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  On Bullshit

  Harry G. Frankfurt

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  A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLEROne of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory."Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

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  Conan Doyle's Wide World -...

  Andrew Lycett

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  With fascinating extracts from his own writings, this book reveals the captivating travels and adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle - the creator of Sherlock Holmes. 
   
  Arthur Conan Doyle was not simply the creator of the world's greatest detective; he was also an intrepid traveler and extraordinary travel writer. His descriptions of his journeys and adventures--which took him to the Arctic and the Alps, throughout Africa, Australia and North America, and across every ocean in between--are full of insight, humor and exceptional evocations of place. Until now, these captivating travelogues have never been gathered together. In this ground-breaking book, Andrew Lycett, Conan Doyle's celebrated biographer, collects and annotates the best of his writings from around the world, which illuminate not just the places he visited, but the man himself.

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  The Long Dark Road - an...

  P.R. Black

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  If you go, there's no coming back. 
   
  Dr Georgia Healey can't grieve. Her nineteen-year-old daughter went for a walk two years ago and vanished. The police never found Stephanie's body. The case has gone stale, but Georgia can't let it go. She knows Stephanie's out there, somewhere.
   
  On the anniversary of Stephanie's disappearance, Georgia's ready to re-interrogate university students, lecturers, Steph's past boyfriends, everyone. She treads the exact path where Stephanie vanished. Yet the shocking truth is even more than she can handle.
   
  When you seek the lost, be prepared for what you find . . . 
   
  Praise for P.R. Black: 
   
  'It's edge-of-the-seat stuff. The plot is good. I really couldn't see how it was going to work out ... It's a cracker' BOOKBAG
   
  'I absolutely loved this heart-stopping, spine-tingling novel that had me completely and utterly gripped throughout' Amazon Reviewer
   
  'Cleverly written with some great shockers and I had no idea how it would end – I wasn't disappointed' Amazon Reviewer
   
  'This was a fast-paced murder thriller that kept me turning the pages late into the night. It was intelligent and slick' Amazon Reviewer
   
  'It's always something of a risk trying a new author, but I was really glad I did ... I did not see the plot twist coming, and it was very surprising' Amazon Reviewer

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  Collected Essays - Slouching...

  Joan Didion

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  Three essential works that redefined the art of journalism by “one of our sharpest and most trustworthy cultural observers” (The New York Times).   In these masterpieces of razor-sharp reportage, the National Book Award–winning and New York Times–bestselling author proves herself one of the premier essayists of the twentieth century, “an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time” (Joyce Carol Oates,  The New York Times Book Review).  Slouching Towards Bethlehem: America in the 1960s—a pivotal era of social change and generational divide. Here is Joan Didion on the “misplaced children” of Haight-Ashbury as well as John Wayne in Hollywood; folk singer Joan Baez and reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes; the extremes of both Death Valley and Las Vegas. Named to Time magazine’s list of the one hundred best and most influential nonfiction books, this is “a rare display of some of the best prose written today in this country” (The New York Times Book Review).  The White Album: A New York Times bestseller, this landmark essay collection confronts the dark aftermath of the 1960s. From a jailhouse visit to Huey Newton, cofounder of the Black Panther Party, to a recording session with The Doors, from the culture of shopping malls to the contradictions of the women’s movement, Joan Didion captures the paranoia and absurdity of the era with irony and insight. And in the iconic title essay, she documents her uneasy state of mind during the years leading up to and following the Manson murders—a terrifying crime that, in her memory, surprised no one.  After Henry: Whether reporting on a Hollywood murder or the “sideshows” of foreign wars, Joan Didion crystalizes her reputation as a brilliant essayist. Highlights include a portrait of the White House under the Reagans, two “actors on location”; an unexpected meditation on the Patty Hearst case; and an exposé on the racial divisions and class fault lines of New York City following the rape of the Central Park jogger. An indispensable collection from a writer on whom we can rely “to get the story straight” (Los Angeles Times).

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  King Arthur's Death - The...

  Michael Smith

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  Michael Smith's new translation brings the poem alive for a modern audience, while his comprehensive introduction situates the work in its historic and literary context.This is the first new translation of the poem for ten years.Features beautiful linocut illustrations by the author throughout, meticulously researched for contemporary accuracy, alongside detailed recreations of the illuminated lettering found in the original manuscript.For fans of Simon Armitage's Middle English translations (Pearl, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) and Seamus Heaney's Beowulf.

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  Ornaments and Other Ambiguous...

  Catherine Perlès

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  The famous Franchthi Cave excavations in Greece brought to light an exceptionally long sequence of ornaments, spanning from the earliest Upper Palaeolithic to the end of the Neolithic. This volume focuses on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic ornaments and ornamental species, which constitute one of the largest collections in Europe for these periods combined. Franchthi is one of the few identified production centers for ornaments, which are overwhelmingly dominated by marine molluscs. The detailed publication of these collections (Cyclope neritea, Antalis sp. and Columbella rustica) will be useful to all malacologists and specialists in ornaments working around the Mediterranean. These reference collections, coupled with the examination of manufacturing and wear traces on the archaeological specimens, allow a detailed reconstruction of the whole production cycle from procurement to discard. The systematic association of unworked, freshly worked and very worn shells suggests that the ornaments mostly served for the production or rejuvenation of embroidered garments. Despite the richness of the assemblages and varied local resources, the range of ornament types is surprisingly narrow and fundamentally stable through time. The ornaments from Franchthi Cave therefore paint a different portrait of the European Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, one based on regional cultural continuity.

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