Books... What I'm Reading Right Now And What's Next

So I couldn't find the books I wanted, mainly the books by Noam Chomsky in our local book stores(I know I can probably buy them online but I like going to a book store). So one fine day as i was browsing the political science section in Kino and found a rather slim selection of books on Anarchism, I saw a book on Mikhail Bakunin which I have heard a lot of especially his writing titled "God and The State". So I decided to pick up this book on this Russian troublemaker/ father/grand father of Anarchism(depending on who you ask). That was nearly a month ago. I'm now more than half way through the book.

I decided to go to Kino anyway last Saturday, and get my next book(before I finished the previous one which is not like my usual self) and got myself Hitch 22, the Christopher Hitchens auto biography which has been on my list of books to check out. Not a huge fan of Hitchens but it is interesting that after Bakunin, I would be moving onto another auto biography(Bakunin was a biography). And from one trouble maker to another trouble maker. A controversial figure to another controversial figure... oh you get the idea. I've heard good and not so good things about the book and I'm really excited to get started on it. Which is why I'm trying to rush through Bakunin.

I bought another book at Kino. That's a book on Peter Kropotkin's revolutionary writings on Anarchism. I'll read the Hitchens book first before moving onto Kropotkin. Can't read two anarchist books at one go(the books aren't anarchists... they are about anarchism or anarchists). Not sure what I'll get next though... but it's better to make sure I finish these books first before I begin thinking on the next book to move onto.

Comments

The 'Lah' Syndrome - Why lah? Please lah! Don't Lah!

" Why lah ?" a friend inquired with complete terseness. The curt, simple and direct ' Why lah ' cut like a knife and denotes a measure of bewilderment in the tone of it. I suppose a simpler 'Why?' would have sufficed, but the ' lah ' suffix adds more melodrama where there isn't any. Besides, the ' lah ' has been a staple of Malaysian language inflection for aeons, it is as immovable as a traffic congestion on the Federal Highway. It's not just a Manglish (or an English language) thing too... " Kenapa lah ?" shock, surprise, even a tinge of disappointment. The Malay language is not spared from the ' lah ' contagion. Often used as a suffix that accentuates the dramatic effect of a phrase, ' lah ' could be used in multiple ways: The classic ' Why lah ?' The added for conviction ' Come on lah !' The added for surprise and shock ' WTF lah! ' For added appeal or even being indignant ...

P.G. Wodehouse Carry On Jeeves - I Say! What Ho!

I couldn't let off the chance of owning a P.G. Wodehouse book when I saw the book in a book store shelf. Yes... I'm quite the impulse purchaser of books. This is by no means a bad purchase though as the writing of PG Wodehouse came highly regarded among the English writing circle. I picked Carry on Jeeves... as the first Wodehouse books to own. Possibly his best known series. And by Jove is it a cracker! The Jeeves series follows the comedic exploit of one Bertie Wooster, a little lacking in the intellectual department and his valet(butler) Jeeves, making up for his master's lack of cranial matter. The book is a collection of Bertie and Jeeves stories, loosely connected with the each preceding one. It reads like a television comedy show, with each 'episode' relatively standalone in nature. There is no doubt that this series of books has had a huge influence on British comedy and comedy in general(we've had quite a few of comedy shows featuring a wise cracking ...

Homage To Catalonia - Someday I Shall Have Coffee at Huesca

Homage to Catalonia is one of the best(if not the best) wartime accounts from on the the best writer of our times. Serving with the leftist POUM militia(Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista), Homage to Catalonia captures the optimism and idealism of revolutionary Spain. It then explores the mundaneness of trench warfare, which was more like non warfare. The treachery, living in fear of being outed, street fighting in Barcelona all vividly expressed. Even in the humdrum nature of it all, George Orwell writes a captivating account that manages to share with its readers the horrors and poor conditions of those in the front line and the political backstabbing from those that are far away from the actual fighting. A turbulent history of Spanish history with a huge variety of political entities fighting against fascism and against themselves. Homage to Catalonia ends with the hauntingly prescient paragraph in which Orwell expresses his disdain for his fellow En...

Random Thoughts Of A Driftwood

Search This Blog