Day 8:
(1/2
I guess, some of knew what was coming when I placed my comment on Day 7 regarding Day 6 (Pillars of the Earth). Well, here's the thing, I did like "La catedral del mar" (#CathedralOfTheSea) by #IldefonsoFalcones. It is about the uring the construction of a cathedral. But it is the lesser known Santa Maria del Mar, not the...
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Day 8
(2/3)
...#SagradaFamília of the Catalan #AntoniGaudí (to be completed in 2033.)
That wasn't the only disappointment. I had expected something like Pillars of the Earth, but architecture is pretty much absent and construction work is chiefly just a background story.
That said, as it was one of my first novels in...
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Day 8
Aaaaaaa
so good
I want to read that one...
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 9:
Let's start with the 1st digitized book.
I am sure you all agree that this book 📖, IF it had influenced all our lives decades earlier, the world 🌎 would be a better place.
Failed education. Humankind's calamity
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No doubt, this is one of the most influential books ever written.
I have never read it, though.
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(2/2)
#Fahrenheit 451, however, it is but one of the #SciFi #dystopias that seem to be becoming reality in many countries. Here are some:
For now, we're looking in awe at what is happening in the US, especially in the Bible Belt, but there is no room for complacency: If we don't push against it, we will get the same.
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#USpol #BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day11:
I have been looking with increasing dismay at the political situation in the #US: they are a #DemocracyInChains, a book by historian #NancyMcLean.
(To be fair, I'm cheating a bit here, as I've so far only read a detailed but excellent article on the book so far:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/112598602729129143
It is on the top of my reading list, though.)
@evelynefoerster @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @MaJ1 @mattotcha @2ndStar @energiepirat @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @GreenFire
It's on my bucket list, too.
Despite everything, the US is still by far the world's most important and most powerful country, so what happens there, concerns us all.
The author Annika Brockschmidt has also written excellent books about the fight of the Christian Right against US democracy.
I also love to listen to Leeja Miller, a US lawyer with a YouTube channel.
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As we were talking about it yesterday, this sums up the precarious #political situation in the US quite ftittingly:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/112644064233277399
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so SF authors are dangerous. Got it !
Actually, yes.
#SciFi authors are dangerous--for (would-be) totalitarian rulers like Putin or Trump, because they show what can (or has already) happened.
Oh, and sometimes the authors are a think-tank collective writing non-fiction, such as the #HeritageFoundation with the takeover agenda of #Project2025:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/111700111654540893
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One think that still eludes my poor brain is how books like 1984 or the matrix showed us dystopias that will all agreed upon were dystopias yet we kinda walked toward something not too different
This is a complete mystery. We have been warned over and over, and yet, we still go in full throttle!
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@HistoPol @evelynefoerster @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @MaJ1 @mattotcha @mina @2ndStar @energiepirat @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @GreenFire
I sometimes feel we also are heading to a bit of idiocracy too
"Sometimes" is a lovely euphemism in that context.
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 12:
(1/6)
I just realized that this master piece in captivating #biographies was my first book about politics. The 4-volume saga was also the heaviest, LOL, with a total of over 3,000 pages.
I picked up this book at a mountain hotel, left their by a tourist...
#Bookwyrm
#20Days20Books (We'll see 😉)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Years_of_Lyndon_Johnson
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 12:
(2/n)
...and was utterly captivated by this book.
Lyndon B. Johnson, a #US president before my time, had initially seemed rather lackluster. Reading MASTER of the Senate,...
#Bookwyrm
#20Days20Books (We'll see 😉)
#USpol
#UShistory
#History
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 12:
(3/n)
...it became clear to me that he has been the political #SunTzu of the #US Senate. Initially not having the hard power for direly needed reform, #Johnson managed to transform the "upper chamber" representing the "states rights" into a masterpiece of...
#Bookwyrm
#20Days20Books (We'll see 😉)
#USpol
#UShistory
#History
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 12:
(4/n)
...knowledge and writing skills, I' love to write a book in the style of #AlternateHistory, where #LyndonBJohnson, a grandmaster of backroom deals and finding morning majorities, would clash with #HenryClay, #TheGreatCompromiser, and one...
#Bookwyrm
#20Days20Books (We'll see 😉)
#USpol
#UShistory
#History
@mina @Yorkshiregeek @evelynefoerster @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @MaJ1 @mattotcha @2ndStar @energiepirat @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @GreenFire
#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 12:
(5/n)
...of the "#GreatTriumvirate" or the "#ImmortalTrio" of [19th century #US] #congressional leaders, along with his colleagues #DanielWebster..." and #JonCCalhoun, the "cast-iron man" for his rigid defense of white #Southern...
#Bookwyrm
#20Days20Books (We'll see 😉)
#USpol
#UShistory
#History
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 12:
(6/6)
...beliefs and practices. His concept of republicanism emphasized proslavery thought..." 2)
That would be an epic battle! 🥰
Short of this, this book is also an excellent tutorial for anyone who plans to have a career in #politics. #MustRead
//
#Bookwyrm
#20Days20Books (We'll see 😉)
#USpol
#UShistory
#History
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PS:
I did mention that there were four books 📚 about #LyndonBJohnson, right? 😉
Book One: The Path to Power (1982)
Book Two: Means of Ascent (1990)
Book Three: Master of the Senate (2002)
Book Four: The Passage of Power (2012)
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
I wish my reading was as exciting
Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell one of my faves )
A Brief History of Time ( Stephen Hawking)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the trilogy of 5 books, not read the 6th yet) (Douglas Adams.)
Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk)
The Communist Manifesto (
Karl Marx)
and
The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins)
It IS as exciting!
Many of your books have already been highlighted by others on previous Days of #BooksThatInfluencedYou.
Welcome 🍺 🍺
@mina @evelynefoerster @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @MaJ1 @mattotcha @2ndStar @energiepirat @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @GreenFire
Being honest: I Have no idea of Lyndon B. Johnson, but what you write, seems like it's worth to look into these books.
@Yorkshiregeek @evelynefoerster @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @MaJ1 @mattotcha @2ndStar @energiepirat @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @GreenFire
I didn't know much about LBJ apart from that he was #VEEP when #JFK was assassinated:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lyndon-B-Johnson
...and that he did get a lot of #CivilRights legislation passed.
I now agree with his biographer, #Caro, that his achievement in reforming the #Senate make him an exemplary figure in #US #history.
Key events in his life:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lyndon-B-Johnson
@Yorkshiregeek @evelynefoerster @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @MaJ1 @mattotcha @2ndStar @energiepirat @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @GreenFire
Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th U.S. president, who championed civil rights and the ‘Great Society’ but unsuccessfully oversaw the Vietnam War. A moderate Democrat and vigorous leader in the Senate, he was elected vice president in 1960 and acceded to the presidency in 1963 upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 13:
Today, I'm recommending another book by #JamesClavel, #TaiPan.
It is the second book in #Clavel's fantastic #AsianSaga.
It describes the rivalry of two English merchant families + their rise 2 power against the well-researched background of the #OpiumWars + #Hongkong's early colonial history.
It 1st got me interested in 🇨🇳.
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 14:
(1/n)
As promised, today the book that you should read before you watch the movie. Otherwise, you'll feel somewhat lost at times watching it.
I'm referring to #FrankHerbert's #SciFi masterpiece of epic dimensions, the #Dune saga.
The books are more relevant than ever because #GlobalWarming is...
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 14:
(2/n)
...is turning the regions around the equator into a #desert planet, and there is no lack of autocrats and religious zealots.
In my opinion, one of the best #SciFi sagas ever, equal to #Asimov's #Foundation trilogy, maybe even surpassing it regarding complexity of characters, philosophies,...
#Bookwyrm
#20Days20Books
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 14:
(3/n)
...religion, technology, and ecology.
Must read for any #SciFi aficionado.
PS
#FrankHerbert died before the final volume of the saga*, "Chapterhouse: Dune" was finished. His son and a co-writer took on...
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#BooksThatInfluencedYou
Day 14: #Dune
(4/4)
...the task of finishing it in the original style, based on #FrankHerbert's extensive notes.
That went so well that they've written yet another 20 books, in particular the prequels. (Which I haven't read)*
*
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g38012512/dune-books-in-order/
//
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I can only second your statement "Read first, watch later!"
This is possibly my favourite #SciFi saga.
Besides all the important topics, Herbert touches, this is a true novel (series of novels) in the sense that we embark into a voyage into unknown waters, together with the story's characters.
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