Ps. About the Holocaust... I find it difficult to disbelieve survivors stories and the accounts of what they suffered.

Spent the evening finishing..

Unit 731 Testimony: Japans Wartime Human Experimentation Program

Which was about as grim as it sounds. The level of complexity that went into some of the stuff, like air-dropping diseases and plagues over a village or town, infecting the people, then entering on foot to test and cut the people open to examine them. Most of their operations involved using germs, diseases, poisons etc. They also used starvation, cold (having limbs frozen to the point of frostbite), rats and fleas to spread plagues and diseases.

The units purpose was the development of bacteriological weapons.

I could detail a lot here but I won't as the things they did were utterly gruesome. So I'll only proceed to state one particular act they did a lot of, that to me I feel is amongst the most gruesome; many people were cut open whilst they were still alive, having been injected or exposed to whatever poison or germs or gas they were testing. So, literally tied down, sliced from the neck down to your genitals, and had vivisection's and dissections performed on them whilst they were fully conscious. Having organs removed before their very own eyes, eventually dying, of course. Some were lucky enough to be sedated for it. Others were initially lucky to have been sedated, but then woke up during the dissection.

Utterly horrendous. Reads like a sick horror story written by a twisted author.

Thankfully, I don't think I'm traumatised by learning of what they did. I kind of got what I was expecting.

Even if no-one else here did care about what books I read, fine. Sometimes a discussion may happen, but this thread is predominantly for keeping a written track of what I read, for me.

Ps. People here care even less about your opinion than my pastimes, what with it being your 4th or 5th fucking post.

Just completed Crime and Punishment. I read it over about 10 or 12 days.

It was a good read. It's the first time I've ever read a Dostoevsky book. He's clearly quite a complex writer, which I like a lot.

One personal disappointment from the actual story is that I was always waiting for the point he goes to jail, yet it just keeps dragging out and burning and burning until the fucking epilogue. Having purposely not found out anything about the story beforehand, coupled with the title of the story, I expected that there would be a significant prison themed portion.

Kowalski, which of Dostoevsky's works would you recommend for me after having been initiated with this one?

PS. Next book I'm reading is sure to be fucking incredible. It's a true account relative to the Holocaust, but very likely not in the way you might first imagine a true account of the Holocaust.

With Dr Jordan Peterson being my favourite inspirational person, I take his word very seriously. So I'm going to start selectively working my way through many of the works in his recommended reading list.

Of the literature/philosophy section, I've read 3 so far. The Gulag Archipelago, Crime and Punishment and 1984. I've of course also read his own book 12 rules.

https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/great-books/

Plenty of great material to keep a motherfucker entertained here.

You know that he is addicted to anxiety drugs, went to Russia for a sketchy treatment that is illegal in some nations, where he was put into a medically induced coma and, latest news is, he can't speak?


Peace,

kowalski

I knew all this but the not being able to speak thing as far as I'm aware was an immediate after effect on coming out of a coma, and not a continual thing. Last I saw was his daughters update about a month ago where she said he was out of the rehabilitation facility and was recovering well, but had a long way to go. I guess the fact he doesn't appear to have made a video himself as of yet raises concerns. He does appear to have posted multiple times since then on Facebook, but I guess his daughter could be doing that. I hope it's him though, and that he gets better.

He can’t even tidy his room.


Peace,

kowalski

Even Dr Peterson himself would find this darkly humorous

Just finished reading, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery.

It's a book containing the report of the only man who volunteered to be purposely captured and incarcerated in the camp, on a mission to bring out the story of what was going on in there.

Captain Witold Pilecki (VEE-TOLD, PEE-LETS-SKI).

He was a P.O.W, so he wasn't taken there for outright extermination. However, as one could imagine, it wasn't a fun time, witnessing the murder and brutality of his comrades and innocent civilians on a daily basis for around 3 years. As well as the personal battle to survive.

I only found out about the captains existence recently, and I think his remarkable story of intelligence gathering followed by escape from the dreaded Auschwitz is one small ray of light in a predominantly dark period of history.