BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

[ChewbaccaUncircumcised]

Been reading the Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski that inspired the video games. Enjoying them a lot.

man, i really want to read that. is it typical high fantasy (elves, dwarves) with a polish twist? i haven't played any of the games btw.

It's very dark and gritty, and morally ambiguous, not like typical high fantasy at all. I highly recommend.

[ChaMerZ]

reading greg egan - permutation city

a tough read. greg egan's a brilliant guy. however, i find my outlook on consciousness and life is fundamentally opposed to his philosophical stances.

[djjeffresh]

jules verne - 20,000 leagues under the sea. really enjoying it so far. i didn't know verne was a frenchman.

[KhillA]

I just realized this thread exists. I don't know how the fuck I missed this. Gonna go back and read from the beginning so I can judge you jerkoffs more harshly now.

Speaking of, I am emberassed to say that I'm reading Prodigy's autobiography. iusuallyreadrealbooksbutyouseeigotthisfiftydollaritunesgiftcardforxmasandclickedonibookstoreadoneofmyrrealbooksandthestoreaccidentallycameupandiclickedonitandfuckyouifyoureadthisfarillbebackliketerminatoryo

[ChaMerZ]

I just realized this thread exists. I don't know how the fuck I missed this. Gonna go back and read from the beginning so I can judge you jerkoffs more harshly now.

Speaking of, I am emberassed to say that I'm reading Prodigy's autobiography. iusuallyreadrealbooksbutyouseeigotthisfiftydollaritunesgiftcardforxmasandclickedonibookstoreadoneofmyrrealbooksandthestoreaccidentallycameupandiclickedonitandfuckyouifyoureadthisfarillbebackliketerminatoryo

Don't be embarassed.

I like reading rock biographies / autobiographies, if more rappers wrote books I would read them, because my music tastes are slanted towards hip hop. The Prodigy book is on my to-read list, but it somehow fell to the bottom in my list of priorities. Depending on your review of it I might move it up.

Right now I'm reading Splinter Cell Blacklist Aftermath. It is an addendun to the events in the game - so if you haven't played the game then ... tough luck - I personally wouldn't even attempt to read it. It is the first "Tom Clancy" derived book I've read. I remember in High School I always used to avoid Tom Clancy books because they looked so big and technical. I have a friend who was into neo-Cold War espionage sh** and really loved the books. He ended up joining the army. I should try to read at least one classic Tom Clancy book to see how the books are. If they are easy reads I will definitely start reading more of his books.

My reading list is so large these days though that I'm afraid I won't be able to get to even one Clancy book

[KhillA]

I'm only half way thru Ps book but it's worth the buy. He is brutally honest. Like he admits to peeing the bed at age 12 honest. He's getting to the part where infamous has just blown up and explains a lot of the lyrics. Like what Killer Black did to have to go on the run (shot somebody for their Walkman). And explains acts of gulliness by other rappers. Cormega was the hnic in qb when it came to rhymes then nas. Capone was quick to hand out buck fifties. Noyd stabbed some guy over his baby moms and then dude came back and blasted him 3 times before his album dropped. Etc. the beginning of the book talks about his prestigious family (in music biz, his great great grandfather was the founder of morehouse etc)
its getting into the tunnel era and the source awards now, pretty good stories whose authenticity is reinforced by prodigys self deprecation throughout the book

[KhillA]

Here's another story from the book that I just read:

While recording Hell on Earth DJ Premier, Lil Dap and the nutcracker would come by and hang out. Once they were leaving the building they saw the nutcracker sitting Indian style in the lobby holding an air freshener in his hand. The next day they got a call saying they were banned from the studio bc somebody had taken a shit in the lobby. lol.

Nutcracker was a real nut. One day Premier let him borrow his car and the nutcracker crashed it pretty bad. When he had to go give Preemo the car back he felt really bad about it. He pulled out a nine millimeter and shot himself in the foot to show Preemo how bad he felt about it.

[ChaMerZ]

Here's another story from the book that I just read:

While recording Hell on Earth DJ Premier, Lil Dap and the nutcracker would come by and hang out. Once they were leaving the building they saw the nutcracker sitting Indian style in the lobby holding an air freshener in his hand. The next day they got a call saying they were banned from the studio bc somebody had taken a shit in the lobby. lol.

Nutcracker was a real nut. One day Premier let him borrow his car and the nutcracker crashed it pretty bad. When he had to go give Preemo the car back he felt really bad about it. He pulled out a nine millimeter and shot himself in the foot to show Preemo how bad he felt about it.

Loool yoo don't spooil the book. I wanna read it badly now. Holy "crap" literally ... lol

[ric]

ok so my last post was about that Spy Handler memoir by an ex kgb officer. shit was dope. like life changing. no shit. a great thing about this book is that there are far reaching implications even beyond government military etc and that's a testament to the author and the memoir subject; that they explain things with a 3 dimensional lense. but it's also a very well organized and conceived book. it's never boring even considering some of the subject matter.

my last book was the third installment of the previously mentioned Leviathan Wakes series. it had ups and downs and middles. mostly middles. the last book was really sweet. this one not so fucking much. but not bad either although there is stuff that sucks. I'm still invested enough to continue reading the series. for whatever that's worth.

my next book will probably be Red Mars which is some classic Sci fi shit apparently. maybe my last foray into the genre for a while. back to regular shit. interested in prodigys bio.

also I'm getting interested in organization building. if anybody has any recommendations on leadership or organization building drop a note. thanks. it just happens that mostly all the stuff I've read on the subject is from football materials and that's awesome but I'd like to see what else is out there.

[ChaMerZ]

my next book will probably be Red Mars which is some classic Sci fi shit apparently. maybe my last foray into the genre for a while. back to regular shit. interested in prodigys bio.

good luck with that. first half of the book was fantastic, genuine page turner but it all deteriorated towards the second half when it turned into a soap opera. got fed up and never finished the book. mind you my completion rate for every book i start is almost close to perfect so this is one of the few novels i've ever read that i didn't manage to finish. not saying you shouldn't read it but beware, that the book isn't "hard sci-fi" from beginning to end.

for organization building somebody recommended i read "The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers" by "Ben Horowitz". Still haven't read it, and i think it's mostly has the perspective of building a tech company, so if that interests you, you should check it out.

[ric]

@chamerz

thanks brah

[ChaMerZ]

Looking at the prodigy book now. Kinda lost respect for the guy. Didn't know he came from such a priviledged background. Did his grandmoms really have it like that? Damn ..

[ric]

re reading some Michael Lewis books
big short is dope
liars poker is one of my favorites of all time
moneyball is dope

[ChaMerZ]

Just finished reading Prodigy's biography. It is pretty hilarious. A lot of cool info in there that I didn't know before. I always thought all the QB cats were close, but it turns out their relationship was complicated. Lool at Nas calling Prodigy "rat boy" and forcing him to get veneers. Cormega & Nas were definitely the most respectedd QB rappers but Nas (as Prodigy tells it) was sort of 2-faced (both friendly and envious).

[ChaMerZ]

Let's get a book club going guys. Let's discuss this book now.

[thablend]

Based on the reviews on this page, I just ordered a copy of Prodigy's book lol thanks for that KhillA / ChaMerZ

Ed Stafford - Walking the Amazon is a interesting read. Im unsure if to treat is as an alternative or supplement to the 2-part TV broadcast. They both cover the same events, the book focusses moreso on his internal dialogue on what was happening.. I would say watch the TV broadcast first, then go for the book if you want more detail.

If you dont know already - this crazy dude walked the entire length of the amazon river, through cocaine processing areas and all kinds of dangerous shit... it took him 860 days but he did it. A testiment to stubbornness/peserverence and utter madness..



Also, Ive mentioned this dude before, but any books by the (recently deceased) Oliver Sacks are facinating if your interested in anomolies of the brain. Just been reading "the minds eye" & "musicophilia" ..



About to start on Lemmys biog. Will report back when done...

[ChaMerZ]

Based on the reviews on this page, I just ordered a copy of Prodigy's book lol thanks for that KhillA / ChaMerZ

Ed Stafford - Walking the Amazon is a interesting read. Im unsure if to treat is as an alternative or supplement to the 2-part TV broadcast. They both cover the same events, the book focusses moreso on his internal dialogue on what was happening.. I would say watch the TV broadcast first, then go for the book if you want more detail.

If you dont know already - this crazy dude walked the entire length of the amazon river, through cocaine processing areas and all kinds of dangerous shit... it took him 860 days but he did it. A testiment to stubbornness/peserverence and utter madness..



Also, Ive mentioned this dude before, but any books by the (recently deceased) Oliver Sacks are facinating if your interested in anomolies of the brain. Just been reading "the minds eye" & "musicophilia" ..



About to start on Lemmys biog. Will report back when done...

Yah Oliver Sack's stuff is amazing. Kinda made me want to go into neuroscience. In fact to be honest, I still want to go into neuroscience lool.

[Comedy Quaddafi]

I made a NY resolution to read 100 books this year. I have a lot of spare time @ the job I have right now so it's a great opportunity to catch up on some classics. I'm ahead of schedule so far and looking at recommendations for short and fun books like this:

voltaire - candide
herman hesse - steppenwolf
jw goethe - sorrows of young werther
jp sartre - nausea
euripides - medea
prosper merimee - carmen
fyodor dostoyevski - white nights
thomas mann - death in venice
mikhail bulgakov - heart of a dog
rainer maria rilke - letters to a young poet
rainer maria rilke - the notebooks of malte laurids brigge
aristotle - poetics
plato - symposium
chinua achebe - things fall apart
publius syrus - moral sayings of a roman slave
thomas de quincey - confessions of an english opium eater
poetry of sappho
dante - la vita nuova
charles baudelaire - fleur du mal
epictetus - enchiridion
ezra pound - hugh selwyn mauberley
marcus aurelius - meditations
harold bloom - the anxiety of influence
jose luis borges - fictions
jose saramango - blindness
giacomo leopardi - canti
benjamin constant - adolphe

[Funky Butler]

the letters to a young poet is dope

huge influence on my own shit (no pretentious artiste)

ETA: also confessions of an opium eater

the vincent price movie is too ill. veerrryy loosely based. it used to be on youtube but i cant seem to find it now

[zappy]

i've been reading the legend of drizzt books by R.A. Salvatore. pretty light reads, mindless fantasy, strong morality and absolutely no subtlety about it at all like every 50 pages you basically get a page and a half lecture on morality that i kind of tune out while reading for the most part.

OH WELL it's like the popcorn of books and sometimes you want something light like popcorn.

would probably not recommend. unless you're in the mood for brain off light reading.

[wizeguy]

I made a NY resolution to read 100 books this year. I have a lot of spare time @ the job I have right now so it's a great opportunity to catch up on some classics. I'm ahead of schedule so far and looking at recommendations for short and fun books like this:

voltaire - candide
herman hesse - steppenwolf
jw goethe - sorrows of young werther
jp sartre - nausea
euripides - medea
prosper merimee - carmen
fyodor dostoyevski - white nights
thomas mann - death in venice
mikhail bulgakov - heart of a dog
rainer maria rilke - letters to a young poet
rainer maria rilke - the notebooks of malte laurids brigge
aristotle - poetics
plato - symposium
chinua achebe - things fall apart
publius syrus - moral sayings of a roman slave
thomas de quincey - confessions of an english opium eater
poetry of sappho
dante - la vita nuova
charles baudelaire - fleur du mal
epictetus - enchiridion
ezra pound - hugh selwyn mauberley
marcus aurelius - meditations
harold bloom - the anxiety of influence
jose luis borges - fictions
jose saramango - blindness
giacomo leopardi - canti
benjamin constant - adolphe

Darkness At Noon is short and fun.

[ChaMerZ]

i've been reading the legend of drizzt books by R.A. Salvatore. pretty light reads, mindless fantasy, strong morality and absolutely no subtlety about it at all like every 50 pages you basically get a page and a half lecture on morality that i kind of tune out while reading for the most part.

OH WELL it's like the popcorn of books and sometimes you want something light like popcorn.

would probably not recommend. unless you're in the mood for brain off light reading.

I'm currently reading a structural physics / engineering book so probably not my cup of tea. I'm not super into fiction these days. Always feels like I'm forcing myself to read.

[Rabbi Jihadovich]

I made a NY resolution to read 100 books this year. I have a lot of spare time @ the job I have right now so it's a great opportunity to catch up on some classics. I'm ahead of schedule so far and looking at recommendations for short and fun books like this:

mikhail bulgakov - heart of a dog

Let me know about this one. I saw the movie when i saw a little kid and it made a huge impression on me.

[Comedy Quaddafi]

the letters to a young poet is dope

huge influence on my own shit (no pretentious artiste)

ETA: also confessions of an opium eater

the vincent price movie is too ill. veerrryy loosely based. it used to be on youtube but i cant seem to find it now

If you liked Letters then maybe you will also like Malte, if you haven't read it. Also a short but dense and fragmented read.

Confessions was amazing once it really got going.

Darkness At Noon is short and fun.

I will be reading this for sure.

Already found a nice copy https://libcom.org/files/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[Arthur_Koestler]_Darkness_at_Noon.pdf

Let me know about this one. I saw the movie when i saw a little kid and it made a huge impression on me.

It's really funny satire and I have a hard time imagining what the movie is like because the story is dogshit crazy.

[ric]

read the Sci fi classic Red Mars by Kim Stanley robinson I think.

surprisingly good although some of the middle sections can be eh. gonna read the second installment in the series at some point.

rereading Michael Lewis flash boys right now. not sure what my next one will be. I have a stack of unread books I'm trying to get through.

[sleazy_j]

guess i'm gonna peep this prodigy book on audio as read by P himself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvUCs9j3reA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[thablend]

No way! Good find. I have enjoyed reading the book. Confusing use at times of past / present tense, makes it seem like contradictory statements are made. Overall I have to say this guy has lived a insane lifestyle, by comparison to my own. The stuff he's seen and done is beyond my own comprehension of reality. It may seem exaggerated at times perhaps I don't know, but it no doubt is mostly authentic.
personally I would have liked more about the music itself, the writing process,the evolution of their style, the recording processes and beatmaking etc in more detail.. but I guess the majority of readers wouldn't be so keen on that? Also maybe trade secrets etc...

Great read, need to digest what I read before commenting further. Thanks for the heads up!



Sorry for the badgrammer etc this phone is a piece of shit for typing on, the keyboard co ers most of the text and I can't see what the fuck I'm typing lol

[sleazy_j]

yeah, i got maybe to part 7 of 28 or so, maybe not even that far. these "chapters" seem damn long.

once i got to the part where he mentions watching boyz-n-the-hood premier with his dad on the lam in cali, i was thinking "okay so apparently a lot of growing up and thing have happened between him recording a song to be on the soundtrack, and the movie being released in theaters."

that just didn't seem right, but hell it might be.

also the part where he says he couldn't talk about stuff he did in high school as it would be incriminating, but then goes off being very specific about shootouts etc afterwards. i figured "well, he had to have editors and other people read the book before being published."

oh and also all this running around and hiding out in mansions in detroit for a few years, and his sickle cell didn't attack him again like it did heavy as a child?


also, listen at 1.25x speed as it barely makes a difference in his voice. he must have read this thing very slowly.

[thablend]

Lol thanks for the tip regarding playback speed.

There's definetly a lot of inconsistencies in there yeah, like u said, May well be the editing etc

like that bit about his dad where he says at one point it was the last time they'd ever hang out together but then later in the book they are doing just that? There's quite a few moments like that, and I'm not sure if he's referring to how he felt at the time or at the time of writing, if that makes sense.... Or if it's jumping backwards and forwards in time, it mostly seems to read chronilogically, and deviations from the timeline aren't always clear.

But still, super interesting and dope read

[ric]

finishing up Green Mars. dope book. already bought Blue Mars. also bought this book called I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isnt) by brene brown empowerment queen of the moment who may actually have some good insights into acceptance and empowerment