http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328751532l/6792458.jpg

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6792458-the-new-jim-crow

"In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community -- and all of us - -to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America."

Agreed, in his later years he completely lost his mind for whatever reason.

However, he wrote the book I referenced in 1966. During that time his chess mind was at it's peak and he was only in his 20's.

i just finished reading Slade House by David Mitchell. ive read all of his novels, im a huge fan. wasnt his strongest work but it was good. if youre going to check him out i recommend Ghostwritten or Cloud Atlas first. i strongly suggest either of those books if you like fiction at all, especially sci-fi, mystery, spiritualism, adventure.

also read Langston Hughes's autobiography before that, i really enjoyed it. hes one of the only writers i really give a hoot about as far as their personal lives, and probably the only poet that ive ever bothered to read much of his work. he's a great storyteller.

gravity's rainbow by thomas pynchon, about the development of the v-2 in wwii
fucking rollercoaster of a book, after 400 pages it all turns into what seems like a fever dream but still manages to follow a coherent path. give it a read, its pretty great.

Starting reading Plato. I'm going through cooper's translation and trying to reduce the arguments in the socratic dialogues to their bare bones. I've read somewhere that its best to read some of the dialogues before approaching the republic, so that is what I'm doing. I read the dialogues associated with the trial and death of Socrates years ago, but I'm starting over to refresh my memory. I'm going through Cooper's translation in book order. I've only read Euthyphro so far. I'll probably read through the next one later tonight.

It's a bit tedious listening to Socrates explain basic logic to people, but the dialogues do feel like natural discussions that could occur in ancient Greece. It would be nice to get into these types of discussions with people today. I'm not sure how interested most people are in talking about the underlying form of things.

Also: If any of you chess guys are also into go, let me know. We could play a game. I wouldn't mind teaching the rules to anyone who is interested in learning either. It's similar to chess in a strategic sense, but not at all in the rules sense.

Finished Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.
Interesting read, written by an even more interesting man.

Now reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
So far it's been a really good read made even better with historical commentary.