2008 Wrap-up: Books

[dedwarmo]

Malcolm Gladwell - Tipping Point, very good book

Steven Pinker - The Blank Slate, excellent

Daniel Dennet - Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, very good

Carl Sagan - Demon Haunted World, essential

[ccheng21]

I am SO subscribing to this channel!!!

In the pantheon of skeptics Penn and Tellar + James Randi and many many many others are the cornerstones of modern rational thought.

[jb5string]

Damn I love Penn. He is a truly humble fellow. I can identify with him regarding retaining the stuff of science. I read it anyway and enjoy it. One of the most fascinating I've read lately is Sean Carroll's book "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution". Anyway, I highly respect Penn and think it would be the shit to hang out and talk with him.

[freedom3001]

Interesting, we love the same type of books. The ones that look at the world with a rational and out-of-the-box perspective.

[jmthetank]

I was never a non-fiction fan, myself. I read as an escape, to be honest, and it's a little hard to escape into reality, lol.

Give me Anne Rice, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Mercedes Lackey, Piers Anthony, etc, and I'm a happy man. Non-fiction (mostly, though I do like crime documentaries) just doesn't hold me....

Unless it's scientific. Stephen Hawkings- A Brief History Of Time is an awesome read, as well as Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion.

[iamthekingofnopants]

Dawkins earlier works on evolutionary biology are a joy.

[RHMETAL]

Books I've read in the past few years:

Ted, White, and Blue

Slash

Alice Cooper: Golf Monster

Billy F. Gibbons Rock and Roll Gearhead

Gene Simmons: KISS and Make-Up

[DaniboyBR2]

Poor brain of yours.

[splein23]

im surprised his list doesnt include

Mr. T by Mr. T,

T and Me by George Peppard,

For the Last Time, I'm Not Mr. T by Ving Rhames

lol im just kidding around....

[Elasaltaculos]

since you are a libertarian, you ought to make "The road to serfdom" by F. A. Hayek part of this year's list

[LaTortuga07]

Embarassing? I love audio books! It saves on the eyes! Plus, I can clean the house or take a walk at the same time.  The only drawback is that it's so hard to find nonfiction in audio.

[trainable2000]

Why do you think that is, Turtle-lady?

[LaTortuga07]

I'm guessing that fiction is much more popular than non fiction, which is such a shame : (

I'm not so much into turtles, ha ha. I'm learning Spanish, and it takes me a while to put a sentence together. It's painful for my husband to listen to, so he teases me that I speak como una tortuga.

[Mahoivlich]

Listen to King's Dark tower series it is great.

[nickolasweishampel]

i read the series...one of my favs as well as the sword of truth series.

[walterglanz]

Dancing monkey shill.

[steampunk18]

Kindle is great, but it's missing that new book papery smell. :(

Anyway, loved Gaiman's GRAVEYARD BOOK.

[trapsmv9]

If someone were kind enough to pay me for my opinion, I'd plug all their shit, too! I'll be reading the Melvyn Bragg book, at least, for sure. :)

[mhrumman]

nice plug with sony

[PhrostCope]

fronting your sponsor on YT?

wtf penn?

[llollercoaster]

He doesn't make these videos for Youtube, he makes them for crackle, they just get put up here to get some more views...

[deinse81]

What's the problem with that? Sony pays him, and you get to watch him for free.

Or you can not watch it.

Just stop implying that somehow getting payed, or advertising something, is wrong. Only a moron would think that.

[LarrySDonald]

Little brother rocked. I started laughing a bit when Predictably Irrational came up - I'm half way through it. G33k Mafia (and it's sequel) would appeal to someone liking Little brother, though a bit more indie. I'd buy readers, but I don't like hardware that won't run my code.

So.. are we seeing Dickie Richard or Sock on E-book anytime? DL-ed Sock (dead trees bought of course) and even bought Dickie Richard but I.. just can't read stuff on paper. It never gets done until it hits the mobile.

[meanjean29]

Read most of Penn's booklist, but add:

Conquistador by Buddy Levy. (Excellent book. Very well written.

To the "Why didn't I read this before category" goes "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein. What an eye-opening novel.

[GreyAutumn]

Nine books to few? Hmm. Insight!

[TomPaineII]

I've got "John Adams" on my bookshelf & I keep meaning to pick it up but I keep on picking up science books, currently reading The Demon Haunted World by the Late Great Carl Sagan. You and I read the same kind of books! Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

[evolutionist101]

I'm finishing up Demon Haunted World now. Great Book.

[qanazir]

Personally I read about 10 text books and a few novels.

[thetravelingboy]

Personaly i enjoy kindle, but i'll definately give sony a try. Wasnt even aware it exsisted till now :]

[sweatytoothmadman]

Short history was great.

[eirefrance]

Kindle? As a professional archivist, I reject and denounce Kindle!!

[eirefrance]

Outliers is a great book. I've never read Gladwell's other books, but I've been reading a lot of similar social analysis macrostudies, like Freakonomics, Guns Germs & Steel, Occidentalism, Culture & Carnage and A History of the Western Legal Tradition. I love those kinds of books.

[rudenoodle]

Penn should sit in a glass box suspended over Las Vegas alla David Blane.

The difference between the two stunts should be as follows.

While David Blane starved himself Penn should eat whatever he wants but the catch is he can't shit.

I'd like to see him try to palm a couple turds away from the prying eyes of a dozens of cameras!

I kid I kid...

[realdoogie]

that would be hilarious

"TAKE THAT BLAINE!!!" -Penn Jillette****

*Penn may have not actually said this...lol

[XOmniverse]

You should get Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement

[cjdaweasel]

Short History of Nearly Everything is excellent. "Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior" was incredibly good as well.

[trendy09]

Im half way through 'The stuff of thought", really interesting even though its a little tough for me.

[nutherefurlong]

Yeah, why not compare them, as long as doing that doesn't make you disappear :)

[DeoxyKnight]

You're a busy guy, and books take a long time. Don't feel guilty.

[ViperRob42]

Kurt Vonneguts last book 'Armageddon in Retrospective' tis cool, but his 'Man w/o a Country' is one of my favs

[FlowCell]

The best way to learn science is to figure out how what you are reading connects with what you already know. That will boost your retention and enjoyment of science significantly.

[rockinrj13]

I read Little Brother, got it for my birthday (July 21) and absolutely LOVED it!

Mainly because I'm pretty much a full on computer geek so I understood EXACTLY what was going on and even the small references xD

[Helflare]

audiobooks count as reading.

[southson23]

I read Freakonomics in '08 as well. Absolutely loved it.

[jsphmarquez]

Hannibal Rising is an amazing. ive read it 3 times.

[BoStevoD]

Would you like some delicious, low trans-fat Doritos to go with your Sony reader, Penn?

...oh, product placement...

[harryogre]

Go to Mises(dot)org they have a bunch of audio books by libertarian thinkers like Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard and others downloadable on MP3 free

The site is clumsy but the content is worth it once you spend the time to find it

Penn would like it if he made it over there

He is a Fellow at Cato Institute and The Mises Institute is like the other side of the libertarian coin from Cato

Cato is like the logical friendly libertarianism where the Mises Institute is the Taliban of libertarianism

[sirscutter]

Hey, that's awesome LITTLE BROTHER got a mention here. I'm just reading it now and I wasn't sure how popular it's gotten. Great book.

[ShortbusMooner]

Stephen King - Just After Sunset...

short stories, so you don't get absorbed for too long! :)

[Olphus]

I've heard that the DVD series from PBS on John Adams is out and supposed to be very good.

[Shredwizard90]

i hate e-books...i cant get comfortable enough with my laptop to read them online..i prefer to just have a book in my hand...audio books are good too cuz ican just lay down and listen to it

[Burgley1]

for someone against reviews penn sure does an awful lot!!!

[Helflare]

It sounds more like a commentary on what Penn likes.

I found no review value in anything he said. Saying I loved it does not come close to a review.

[Napstrpsx]

I don't think there was any intention of any reviews whatsoever.

The first thing it says in the description is, "Another Penn not a review about the books he read..." and the title doesn't say anything about there being reviews in the video... it just says, "2008 books".

[knoose]

Its not a review.

He doesn't do reviews...

[standj21]

Fuck obama!!!

[standj21]

I just got "Atlas shrugged" looking forward to reading it and I'm also reading Ben Franklin's auto bio.

[HammandClov]

I like but don't love audiobooks. One of my favorite works of all time is Paradise Lost but it is a pain to read (length wise). I also got Crime and Punishment b/c it was beautifully read aloud. However, I cannot replace the feel of reading a book, not even e-books which I hate. And also, I can read much faster than I can withstand an unabridged audiobook that is more 31 hours long!

[dylantuzyk]

Oh god...the thumbnail...THE THUMBNAIL

Still, standard Penn quality.

[hellmuth26]

haha, look at the thumbnail for this video.

[zmeier01]

I've read alot of books this year but I don't think I've read a simgle book that came out in 2008

[FullOfFail]

In Soviet Russia the book reads you!

[overratedname]

wrong....

In Soviet Russia, book reads YOU!!!

[dothack200]

Awesome !

[Apptendo]

LET THERE BE HOUSE!!!

[VoicesintheHead]

A book that "Teller told you about"? Are you saying the he speaks???

Just kidding, of course.

[Appellation]

Well, there's nothing wrong with audio books, as long as you don't allow yourself to be distracted from what's being read. Oh, and as long as it's unabridged. Not much point listening to a book instead of reading it if there's huge pieces missing.

[theducktapeking]

I read A Short History of Nearly Everything too. I'm actually not done with it yet. I have probably 1/5 left.

Pretty much the only other book I read was Into the Wild.

[ZomBStrawberry]

POP! Wait, where is snap?

[VoicesintheHead]

What's wrong with audiobooks? I love to listen to them on long road trips and on the bus.

[DotPaulish]

Trying to not piss off Sony, eh? :P

[Atheistprimate]

I love audio books, i cant get myself to sit and read a book any longer. But audio books while driving are a real treat.