I visited the commie bookstore in town today and I picked up a copy of Manufacturing Consent because it seemed appropriate for the current times. I also got a copy of Motorcycle Diaries.
On the way home I also passed a Falun Gong stand. They were doing some dance.
Simultaneously reading this and If We Burn. I'm close to finished with If We Burn so I decided to start Losurdo's Stalin since I was too excited. I only read up to the second chapter of Losurdo's but I've really enjoyed both so far.
I found it a bit tedious to read at first. It was lying around for a solid month after I finished the second chapter. Came back to it like a week ago and I'm getting used to Loaurdo's writing now. Been really enjoying it the last few days, managed almost 50 pages today. 120 more to go. I'll probably read some more Losurdo after this, specifically looking at "Liberalism, a counter history". Reading feels good.
So far for me the writing styles of the introduction and first chapter weren't an issue, but it does take time to read carefully since I generally prefer to read very slowly.
Something I like about Bevin's writing style in If We Burn is that the chapters are never so long that they seem daunting in one sitting. Ironically, dividing books into many smaller chapters will allow to me to readily read quantities at once that might have seemed daunting if it were just one chapter. I know, for example, that according to my pace I will be finished in two more reading sessions, and I've only had three so far, and that makes me excited to read it because I feel like I'm progressing.
Losurdo has the opposite effect where I wanted to keep reading but saw how lengthy chapter two would be and decided to shelf it until I finished If We Burn and once I have plenty of time to dedicate to just read that long chapter in one sitting, which only creates more opportunities to procrastinate actually reading.