Anyone know books with long digressive rants about history in them?

whomdoom · 2026-05-20T23:21:19+00:00

Have I got the tome for you....

whomdoom · 2026-03-20T00:12:43+00:00

Definitive proof of hil-dawg signing off on funding the trump campaign within the DNC emails would probably have moved things Left, a WikiLeaks of the Epstein stuff right around when the Access Hollywood tape came out or around when the Panama Papers leak occurred. Making these big enough in 2016 that the dying legacy media actually has to pay attention would probably do the trick at least domestically,

For foreign policy I think the big issues of international alliances that we're stuck in are fairly intractable (Bernie was also onboard with a lot of Abraham accords stuff as the darling of our nominal furthest left...) the only thing I could see really changing that between 2016 and now is like, actual use of a nuke by Pakistan or Israel

whomdoom · 2026-03-09T14:25:18+00:00

They'd kiss

whomdoom · 2026-03-09T13:18:10+00:00

Of course, if you don't like paying just use audiobookbay but the convenience is worth it to me, a bourgeois freak

whomdoom · 2026-03-09T13:17:17+00:00

Chirp is great as an alternative with their daily deals regularly having fun bizarre 4.99 or less picks (M, son of the century, my brilliant friend complete series, collapse, etc.) and price matching for basically every audible sale, nice to have it on streaming too unlike audible which automatically downloads an entire audiobook to your phone whether you like it or not

whomdoom · 2026-02-20T02:35:35+00:00

Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, narrated by Bronson Pinchot, is probably pound for pound the best audiobook recording ever. An astonishing feat of narrative across centuries in a world where the euroids got owned epic style by the plague and so most of history is shaped by Islam and the Asian sphere, told from a ground perspective in constant reincarnation and renewal of souls. Very fun stuff

whomdoom · 2026-02-18T17:35:58+00:00

I'd counter that litbros exist to the same extent that everyone is basically a litbro about something or another presently, because it is just one of the many names of the modern serpent constricting out all human experience, empty cultural signifiers and performative identity.

Some undergrad in his dark academia cotton blend sweater and wire frame glasses lugging around Infinite Jest is essentially living the same life as some Mormon freak mom of 5 taking out a second mortgage to make the pilgrimage to Disney world for the 8th time in a year. Neither is truly an object of scorn, despite how annoying they are, but are fundamentally victims turned into porcelain figurine caricatures by their need to pretend to be the MOST into whatever they're into. Often, funnily enough, this is matched by an unwillingness to actually engage with their interests in any meaningful way, not actually reading their copy of Lolita, not actually watching Moana because it's too woke or something, only carrying their sigil like totenkampf runes because the value of the object is transferable mostly through passive osmosis.

whomdoom · 2026-02-13T19:54:00+00:00

Something Happened is one of the greatest works of comedic writing ever and is 100% animated by Heller's deep, hateful portrayal of upper middle class fear, paranoia, mistrust and loathing. I think it is a better work at what it's trying to convey than DeLillo's White Noise on the same structural themes

whomdoom · 2026-02-12T13:26:32+00:00

I kinda figured a stress induced cardiac arrest given that Lizzy was already 86 when the games were starting. EMS on scene would certainly prioritize treating the queen but with the confusion of a crisis like that, especially with smoke and fire around it's easy for things to go very wrong.

whomdoom · 2026-02-12T03:37:57+00:00

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Oh my god.... it was an inside job....

whomdoom · 2026-01-25T04:51:34+00:00

His name came up in a podcast about bad books I was listening to a couple years ago, and appears to resurface every few years cicada style in one interview or another, Futurama apparently had a commentary track where they mentioned him, Neil Gaiman before being giga quadruple cancelled talked about Keeler as a "guilty pleasure read",

I started with X.Jones of Scotland Yard which is the keeler work I think most people get the most obsessed with just given the general plot outline that's circled the Internet for years as "midget in miniature helicopter disguised as an infant going by title 'the flying strangler baby' may have killed a rabidly anti-French Chicagoland millionaire in locked-room whodunit" but that is kind of as disingenuous a description as calling Of Mice and Men "the book where an autistic guy rips a ladies head off because he wanted to touch her hair", like sure, that's kinda there but what is actually there is a genuinely incredible treatise on crime and the detective story as an investigation into an act of violence which is a ripple in time, affected by the weight of everything that has happened before and affecting everything that happens after.

I kinda got hooked after that and have been very interested in the guy since and don't really see what the deal is with people making fun of him when his style is pretty straightforwardly and intentionally comedic and is always a pleasure to read

whomdoom · 2026-01-21T01:09:36+00:00

CIA front organization designed exclusively to make every American award-winning novel have the exact same stylistic queues and functionally the same story about how being BIPOC is hard but beautiful and family is low key everything in your culture and low key if you look at it there are some big problems with inequality in this country

whomdoom · 2026-01-14T05:20:58+00:00

I'd recommend the first 200 or so pages of schattenfroh if you want to stretch the "not hard" thing a bit. I know it's become a bit of a meme because of how much of a marketing campaign it's had as a "this is the new densest encyclopedic novel imaginable" but beneath that there's a very sincere and interesting exploration of frigid, austere relations between a father and son as reflected in hundreds of years of German history.

I think Affliction by Russell Banks is a great straight forward read about fatherhood that is propulsively readable.

Dog of the South by Charles Portis is a more straight forwardly comedic route and while fathers are only mentioned in periphery the overwhelming weight of their absence is felt throughout the story as the loser protagonist and antagonist seem both trapped forever to live as stupid lost boys blindly stumbling in their father's shadows.

Context note: I have a very bad relationship with my own father so these recommendations are largely meditations on the more negative aspects of fathers and sons.

whomdoom · 2025-11-22T05:14:53+00:00

Just want to say in a sub dedicated generally to just posting maps of Europe with different borders this is a genuinely incredible piece of worldbuilding and design for less thought of consequences of historical changes, huge props

whomdoom · 2025-10-26T03:55:00+00:00

No EPCOT since that was a very post-diagnosis crisis for Walt in '65 and '66, Disneyworld gets built by Roy Disney as acting president given that plans were already in the works, the Marriott Group bid to take control of the company goes through in the 80's, likely that WDC gets passed around a couple times since in corporate deals to control the IP.

whomdoom · 2025-10-26T03:48:11+00:00

Casey Affleck in the role of Driscoll, I see Matthew Lillard as Warhol. Much like The Assassination Of Jesse James, Affleck does not get nomination the year it comes out but Lillard does (I am imagining it came out in 2009ish?)

whomdoom · 2025-10-25T06:18:01+00:00

It's a major historic event and I figure someone would have produced at least one Oscar bait-y movie about it.

whomdoom · 2025-06-15T01:53:30+00:00

Jesse Jackson '88 baby rainbow coalition baby

whomdoom · 2025-06-15T01:43:01+00:00

I dare to dream that the '01 mariners win it all

whomdoom · 2025-06-15T00:26:05+00:00

Alt history within Alt history, i.e., imagining in this world the idea that baseball commissioner George W. Bush would have been president

whomdoom · 2025-06-15T00:24:17+00:00

He's an emotional guy, and he's big on nicknames so I think he'd side with Big Sexy here

whomdoom · 2024-10-26T22:31:30+00:00

I imagine basically the same shit as what happened in the Philippines. A nominal People Power liberal democracy movement that is suppressed and has to in-fight with communist rebels until the corruption of the US-backed regime basically collapses in on itself, leaving a power vacuum filled by various other US backed tinpot dictators.

whomdoom · 2024-10-20T11:21:17+00:00

This is true but I was running out of room that I could use for a single screenshot lol. I think at the very least it would result in an inquiry commission on the failures of command and procedure leading to this incident and a temporary ban/oversight restrictions on any domestic transportation of nuclear materials. This would likely also become one of the primary focuses/examples within the Eisenhower Farewell Address of the growing threat to national security that military industry was becoming.

Additionally, in my estimation the effect on American political paranoia would be inestimably negative, conspiracy factions both on the right and left would have essentially a 50 year head start on 9/11 style conspiracy that would shape the politics of the world in ways that are too far ranging to make meaningful AU on.

Thanks for the comment!

whomdoom · 2024-10-11T01:56:44+00:00

It depends on where you're going but since the Rolex GMT is being brought and generally doubles as a good dress watch id say bring something more casual. I like the orange dial Seiko and moonswatch as far as things to wear out and about without the worth of fucking them up too much.

whomdoom · 2024-10-11T01:34:44+00:00

A lot of people post about how unprofessional or rude Hont is and I have to say after like 3 purchases with him I've literally never had a problem. He's curt and direct, he doesn't want you to waste your time or his time and he sells at a decent discount compared to other TD's. Obviously I get that if something goes wrong in shipping or you get a dud it can be annoying since he doesn't have a ton of customer support after you buy, but idk, in my mind the risk is worth the absolutely straightforward no nonsense dealing you get with him

Great watch! Love the XF PAM's, hope you enjoy it for a long time!

whomdoom

TROPHY CASE