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Books Bernd 2025-09-06 17:26:54 No. 9215

Old one on AS: >>710 Read The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Gustave Flaubert. It's a weird book full of obscure Christian sects, Ancient Gods and mythic beasts. Didn't really enjoy the mix of prose and dramatic dialogue, but still an interesting book. It's also my first Flaubert and his vivid descriptions of the Ancient world already gave me a good impression of his prosaic skill. The story is also a nice allegory of the struggle of the modern world. I just wish I had read an edition with footnotes or something, because I didn't know 90% of the Christian heretics and deities mentioned. After that I read The Three Leaps of Wang Lun by Alfred Döblin and man, I did have a hard time getting through it. Terrible prose, Döblin has a completely jarring style, weird sentence structure, he just makes up words or uses them in a wrong context, really not my taste. I have to say that some scenes in this are pretty good, especially the mass scenes of religious ecstasy and gory battle, but overall I found the plot rather lacking and couldn't quite understand the actions of the characters. I wish it had featured more Taoism instead of political revolt and intrigue. I think I will keep away from Döblin for now. >>8934 Very nice. I also think the actual pilgrimage and the pilgrim's stories, the characters he meets etc. are the highlight of this book. It's also a helpful introduction to the Jesus prayer and sometimes I resort to it, but I haven't mastered it like the pilgrim has. I also liked that it has a pretty clear guide how to read the NT regarding prayer.

Bernd 2025-09-07 02:34:52 No. 9257

>>9215 Interesting, I didn't know Flaubert wrote anything in the general direction of religious philosophy. This will be an interesting read. >It's also my first Flaubert and his vivid descriptions of the Ancient world already gave me a good impression of his prosaic skill. Oh yeah, he's amazing with this. I absolutely fell in love with Salammbo upon reading it, I wish there were more books written in this enchanting style. It almost felt like I'm a little child again, falling asleep to my grandmother reading me fairy tales. >Very nice. I also think the actual pilgrimage and the pilgrim's stories, the characters he meets etc. are the highlight of this book. It also came with this strip, and the pricing is still in marks, lol. I think I get what you've meant by saying that it feels as if Tolstoy wrote it, because Tolstoy was able to reproduce with great skill this very open, almost naive, inornate and down to earth type of speech and life among the Orthodox peasantry. It especially reminded me of his short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" Speaking of Tolstoy, I definitely recommend his novella "The Death of Ivan Ilyich". It's principle Russian literature and a superlative work on spirituality. Tolstoy is unparalleled in creating a thousand-page long windows into a wholeheartedly living worlds, but what he achieves in this one with just a hundred pages is just astonishing. It's an absolutely unforgettable masterpiece.

Bernd 2025-09-07 11:55:39 No. 9305

>>9257 >Salammbo That's on my to read list as well. But I think the next Flaubert novel I'll read will be Bouvard et Pécuchet, because I like to read about books. >"The Death of Ivan Ilyich" I read that recently and it really stayed with me afterwards. An evocative experience. I might reread it soon as well as The Kreutzer sonate, which made an equally strong impression on me.

Bernd 2025-09-07 18:33:08 No. 9367

>>7378 >His translation and compilation of the Four Gospels is incredible. Is there a German print edition of this besides that weird self published Tolstoi Friedensbibliothek edition?

Bernd 2025-09-08 02:03:28 No. 9390

>>9367 I genuinely don't know, Bernd. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.21775

Bernd 2025-09-09 18:32:05 No. 9546

Holy mother of God, this is one of the best books I’ve ever read on par with something like Anna Karenina. I have never read anything like it, great great stuff. It has humor, has a Bernd tier protagonist, has a lot of feels (and what kind of feels they are!), incredible descriptions of love, just terrific.

Bernd 2025-09-10 17:03:51 No. 9675

New library batch just dropped. So expect some posting about Russian books in the next few weeks.

Bernd 2025-09-10 17:06:52 No. 9677

>>9675 Who is that Solow jew and why did he write so much?

Bernd 2025-09-10 17:10:42 No. 9680

>>9677 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Solovyov_(philosopher) Half of that book are footnotes by the publisher. Bernd recommended me his Three Encounters, which are included in this book.

Bernd 2025-09-11 12:57:36 No. 9841

>>9546 Oblomov is the most Bernd book in existence, the FEELS are going off the charts. I find it quite ironic that after all the happenings of the last 200 years, all the political turmoil, war, deaths and rebirths of all kinds of ideologies, philosophical concepts and societal structural changes going upside down and back again -- after all of this Oblomov-like perception of life and being is once again becoming a widespread phenomenon, and on the global scale at that. The wiki suggests that >Goncharov himself thought of Oblomov more as a treatise on human nature than as commentary on Russian society and the modern society is proving that he was prophetically right to think of it as such.

Bernd 2025-09-11 13:09:34 No. 9842

>>9841 >after all of this Oblomov-like perception of life and being is once again becoming a widespread phenomenon, and on the global scale at that. I think both Oblomov's and Stolz's lives weren't ideal. Stolz is a proponent of the vita activa, which is a great cancer of the modern world. People have lost the capacity to contemplate (vita contemplativa), they always have to do something, work or whatever, they can't just be, look at themselves and the world, meditate. Oblomov was closer to the contemplative life than Stolz or Olga.

Bernd 2025-09-11 13:10:07 No. 9843

A Bernd recommended this one in the last thread, so I got me a nice hardcover. Will read it on weekend at a local if the weather is nice. Looks pretty cool and interesting. >>9675 That's an impressive stack, I wish you good luck and lots of enjoyment, Bernd. You might also want to try this one, it's also kind of a Bernd book, I think the best I can describe it is that meme "and afterwards the whole room was diagnosed with assburgers", because Tschatzkij is legit picrel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woe_from_Wit

Bernd 2025-09-11 15:51:52 No. 9913

>>9546 >>9841 yeah, Oblomov is a great book >sorry, I won't shake your hand cause you're from the outside cold just this one is already genius

Bernd 2025-09-11 17:11:37 No. 9930

Anyone a fan of this book? It basically taught me polish notation (not important) and how to properly write and abstract functions (very important). In bookshops it costs like 80 Euro eventho its free on the internet. I will never forget how I solved 8 queens by myself after doing all the exercises, learning about the fermat primality test etc. Best book imo.

Bernd 2025-09-11 17:28:50 No. 9932

>>9930 >8 queens God, I hate mathematicians. They always make the most trivial physical world concepts into the most convoluted abstract mess. The closest position two queens can be without threatening each other is at knight's turn. There, just place them on the board between the gaps. But nooo, we have to invent a function for everything, as if the whole maths is not just an imaginary philosophical concept that's barely related to the actual physical world.

Bernd 2025-09-11 17:37:32 No. 9936

>>9932 There was also n queen where u had to write a function for n queens in an n x n sized board. And it demanded all possibilities, not just 1.

Bernd 2025-09-13 11:57:13 No. 10195

>>9843 Do you never read ebooks?

Bernd 2025-09-14 03:03:47 No. 10270

>>10195 Never. I do not have the device, and I mostly prefer autiobooks because it fills my blue-collar job with some intellectual growth. If I can buy a harcover I would opt for that, rather than just a media file on a special device.

Bernd 2025-09-14 05:58:40 No. 10276

>>9932 >make the most trivial physical world concepts into the most convoluted abstract mess come on, the part of mathematics that you're talking about is just representing ideas with symbols with some effort and experience you can see the real-world idea represented by a formula

Bernd 2025-09-14 06:38:04 No. 10284

>>10276 >the part of mathematics that you're talking about is just representing ideas with symbols My issue is not with the concept of mathematics itself, but with how in rejection of Aristotle they try to apply his logic to the physical world. Mathematics is a platonic realm of ideals, but mathematicians keep pretending like it's anything more than a philosophical concept. They will argue furiously about the properties of all kinds of absolutely imaginary things like "real numbers", or "arithmetic density of infinity", pretending like there's some actual physical confirmation to it.

Bernd 2025-09-14 06:52:10 No. 10286

>>10284 >platonic realm of ideals but aren't platonic ideas related to the real world? I mean as I get it, yeah it's metaphysics, so it's beyond the real world, but at the same time the concept or idea of, say an axe, is related to all the axes >real numbers well, real world has proved once and again that you can find even more infinitesimally small particles than previously known anyway, isn't abstract thinking combined with empirical confirmation that leads to the best advances? any serious scientific paper nowadays goes with theoretical foundations first and empirical corroboration attempts second

Bernd 2025-09-14 07:05:51 No. 10287

>>10286 >but aren't platonic ideas related to the real world? No, I think you misunderstand it. Within the platonic perception, the ideas are the only real thing, and the physical world is nothing but an inadequate reflection of them. So by Plato, there does exist a perfect circle, and all circles in the whole existence are nothing but shadows of this perfect ideal one. >well, real world has proved once and again that you can find even more infinitesimally small particles than previously known Except the space is quantified in Planck's units. The whole idea of atom, the "a-tom" in Greek, "the indivisible" I mean, not the actual object we call an atom, stands in defiance of the very structural concept of mathematics. But the reality is that the physical world does not operate in infinities. There simply does not exist such a thing as a dimension-less dot.

Bernd 2025-09-14 07:08:12 No. 10288

>>10286 >anyway, isn't abstract thinking combined with empirical confirmation that leads to the best advances? And again, I do not have any strife with mathematics as a concept. Just with mathematicians who fanatically insist on applying their imaginary rules to the actual physical world. There's a very definite reason why Aristotle thought that poetry, and not logic, is fit for describing the physical realm.

Bernd 2025-09-14 07:20:52 No. 10289

>>10287 >the ideas are the only real thing, and the physical world is nothing but an inadequate reflection of the sure, but that the same thing as I say, just from another angle: the idea is the perfect actual thing, but in the 'real world' (as we or an average human see it) it's represented in the 'real objects' >the physical world does not operate in infinities first, they have discretionary math, so you should give them that but also, if I recall correctly, in differential calculus they use a very practical approach saying that differential is a 'change so infinitesimal that you disregard it's actual size'. so you actually don't have to come with a number for it. >>10288 >fanatically insist on applying their imaginary rules to the actual physical world come on, that what people like politicians and military leaders require them to do. to produce weapons and other goods.

Bernd 2025-09-14 08:43:24 No. 10297

>>10270 I started reading The Crisis of the Modern World by Rene Guenon. Do you know similar books that provide a concise analysis of the ills of the modern world?

Bernd 2025-09-14 09:11:21 No. 10299

>>10297 Well, Guenon is quite unique: in the time he wrote, in the metaphysical nature of his critique, and most importantly in the accessible language he uses to describe his philosophy in this book in particular. I'd struggle to find an equivalent, honestly, because The Crisis of the Modern World is simply that outstanding. I'd encourage you to read Dugin, as, while but a follower and a secondary to Guenon, he very much develops upon the quintessential themes that Guenon touches. For me, his The Fourth Political Theory definitely feels like a continuation and development of The Crisis of the Modern World. There's probably more books on this topic of the metaphysical rejection of the Modernity from the point of view of traditionalism, but I'm unfortunately not that well read, as I only developed a taste for philosophy a couple years ago. I also heard that Guenon's The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times is a brilliant work, but I did not read it yet myself.

Bernd 2025-09-14 09:43:27 No. 10302

>>10299 Dugin is overtly political rather than metaphysical, if I understand you correctly? So he is more similar to someone like Evola than Guenon, right? I’m not only looking for explicitly traditionalist books on the modern world, any critique from a religious standpoint against it would be interesting to me.

Bernd 2025-09-18 17:51:17 No. 11046

>>9843 >created world as evil, with redemption only for the souls of the elect You should read about the synthesis of Plato and Augustine, how their views are expressed in modern catholicism and calvinism. >He also maintained (or so his enemies said) that the crucifixion was a trick, for Jesus had replaced himself with a look-alike before ascending into heaven. Lol at outright islam before islam

Bernd 2025-09-24 17:45:29 No. 12396

>>9257 Does your edition in the pic contain any ads for other books from the publisher at the back of the book or recommended reading? If so, could you please post them.

Bernd 2025-09-24 18:18:17 No. 12400

>>12396 Here you go, Bernd.

Bernd 2025-09-25 16:27:34 No. 12519

>>12400 Thanks. >Der Aufstieg zu Gott Damn, this one seems to be ultra rare. There aren't any affordable second hand copies available.

Bernd 2025-09-26 11:22:46 No. 12661

Can a nice Bernd please download this for me and share it in this thread? AA is throttling me terribly and the downloads always fail after some minutes. https://annas-archive.org/md5/e262df138fe0e9b57f9b3f19e93a3004

Bernd 2025-09-26 11:32:00 No. 12662

>>12661

Bernd 2025-09-26 11:34:53 No. 12663

>>12662

Bernd 2025-10-04 18:39:09 No. 14146

Just have finished Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. mixed feelings. overall, would go with 6/10. major takeaways for me: - good book, but a hundred years' old sci-fi setting gets bleak today - interesting perception of the future-to-come, must've blew minds when it came out in 1930s - and again Shakespeare? really? - 'god is a drawer' is a nice one after Nietzche's 'god is dead' - as with several 20th century novels, my experience was a decent beginning, muddling through the middle, and powerful ending (another prominent example would be Catch-22) - to me it wasn't the very ending but the debate of the protagonist with the head villain near the end - wtf, now? I was promised flying cars a century ago - where are they?

Bernd 2025-10-05 07:38:29 No. 14191

>>14146 Have you also read 1984? If so, which dystopian scenario is more likely/accurate for our world in your opinion? Neil Postman argued in Amusing Ourselves to Death in favor of Huxley‘s vision.

Bernd 2025-10-05 07:41:26 No. 14193

>>14191 Add to that Fahrenheit 451. Bernd read all of these when he was in high school. When dystopias was the topic in his curriculum, Bernd's teacher decided for A Clockwork Orange. That was quite horrorshow as well, but the language was pretty distracting.

Bernd 2025-10-05 08:59:57 No. 14213

SÄGE!

>>14191 >Neil Postman argued in Amusing Ourselves to Death in favor of Huxley‘s vision. I don't think it's that clear, because we are seeing elements of both, just that the total surveillance of the big brother and the doublethink are not "forced" in the sense of a communist autocracy, but slowly introduced and championed by brave new people, so we basically get the worst of both.

Bernd 2025-10-05 12:16:41 No. 14257

Finally finished pic rel yesterday. It was a bit too biographical for me (especially the first part) [by that I mean too much focused on events in his life and not enough on his spiritual journey, it gets better to the end though] and the writing style was in parts too high brow for me, but overall I enjoyed it and am glad I read it, I benefited from Merton's vigor and enthusiasm he expresses in this book.

Bernd 2025-10-05 14:31:10 No. 14290

>>14191 >>14193 >1984 right next on my list. haven't read it yet cause was delaying to read it in English, and only recently finally got my Kindle. already downloaded. >Neil Postman argued in Amusing Ourselves to Death noted. looked it up in wiki. maybe will give it a try next year. >Fahrenheit 451 also read it as a teen. a nice one, but seems less brutal conceptually than 1984 or Brave New World >A Clockwork Orange great book but I wouldn't call it dystopian per se. I mean yeah, Soviets conquering the free world and imposing their world view, so those Russian words. but in general it's more about 'those youngsters' akin to Irvine Welsh or William Burroughs.

Bernd 2025-10-05 14:36:56 No. 14291

>>14290 >right next on my list I found it rather mediocre, have you read pic rel? It has similar vibes, but is a much better story in itself in my opinion.

Bernd 2025-10-05 14:41:56 No. 14292

>>14291 haven't read it - I'm kinda tired of Russian literature now only read the new ones but yeah, it's a well-known book next year I plan to go into Scandinavian dramaturgy like Ibsen and such as it is a huge gap in my intellectual repository

Bernd 2025-10-08 19:18:27 No. 14825

>>9546 Did this germanophilic book scratch your national pride? :D I've read your post yesterday evening and last night saw a dream about Goncharov's house where I've been to. >>9677 A philosopher, overhyped pseud tbh >>9841 >>Goncharov himself thought of Oblomov more as a treatise on human nature than as commentary on Russian society Society back then was very politicized, some people saw everything as a contemporary critique. This interpretation became dominant after the revolution. http://samisdat.com/3/311-042.htm

Bernd 2025-10-08 20:01:15 No. 14830

>>14825 I don’t think the key to happiness lies in Stolz‘s active lifestyle

Bernd 2025-10-08 20:09:42 No. 14832

>>9215 Its the kind of stuff German boomers pretend to read while drinking wine in an attempt to fuck some lonely insecure teacher milf.

Bernd 2025-10-09 07:50:10 No. 14872

>>9930 I heard about this book a lot, wanted to start it, but never did. As I remember, it tells about programming in a very peculiar unorthodox way (at least it's not assembler as with Knuth) In general, I've never read classic textbooks, except for several chapters in Cormen. Maybe one day... >>14832 >some lonely insecure teacher milf HOT!

Bernd 2025-10-09 15:18:50 No. 14905

>>14872 You should definitely read it. It’s more valuable than the books you posted, except maybe TAOCP, which I consider equally good. The Dragon Book in particular is based on an outdated, academic model that assumes a computer linguist mindset about how compilers should work. Lua for example compiles tokens directly into bytecode, skipping many intermediate steps the Dragon Book insists on. Trying to fit Lua’s approach into that model is practically impossible. It also dedicates entire chapters on parser generators and the chomsky hierarchy but guess what? Nobody cares about that shit anymore. Everyone is handwriting their parsers for speed and language flexibility. Plus, no mentions of SSA, SIMD or JIT optimization. Unless you want to LARP as a 1970s computer scientist you're just wasting your time.

Bernd 2025-10-09 20:19:37 No. 14972

>>14905 > except maybe TAOCP, which I consider equally good > Unless you want to LARP as a 1970s computer scientist you're just wasting your time. OK, maybe TAOCP is just a meme, I will assume that you're joking. But what would you recommend instead of the Dragon book? Also, opinion about SRE and Boar books?

Bernd 2025-10-09 20:25:08 No. 14973

>>14972 The second one was recommended to me by a friend who listened to the audiobook. I couldn't find the audiobook though.

Bernd 2025-10-13 09:46:53 No. 15710

so Hungary wins a Nobel prize in literature have you read any of this guy's books?

Bernd 2025-10-13 10:13:01 No. 15714

>>15710 I wanted to, but I'm not a fan of contemporary literature, so I dropped the plans.

Bernd 2025-10-13 11:15:19 No. 15732

>>14872

Bernd 2025-10-13 11:18:02 No. 15734

>>15710

Bernd 2025-10-17 09:46:47 No. 16327

>>15710 Why would anyone care about this circlejerk? Do you like their selection of books? >>15732 Thanks

Bernd 2025-10-18 10:44:55 No. 16511

I downloaded a new book. I'll tell you in half a year how I liked it.

Bernd 2025-10-18 10:50:04 No. 16512

>>16511 So did you ever finish that Stefan Zweig book or was that a different Swiss

Bernd 2025-10-18 11:03:33 No. 16513

>>16512 I got stuck in the Goethe story which I found dull and boring. Maybe I should just skip it and then I can finish it.

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