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Essential non-fiction lockdown reading

Mike Hughes
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Start with this. 1,000 pages of brilliance yet such a simple explanation of inequality.

https://bostonreview.net/class-inequality/marshall-steinbaum-thomas-piketty-takes-ideology-inequality

I’m currently 200 pages into https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/29/a-history-of-the-bible-by-john-barton-review?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other. Entirely unlikely reading for me as anyone who knows me will (ahem) testify :) However, it is superb.

Anyone else?

Mike Hughes
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nevip - 06 April 2020 01:26 PM

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4634-stop-me-if-you-think-you-ve-heard-this-one-before-a-study-in-the-politics-and-aesthetics-of-english-misery?fbclid=IwAR2S1WJJgFI3h3_By5rinzoCvIYmAN0-diXe17uyqcIqds3mDWyI_A6qWos

A great read that sir.

Absolutely nails why I was uncomfortable with The Smiths from the start (amongst many other issues) despite loving their initial Peel sessions; their first album; Hatful Of Hollow and The Queen Is Dead.

nevip
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And me.

I was signposted to that by Zoe Williams in The Grauniad.  I particularly like the way, in the footnotes, that the article clearly distances Johnnie Marr from Morrisey’s hateful nonsense.

 

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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nevip - 06 April 2020 08:56 PM

And me.

I was signposted to that by Zoe Williams in The Grauniad.  I particularly like the way, in the footnotes, that the article clearly distances Johnnie Marr from Morrisey’s hateful nonsense.

Met Johnny Marr after the Smiths show at St Austell Coliseum in 1984, along with Mike Joyce (Morrissey apparently having had to go back to hotel with a “headache”).

They were both lovely, chatted for ages, signed all our vinyl and happily posed for pictures with us.

Mike Hughes
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Mike Joyce regularly does Radical Readings - e.g. https://www.salford.ac.uk/events/event/2018/radical-readings-3-suffer-the-little-children - via the Working Class Movement Library in Salford - https://www.wcml.org.uk/ - and he is a survivor of an extraordinary set of circumstances who is nothing short of a very well-sorted; remarkably rounded human being. A genuine “top bloke” in every sense. Marr less so to some extent but then his experience and the more direct association with Morrissey has scarred him in different ways.

unhindered by talent
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Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour https://www.amazon.co.uk/Watching-English-Hidden-Rules-Behaviour/dp/0340818867

Kicking off with why conversations about the weather aren’t actually about the weather! This woman took her life in her hands by flouting the unspoken rules of queueing and social distance, in order to advance research

[ Edited: 21 Apr 2020 at 01:28 pm by unhindered by talent ]
Mike Hughes
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Have to say I would recommend Barton’s History of the Bible. Absolutely compelling albeit wholly alien territory for me. However, that’s the exact reason I read it. Never been a big fan of sticking in my comfort zone on any front and especially those people who describe themselves as having a “thirst for knowledge” but then go and read the most laughably small range of material from the most doubtful sources.

Have now moved onto the Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uninhabitable_Earth - the book rather than the original article. It’s a book that’s simultaneously absolutely terrifying and yet difficult to put down. I get the criticisms of it being scary but I’m wholly on his side. It needs to be and it’s justified as we’re sleep-walking into the death of our species. Yes, there’s some arguable issues re: methane but in the scheme of things I’m finding it more irritating that there’s no link between the notes at the back and each chapter i.e. note 5 for chapter 10 is just that. There is no indices number 5 within chapter 5.

He’s especially good at the kind of headline grabbing analogies or statements that give you real pause for thought. Three examples spring to mind:

1 - if there were no humans on earth right now we have long exited the combination of climate conditions which would allow our creation.

2 - by 2050 (so most of us will hopefully be alive to see this) there will be more plastics in the oceans than fish.

3 - each week one of us digests the equivalent of a credit cards worth of plastic.

I’ll have it finished by the end of this week but, already, strongly recommended.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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I’m currently reading Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe by Brian Greene, after hearing him being interviewed on the radio a few weeks back. Absolutely fascinating wander through the physics of the universe, which centres around how humans have managed to evolve from the Big Bang. Very accessible and very enjoyable.

stevenmcavoy
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Mike Hughes - 21 April 2020 01:33 PM

Have to say I would recommend Barton’s History of the Bible. Absolutely compelling albeit wholly alien territory for me. However, that’s the exact reason I read it. Never been a big fan of sticking in my comfort zone on any front and especially those people who describe themselves as having a “thirst for knowledge” but then go and read the most laughably small range of material from the most doubtful sources.

Have now moved onto the Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uninhabitable_Earth - the book rather than the original article. It’s a book that’s simultaneously absolutely terrifying and yet difficult to put down. I get the criticisms of it being scary but I’m wholly on his side. It needs to be and it’s justified as we’re sleep-walking into the death of our species. Yes, there’s some arguable issues re: methane but in the scheme of things I’m finding it more irritating that there’s no link between the notes at the back and each chapter i.e. note 5 for chapter 10 is just that. There is no indices number 5 within chapter 5.

He’s especially good at the kind of headline grabbing analogies or statements that give you real pause for thought. Three examples spring to mind:

1 - if there were no humans on earth right now we have long exited the combination of climate conditions which would allow our creation.

2 - by 2050 (so most of us will hopefully be alive to see this) there will be more plastics in the oceans than fish.

3 - each week one of us digests the equivalent of a credit cards worth of plastic.

I’ll have it finished by the end of this week but, already, strongly recommended.

i dont think i could cope with that content right now but hopefully current events are throwing away the feeling of being invincible whilst wrecking the planet.

Peter Turville
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My non-fiction suggestion is a bit of a busman’s holiday - why not start at (almost) the beginning with the Beveridge Report? http://pombo.free.fr/beveridge42.pdf
Readers may find Beveridge’s description of the role of women and social security particularly telling.

Did you know? It remains the best selling White Paper. Its great for insomnia!!

Mike Hughes
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I have a very old copy of the Origin of Species I’ve never read. Next on the list methinks.

Andrew Dutton
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Carl Sagan’s ‘The Demon-Haunted World - Science As A Candle In The Dark’ - not least its section on ‘Baloney Detection’