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My Summer Reading
Here's a few books that I hope to have finished by the end of the summer.
Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg
The history of the American Left and its relationship to the early progressive and fascist movements in the 20th century.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
A biography of T.R. that includes everything leading up to his presidency.
The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton by G.K. Chesterton
The title speaks for itself really. He was a famous British journalist and writer who was a staunch opponent of the eugenics movement.
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand lays the foundations for her philosophy of Objectivism and argues in favor of selfishness.
By the end of the summer, I hope to give a full review of all these books. Anyone else have any planned reading for the summer?
Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg
The history of the American Left and its relationship to the early progressive and fascist movements in the 20th century.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
A biography of T.R. that includes everything leading up to his presidency.
The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton by G.K. Chesterton
The title speaks for itself really. He was a famous British journalist and writer who was a staunch opponent of the eugenics movement.
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand lays the foundations for her philosophy of Objectivism and argues in favor of selfishness.
By the end of the summer, I hope to give a full review of all these books. Anyone else have any planned reading for the summer?
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Comments
It amuses me to think what he would have had to say about Ayn Rand!
My own summer reading is still evolving. Currently I am reading:
Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens. It was the first Dickens novel that I read, some 50 years ago, and I suggested it for our book group next month. As I seem to be the only person who has read any (or, in my case, all) Dickens, I shall be interested in their reaction.
Persian Fire by Tom Holland. This is a wonderful book that I picked up the other day in the Oxfam shop. I had been wanting to read it since it won the 2006 Anglo-Hellenic League's Runciman Award. It is an account of the rise of the Persian Empire and the battle of Salamis in 480 BCE, a moment that is the watershed moment in world history: without the surprising Greek victory there would probably not have been any "Europe" nor, I dare assert, any USA as we know it today.
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, all four books of the trilogy. Verb. sap.
and waiting to be read are:
Quarantine by Jim Craice. Having read three others of his, I am looking forward to this.
A biography of Virginia Woolf.
Anything else that leaps, serendipitously, from the shelves to my hand.
The weather is foul so reading is a joy.
Wasn't that Thermopylae and Platea?
Anyway, I had a little knowledge of G.K. before, but I really got interested in Chesterton when I was reading up on the Progressive movement and the eugenics movement. I found some of his writings online and a number of his quotes and am convinced of his humor and relevance.
The first one is a must read for all. The last one, plus her Atlas Shrugged, still has its devotees, but such feverish prose & harsh view of people put me off, years ago.
I prefer studying the Dharma & spiritual texts, but am trying to broaden my outlook.
A fat tome by Tyerman, God's War: A New History of the Crusades sits on the shelf awaiting. Along with Fichtner's
Terror and Toleration: The Hapsburg Empire Confronts Islam, 1526-1850 - it is less than 200 pages, so maybe I will finish it. Another must read for me is a modern classic that I will finish: From Dawn to Decadence - 500 years of Western Cultural Life - 1500 to Present by Jacques Barzun. The lightest of this group (& thus its appeal?) is The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly; subtitled An Incomplete History of All the Great books You'll Never Read. From Homer to Sylvia Plath he gives sketchs of lost, incomplete, nacent or other misty works.
One can argue for Thermopylae, although the Sparta was such a deeply unpleasant state that their 'heroism' at the Fire Gates has always struck me as the crass stubbornness of the congenital bully. Apparently, John Stuart Mill claimed that "the battle of Marathon, even as an event in English history, is more important than the battle of Hastings."
Basically, you pays your money and takes your choice. Perhaps the crucial battle was between Rome and tha last Ptolemaic pharaoh, Cleopatra, at Actium. Perhaps, indeed, it could be argued that the final battle in the confrontation between the Graeco-Roman world and its dependents on the one hand, Persia plus its satrapies on the other has still to be fought. Anyone like to debate whether 9/11 and 7/7 were part of that war?
Thought not.
The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Anthony Beevor
Well what can I say? I have a penchant for studying communism and fascism and what better place to study the two than when they really duked it out in Spain?
That, and I'm a declared history major as well.
It's arguable whether or not Marathon was the most important battle of Western history. Certainly a case can be made for it. Otherwise we'd all be paying homage to our local satrap now. Maybe.
I think to say that 9/11 and 7/7 were part of the age-old conflict between "East" and "West" is also quite accurate. Islam, at least the extreme, perverted form practiced by those wonderful humanists, the Taliban or Al Qaeda, views the world through quite different eyes than the Hellenistic influenced West. Of course, the East-West dichotomy breaks down when Buddhism enters the mix as Buddhism also is tangentially opposed to the view of Islam in its view of the worth of human life. So much for that argument! (wads up paper and tosses it in the scrap bin of history, next to communism)
Palzang
I recently got myself a couple of Banana Yoshimoto books (Amrita and Asleep) and some books of Sung/ Late Tang poetry.
At the moment I am reading a very interesting detective novel set in Ancient Egypt - rather like Brother Cadfael (great series) but with a Pharaoh instead of a Prior.
That came to me by accident in a Cathedral which was flogging off second hand books for their minibus fund. Same one selling lovely rosaries, made in China ..... go figure.
My list for this summer is:
Food For The Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah
Being Dharma: The Essence of the Buddha's Teachings (Again, Ajahn Chah)
Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away (Ajahn Chah anyone...?)
The Mind and the Way: Buddhist Reflections on Life by Ajahn Sumedho
And finally,
The Stillness of Being by Ajahn Viridhammo (One of the senior monks at Tisarana monastery in Perth, Ontario, about 2 hours from where I currently live.) It's a lovely little collection of his teachings that I was able to print off from the Tisarana website for free.
I've already started a few of them but I've now decided to devote myself to each of them one at a time instead of being a greedy guts at the smörgåsbord table.
I start a book of one sort, a good self-improving one for example, and then come across a delightful fantasy or novel, so read both at the same time. Or I hear something on the radio and decide to investigate an author of whom I have never heard.
I am also a burger for starting a book and then flinging it across the room if it doesn't come up to scratch.
Has anyone else noticed the tendancy these days for writers to have a good idea, something that would have made a brilliant short story, and then pad it out to be an airport-thickness would-be blockbuster? I have lost count of the novels I have finished thinking it would have been much more gripping without the padding.
True, o Knitwitch. And who's to blame? Murdoch, that's who. Got rid of all his best editors, the people who have the skill to tell us prolix authors where we can cut, tighten up or tidy what we write.
And authors have become such celebs. Look at Ms Rowling. Her books are just too-oo-o wordy (and that's something from me!) and her editor dare not use the pencil.
I suppose there is no money in it - that is usually the answer.
I agree. That's why I'm not too big a fan of modern novels. Or post-modern novels...or whatever the hell they call them these days.
My biggest complaint is the overwrought detail in stories. In school, when it comes to writing, too much emphasis is placed on being "descriptive" while content and the actual point seems to take a back seat. Just say what you mean, add a little humor, and that's all you need.
Although I have not read it, I recently picked up Catcher and the Rye in the bookstore. I believe it was on the first or second page when the narrator says, "You won't hear me ever describe a room."
Just because of that, I know it's a book that I'm going to have to read.
I think you'll enjoy it, KoB.
I'm a 'serial' reader...in that once I find an author I like...I try to read everything they've written...to get a good sense of them. I set summers aside for this kind of thing...but haven't found an appealing author yet. I think I'll pick a female author again....
Was it even good?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarissa
Anything more is usually too heavy handed.
Crime and Punishment is a good one. I'm working on that one myself.
Hey if you PM me your address I'll mail you a SCW surprise.
Yes, but unlike most wars, it seems that the losers of the SCW wrote the history of it.
And it seems that most of the big name authors who wrote about it aren't even Spanish either. When you think of the Spanish Civil War, who do you think about? Hemingway, Orwell...
"Everybody was there but Shakespeare"
Ted Allen -- Canadian Volunteer
"When the Spanich Civil War broke out I was at an age when it would have been relatively simple for me to have broken loose from my prosaic job teaching in Colorado and come to Spain to fight in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade... Some of the men I respected most in American life were so serving, and when I thought of them doing the job that I should have been engaged in, I felt ashamed..."
James A. Michener 1968
I am looking forward to read the rest of John of the Cross` works and "History of Indian Philosophy" by Erich Frauwallner.
I've finished reading 菩提達磨大師略辨大乘入道四行觀, it was very hard.
I'm getting a bit of a break on my next two assignments, comparatively. The 三字經 (really easy, as it was written for 5 year olds!) and the 論語 (not bad, but a little tricky in spots).
Palzang
It is a constant prayer of mine that we emerge from this age of 'Christian' darkness and rediscover our roots. I find it quite fascinating that the reactionary and reductionist attitude appears to arise from fear and, in particular, fear of facts. In the past 250 years, our understanding of the origins of the universe, the processes of life and historical truth have all increased through the application of scientific method. It is beyond my simple comprehension as to why this has resulted in such a virulent backlash - but it has and we are its victims.
My own Summer reading has included the 11th chapter of the Tao Te Ching ("Thirty spokes share one hub. Adapt the nothing therein to the purposes in hand, and you will have use of the cart") which feels very appropriate here. But, in truth, I am close to despair at the task of explaining how the Jesus story and words (including the wonderful Gospel of Thomas) "adapt the Nothing".
Palzang
This bizarre situation is nowhere to be found amongst the Gnostics and other mystical Christian groups. The irony of it is, is that the meditative path is clearly outlined in the book of Genesis, albeit in a coded fashion. That makes the 'creationists' an even sadder case, as they have absolutely no hope of getting back into Eden and tasting from the tree of life.
But that's not our problem eh? :rolleyes:
Palzang
As you say, Srivijaya, it is not that Christians have "no path of knowledge, no proper meditation ....", it is that they no longer pay attention to them. Across the two millennia, there have been any number of writers on both topics.
Although it is a hidden reality, it is interesting to notice the spread of Ignatian spirituality among the 'ordinary' members of the Church of England. Retreats are usually over-subscribed and 'spiritual direction' courses too.
The problem is that the path of meditation and study is rooted in Silence. And the world tends to pay more attention to those who shout the loudest- and they are those who ignore the Biblical instruction to "Be still".
As Palzang says, it is our problem, whatever our own spiritual preferences, because the ranters have taken over and lead us all into wars, recessions, oppressions and general nastiness.
As this is a "Summer Reading" thread, I would add that I found a copy of Chesterton's Father Brown stories in the converted pigsty where I stay. Re-reading the collection called The Secret of Father Brown, I realised that my children would just not recognise a Christianity that genuinely walks in another's shoes, where transformation and reconciliation are more important than punishment and retribution - and a Christianity that celebrates rather than goes around with an LDS smile!
That's true. This happened early though, after all those early councils purged Christianity of its diversity and spirituality. What remained was a powerful organization.
Today, is the time for fundamentalism it seems. Precisely when people have access to previously forbidden texts and a diversity of ideas, they choose to retreat into superstition and anger.
Odd eh?
The story of the Christianities is one of constant ossification followed by renewal, enthusiasms followed by reactioin. I guess that, if you stand back and look at the way the Buddhisms have waxed and waned in, say, India or China.
The periods of reactionary reductionism appear to happen, in the 'Christian West', alongside improved contact with 'alien' cultures. New ways of understanding and expressing the message appear to threaten some people.
He is author of many other works, both fiction and non-fiction. His writing is lovely.
I recommend it.