OT: What are you reading?

Girl with a Dragon Tatto

Crossing to Safety

David Grann’s The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.

Farber on Film

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. I think some people on here would like it, it’s really great so far.

Only Revolutions, Mark Z Danielewski’s follow up to House of Leaves, which was a profound experience.

This one is also extraordinary.

Also beginning Sculpting in Time by Andrei Tarkovsky.

Essay on Phenomenological Ontology by Jean Paul Sartre.

^ Something I should read again.

Only after you re-read Husserl and Heidegger, Josh.

Building a Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs

The new book by Nobel Prize winning economist Muhammad Yunus. I am a fan of his earlier work. Plus I am looking to start my own social business.

The inspiration came as I was doing research for the documentary film that I have been working on for the past year. I heard about these new miniature nuclear reactors that will be coming to the market in the next decade. Companies such as Hyperion (who helped me out with the making of my “Film Your Issue” video below) advertises their 70MW, “hot tub sized” reactor, as being able to power 20,000 “American sized” homes for up to 7 to 10 years. I thought, if a reactor like that could power 20,000 “American sized” homes for up to 7 to 10 years (depending on how much it is used), it should be able to power significantly more Japanese capsule hotels (which are basically like human cubbies) for even longer.

My second bit of inspiration came in the form of WIRED publisher Chris Anderson’s resent book Free: The Future of a Radical New Price (you can download the audiobook off of iTunes for FREE). In that book he details the “Freemium” model; the basic form of free for most web 2.0 companies like The Auteu… oh! I’m sorry Mubi (how’s the Freemium model working out for you?). The basic definition of the “Freemium”:

“Give your service away for free, possibly ad supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc., then offer premium priced value added services or an enhanced version of your service to your customer base.” (“Fred Wilson’s blog, A VC”)

Then Chris goes on to detail how the super abundance of processing, bandwidth and storage media has created the modern internet as we know it today; where we have an ultra abundance of in wealth in communication and commerce. He ironically calls the chapter in which he explains this phenomenon, “Too Cheap to Matter” paraphrasing Lewis Strauss’s famous line about how nuclear power would make electricity “Too Cheap to Meter”. Indeed if it weren’t for the upfront capital costs and the public relations problems that hampered the first nuclear age we would all have electricity that is too cheap to meter (as in paying one flat rate). In that chapter Chris invites the reader to imagine how having ultra abundant electricity would have affected civilization. Just look at how ultra abundant processing, bandwidth and storage has affected civilization. Just ten years ago I wouldn’t have been able to type this message while sharing the link to my YouTube video with people who are probably half way around the globe.

I think that we are on the cusp of an age where energy becomes ultra abundant. Hyperion says that their 70MW reactor will be ready for mass production by 2012. My idea combines these modular atomic reactors with modular affordable living spaces, such as the ones designed by Kisho Kurokawa for the Nakagin Capsule Tower. Offer one substantial free version to all members and cross-subsidize it by selling the excess products of the fission reaction (heat, electricity, hydrogen and clean water). Back up the reactors with renewable sources of energy (wind, solar, geothermal) so there is always an excess. Sell ad space for maximum possible income potential. Sell more luxurious living spaces at a premium, and you have just eliminated homelessness.

Imagine what civilization will look like once you have completely eliminated the want for shelter. With the proper incentives in place people will be able to commit more time to their personal goals and projects, and what we know of as menial labor could be reduced to a part-time preoccupation. Chris Anderson is already working on his next book. The working title is The Next Industrial Revolution and I feel as if I must contribute. This may just be my own inflated sense of self importance but I feel as if all civilization rests upon my idea.

And for all of you thinking of ripping me off, I already protected the IP.

Your opinions?

Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman’s Quest for an Orgasm by Mara Altman

The Passion of Tasha Darsky / Overture by Yael Goldstein Love

Just finished NAKED LUNCH – William S. Burroughs (it took me so long to read this one) and started A LOW LIFE IN HIGH HEELS – Holly Woodlawn.

John Robert Fowles “The magus” – very interesting i think.

Many years ago i read “The Thorn Birds” by Colleen McCullough n still think its great. McCullough also writes historical books, not only romantic.
Enjoy it!

Charles Dicken’s a Tale of Two Cities.

“The Denial of Death”, Ernest Becker
“The Trauma of Birth”, Otto Rank
“Massenpsychologie des Faschismus”, Wilhelm Reich

Last Exit To Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. Then I’ve got East of Eden by John Steinbeck and Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger.

Suttree by Cormac McCarthy. Strange, funny, tragic, and elegaic.

Marguerite Duras’ The Lover.. I love her writing style and plan to watch the film adaptation of the novel when I finish it..

Tess of the D’urbervilles. I just did a project on Thomas Hardy, and when I read about this it seemed interesting, so I got it, and so far it’s pretty good. Once I’m done reading I plan on watching Roman Polanski’s adaptation followed by the recent BBC miniseries.

“Also beginning Sculpting in Time by Andrei Tarkovsky.”

Same here. Along with Bunuel’s My Last Sigh and Markens Grøde by Hamsun.

I finished reading Sculpting in Time yesterday. I highly recommend it.

Reading “Piccadilly Jim”.

Has anyone read and/or would recommend If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King?

I’ve been curious to read it since it’s the novel Lady from Shanghai was based upon. However, as far as I can tell, it’s only available through Penguin in the U.K.

Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace.

Three things it is: great fun, pathetically sad, menacing in how stringently it uses its grammar and thus how it makes me want to use my own and properly. (It’s like a tongue twister for syntax and punctuation.)

@ Anthony, I have a copy of that at my house…

All aside. I am reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. I’m almost done with it. Afterwards I might read one of the companion pieces, if not maybe get back to reading Fellini on Fellini or Last Words by George Carlin.

Finishing up Anais Nin’s Delta of Venus, and then probably moving on to Yukio Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask.. And of course I’ll be checking out the film, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters too..

I love that there’s a book thread on here. I definitely think I’ll be checking back from time to time for recommendations..

Faulkner’s Sound and Fury

francois truffaut’s The Films In My Life

Chris Marker Memories of the future – Catherine Lupton

@Dylan

Once I’m done reading it, I’ll probably use it to prop up thinner books on my shelf.

A Most Wanted Man, John Le Carre.

I also recently read thru several short stories by Robert E. Howard, author of Conan the Cimmerian (ne barbarian!), Bran Mak Morn, Soloman Kane, etc. Recommended reading, his short story, The Grey God Passes.