READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[Stanley]

Wheen on Das Kapital is a slim volume and I finished it yesterday. Very provoking and it has woken up my interest in Marx again. He was so prescient. If you look carefully you can find clear references to the ills we see today and Wheen acknowledges this and comments on it.
Much food for thought and some excellent quotations......

[Stanley]

In the interim, until the biography arrives any time now, I am reading Das Kapital again. The economics on which it was based in the 1850s changed and Marx turned out to be wrong in many ways but the funny thing is that in the changing world since 2000, particularly the unbridled growth of the financial system after deregulation, he is beginning to make sense again in terms of the failure of Capital. His philosophy overall has stood up well.
I am not disillusioned!

[Stanley]

The Wheen biography has arrived, brand new and unmarked, just a little shop-soiled. Good books are so cheap!

[Sue]

Just finished LES MISERABLES , in English of course. Hard going and far too much flowery description for me but thats french literature for you. Its taken me months! How they ever condensed it I will never now. I have never seen the film, series or show. Just read the book

[Stanley]

I agree, some of the 'classics' are impenetrable to me.... I liked Toilers of the Sea though, perhaps he was happier when he wrote that!
The new biography is a very well printed hardback and I will really enjoy reading it if that is any guide. I love a well-made book with clear type!

[Stanley]

The biography is living up to expectations so far. Thanks for letting me know it was there P, I think it might be a bit of a goodie.

[plaques]

Just finished LES MISERABLES , in English of course. Hard going and far too much flowery description for me

I keep looking at the classics stacked on the Samaritan's book shelves in Colne Market Hall. Generally I like the ones which give you some idea how ordinary people lived in the 1800s. But I don't think I've enough time left to get through them all. Picked out 'Tom Browns School Days' for my next read mainly because there's a Memorial stone laid by Thomas Hughes on the Co-Op buildings in Burnley which has always caught my interest.

[Stanley]

Long time since I read that P. I remember it put me off private schools!

[Tizer]

Professor James Lovelock has a new book out called Novacene: LINK He'll be 100 on 26 July this year!

[Stanley]

I think I'll pass on that one..... I shall get to the bottom of Marx first! Can't find my copy of the Communist Manifesto anywhere so I ordered a new one......

[plaques]

Can't find my copy of the Communist Manifesto anywhere so I ordered a new one....

Marx was involved i writing up the manifesto for the Communist League not the Communist Party. A slightly different animal. Com: League Quote The Communist League is regarded as the first Marxist political party and it was on behalf of this group that Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto late in 1847. The Communist League was formally disbanded in 1852, following the Cologne Communist Trial.

Professor James Lovelock has a new book out called Novacene:

Looks interesting, I'll see what Lancashire libraries are doing about it. Unfortunately, the libraries are buying fewer and fewer books. My last request for a new book by Joseph Stiglitz was met with a blank 'Not available'.

[Tripps]

Professor James Lovelock has a new book out called Novacene: LINK He'll be 100 on 26 July this year!

Get in quickly before he changes his mind.

Lovelock, 92, is writing a new book in which he will say climate change is still happening, but not as quickly as he once feared. He previously painted some of the direst visions of the effects of climate change. In 2006, in an article in the U.K.’s Independent newspaper, he wrote that “before this century is over, billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.” However, the professor admitted in a telephone interview with msnbc.com that he now thinks he had been “extrapolating too far”……

“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened,” Lovelock said.

[Tizer]

At least he's honest!

[Stanley]

P, I have ordered the right one, I was aware of the Communist League and the Cologne connection.
Interesting comment from Lovelock...... That should give the deniers heart!

[Stanley]

The Manifesto arrived yesterday and it has an introduction by Yanis Varoufakis. Remember him? The Finance Minister in Greece in 2015 at the height of the local difficulty with the EU. I liked his take on the motives of the EU then (He was later proved to be correct) and like his introduction to the Manifesto. It would be instructive reading for those to whom the name Marx or Communism is a red rag. But I don't think I can rely on any of them to read and try to understand the difference between a pernicious gospel and a morally attractive philosophical view of society. Come to think, some of the reviled 'Marxists' would do well to read it and reflect on their attitudes.

[plaques]

Fifty Years On. 'A prejudiced History of Britain Since the War' Roy Hattersley. All the political maneuverings since 1945 to 1995. Not the usual analysis of the multiple failings of both parties, sometimes swinging in the opposite direction to what you expect to hear from a prominent Labour MP. Gives a lot of background to explain why the Prime Ministers of the day went down the road that they did. Interesting book and if you saw it on the library shelf its worth a read. Buying it is another matter.

[Tripps]

Buying it is another matter.

I would think that £2.60 delivered to your door isn't a bad option?
Hattersley book

[plaques]

I would think that £2.60 delivered to your door isn't a bad option?
Hattersley book

Mine is the hardback version. The book does not carry any review recommendations, illustrations or bibliography. The facts are as written, but knowing Hattersley they will probably be correct. As quoted in the title 'A prejudiced History of Britain Since the War' it is his view and his alone. At just under 400 pages £2.60 is probably cheap for the work that has gone into it.

[Stanley]

Thanks for reminding me about that. I've been meaning to get it for a while. Just ordered a new display hardback for £7.80 inc P&P.from Bookfinder.

[Stanley]

I fished Wheen's biography of Marx yesterday. It was a good recommendation P and I thank you. I have learned a lot and there are good insights into Victorian social history and the prevalence of boils and carbuncles!
Straight into the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels. I got the right edition, it's the Penguin Vintage Classics one from 2018. Worth the money for the introduction by Yanis Varoufakis alone! I am struck once more by the same thought I had when I first read it, the nearest parallel to it I can think of is Christianity and it should be required reading by all politicians! Forget the stigma we have been brainwashed with all our lives and read it as a moral text. (Very short, not a hard read, written to be easily absorbed by the Proletariat!)

[Stanley]

Bang on time, just as I complete my survey of Karl Marx, Roy Hattersley's book arrived today. Brand new hardback in perfect condition. Books are so cheap!

[Stanley]

Had to rearrange my shelves to put Karl and his mates away tidily.....

[Julie in Norfolk]

I do read a lot of "chewing gum", and I enjoy the escapism I get from those reads, however my enjoyment of the moment is "Who we are and how we got here" by David Reich. I've not finished it yet, and I don't read for long each day (in bed), however it is really enjoyable. Put together with this Friday night 21.00 on PBS America channel "The Lost Tribes of Humanity" Precis: We humans consider ourselves unique. However, we now know there were at least four distinct species of human alive on the planet at the same time - and possibly more.

[Stanley]

Nowt wrong with your 'Chewing Gum' Julie, remember this is the man who read all three volumes of 'Fifty Shades...' and then gave them to my daughter!
Re. Humanity, I am going to have to get Lovelock's latest 'Novacene'. I've just been listening to him this morning at the age of 100 and from what I understand he reckons we are going to be taken over by a 'Super Intelligent' race who will cooperate with us and make our lives better..... I must find out how! I was reared on hostile Martians by H G Wells and would like to have that perception disproved.

[plaques]

However, we now know there were at least four distinct species of human alive on the planet at the same time - and possibly more.

Genesis, Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. I suppose the others were just manufacturing trials.

I am going to have to get Lovelock's latest 'Novacene'

Not expected in the Lancashire libraries for another month?

Just finished. 22 Days in May (the Birth of the LIB Dem-Conservative Coalition). By David Laws. A very detailed account as to why the Lib Dem's chose to go into coalition with the Conservatives rather than with Labour. The bottom line was that they judged Labour to be a failed government under a equally disliked prime minister (Brown). Also the chance of being in government after years in the wilderness was a strong attraction. Very repetitive going over the same detail day after day. Although aware of the problems of being a minority party in a government they totally misjudged the final blame game after entering into the deficit reduction too eagerly.
Not a read I would recommend unless you are a Lib-Dem aficionado.