Cheap Sex - Marketplaces and Those Who Have Given Up on Shopping
Release Date: 09/18/2025
The Rules of the Game - That Game Being Massive Naval Combat Between Great Powers
We Are Not Saved
The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command By: Andrew Gordon Published: 1996 708 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? An incredibly detailed examination of the battle of Jutland, combined with an equally detailed history of naval command, and its failings in the lead up to the battle. What's the author's angle? Gordon’s target is excessive signalling. And he’s written a very long book to demonstrate just how bad it was. Who should read this book? You have to be pretty committed to WWI naval history or military minutia before this is the book you should be...
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Cheap Sex - Marketplaces and Those Who Have Given Up on Shopping
We Are Not Saved
Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy By: Mark Regnerus Published: 2017 280 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A data-driven look at the modern dating and “hook-up” culture. As you can tell from the title, he argues that sex has become cheap, not so much in dollars and cents, but in the level of commitment it requires. He points to three reasons for this change: the pill, porn, and dating apps. What's the author's angle? As I was reading this book, I was trying to remember where I had heard the name Regnerus before. It took me a while to get around to...
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The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 3] - True Freedom
We Are Not Saved
The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 3]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (1918-1956) By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Published: 1973 608 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The final piece of Solzhenitsyn’s amazing, depressing, baffling, chilling, frightening, absurd, terrible, cold, weighty chronicle of the Soviet gulags. This part includes the period after his release which, by itself, could be a fantastic guide to simple contentment. What's the author's angle? I found it interesting how much of this book concerned just preserving the notes he’s made and all of the material which will...
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Everything Is Tuberculosis - Well Not Everything, But More Than You Suspect
We Are Not Saved
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection By: John Green Published: 2025 208 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The ubiquity of tuberculosis (wait, did I just restate the title?) especially outside of the US. And its prevalence despite the fact that a cure is available. What's the author's angle? Green was already interested in global health when he met Henry, a young man with tuberculosis (TB) in Sierra Leone, literally on the way out of the country. Green was so affected by Henry and his plight that it eventually led him to completely change his...
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Gerontocracy as a Supernormal Stimulus
We Are Not Saved
Biden was just the tip of the iceberg...
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Forgotten Victory - Maybe the British Were Lions Led By Lions?
We Are Not Saved
Everything you know about WWI is wrong! Okay... maybe not everything, but some things definitely. Forgotten Victory: The First World War: Myths and Realities By: Gary Sheffield Published: 2001 318 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? An apologetic work directed at British leadership during WWI. It refutes the claim that the British Army was composed of “lions led by donkeys”, and instead lays out a case for increasing competence, the necessity of offensives, and a string of victories in 1918. What's the author's angle? Sheffield is a noted member of the revisionist school. He wants to...
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Crisis Zone - What Did I Just Read?
We Are Not Saved
Forbes magazine, the bastion of conservative American business journalism, called it "a filth-spattered lens of depravity and dysfunction". Crisis Zone By: Simon Hanselmann Published: 2021 296 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A very non-traditional household navigates the pandemic using violence and porn production. Who should read this book? I would not recommend this book to anyone. It is without a doubt the grossest, crudest work I have ever read. Though Forbes reviewed it and said: In the deluxe and beautifully designed Fantagraphics edition, Crisis Zone ends up looking like...
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Noticing An Essential Reader (1973-2023) - Sailer, Not As Scary as You Think
We Are Not Saved
By: Published: 2024 458 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A collection of essays from Steve Sailer covering immigration, culture war stuff, and human biodiversity. What's the author's angle? For some, Sailer is a horrible right-wing racist. For others he’s a data-driven contrarian. I mostly fall in the latter camp. Also whatever you think of his opinions, his tone is exceptionally mild. He’s not a fire-breather. Who should read this book? If you’ve been following Sailer forever there’s nothing especially new here. Even if you haven’t previously read all of the included essays...
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Collapse of Complex Societies How Long Do We Have Left?
We Are Not Saved
By: Published: 1988 262 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A new (at the time) theory for the collapse of societies based on declining marginal returns to complexity. What's the author's angle? This is a book definitely written in opposition to previous theories (think , , etc.) many of which Tainter rejects as overly moralistic. Who should read this book? If you’re interested in how the United States will end (and I can’t imagine how you’re not) this is a great book. Specific thoughts: Okay so this is how collapse happens. Can it be stopped?
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[Review] Apple in China - Is China Playing a Longer Game Than the US?
We Are Not Saved
By: Published: 2025 448 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? How Apple went all in on China, not merely moving manufacturing there, but also educating their companies in, and co-developing with them, numerous advanced manufacturing techniques. These techniques then spread all throughout China. As such, Apple, far more than any other company, enabled China’s rise to be the world’s most sophisticated manufacturer. In effect they imported a super-charged industrial policy for China. This was bad enough, but the eventual result was that Apple is now utterly dependent on a capricious...
info_outlineCheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy
By: Mark Regnerus
Published: 2017
280 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
A data-driven look at the modern dating and “hook-up” culture. As you can tell from the title, he argues that sex has become cheap, not so much in dollars and cents, but in the level of commitment it requires. He points to three reasons for this change: the pill, porn, and dating apps.
What's the author's angle?
As I was reading this book, I was trying to remember where I had heard the name Regnerus before. It took me a while to get around to looking him up in Wikipedia, at which point I was reminded of the “New Family Structures Study”. He was the lead author on this study which claimed that children raised by a parent who had been in a same-sex relationship had worse outcomes than those raised by heterosexual parents. If you guessed, based on this, that he’s a conservative, then you would be correct. However, that didn’t really come through very much while reading the book.
Who should read this book?
If you want data to back up the online arguments you’ve been making. Or if you’re looking for a better understanding of the underlying reasons for the continued decline in fertility.
What Black Swans does it reveal?
Most of the trends he described are continuing to worsen. Sex just continues to get cheaper. As bad as it is already, it's not crazy to imagine that VR, AI, and sex bots might really cause the bottom to drop out.
Specific thoughts: Differing views of sex