What's Everyone Reading

[steve williams]

I have to say that reading your" humorous" posts Ked do nothing for me. Frankly I guess I don't like your type of humor that you try to inflict in every thread

And Al, I get your point....now move on. We've discussed this. There is nothing left that is humorous nor do I appreciate your telling us how to run with a political issue. Ron has spelled it out and has said what we are working towards. I suggest you back off and take a deep breath

 

[steve williams]

Ahh so now the words"fabulous read" is political. Once again Al this has been discussed. Move on.

 

[morricab]

"Fabulous read": Political comment.

Should be deleted by your own rules, Steve.

how is that a political comment? It reveals nothing about the content of said book and only says the reader enjoyed it.

 

[jeff1225]

That is where we are trying to get back to. Thank you.

But it seems over-broad to prohibit the posting of brief commentary on non-political books on this thread. For example, if someone posts the photo of a cover of a cooking book, another member may reasonably want to mention that he/she cooked a recipe from the book and liked it.

Do you think we simply should prohibit on this thread the posting of any comment of any kind on any book? Or should we prohibit on this thread the posting of comments only on political books?

If someone posts a cooking book by Bill Cosby, I'll make the following comments:

1. Bill is not a cook
2. He probably has an ulterior motive
3. You cannot substitute horse tranquilizers for garlic

 

[Al M.]

Fabulous read.

From a real historian, that is.

 

[morricab]

If someone posts a cooking book by Bill Cosby, I'll make the following comments:

1. Bill is not a cook
2. He probably has an ulterior motive
3. You cannot substitute horse tranquilizers for garlic

But you are not sure about any of those points, right? So, you would be simply speculating...

 

[PeterA]

Well I do pity those who delete my funny comments feeling them to be offensive

They rarely offend, but they are very often off-topic.

 

[PeterA]

So, you are saying that someone who posts a cover of a book they are reading, if it is political in nature, automatically triggers people to comment about the politics of that book (and if they haven't read that book then how do they know what is in that book to get triggered in the first place?). Do you automatically know the political leanings of someone who is reading that book? No, you do not know, so making comments about the person's ideology based on a book cover of something they are reading is faulty and people should simply comment that they like or dislike this book and nothing more. Anything else is just BS from the followup poster that should be deleted.

It seems they didn’t read the book. I assume they were triggered by the name of the author and the image on the cover and the radio show they surprisingly claim to be listening to. I could be wrong.

 

[Ron Resnick]

The bright line rule about posting only the photos of covers of political books, and no written comments, means that we post only the photos of covers of political books and we do not post any written comments about them.

This includes not posting comments like "fabulous read" and "from a real historian."

So, after this post, I will delete any post which contains words relating to the posting of a photo of the cover of a political book.

If I fail to delete such a post I would appreciate it if somebody would let me know.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you.

 

[Al M.]

The bright line rule about posting only the photos of covers of political books, and no written comments, means that we post only the photos of covers of political books and we do not post any written comments about them.

This includes not posting comments like "fabulous read" and "from a real historian."

So, after this post, I will delete any post which contains words relating to the posting of a photo of the cover of a political book.

If I fail to delete such a post I would appreciate it if somebody would let me know.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you.

(Emphases added)

Great, so you do agree with my post:

"Fabulous read": Political comment.

Should be deleted by your own rules, Steve.

 

[howiebrou]

Hi Howie,

What are you disagreeing with?

Our bright line rule is that mere photos of the covers of political books may be posted.

Or am I misunderstanding you?

I was simply saying that we should allow all book covers to be posted. If the rule is no political discussion that is fine as well but we should not restrict what books can be posted. I know you allow it now Ron, just wanted to say that I hope it continues.

 

[howiebrou]

Of course I'm sure. Bill Cosby is not a cook, didn't go to culinary school and has no business writing a cook book. Also, crushed horse tranquillizers are quite bitter and everyone knows you substitute lemon peel for them.

I can tell you that not all horse tranquilizers are bitter....

 

[howiebrou]

Well I do pity those who delete my funny comments feeling them to be offensive

They're not offensive, just not very funny...

 

[howiebrou]

 

[jeff1225]

View attachment 80180

That wolf in sheep's clothing graphic is very cool.

 

[Ron Resnick]

 

[astrotoy]

View attachment 79659

I read both Kahneman's early book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" and Michael Lewis's book on Kahneman and Tversky's work that led to Kahneman's Nobel prize "The Undoing Project". Both Excellent reads. Cass Sunstein applied Kahneman's work to set government policies so the default choices were changed to better choices - like not having the default choices in long term savings plan to put the money in money market accounts. Looks like I know what the next "Audible" book I am going to get. Thanks, Larry

 

[BlueFox]

If it isn’t Science Fiction then it isn’t a book worth reading.

 

[jeff1225]

That wouldn't be a very interesting read not to mention everyone has their versions of facts. How do you write about WW1 without commentary and assessment of the motives of the various empires that clashed. Surely commentary and interpretation is needed to explain the facts?

You’re present the facts and then you present various takes of different politicians and historians that are annotated in the foot notes. This is how it is done.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I think you are handling this kerfluffle quite well, Ron. Your reasoning is sound and your words are well chosen. No matter how hard they stamp their feet, the geezers in the balcony just bounce off the policy you crafted.

The next scrum could be about what is "a political book." Let me throw out a couple test cases to see where they land:

1. A biography of Thomas Jefferson.
2. Das Kapital
3. Hegel's "Phenomenologie des Geist"
4. "Who Moved My Cheese?"
5. Fahrenheit 451

how is that a political comment? It reveals nothing about the content of said book and only says the reader enjoyed it.

It does not have to be a political comment, Brad. No textual comment on political books is allowed on this thread.