Placed a hold on The Parade at my library, should be able to pick that up this week. 

Is anyone still reading Humandkind? I skipped this month as I've read it already, got to finish Dorohedoro.

I have read it.

I think it has some issues, but it should be an important book for a lot of people.

Who else read Humankind? I'm wondering if it's worth posting thoughts.

Yes please post your thoughts JonB.

Give me more ammo about this book so I can convince B to read it.

The Parade is Eggers best fiction in a fucking age. Top stuff and I hope you all enjoy.

As an aside I'm doubling my Hades overload by reading Stephen Fry's "Mythos". His 'Fry-ism' footnotes can read a bit tryhard / wannabe Pratchett but the actual prose is neat and tight and reminds me of Gaiman's Norse Mythos.

The Daddy wrote:

I did the audiobook of that earlier in the year. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

He navigates the murkiness of Chaos and Titans very nimbly.

I think Humankind is important as an antidote to a common ideological trope about human nature. It's such a 'common sense' argument that humans are by nature selfish, greedy and violent that it's good to see a case for the opposite put forward like this in a fairly mainstream book.

We have been taught to think a certain way that makes positive change in society seem impossible. Everything we might try is supposedly doomed to failure from the start because... human nature. So we're supposed to accept that even though things are pretty shit under capitalism, it's a system that makes the most of human nature and works because of it rather than against it.

Humankind shows how easy it is to dismantle that argument and how rarely people are willing to try. I don't think it has to be 100% convincing that human nature is the exact opposite. It has to show that human nature is far more complex than we're traditionally led to believe. And I think it succeeds, with a good range of case studies.

However, I wasn't so keen on the book's conclusions. The final part when he recommends different ways we could live our lives and treat others feels like something of a cop out, because it doesn't take into account some of the stuff he's said earlier about how people are influenced.

It would be easy to take away from the book that while people aren't naturally bad, they're easily led astray by anyone who has power. But in that case, positive change requires us to understand that the people in power in individualistic societies really are selfish and greedy, for whatever reason, and have to be actively resisted if their influence is to be challenged.

We can't overcome social division simply by building bridges, when powerful people and those they influence are working to knock them down. I don't think the book makes that point strongly enough.

Sorry I missed the boat on my own pick (Before the coffee gets cold).

I really thought it was going to be good. Its heart was in the right place (sentimentality, meaningful lessons to be learned from a life time of missed opportunities) but it just rang - klang dong - hollow.

The stucture was very stilted and very confusing. Maybe that belies the origin of the story as a play which would otherwise be carried by the actors. Maybe it is the translation which could be very literal, or the story may not have much wiggle room to be reinterpreted in the style an english reader might expect.

Haven't had a chance to read this month's yet, but I've just bought it.

acemuzzy wrote:

Fair summary

I have finished The Parade. I didn't read (much of) Humankind, but might read the rest at some point. Do we know what's next or is it back round to my choice??

No one else has piped up yet so you can choose a book for next month if you like.

The Great Train Robbery is the only one available at my local library, most of the others are either checked out or in a different location, and I'm not sure if they're transferring books between locations again.

But I have still things to read, so I'm ok with being out for a month. Halfway through From Russia with Blood, and then I have The Parade to get through as well.

acemuzzy wrote:

Okey doke.   I'm weighing up suggesting... - Raymond Carver - Will You Please Be Quiet - Graham Greene - The Human Factor - Michael Crichton - The Great Train Robbery - Penelope Lively - Beyond the Blue Mountains - Laurent Binet - HhhH - Jose Sarango - Blindness Any wishes within that lot from folk?  They're all staring at me unread from my bookshelf...

That’s a fair fucking list, some real doozies in there. Good play man.

It’s all yours, Stoph.

And done.  Hmm.