought it right away after the trailer of the new movie came out, and was my intention to read it before the movie was in cinemas -- which at 1300+ pages meant 12 ppd-- unfortunately I was disciplined for very short time and read only on my weekly commute to my gf and when on holiday so took me almost exactly 1 year ?

    I'm not sure why it is so revered, basically as the best book by King. I like the structure, jumping between present and past, but I can't say I was captivated as much as other books of King. In general I always preferred his short stories tbh, while reading I was mentally thinking of all the content that I was finding padding that detracted from suspense. It got very good when the story had progressed, but I found the ending quite underwhelming. I struggled to picture it very much and just find the reveal jarring toward what you think IT is.

    One thing I can say, it brought me back to my high-school days when I read several of King's books (which convinced me to take a stab at writing myself).

    I've taken to reading over the past couple of years, and I haven't read as much, ever in my life, than I have over the past 3-4 months. I'm getting better at it, I'm better focused.


    What I'm currently reading is Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou (link). It's about the startup, Theranos and all the madness that started from the power and money hungry CEO, Elizabeth Holmes and her partner, Ramesh (Sunny) Balwani. It's a scam, and it's built on hype, lies, intimidation and more. It's really something!


    These are some of the other books I've read recently -Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain (link) - a good read for introverts, for us to relate to, and for extroverts to introspect on


    A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (link) - Fictional book, a sad and funny tale about a loner with a big heart, who led a tough life and sticks to his moral code.


    Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik (link) - just takes a photographs and talks about interesting objects and matter they're made of. Really simplifies and makes science fun.


    Here is my Goodreads handle. Do add!

    I recently got into comics again when I got the Jodorowsky/Moebius bundle on Humble bundle. IPad + YACReader is an amazing setup, very easy to use and everything looks so crisp!

    I'm now going over the complete X-Men Age of Apocalypse. It's been a blast to go over this in one go... very dark and gloomy series, love it :D The art is very hit or miss, some stories look awesome, while others look like something out of Deviant art But the writing is very consistent and top notch all around!

    And great news: There's a new Spawn series coming out next week, the first one since the original series debuted almost 30 years ago :) Pre-orders already broke half a million. Incredible to see Todd McFarlane dominating even after all these years :o

    [Blocked Image: https://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/…907c5/clean.jpg]

    @Minos dunno if you’ve seen it, but Keanu boy is launching a comic book. Think got funded on Kickstarter… you should easily find it.

    I’m more interested in the Batman stand-alone series. Top of my list there would be the one that inspired the new film, Long Halloween, and the Gotham by Gaskight.

    So I read half of this book "Ego is the enemy".

    I can't stop noticing that this book is talking about the core issue of almost every mental disorder. Specially the case of personality disorders. Ego is the main issue of narcissistic personality disorder. Everything about it is about ego.

    About real life, this book has a lot of examples that tell you not how to be successful. Rather, what is required to be successful. All the discussion in it can be applied to families, companies, admission exams, politics, everything. Some parts of it resonate quite well with the lessons that I've learned with Mark Rosewater in his talk about mistakes made while making Magic.

    I have a feeling that almost everything that I read in this book I have already read elsewhere. If you ever read about athletes, great leaders and stories of successful companies, most if not all ideas in this book are not new.

    Quote from 0kelvin

    15 hours ago, 0kelvin said: So I read half of this book "Ego is the enemy".

    I can't stop noticing that this book is talking about the core issue of almost every mental disorder. Specially the case of personality disorders. Ego is the main issue of narcissistic personality disorder. Everything about it is about ego.

    About real life, this book has a lot of examples that tell you not how to be successful. Rather, what is required to be successful. All the discussion in it can be applied to families, companies, admission exams, politics, everything. Some parts of it resonate quite well with the lessons that I've learned with Mark Rosewater in his talk about mistakes made while making Magic.

    I have a feeling that almost everything that I read in this book I have already read elsewhere. If you ever read about athletes, great leaders and stories of successful companies, most if not all ideas in this book are not new.

    You'd like Robert greene - Laws of Human Nature

    Finished 90% of Ego is the enemy.

    One thing I started to notice. It tells many cases of success and failures and how ego is always there. However, this book does not tell you why ego is there. It tells the consequences, but not the causes. It also does not tell you how to control your own ego.

    Solving the procrastination puzzle.

    I delayed and delayed, procrastinated, reading this book for years. I finally read it. Everything it teaches makes sense. I mean, I do everything this book describes. It's the same thing that the psychiatrist that I follow explained. Deep down it's about negative emotions and how we handle them. There are many illusions that we cast on ourselves that ultimately make we delay this, delay that, postpone in a never ending cycle of pain and suffering. It's all created inside your own mind and knowing what decisions you subconsciously make is the beginning of a process of enlightenment.

    I'm reading "Small treatise of the great virtues". Finished the first chapter and going to finish the second. Boy, it's hard. Maybe not as hard as Kant, but it's paying off. I'm learning new vocabulary.

    There is a famous teacher here that recorded a class he gave where he talked about "having the guts" to read Kant. He dared everyone to pick up "Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals" and read the first three pages. He warned "the first paragraph is going to cause you some bad feelings. Don't let Kant laugh at you! Read it again and again and again. You have to have the guts to understand it". I never knew this teacher but I'm getting it by reading something about virtues. The previous book, about procrastination, is paying off too. I must have read some paragraphs of this book about virtues about 10x until I finally grasped it.

    Years ago I'd be frustrated by the difficulty of reading and just drop it. Now it's different, I'm concentrating on one page at a time or one paragraph at a time. It's working and preventing me from procrastinating.

    Quote from ThunderKeil

    14 hours ago, ThunderKeil said: am I allowed to stop after 3 pages, or was this a trap to call me a quitter for not finishing it

    He said to not bother about the rest of the book because it's uninteresting, but if you don't read the first pages you are missing the experience of having to face a very hard text.

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