Dig Deeper Community Forum

i think i'm more comfortable with making a literature thread in phpbb than in lemmy anyways...
post and discuss books or authors you've read recently, preferably (but not mandatory) related to the topics covered on the main website (i.e., tech and society (conspiracy, food)) and preferably with a mini review, summary or quotes from said book. not sure how receptive this will be but it's the effort that counts
you're advised to use something like library genesis (libgen.li) to download these books

Darren Allen - 33 Myths of the System
Darren Allen is a UK anarchist, as can be inferred from the second-to-last chapter in this book, who writes radical and scathing social commentaries and critiques, as shown in this book, where he dissects certain social myths such as: money, competition, truth, freedom, nature, progress, authority, science, mental illness, and the 23 others. Each section also has footnotes referring to other related books and authors for each section for future reading, such as Ivan Illich, David Graeber...

Quotes:
"No matter how spiritually enlightened, cheerful, generous or creative you may be, if you have to live in the towns and cities of the world, ... it is eroded, cheapened and co-opted by its presence in the system."
"On the other hand it is useless to change the world while people remain essenrially fearful,confused, violent and selfish. Not that people are essentially bad; but anxiety, insensitivity, cruelty and egoism are nearly always successful at resisting the healthy, the natural, the convivial and the fair."
"the system tells us that 'everything is natural,' which is to say, nothing is natural"
"'Capitalism made your laptop,' apparently. The dishonest fiction that a tiny class of exploiting workers is responsible for the work of nature and of labour, is not mentioned. The routine conflation of capitalism with production, by which the owners of land and labour - those who use others to generate wealth - are always referred to as 'producers', cannot fit onto a car-sticker, or in a tweet."
"The designers of modern school were chillingly explicit about what school is supposed to do. Self-knowledge, self-confidence, peace-of-mind, sensitivity, spontaneity and autonomy do not figure; indeed they are existential threats of the highest order which must be repeatedly exterminated."
"Today such baseless myths include, 'schizophrenia,' (a hypothetical disorder which no test exists to detect and which many psychiatrists do not believe in), 'attention deficit hyperactivity disorder' (an inability or disinclination to be schooled), 'oppositional defiant disorder' (refusal to accept unjustified restraint and fraudlent authority), 'narcissistic personality disorder' (anyone we don't like), 'explosive disorder' (because it's useful to pathologise people who are angry with us), 'bipolar disorder' (extreme moodiness) and the smorgasbord of fetishised phobias available to justify not having to clean the bathroom or shit in the woods."
"Modern capitalism is essentially, a pharmacratic, or a medicalising system."

Other recommendations:
- Book (2011) is one I didn't particularly get or take much interest in as it focuses more on being humorous, but its "How to Brainwas The World" sections have amazing quotes on childhood, education and work, analyzing the tragedy of the common man.
- The Fire Sermon: The Unbelivable & Unacceptable Truth

A friend recommended me the book "None dare call it education" by John Stormer recently. I read a bit of it (sorry if I'm breaking the rules by not finishing it yet, but anyway...), and here are my impressions so far:

The book is very American conservatism specific, and most of the complaints don't seem to apply anywhere else (I don't recall learning "inventive spelling", in my own schools, for example). Already very early on you learn that the author supports Christianity-based schooling that will teach all the moral lessons from the Bible and blames all the societal ills (which he considers as drug usage, promiscuity, homosexuality, and the other usual conservative ones) on not following those anymore. This isn't necessarily "bad" but it does set up the stage for what's going to come in the rest of the book. And if you are not a hardline American conservative, this book will seem hit and miss.

Funnily there is this math exercise in one of the modern American textbooks that the author took issue with:

"There are ten children in the small school Samuel goes to. There are five jars of paint. How many children can paint?" After trying to work that math problem for several hours they FAXed it to their CPA. From the school they ultimately learned the answer was: "If they share, they can all paint." Unger commented, "That's math? It's a nice lesson in sharing —but does it teach students the basic math facts they'll need in life?"

Like what's even the problem with it? It's literally the correct answer. There is nothing that says that each kid can only receive one bucket of paint.

He also complains about the "touchy feely attitude" of modern education (lol). I mean, when you look at all the wars and other cruel crap it's clear we need more feelings. I might agree that the place for that is not necessarily the math class, but then again, I don't even believe in "math classes" so...

I also obviously don't believe that modern education is based on feelings. I mean, what I said in my report basically still applies. You sit and write and can't speak and stand up without permission and get stuck with 300 kids in a corridor at breaks, which might try to fight you, and get rated on everything and punished by teachers and so on. Where are the feelings in all that? Again, this book seems to only look at everything from the hardcore American conservative view. This might still have value, but will be limited.

A lot of the things he complains about, I actually don't mind that much, such as the "undermining parental authority". And obviously I realize why the so-called "elites" want that, but in general.

The author doesn't seem to care that the stuff he considers a really big problem isn't really useful in real life, for example. He likes "standardized norms" and complains American students are doing worse in tests (I have questioned that narrative in my report). He is trying to equate school test results with "doing well in life", but these seem mostly unrelated. As I said, a barber doesn't need any test aside from knowing how to cut hair. And school doesn't really teach any social or personal skills, but can wreck some by the traumas incured there.

Later he complains about students not doing well in geography, history...once again, things that won't be useful in their lives. Especially not as kids, and they won't remember that after they leave school unless the are relearning constantly as adults, or it's somehow relevant to their real lives which is not going to be most people. To focus on "academic achievement" as the major issue feels like "first world problems", TBH. The author really likes the pipeline of good results in early school -> good later school and so on. And I obviously don't really believe in that.

Complains about teachers not "meeting standards" come later and this quote comes up:

"Leadership in Changing Times," four courses in "Social Diversity in Education," "Embracing Diversity," "Diversity & Change," " Oppression & Education," "Introduction to Multicultural Education," "Black Identity," "Classism," "Racism," "Sexism," "Jewish Oppression," "Les- bian/Gay/Bisexual Oppression," "Oppression of the Dis- abled," and "Erroneous Beliefs."

Well, none of that is around in other countries (AFAIK), so again this book is very USA specific. Another quote:

The education schools take for granted that education must be "child centered," which means that children decide for them- selves what they want to learn. Heavy emphasis is put on feelings and self. An actual curriculum, listing things students ought to know, is viewed as cramping the human spirit.

Literally valid. Our spirit undoubtedly IS being inhibited by the education system. It's maybe my main gripe with it but the author has a problem with that because he feels he already knows what the child-pet absolutely MUST learn. Again, we clearly won't find common ground here. Another problem for the author is when a state tried to:

...scrap traditional high school graduation requirements for a set of "student learning outcomes" that include attitudes on such issues as the environment and racial diversity, appreciat- ing and understanding others' and self worth, learning inde- pendently and collaboratively, adaptability to change and ethical judgment.

Well, what's wrong with learning independently, adaptability (an actually useful skill), and ethical judgment? Assuming of course that there isn't anything evil being smuggled through those labels. But taking it as it is, I consider this more useful than anything kids usually learn in schools.

This is just the first chapter though. I'll keep reading and commenting, I guess. The book is mildly interesting but not very fitting with what I already consider as the main issues with schools, so far. I'm prepared to take all this back if the following chapters are better. The second is about "moral values" so let's see. And of course this is all just my opinion, "your mileage may vary" especially if you're American and this is more relevant to you.

I'll also read your book (meaning add it to the Pyramid of Giza sized backlog), it does sound interesting.

The last book i read was John F Welsh - Max Stirner's Dialectical Egoism. I discovered that book from a review by Wolfi Landstreicher on Anarchist Library. If you want to know more about it, then i suggest you go read the review if you're interested in Stirner's philosophy.

sirfessor wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 1:14 am i suggest you go read the review if you're interested in Stirner's philosophy.

I've been meaning to read more egoist stuff since I've gotten more interested in the neglected individual anarchist scene and disillusioned with the more popular social version. However I also suffer the same problem of having a heavy digital library and having so many interests that I end up not finishing what I was reading since I got distracted by something else.
...though it was probably because the beginning of the book ("The Unique and Its Property", i read wolfi's retranslation) wasn't compelling enough for me to continue, but i'll probably since end up rereading it to not look like an idiot, and because egoism will probably be something i write about for a personal encyclopedia
i'm not too big on most anarchist figures too (Labadie rightfully said that too much of them are utopian, i occasionally get confused if i'm reading from an anarchist or a marxist with all the same social parroting they do) but i really liked landstreicher from the few bits i read before dropping it without knowing

digdeeper wrote: Sun Mar 01, 2026 6:07 am (sorry if I'm breaking the rules by not finishing it yet, but anyway...)

that's okay, i only read a few sections from my suggestion and only starting properly reading it after that. i probably would have some better descriptions if i properly read it before
i don't mind seeing radical viewpoints different from mine (mainly because it helps to put together counter-arguments without the toils of having to informally and emotionally respond back via the internet) but it seems like a book that i might drop after two chapters or so, or just start speedreading through because i know i've gotten an idea of the author's ideologies and mindset

the current books that Im reading and I would recomend to people here in the forum are:
Indigo saga by Louise Cooper from 90´s
Nemesis
Inferno
Infanta
Nocturne
Troika
Avatar
Revenant
Aisling

No.... thats not another LOTR or Game of Thrones full of wars, epic battles, or bizarre deaths .. thats not that shit.
This is more clever food for you brain if you know how to decode the message that is pressent in each book.

If you are not brainwashed by smarphones yet... these are your books for next months

Last Book I read titled "نعيم الجنة" (Pleasures of The eternal garden) by Zuhair Hassan Kidat

The book is small, I couldn't download a PDF of it (didn't try to sign up at any site), so I had to read it inside a site, which made it appear as a small book, around 115 page including unreadable parts.

The book (as title mentions) talks about eternal garden (paradise), according to Islamic doctrine, I wanted to read a book about this topic to increase my will, and also to see if I missed any knowledge regarding the topic.

The book however wasn't easy to read, mainly because of my previous knowledge, and the book author didn't require the authencity of the source to be confirmed, in other words, he may have mentioned stuff that isn't 100% confirmed to be in paradise, and that was in my mind most of the reading time.

Another reason it wasn't easy to read is due to the method the author used, rather then putting the raw text, he made it in a story like fasion, which made it hard to see where he put the authentic stuff and none-authentic stuff, also he repeated stuff a lot, I jumped and skipped many parts.

Also due to the huge amount of details none-authentic sources give, trying to imagine what the author is saying was very intense, and in many cases straight up unbelievable.

For example, I quote:

Your house in Paradise is a palace of white pearl, containing seventy houses of red ruby, in each house seventy rooms of green emerald, in each room seventy beds, on each bed a mattress, one color on top of another, on each mattress a woman from among the houris.

Doing the math that's 70*70*70= 343,000 virgin girl...

That's assuming one gets a single palace.

It is possible tho, but hard to believe.

--------------------------------------------------

Among new stuff I learned (most likely unconfirmed) are:
1-There is a river, inside that river a houri is grown (like a plant?) that if you teach her, she follows you.
2-That when you are moving with someone else, and a tree is on the way, it moves to the side (was kind humors to know this).
3-The Cloth you ware will debate with each other over who got better position, the inner cloths says "I am teaching the master", the outer cloths say "I am seeing his face", etc...
4-The book seriously have huge numbers for everything, imaging them all made the whole place seem like a gaint maze in which you can't finish exploreing anything.
5-The Houri (Virign girl) is lighter than her hair...
6-Among the 72 wives (That suppose to be for the Jihadis, but the author didn't point that out), 2 are yours intended, and 70 are infidels leftover (because infidels do have chunk in paradise, but because they are going to hell, that chunk of pleasures is given to believers.)
7-You enjoy the Houri walking? he said a story about how one desires to see his houri moving, so two beatiful pathways are created, in which she walks by them, and that's to pleasure him.
8-A bed is 100 arms high, when you want to sit on it, it goes down, you sit, then goes up.
9-etc...


Overall, I seem not to need to go back to this topic again, I got enough knowledge about paradise to motivate me to work hard so I enter it, I may read a book about hell, so I may fear it.

@LoadingXML

Nice to read your review... spiritual knowlegde books are always welcome at least to think about them, because every religion contain hidden secrets in their stories.
I bet that you will find interesting the Indigo Saga since it covers spiritual themes and subjects into a fantasy book. A kid would consider the books like "another faerie tale"... and adult would undestand better after thinking deeper about them.

travolter wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2026 11:42 pm @LoadingXML

spiritual knowlegde books are always welcome at least to think about them

I am religious Muslim, they are a must to me, I take these manners seriously.

travolter wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2026 11:42 pm
because every religion contain hidden secrets in their stories.

Reminds me of revelation chapter in the bible, 100% secrets/metaphors that just created confusion and debates among christians.

travolter wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2026 11:42 pm
I bet that you will find interesting the Indigo Saga since it covers spiritual themes and subjects into a fantasy book.

I was recommended "Inferno" book before when I asked for a book that compares hell from differenet religions, it was for a study case to know which religion described hell the worst (or paradise the best).

Never the less if the books talks about stuff in sense of fantasy not a case study, then I am worried about its accuracy

travolter wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2026 11:42 pm
A kid would consider the books like "another faerie tale"... and adult would undestand better after thinking deeper about them.

Depending on where you spent your childhood you may see that most pegan religions themes are already known to you, i.e through anime, cartoons, etc..
Because these takes great chunk of pegan religions (espically greek and hindu mythology), into their stories.

been buying some physical books because i felt like it (might wanna write smoething too). at least i own something

my recent read from them has been Introduction to Vedanta - Swami Dayananda, a short read of 112 pages explaining Vedanta (end of the Veda), establishing how humans with their higher consciousness are constantly inadequate and incomplete (i think i saw Zapffe describe this in The Last Messiah too, nice to revisit it) and how their constant strives to (temporarily) be complete, "successful" and happy always ends up with more to worry about due to the situational changes they make, introducing Sanskrit terms like karma to describe the losses made by it, and moksa , or mumuksu, as a term for ones who realize their inadequacy after analyzing their experiences (as a Brahmanah) and seek to liberate themselves from it. solid introductory read for getting into vedantic texts, which seem to be a clear inspirations for authors i've read or am planning to read like schopenhauer.

Quotes
"Ignorance is something one is born with. Knowledge is nothing but the shedding of it, ajnana nivrtti. The gain of knowledge is not a creation, srsti. The gain of knowledge is only a negation - negation of ignorance. Knowledge is covered with ignorance. All one does is remove ignorance; then knowledge is so to speak gained. Knowledge is not something produced or created. Knowledge always is. Knowledge is what is."
"A guru is one who dispels darkness. ... He doesn't produce anything. He doesn't even produce knowledge. He throws light on something that is already there. A guru is a teacher, who has the capacity to dispel the ignorance covering whatever it is one wants to know."
"If the teacher has knowledge of his own nature, is that appropriate knowledge to illumine my nature? A guru with self-knowledge can throw light upon his self; but does that light give him knowledge of my self, too?"
"Nothing can cover the complete being because it is the complete being. Just as space cannot be covered by the things in it, so completeness cannot be covered. Being all-pervasive, space cannot be covered by anything in it. Similarly, the complete being cannot be covered by anything - not by any form of thoughts, memories, tendencies, sins, habits. The only thing that can cover the complete being is ignorance."
"Heavenly life is not eternal. It has a beginning. What begins is not eternal. Anything you can enter you can also leave. What is eternal is always present."

the other books i brought were:
- The Existential Imagination - Frederick R. Karl & Leo Hamalian
- Basics of Buddhism - Pat Allwright
- Barthes A Graphic Guide - Philip Thody & Piero (was reading this earlier, structuralist, good argument about the constant mistaking of culture as nature)
- The Ascent of Humanity - Charles Eisenstein (a bit skeptical on this one but i'll read it after)
was also reading Talking Hands briefly with its overview on languages, being a book on a town in Israel where everybody speaks in sign language. intriguing since i've been interested in language, but i didn't want to buy too much.

i was reading the buddhism one, but got distracted, as usual.
instead i went to the library (wanted to write something down for some local ttrpg thing) and found a book with a collection of non-fiction scribblings from Terry Pratchett called "A Slip Of The Keyboard." i've always been intrigued by terry and his characters and book series (though i couldn't get into it because i went against his words of "Do not start from the beginning of Discworld") as well as his history on the internet as well (has messages ranging back to usenet days, wrote skyrim mods), and this book gave me more to think about, some relating to him.
i've only read through most of the first section of the book thus far (had things to do), but there were interesting things about how he gets carried away when writing via a sudden urge to research random knowledge or his generally poor management of his work writing (mentioning the fact that he had to take six 'pills' as he kept starting one book after finishing another, or having two at one time, no wonder he contracted some civilized disease later on), a section on the history of portable computers (coincidentally mentioning PDAs as i was searching stuff about them earlier), background on the organized and messy ways authors plan and draft and write (helpful since there's a lot i want to write), casual sexism on how women in fantasy usually use magic for pettiness and evil, and reflections on fantasy, with him coining it as the Ur-Literature. made me come to a conclusion that even history is fiction most times.

i'll probably update this later if i actually continue on with it
Quotes
- "Once you're tuned into the next book, research comes and kicks your door down. Something is casually mentioned on TV. A book about something else entirely throws out a historical fact that, right at this moment, you really need to know."
- "Where do you get your fantastic ideas from? You steal them. You steal them from reality. It outstrips fantasy most of the time."
- "When I couldn't get it - heroic fantasy, I mean, not sex - I hung around the children's section in public libraries" (last paragraph before this he makes an allegory that his desperate lust for fantasy was similar to porn, so the notification in this sentence almost made me laugh)
- "Escapism isn’t good or bad of itself. What is important is what you are escaping from and where you are escaping to. I write from experience, since in my case I escaped to the idea that books could be really enjoyable, an aspect of reading that teachers had not hitherto suggested."