Reddit mentions: The best books about chinese people

It sounds like you're off to a good start. You sound pretty close to the right height/weight ratio, so it'll probably be pretty hard to see any big weight changes even with a lot of effort. I had a lot of good luck on a bicycle, largely because running would tear my body up, so good luck to you.

There's some good (and conflicting) advice in this thread already, but working out with friends can help you stay at it. In a similar vein, I started playing pick-up basketball at a park a couple nights a week, made some friends there, and my team of 5 would expect me to be out there so we'd have a full team on those nights. That way I'd be sure to be out there since I knew if I wasn't they'd be upset. It really helped on nights where I could have easily packed it in and stayed home, any almost never did I regret actually going. Another thing you can do is train for an event with someone; maybe a mini-triathlon, half-marathon, century bicycle race.

But I actually came to answer your audiobook question. I had some good luck with This American Life (you can get all of the MP3s for free) for awhile but burned out on it a bit. Then I made myself a musical bike helmet and I'm in freakin' heaven with that thing; it's the perfect amount of split attentions for me. I like fitness cycling to adventure/survival non-fiction, I could manage to push myself since the characters had it so much worse. How can you refuse to go balls out for another 3 minute interval when you're listening to a story where someone's starving to death?

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing was my favorite of that genre, had a brilliant reader.

I also liked Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

And out of that genre, I've recently listened to Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and Moneyball by Michael Lewis and I can't stop talking about either of them.

Good luck and keep at it. I got a lot of silver-bullet advice from a lot of well-meaning friends, but what really helped was finding stuff that worked for me and then ignoring them. I'm down about 50lbs over the 16 months or so.

Hi, I am not an expert in ancient and early Chinese history, but nevertheless I will try to explain what I know about Wu Zetian. I assume you have already read the wikipedia entry [here]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian) so rather than just regurgitating what it says I will try to bring other sources into it too.

If you are looking for a bit of background about Wu Zetian, then I suggest you go on the China Culture Website which is quite good.

Being the only female monarch in the history of China, I am surprised how little attention she receives by most people - probably because it was so long ago. But her story is indeed quite interesting. Part of the reason is that there is not much concrete information on what she did and her existence - I have not consulted Chinese sources, only English ones, but I know of famous books; if you can read Chinese I suggest you go for:

澤田瑞穗著，李天送譯：《則天武后》（西安：三秦出版社，1989）。My apologies as I am unaware of any English translations. Another book that I have not read but am recommending based on fame is http://www.amazon.com/Empress-Zetian-Fiction-History-Confucian/dp/1590338049. This is validated by the fact this is the first source that comes up after typing "wu zetian books", so that says something.

Anyway, onto Wu Zetian's story of how she - with an emphasis on SHE - came to rule China. Like most of the world at the time, being a woman rather than a man of course puts you at a disadvantage, and as I have mentioned above being the ONLY female monarch in the history of China is quite a feat, and she is very famous in China.

So how did a woman become Empress of China? Well, at age 14, she was brought to the imperial court by Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty. Wu Zetian was reputed to be extremely beautiful. Despite this, she was not too favourable to the emperor; rather, she got quite close with his son instead - Li Zhi. When the emperor died, Li Zhi took Wu Zetian as his concubine.

This is where Wu Zetian begins her ascension. Despite merely being a concubine, she was extremely skillful in gaining favour, and soon she was able to gain the favour of Li Zhi. Her skills in gaining favour and tactical prowess in political maneuverings would prove to be essential in her later life. She was also familiar with court dealings and affairs due to some time in the imperial study, and her growing familiarity with official documents would prove to be an asset.

If you have seen any ancient/early modern/dynastic Chinese imperial films, especially in Hong Kong, you will see that they are almost always based on political cunning, treachery, and other forms of politics within the imperial harem. It is here where Wu Zetian excelled. She was able to maneuver in such a way that she herself garnered immense favour from the emperor, while at the same time managing to put the other concubines, and even the QUEEN, out of favour with the emperor. This type of political manipulation was crucial to her success. There are many stories of horrific political acts such as killing off other concubines; there is one chilling story about how she killed her own infant baby and blamed it on the then empress Wang.

Wu Zetian began to put use her political talent and enforced it by acts such as expressing her political views and intervening in state affairs. Consequently, she eventually gained an equal status to that of the emperor, and they were known at the time as “the Two Sages”. Wu Zetian was able to be accustomed to controlling the court when the emperor suffered a stroke, and she was able to take over the administration of the court. Her resourcefulness and expertise allowed her to be very competent and she was highly esteemed by her husband, the emperor. Wu recommended and had accepted new ideas regarding agriculture, tax reduction, social reforms and effective labor saving practices. The emperor later then died, and Wu Zetian yet again pulled the political strings by appointing and annulling her sons as emperor several times.

I would like to go on talking about her time when she was in power, but I assume your question is only asking about how she got to power, so I shall stop here. However if you are interested I can still continue. Despite her often ruthless acts to get to power she was very competent in power, and brought many positives to the country on many levels.

Some online sources

• http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/heroine6.html
  
• http://www1.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_22879.htm
  
• http://www1.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_22879.htm
  
• http://history.cultural-china.com/en/46History188.html
  
  EDIT: Format

I understand what you're saying. Non-fiction books can oftentimes be boring. However, there are some excellent non-fiction books that are about adventure, exciting stories, and suspenseful plots. Fiction is great, and I love a good make-believe story, but I think there's something special you get when you read books that are about real people, real events, and real outcomes. Don't ever use your age as a crutch. You'll have a much better time in life if you push your boundaries a little.

That being said, here are some awesome, thrilling non-fiction books that you would love:

The Outpost A story about the American troops in Combat Outpost (COP) Keating in Afghanistan who were attacked by a Taliban force that outnumbered them 8:1. Two soldiers were awarded Medals of Honor for the heroic actions.

Kon-Tiki This is firsthand account about a team of researchers who sailed across the Pacific ocean in a balsam wood raft to prove that South Americans colonized Polynesia. Amazing adventure story that had huge anthropological significance.

Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer's brilliant and extremely well-written account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster (of which he was a part). Documents the deadliest season in Mt. Everest history, and focuses on the stories of the deaths of some of Everest's premier guides.

A Life in the IRA Joe Cahill was one of the first members of the modern day IRA, and his account of one of the most violent eras in European history is simply jawdropping. The author covers everything from Bloody Sunday to the death of Bobby Sands with accuracy and pathos than only a seasoned IRA leader like Cahill could convey.

There are tons more. These are some of my favorites. Enjoy fiction--there's nothing wrong with it. But don't think non-fiction is synonymous with boring.

TL;DR: The most amazing stories you'll ever read are those that actually happened.

Well, traditionally you're supposed to examine a teacher for 9 years before taking them on -- so you can be sure they're the real deal.

When it comes to my own teacher, he's on many occasions reinforced that you're not supposed to have blind faith or force devotion. It needs to come naturally from experiencing the benefits of the practice.

It's tough for many people (myself included) especially coming from a Christian "blind faith" background to be able to separate that from what we grow up with.

But anyways, you can still read and study about Tibetan Buddhism without having to take a teacher. It's just that once you want to start doing practices requiring empowerments/transmission/etc you're going to need to find one. But even then it's not like once you do that you can't keep seeing other teachers to see if any resonate with you.

I'm trying to think of books on Tibetan Buddhism that aren't so heavy into the Guru stuff... maybe some autobiographies might be interesting:

• Blazing Splendor, the Memoirs of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
  
  
• Sky Dancer: The Secret Life And Songs Of Lady Yeshe Tsogyel -- I just finished this one and its as just amazing. Might be a little heavy on mysticism, but IMO it's just a wonderful read.
  
  
• Precious Essence: The Inner Autobiography of Terchen Barway Dorje -- This is the autobiography of a previous life of my own teacher. It's another amazing read. He got a little wild! An awesome glimpse into the life of a siddha.
  
  Another recommendation would be:
  
  
• The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech: A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva - this is a detailed commentary on the Bodhicharyavatara by a great Tibetan master; so it doesn't go too much into Guru stuff and focuses on explaining the Mahayana path as outlined by Shantideva.

Oh, also the Maximum Ride series! Should have thought of this one earlier. It's not really short, but it is fast-paced with plenty of action.

You could also try something like Between a Rock and a Hard Place (the book that the film 127 Hours is based on). Several of my junior boys have really gotten into Into the Wild. Into Thin Air, also by Jonathan Krakauer, might also fit the bill, if real-life survival/adventure stories would be interesting to him.

I'd also recommend Chris Crutcher as an author. He tends to write a lot of sports stories (not sure if that's something that would interest your brother), but they're entertaining, realistic, and funny. And quick reads!

I know literally nothing about Everest, and have never gone anywhere you can't plug in a hairdryer, but I've read a few books about climbing, and I'm pretty sure it's nowhere near that simple. Mountains aren't perfect triangles. You have to climb up and down and up and down, and sometimes you start climbing down and realize you're facing a crevasse and you have to go back up, or you have to spend days scrambling across a field of rocks.

In this case, the girlfriend fell early on and may have been too injured to walk, and within a pretty short timeframe they both would have been too weak to make it down alive. It probably made more sense to find shelter and wait for rescue.

Edit: Into Thin Air, Dead lucky, and Touching the Void are all really good reads, if you're interested. Lincoln Hall's story was made into a documentary, and the 2015 Everest movie is pretty good.

If you mean is there any way to convince your ex-wife to stop doing that or at least tone it down, that's probably going to be hard since you're exes now. But then again, you know her personality and I don't; maybe it could work.

Maybe your best approach is to offer a different perspective. For instance, when your 7yo was crying about being a "failure," you could say, "No, honey, of course not! The only person who's a failure is someone who doesn't even try! What matters is trying hard and having fun, and as long as you try hard, you're not even close to failing. Anyone who tries will get at least a little better. Of course, not everyone can be Michael Jordan -- and no matter how hard he tried, Michael Jordan couldn't be [insert doctor/scientist or something here], because everyone has different talents. What matters is trying hard and having fun."

Or something like that. You get the gist. Be a source of unwavering support and love for them, and maybe try to "translate" a bit of what they're hearing from their mom into a less toxic message (e.g. turn "you're a failure because you can't make all your baskets" into "look how hard you're trying, you're doing great!").

And whether you're talking to them or to her, maybe focus on the point DuePomegranate made about the important thing being effort rather than outcome. That's huge, and if you're trying to talk to her it would probably be much easier to shift her focus to effort (or persistence, self-improvement, self-discipline, hard work, etc.) than to persuade her to change completely.

I think Amy Chua talks about hard work and self-discipline in her book (https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hymn-Tiger-Mother-Chua/dp/0143120581). Maybe read that, and if you think it offers a better model of the Tiger Mom than your ex is currently being -- IOW if it focuses on effort rather than outcome -- then give it to your ex with a non-confrontational or even flattering vibe of "Hey I read this interesting book that kind of reminded me of you"? That would give you the foundation to talk about it with her instead of talking directly to her about her deficiencies as a parent.

Like, if ex-wife is being really destructive, you can perhaps try to redirect her with something along the lines of, "It looks like you're trying to encourage Henry to work harder. Didn't Amy Chua say that XYZ other approach worked for her when she was trying to do that?"

Or maybe reading Chua's book could at least help you understand what she's trying to do. For the record, Chua's kids are grown up now and in addition to being accomplished, they still like her. So IF DONE WELL, apparently it can work: https://www.workingmother.com/adult-daughter-tiger-mom-amy-chua-speaks-out-about-her-working-mother

Originally as others have noted he was trying to purge china of the four olds. Basically their culture,history etc the closest equivalent would be what the Khmer rouge attempted with year zero. However towards the end though the original aims and goals went out the window, as the party tried to make Mao irrelevant, they wanted him to be a godlike figurehead someone revered but neutered concerning actual policy and control. That's when the greatest excesses of the cultural revolution occurred because Mao retaliated, he more or less gave his wife in others like the red guard who were loyal to him free reign to do what they pleased, at certain points mini civil wars were occurring throughout china. During the cultural revolution, china's government for better or worse was non existent in concerns to controlling what was going on. I still feel sadness reading about the destruction of millennia of history in a few short years. Temples, artifacts all gone, i believe at one point some people even tried to target the forbidden city for destruction which point only due to the some elements of the Chinese PLA intervening was this prevented but it's been a few years since i read up on that incident so i may be a little off.

There's a really good book i read called the wild swans. It not only goes indepth into the history surrounding the horror of the great leap forward and cultural revolution but also gives a nice view of china during the warring warlord period, the japanese vs communist vs nationalist period through the eyes of three generations of women in a chinese family. The author was a red guard when she was younger, her father and mother were top communist officials who ended up being denounced during the revolution, her grandmother was a warlords concubine who had her feet binded it's a fascinating history i recommend if you want an in-depth and easily accessible read concerning the history to pick up the book for a first hand account of Mao's lunacy http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Swans-Three-Daughters-China/dp/0743246985/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454251993&sr=1-8&keywords=china+red+guard

Have you read [Into Thin Air] (http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-personal-disaster-ebook/dp/B000FC1ITK/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411590869&sr=1-1&keywords=into+thin+air) by Jon Krakauer? I enjoyed reading this one.

I also read [Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage] (http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing-ebook/dp/B006L74DMC/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411590938&sr=1-1&keywords=endurance+shackleton%27s+incredible+voyage), could not put it down. Would still recommend giving it a shot, even though in the other comment you said you weren't interested.

You could also probably find a book about the [Donner party] (http://www.amazon.com/Desperate-Passage-Donner-Perilous-Journey/dp/0195383311/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591075&sr=1-1&keywords=donner+party+books). Have not read this one yet.

I actually really want to read more of these true doom/adventure stories as well. Let me know which ones you'd recommend or find interesting. We can swap notes :) (I'm looking up the Franklin expedition right now!)

Edit: another recommendation is possibly books on North Korea? [Escape from Camp 14] (http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey-ebook/dp/B005GSZZ1A/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591287&sr=1-1&keywords=escape+from+camp+14) coming to mind. It's still got that morbid fascination element to it. Another good one is [Nothing to Envy] (http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North-ebook/dp/B002ZB26AO/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591283&sr=1-1&keywords=nothing+to+envy).

Edit2: Saw you wanted to read about that rugby team that was stranded in the Andes, was this the book you were thinking of: [Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors] (http://www.amazon.com/Alive-Survivors-Piers-Paul-Read/dp/038000321X/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591507&sr=1-1&keywords=alive+the+story+of+the+andes+survivors). The only other book I can think of is [Miracle in the Andes] (http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Andes-Days-Mountain-Long-ebook/dp/B000GCFW6O/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591638&sr=1-1&keywords=Miracle+in+the+andes).

Right now, I don't see a viable alternative. I'd say I fall into a small void between the Liberals and Conservatives, but if the election was called tomorrow, I'd be voting Conservative.

1. My local MP. I've met him a number of times, and each time he's struck me as a reasonable red tory, similar to me. He's also served in the Armed Forces, in the Balkans and Afghanistan, retiring after 22 years of service. I really like that about him and want him to continue to represent me.
   
   
2. Firearms. I want the Common Sense Firearms Act (aka Bill C-42) passed. It's a reasonable rebalancing of the Firearms Act, after it being slanted against firearms owners for the past 20 years. I hunt, sport shoot and collect firearms. I have a vested interest in this matter.
   
   
3. I like the Foreign Policy of the CPC. I'm finding the UN more and more ineffectual. Kissinger actually explains this in his book World Order, in regards to Iran's nuclear program. I highly recommend this book as well. Anyways, I find the UN is slowly loosing it's teeth. Then there are farcical examples as well, such as Durban II which I believe Canada was correct in withdrawing from. I just with other countries had the balls to stand up and call a spade a spade in situations like this.
   
   
4. Handling of the economy. I like what Harper's done.
   
   
5. Trudeau really hasn't said anything concrete. I'm unimpressed by him, and the flash is starting to wear off.
   
   
6. Mulcair and I don't see eye to eye on anything.
   
   There are a number of issues with the CPC, which I've enumerated previously. But currently they best represent me.

Honestly, I can't say I have any special insight on the future of political liberalization in China. I'm hardly a futurist and predictions are so unreliable that I try not to make any strong claims. I'm just someone who's really interested in human rights and China.

That said, official corruption is an issue that's on a lot of peoples' minds. This could (emphasis on could) develop into a desire for better representation in higher levels of government and develop into some form of democracy. Anti-corruption initiatives are headline news in China and soak up a lot of public attention. Unfortunately, a lot of these initiatives are used to purge political rivals.

Maybe if there is a reformer inside the CCP - I don't know of any, but it is a big party - there is a chance that he or she could harness this popular sentiment for good. He or she could also be purged from the party as Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang were in the 1980s. Hu Yaobang was expelled from the CCP after party elders accused him of being behind other pro-democracy protests in 1986, Zhao Ziyang was placed under house arrest until he died because of his opposition to the 1989 Tiananmen Crackdown. During his house arrest, Zhao secretly recorded a series of tapes that were smuggled out after his death and published.

I agree with /u/hubeijames when he says that political revolution in China is unthinkable right now (and everything else he's said in this thread, too). The CCP is genuinely popular with the majority of the people because of the myth that it is the sole driver of China's economic prosperity. Despite this, people do not see it as flawless and some will talk privately about how it could be improved.

I do strongly disagree with the notion that there's something "in Chinese culture" that makes democracy an impossibility. China is more than capable of functioning democratically. There was a widespread desire for democratic reform in the 1980s and although I see people in this thread say that they're irrelevant today, I disagree. To begin with, they demonstrate how far the CCP is willing to go to suppress what it views as a threat, correctly or otherwise. Second, they demonstrate that under the right conditions, a popular movement for democratic reforms is possible in China. Third, their families and some of the wounded are still alive today - they deserve to be acknowledged.

Furthermore, rhetorical support from the West as not as meaningless as those in the current administration think. Knowing that there is outside support from much of the world is something that heartens some of the democracy activists that I have spoken to. Abandoning the notion that human rights are worth talking about hurts their ability to rally people to the cause.

Try Krakauer's other well known book Into Thin Air, and because there's some controversy regarding his version of events, also The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev who was a major player that day.

Krakauer's other book Under the Banner of Heaven is a good "true crime" style story about some Morman murders, but may not be enough like Into the Wild to appeal to you.

Over the Edge of the World is more of a history, covering Magellan's circumnavigation of the earth. It was facinating and definately had intrigue, machinations, and survival elements.

Another book on exploration and survival, Endurance: Shakleton's Incredible Voyage

And another one, Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson. I think this is the one I read, but I can't be certain. It doesn't seem to be as well regarded, but i thought it was still interesting.

A book on diving and survival: The Last Dive, Chowdhury

The Hot Zone could be thought of as science survival. Anyway, you'll probably love the opening bits in Africa, although it does slow way down after that.

Far away from survival, but still about travel are the wonderful Bill Bryson's travelogues. Witty and informative. In a Sunburned Country and A Walk in the Woods are particularly recommended.

I agree that the people aren't always right, but it kind of breaks the social contract. The nazi example is a bit extreme as I feel that anything that causes that much damage to citizens is just, beyond.

Yeah maybe why I'm not attracted to cultural pride is due to my culture being on the ascent. I live in the US and there are some black guys who like to wear kente cloth and ankhs, in a show of cultural pride, and some white guys who get these Norse and Celtic tattoos.

But in the 1950s, neither group did this. Black pride was about being a clean cut professional in the NAACP, reading WEB DuBois, white pride was about being an upstanding suburbanite, a pillar of the community. I think people become jingoistic flag-wavers when they feel threatened. I think true pride comes from within the individual and from helping people, including people in the outgroup. But that's just me.

Moreover, nationalism is weird. It comes from the Westphalian nation-state system based on the balance of power concept of world order. It's weird for me to talk about national distinction when I'm from the central part of a country that has always existed, called middle earth, and speak a dialect called common, and my ethnicity is just distinguished by what we aren't, not what we are.

Being Chinese is more like Romanitas, or the credo of American exceptionalism, than it is about being one of the tribe. Blood and soil applies more to regional identities like being Teochew or Hakka. First of all, theoretically you, a white or a black man, can become Chinese. Second, anyone whose father's father's father is Chinese is 100% Chinese whether he has dark brown skin, blue eyes, kinky hair.

Nationalism is also a very new construct. Europeans used to call their civilization Christendom, like some very religious Muslims probably view the Islamic world the same way. By Romanitas as a cognate for Chinese identity, I am kind of talking about what cohered civilized Europe before it became Christendom. I'm really not a historian and am not really sure of this.

Walden is fantastic - he goes into great detail as to how he builds his hut, how he gets his meals and such - Into the Wild really moved me because I was in a similar set of mind like McCandless when I was younger. If you didn't like the film though don't try it. But you might be interested in Krakauers Everest book Into Thin Air.

Jack London's short stories will blow your mind: Of interest to you especially Gold Canyon I think. To Build a Fire was my favorite. He wrote novels too like Call Of The Wild, very good books about the wild and survival.

Oh man, I could recommend so many.

Kung Fu and Taoism:

The Making of a Butterfly is one of my favorite books. It is about a white kid who starts learning Kung Fu out of a Chinese master's basement back in the 70s, well before Kung Fu was popularized in the West.

Chronicles of Tao by Deng Ming Dao is excellent, a narrative perspective of how Taoism intertwines with the life of a Kung Fu practitioner.

American Shaolin by Matthew Polly is an entertaining and illuminating story that disseminates a lot of the mysticism surrounding the Shaolin Temple.

The Crocodile and the Crane is a fun fictional book that is basically about Tai Chi saving the world from a zombie apocalypse.

My next goal is to tackle The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Of course, I highly recommend the Tao Te Ching and the Art of War as well.

Buddhism: I highly recommend anything Thich Nhat Hanh. Anger and Peace is Every Step are two of my favorites.

Karate and Japanese Arts:

Moving Toward Stillness by Dave Lowry is one of my favorite books, taken from his columns in Black Belt Magazine over the years. A really excellent study on Japanese arts and philosophy.

Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings by Kenji Tokitsu is wonderful. It includes the Book of Five Rings as well as some of Musashi's other works, including many of his paintings.

The 47 Ronin, by John Allyn, a dramatization of the Genroku Ako Incident, is still quite poignant in 2016.

/u/Toptomcat nailed it. Wholeheartedly agree in reference to Bubishi, not very practical but interesting nonetheless. I loved Draeger's CAFA and Unante is comprehensive thesis on the historical origins and lineages of the Okinawan fighting arts. These titles might not be for everyone but I am a history buff in addition to a martial artist so I enjoyed them.

Couple of others:

• Book of the five Rings-Miyamoto Musashi
  
  
• Karate-do: my way of life- Funakoshi
  
  A few off-topic but related titles:
  
  
• Ways of the Peaceful Warrior
  
  
• Autumn lighting
  
  
• American Shaolin
  
  
• The Ronin
  
• Musashi-perhaps on of my favorite novels of all time
  

You say you like Dan Brown, but what's most revealing is that you like fast-paced, short chapters.

Think of it this way: what you like is short bursts of interesting information that make you say "I wonder how that's going to be important." That's what a lot of people like about Dan Brown's books. He doesn't put in anything odd or unusual that doesn't become important later on. That's part of his formula.

You also like a narrative, or story, with your non-fiction, I'm betting. I'm going to go out on a limb here (and correct me if I'm wrong), but I'm willing to bet the books you're reading about mountains have titles like "Into Thin Air" and "Dark Summit". I doubt you're reading "Tourism and Environment in the Mount Everest Region".

If my guesses are correct, then my advice is to approach the way you have to read in the way you like to read. It's not easy, and it's only a beginning to scaffolding yourself to the level of rigor that you NEED to read at.

If you can, create a narrative for yourself for when you have to read textbook material. No one needs to know. You're Langdon's assistant on this particular mystery. He's got to go talk to the great-GREAT descendant of Hieronymous Bosch. He's left you with a chemistry book and said that the descendant is willing to sell you a completely unknown-til-now Bosch painting for one dollar per atomic weight of gold in the painting. In twenty minutes, he needs you to call and tell him whether it's worth it or not. So, what is the atomic weight of gold, and is it worth a dollar? That's complete nonsense, but you see what I mean?

Another thing you might do is cut your text reading down to what you know you will process. You'll have to change your expectations of reading page after page and processing it all. Mark off stopping points of 3-4 paragraphs and summarize in notes, then progress to 5-7 and summarize, then 8-10. You are not a natural reader of extended text and haven't been trained to do so. You're going to have to train yourself, like you would with a fitness or diet routine, or as a beginner mountain climber.

The Coming War on China

>LI: In China there are a lot of problems,

Zheng Lijia, Socialism is Great!. US Commission on China, Hukou System: Sustained Reform Needed to Protect China's Rural Migrants [BWAH!]

>but at the moment, the Chinese, the state party, has proven an extra-ordinary ability to change. I make the joke how in America you can change political parties, but you can't change the policies. In China you cannot change the party, but you can change policies. So in sixty-five or sixty-six years China's been run by one single party, yet the political changes that have taken place in China these past sixty-six years have been wider and broader and greater than probably any major country in modern memory. China is a market economy and it's a vibrant market economy, but it is not a capitalist country. Here's why. There's no way a group of billionaires can control the politburo as it does American policy-making. So in China you have a vibrant market economy, but capital does not rise above political authority. Capital does not have enshrined rights. In America capital, the interest of capital and capital itself, has risen above the American nation. The political authority cannot check the power of capital. And that's why America is a capitalist country, but China is not.

“Well, I thank you for your question but I have to say we’re capitalist and that’s just the way it is.”

RE for homicidal maniacs

I have four on the go right now. That's pretty typical for me, hahahaha.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China is a biography spanning three generations of women in 20th century China, and I picked it up after listening to an audio book based in 19th century China to learn more. It's horrifying and fascinating all at once and I really quite love it. I've actually been meaning to read it for years.

The Queen's Agent: Francis Walsingham at the Court of Elizabeth I is a non-fictional history book about the intelligence and spy circles Francis Walsingham controlled in the late 1500s at the Elizabethan court. I normally have at least one history book on the go at any one time and I really like this one. Some factual history books are a real slog but this isn't at all, it's incredibly immersive.

I'm also working my way through a beautifully illustrated hardcover version of The Hobbit right now.

And just to switch over to when I'm tired of history, I downloaded and started The Dragon Keeper: Rain Wild Chronicles Book 1 by Robin Hobb the other day. I love Hobb's Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies and I've been meaning to really read her Rain Wilds chronicles but haven't given them much of a go. Hopefully this will impress me just as much as Fitz and the Fool did.

Awesome- you are a quick reader, though. which one are you reading? If you are reading No Picnic on Mt. Kenya, be sure to read the forward by the author (or if you didn't get a version with the forward, try to find it in the library or online) because his life is fascinating.

If you like Krakauer's writing style, I recommend his other mountaineering book Eiger Dreams

some other good mountaineering writers to check out: Joe Simpson, Maurice Herzog , Ed Viesturs, Anatoli Boukreev, Nick Heil, Beck Weathers, and Dave Breashears

For me, it's really just wanting to be able to change the world and impose what I believe to be logically sound on others. My love of politics stems from my love of history.

In the words of Dennis Van Roekel, "For anyone who cares about the direction of the country, engagement in the political process should be a lifetime commitment." In other words, you should ALWAYS vote. Many people never take any action because they believe their voice is so minuscule that it will not matter.

Here are some books I'd recommend if you really are wanting to start up.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Righteous-Mind-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777

http://www.amazon.com/World-Order-Henry-Kissinger/dp/1594206147

I started with Kong Yiji, it's an easy read (and short as it takes ~20 minutes to complete)- but not that easy in fact. Reading the wikipedia page it turned out that I overlooked a few important details (like what exactly is a Xiucai - I only knew the term from 武林外传). Nevertheless as far I read for now, I would advise readers to start from here. Kong Yiji is still pretty popular and I bet everyone in China knows his story (I decided to start reading 呐喊 after seeing Kong Yiji mentioned in Socialism's great where the narrator/author mentions her mother comparing her husband to Kong Yiji)

I have read 药 as well - likewise it's short, but in fact again, I missed a lot of details. I found this translation (in French) and also this analysis that made a second reading much more beneficial.

I'm now moving on to 狂人日记...

Have you ever read Blazing Splendor? Some remarkable accounts of Khyentse, Kongtrul, and Chokyur Lingpa. If I recall correctly, Chokyur Lingpa was Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche's (the author) grandfather. Also, I think, quite remarkable stories of both the 15th and 16th Karmapas.

I have been quite inspired by basically all of them. In today's world, I personally think that the Ri-Me movement can go even a bit further than in Tibet, as I think there is (often) quite a 'distance' between the Northern and Southern schools of Buddhism (Mahayana/Vajrayana and Theravada, that is), and I think ultimately that's not necessary or helpful, basically.

As to the Chinese invasion, I'm not sure that it's not all for the best. If it hadn't happened, I'm not sure that we would be sitting here as we are. In the long run, it may have been time.

Kenji is a great martial arts manga, being more realistic in its depiction of martial arts and actual real-world styles than most mangas. Additionally, each art has a number of its key techniques detailed, much like an instruction manual, complete with foot positioning and movements. Great stuff.

Also, it's non-fiction, but American Shaolin is an interesting first-hand account of a westerner's training at the Shaolin temple in China, though most of the interest comes from the author's cultural experiences rather than strict details of his training.

One of my all time favorites is Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, about a climbing season on Mount Everest where a lot of things went wrong.

I also enjoy Mary Roach - she has a great gift of being able to convey information while being really entertaining in the process. Stiff is my favorite of hers, but I also really enjoyed Packing For Mars.

In Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, Stephen Batchelor wrote of visiting the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, three decades before they were reduced to a pile of rocks.

"From the monk's cell, hewn out of the sandstone cliff centuries earlier, where I spent my days idly smoking a potent blend of marijuana, hashish, and tobacco, a narrow passage led to a dark inner staircase that I would illuminate by striking matches. The steep rock steps climbed to an opening that brought me out, via a narrow ledge, onto the smooth dome of the giant Buddha's head, which fell away dizzily on all sides to the ground one hundred and eighty feet below. On the ceiling of the niche above were faded fragments of painted Buddhas and bodhisattvas. I feared looking up at them for too long lest I lose my balance, slip, and plummet earthward. As my eyes became used to the fierce sunlight, I would gaze out onto the fertile valley of Bamiyan, a patchwork of fields interspersed with low, flat-roofed farmhouses, which lay stretched before me. It was the summer of 1972. This was my first encounter with the remains of a Buddhist civilization, one that had ended with Mahmud of Ghazni's conquest of Afghanistan in the eleventh century.

Like others on the hippie trail to India, I thought of myself as a traveler rather than a mere tourist, someone on an indeterminate quest rather than a journey with a prescribed beginning and end. Had I been asked what I was seeking, I doubt my answer would have been very coherent. I had no destination, either of the geographical or spiritual kind. I was simply "on the road," in that anarchic and ecstatic sense celebrated by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other role models I revered at the time.

I enjoyed nothing more than simply being on the way to somewhere else. I was quite content to peer for hours through the grimy, grease-smeared windows of a rattling bus with cooped chickens in the aisle, observing farmers bent over as they toiled in fields,women carrying babies on their backs, barefoot children playing in the dust, old men seated in the shade smoking hookahs, and all the shabby little towns and villages at which we stopped for sweet tea and unleavened bread." https://www.amazon.com/Confession-Buddhist-Atheist-Stephen-Batchelor/dp/0385527071

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While the adventures of past pilgrims are inspiring, other types of journeys are impressive as well:

Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman's Quest for Enlightenment https://www.amazon.com/Cave-Snow-Western-Womans-Enlightenment/dp/0747543895

The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Two-Hands-Clapping-Education/dp/0520232607

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I'm a fan of time-travel, and history, and I was completely sucked into it. She's got a number of books in the same universe- some comedic, some very dramatic, but The Doomsday Book is my favourite.

If you're at all interested in high fantasy, I'd recommend either Tigana or The Fionovar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. You either love his prose style or hate it, but if you love it, it will definitely take you away.

If you like SF and haven't read them, I'd try either Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos, or David Brin's Uplift Series (I'd skip Sundiver until later, and start with Startide Rising.)

If you're looking for more light-hearted/quirky, I'd try Christopher Moore- either Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal , or The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. If you're into a mix of horror/sf/comedy, try John Dies at the End. They're not deep, but they're fun.

Non-fiction- if you haven't read it yet, Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is very difficult to put down. If you're travelling with someone who doesn't mind you looking up every few pages and saying "did you know this, this is awesome, wow-how interesting", I'd go for Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants or Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life. They're all very informative, fun, interesting books, but they're even better if you can share them while you're reading them.

To quote the author of one of my favorite books (maybe not the most relevant to most people's interests here, but I found it immensely entertaining, and it rekindled my old interest in martial arts)

>What does it feel like to hit a man so hard you knock him out? It feels like Christmastime... Male violence is not an aberration, we are hardwired to enjoy it.

Probably, there are guys out there who have basically no inborn interest in violence, just as a matter of natural psychological variation, but I think they're probably far more the exception than the rule.

Have you ever read American Shaolin, and if so, what were your thoughts on it? Did it influence your decision to make the trip?

One of the bits I liked was when a rival school challenged the kids school to a contest between their best students. The master sent the American to fight, not because he was the best (he wasn't). He just wanted to make the point that his style/school was so good that even a foreigner would win.

You're right on. I'm starting by talking about memory palaces (also called "the method of the loci"), which are apparently first referenced in Rhetorica Ad Herenium a book attributed to Cicero. If you're interested in the Medieval revival of the memory palace arts, check out Frances Yates, especially her book The Art of Memory.

Matteo Ricci used the method of the loci to help Chinese students study for their imperial examinations. If you're interested in learning more about him, read Jonathan Spence's The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. Also, for something more contemporary, Jonathan Foer's book Moonwalking with Einstein discusses how memory palace techniques are still used to win memory competitions.

If you enjoy feeling what it is like to live a completely different life from a non-Western perspective, you will like this film. Kurosawa based the movie on the book written by Dersu's Russian friend.

This was fun :)

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Bonus - hmmmm, this?

I freaking love Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman and I read it in high school. Would read it again. So as long as he is 13 or older, he should enjoy this book.

Or this section of this site might help you. :)

Or you could get him Run, Fatboy, Run on DVD.

1. El Narco is about the Mexican drug cartel. I'm from Central California so this is a very interesting and important issue to me!
   
   
2. I read "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer. It's about an ascent on Mt. Everest gone wrong. SO amazingly good and well-written!
   
   
3. Infinite Lake.
   
   
4. I have one!
   
   Thanks for the contest :D

Narr, this be tasteless bilge. Ye be joking 'bout the starvin' death of 30-55 million people, not just yer splitcoins. It wouldn't even be funny if WuJihan be a commie, but he ain't and neither is anyone else runnin' China, and fer good reason. If ye wants ter educate yourself about why, and what ye be making jokes about, then read this. If ye can sit through a real book instead of a website, then read this. If ye don't care for the history of the Chinese civilisation and it's people, and just see them as a source of commie-nostalgia jokes, then ye can feel free to down vote this pirate's reprimand like a cur, and begone back to playin' fallout where ye can gun down Chinese commies without thinkin'

this isn't fiction, but its a great read if you're interested in communist china and how women were and have been treated in china. I'm part Chinese, and it was kinda required reading:

Wild Swans by Jung Chang

https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Swans-Three-Daughters-China/dp/0743246985

It follows three generations in the same chinese family, showing maos impact on chinese life as a woman.

Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer

A fantastic book, I've reread it a few times. Jon Krakauer does a great job telling this story, and he talks about the kind of things you don't normally hear about Everest, just like what you're seeing in OP's image.

Some of my favorites:

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (non-fiction)

Last of the Breed by Louis L'Amour (fiction)

The Purification Ceremony by Mark Sullivan (fiction)

Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta (fiction)

The first two recommendations focus more on the survival aspect than the last two, but I loved all of them.

Hannibal by Thomas Harris had a very, um, memorable memory palace in it. IIRC, Harris based Hannibal's palace on the ones described in The Memory Palace of Mateo Ricci, by Jonathan Spence, which is hard to find but interesting. The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas (yes, that Jerry Lucas) is another great source of mnemonic hacks.

American Shaolin is a great autobiographical story of a white kid from the suburbs who drops out and goes to the Shaolin temple to live for several years and train under the monks. Recommend for a quick fun read.

I enjoyed Ed Viesturs book: No Shortcuts to the Top, it was a self focused memoir, yet he shares his views and opinions in a way that came off genuine and down to earth. It is probably different than something you are writing since the focus of the book is entirely on something that made him very famous (First American to climb all 8000m peaks)

I like John Krakauer's books. Into Thin Air was a great firsthand account of a major disaster. It has some controversy, but like anything else firsthand accounts rely on the writers memory of events and those can change wildly from person to person.

Into the Wild is obviously another one of his more famous works. I liked it writing style and level of research, but I disliked the man the book was written about with a passion. Hardly the writers fault there though.

In China Xi is actually returning to less socially liberal, while trying to stay economically liberal. Brookings has a piece on him here. It is from September of last year, and even during that time Xi and Li has moved more in consolidation of power than previous leaders (sans Mao) and has been cracking down on dissenters, online commenters and limiting freedoms inside China^2.

Many dissidents are locked up and their speech is very limited, they are taken away for weeks at a time in order for them to become 'compliant'

He has also reduced corruption inside China, which still in the days of the communist market, and now mainly operates on a form of social capitol called guanxi. Parties used to be thrown for local leaders with banquets and gifts, which are now very frowned upon and publishable.

Now most companies to try and gain guanxi will have tea in the office of the local minister. So their have been many changes provided by the new administration that are good, but the personal freedoms and expression have been taken away in a more 'hardliner' fashion. Which could be seen as 'right'. Labor disputes are arising in China because the economy is slowing down.

Under communism everyone had a job even if they stood around all day in the factory doing nothing.

China is now trying to move to a new digital age with it's workers, but is having a hard time growing innovation inside China since for many years independent thought was [not taught inside China.] (https://hbr.org/2014/03/why-china-cant-innovate)

Couldn't comment when I made this, but if you haven't read Wild Swans by her, you should. It provides a very good narrative for 3 different time periods (pre-communism/revolution/communism) and actual experiences/eye-witness viewpoints. I read it while I was studying Chinese politics, and it opened my eyes. I know this article linked is brief, but Jung Chang is a good writer. While the validity of parts of her other book (Mao: The Unknown story) is debated, she is a worthwhile author to read if you are interested in China.

The link to the guardian article is more informative, but the new book is about empress dowager Cixi
>Her "groundbreaking" new biography will "comprehensively overturn … the conventional view of Cixi as a deeply conservative and cruel despot", said Jonathan Cape, and show how she abolished foot-binding, developed foreign trade and diplomacy, and revolutionised China's education system.

Neither author was wrong, they were just targeted at different systems.

Read 1984 and then Lian Heng's Son of the Revolution, a first hand account of a man growing up in Maoist China. Be prepared to literally drop your jaw at how accurate Orwell was.

Then read Brave New World and turn on MTV for five minutes. The next time somebody tells you either book is overrated, laugh and walk away.

I loved reading Dersu the trapper. The book focuses on a native trapper in the Taiga. And there is also an excellent movie adaptation called Dersu Uzala which was directed by Akira Kurosawa.

Subject?

In my opinion the above-mentioned Foner is unequivocally the best introduction survey-level piece on American History, and it sees much use in college classroom.

For a smattering of random subjects:

Mark Ravina's The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori is a fascinating character study of the titular man whose own life and career arc within the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the rise of the Meiji Empire in Japan. Dramatically better than the awful film of the same name and (very, very) loosely based on the same man.

Liang Heng's Son of the Revolution is an autobiography of the son of an intellectual growing up in Maoist China. Great book, also very useful to teach angry people that 1984 is a critique of the future of state socialism, not something to be applied to any nanny-state policy they disagree with (and really, Brave New World is significantly better at critiquing Western Society.).

Christopher R. Browning's Ordinary Men is an account of a group of Polish policeman who made the decision to participate in the extermination orders of the Holocaust despite having the option of recusing themselves. Disturbing story, interesting as a study of group psychology.

All of these books are filled with accurate information, but are narrative-driven and accessible to most.

Everest is climbed in several stages, with a few day's rest at each camp. The final summit push is a single day up-and-back hike. The base camp for the summit hike is just below 8000 meters. That's where the "death zone" starts - that's high enough that there isn't enough oxygen to support a human, so you need to get in and out ASAP.

The people who die do so because they plonk themselves down at the side of the trail in the Death Zone and don't have the energy or brainpower to get back up, mostly due to hypoxia. Everyone else who's going by them is also maxing out their physical and mental abilities just to haul their OWN body around. Providing meaningful help to someone else just isn't usually possible, because you would BOTH die. About all you can do is hand them another oxygen bottle and hope.

This is also why nobody brings the bodies back down. The physical effort to move your own body is all an individual is capable of up there. Source: Jon Krakauer's excellent book "Into Thin Air".

>Are you saying that those conditions are so bad that there was no chance the guy would have survived?

Yes

>Are you saying that those conditions would have put whoever tried to help him in physical danger?

Yep

Lots of experienced climbers passed him that day, mostly sherpas who had summitted many times before. They knew there was no hope.

A real rescue attempt of a frozen person like that would have taken days to get him down to base camp. Dozens of people would be required plus all the oxygen tanks and water and food to keep all those people alive. It's very probable someone else would be injured in the attempt and that even if he was alive when they started he would be alive at the bottom.

Really, I'm not trying to be glib or dismissive, but read some books about Everest disasters like Into Thin Air or The Climb.

The old RK surgery had some very strange effects in high altitude climbs. "Left for Dead," is an account of a climber who had vision challenges on Mount Everest. Another account, "Into Thin Air" details the experience of another climber related to eye surgery.

Granted Rainier is not Everest, but climbers need to be mindful that some eye surgeries can cause some climbers problems at high altitudes. Certainly not all surgeries and certainly not all climbers, but it is always good to ask your eye surgeon and other climbers who have had that particular surgery before a serious climb. Rainier is a climb in its own right, but is often a prelude for this list

Prob not the same book, but Wild Swans by Jung Chang is a great book about life under Mao Zedong.

The story that the article introduces is in the book Country Driving by Peter Hessler. It's a really good book. It made me want to live in China along with other books like Iron & Silk by Mark Salzman and Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux.

Yeah, I'm a talented actor who has starred in several important movies.

You can read about it in my book:

http://www.amazon.com/Struggling-Move-China-David-Williams/dp/7119050877

There are a number of books like that. American Shaolin and Tapped Out by Matthew Polly are both entertaining reads about martial arts training. Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman is another. Zen in the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams.

American Shaolin true story of a (white) guy who dropped out of Princeton to go to Shaolin to study kungfu and ended up winning second or third place in a Chinese kungfu competition

I agree with this list of Top 10 Documentaries on Mountaineering. Not exactly on point for what you wanted. Not sure it really exists at this point.

​

I really liked Meru. If you don't mind reading here are a few books that got me into it:

​

Into Thin Air.

No Shortcuts to the Top.

The Climb.

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Training Books:

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Training for New Alpinism

Climbing: Training for Peak Performance.

"Wild Swans" by Jung Chang is a tri-generational memoir spanning across some of the most interesting (and turbulent) times in China's recent history. The entire book was captivating enough that I've been meaning to re-read it for some time now. I'd highly recommend it!

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

"When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10,1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin the perilous descent from 29,028 feet (roughly the cruising altitude of an Airbus jetliner), twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly to the top, unaware that the sky had begun to roil with clouds...

Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed Outside journalist and author of the bestselling Into the Wild. Taking the reader step by step from Katmandu to the mountain's deadly pinnacle, Krakauer has his readers shaking on the edge of their seat. Beyond the terrors of this account, however, he also peers deeply into the myth of the world's tallest mountain. What is is about Everest that has compelled so many poeple--including himself--to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense?

Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement."

And when you want to go the other way: Blind Descent by James M. Tabor.

"In 2004, two great scientist-explorers attempted to find the bottom of the world. American Bill Stone took on the vast, deadly Cheve Cave in southern Mexico. Ukrainian Alexander Klimchouk targeted Krubera, a freezing nightmare of a supercave in the war-torn former Soviet republic of Georgia. Both men spent months almost two vertical miles deep, contending with thousand-foot drops, raging whitewater rivers, monstrous waterfalls, mile-long belly crawls, and the psychological horrors produced by weeks in absolute darkness, beyond all hope of rescue. Based on his unprecedented access to logs and journals as well as hours of personal interviews, James Tabor has crafted a thrilling exploration of man’s timeless urge to discover—and of two extraordinary men whose pursuit of greatness led them to the heights of triumph and the depths of tragedy. Blind Descent is an unforgettable addition to the classic literature of true-life adventure, and a testament to human survival and endurance."

Hope it helps.
http://greprepclub.com/forum/free-gre-practice-tests-506.html?fl=menu
Was told to read this http://www.amazon.com/World-Order-Henry-Kissinger/dp/1594206147
and I don't know if this is worth the money
https://gre.magoosh.com/?utm_source=elitesem&utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_campaign=gre_prospecting&utm_term=59745

I wouldn't ascribe it to something as nebulous as culture. The lesson the CCP "learned" after Tiananmen was that signs of weakness or bending from top party leadership and the security forces encouraged the protestors to get out of hand and "forced" them to eventually take "regrettable measures" to restore order. In their eyes they won't make that mistake again by ceding or showing public disunity. Zhao Zhiyang, the premier at the time of Tiananmen who ended up in house arrest for the rest of his life, spoke about it in his secretly taped memoirs

There was an IMAX crew on the mountain on the same trip. They had to abandon their documentary to try and save people's lives. Eventually, they put the footage together and made a doc about the disaster. So, same event, two accounts.

Hereis the book: [http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/0385494785/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382961090&sr=1-1&keywords=into+thin+air]

You can get it used for one cent plus 4 bucks shipping. It was a huge seller and trust me: Is is a VERY good read. You will feel chilled to the bone reading it.

It's not a history textbook, rather a family memoir, but I assume you've read Wild Swans? It's really good and covers this whole period.

Agree. The Clipper Round the World Race is the Mt. Everest of sailing, and by Mt. Everest, I mean the [Into Thin Air] (https://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/0385494785) version. An interesting article on the race: 40,000 miles of open ocean — and a boat full of rookies

holidays, birthdays, etc...

Here is a book I recommend: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hymn-Tiger-Mother-Chua/dp/0143120581

Zhao ZiYangs autobiography type book about those times is amazing.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439149399/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_xYsnzb15GXSXD

this is an incredible description of how these ideas take hold of a person's mind, and lead society to destroy itself whilst believing it is doing good. this book humbled me. as alien as chinese culture is to my own, everything she wrote felt intuitive, personal, as if i was there and as if the people around me could and might do the very same. a very, very emotionally touching description of a seminal moment of human history - and possibly a stark warning of where we might be currently headed.

if you are interested in readin about the udnerlying pschological disorder that leads to this phenomenon, I would argue it has been perfectly described by the genius that is karen horney, as I mention here. that book too is incredible; it has really made me a better person and given me a lot more compassion for people's bad behaviour and fuckups (because it could easily have happenened to me too, through accident of birth or situation). there is a pdf floating about of this book, if you are interested.

I found out about Brandon Sanderson from this sub and really enjoyed these two series:

Mistborn

The Stormlight Archive

I also can't recommend Jon Krakauer enough.

Yep, you sure can. Read this book to learn all about it. American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China by Matthew Polly.

Thanks! I guess you mean this book, right?

I'd start by recommending you read Georges Dreyfus's book The Sound of Two Hands Clapping (http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Two-Hands-Clapping-Lilienthal/dp/0520232607). Dreyfus was the first westerner to earn a Geshe degree, and also has a PhD, so he does a nice job of straddling the two worlds of the monastic and the academic.

My next recommendation would be to study for a year or two at a western dharma center (such as Karme Choling in Vermont) where you can begin your education in English, rather than having to learn Tibetan first.

Iron and Silk (book version)
Iron and Silk (Movie version)

It's the story of Mark Salzman, a martial artist who flew to China in '82 to teach English. It features Salzman himself, as well as Master Pan Qingfu (now known as The Iron Fist of Ontario). This movie touches me as a martial artist and talks about what it means to train the way us 'old school' guys did. It is one of my absolutely favorite movies of all time - odd for what is essentially a documentary.

if anyone wants to read a good book about this time in history, read wild swans http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Swans-Three-Daughters-China/dp/0743246985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261763228&sr=1-1

I recommend Wild Swans if you want to read about Mao's time

http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Swans-Three-Daughters-China/dp/0743246985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422211501&sr=8-1&keywords=wild+swans

It's from the perspective of a Chinese woman whose parents were both staunch Communists, and details what they went through during the Cultural Revolution, and before.

It's really eye opening

http://www.thebeijinger.com/forum/2009/08/25/struggling-us-move-china

https://www.amazon.com/Struggling-Move-China-David-Williams/product-reviews/7119050877

Could you imagine if Angela Merkel published this book, how the exact same white guys who go to Asia would react? "Why German women make great girlfriends for unemployed Muslim men" published by the German government. This would be their "smoking gun" for the Kalergi plan.

>My Generation's Best Chance Is Socialism

No it isn't.

Capitalism's primary issue is that it allows for a relatively small group of people to exert an incredible amount of influence over society for their own benefit. Socialism's problem is very similar, but it concentrates that group to an absolutely tiny one and gives them far more unilateral power over the populace.

If you think Socialism is the answer, you need to read this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Son-Revolution-Liang-Heng/dp/0394722744

I know exactly the kind of mother you're talking about, and I'm having a very similar battle with mine. I can't type out a detailed post right now, but I'll quickly link you to this famous book and even this tangentially-related article. I can't find my resources on emotional abuse right now, but that's definitely the term you need to type into a search engine and read into.

you know what book you would like? this book. http://www.amazon.com/The-Memory-Palace-Matteo-Ricci/dp/0140080988

That's true but they want our American money. Many of these programs are actually backed by the Chinese gov. Check out this autobiography of a guy that did this in the 1980's.
http://www.amazon.com/American-Shaolin-Flying-Buddhist-Odyssey/dp/1592402623

If it's at all like American Shaolin it will involve a hefty tuition.

I read a memoir called American Shaolin of exactly that; worthwhile read.

Touching the Void

I'll second The Push

Into Thin Air

http://multipitchclimbing.com/ is probably my top climbing resource ever

You can watch a few Reel Rock films

Also, you can hang out on the Mountain Project forums. There's some gold from rgold and then everybody else.

Suzanne Collins "Hunger Games" trilogy...or, since he likes martial arts, a book called American Shaolin by Matthew Polly.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Shaolin-Flying-Buddhist-Odyssey/dp/1592402623

Wild Swans by Jung Chang

It actually covers the twentieth century in total, told through the eyes of the author, her mother and her grandmother. The cultural revolution is covered too.

He could be the patron saint of mnemonics! http://www.amazon.de/The-Memory-Palace-Matteo-Ricci/dp/0140080988

It was Tuesday the 9th, which would likely be Henry Kissinger's 'World Order'.

http://www.amazon.ca/World-Order-Henry-Kissinger/dp/1594206147

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hillary-clinton-reviews-henry-kissingers-world-order/2014/09/04/b280c654-31ea-11e4-8f02-03c644b2d7d0_story.html

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1936488868?pc_redir=1408890437&robot_redir=1

http://www.amazon.ca/World-Order-Henry-Kissinger/dp/1594206147

The book in question is most likely one of those two, set to be released this Tuesday.

I read in a book that they retract their testicles into their body, and tuck their penis into their waistband.

The book in question https://www.amazon.com/American-Shaolin-Flying-Buddhist-Odyssey/dp/B001FWXRF2

Some resources:

http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-voices/16th-and-17th-century-ignatian-voices/matteo-ricci-sj

http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Palace-Matteo-Ricci/dp/0140080988

http://jesuits.org/news-detail?TN=NEWS-20140219034957

https://www.lib.umn.edu/bell/riccimap/matteoricci

https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hymn-Tiger-Mother-Chua/dp/0143120581 this is her book.

Into Thin Air fits your bill.

Do it

Wild Swans by Jung Chang

> ο Bullman επικεντρώνεται σε πολιτικές [...] πρόοδος είχε γίνει επί Δημοκρατικού Κόμματος

Αυτό είναι και το πρόβλημα όμως. Η ρητορική έχει σημασία. Γιατί ο κόσμος - ειδικά όταν μιλάμε για λαϊκιστικό όχλο - παρασύρεται και χειραγωγείτε. Όταν ο σοσιαλδημοκράτης ανοίγει συμβολικά όπως λες το πράσινο φως στο Μεσόγειο αυτό δείχνει και προθέσεις και κατεύθυνση. Ο Γάλλος πολίτης θα σου πει "αυτή είναι η κατεύθυνση που θες; Ακόμα και να τους περιορίσεις πρακτικά μου ηθικά μου λες να ανοίξουμε την πόρτα; Εγώ την θέλω κλειστή. Le Pen."

> Παρόλα αυτά, στην πολιτική παίζει πάντα ρόλο το φαίνεσθαι, και δέχομαι ότι μερικές δηλώσεις τορπιλίζουν τον πολιτικό διάλογο.

Ακριβώς αυτό.

> Δεν σημαίνει ότι δεν πατάνε πάνω σε υπαρκτά προβλήματα, όμως το ότι είναι αυτοί που είναι στην καλύτερη θέση να εκμεταλλευτούν την κατάσταση πολιτικά

Οπότε η λύση ποια είναι; Λύνουμε τα προβλήματα και έτσι στερούμε το πάτημα στη Ρωσία. Χωρίς αυτά τα προβλήματα τι θα σου πει η Ρωσία; "Η ΕΕ είναι του Σατανά"; Όταν η ΕΕ αρχίσει να αντιμετωπίζει αυτά τα προβλήματα οι ίδιοι οι Ευρωπαίοι - ακόμα και οι ακροδεξιοί - θα την δουν ως όχημα. Γιατί θα απαντά στα ερωτήματα τους. Θα συμβάλει θετικά στις ζωές τους. Δεν θα τους κουνάει το δάχτυλο όπως κάνει τώρα και θα τους λέει "τα προβλήματα σας δεν υπάρχουν. Ελάτε να συζητήσουμε για τον κατώτατο μισθό". Ξέρεις που τον έχουν γραμμένο τον κατώτατο μισθό για παράδειγμα οι Σουηδοί όταν οι κόρες τους κυκλοφορούν έξω και ταυτόχρονα υπάρχει και αυτό το στατιστικό.

> ο Τραμπ θα έπρεπε να είχε φύγει χθες, αποτελεί υπαρξιακή απειλή για την αμερικανική ηγεμονία. Δεν πρόκειται τόσο περί υστερίας όσο περί βάσιμου πανικού

Το Αμερικανικό σύστημα είναι έτσι δομημένο ώστε ο Πρόεδρος να μην μπορεί να ξεφύγει ηγεμονικά. Για παράδειγμα ο Πρόεδρος της Γαλλίας έχει πολύ περισσότερες εξουσίες στη χώρα τους απ' ότι ο Αμερικανός Πρόεδρος στις ΗΠΑ. Αν κάνεις τον διαχωρισμό μεταξύ του φαίνεσθαι και του είναι όπως είπες πριν θα δεις ότι ο Trump κάνει πράγματα συμβατικά με αυτά που έκαναν Πρόεδροι πριν από αυτών. Αλλά όπως είπα και εγώ πριν η ρητορική μετράει. Και δυστυχώς η ρητορική του είναι κατώτερη των περιστάσεων. Θα φύγει και αυτός όταν έρθει η σειρά του. Και χαίρομαι που οι Δημοκρατικοί επιτέλους κατεβάζουν και μερικά σοβαρά πρόσωπα το 2020 όπως ο Buttigied. Αλλά μέχρι να φύγει ο Trump δεν χρειάζεται να τρελαθούμε.

> Οι ΗΠΑ έχουν διαφοροποιηθεί σημαντικά από τους ευρωπαίους τους εταίρους, στο εμπόριο και στην ελευθερία εμπορίου

Οι Ευρωπαίοι έχουν ελεύθερο εμπόριο στο εσωτερικό της ΕΕ αλλά σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο καταφεύγουν σε προστατευτικές πρακτικές. Όπως κάθε χώρα άλλωστε στο ένα ή στο άλλο επίπεδο. Και οι ΗΠΑ έχουν και μια δικαιολογία παραπάνω για τον προστατευτισμό και αυτήν είναι η γεωπολιτική διαμάχη με την Κίνα. Η εξαιρετική σειρά ντοκιμαντέρ Frontline που βγάζει το PBS νομίζω πρόσφατα έκανε ένα επεισόδιο γι' αυτό αν ενδιαφέρεσαι.

> έναν ηγέτη ο οποίος ουκ ολίγες φορές έχει αμφισβητήσει την σημασία του ΝΑΤΟ

Ο Νορβηγός γενικός γραμματέας του ΝΑΤΟ έχει ευχαριστήσει πολλές φορές των Trump για τον τρόπο με τον οποίο χειρίζεται το ΝΑΤΟ. Κυρίως γιατί ενισχύει το ΝΑΤΟ στην Ευρώπη καθώς και τις δαπάνες πολλών χωρών που απλά καβαλούσαν το κύμα χωρίς να πληρώνουν. Φαίνεσθαι και είναι που λέγαμε.

> πλέον αμφισβητούν συμφωνίες που οι ίδιοι διαπραγματεύτηκαν και συνυπέγραψαν, συμφωνίες οι οποίες είναι υπέρ ευρωπαϊκών συμφερόντων, συμφωνίες σαν την Συνθήκη του Παρισιού για την Κλιματική Αλλαγή σε πιο "ανύποπτο" επίπεδο, και σαν αυτήν του Ιράν τώρα.

Η Συνθήκη του Παρισίου όντως κακό να φύγει. Η Συμφωνία στο Ιράν καλά έκανε και έφυγε. Σε παραπέμπω σε αυτό το βιβλίο του Henry Kissinger. Έχει ένα κεφάλαιο για το Ιράν που δείχνει ότι είναι ένα καθεστώς που όχι απλά δεν τηρεί τις συμφωνίες αλλά είναι θρησκευτικά φανατισμένο και ταγμένο στην καταστροφή των απίστων.

> Πλέον οι ΗΠΑ αποχωρούν από συμφωνίες ελεύθερου εμπορίου και αμφισβητούν θεσμούς σαν τον ΠΟΕ, και βασικά στοιχεία του multilateralism.

Οι ΗΠΑ ποτέ δεν ήταν multilateral. Προσπερνάν ακόμα και τον ΟΗΕ αν χρειαστεί για να δράσουν όπως νομίζουν (βλέπε Κόσοβο). Καμία ηγεμονική χώρα δεν είναι ποτέ multilateral.

> Ξεκαθαρίζω ότι είμαι, και εγώ, ευρωπαϊστής και ατλαντιστής: όμως το Περόν μοντέλο δεν είναι βιωσιμο(εδώ αν καταλαβαίνω καλά συμφωνούμε σχεδόν όλοι) και οι δράσεις των ΗΠΑ δεν φαίνονται να είναι βοηθητικές για μια θετική επίλυση του προβλήματος αυτού.

Και εγώ Ευρωπαϊστής. Και εγώ Ατλαντιστής. Και συμφωνώ ότι το παρών μοντέλο δε δουλεύει. Αλλά εγώ πιστεύω η πηγή του κακού είναι στην Ευρώπη και όχι στις δράσεις των ΗΠΑ. Οι ΗΠΑ κάνουν ότι πάντα έκαναν.

Maybe Into Thin Air?

I'm not Chinese, but that does match stories I've heard about the way Chinese people raise their kids unfortunately. But whether or not they should raise their children this way is something that even the Chinese are beginning to doubt.

I think a good way to subtly argue this point with your friend is to buy her a copy of the book Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. The author describes how she tried to raise her own daughters in the typical Chinese manner and the resulting heartaches the led her to change her mind.

> I don't like the term NWO either.

George Bush Sr. does.

So does Henry Kissinger.

the list does not include Into Thin Air, which makes it wrong. And please, a handmaids tale?

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" - It's the memoirs of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. Despite his genius, the book is not technical in any way and instead focuses on the bizarre, outlandish, and behind-the-scenes moments of his life.

Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer's white-knuckle, first-hand account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.

The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. This Book is about the life of Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit priest who traveled to China to convert oriental people to Catholicism. It deals with cultural shock basically, some fights between Dominicans and Franciscans, and talks a little about the method of Loci.

Nothing about Orders in Europe, or the life of monks in Occident.
It is about a Mission in China.
Quite interesting!

Title: World Order - Kissinger

Summary: (goodreads): Henry Kissinger offers in World Order a deep meditation on the roots of international harmony and global disorder. Drawing on his experience as one of the foremost statesmen of the modern era—advising presidents, traveling the world, observing and shaping the central foreign policy events of recent decades—Kissinger now reveals his analysis of the ultimate challenge for the twenty-first century: how to build a shared international order in a world of divergent historical perspectives, violent conflict, proliferating technology, and ideological extremism.


Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.ca/World-Order-Henry-Kissinger/dp/1594206147

Into Thin Air, A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster. That was a gripping motherfucking book.

This last week I watched Everest about the 1996 Mt. Everest tragedy and I've been obsessed with it since.

I've watched 3 documentaries about it and currently reading/listening to Into Thin Air

Pretty haunting to be stranded at the peak of the world (29,000 feet high. For perspective, planes cruise around 33,000 feet high) where the air is so thin and lacking oxygen but you're trekking up near-vertical terrain in -10^o F temperature. Then a storm comes and you're hours from camp. You can't stop or you'll freeze to death but you can't see because everything is white.

All set in or over the communist era.

China:

Wild Swans

Life and Death in Shanghai

Russia:

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

The Long Walk.

In the Heart of the Sea was excellent. I'm also a fan of similarly harrowing nonfiction. Here are a few others to check out:

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is about a disaster on Everest. Lots of freezing to death in this one.

Alive by Piers Paul Read is about a plane crash in the Andes. Features both freezing to death and eating each other.

> Well, so long "buried alive," you're no longer number one on my list-of-worst-ways-to-die list.

Read The Climb and (as much as I dislike Krakauer) Into Thin Air. I read them back to back (read Into Thin Air first) and it gave me nightmares.

Both books chronicle the events that took place on Everest in May 1996. Krakauer was there to write an article or a different book; Boukreev was there as a hired guide who was using the trip to fund his next personal ascent on another peak.

I'm not sure which part it was that got to me the most; probably Rob Hall being patched through from his radio to base camp to a satellite phone to his pregnant wife in New Zealand, while he sat just below the South Summit freezing to death - as everyone on the mountain listened on their radios.

There is a lot more censorship than people are aware of. You can't actually discuss censorship on the internet with ease, at all. Reddit was 'co-opted' around 2011, when Aaron Swartz was constrained by the FBI and 'murdered' as his parents have put it.

Here is one simple video showing their support of Hillary Clinton.

However, it is much, much deeper. Eric Schmidt, the ABC CEO I believe (Google's newly formed parent company), is part of an ULTRA elite group called the Bilderbergs.

The Bilderbergs function as an international Senate, and operate under Swiss rules of order (no records, no recording, 100% code of silence). A little different from the 'transparent government' that most preach. All the same, it gets worse.

The Bilderberg Group was founded by Henry Kissinger. This is why Hillary 'mistakenly' praised Kissinger, he is a beloved Bilderberg (though he is despised by most American people). Now here is where it gets a little whacky. JFK was at odds with Kissinger, over his controversial tactics of: Political Assassination, Control of Public Media, and Poisoning population groups to create chaos and disorder. As such, JFK wanted groups like the Bilderberg shut down, along with a host of other 'open but secret' societies that influence and control government. Well as we all know, he was assassinated, and this group was not shut down.

Now what is so special about the Bilderberg Group, and what is their function? Well, for one thing they have the finances to book entire 4 or 5 star luxury hotels for a week at a time, without compensation (members only pay for travel, I think). In addition to renting out the entire hotel (and presumably bringing in their own staff) the Bilderberg also receive special permissions from whichever country they meet to use 'military style' law enforcement, regarding privacy and secrecy of their discussion. A level of enforcement normally reserved for things such as the Olympics, etc.

In addition, their topics (that they post) of discussion are a bit odd, such as US Elections. There are ~150 members, 2 from the US (2 per country, typically), and they, as a group, discuss what should happen in the US Election cycle.

Another topic of discussion was the rise of social media and the 'diversification of power', and thus began their censorship campaigns, and the death of Aaron Swartz (a Jew, who hated the push of false narratives by news media, people powered political activist). Aaron, for example, felt that the 'way out' was to ride around on bikes tossing out pamphlets, because he knew the internet was being censored.

All the same, Eric Schmidt is not only a big supporter of Hillary Clinton's but he is an important member of the Bilderbergs. Other members include the Presidents of a host of foreign nations, and other titans of industry (particularly steel manufacturing, banking, pharmacy, & media). Their role is pretty plain: If you can control industry, then you can control a country, and that through separating people by artificial borders, while working together as an international coalition, the group is able to out leverage Democratically supported governments, like that of the US, Canada, Brazil, or what have you. Eric Schmidt's role is to be one of the leaders in 'Google Censorship', and social media technology to push the agenda.

I hate to think, but Microsoft 10, and the rise of pervasive technology is likely part of the orchestration. Privacy is dead, or nearly, as it applies to computers connected to the internet.

To the deniers :D - Bilderberg - Swiss Holocaust - Torture - Black Death - Future of Jews in Switzerland - More History

Basic Economics - Thomas Sowell

Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age - Duncan Watts

Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means - Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Networks - Mark Buchanan

The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles - Robin Baker

Motley Crue: The Dirt - Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band - Neil Strauss

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - Malcolm Gladwell

The Wisdom of Crowds - James Surowiecki

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster - Jon Krakauer

The Climb - Anatoli Boukreev

Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner - Dean Karnazes