Excellent, excellent book. I read it about 5 years ago after having it recommended to me by my mom, she got to meet Grossman at a law enforcement seminar & has a signed copy.

Every point of his seems true... but what if we didnt train our soldiers to kill first, think later? Pavlovian conditioning, operant conditioning... overcoming the aversion to pulling the trigger on another human is fundamental to being a good soldier.

Where he makes better points IMO, is when talking about the impact of video games & other media on kids... soldiers sometimes have to kill, but kids are often getting the same type of desensitization as soldiers.

Anyone read the Hunger Games series?

I was looking for follow ups after His Dark Materials and it kept popping up.

Just finished reading "End the Fed", by Ron Paul.

Before that, Liberty and Tyranny, Mark Levin
The Ascent of Money, by Niall Ferguson
Gusher of Lies by Robert Bryce
Green Hell, by Steven Milloy

There's only two out right now. Hunger Games was okay, not that great. It didn't inspire me to read Catch Fire (the second one). I think the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld is superior if you're wanting to do YA dystopian. Westerfeld has a new series that is a steampunk alt-history of WWI. The first is called Leviathan, and it's out. I'm very, very excited to read it. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is really good YA dystopic as is Rash by Pete Hautman.

I just got recommended the ole Hitchhiker's Guide. Might start that.

If you want to do Hitchhiker's Guide, and you want something of similar tone to Dark Materials, I'd check out the Ender's Series by Orson Scott Card. First is Ender's Game, then do Ender's Shadow.

Ender's Game is cool. HHGTTG was fun too. I haven't read Ender's Shadow but I plan on it. I just started "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. It is starting to get very interesting. Anyone else read it?

Methland: the Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding. A damn fascinating account of rural and small-town America's devastating obsession with meth & a comprehensive look as to how meth became so popular and ubiquitous in this country.

I'm reading Confessions, by Rousseau. It's not damned fascinating so far. It's ok though.

Yep. It's an entertaining fantasy debut. I'm definitely going to pick up the next in the series.

Sounds interesting.

I had all those books I could read but I ended up picking up the Book Thief anyway. Gonna start tonight.

We played those guys in high school sports. Not that actual methheads though, because...well, they were doing meth.

I want to read that.

Its very good so far. And Iowa is all over it: Oelwein, Ottumwa, Waterloo.

Please keep us updated on Rousseau's sexual excursions.

WooWoo

Yeah, a week doesn't go by when I haven't read a story about some meth dealer in the Waterloo Courier.

Another book with some good insight on the small-town of the midwest is Stuck in the Middle. It's about globalization and it's impact in the midwest, NAFTA, factory shutdowns, education, etc. Very readable, I enjoyed it.