May I ask a question of the forum?
Why do most of us read books that in general affirm our conservative politics?I do too because it is humannature to want to know we aren’t alone in the world
But how many of us also read Leftist material?Chomsky,Cornel West,Rolling Stone,The Nation,etc?I do because I like intellectual stimulation of any kind.I remember a black friend of mine who read The Bell Curve a few years ago.When other blacks saw he was reading it they attacked him as an Uncle Tom even though none of THEM had ever read the book!
I notice whenever I am browsing through a liberal’s bookshelf,almost all his or her books are ones that support his views.Same with conservatives.I guess its more comfortable for most people to fall into that tendency.
I don’t know, I read for fun. It’s not a lot of fun to read stuff I don’t like. If it’s promoting a liberal agenda, I don’t like it.
I love this thread and am writing down books on my list that I keep in my wallet. I consult this list when I go to the library (for those complaining about the cost of whatever at Amazon, get thee to the library! Why spend all that money!)
I just borrowed The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer. I got it because Mailer just died and I had never read any of his books. I haven’t started it yet, so hopefully it’s good. Perhaps it has a liberal slant! I just read a couple by Truman Capote. He was no right winger.
Simple. Because life's too short to waste time reading crappy, moronic liberal books.
I have read enough of Chomsky (Imperial Ambitions) Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel) and most recently Rajiv Chandrasekaran (in a book given to my by my liberal mother-in-law, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone)to understand their point of view.
I simply do not have the bandwidth for that crap.
One of the basic qualities of liberalism that I really like is that they cannot hide or couch their beliefs and prejudices, no matter how careful or circumspect they try to be. It often comes out in the very first sentence of whatever they write.
If I add up all the time in my life I have saved (by trusting my instincts when reading and going no further once I know the point they are going to make) I am a rich man. I am occasionally (and, occasionally, embarrassingly) wrong, but I am right 95-100% of the time.
Ann Coulter is equally to the point in her conservative books (First two sentences in “Treason” which I have to paraphrase from memory: “Everyone says liberals love their country too. No they don’t.”) which also betrays her bias, but she has the advantage of being right, in my opinion.
I have read enough of Chomsky (Imperial Ambitions) Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel) and most recently Rajiv Chandrasekaran (in a book given to my by my liberal mother-in-law, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone)to understand their point of view.
I simply do not have the bandwidth for that crap.
One of the basic qualities of liberalism that I really like is that they cannot hide or couch their beliefs and prejudices, no matter how careful or circumspect they try to be. It often comes out in the very first sentence of whatever they write.
If I add up all the time in my life I have saved (by trusting my instincts when reading and going no further once I know the point they are going to make) I am a rich man. I am occasionally (and, occasionally, embarrassingly) wrong, but I am right 95-100% of the time.
Ann Coulter is equally to the point in her conservative books (First two sentences in “Treason” which I have to paraphrase from memory: “Everyone says liberals love their country too. No they don’t.”) which also betrays her bias, but she has the advantage of being right, in my opinion.
The only book I ever read that challenged my assumptions was Atlas Shrugged. It’s not that I haven’t read any other left leaning books but the assumptions they make are usually a.)Obvious and b.)Wrong.