Whatcha reading?

[Dr. Medulla]

I liked the Big Short. Dude seems to have a knack of boiling this stuff down to a bitesize consumable.

Arguably too much so, according to various critics. He reminds me of Halberstam in terms of methodology—he uses a fuck-ton of biographies to explain concepts, which makes it more human and relatable. But it's a very liberal approach that can minimize the power systems and ideology.

[Silent Majority]

I liked the Big Short. Dude seems to have a knack of boiling this stuff down to a bitesize consumable.

Arguably too much so, according to various critics. He reminds me of Halberstam in terms of methodology—he uses a fuck-ton of biographies to explain concepts, which makes it more human and relatable. But it's a very liberal approach that can minimize the power systems and ideology.

I'm open to that criticism. Also, I can better remember some of the Big Short guys' terrible personalities than whatever the fuck a credit default swap is.

[Dr. Medulla]

I liked the Big Short. Dude seems to have a knack of boiling this stuff down to a bitesize consumable.

Arguably too much so, according to various critics. He reminds me of Halberstam in terms of methodology—he uses a fuck-ton of biographies to explain concepts, which makes it more human and relatable. But it's a very liberal approach that can minimize the power systems and ideology.

I'm open to that criticism. Also, I can better remember some of the Big Short guys' terrible personalities than whatever the fuck a credit default swap is.

Same here re. The Big Short. I honestly had a hard time following the financial stuff in that book. The book was more therapeutic rage for me than enlightening.

[Silent Majority]

15) Ten Days That Shook the World - John Reed. Audiobook. What's good about this is it's journalism rather than history. You feel like you're actually walking round Petrograd in 1917. Unlike a drier, more contextual look back, you get the feel of those days and it's like going to a gig where the performer just happens to be Lenin. Exciting and engrossing. The audiobook reader did a little bit of a scary voice, but not too badly.

[tepista]

I'm starting Stupid Dracula That Everyone Hates Except Me Part 2 today. The thing is that the first one was Jack the Ripper, which I know everything about so the story was very familiar to me. This one is World War One, what the fuck was World War One? Like the pregame show for World War 2? WWII had Pearl Harbor, concentration camps, Hitler, nukes, Rosie the Riveter, Winston Churchill, etc. WWI had....uh...Dracula, I guess?

[Dr. Medulla]

I'm starting Stupid Dracula That Everyone Hates Except Me Part 2 today. The thing is that the first one was Jack the Ripper, which I know everything about so the story was very familiar to me. This one is World War One, what the fuck was World War One? Like the pregame show for World War 2? WWII had Pearl Harbor, concentration camps, Hitler, nukes, Rosie the Riveter, Winston Churchill, etc. WWI had....uh...Dracula, I guess?

Mainly millions of guys hanging out in trenches waiting to be gassed or gunned down or drained of blood during a moonless night.

[Silent Majority]

16) William McKinley - Kevin Phillips. Audiobook. Unusual entry in Arthur Schlesinger's American Presidents series. Much more historiographical than the usual brief cradle to grave entries. The main thing that the author wishes to emphasise is the McKinley - Roosevelt continuuum, whereby TR takes over the assassinated leader's policies and cabinet and keeps things going in the same direction as McKinley would have. Billy is portrayed more shrewdly and progressive here than usual and I don't quite buy it. The colonialism is excused as better than England's or Japan's. The writer also wants you to know how much tonnage of steel was coming out of Ohio in 1833. It's that kind of book.

That's all the nineteenth century Presidents done now. Just five 20th century dudes, and I'll revisit some old favourites on the way through. For the last part of the needless project, I'm tying the chronological journey to their contemporary Prime Ministers, where they look interesting, and to basic European history. I'll catch up on the major British Prime Ministers up to McKinley's day, then do, for example, Harding followed by Stanley Baldwin.

[Silent Majority]

(the difference between my posts after a night down the pub and hestons)

[Marky Dread]

(the difference between my posts after a night down the pub and hestons)

Yes alcohol is cheaper up north!

[Silent Majority]

(the difference between my posts after a night down the pub and hestons)

Yes alcohol is cheaper up north!

[tepista]

I'm starting Stupid Dracula That Everyone Hates Except Me Part 2 today. The thing is that the first one was Jack the Ripper, which I know everything about so the story was very familiar to me. This one is World War One, what the fuck was World War One? Like the pregame show for World War 2? WWII had Pearl Harbor, concentration camps, Hitler, nukes, Rosie the Riveter, Winston Churchill, etc. WWI had....uh...Dracula, I guess?

Mainly millions of guys hanging out in trenches waiting to be gassed or gunned down or drained of blood during a moonless night.

So Mata Hari and Edgar Allen Poe are vampires in this one, if anyone cares.

[Silent Majority]

I'm starting Stupid Dracula That Everyone Hates Except Me Part 2 today. The thing is that the first one was Jack the Ripper, which I know everything about so the story was very familiar to me. This one is World War One, what the fuck was World War One? Like the pregame show for World War 2? WWII had Pearl Harbor, concentration camps, Hitler, nukes, Rosie the Riveter, Winston Churchill, etc. WWI had....uh...Dracula, I guess?

Mainly millions of guys hanging out in trenches waiting to be gassed or gunned down or drained of blood during a moonless night.

So Mata Hari and Edgar Allen Poe are vampires in this one, if anyone cares.

Cool. I care. Be interested to hear where the series goes.

[tepista]

I'm starting Stupid Dracula That Everyone Hates Except Me Part 2 today. The thing is that the first one was Jack the Ripper, which I know everything about so the story was very familiar to me. This one is World War One, what the fuck was World War One? Like the pregame show for World War 2? WWII had Pearl Harbor, concentration camps, Hitler, nukes, Rosie the Riveter, Winston Churchill, etc. WWI had....uh...Dracula, I guess?

Mainly millions of guys hanging out in trenches waiting to be gassed or gunned down or drained of blood during a moonless night.

So Mata Hari and Edgar Allen Poe are vampires in this one, if anyone cares.

Cool. I care. Be interested to hear where the series goes.

I'll post tidbits that I think are interesting.

[tepista]

SPOILER so in the first one the hero/spy guy was getting lead around by diogenes/MI6 so he could solve the Ripper case and get invited to Buckingham. You'd think it would be to kill Dracula (who only appeared for the first and only time in the climactic scene) but he actually uses it to kill Queen Vicky, who was in chains and obviously tricked into her current situation, so with a dead Queen, her husband Drac is no longer in charge.

So then in book 2 there's an early chapter about how Drac escapes the Tower of London with a little help from his friends and ends up being the right hand man of the Kaiser.

[Dr. Medulla]

All kinds of new readin's …

Audio:

Listened to the first volume of USA a couple years ago and never got around to the second. Strange given that I liked The 42nd Parallel.

Bath:

Haven't read this since it came out. Very much a product of its time, that media/popular cultural utopianism to push back against the conservative cultural warriors. Yes, yes, we can all change the world by using the electronic media, rebellion via consumption. Those were the days, when we believed we could make a serious moral difference by spending money and entertaining ourselves ironically.

Bed:

It's oral history, so maybe even Marky'll approve.