what are you reading today?

[lucky_cloud]

Nice.^

I just finished this last night:

[inakorechard]

started this today

[wizard4life]

great book about ritualistic tripping Yaqui Indian style..

[weinfeld]

One for school:

Two for fun:

[i like turtles.]

\/

[Baeyer-Drewson]

^Some great books here guys. Outta rep, sorry. I love Nabokov, and I've been meaning to read some Foucault forever.

[Ryan]

[into the rain]

[NESK]

oh fuck yeah!

[dibango]

[NESK]

is there a definitive and credible account of the iran contra?

i think i may have heard of some ex CIA cat really spilling the beans in some tell all book. i just dont remember where i heard about it and most the stuff ive seen looks pretty tinfoil hat-ish.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

is there a definitive and credible account of the iran contra?

...

most the stuff ive seen looks pretty tinfoil hat-ish.

I lol'd at this. Let me know if you find the former tho.

[salaryman]

I read this, and the author sort of covers Iran-Contra but she didn't even join the agency until 1988, so its obviously not an insiders account, nor is it the focus of the book.

She spends most of time discussing/critiquing CIA operations in general and changes in their policies. Was interesting as an overview I guess, but if you're looking for detailed historical analysis this probably isn't it.

Even former CIA are subject to heavy censoring from the agency, so these supposed "tell all" books are rarely as forthcoming or as honest as they should be. It's hard to find any account that doesn't just tell you what you already know.

I had a professor who used to work in the CIA, and he made us read tons of intelligence stuff. A lot of it--like this book--is on the CIA's literature list, here,

https://www.cia.gov/library/intelligence-literature/index.html

[NESK]

yeah i saw that oliver north actually wrote a book which id like to read but i dont see how real it could be since hed have to basically implicate himself as a major conspirator which would just kind of open up rediculous amounts of possibilities about who he was taking orders from and whatever.

im not so much interested in the back alley arms trade with iran as the desmination of ill-appropriated cocaine on the homefront. thats the shit i want to know more about.

[NESK]

baeyer: did you like clockers more than lush life? i couldnt really choose but i think that my judgement is effected by loving spike lee's take on clockers so much that i had a hard time acceptign the book on its own terms. someone should adapt lush life before the LES is unreconizable. i started freedomland a couple years ago and made the mistake of watchign the film before finishing the novel. movie sucked so much i couldnt finish the book.

[newaesthetic]

im halfway through 'of course you end up becoming yourself' just to finish of my david foster wallace binge.

how was it? I'm taking another shot at Infinite Jest, but it's strange that I have to force myself since the rest of Wallace's work has been pretty good to me. I saw this in Chapters last time I was in town and really wanted to pick it up.

[NESK]

i wouldnt go near it unless you finish infinite jest and love it. its basically a long running convo between him and a rolling stones journalist where the RS guy is trying to bait wallace into claiming to be some sort of tragic genuis. and wallace is kind of onto him and really trying to downplay it. its really sad at points since you know what ends up happening to him so when hes explaining his struggle with mental illness and his reservations about fame and ego and all that, you end up seeing alot more in it thean he probably meant to say at the time.

but there some really good things in it about his intentions with infinite jest, what he wanted it to mean, and what hes affraid it might end up meaning to alot people, etc. plus his veiws on tv and mass produced culture are fucking incredible.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

[Baeyer-Drewson]

im not so much interested in the back alley arms trade with iran as the desmination of ill-appropriated cocaine on the homefront. thats the shit i want to know more about.

There is a series of publications (that have been compiled I think?) by investigative journalist Gary Webb called Dark Alliance covering this very topic. At the time some of his claims were disputed because they were extremely controversial, but even the CIA has corroborated some of his findings after their own internal investigation in 1998. If the CIA is willing implicate itself in even an inch, and they did implicate themselves in more than an inch, then it was probably involved in a mile.

baeyer: did you like clockers more than lush life? i couldnt really choose but i think that my judgement is effected by loving spike lee's take on clockers so much that i had a hard time acceptign the book on its own terms.

I loved Clockers because I'd just finished watching The Wire, and there are some distinct character similarities between the two. I've been meaning to see the film forvever. I also haven't read any more Price. Would like to grab another soon.

Just started some Hubert Selby Jnr. It's aight.

[NESK]

the clockers movie focuses on strike and takes serious liberties with the novel. it still fucking awesome though.

where can i read this gary webb stuff?

[Baeyer-Drewson]

Looks like it's back online after a hiatus;

http://www.narconews.com/darkalliance/drugs/start.htm

There are also several books discussing the consequential discoveries that occurred after Webb published this 3-part story.

Don't know how much of a drug politics fiend you are, but there is a great book called Smoke and Mirrors by Dan Baum. It is an academic history (with citations) of the how the current US drug policy came to be, and why it is inherently racist. I read it as a teen and remember being blown away by something most people never spend an entire minute thinking about. Why are some drugs illegal, and others aren't? It isn't public health, it isn't crime. It is partly money, but more importantly, it is cultural/racial.

[gramps]

If you're interested in the aspect of US intervention in the foreign state, William Blum's Killing Hope is a pretty comprehensive guide to everywhere the Americans have put their hands. Makes you want to paint the walls with your gray matter but an admirable book. Iran Contra is well covered.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

IMakes you want to paint the walls with your gray matter but an admirable book.

I actually laughed when I read this. Seriously tho, sounds good gramps, thanks for the heads up!

The next US intervention themed non-fiction I'll be reading is Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Starts with the Hawaiian monarchy all the way back in 1893 and shows how it has been business as usual ever since.

Regime change in almost two dozen countries over the course of 110 years? Brainsplosion!

[broneck]

For a class entitled "The History of Globalization", which apparently started in 13,000 BCE.

i'll save you all some time: Prologue = the whole book.

[broneck]

oh yeah, i'm now 200 pages deep in this

already amazing. I like the feeling of putting a puzzle together while I'm reading.

[i like turtles.]

kindle worth it?

[selbsttatig]

[domdomdomdom]

been reading the city and the city, it is good and interesting

[jl.1212]

So someone told me Alan Sillitoe died recently, might be interested in reading his work. Has anyone here read his stuff before?

[C0C0]

kindle worth it?

<3 nook

currently reading: