What Books Are You Reading?


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The soundtrack is awesome.

Preussens Gloria - Ejercito de Chile (youtube.com)

You seem to have a dictator fetish.

I’m reading this book because I’m trained in neoclassical economics.

Not at all, but I would say Chile being the most developed nation in Latin America owes a lot to the Uni of Chi boys and their “shock therapy.” Of course, leftist academics will disagree.

But to demonstrate a lack of a dictator fetish and use another country comparison, the Junta from Argentina completely screwed up Argentina’s economy beyond what Peronism already did.

So no dictator fetish. Just a like of the Prussian military tradition! :clown_face: :wink: :laughing:

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Not even close. Puerto Rico is double as wealthy.

Comparable economy of scale mate? :laughing: And certainly in South America, no? People often say Uruaguay but again, of scale.

fair enough

Napoleon: A Life, by Andrew Roberts. By age 35 all of Josephine’s teeth were blackened nubs, likely due to spending adolescence on her father’s sugar-cane plantation. She had figured out a (very successful) way to smile without showing them. The self-discipline!

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke. Never found the time to read these.

The Classical World, by Robin Lane Fox. Foundations of Western civ, very readable.

Three English authors, what the hell.

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He’s great. Underappreciated outside of his genre, imo.

When I was young I read/heard lots of comments about Clarke’s fiction, but I never found the time to read the real deal. Always felt like much of science fiction was just out of my reach that way. Catching up only now.

But yeah, thinking man’s fiction for sure.

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I don’t think I’ve ever read 2001, or the sequels. But Kubrick did it so well, I was satisfied.

As an undergrad I took a science fiction literature class and we read Childhoods End, which was really cool.

My library of unread books needs another shelf for scifi. I have no idea what passes for good scifi these days. :see_no_evil:

Asimov was good. Read Foundation in high school but mostly because my friends were reading it.

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Money: A Suicide Note by Martin Amis

Going old school sci fi, back in high school I liked some of Robert Heinlein’s lighter stuff, like Starship Troopers and Glory Road. Any for really old, the Martian Chronicles by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Not necessarily a thinking man’s series, but it was fun. One summer I read that and the Horatio Hornblower series, totally different genre but also fun. At least to 15-year-old me. Loved the Foundation series.

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Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy is one of the best series ever written

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This is pretty funny.

The Chicago Boys wrote a list of economic policy recommendations called El ladrillo, the Brick, cecause it had so many pages it was heavy like a brick.

They claimed they didn’t know what it was for when they wrote it. They didn’t know it was going to be used by the military government that was planning a coup.

When Sergio de Castro, one of the Boys, was asked whether he knew of Pinochet’s human rights abuses, he said he heard about them but didn’t believe them.

When asked whether he talked to Pinochet, he answered yes, but they only talked about economics.

Sounds totally believable.

Starship Troopers is light? I suppose if you compare it to his later doorstopper tomes, but still, a political novel written to oppose restriction on nuclear testing and featuring pages-long lectures on history extolling the military is hardly ‘light’ (disclaimer: I dearly love this book, and was disgusted by what they did in the movie). (Also love Glory Road, which is light.)
And the Martian Chronicles (if you’re writing in caps) refers to a series written by Ray Bradbury. The usual reference to ERB’s Martian novels are the Barsoom series.

Yes, this, but my recall may have been influenced by the movie. Grok?
I meant to say Chronicles of Mars, which is what I was used to back in the day, >40 years ago.

But maybe I was confusing it with I the Martian Chronicles, which I haven’t read. I spent the rest of that summer on the Horatio Hornblower series, when I probably should have been out dating or something. Misspent youth.

Shock therapy was terrible. Chile has 20% unemployment until the mid-80s.

A “shock” shouldn’t last over half a decade.

Fortunately, the Chicago boys were in power long enough to correct it.

Letter from an Unknown Woman by Stefan Zweig 1922

Incredibly unique touching short story.

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All four short stories in this particular Stefan Zweig collection are really really good but caution, they are varying situations about love.