Worst books

[jslade]

"But the Amazon reviews aren't extremely informative either. No, sahib."



The secret to useful amazon reviews; find someone who is good at it and ignore everyone else. For example, NP's own Bachelier is pretty good:



http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A3CKPNSGA7JOLK/

[Rashomon]

As is NP's own Aaron Brown.

[pj]

Shantaram by Roberts.

"Based on true story" (My ass.)



There are 500 5 stars reviews and 50 one star reviews on Amazon.

Go figure.



SubHessian remake of some or another original book.

A cool ex-heroin addict finding an enlightenment at India

within 900 pages of bad prose.



Avoid. Even if you are stuck in a desert plane with no other book.

Better read safety instructions.



Disclaimer: Hermann Hesse is a great writer.

[pj]

This year winner is The Truth by Neil Strauss.



An Odyssey of a guy who wanted to work out

how to be faithful to his Ingrid (This one?)

[img]/User%20Files/126/Inga.jpg[/img]

( New Frankeistein 1974)

I was skimming over sort of hot excerpts about orgies in Paris.

(Hi, Nonius!)

so decided to try the whole shit.

Naw, avoid.



Some nice one liners, like this one



> Then again, no matter what your point of view may be, you can

> always find someone with a Ph.D to support it



most probably stolen.

That's it.



I doubt it's veracity, I disliked its characters. I learned nothing.

And, yes, he comes back to his Solveig.



It's funny how there are definite circles of celebrities hanging

(and jerking) together, and often, you like the guy (say, Sam Harris)

you like the guys he likes (Christopher Hitchens and so on).



Being naturally curious, I started widening the net, and got

interested in Tim Ferriss (do not read his books!) and the gang he interviews

(like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Adam Scott),

but the rest of his gang as a whole sucks.

They just promote each other and themselves (Mutual Admiration Society.)



Neil is just one of these fakers. The fucker.





I do have a winner for the other category.

But haven't finished it yet.

[pj]

The Dice man by Rhinefart.



You have got everything in it. Sex, drugs, and psychoanalysis.



The premise, the protagonist (psychoanalyst) decides to spice

up his life by introducing the randomness by throwing (up) the

dice. And so it goes. Cliché after cliché after cliché...

I was interested whether it will work out into some twist.

No. Never.

Only if when writing the book the author were using the dice himself,

it might have salvaged something.



By the way, if you haven't read the short story by Borges,

"Lottery of Babylon."

I implore you to do it [url=/User%20Files/126/lotteryofbabylon.pdf]now.[/url]

[Dizzy]

pj: I haven't read the book, but at least it is said to have inspired some decent 80s music, if nothing else. Smiley



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT3I_dlnNHE

[polysena]

Ah pj I disagree with you on the Dice man, which I found interesting as a thought experiment.. pushes serendipity to its extreme. I have heard that the author has lived his life by these standards and even created something like a "group" of followers. Read the article telegraph on George Cockcroft

" But now The Dice Man is selling more copies than ever before. "Yes, and it is in print in more countries now. It is very strange. But it is still a cult book and not a best-selling book. It sells enough to make the publishers happy.""



By the way I had read Borges before and liked very much.

And agreed pj at times the book is a bit boring or.. but still fascinating about "surrending to the power of fate in an absolute"...

"Does he still consult the dice?



"At my age I am too stuck in the mud to use it for what young people should and do use it for. On the other hand, in theory, I have liberated myself . . . and there is not much left to discover." "







Poly

[pj]

Dean Radin's Supernormal.



Who doesn't want to believe (for youngsters it is X-Files reference.)

I do. So I plunged in there.



Somehow, I was reminded of

quip by Henri Broch about the diminishing of psi powers

in history. We had moving Easter Island statues,

then chairs, then bending spoons, and now we try to see

the results in the quantum level.



Exact!

Here Dean presents the single photon quantum entanglement experiments.

Which were analyzed unmercifully in here.



My two cents. The quantum entanglement

phenomenon does not require

a living consciousness!

A device can be used just as successfully, you, moron. Angry



Further on the author argues that since there are zillions of recorded paranormal phenomena

(UFOs, crop circles (!) etc.) there must be something in that.

Yeah, since are thousands of three dollar bills circulating

around, some of them should be acceptable in Wall Mart.



Aslo some intriguing anecdotes. Which are, as he stresses himself, anecdotes.



What bugged me most was a bait-n-switch technique.

For example he talks about levitation and then he presents the meta-analysis for the

feeling of being stared at. What?



As the aforementioned reviewer said, if he weren't reaching

for

the stars, maybe there would be some genuine dollar bills lying around.



Finally, my conclusions were:

If the book has an endorsement by Deepak Chopra, avoid.





Previously a part of my rant has been eaten by Cthulhu (or a Phat Phinger Monster.)

[pj]

Change agent by David Suarez.

So called BioPunk classics (of 2017)

Wooden characters, linear plot (with one(!) twist.),

totally misunderstood CRISPER technology

and the changes that it would have be bringing

(not sure what tense to use, maybe

Future Semiconditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional?).



Nothing thought through. Like at the start he is talking

about a arch-secret technology used only by one arch-villain,

and a short time after (at the end of the book) it is

used by various sheiks to model their slaves

into Brad Pitts and Scarlet Johanssons (in 2044 !).

So either the technology is breathtakingly fast, and Hollywood

is breathtakingly conservative, or it is one more of the

numerous holes in the plot.



BioPunk, my ass...

I can write better, after thinking the things over more

carefully though.



Yes, SciFi is in deep crisis.

[pj]

Jordan Peterson 12 rules for life.

I plodded through the first four of them:



1) stiff upper lip

2) masturbate

3) never help strangers

4) masturbate in front of the mirror



Deepak Chopra has no chance against this ultimate deepity producer.

Like

"Man is order, woman is chaos" (tell it to my wife when she makes me

put my socks in order.)



I liked a bit about lobsters (didn't dare to check the sources though.)

But the eminent author totally screwed up about chimpanzees

(apparently read the wrong article from his wife's OhLaLa magazine.)



Avoid.

Utter tosh.