What Is Your Latest Book Purchase?

[Jahfin]

Apologies in advance if there's already a thread devoted to latest book purchases.

A friend of mine has been recommending this book for months now. Today I finally broke down and purchased a copy for myself. The author also has a pretty nifty little website devoted to the recordings mentioned in the book that can be found here.

[lzfan715]

The last book I bought was The Hippie Dictionary.

Click Here

It's really cool, I'm glad I bought it. I reccommend it to anyone who is interested in the era. It's full of information, and an interesting read.

[Spalove]

I bought it four hours ago

[ninelives]

Apologies in advance if there's already a thread devoted to latest book purchases.

A friend of mine has been recommending this book for months now. Today I finally broke down and purchased a copy for myself. The author also has a pretty nifty little website devoted to the recordings mentioned in the book that can be found here.

Tom's website looks pretty intense. I just took a quick peak but when I have more time, I will delve through it.

[Xtazy]

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Well, it looks a bit different since it's another language (Romanian).

I've also bought the fifth book from the Wardstone Chronicles, called the Spook's Mistake.

Now I'm searching for an e-book called The Stand, by Stephen King and I'll probably try The Shining too since I enjoyed the movie so much.

And now I'm reading the Lord of the Rings series and a book about the story of The Rolling Stones.

[Footsteps of Dawn]

^ I really need to read A Game of Thrones again...I remember being not as entirely satisfied with it as I expected to be, but now I can't think why. It's far from bad, though - I did like the characters, and I liked the realistic political intrigue, but there was just something that kept it from going on my list of favorite fantasy works.

I bought it four hours ago

Me too! Except I bought it yesterday. I like the pseudo-academic style it has with the notes from Dumbledore and the "translation" by Hermione. Fun for English majors!

[Electrophile]

I bought this book for my Dad for Christmas:

[reswati]

[redrum]

I recently found an out of print hardback copy of 'Guitar Review Vol. 2'

I found it on 'Abebooks' from a store in Tulsa. Cost me $70+ but to me it's worth it. I have Vol. 1 that I got for $50 earlier this year and I'm now searching for Vol. 3 to complete the series.

[BUCK'EYE' DOC]

My latest book purchase is "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch

http://www.thelastlecture.com/

I haven't started reading it yet. I am waiting for the right mood when I am ready to be inspired. Perhaps over the New Year's break from work this week.

[AllisonAdler]

Quantum of Solace:The Complete James Bond Short Stories

Since I found Casino Royale quite entertaining.

[LedZepChick]

[Otto Masson]

A bunch of books about philosophy. Am reading a book in Danish about Edmund Husserl's phenomenology these days.

[MadScreamingGallery]

For Christmas, I bought my husband: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex: 1901-1909 both authored by Edmund Morris. There is one more book to come in this trilogy but it hasn't yet been published.

A bunch of books about philosophy. Am reading a book in Danish about Edmund Husserl's phenomenology these days.

Otto, where were you when I was in grad school and struggling through Husserl's Early Writings in the Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics (in English, no less)? Seriously, though, with respect to mathematics, I did like how Husserl's phenomenology tried to bridge the gap between logic and psychology and explain the relationship between the nature of mathematics and mathematical understanding.

[Virginia]

I bought each of my kids a book for Christmas; "The Outsiders" for my son; Paula Deen's kids' cookbook for my 7 year old, and "Secrets of Peaches" for my oldest.

I also received a copy of "Beetle the Bard" for Christmas

[Alessandra]

The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

[manderlyh]

Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling. Bought it tonight.

[Otto Masson]

For Christmas, I bought my husband: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex: 1901-1909 both authored by Edmund Morris. There is one more book to come in this trilogy but it hasn't yet been published.

Otto, where were you when I was in grad school and struggling through Husserl's Early Writings in the Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics (in English, no less)? Seriously, though, with respect to mathematics, I did like how Husserl's phenomenology tried to bridge the gap between logic and psychology and explain the relationship between the nature of mathematics and mathematical understanding.

Really? That just seems like such an odd choice of reading material! I mean, I am no specialist in Husserl, but presumably what you are referring to are things he wrote around 1890 or so, where he commits to a position on logic that he then abandoned, perhaps as a result of Gottlob Frege's criticisms. The critique of 'psychologism' became the point of departure in his massive study Logical Investigations (published in 1900, I think), and the final chapter of that work in turn became the point of departure of his phenomenological philosophy - at least in his own opinion. What the sin of psychologism (I believe John Stuart Mill had also developed a psychologistic account in his A System of Logic) consisted in was confusing the thought act with the logical moment as such, which latter had to be seen as an ideality not reducible to a real act. Husserl's later position, and of course Frege's, are still taken seriously, whereas I don't think Husserl's earlier position is seen as defensible nowadays.

After 1900 Husserl focused on developing a new mode of investigating consciousness and consciousness activity that would befit its specificity and irreducibility to the world of things, intentionality for example. He developed a new method of reduction to avoid the objectivistic fallacy, which he more or less adhered to in all his later efforts, but the basic understanding of phenomenology was something he really kept working on until his death in 1938. His later works develop a much more complex theory, especially of the constitutional aspect. Instead of the much narrower focus of his earlier versions of phenomenology, where individual consciousness remains the single basic prerequisite, he now sees it more consistently in interrelation with intersubjectivity and the lifeworld. That's really what I find most interesting in Husserl, and it forms the particular legacy that Maurice Merleau-Ponty was heir to. That's really the phenomenological philosopher that I find most interesting. He was a friend of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir as you might know, a central figure behind Les temps modernes in the first years of that journal, and a great philosopher. He wrote a massive treatise on perception for example, The Phenomenology of Perception, that was published in 1945, two years after Sartre's Being and Nothingness if I remember correctly.

[lucyinthesky]

Some Hemingway short stories for my dad. I'm glad he liked it...he wants to improve his English because we're going to London this year for holiday.

Oh, and (I only purchased half of it, together with a friend) Pamela Des Barres' book Let's Spend The Night Together. Um, not exactly high niveau, but quite funny;- )

Edited January 2, 2009 by lucyinthesky

[Roxie]

I bought each of my kids a book for Christmas; "The Outsiders" for my son; Paula Deen's kids' cookbook for my 7 year old, and "Secrets of Peaches" for my oldest.

I also received a copy of "Beetle the Bard" for Christmas

That's one of my all time faves - and the movie! I loved reading S.E Hinton books when I was a kid.

[MadScreamingGallery]

Really? That just seems like such an odd choice of reading material! I mean, I am no specialist in Husserl, but presumably what you are referring to are things he wrote around 1890 or so, where he commits to a position on logic that he then abandoned, perhaps as a result of Gottlob Frege's criticisms. The critique of 'psychologism' became the point of departure in his massive study Logical Investigations (published in 1900, I think), and the final chapter of that work in turn became the point of departure of his phenomenological philosophy - at least in his own opinion. What the sin of psychologism (I believe John Stuart Mill had also developed a psychologistic account in his A System of Logic) consisted in was confusing the thought act with the logical moment as such, which latter had to be seen as an ideality not reducible to a real act. Husserl's later position, and of course Frege's, are still taken seriously, whereas I don't think Husserl's earlier position is seen as defensible nowadays.

After 1900 Husserl focused on developing a new mode of investigating consciousness and consciousness activity that would befit its specificity and irreducibility to the world of things, intentionality for example. He developed a new method of reduction to avoid the objectivistic fallacy, which he more or less adhered to in all his later efforts, but the basic understanding of phenomenology was something he really kept working on until his death in 1938. His later works develop a much more complex theory, especially of the constitutional aspect. Instead of the much narrower focus of his earlier versions of phenomenology, where individual consciousness remains the single basic prerequisite, he now sees it more consistently in interrelation with intersubjectivity and the lifeworld. That's really what I find most interesting in Husserl, and it forms the particular legacy that Maurice Merleau-Ponty was heir to. That's really the phenomenological philosopher that I find most interesting. He was a friend of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir as you might know, a central figure behind Les temps modernes in the first years of that journal, and a great philosopher. He wrote a massive treatise on perception for example, The Phenomenology of Perception, that was published in 1945, two years after Sartre's Being and Nothingness if I remember correctly.

Given that my field is mathematics (and Husserl was a mathematician who became a philosopher), it wasn't an odd choice of reading material. It was assigned in a course on the philosophy of mathematics. During the part of the course where we examined mathematics and phenomenology, we read Husserl, Klein, and Hilbert. You mentioned that you are reading Husserl in Danish; are you familiar with the work of Ole Skovmose? I don't want to derail this thread so feel free to email me.

[ms_zeppelin94]

"The Silmarillion" by JRR Tolkien

Yup- meesa a nerd

[Otto Masson]

Given that my field is mathematics (and Husserl was a mathematician who became a philosopher), it wasn't an odd choice of reading material. It was assigned in a course on the philosophy of mathematics. During the part of the course where we examined mathematics and phenomenology, we read Husserl, Klein, and Hilbert. You mentioned that you are reading Husserl in Danish; are you familiar with the work of Ole Skovmose? I don't want to derail this thread so feel free to email me.

Of course, should have remembered about your maths - after all, my dad is a mathematician. One more case where the relevance of things depends entirely on the particular context, I guess. Philosophy of maths is not my own field, and for a valid reason: when I look into one of my dad's books on old favorite subject, namely differential equations, I go My own field is more social theoretical philosophy, and phenomenology has become relevant for me just recently. As I said, mostly Merleau-Ponty. The book I mentioned that I was reading is on Husserl, not by him, written by a young Danish specialist, Dan Zahavi, who has also published several essays in English. I don't know Skovmose. I may have replied in the thread, but let's have the e-mail exchange also.

[beatbo]

some new books (to me)

"picasso's world of children" is a remarkable collection of of 200 examples of picasso's children depictions and an eye-opening chapter of paintings kept for himself of his own children. kay's commentary is also interesting. i bought this at an estate sale. hardcover was published in 1984, i think (no date in the book).

"the return of sherlock holmes" entertained me over the holidays.

a re-read of charles bukowski's "tales of ordinary madness" has me engrossed at the moment...

[redrum]

I just sent for 'Platero And I' by Juan Ramon Jiminez.

It's about the author and his donkey in Spain.

Segovia played a beautiful song called 'Lullaby Arruladora' taken from one chapter of the book.