jakej's reviews
94 reviews

This is a great overview of ancient combat sports. Several areas are covered but the focus is Ancient Greece; on the "Big Three" of boxing, pankration, and wrestling. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in Ancient Greece or in the origins of mixed martial arts - pankration is particularly is not a well-known sport, so every little bit on it was interesting to me. There are lots of great historical anecdotes on how the sports evolved and relate to each other.

Pulp perfection, endlessly compelling storytelling, but even more than that - the introduction by Junot Díaz is extraordinarily astute, asserting that the reader dismisses The Princess of Mars as mere outdated racialist fantasy at their own peril.

Sci-fi's The Odyssey.

Simply the greatest philosopher ever. Obviously there's still much here I don't understand, but no one packs more meaning into fewer (and more beautiful) words than Nietzsche. 'Morality as Anti-Nature' is the greatest summary of his essential character I've seen.

Undoubtedly an excellent substrate on which to build a novel, but the unfinished nature of The Trial really does detract from it.

I found it hard to get into the books rhythm until about 40-50 pages in, which makes perfect sense in light of the debate of where to put 'The Thrasher'. Once I was there however, it's a great book, much more nuanced and polyvalent than my naive preconception of it. Also, like lots of classic literature, funnier than its reputation.

I'd highly recommend this edition from Mitchell and Robertson, including the fragments and introduction.

It’s not written very well, and it’s a bit light on actual paleoanthropology for my taste, but otherwise a solid read.

All of these stories are derived from one or two general templates (i.e "beta male who works at an insane near-future workplace that requires him to compromise his ethics and dignity, for ultimately no reward") but it still works as a collection, a lot of very strong ideas here. 400 pound CEO and Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz are next level.