Must-not read books

[storm]

I most regret reading novels which were supposed to be nonfiction but which I only learned later only loosely based on real events.

For example: the jungle, all quiet on the western front, the grapes of wrath, crime and punishment.

To be fair almost all of these sorts of things were required reading in English class and I had little choice in the matter.

 

[Chris Brown]

Fat Tuesday by Sandra Brown. Same goes for most bubble gum fiction.

 

[Matrixdude]

Models: Mark Manson

I dont understand this book. It doesn't adequately explain its premise, in practical terms. It assumes men lie and are dishonest to women when we try to pick them up. I couldn't find any clear advice. I liked his most recent book about not giving a fuck, but this book was bunk.

To me it was about being genuine with your interactions. It encourages direct approach and a ton of philosophy from No More Mr. Nice Guy by Robert A. Glover.

I found a ton of value in Models, I even gifted it to a friend (although I don't think he read it since he never mentioned it).

I say it's a great book for beginners, an intro to game.

 

[LeesaJohnson]

I never read such book that no one should read.

 

[loremipsum]

Models: Mark Manson

I dont understand this book. It doesn't adequately explain its premise, in practical terms. It assumes men lie and are dishonest to women when we try to pick them up. I couldn't find any clear advice. I liked his most recent book about not giving a fuck, but this book was bunk.

To me it was about being genuine with your interactions. It encourages direct approach and a ton of philosophy from No More Mr. Nice Guy by Robert A. Glover.

I found a ton of value in Models, I even gifted it to a friend (although I don't think he read it since he never mentioned it).

I say it's a great book for beginners, an intro to game.

I agree. It's a really well written book and will be held in high regard for years to come. Actually it's probably one of the few books in addition to NMMNG that will get "Redpill" principles to mainstream in an acceptable way, such as "always be willing to walk away, be physical until you hear straight no, you don't owe anything anyone, be dominant" etc. Not to mention it's not afraid to point out that women aren't perfect either.

That being said, when it comes to pickup it boils (in my opinion) down to whether you want to meet good, honest girls or bitches. Back in the day Mark actually said himself that Heartiste's PUA material is great for someone who does not care about breaking ethics and just wants to have sloppy one night stands.
Vulnerability is not the most effective thing in clubs since most girls who go there are shallow and could not care less about your vulnerability but your game and looks. Outside of that, vulnerability is great for finding compatible people and shouldn't be considered "beta".

 

[Alsos]

"Myths of the Norsemen" by Helene Guerber.

Picked it up at B&N cheap - it's one of those reprints they do of public-domain works.

The structure of it is quite strange. You get one or two paragraphs of text punctuated by a snippet of poorly-translated poetry from one of the source materials or (more often than not) ultra-cheesy verse from English poets of the Victorian/English Romantic/Medievalist period of the mid-1800s (whatever the term is - the William Morris and Matthew Arnold types). The text is little better. Each chapter focuses on a particular god or goddess or mythological entity/concept (like Yggdrasil, Fenris, or Ragnarok), and gives a cursory description of its subject before swerving off into seemingly random anecdotes that shed little if any light. The breezy and shallow tone of her writing makes the mythology seem utterly absurd and twee, without (I'm assuming) intending to do so - imagine if instead of mockery, South Park's Scientology episode had been the result of innocently and sincerely presenting the material even-handedly to a popular audience.

It's impossible to read this work and comprehend how anyone could have taken any of it seriously. The only good element of it is that she does explain some of the mythological symbolism - but even there it sucks because every god and goddess seems to be a symbol or allegory for the same changing seasons. There's no depth to the analysis, leaving most of the anecdotes and descriptions only half-comprehensible at best, e.g.: "Odin wanted wisdom, but he had to trade something to get it, so he gave up his eye", or "the gods decided the wolf Fenris was dangerous for some reason, so they cruelly bound him in chains and shoved a sword in his mouth and walked away". It's like someone explaining Christianity as "Jesus did some miracles and then the Romans killed him. But only for three days."

It's plainly the work of an amateur, or something that would have been written for the women's-interest magazines of the time. As irritating as I find scholarly works from that same period (especially translations of classical literature that slavishly hew to the grammar of the original), I can't see one of those Greek/Latin-fetishizing scholars producing such a half-assed work as this.

 

[GlobalMan]

I recently came across this book which I somehow acquired many many years ago. I don't know what I was thinking at the time- it is garbage to the core.

 

[Hermetic Seal]

American Nations by Colin Woodward.

The first 2/3 or so of the book is pretty interesting. Woodward's hypothesis has some flaws but it's an engaging interpretation of American history. But in the last third, he brushes over most of the 20th century, ignores huge impact of immigration on the American Nations, and writes from a blatantly biased leftist Yankee perspective while demonizing and dismissing virtually everyone south of the Mason-Dixon Line by characterizing the interests of the antebellum oligarchist slave-owners as representative of all modern-day southerners. He skims over the western states and mischaracterizes them, and generally does a lousy job of applying his hypothesis post-Civil War. Read Albion's Seed (a much better and less-biased book with a similar theme) instead.

 

[monster]

I recently came across this book which I somehow acquired many many years ago. I don't know what I was thinking at the time- it is garbage to the core.

Nah, I love ol Artie. Schopenhauer is great stuff!

Never heard of that book tho - is it anecdotes from Will & Representation?

 

[samifon]

The Crash of 2016 by Thom Hartmann

Terrible analysis of America's financial problems by a socialist.

 

[Dragan]

"What Happened" by Hillary Clinton. I don't know why some publisher paid her millions to write this book. She blames everyone but herself for her loss.