Here are some books I am reading. Just preordered Abundance, comes out tomorrow. Supposed to be a blueprint for how dems will connect with ppl again. At least thats how it sounded when jake tapper interviewed that ezra klein dude

Audible keeps giving out those .99/month 3 month trials i'll keep getting books

3/17/2025 11:32:06 PM

i have the annie jacobson one. she has some interesting youtube interviews too.

3/18/2025 7:44:55 AM

I don't think contemporary books are worth reading right now

I am wrong

But it's what I think

3/18/2025 5:42:25 PM

^^there were several suggested books by her yesterday when i was looking for something to use my credit on. Area 51 among others, wonder how a deep dive on that with her is

3/18/2025 7:55:46 PM

tbf, area 51 really isnt as interesting as everyone thinks. it just happened to get a legend attached to it.

3/19/2025 7:15:38 AM

Quote :

"Today thru sunday?"

[Edited on July 11, 2025 at 8:36 PM. Reason : Moral Ambition and Antimemetics are next for me]

7/11/2025 8:34:05 PM

I'm pro-meme.

7/11/2025 9:46:41 PM

I think the last one I got was that jake tapper book he wrote with someone about biden and 2024. Ultimate sin or something like that. It was ok, got a few more hours i think

7/11/2025 10:00:33 PM

oh yeah I remember when the Biden folks announced he had cancer right after that came out

[Edited on July 11, 2025 at 10:09 PM. Reason : can't speak ill of the soon to be dead, after all]

I've mostly retreated into the classic tbh. everything today is shallow. seek solace in the nicomachean ethics and some heidegger for flavor

[Edited on July 11, 2025 at 10:15 PM. Reason : book club on Sunday?]

7/11/2025 10:09:16 PM

Quote :

"Area 51 among others, wonder how a deep dive on that with her is"

It's sort of interesting. Has a lot of history of the site in terms of nuclear weapons testing and aircraft test & development. It's mostly nothing that would be all that shocking if you have any familiarity with the subject.

As far as UFOs and conspiracy theories and crazy shit like that, the sourcing is pretty thin on a lot of it. It's basically a couple of people from back in the day who claim that Stalin sent drones to the west coast of the US to spark a panic, sort of like a real-life War Of the Worlds, and that the "aliens' were children who had been surgically (or otherwise biologically?) altered with the help of captured Nazi doctors/scientists.

There are also claims that we engaged in some twisted, unethical human experiments out there, too.

As far as stuff that's actually better sourced, the big takeaway is that our nuclear testing was more dangerous and reckless than I realized.

I like Annie Jacobson pretty well. I've read a number of her other books. I find her a little dry sometimes, but Area 51 is probably actually my least favorite from her, mostly just because there are some wild claims without the same sort of detailed documentation that other books would have.

[Edited on July 11, 2025 at 10:37 PM. Reason : ^^ Original Sin. I'm actually in the middle of it right now.]

[Edited on July 11, 2025 at 10:38 PM. Reason : I haven't read Nuclear War by her, because it's outright fiction.]

7/11/2025 10:37:21 PM

Its kinda like an educated guess as to what would happen. I'd say not entirely fiction?

7/11/2025 10:50:29 PM

other Soap-Boxy stuff I've either read or Audibled:

Annie Jacobson:
The Pentagon's Brain
Area 51
Surprise, Kill, Vanish

Jake Tapper/Alex Thompson:
Original Sin

Bill Adair:
Beyond the Big Lie

Jonathan Allen/Amie Parnes:
Fight

Bob Woodward:
War
Peril
Plan Of Attack
Rage
Fear

H.R. McMaster:
At War With Ourselves

Liz Cheney;
Oath & Honor

Steve Coll:
Ghost Wars
Directorate "S"
The Achilles Trap

Robert Grenier:
88 Days To Kandahar

Strauss/Howe
Generations
The Fourth Turning
The Fourth Turning Is Here

Ben Terris:
The Big Break: Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying To Win in Washington While America Loses

George Friedman:
The Storm Before the Calm
America's Secret War

Chris van Tulleken:
Ultra Processed People

Sean Naylor:
Relentless Strike

Randall Stross:
eBoys

Christian Brose:
The Kill Chain

Gordon Corera
MI6

Josh Dean:
The Taking of K-129

Benjamin Sutherland:
Modern Warfare: Intelligence and Deterrence: The Technologies That Are Transforming Them

William Thomas Allison:
The Gulf War: 1990-91

Barry Goldwater:
Conscience of a Conservative

Jeff Flake:
Conscience of a Conservative

Jim Proser:
No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy

Jason Calacanis: Angel

John Bolton:
The Room Where It Happened

Rick Wilson:
Running Against the Devil
Everything Trump Touches Dies

Michael Wolff:
Fire and Fury

Jonna Mendez:
The Moscow Rules

Paul Craig:
The Killing Zone

Klaas/Talbot
The Despot's Apprentice

C.S. Lewis:
Mere Christianity

Fred Kaplan:
The Bomb
Dark Territory

Sun Tzu:
The Art of War

Peter Wehner:
The Death of Politics

Tom Nicholas:
VC

Stuart Stevens:
It Was All A Lie

Mahendra Ramsinghani
The Business of Venture Capital

John Boehner:
On the House

Fareed Zakaria:
Lessons For A Post-Pandemic World

Heaten/Lewis
The German Aces Speak I/II

Richard Haass:
The World
A World In Disarray

Maneet Ahuja:
The Alpha Masters

Colin Woodard:
American Nations
American Character

Kim Zetter:
Countdown To Zero Day

(anonymous)
A Warning

David Rose:
Angel Investing

Jim Mattis/Bing West:
Callsign Chaos

John Perkins:
Confessions Of An Economic Hitman

Smedley Butler:
War Is A Racket

Sorkin:
Too Big To Fail

Evan Wright: Generation Kill

Frances Collins/Darrel Falk:
Coming To Peace With Science
The Language of God

Ed Cobleigh:
War For the Hell of It

Neil deGrasse Tyson:
Accessory To War

David Frum:
Trumpocracy

Michael Lewis:
Flash Boys

Wallace/Robertson
Spycraft

Dan Hampton:
Lords Of the Sky

Robin Olds:
Fighter Pilot

Sulick:
American Spies

Sasgen:
Stalking the Red Bear

Reveron:
Exporting Security

Anthony Scaramucci:
The Little Book of Hedge Funds

Schwager:
The New Market Wizards

JD Vance:
Hillbilly Elegy

Lowenstein:
When Genius Failed

Ben Rich/Leo Janos
Skunk Works

Levinson:
Guide To Financial Markets

Krantz/Johnson
Investment Banking for Dummies

Charles Koch:
Good Profit

Jared Diamond:
Guns, Germs, and Steel

Vyborny/Davis:
Dark Waters

Crile: Charlie Wilson's War

Levitt/Dubner
Freakonomics
Superfreakonomics

Roth-Douquett/Shaeffer:
AWOL

Sontag/Drew
Blind Man's Bluff

Theodore Schwartz:
Gray Matters

Billy Waugh/Tim Keown:
Hunting the Jackal

Robinson/Clegg
The Formula
(focused on F1, but more the business than the racing itself)

[Edited on July 11, 2025 at 11:10 PM. Reason : ]

7/11/2025 11:04:46 PM

^^ yeah I guess fiction isn't exactly the right word. I mean it kind of is.

I'm not saying it's all bullshit...but it's more like serious conjecture in the format of a fictional narrative, right?

7/11/2025 11:06:19 PM

Fair. One of those things you just hope never happens

7/11/2025 11:17:38 PM