Any books you intend to read

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Today, I bought Camus' The Stranger. Thought some philosophical fiction would do me good. Also ordered Philip K. Dick's We Can Build You and... *giggle*... L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth. The former because I'm a huge PKD fan, the latter because I want to laugh at how bad it is.

I wanted to read L. Ron Hubbard's books, but for a somewhat different purpose. I don't know upon which criteria I would judge a book to be good or bad, but reading a book of his would be interesting as it would provide a good insight into his mind.

I intend to read the psychology books/textbooks that are currently collecting dust on my bookshelf while I'm finishing up Danel Tammet's Embracing the Wide Sky. Some titles are "educational psychology", "theories of developmental psychology", and "the divided self". Too lazy to capitalize. Back to reading.

There wasn't much mind there to gain insight to. I read Dianetics after having spent more than a decade studying comparative religion, philosophy and western occultism and it was such a mishmash of stolen ideas and outlandish, unsupportable claims that were so pathetic in their internal contradictions, it wasn't even laughable, just stupid. I am always astounded when I hear that someone I thought was reasonably intelligent, like John Travolta, is involved with Scientology. I mean, Elron publicly boasted that it was his intent to create a bogus religion in order to make himself wealthy and powerful - knowing that, why would anyone take anything he said seriously? He didn't even do a good job of fabricating a bad religion.

I have not read any of his fiction (well, other than Dianetics), but my understanding is that its considered pretty much an embarrassing joke as well. Seems like I did see the film version of Battlefield Earth, but all I remember about it was that it was incredibly boring.

I just started reading The Political Centrist by John Lawrence Hill and it seems interesting so far. I was inspired to buy the book after an engaging discussion of it by the author on Book TV on C-Span or C-Span 2, whatever network shows it. It's a shame that this one didn't seem to be available at my local barnes and noble and I had to order it (Even though it was released just last year).

If I could just get a few months off work I'd read...

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
and perhaps, since I've had it on my bookshelf for about 20 years, The Lord Of The Rings.

I have read Battlefield Earth many years ago but havent seen the film. I actually quite enjoyed it. It certainly isn't shakespeare or anything like that but I thought it was a good enought read and have certainly read a lot worse. Some of Hubbards wierd views on psychology are in the book but it isnt too over the top. Its a good guys vs bad guys type story and it does have some humor.

As trashy sf goes its ok (although perhaps a bit over-long).

I've just read the first few pages of Dianetics and I honestly can't believe that people believe this crap. However, L. Ron manages to market it so well by appealing to the most vulnerable needs of man. I don't agree that he didn't do a good job of fabricating a bad religion, because his religion has been able to propagate itself across the world and to even attract celebrities. In my opinion, he is a marketing genius.

Stranger in a Strange Land.