Fiction or Non-Fiction, academic or casual, theory or non-theory, feel free to mention books of any genre and on any topic.
I’ve been watching some modern Chinese “Red” shows and they mention Edgar Snows’s Red Star over China multiple times, and I’ve heard it mentioned before, so I decided it’s time to read it. Overall very informative and enjoyable account of China’s revolutionary years and Mao’s personal development from a run of the mill liberal to the Mao we all know and love.
As a teaser here’s Snow talking to some random Chinese on a train when he was about to reach the Communist controlled territories:
“But in Szechuan don’t people fear the Reds as much as the bandits?”
“Well, that depends. The rich men fear them, and the landlords, and the officials and tax-collectors, yes. But the peasants do not fear them. Sometimes they welcome them.” Then he glanced apprehensively at the old man, who sat listening intently, and yet seeming not to listen. “You see,” he continued, “the peasants are too ignorant to understand that the Reds only want to use them. They think the Reds really mean what they say.”
“But they don’t mean it?”
“My father wrote to me that they did abolish usury and opium in the Sungpan [Szechuan], and that they redistributed the land there. So you see they are not exactly bandits. They have principles all right. But they are wicked men. They kill too many people.”
Then surprisingly the greybeard lifted his gentle face and with perfect composure he made an astonishing remark. “Sha pu kou!” he said. “They don’t kill enough!” We both looked at him flabbergasted.
Then surprisingly the greybeard lifted his gentle face and with perfect composure he made an astonishing remark. “Sha pu kou!” he said. “They don’t kill enough!” We both looked at him flabbergasted.
Lmao that’s amazing
Glad to know regular people had the same opinion on landlord then as today.
Imperialism the highest stage of capitalism by Ya Boi Lenin
It’s good, but I have difficulty understanding why Lenin is talking about numbers for German/French banks. Granted I’m only 30 pages in and will continue, just a bit confused so far.
I am also currently reading it. Its very economic, thus it can be a bit difficult at first, so take your time taking it all in.
The idea is to show the exponential rise in capital dominated by the banks, the creation of finance capital.
I’ve begun Maurice Cornforth’s Materialism and the Dialectical Method to see if it’s a good replacement for Georges Politzer’s Elementary Principles of Philosophy in my intro Marxist-Leninist reading list. So far, so good! Really enjoying the clarity of Cornforth, something he has in common with Politzer.
Time to write a book, comrade cowbee. Publish it on the web.
Any particular reason to look for a replacement?
Politzer makes a few errors regarding internal contradiction and autodynamism. Still solid overall, but I’m seeing if anything does what it does without making the errors.
Thank you, you’re always so helpful
Currently on foundations of Leninism chapter 4-5 not sure what notes to take though it’s tiny bit hard to understand some phrases and concepts made
I am re reading Wheel of Time right now and my veins are filled with hate for rafe judkins.
how is that? i saw it mentioned somewhere and it looked interesting enough to read, but i haven’t looked into it very much yet
I genuinely cannot recommend the series enough, the first book is heavy on the fellowship of the ring inspiration and is more or less a homage, but unique enough and very fun to read through, the second and third books are unique enough and more or less set the basic plotlines for all the characters for the rest of the series. The prose is honestly one of the better parts, it isn’t overtly flowery (I personally prefer more flowery prose but wot is an exception) but it just flows, there are flowery and verbose bits and he uses them really well throughout, makes the scenes hit harder when the prose gets flowery.
The world is heavily gendered and imo, there are parts that anyone can point out and say that’s misogynistic and they would be fair but i think that is just because of how gendered the world is and some cultures are going to be misogynistic, and i always felt that its just a reflection of jordan being really thorough. Though it does feel needlessly sexualizing at times, but might just be me nitpicking. The character work is genuinely the best in any piece of media i have seen, especially for most of the main cast.
The pacing from Books 1-3 is excellent, books 4-6 just fly while 7 and 8 are good, 9 and 10 are undeniably a slog, a problem with an author getting too enamoured with the world they created imo. one thing i cannot stress enough is how well jordan researched the cultures he is inspired by, the world building is just amazing and also the story itself is very realistic in the way how the politics revolve around everyone’s material interests.
sounds interesting, you should be in sales! i’ll definitely add it to my (admittedly quite large) reading list then
where do you suggest i start? i see multiple prologues and prequels, etc
you should be in sales
LMAO, thank you comrade.
where do you suggest i start?
Just pick Eye of the world and don’t look back, the one prequel new spring is best read after the series, or like after book 7, since there are a lot of things that you will piece together from info from the main series.
but yeah, just pick Eye of the world and the next 13 books are just the sequels. It’s not a revolutionary piece of work but it’s damn well one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve ever had, helped me through tough times on multiple occasions.
will do! once i actually read it i’ll let you know how it goes. thanks for the recommendation!
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Yes pls, thank you
Yes
Yep
yes
I just reread Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense” and Tom Hayden’s “Port Huron Statement”. Something I do from time to time as a reminder that no matter how much things might appear to change, how little they actually do. They are as relevant today as they were when written.
I’m reading Socialism Betrayed now and taking notes to Blackshirts and Reds. Both a refreshing break before diving into capital vol 2 😅
Reading history books written by Marxists to take rest from reading Marxist theory is indeed a very Tankie thing to do, in a positive way as well.
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Hadji Murad by Leo Tolstoy. Some recollections of the historical figure of Hadji Murad, an Avar resistance leader during the caucasus war against imperial Russia who eventually defects to Russia. It’s an interesting read, a bit niche but it shows the disdain Tolstoy himself had against Nicholas I and the atrocities committed by the army, my favorite chapter was one where we see the POV of the tsar and Tolstoy depicts him as an idiot with basically unlimited power and a group of sycophant yes men around him, kinda funny and eerily reminds me of Trump.
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America, America a New history of the new world by Greg Gandrin (just started)
I think i am gonna pick up some of the books recommended by J.W. Mason here: https://jwmason.org/slackwire/2025-books-part-1/ , The corporation in the 21st century sounds interesting.
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I’ve been reading Excession by Iain M. Banks. It’s part of The Culture series. I’m about halfway through the book and it feels like the story is just started to begin. Kind of annoying but a good read all the same
I’m going to plug Psychological Warfare in the Strategy of Imperialism yet again, it’s an absolute must read to understand the roots of modern western propaganda
november8ph.ca/psychological-warfare-in-the-strategy-of-imperialism-v-l-artemov/
Really want a .epub of it, might have to make one lol
oh yeah would be useful :)
I’m working on The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins. There was this almost surreal moment reading it where it hit me that the cold war was possibly (probably?) entirely one sided. It’s been very instuctive, I hadn’t gotten such a good view of the CIA’s machinations before reading this
The cold war was basically America’s fervent commitment to massacring anything that stands against capitalism and the American imperialism in general.
Yes that send accurate to me now. Growing up it seemed like there was equal aggression, but it’s clear that the USSR & China were just trying not to get invaded/bombed
I noticed I was getting slowly burnt out on reading theory. Haven’t been as consistent in the past few weeks as I would like.
I’ll take a short break from it and read some fiction, mainly to keep the habit up. I find I’m less likely to want to read if it always feels like studying.
I know some people tend to read multiple books concurrently, but I never tried it. How does that work out?
When I start reading a book, I just read it to completion before starting another one, regardless of fiction or non-fiction.I tend to read theory on my lunch break, and fiction before I go to bed! I take notes for theory, but have no such requirement for fiction.
That’s an interesting approach. I did try reading on my lunch break a couple times, but effectively I would only have like 15 minutes to read (and that’s if I skip lunch!). And if I have to take notes as well, then I’d probably only read for 10 minutes. At that rate it would take me months just to finish one book, lol. How do you do it?
I tend to read for an hour before bed, and I haven’t really been taking notes. I tried a couple times, but it’s not something that comes naturally to me. I went through school and college without ever taking notes either (in my defence, I still had good grades!).
I have an hour for lunch, so I eat in 5-10 minutes and spend the rest reading, haha. Won’t work for everyone, and sometimes I do only get 15 or so good minutes in. Alternatively, study in the morning, pleasure reading at night still, so I’d read after gym.
For the last few weeks I been going through the Red Rising series for the first time, starting Light Bringer today. Overall it’s been really enjoyable to read and analyze the themes and framing therein. Definitely something I’d recommend to the right person (anyone with critical thinking and media literacy that is)
Pierce Brown is a vocal zionist… Just figured thats something you might want to know about comrade
Oh, well fuck… Can’t throw a goddamn rock I swear…
Can someone recommend me good reads on 邓小平 (Deng Xiaoping) and 陈云 (Chen Yun) please?
I’ve been currently reading on the Spiral of Silence, by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. Been trying to understand people’s behavior a little better. I’m hoping the books and research done helps me find ways to understand what I have to do, to fit in, and how to then direct people to be better versions of themselves, instead of them following me around, because I happen to say what they agree with.
What about Deng Xiaoping specifically? Red Sails has a number of speeches, essays, and interviews you can read, and Prolewiki has pages on Deng Xiaoping and Deng Xiaoping Theory. Unsure about what to read for Chen Yun.
I’ve seen both of their names come up a lot when it comes to Reform & Opening up and I have a rudimentary understanding on their roles in the process, but I was interested for more in depth reading on their decisions, them talking about why they did what had to be done and was curious how did that end up contributing to building the China we know today.
Gotcha! In that case, I recommend studying what I linked. I also recommend this conversation I had with someone about a week ago regarding the subject of “Dengism.” In short, Reform and Opening Up was a response to the Gang of Four’s dogmatism in nationalizing even the small proprietors. Deng Xiaping Theory opened up non-critical, underdeveloped sectors to partial foreign investment, offering cheap labor in exchange for technological transfer while retaining full public ownership of the commanding heights of industry. The effect of this in the long-run is the PRC of today.
Thank you! I really appreciate the input :D
No problem!
