Books!

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Hoot45
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Re: Books!

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Freed Roger wrote:
Hoot45 wrote:I'm currently reading What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength by Scott Carney. Has anyone read this or heard of the Wim Hof method? This book has really captivated me.
I have read articles on Hof. Amazing stuff. Said that he is able to tap into body resources that people can rarely/never access -adrenaline or whatever. The method? -at least what he has shared - some sort of focused breathing to get his brain to control his body ?

The article I read seemed to theorize that his methodology may just be a placebo tool of sorts . I dunno. He believes in it and it works (for him).

You trying some of it Hoot?
Today is my third day of trying the breathing exercises. Three days ago I could hold my breath for about 50 seconds before feeling like I was suffocating. Today, I'm able to hold my breath for at least 4 minutes and 30 seconds about three times in a row. Not exactly a stellar party trick, but I am fascinated by the idea that there is a world of potential in my body that I can unlock with simple and free exercises in just a few days. I've got a ways to go before I understand the impact on my everyday life though.

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Re: Books!

Post by Freed Roger »

Hoot45 wrote:
Freed Roger wrote:
Hoot45 wrote:I'm currently reading What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength by Scott Carney. Has anyone read this or heard of the Wim Hof method? This book has really captivated me.
I have read articles on Hof. Amazing stuff. Said that he is able to tap into body resources that people can rarely/never access -adrenaline or whatever. The method? -at least what he has shared - some sort of focused breathing to get his brain to control his body ?

The article I read seemed to theorize that his methodology may just be a placebo tool of sorts . I dunno. He believes in it and it works (for him).

You trying some of it Hoot?
Today is my third day of trying the breathing exercises. Three days ago I could hold my breath for about 50 seconds before feeling like I was suffocating. Today, I'm able to hold my breath for at least 4 minutes and 30 seconds about three times in a row. Not exactly a stellar party trick, but I am fascinated by the idea that there is a world of potential in my body that I can unlock with simple and free exercises in just a few days. I've got a ways to go before I understand the impact on my everyday life though.
Does that book also talk about free divers that go seemingly inhuman depths and length of time underwater?

Thanks for pointing this book out Hoot. Hope to get to it aomeday. I am interested in the extreme endurance athletes and how they do what seems impossible...-not for my own participation really, but to use in my more nromal events. (To feel good. -stay in flow while out running )

Everyday life? I am far from a zenmaster- but every now and then I try to tap into things i learned in useful manner -i.e. marathon painted almost entire inside of our house to sell it last year by zoning in. And I had a hours long root canal couple years ago that I just zoned out and seemed like nothing.

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Hoot45
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Re: Books!

Post by Hoot45 »

Sounds like you'll love this one Freed Roger. Saint Louis Public Library has it (although I have it checked out right now) but I might actually buy a copy when I'm done because I could see myself looking back into a few chapters over time. If you read it let me know, I'd love to hear what you think.

(Yes, it does talk about free divers using these techniques.)

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BottenFieldofDreams
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Re: Books!

Post by BottenFieldofDreams »

When did quotation marks go out of style, or have I just randomly selected books by authors that chose not to use them lately?

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Re: Books!

Post by tlombard »

BottenFieldofDreams wrote:When did quotation marks go out of style, or have I just randomly selected books by authors that chose not to use them lately?
Probably about the same time that editors went out of style. I'm getting really tired of reading e-books and articles online with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and all that especially when the book or site has editors listed. Either they don't edit anything or the original material is so bad that they eventually give up and just publish anyway I guess.

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BottenFieldofDreams
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Re: Books!

Post by BottenFieldofDreams »

tlombard wrote:
BottenFieldofDreams wrote:When did quotation marks go out of style, or have I just randomly selected books by authors that chose not to use them lately?
Probably about the same time that editors went out of style. I'm getting really tired of reading e-books and articles online with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and all that especially when the book or site has editors listed. Either they don't edit anything or the original material is so bad that they eventually give up and just publish anyway I guess.
These we're good books, or at least well put together. Clearly a style choice. The Sympathizer, Tinkers, The Residue Years. Just weird that three of the last five books I've read make the same choice.

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Re: Books!

Post by Freed Roger »

heyzeus wrote:Image

I just finished Lincoln in the Bardo, and it is a stunning and bracing question of mortality and love. It's not that nobody has ever before realized and written about how everything and everyone we love, including ourselves, will die. They've never done it quite this way, though. It's like one of those "oral history of __" magazine articles except instead of being about the making of some show or movie, it's about dying and moving on (or not). Pretty heady stuff, this book.
Great book. Thanks for recommendation. Heady stuff for sure. But also worth mentioning, the historical overlay is quite intersting and this book is not without humor and wit. He develops some amazing memorable characters, while offering a deep perspective on Lincoln.

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Re: Books!

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I'm reading the series of science fiction books called the "Remembering Earth's Past" series by Chinese author Liu Cixin. I finished the first two books called "The Three Body Problem" and "The Dark Forest". I'm halfway through the last book called "Death's End". The books explore one solution to the Fermi Paradox we've talked about in the "Space" thread. Each book is longer, and better, than the previous one IMO. Here is some basic info but don't read this if you want to go in with zero knowledge:
[SHOW]
The series imagines a galaxy where life is common, and the reason we haven't encountered it yet is because advanced civilizations destroy lesser ones to remove threats to themselves. Therefore, the wise thing to do is to keep very, very quiet so you aren't found. The first book is basically about the events that lead up to us making radio contact with an advanced alien civilization and some of the things that happen afterwards. The second book is about how the world reacts to the news that an advanced alien civilization is making a 400 year journey to come and destroy us, and how we plan to fight for survival when they arrive. It follows one of the main plans of response through that book and what happens when first physical contact is made. The 3rd book starts during the same era as the second book, when the aliens are still hundreds of years away, but it follows a parallel story about one of the other response plans. Then it moves into the long term aftermath after the first physical encounter.

The first book is interesting since it explores these ideas, but it is the weakest of the three IMO. But once the foundation of that first book is in place, the second book is free to build a really great story on top of it. Both the first and second book did miss a thing or two about how we would react to this kind of news, IMO, but that is kind of nit picking. The 3rd book is the longest at over 600 pages. I'm a little over halfway through it. So far it is even better than the second book. If anything, it can start to get exhausting because the author is so good at keeping the tension going over hundreds of pages. The author is very good at exploring the emotions of the characters in the various difficult situations he created for them.

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Re: Books!

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Image

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Re: Books!

Post by Michael »

I don't get a chance to read many books anymore, but while on vacation I read Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by journalist John Carreyrou. It's a fascinating true crime about a a Silicon Valley startup called Theranos that that planned to revolutionize blood testing, but along the way became a complete fraud.

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