What Are You Reading Currently? [OFFICIAL THREAD]

[Marbles]

That does not mean that Iranian culture is somehow more embracing of alcohol or wine than any other country.

 

I think I said it quite clearly. It is my considered opinion that popular culture in Farsi speaking countries, traditionally, has been more tolerant of wine-drinking than others. In pre-colonial India, too, Farsi-based culture was similarly enamoured of wine and music for centuries, which they took from the father culture of Persia.

 

Ayyash.

 

And the point about mystics which bro Saintly Jinn mentioned is in the book... I'm sorry but that just doesn't fly. That's orientalist perversions. If we're gonna say that mystics drank wine, why not accuse Imam Khomeini of the same thing? He mentions "wine" many times in his poems.

 

The problem is that base people read poems and they project their own base ideas upon them.

 

Everyone knows wine is an allegory in Sufi poems and that it doesn't mean that classical poets promoted wine drinking or confessed to drinking themselves. And I'm sure the academic who wrote the book also knows this.

 

I believe Saintly Jinn is talking about those Sufis who did drink and used narcotics as means to achieving a spiritual state. I am not aware of such type of Sufis. But there could be some.

[baradar_jackson]

Reading a book is great, if one has the ability to reflect on what one is reading instead of just believing everything.

Even in the natural sciences, many theories that later became facts started with someone reading a "fact" that they didn't agree with and decided to look into it.

 

Questioning a commonly believed "fact" is fine so long as it is backed by substantial evidence, rational arguments, appeals to ethics, etc... and not by... nothing. 

 

In social sciences there is a sort of free-for-all where any moron can say anything and others will parrot him as long as it's in a book.

 

Hence: Trita Parsi says there is a covert alliance between Iran, the US, and Israel. Even though this is absurd, because he wrote a book about it, many are inclined to believe it is true.

[Marbles]

 

Book review: The General in His Labyrinth (1989)

 

 

 

Idleness was painful after so many years of wars, bitter governments, and trivial loves.

 

The profundity of Simón Bolívar’s vision became the bane of his life. He was destined to be the man who led the Latin American people to freedom from the imperial rule of Spain. Having broken the shackles of slavery he took over the uncontested leadership of the vast continent as the President with the singular aim of unifying the freed countries of the Americas into "the greatest republic the world has ever known,” a dream that was never to come true. In this historical novel, Marquez leads the reader to travel in the heavy footsteps of the despondent and disillusioned General on his final voyage along the Magdalena river to tell the unmagical story of shattered dreams, broken allegiances, dead glories - made all the more intolerable by the General’s terminal illness.

This is a portrait of the man, Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios, not a politico-military biography of the great General who came to be known as the Liberator, and to whom generations of Latin Americans have sung songs of praise and gratitude, and in our times have named their countries after him, finding in his person a newfound confidence to defy another empire in the north that sees them as “our backyard.” But here Marquez, without ever stating it, is poised to dispel the myths, spun, on one hand, by the great mass that loved and admired him and, on the other, by his enemies and detractors among his own people who had once broken the bread of victory alongside him in the wars of liberation.

Bolívar's rise and fall is told in flashbacks within the frame story of his last river journey, which he undertook when he renounced power after an assassination attempt, to highlight major events that shaped him to become the man we have come to know. An able soldier and a great military strategist always in a state of flux, he could enact whole battlefields on his mind's screen with all the moves and strategies to be employed for various contingencies, is now relegated to his sagging hammock in which, lying at night like a deadweight, he mumbles incomprehensible twaddle in the state of recurrent delirium, such that his faithful servant, José Palacios, cannot tell whether his master’s thoughts are trapped in the throes of a nightmare or entangled in the state of waking.

 

He was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness, 'Damn it,' he sighed. 'How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!

 

He is stricken but not defeated. Life had already given him sufficient reasons for knowing that no defeat was the final one. He cooks up imaginary battles to wrest Riohacha from the insurgents who are destroying the unity of the continent, but suddenly finding his army on the defensive, crashes into his chair. One day he announces his immediate intention to pack up and set sail for Europe to die there; yet the next morning he takes baffling detours and lingers on for weeks in a place, waiting for some portent to tell him which way to go. In a Marquezian slant the rigours of madness become a saving virtue; it is precisely his illusions which are keeping him sane.
 

But he could not renounce his infinite capacity for illusion at the very moment he needed it most... he saw fireflies where there were none.

 

During the last months of his life he became an ungainly mass of calcified bones and poisoned flesh held together by the pale leather of his cracking skin, whose purpose of mind no one understood, whose purpose of mind he himself did not understand.

Marquez evokes the starkly beautiful terrain of the Amazonian wild tropics with imagery that permeates the ancient landscape of his One Hundred Years of Solitude. It seems the General must have stopped at Macondo on his voyage along the Magdalena. Marquez does not mention the town perhaps because it’s fictional or does not fall along the coast, and this story is supposed to be an historically accurate depiction, which it is, save for some auxiliary details which are used to enhance Bolívar's character and to embolden his human dilemmas, enacted for the reader through the eyes of a man to whom the world had appeared a miasmic swamp of dead bodies and dead hopes. In that, Marquez has weaved an astounding horror story.

True to the maxim that there is humour in human tragedy, Marquez embellishes this sad story with the strokes of a tragicomedy in the General’s fatalistic and self-loathing utterances that confound and dishearten his loving supporters, but the General cares naught. I will illustrate it with two small examples.

A German adventurer came down to the continent to capture an oddity he’d heard described "a man with rooster claws," to put in a cage and display in European circuses. He told of his wish to the General when they met during the voyage along the river. The General had found another opportunity to direct his mordant sarcasm at himself. "I assure you you’ll earn more money showing me in a cage as the biggest damn fool in history.”

On the General's orders, his orderlies had taken on board an emaciated and limping dog found along the banks suffering from a horrible case of mange. The General bestowed special affections on the awful-looking creature, fed him by his own hand, played with him, and spent more time with him than he would with his young lover. After a few days on board….
 

The General was taking the air in the stern when José Palacios pulled the dog over to him.
“What name shall we give him?” he asked.
The General did not even have to think about it.
“Bolívar,” he said.

 

[baradar_jackson]

Recently finished reading E-mam KO-meini's 40 hadith.

 

It took me a long time because I went with a slow pace and there was a few months where I stopped reading. 

 

I recommend it to everyone. It is a very impactful work. Some of the latter chapters throw some very advanced terminology at you (I was really lost for a couple of those chapters), but for the most part the book was written for the common audience. Everyone can benefit. 

 

A variety of different topics are approached but there is a common thread in all of them.

 

If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, the individual chapters are good as standalone reading. My favorite is probably the chapter on asabiyyah (prejudice). It really opened new horizons for me. 

 

In summary: just read it. A beautiful book which will benefit anyone who reads it.

[Hameedeh]

Forty Hadith, An Exposition, Second Revised Edition

http://www.al-islam.org/forty-hadith-an-exposition-second-edition-imam-khomeini

 

 

[Ali Musaaa :)]

Currently reading: 

 

God and Logic in Islam: The Caliphate of Reason 

 

"This book investigates the central role of reason in Islamic intellectual life. Despite widespread characterization of Islam as a system of belief based only on revelation, John Walbridge argues that rational methods, not fundamentalism, have characterized Islamic law, philosophy, theology, and education since the medieval period. His research demonstrates that this medieval Islamic rational tradition was opposed by both modernists and fundamentalists, resulting in a general collapse of traditional Islamic intellectual life and its replacement by more modern but far shallower forms of thought. The resources of this Islamic scholarly current, however, remain an integral part of the Islamic intellectual tradition and will prove vital to its revival. The future of Islam, Walbridge argues, will be marked by a return to rationalism."

 

John Walbridge is Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University. He is the author of nine books on Islam and Arabic culture, including four books on Islamic philosophy, two of which are The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardi and Platonic Orientalism (2001) and Suhrawardi, the Philosophy of Illumination (with Hossein Ziai, 1999).

[Reza]

I'm mot reading anything at the moment. 

[notme]

I read Curious George a little while ago.

[Marbles]

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee (or by her greedy editors and agents).

 

It turned out to be a piece of porcine waste. It has a deleterious effect on the popularity of To Kill a Mockingbird and its principal characters, though I must add I didn't care for TKaMB anyway.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Marbles

[starlight]

If someone is looking for a light read this would be a good choice, lots of funny and Lol moments.

[notme]

I read The Martian, by Andy Weir. The crude language was a bit off-putting, but if you're into hard (not more fantasy-like) sci-fi its a decent quick read. At times I felt the story was unrealistic, that the main character was too lucky, but the fact is he had to be. It's Mars. Any less luck and he would've died, and that would make the novel a bit of a bummer.

[skylight2]

two books on the philosophy of Mulla Sadra I read recently... 

 

Sadr al-Din Shirazi and his transcendent theosophy by Seyyed Hossein Nasr - background, life and works... a good relatively accessible read

 

the Wisdom of the Throne - An introduction to the philosophy of Mulla Sadra by James Winston Morris - good background / introduction to al-Himat al-Arshiya - and translation...w/ copious footnotes... This book took me about two to three months to get through... while dense, it is understandable, and provides enough reference points, so that if you want to pursue a particular thought/point further, you can go to that source... 

 

These books are not easy reads.... but having said that, if you have some basic understanding of Islamic Philosophy, they are not inaccessible either... 

 

A good book in English is The Heart of Islamic Philosophy by William Chittick - the first part of this book provides a fabulous introduction to Islamic Philosophy, and if you have no background, try reading this first... and then tackle some of the other books. 

 

Best approach is of-course to read with someone who has received some formal instruction in this material... but in the "west" this is difficult ... to say the least... but that should not deter from trying to get some education, inshallah, in the future we will have more alims in the "west" who are educated in the area of falsafa , and will provide intro and advance classes to those who seek knowledge. 

[notme]

A good book in English is The Heart of Islamic Philosophy by William Chittick - the first part of this book provides a fabulous introduction to Islamic Philosophy, and if you have no background, try reading this first... and then tackle some of the other books.

This book is $115! Is there a digital library accessible to the public that might have it? I haven't looked, but it is unlikely that my local public library has it either.

Edited July 27, 2015 by notme

[skylight2]

^

 

if you google for a pdf there are sites where you can download the book... you can get a more reasonably priced version (printed in Pakistan) from abebooks $28 (shipped from Lahore, Pakistan, I got mine from there... takes about a month or so...) Or, you can also get used ones relatively cheaper ... 

Edited July 27, 2015 by skylight2

[Chaotic Muslem]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11500552-lady-of-devices

 

Just finished this book that i got on kindle. light read novel that i liked, i felt that my life is told in a story 

 

but this got me thinking, if I'm liking books that i can part of me being represented in it, i wonder now about other people's books liking ...

it creeps me too

[EndlessMD]

I'm reading (The Black Velvet Gown)

by Catherine Cookson

I'm a great fan of Catherine Cookson and read most of her books.

But this one is definitely my favorite! 5/5

I recommend it for people who like reading historical-novels ( Cookson is as good as Jane Austen and The Brontë Sisters)

[Hameedeh]

Trying to sell our house, so I don't have much time for reading ICTMN [indian Country Today Media Network]. The website has articles on Native Americans, but I like to look at articles about indigenous people globally by checking out the "World News" headlines there.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/department/world-news

[Noorelhussain]

'The Voice of Human Justice' By George Jordac

[baradar_jackson]

A manga was recommended to me by a brother on shiachat. I forgot who, but God bless him whoever he was. Because it's amazing. It's called Kurosawa: The Legend of the Strongest Man

 

From the very first sequence, it spoke to me:

 

 

 

 

That's a summary of just about every world cup in the jackson household...

Edited August 25, 2015 by baradar_jackson

[Marbles]

A manga was recommended to me by a brother on shiachat. I forgot who, but God bless him whoever he was. Because it's amazing. It's called Kurosawa: The Legend of the Strongest Man

 

From the very first sequence, it spoke to me:

 

 

That's a summary of just about every world cup in the jackson household...

 

There are three types of boredoms:

 

1) Passive boredom, eg staring aimlessly in the air.

 

2) Active boredom, eg watching football, reading(watching?) manga, typing on ShiaChat.

 

3) Violent boredom, eg involving in destructive activity like breaking things and shouting at people.

 

 

The above is a non-sequitur. I'm posting to say what I've read and reading currently.

 

 

Well worth the read, a fine book, history as storytelling, with perspectival slant of various main characters, a breath of fresh air, so different from the theoretical model-making pretensions of academic historians who entomb history in erudite discourse instead of bringing the past alive...

 

 

 

One of the most brilliant pieces of writing to have come down to us, a mode of expression like none other....Part I of 7 of Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. And I definitely plan to go the whole hog.

[baradar_jackson]

Welcome back, stupid Marbles. You were missed.

[Bakir]

Reading again Wittgenstein's Tractatus. I read it when I was a teen, to be honest there was no way for me to properly understand its concepts (and even nowadays I would say the same, but I want to believe I have understood something from the book). I can only feel humble towards so much rigorous and precise study on language, and at the same time it generated in me a strong fear to write anything academic/scientific.

[repenter-gone4awhile]

[starlight]

Review please... :)

[repenter-gone4awhile]

Review please... :)

As aoon as i'm done. This thread is called "currently reading" but everyone keep pasting books they already read.....cheating!

[Marbles]

 

Welcome back, stupid Marbles. You were missed.

 

To those who have "liked" baradar's post: have you liked it for "you were missed" or for "stupid Marbles", or perchance both?

 

As aoon as i'm done. This thread is called "currently reading" but everyone keep pasting books they already read.....cheating!

 

But then no one would be able to review a book, because if they are "currently reading" it, they can't review it and if they have "read already," then they can't mention it in this thread.

 

You see how too many restrictions always end up contradicting each other. A better way is to talk about books you have been with recently, as one talks about recent dates.

[starlight]

Lol... I liked the 'you were missed' part. I hope the same holds true for others :d

[Marbles]

Lol... I liked the 'you were missed' part. I hope the same holds true for others :D

 

This is.....a bit reassuring.

[Ruq]

I just read 2 slave autobiographies back to back: 'The life and times of Frederick Douglass' and 'Twelve years a slave' by Solomon Northup (not seen the film yet). I recommend both books - horrifying and inspiring.

 

Ive just started 'Lies my teacher told me' by James W. Loewen, which is a book about how history is taught (badly) in US schools. He is interviewed here about it:

 

[Bakir]

History... extremely biased teaching to be honest, mostly because the sources are biased themselves (such as the mongol conquests, for instance).

There is a collection of books in Arabic about the different civilizations that have existed through history. Very tough and formal read but it is worth reading it with time and patience. I'm of the firm belief that studying history builds us as humans.

[Ruq]

History... extremely biased teaching to be honest, mostly because the sources are biased themselves (such as the mongol conquests, for instance).

There is a collection of books in Arabic about the different civilizations that have existed through history. Very tough and formal read but it is worth reading it with time and patience. I'm of the firm belief that studying history builds us as humans.

 

Whats the book called in English?

[Bakir]

Qisat al Hadaraat or The Story of Civilization in English:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Civilization

[notme]

I'm still working on How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, by Mike Brown. It's more an autobiography of a scientist than a science book, but its well written. Even though it wasn't what I expected, I'm enjoying the story. It gives humanity to a well known (in astronomy) name.

[Chaotic Muslem]

To those who have "liked" baradar's post: have you liked it for "you were missed" or for "stupid Marbles", or perchance both?

 

 

Niether !

I like the Bradars vs Marbs. Was one of the most entertaining stuff i used to read when i first joined the forum, a sort of nostalgia i guess.

[Marbles]

 

My review from Goodreads.

 

Overwrought, overanalysed, somewhat cryptic and a bit repetitive - yet despite the flaws its main premise is worth exploring. I enjoyed the opening chapters in which Eagleton sets out his premise and then goes on to expand on it with an overabundance of references and allusions to already held knowledge. This right there might be the problem: Maybe I need to bone up on the intellectual history of European Enlightenment before reading an advanced level dissection of the same.

 

The central argument of the book is as follows: in ousting religion from the mainstream of society and in removing God from the heart of the individual Western intellectual discourse has not been able to replace it with an equally powerful, singular, all-encompassing value system that answers in totality to the endeavour of humankind. Reason, Nature, philosophy, arts, culture, science, the nation, Human Rights, the ersatz religion of psychoanalysis etc have attempted to replace God as unsatisfactory surrogates which, in Eagleton's words, have "acted from time to time as forms of displaced divinity." 

 

These new viceroys of God, to an extent, have filled the gaping hole left behind the proverbial death of God, but the better we understand any of these self-help keys to living the more we see their practical limits with the result that the future which a couple of generations ago was thought to have become, or in the inevitable process of becoming, godless for good, is now reverting to the discarded divine and finding in this rediscovery new answers to old dilemmas. It appears to me that Eagleton considers various manifestations of religion-inspired fundamentalism to be, at least partially, a reaction to modernity putting the divine in disrepute and treating it with curious condescension. 

 

Whether one agrees or disagrees, this coming from an atheist and proud communist is remarkable. If nothing else it shows Eagleton can think beyond dogmas and -isms from an intellectual standpoint and has the courage to hold opinions which, as Proust had said, our modern-day compartmentalised convention thinks an act of calculated cowardice, of which he has been accused of by the oversimplified new-age atheism of Hitchens-Harris variety.

 

3/5

Edited August 28, 2015 by Marbles