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![[Image: 48385087.JPG]](http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/48380000/48385087.JPG)
Been sitting on my shelf for a number of years. Big fan of Doctorow's best known work of Ragtime so I looked forward to this. Saw the movie years ago and wasn't too impressed, so that may be why I put the book off. As usual, the book is much better than the movie. Gangsters in the 30's is what it's about, focusing on the rise of Billy into that world, first as a go-fer and moving up in the ranks. Taken under his wing by lead mobster Dutch and shown the ropes. Billy is a quick study and soon takes Dutch's woman also. Of course the empire eventually crumbles. Movie starred Dustin Hoffman and Nicole Kidman so it couldn't have been that bad. Might have to catch it again, on the little screen.
Grade - B
next up - 1973 Nervous Breakdown by Andreas Killen
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![[Image: 15862375.JPG]](http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/15860000/15862375.JPG)
Subtitle of this is Watergate, Warhol, And The Birth of Post-Sixties America. Whatever! I guess the point is, a lot of events occurred in the year 1973, that changed America. I think you could pick any year in that era and say the same thing. Anyway, this book chronicles those news events that the author deems worthy. The most dramatic would be the unfolding of Watergate, and the later resignation of the President. Then the trivail stuff such as Warhol is covered. Interesting read, having grown up in that period, so I could easily recall my own perspective at the time. Not very well written though.
Grade - C
next up - Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
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My palm - boy am I in deep sh*t ........
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![[Image: taylor-voyage-large.jpg]](http://blog.friendsofdarwin.com/media/2009/taylor-voyage-large.jpg)
My copy doesn't have the same cover. Chronicle of Darwin's zoological grand tour.
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Iota Wrote:Food of the Gods
Good choice.
That psilocybin-catalyzed anthropogenesis theory he suggests is pretty interesting and well proven, too.
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23-08-2010, 16:54
(This post was last modified: 23-08-2010, 17:03 by trbc08.)
I used to listen to lots of McKenna's lectures, but I never got a chance to read one of his books. Will have to do that sometime. I'm reading Borges' "Ficciones." One of my favorite books, as of now. Also reading Thomas Browne's "Religio Medici." It's a collection of baroque observations on theology, with little shades of Platonism here and there. Beautifully written, to be sure. It's one of those things, like Blake, that makes one wonder... One of agnostic disposition, anyway, etc.
EDIT: I wanted to add that I recently read an excellent "drug" book, "The Confessions of an Opium-Eater" by Thomas de Quincey
[URL="http://www.fictionpress.com/%7Edoriane"]
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The Field by Lynne McTaggart.
It's a look into quantum physics, sort of an updated version of The Holographic Universe.
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![[Image: 13705451.JPG]](http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/13700000/13705451.JPG)
This has been collecting dust on my various shelves for I don't know how many years. No excuse. Its maiden has been broken. I probably set it aside numerous times after reading the subject matter. Architects and writers. That's the only thing that exists in this world. Rather tedious at times, learning of the plans for the next skyscraper. This is set in the 1930's I believe, centered around two up and coming architects who are rivals throughout the book. Wouldn't be complete without a love interest to stir up the rivalry. Overall it is a little deeper than that, considering the legacy of Ms. Rand who lays out her Objectism philosophy throughout. A decent book but not even close to Atlas Shrugged.
Grade - B
next up - Defy The Darkness by Joe Rosenblum
