I have settled on Corey Robin’s “The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin” for our next book club. I am about halfway through and I’ve learned a lot already.
I spoke with Corey and he will be happy to join us for discussions.
Anne Laurie
I’m looking foward to this, DougJ! You might want to
further irk Coleset up a category specific to ‘Corey Robin’s Reactionary Mind’, so that people who wanted to read all the bookchat threads would have an easier search…Raven
Amazon! Buy local if you can.
Calouste
Objection you honor:
Mind and Sarah Palin in the same sentence assumes facts not in evidence.
DougJ
@Anne Laurie:
Ok, will do!
Hob
I’m 2/3 of the way through. Looking forward to this.
dance around in your bones
I love the book club here, especially when the author is involved…just bought it for my kindle through the Amazon link on this site.
I was looking at the actual book (you know, made out of paper and all) and thinking I could buy a used copy…can anyone explain why the new book is $29.95 and a used copy is $36.29 to $40.80? Are they signed by gawd or something? It’s a mystery to me.
MikeJ
@Raven: I live in Seattle. Amazon is local.
Brian S
Amazon is also redefining dick move. Seriously, I’ll donate directly to whatever you all are giving the Amazon money to before I’ll buy from them.
El Tiburon
dougJ:
how similar is it to John Dean’s “Conservatives Without Conscience”?
MikeJ
@Brian S: California has never charged sales tax on catalog purchases, but they seem to think that if you put your catalog on the internet instead of mailing out dead trees they should get a cut.
I also have no problem with one vendor looking at what another vendor is charging for a product.
TOP123
Edmund Burke –> Sarah Palin : Bonobo –> Amoeba
Stillwater
That’s a really good book, the first half especially. Corey lays out the liberal/conservative dynamic as clearly as I’ve ever seen it presented (which isn’t sayin a hell of a lot, really). Even the second half, which was a little more disjointed from my pov critiques conservatism in a pretty fresh way.
Doug, did you keep hearing Cleek’s Law in your head as you read that first half: C(today) = not-L(today), updated daily?
WereBear (itouch)
I’m in!
I rescue books from used bookstores all the time. But once authors can upload their own neglectd list: awesome!
Jenny
speaking of which, Huntsman flip-flopped today and says he no longer believes in climate change.
how pitiful.
handsmile
@DougJ:
Thanks for the heads-up! Do you have any sense when the discussions might begin? Wouldn’t mind myself if that could occur after the onslaught of the holidays, but perhaps launching it between semesters would be helpful to a number of readers/commenters here.
FYI: For the past month or so, Robin has been writing a guest column for al-Jazeera. Here’s a link to a recent one, “I’ve got a crush on you”, about Antonin Scalia and Jack Bauer (no kidding): http://aljazeera.co.uk/indepth/opinion/2011/11/20111115153044735801.html
Linda Featheringill
For readers that are watching their pennies:
You can download a Kindle for the PC from Amazon for free and purchase the Kindle edition of this book for only 10.00. Instantly delivered. No shipping, no waiting.
Countme In
I look forward to Robin’s next book: The Mind of the Gourmand:
From Forme of Cury to Jeffrey Dahmer.
WereBear (itouch)
You start with a TS Eliot quote; and you got me.
DougJ
@El Tiburon:
Not very similar.
DougJ
@handsmile:
Let’s do early January then for the first meeting.
PurpleGirl
@Linda Featheringill: I did that after seeing the library didn’t have the book yet. I wasn’t sure about buying a paper copy at this time. The Kindle PC app is kinda nice.
jake the snake
I have a copy on my Nook. If anyone else has one, I can loan it. I have not lent a book yet, but we can figure it out.
General Stuck
IF it doesn’t have too many big words, I might read it.
Steeeplejack
@jake the snake:
You can lend a Nook book only once–ever–to one other person, for 14 days. You can lend multiple books to one person, but each book can only be lent one time. That is, once a book has been lent once, it cannot be lent again to anyone.
This is supposedly a limitation required by the participating publishers.
Steeplejack
@jake the snake:
(Blimey! Misspelled me own name on my brother’s computer.)
You can lend a Nook book only once—ever—to one other person, for 14 days. You can lend multiple books to one person, but each book can only be lent one time. That is, once a book has been lent once, it cannot be lent again to anyone.
This is supposedly a limitation required by the participating publishers.