The Trial by Franz Kafka. It's a shame this novel's unfinished, because it's very good even if it's not completely polished. Similar to Bleak House, it lambasts the court system pretty hilariously in a tragicomic sort of way, except it's much smaller in scope and more focused on the absurdity of it all.

The Trial is great. I love Kafka. In college, I took a Kafka-Poe-Baudelaire class and it was really fun. The instructor was a huge fan of The Great Wall of China by Kafka. My favorite is Metamorphosis, but I also really enjoyed the hunger artist.

Yeah, Kafka had me at the point when the court officers barge into K's room and let his subordinates from the bank eat his breakfast. Such great absurdity and episodes of self doubt. I've wanted to read Metamorphosis forever.

Another Bradbury Green Town book -- Dandelion Wine. Like Martian Chronicles, it's a reworked collection of short stories which act as vignettes of suburban life, except without the whole Mars thing. Particularly liked the Lonely One story. Bradbury's definitely one of a kind -- the weird tales combined with his purple prose. I wouldn't put this book in the same category as MC or Something Wicked -- and nowhere near 451 -- but it's got its own charms.

Also, I'm giving up on One Hundred Years of Solitude about 2/3rds of the way through. Just not interesting at all. So many characters with the same names reliving uninteresting acts over and over. I think I'd have more fun reading the Bible's begats.

I think I may only have given up on 2 books in my lifetime and that was one of them. I found it very tedious.

I listened to the audio book of this a couple months ago. Really enjoyed the initial 1/3 and the whole magical realism style then it just became really dull, confusing and repetitive. Managed to get to the end by just letting it wash over me while doing other stuff but the final 1/3 really dragged and I was relieved when it was over.

Just started 'The Last Lion' by William Manchester and Paul Reid. It's a biography ofWinston Churchill (the 3rd in a series) and covers the period 1940 - 1965. It's a fair old lump of a book but I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far.

Coincidences are always eerie. I just finished that book about 2 weeks ago. It was the best book I read for 2016. (I may have mentioned it in this thread, then again; I may not have). It is rather massive but never dull.

Any plans to check out the earlier books?

Mr. Chatterbox, Mr. Tall, Little Miss Bossy and Mr. Rush
I am still looking for Mr. Birthday

Reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss, who wrote all the "Four Hour" books. It's almost written like transposed notes from dozens of interviews among very successful people across a variety of fields and is separated into Health, Wealth, and Wisdom.

I'm into the wealth section and I find maybe 1 out of 3 three profiles to be useful. And most profiles are almost cliffs notes on some topic, it requires further investigation if you are really interested - though I've already adapted a few of the tools into my everyday routine.

any recs for 21st century philosophy books?

Yes. Don't know when yet (I haven't ordered the first two volumes - yet). But given that Churchill is one of the more interesting and influential characters that crossed the boarder of the 19th and 20th centuries, I anticipate a rewarding read.

I'm guessing that's bc it is basically notes taken from the interviews he has done on his podcast?

Read the paper by Searle on the Chinese room argument.
Maybe some Nick Bostrom.
David Chalmers.

Probably stating the obvious around here but 'Sapiens' By Yuval Noah Harari is amazing, and I'd recommend the audio book version as well.

This is correct, though he often interjects with insights learned from other sources/areas, and for a 700+ page book, makes it a relatively easy read.

A bit past the halfway point in Babylon's Ashes. I'm surprised how much I forgot from previous books (I read them a little over a year ago). I'm really enjoying the book. I love the series.

Thanks... have you ready anything by Andy Clark?

Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why it Matters. Her work on free will is also interesting.

Martha Nussbaum, Poetic Justice is probably her most interesting for this thread, in which she argues for reading high quality novels as a form of moral training.

Peter Singer's paper "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" is from the 1970s but has been influential in the very recent effective altruism movement.

It's hard to come up with sure-fire 21st century reads as good philosophy often takes decades or even centuries to be recognized as good.

I'm reading Robert Yates' Revolutionary Road, pretty great. Reminds me a little of my own marriage toward the end!

I've got Tools of Titans on hold at my local library. I hear that it isn't a cover-to-cover type of read, so I'll probably flip through it a bit and check it out a handful of times over the next year. I'm really looking forward to getting it in my hands though, as Ferriss is as big a pimp as there is on the planet.

I read Watership Down by Richard Adams. Awesome book, lots of fun. It's a very good story, and the rabbits make for great characters. It's got an AA Milne does Lord of the Rings feel to it. I especially liked the stories within the story, the bunny myths.

Recently watched the movie again online... it's such a great story and I love the characters and theres some great lines. "My chief rabbit has told me to defend this run."

Such a strange movie at the same time though, I have no idea who the target audience would have been.

Finished Babylon's Ashes, the sixth book in the Expanse series. It was awesome. I am looking forward to the rest of the series (apparently, three more books).

I liked Watership Down quite a bit, reread it at least once back in the day. Still own a paperback copy.