I was recently jumping around The Federalist Papers and Anti-Federalist Papers.

I'm currently reading How Democracies Die. It's quite good so far and I recommend it.

When I was young, I read a lot of books by American authors, which in our Soviet Union were called "Social Science Fiction". There, excellent American science fiction writers scourged the horrors of capitalism (for this reason, these books were translated and published in the USSR).

Of course, you know the names of such classics of the golden age of fantasy as Kurt Vonegut, Ray Bradbury, Van Vogt, Ursula Le Guin and others.

27 years ago I came to America. To one of the most damned places in the world, a city of a yellow devil, a rotten apple, dirty streets and dull square buildings.

And what was my surprise that everything that my favorite writers taught me to mess with is complete nonsense, and I need to mess with black racism, liberal lies, Jewish socialism.

That Protestants are not a threat to America, but a threat to America is the Left University Profession.

That not stupid firefighters will burn books, but university students will burn books and knock down monuments.

So what is it? Did the classics lie? Cheated? Curved soul? Did they just not understand the processes taking place in the country?

So what kind of classics and engineers of human souls are they, if they are deaf and blind cripples?

I just read a couple by James Rubart. 

James L. Rubart is a 28 year old trapped in an older man's body, who loves to water ski and dirt bike with his two grown sons. He's the bestselling, Christy Book of the Year, Carol, INSPY, and RT Book Reviews award winning author of ten novels, including his latest, The Pages of Her Life.

I also went back and reread "The Five Times I Met Myself" and "The Chair".  I own all the books so will eventually be rereading all of them.

The Man He Never Was
The Book of Days
Rooms
The Long Journey to Jake Palmer

Souls Gate
Memory's Door
The Spirit Bridge


Toy   

Recently re-read "The Republic" to experience the wisdom of Plato,
arguably the wisest mind who ever existed.
By the way, we are hardly the greatest and never were!!!

Quote from: Walter Josh on January 30, 2021, 08:44:38 PM
Recently re-read "The Republic" to experience the wisdom of Plato,
arguably the wisest mind who ever existed.
By the way, we are hardly the greatest and never were!!!

Define "Greatest"...

Not finished yet, but Kirk's The American Cause is a brilliant little gem, less that 150 pages.  Essential reading for those who are fuzzy about the non-ideological principles that underpin this nation.

I just re-read Ayn Rand's Anthem for the upteenth time....it's prophetic....

Quote from: Owebo on February 11, 2021, 01:23:58 AMI just re-read Ayn Rand's Anthem for the upteenth time....it's prophetic....

I wish Rand wasn't such a chore to read. She applies a level of attention to detail that puts me in mind of techno-thriller authors like Tom Clancy or, farther back, Alistair Maclean. But there's really no detail in what she's saying that merits that level of attention.

I remember reading "Atlas Shrugged" and thinking "I've already read this." But I hadn't. What I'd already read was "The Fountainhead."

Quote from: TboneAgain on December 13, 2021, 01:18:26 PMI wish Rand wasn't such a chore to read. She applies a level of attention to detail that puts me in mind of techno-thriller authors like Tom Clancy or, farther back, Alistair Maclean. But there's really no detail in what she's saying that merits that level of attention.

I remember reading "Atlas Shrugged" and thinking "I've already read this." But I hadn't. What I'd already read was "The Fountainhead."

I tried a few times, but kept falling asleep.
The movie isn't all that bad.

Quote from: Solar on December 13, 2021, 02:18:36 PMI tried a few times, but kept falling asleep.
The movie isn't all that bad.

At just over 700 pages, "The Fountainhead" ain't that bad. It drags in spots, but most books do. The story is strong, the pace is usually brisk, and the characters are - naturally - heroic! Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal did it justice in the film, though I would have cast someone besides Neal as Dominique Francon. (The part was made for Vivien Leigh, IMO.) Worth watching especially is Cooper's truly epic monologue during his character's trial. (See below.)

But "Atlas Shrugged".... zowie. Nearly 1,200 pages, roughly 600 of which essentially repeat the other 600. It's been done in a series of movies, but the films had completely different actors and lacked a coherent style. I think it would make a good mini-series in the right hands. The story is essentially "The Fountainhead," with every detail told twice.

Quote from: Owebo on February 11, 2021, 01:23:58 AMI just re-read Ayn Rand's Anthem for the upteenth time....it's prophetic....

I read "Anthem" a couple of years ago, and it simply soared with relevance to what we have been experiencing in the last decade or so.  It made me ravenous to read "Atlas Shrugged" which, when I cracked it, sat inert like the proverbial lead balloon.  What a disappointment.

Then someone suggested that all anyone needed to to take from the whole book was John Galt's speech.  I read it, and saved myself a ton of tedious reading.

I am not much of a reader since a brain injury a little over a decade ago, so I have to look hard to find the meat of anything that isn't pure entertainment.

Currently reading A.B. Guthrie's "The Way West".  My favorite kinds of fiction are classic science fiction and anything about the pioneers and the settling of this country.  I still love Laura Ingalls Wilder's books because they sparked in me a desire to be like the pioneers, who had to know how to do almost everything necessary to provide for all their needs.  What's so dull about life in America in the 21st century is that hardly anyone knows how to do shit anymore.

Quote from: TboneAgain on December 13, 2021, 03:08:19 PM

Excellent!!!
Says soooo much about the left and how they steal with impunity.

Quote from: Solar on February 11, 2022, 06:20:29 AMExcellent!!!
Says soooo much about the left and how they steal with impunity.

Someone told me a very long time ago that nothing of value has ever been produced or created by a committee. Having been a member of countless committees myself, I can vouch for the truth of that statement. As Roark puts it, "There is no such thing as a collective brain. The man who thinks must think and act on his own."

IMHO Cooper did a good job as Howard Roark. I think Burt Lancaster would have been just as good or better. Kirk Douglas could have done it also. But Cooper brings a measure of humility that the other two would not have done, I think. That humility is a meaningful part of Rand's message. She didn't reserve her vision of liberty only for heroic or mythic types. But at the same time, she recognized that most people don't possess the stuff of greatness.

I feel good every time I watch this few minutes of film.

Quote from: TboneAgain on February 11, 2022, 09:44:46 AMSomeone told me a very long time ago that nothing of value has ever been produced or created by a committee. Having been a member of countless committees myself, I can vouch for the truth of that statement. As Roark puts it, "There is no such thing as a collective brain. The man who thinks must think and act on his own."

IMHO Cooper did a good job as Howard Roark. I think Burt Lancaster would have been just as good or better. Kirk Douglas could have done it also. But Cooper brings a measure of humility that the other two would not have done, I think. That humility is a meaningful part of Rand's message. She didn't reserve her vision of liberty only for heroic or mythic types. But at the same time, she recognized that most people don't possess the stuff of greatness.

I feel good every time I watch this few minutes of film.

Agree all around. That was a time when real Americans still stood and spoke, now you're quickly labeled as a racist etc.
I wear their labels with pride!