Religion and Ethics Forum
General Category => Literature, Music, Art & Entertainment => Topic started by: Nearly Sane on May 18, 2015, 05:12:23 PM
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The link is to Neil DeGrasse Tyson' s list of the 8 books any intelligent person should read. Comments, disagreements, additions?
http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/12/29/neil-degrasse-tyson-reading-list/?utm_content=buffer45269&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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I've read four of them. I'd add something by Dostoyevsky, probably The Brothers Karamazov or Devils.
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And, of course, the best-selling book ever is the Bible, with an estimated 5 billion plus sold. Though, as we know, there are many atheists who may have bought one, but have never read it, though they pretend they have. They belong to that large group of people who say, when a book title is mentioned, "oh, yes. I've got that."
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And, of course, the best-selling book ever is the Bible, with an estimated 5 billion plus sold. Though, as we know, there are many atheists who may have bought one, but have never read it, though they pretend they have. They belong to that large group of people who say, when a book title is mentioned, "oh, yes. I've got that."
True of lots of Christians too.
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And, of course, the best-selling book ever is the Bible, with an estimated 5 billion plus sold. Though, as we know, there are many atheists who may have bought one, but have never read it, though they pretend they have. They belong to that large group of people who say, when a book title is mentioned, "oh, yes. I've got that."
True of lots of Christians too.
Absolutely!
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I read Dostoevsky when I was younger. It is pretty dark stuff really, not very easy reading.
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I read Dostoevsky when I was younger. It is pretty dark stuff really, not very easy reading.
It can be difficult to get in to, yeah. I chose those particular books because they describe the dangers of nihilism and liberalism.
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A very 'political' list in a way.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Selects the Eight Books Every Intelligent Person on the Planet Should Read
by Maria Popova
How to “glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world.”
Does the 'sub-title' necessarily follow from the main title? I'm not convinced.
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I've read bit of one of them, done bite size version of another at school and read a kiddies' version of a third.
<dons dunces' cap>
Ok, here's my list.
1 And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
2 The Ghost Stories of M R James
3 Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
4 Cottage Gardens by Geoff Hamilton
5 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkein
6 The Killings at Badgers Drift by Caroline Graham
7 Guide To British Wildlife - any
8 River Cottage Veg by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall
Probably not so informative about Western history or human nature (although IMO Ms Christie knew more than she gets credit for) but I have limited time to read and so prefer to spend it on the practical and the enjoyable.
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I read Dostoevsky when I was younger. It is pretty dark stuff really, not very easy reading.
It can be difficult to get in to, yeah. I chose those particular books because they describe the dangers of nihilism and liberalism.
I love reading historical novels, as history is an interest of mine. Too many to mention, but often, when picked at random, they can be poor reading. But I very much like Phillippa Gregory, Bernard Cornwall, Elizabeth Chadwick, Edwin Thomas, Georgette Heyer - the list goes on and on!
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And, of course, the best-selling book ever is the Bible, with an estimated 5 billion plus sold.
Do we know it's the case that these 5,000,000 Bibles are actually sold, as opposed to handed out/given away?
Though, as we know, there are many atheists who may have bought one, but have never read it, though they pretend they have.
How do you know that they're pretending?
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It's a bit of a weird mish-mash to me. I've read five of Tyson's eight (1/3/4/5/8) and am reasonably conversant with the contents of the others. Gulliver's Travels is certainly worth reading - when I was little it was often presented as a well-loved children's book, but for adults it's a biting satire on the follies of religion, culture and other human behaviours - but it's a bit of a peculiar choice for a list of books that any intelligent person should read/have read. Tyson says that "If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world", and that's true up to a point, but I'd say that if you want a better idea still you'd drop Gulliver's Travels in favour of something like The Communist Manifesto and/or the first volume of Capital, which have had incalculably more reach and influence on innumerable human beings. A few years back Melvyn Bragg wrote a book called Twelve Books that Changed the World (a liberal construal of the word 'book'; some are in fact documents). Bragg's choices were:
1. Principia Mathematica (1687) — Isaac Newton
2. Married Love (1918) — Marie Stopes
3. Magna Carta (1215)
4. Book of Rules of Association Football (1863)
5. On the Origin of Species (1859) — Charles Darwin
6. On the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1789) — William Wilberforce in Parliament, immediately printed in several versions
7. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) — Mary Wollstonecraft
8. Experimental Researches in Electricity (three volumes, 1839, 1844, 1855) by Michael Faraday
9. Patent Specification for Arkwright’s Spinning Machine (1769) — Richard Arkwright
10. The King James Bible (1611) — William Tyndale and 54 scholars appointed by the king
11. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) — Adam Smith
12. The First Folio (1623) — William Shakespeare
(Of these specifically I've read 3, 7 and 12).
Whether it's books/documents which have changed the world or - a slightly different concept - books that every well-informed and intelligent person should read/have read, it's an interesting challenge ... I'm going to have fun coming up with a list of my own :)
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I just like brain fluff in the little downtime I get. I could have produced a list of worthier books I've read but it's extremely irritating to have someone decide for you what to read if you want to be thought 'intelligent'.
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I just like brain fluff in the little downtime I get. I could have produced a list of worthier books I've read but it's extremely irritating to have someone decide for you what to read if you want to be thought 'intelligent'.
I was thinking exactly the same thing - I don't believe this of Tyson as he's a nice fella but there often seems to be an implicit suggestion that if you haven't read these books you can't be intelligent.
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How do you know that they're pretending?
Well it's quite evident from what they post. I defy any atheist to say, in honesty, that they have read the whole OT!
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Dear Sane,
Who is this Tyson bloke, long lost cousin of the boxer guy.
His description of the Bible is very thought provoking, very Dawkinish >:(
I think I read that Art of War book, I am set for life if I ever decide to invade China.
Gonnagle.
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Well it's quite evident from what they post.
Because they disagree with you means they haven't read it, you mean?
I defy any atheist to say, in honesty, that they have read the whole OT!
I defy anybody, atheist or not, to say that they have read the whole of the Old Testament - vast swathes of it are staggeringly boring and an utter waste of precious time, even in Jacobean English.
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Dear Sane,
Who is this Tyson bloke, long lost cousin of the boxer guy.
His description of the Bible is very thought provoking, very Dawkinish >:(
I think I read that Art of War book, I am set for life if I ever decide to invade China.
Gonnagle.
Don't overreach yourself, Gonners: start with Poland! :)
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I read Dostoevsky when I was younger. It is pretty dark stuff really, not very easy reading.
It can be difficult to get in to, yeah. I chose those particular books because they describe the dangers of nihilism and liberalism.
I love reading historical novels, as history is an interest of mine. Too many to mention, but often, when picked at random, they can be poor reading. But I very much like Phillippa Gregory, Bernard Cornwall, Elizabeth Chadwick, Edwin Thomas, Georgette Heyer - the list goes on and on!
CJ Sansome's good. As is Susanna Gregory.
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Dear Sane,
Nope, can't think of any book I have read which would make sound wind swept and interesting but for all forum members who involve themselves with discussions of theology, Most books by Karen Armstrong.
Gonnagle.
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I defy anybody, atheist or not, to say that they have read the whole of the Old Testament - vast swathes of it are staggeringly boring and an utter waste of precious time, even in Jacobean English.
I have, and yes, the genealogies and the law do make for rather dry reading.
If you have read Leviticus and Deuteronomy I take my hat off to you. THough I wonder why you would, unless you are Jewish!
I've always thought that "Brave New World" should be required reading for everybody, we my wife and I were only talking about this yesterday.
ippy
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This thread has had me thinking about those novels, as opposed to non-fiction, that I've found to be most memorable since my early teens and have stayed with me ever since, and that I've re-read several times over the years because I've enjoyed them as much as found them to be meaningful in one way or another. There are 4 that jump out (no doubt as soon as I post this I'll think of others).
1. 1984
2. Great Expectations
3. Lord of the Flies
4. Far from the Madding Crowd
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Lord of the Flies one of my most memorable reads.
Also Macbeth.
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Dear Gordon,
Non fiction!!! ( yes three exclamation marks ) Sir Terry, any Discworld Novel.
We should have a Disc world topic on this forum 8) :P
Gonnagle.
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Dear Gordon,
Non fiction!!! ( yes three exclamation marks ) Sir Terry, any Discworld Novel.
We should have a Disc world topic on this forum 8) :P
Gonnagle.
I tried Gonners - I really did, and more than once, but I failed!
I think that a Board for literature/poetry would be a great idea so that there could be threads for different authors. genres etc etc.
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Dear Gordon,
Not everyone's cup of tea ;) I was hooked when I read Colour of Magic.
Gonnagle.
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I've always thought that "Brave New World" should be required reading for everybody, we my wife and I were only talking about this yesterday.
I had to read that at school. I remember thinking that the society Huxley described doesn't sound too bad, especially as I would naturally have been an Alpha.
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Gödel Escher Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid.
Also Copper Silver Gold: an Indestructible Metallic Alloy
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Do we know it's the case that these 5,000,000 Bibles are actually sold, as opposed to handed out/given away?
How do you know that they're pretending?
I had to study the OT as part of my course at college, and it was excruciatingly ponderous and difficult. It is fine if you are Jewish, but otherwise it is hard going - I am talking in particular of the Books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, in fact the Pentateuch as a whole; and anyone, other than Jews, who says they have read them by choice, and finished reading them, and found them appropriate to any other religion, is a liar. People say they have read the Bible, including those Books, because it makes them appear knowledgeable.
As to the numbers of Bibles sold - five billion, not million - it matters not whether they were bought or given, the number is still the same.
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Though, as we know, there are many atheists who may have bought one, but have never read it, though they pretend they have.
Since you're still banging on about that, I put it to you that more atheists who own Bibles have actually read it (or a significant proportion of it) than Christians who own Bibles. The only reason why an atheist would buy a Bible is to read it whereas Christians buy them because they are expected to own them.
I suspect more people have read all seven volumes of Harry Potter than have read the Bible.
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Though, as we know, there are many atheists who may have bought one, but have never read it, though they pretend they have.
Since you're still banging on about that, I put it to you that more atheists who own Bibles have actually read it (or a significant proportion of it) than Christians who own Bibles. The only reason why an atheist would buy a Bible is to read it whereas Christians buy them because they are expected to own them.
I suspect more people have read all seven volumes of Harry Potter than have read the Bible.
Any evidence to support anything you said above - or just the usual atheist spin, and wishful thinking.
Checking: Harry Potter book sales were up to 450 million at July, 2013. A bit short of the 5 billion Bibles Check your facts.
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I read Dostoevsky when I was younger. It is pretty dark stuff really, not very easy reading.
It can be difficult to get in to, yeah. I chose those particular books because they describe the dangers of nihilism and liberalism.
I love reading historical novels, as history is an interest of mine. Too many to mention, but often, when picked at random, they can be poor reading. But I very much like Phillippa Gregory, Bernard Cornwall, Elizabeth Chadwick, Edwin Thomas, Georgette Heyer - the list goes on and on!
Have you read the Colleen McCullough Masters of Rome series?
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I put it to you that more atheists who own Bibles have actually read it (or a significant proportion of it) than Christians who own Bibles. The only reason why an atheist would buy a Bible is to read it whereas Christians buy them because they are expected to own them.
I suspect more people have read all seven volumes of Harry Potter than have read the Bible.
Any evidence to support anything you said above - or just the usual atheist spin, and wishful thinking.
Exactly the same amount of evidence as you have that the atheists who have bought Bibles don't read them.
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::)
Dear Sane,
Who is this Tyson bloke, long lost cousin of the boxer guy.
His description of the Bible is very thought provoking, very Dawkinish >:(
I think I read that Art of War book, I am set for life if I ever decide to invade China.
Gonnagle.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_deGrasse_Tyson
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How do you know that they're pretending?
Well it's quite evident from what they post. I defy any atheist to say, in honesty, that they have read the whole OT!
I have, even the very boring bits. I have done it cover to cover three times. To be honest the bit I find hardest is Revelation as it's nuts and makes me laugh too hsrd
Why would you read, say, chapters 12 to 30 of Deuteronomy once, let alone three time? Are you Jewish, and need to be aware of Judaic Law and customs?
Because when I set out to read something, I read it. Context across the board is important.
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Dear Sane,
Bugger me! You are a bigger Bible thumper than me.
Okay let's all settle down, we study the Bible, it is not a novel, it is a work of art, it inspires.
Gonnagle.
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The Bible isn't a book. It's a collection of books in one canon.
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Have you read the OT? Have you read Deuteronomy? Funnily enough, atheists always say they have, but can never say what the Book is about, let alone why they would read it.
I'm not claiming to be an atheist who has bought a Bible. I don't own a Bible. When I need one, I use an online version.
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They speak of him, point to him, in figures and shadows, as if under a veil: the tabernacle, the various laws regarding cleanliness, the sacrifices etc. Our Lord himself confirms this, as does the Apostle.
By which you mean they don't speak of him, but you have found a way to pretend that they do.
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They speak of him, point to him, in figures and shadows, as if under a veil: the tabernacle, the various laws regarding cleanliness, the sacrifices etc. Our Lord himself confirms this, as does the Apostle.
By which you mean they don't speak of him, but you have found a way to pretend that they do.
Only in your mind. As I said, our Lord himself says so. And so the Apostles, the fathers and the whole Church give witness to this.
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The only book I read these days in paper format is the Bible, which I read right through before starting again. It takes me a couple of years to read from start to finish, as I do it slowly, just to see if I am missing anything. All other books I read on my Kindle. I prefer modern novels.
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The link is to Neil DeGrasse Tyson' s list of the 8 books any intelligent person should read. Comments, disagreements, additions?
http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/12/29/neil-degrasse-tyson-reading-list/?utm_content=buffer45269&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
If you need to read books to learn those things then surely your intelligence regarding the way of the world is lacking....
I read the list, knew the books and the teachings are rather obvious except for what was missing from the Exegesis of the bible.
The bible contains the teachings of God on the matter at hand and even the examples of the things each book refers to. What was clear by just reading his answer is that he never left room for the answers or even gave credence that the bible itself was the correct way to think and learn from these things....
He speaks about things that have driven the western world. to learn that it’s easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself
Isn't the books he is suggesting and his reasons the perfect example of being told what to think rather than thinking for yourself?
What it suggests is that no on who reads those books has the intelligence to know or even reach those conclusions without them.
I personally think some people are too full of themselves to realise that Human Beings do not require books to tell them somethings. They can look at the world and make their own decisions. Knowing human nature and the results of history is a good teacher alone.
Religion a personal choice but the wisdom of God is not open to all.
By that... I am talking about those who believe and trust him not those who have never found him.
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It should be pointed out that Tyson was responding to a question and choose to frame the answer in the light of the subtitle. I don't think there is anything of a suggestion that you have to have read these books to be intelligent or that you should necessarily be looking to understand the western mind as the sole pursuit of someone intelligent.
To be honest I think the question is a bit fatuous and it is only Tyson' s answer that gives it the dignity that it has by framing it with the subtitle. I think a more sensible question and I think what some have interpreted it on the threads are what are the books you go to, or have stayed with you, or give a flavour of you. In that spirit here are 8 of mine
1 Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg, a book that haunts so much of Scottish literature and is a musing on the supernatural, logic, and free will, all of them pet subjects
2 The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies, a set of books which in one part is a homage to Justified Sinner and takes it into the world of Jung, magic and the mix of Scottish presbyterianism through a Canadian prism
3 An Enquiry on Human Understanding by David Hume - like a philosophical companion piece to Justified Sinner, and for philosophy beautifully, elegantly clear.
4. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller - the first book I ever read that screamed about the absurdity of humanity quite so clearly working in that genre which most defines our absurdity, war
5. Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington - an earlier war novel that works on a much less raucous level than Catch 22, but also ties in with the ideas in Justified Sinner about how perceptions of internal and external create an irreconcilable duality
6. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - exposes the ease by which madness can arise by cloying cruelty and the treatment of someone for whatever reason as lesser
7. Paper Money by Adam Smith (note not the Adam Smith but a financial journalist and money manager called George Goodman writing under a pseudonym) - a brilliant and clear book on the mystery that is money, although written in the late 60s / early 70s, it covers a lot of the difficulties and problems we have today particularly in its coverage of the development of eurodollars.
8. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, as with many of the books tinged by a hint of madness and depression, covering the absurdity of existence with a picaresque joy
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I'd need to have two children's books on my list, Toms Midnight Garden by Phillippa A Pearce, and The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.
The former is a brilliant story about loss, change, ageing and how we stay the same inside. I howl every time I read the end. The latter intricately described gardens, rooms, clothes and food in such detail that the Cornish world of Maria Merryweather became more real to me than my bedroom where I first read it. It's not surprising that JK Rowling was heavily influenced by Goudge in the way she uses detail to paint scenes.
Geoff Hamilton has been a huge influence on me. Everything I know about gardening I picked up from his books and TV shows, and I've always gardened organically because of him. 'Cottage gardens' influenced both the style of how I garden, and also how I like to reuse and recycle things into other uses, and try to make things myself.
Agatha Christie has given me so much pleasure throughout the years. I can't imagine life without her books. The Killings at Badgers Drift is a near perfect village murder mystery, although you do have to forgive its author for spawning Midsomer Murders as a result.
I'd also need to throw in The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer and Kissing the Hag by Emma Restall Orr. And definitely Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.
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Musn't miss my favourite book A Tale Of Two Cities.
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Wuthering Heights
Adam Bede
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tough to do but here are mine
1. Lord of the flies - William Golding
2. Dawn Wind - Rosemary Sutcliff
3. The Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin
4. Pilgrims Progress (but a very particular children's version I read when young with fantastic engravings)
5. A Land - Jacquetta Hawkes
6. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
7. Brave new world - Aldous Huxley
8. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Only in your mind. As I said, our Lord himself says so. And so the Apostles, the fathers and the whole Church give witness to this.
Anybody can claim that the Bible talks about them. I myself even wrote four of the books. See how easy it is.
Show me a passage in the Old Testament that clearly talks about Jesus. You can't, because there isn't one.
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Only in your mind. As I said, our Lord himself says so. And so the Apostles, the fathers and the whole Church give witness to this.
Anybody can claim that the Bible talks about them. I myself even wrote four of the books. See how easy it is.
Show me a passage in the Old Testament that clearly talks about Jesus. You can't, because there isn't one.
You've convinced yourself that there isn't. It wouldn't matter if I wrote page after page, in your stiffneckedness you still would not acknowledgeit it. You have a veil upon your heart.
http://www.pravmir.com/article_1224.html
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Only in your mind. As I said, our Lord himself says so. And so the Apostles, the fathers and the whole Church give witness to this.
Anybody can claim that the Bible talks about them. I myself even wrote four of the books. See how easy it is.
Show me a passage in the Old Testament that clearly talks about Jesus. You can't, because there isn't one.
You are right.
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I personally think some people are too full of themselves to realise that Human Beings do not require books to tell them somethings. They can look at the world and make their own decisions. Knowing human nature and the results of history is a good teacher alone.
No need to read the bible then? :-\
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Another couple of books I have been reminded of:
Q by 'Luther Blissett' - a huge picaresque chocolate box epic on some if the incidents, wars and characters of the Reformation
2666 by Roberto Bolano - deep musings on literature and the culture of killing in Mexico, like a cross between Ellroy and Borges
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You've convinced yourself that there isn't. It wouldn't matter if I wrote page after page, in your stiffneckedness you still would not acknowledgeit it. You have a veil upon your heart.
Come on, one clear mention of Jesus. That's all I ask.
http://www.pravmir.com/article_1224.html
You can't just look up references to mysterious people and pretend they are Jesus.
And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant…
And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord…
And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place”.
That's supposed to be Jesus because Abraham refers to one of them as "Lord" is it? Surely, it's Lord Sugar and this is an early episode of the Apprentice.
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It's a theophany. The three angels are the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity.
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The 8 books thread recently got me thinking along similar but slightly different lines: in the spirit of Desert Island Discs, what would be the books that I would want to have with me as a castaway on a desert island, the bare minimum of absolutely essential tomes that I wouldn't want to do without?
I don't think and don't claim these are books that everybody has to read or books that you have to read to consider yourself intelligent or anything as snottily prescriptive as that; it's just a list of (some of) those books which have meant and mean the most to me and from which I've continually drawn inspiration and, maybe, wisdom; the minimal books I'd want to keep me going on my island.
This needless to say is a first draft ;)
Like Desert Island Discs I’m going to take the complete works of Shakespeare and The Bible (King James/Authorized Version only) as a given — as far as the Bible’s concerned there’s some great human wisdom in it (predominantly in the Old Testament buried of course amongst a great deal of tedious dross) expressed in majestic English. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer as well, also for the English rather than the contents.
Friedrich Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra — in some ways a one-stop compendium of Nietzsche’s philosophical ideas, hugely readable (to me at any rate). I found him early and have never ceased to regard Freddy the 'Tache as one of the greatest, most powerful, subtlest and most profound minds this planet has ever seen, with something original and brilliant to say on just about every subject to which he bent his pen and whose major works I re-read every eighteen months to two years or so. I think this is probably the one of Nietzsche’s works that I would choose if I really had to whittle it down to just the one, but if it was option I’d have the whole lot (perhaps minus The Birth of Tragedy, his earliest and least representative book, and Ecce Homo which is a sort of intellectual memoir).
Arthur Schopenhauer: Essays and Aphorisms (Penguin title) — while Schopenhauer’s main work was the one translated into English as The World As Will and Representation or The World as Will and Idea, a hard-going book that he published early in life and carried on refining and revising for the rest of his days, this consists of selections from the Parerga und Paralipomena, his shorter, punchier pieces, beautifully clear, readable everyday philosophy — religion (he didn’t like it), suffering (he was against it), animals (he loved them), women (not a fan) and so forth.
Seneca: Letters From a Stoic (Penguin title) — thoughtful wisdom for life from an acute and humane Roman Stoic thinker.
Marcus Aurelius: Meditations — see as for Seneca, also a Stoic. Elegant, noble ideas from a great mind. Meditations has always been the English title: originally it was simply a commonplace book in which Marcus jotted down random thoughts and observations and which he titled To Himself.
The three-volume boxed-set of the Dhammapada, the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads translated by Eknath Easwaran — because I’ve always been interested in Eastern philosophies.
A Thomas Paine Reader (Penguin title) — or any other compendium which contains at least The Rights of Man, Common Sense and the first part of The Age of Reason. A, to me, unarguable defence of liberty, democracy and free-thinking.
John Stuart Mill: On Liberty — the ‘Bible’ of classical liberalism (libertarianism in the now old-fashioned British sense, before the colonials hijacked it to mean something considerably different) and a defence of the supremacy of individual rights.
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels: The Communist Manifesto — the shortest exposition of anti-capitalist ideas and a defence of the working class. Volume One of Capital as well if we’re going to be thorough.
Richard Dawkins: The Blind Watchmaker — that clichéd thing, a genuinely life-changing book, the book that made evolution ‘click’ for me, the book that explained how evolution actually works. Of all Dawkins’s works the single greatest is I think The Extended Phenotype but that’s a quite difficult, pretty technical, hard-going book that straddles the boundary between being published as popular science but also aimed at professionals. Of his layman-aimed works TBW remains I think the greatest. I did think about going back to source and including Darwin’s Origin of Species, which is a world-changing book, a beautiful read in often lovely, stately prose; but evolution is by definition a constantly-changing field and I think it's as well to stay relatively current.
John Keats: Collected Letters — W. H. Auden wondered if Keats was a greater letter writer even than he was a poet. I wonder that too. I think he may very well have been.
The Oxford Book of English Verse — rather than a great many different Collected Poems by different poets, may as well have a shallow but broad anthology covering the best part of a thousand years of English poetry. That said I couldn’t and want to do without the collected poems of at least A. E. Housman; Edward Thomas; Philip Larkin as well.
The Oxford English Dictionary — the huge and extremely heavy one-volume full micrograph edition if need be (plus a very good magnifying glass, in that case). Still the most expensive single book I’ve ever bought, albeit fifteen-odd years ago when it was a steal at £60.00. Great for reference, terrible for curling up with for an evening's browsing with a nice bottle of something - the Shorter OED is good for that :)
The Encyclopedia Brittanica — the last print version was published in 2010; from then on it’s been and will be available only in digital format, so while I’d personally rather have the print version (all thirty-two beautiful volumes ...), I suppose I’d make do with the DVD-ROM and a decent laptop at a pinch if I really had to.
I know that fiction is notable by its absence but then I’ve always been much more of a one for non-fiction. If I had the choice I’d have to throw in obvious classics such as War and Peace (to my great surprise, not a dull read at all but an absolute page-turner; it’s just very, very, very, very, very long, and I only managed to get about three-quarters of the way through); Great Expectations (Dickens’s finest, in my view); The Great Gatsby; and to my mind what is the greatest work of fiction ever created by any human mind, James Joyce’s Ulysses albeit only in the edition I have which is the annotated student’s editions which more than doubles the actual length of the novel itself with notes which explain exactly what Joyce was about and making explicit his plan for the book. For sheer sentimental value I’d also throw in the books which were dearly loved by me and tremendously important when I was a kid, books I still re-read regularly now — I mean children’s classics like The Wind in the Willows, like Treasure Island and (more recent) Penelope Lively’s The Ghost of Thomas Kempe.
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Your list is way to serious for me as holidays reads, mainly I suppose because we always have our grand-kids with us so settling down for a 'proper' read is almost impossible, since they always want to do stuff (the inconsiderate little sods) :)
So, for my holiday reading I usually take the opportunity to re-read old favourites that I can lift and lay without getting too annoyed about interruptions: this year's selection includes Great Expectations, 1984 and I Claudius/Claudius the God.
That's the plan anyway!
Just to add I have no idea why my reply is about holiday reading, which wasn't really what you were asking - must have been the Desert Island imagery.
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M1 A cracking reading list, that. I'll have them when you've finished with them.
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I certainly wouldn't take the AV/King James Version; I'd probably take the Message or the New International Version. However, if the KJV was mandatory, I'd also take one of the modern versions as one of my discretionary books.
John Locke: Two Treatises of Government It's a long time since I read this - though I only pulled it off the shelf the day before yesterday planning to reread it soon.
Marx and Engels: The Communist Manifesto I have always been intrigued by how closely much of this parallels the early part of Acts.
George Herbert: One of the 'Complete Works' editions. I have long been impressed by the poetic and physical form of many of his poems. I've still got the copy of one collection which I studied for 'A'-level English Literature.
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings I could read this numerous times (though an omnibus edition with The Hobbit would be brilliant).
Victor Hugo: Les Miserables As often is the case, novels give a fascinating insight into human nature and psyche. Unfortunately, I don't speak/read French, so it would have to be an English translation.
The Oxford English Dictionary I wouldn't mind the full (24-volume) edition, but would settle for a 2-volumer.
Richard Price: Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principles of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America As someone who clearly thought through his Christian faith, Price's ideas spread across the world, to the extent that some are embedded in the American Declaration of Independence.
Like Shaker, I'd probably then have to take either Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows or the collected Winnie the Pooh material.
A book on 'Desert Island' horticulture. I have no idea whether one actually exists, but I would want one to give me pointers as to how best to cultivate whatever was indigenous to the island!!
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I find Desert Island lists problematic - if I really were on a desert island I'd want really enjoyable fiction to lose myself in rather than non- fiction which I would either like to try out or discuss with someone. I like Hope's idea of some kind of local guide to flora, and possibly fauna - is that snake the one whose venom will kill me instantlyor the one that will take a few days? - but otherwise I'd want to forget I was on an island at all.
With that in mind...
The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley
A Shardlake novel by CJ Sansom - can't pick which
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie
A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie
The Killings at Badgers Drift by Caroline Graham
Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
Complete works - Shakespeare
(Predictable one on the end there but today it really would be one of my choices)
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Gödel Escher Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid - DR Hofstadter,
The Complete Works of Saki - HH Munro
The Decipherment of Linear B - J Chadwick
Climbing Mount Improbable - R Dawkins
Raising Steam - Pt Pratchett
The Player of Games - IM Banks
The Cyberiad - S Lem
What is the Name of this Book - RM Smullyan
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein
I recognise that is nine books, but the last one is only there for toilet paper.
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Shaker's list is awesome. If it's really a desert island, I would probably take a bunch of thrillers. If it means your favourite books, a couple of Jane Austens, a couple of Chandlers, then I go blank. Oh yes, my bird books and wild flower books.
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Just want to throw in a note of appreciation for "The Decipherment of Linear B - J Chadwick". A fascinating story - and it would give you something to work on while on the island! :)
ht
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Gödel Escher Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid - DR Hofstadter,
The Complete Works of Saki - HH Munro
The Decipherment of Linear B - J Chadwick
Climbing Mount Improbable - R Dawkins
Raising Steam - Pt Pratchett
The Player of Games - IM Banks
The Cyberiad - S Lem
What is the Name of this Book - RM Smullyan
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein
I recognise that is nine books, but the last one is only there for toilet paper.
Oh go on, you really have a secret yearning to don some latex pointy ears and spend your weekend pretending to be an elf.
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I have been giving some thought to this since I saw the thread originally. Shaker has explained his penchant for non-fiction very well. I probably can’t do as well at explaining my near total devotion to fiction other than to say it has long been my temporary escape and sanctuary from the travails of life. That sounds too grand. You know the day to day shitty stuff that crops up far too often.
Anyway here goes:
1. The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins – almost single-handedly inventing the classic English detective novel. But also a very well written novel that transcends the genre – although it wasn’t really a genre at the time it was published!
2. Martin Chuzzlewit – Charles Dickens – my personal favourite of his novels – although only by a fraction over some of his other works. I think this is by far his funniest novel and also sharpest. This on the USA and slavery: “Liberty pulls down her cap upon her eyes, and owns oppression in it’s vilest aspect for her sister”. Satirical about both England and the USA he did not pull his punches.
3. On Beulah Height – Reginald Hill. Some of you will already be aware that I am somewhat addicted to this authors work. This is one of the best examples – the mix of humour (sometimes gallows in nature) and sadness combined with a brilliant narrative drive and exquisite characterisation makes this unputdownable for me. Ian Rankin (another favourite) said of this: “ranks as his best yet, Hill’s novels are really dances to the music of time”.
4. London Triptych – Jonathan Kemp. A novel set in three different time periods about London’s homosexual underworld. Squalid, strange, very sad – but shows how much things have changed – and is brilliantly realised.
5. Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke. On the list because this was the first science fiction book that I really took seriously. It opened my eyes to a whole universe of possibilities. Which I have been dipping into ever since.
6. Charles Dickens – A Life – Claire Tomalin. The only non-fiction work on my list – but about my favourite author. It is as far as I can see the definitive biography. You feel as if you are there. Utterly, utterly brilliant. And I speak as someone who thought that Peter Ackroyd’s biography was pretty special.
7. A Room With a View – E M Forster. OK I came to this via the film – but still a great book.
8. The Kraken Wakes – John Wyndham. Again science fiction – ish. As a 14 year old it struck me as more horror than sci-fi – but Wyndham’s writing is good and evokes post war England brilliantly. I am fond of all his work.
Just to say that I would also squeeze in “Wind in the Willows” if I could. Still re-read it to this day.
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Have just thought of another one and it's actually a novel - Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, easily the saddest book I've ever read.
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The Oxford English Dictionary — the huge and extremely heavy one-volume full micrograph edition if need be (plus a very good magnifying glass, in that case). Still the most expensive single book I’ve ever bought, albeit fifteen-odd years ago when it was a steal at £60.00. Great for reference, terrible for curling up with for an evening's browsing with a nice bottle of something - the Shorter OED is good for that :)
Shaker, I like you're style but I don't have a choice, from now this is how I'm going to have to imagine you...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECSG3RYWY30
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Dear Jeremyp,
Raising Steam - Pt Pratchett
Why that particular one, are you a steam train buff.
Gonnagle.
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Dear Mods,
You have the Shakers permission ;)
Gonnagle.
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Not at all! I thought about adding it to the 8 books thread but didn't as I thought the emphasis was different, but you merge away Gonners :)
Dear mods, I wonder if the way to do it would be to (a) merge the threads, (b) change the title so that it has 8 books/Desert Island Books or even just Books as title? As a possible (c) there is a bit of derailing on the 8 books thread that could be pruned but that isn't the main point.
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On Beulah Height - bloody marvellous book.
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Dear Jeremyp,
Raising Steam - Pt Pratchett
Why that particular one, are you a steam train buff.
Gonnagle.
I am limited to eight books. I can't take all the Disc World novels and I've only read that one once.
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For the time being....
Precious Bane ~ Mary Webb
Gentian Hill ~ Elizabeth Goudge (Rhiannon, if you haven't read this one, I'm sure you'd enjoy it.... if it's still in print, though Amazon would probably come up with a copy.)
Anything by Wilbur Smith.... The Seventh Scroll is probably a favourite
The Hidden Messages in Water ~ Dr Masaru Emoto
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No comments on the various political machinations on Fox hunting but this and its follow ups are good
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoirs_of_a_Fox-Hunting_Man
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My choice?
If I could ditch Shakespeare in favour of the complete works of Burns, and the Bible in the 2011 New International Study version,
my choice for the eight (at the moment) would be
1. The Edinburgh history of Scotland (4 vol, Edinburgh University press)
2. The Oxford history of Ancient Egypt (OUP,2003)
3. The Lord of the Rings.
4. The Sacred Diaries of Adrian Plass. (Hilarity with theology shoved in as an afterthought)
5. Night Watch (or any other Vimes strand Terry pratchett novel)
6. A drunk man looks at the thistle, and other poems (my well thumbed copy of McDairmid is wearing thin)
7 The Hiding Place trilogy, by Corrie Ten Boom. (I'll need inspiration)
8. In Bed with an Elephant (Ludovic Kennedy)
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I have to admit I find choosing Burns baffling, but replacing Shakespeare with him just beyond comprehension. I would rather have Garioch than Burns and Soutar than McDairmid but always Shakespeare
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I have to admit I find choosing Burns baffling, but replacing Shakespeare with him just beyond comprehension. I would rather have Garioch than Burns and Soutar than McDairmid but always Shakespeare
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Actually, I prefer Fergusson or Hogg to Burns - but the complete works include his many letters, which give a fascinating insight into the man who was very far from the 'heaven taught ploughman'.
As far as Shakspear goes, I have my second year English teacher to thank for not appreciating him.
I recieved six of the tawse for informing him that Macbeth was little more than political fantasy, and I would not write a critique on it.
Second year English was not my favourite subject that year.....
I chose McDairmid because I realised none of my books had politics as their theme (yes, I know Kennedy was a Liberal, but if you've read 'In bed...' you'll see that party politics are absent)
Whatever Mcdairmid was, the one thing you can say about him was that he was most definately political.
Raving mad, but political.
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I recieved six of the tawse for informing him that Macbeth was little more than political fantasy, and I would not write a critique on it.
Strange - you obviously had things to say about Macbeth, but you refused to write them down when asked. So you just wanted to get a row from your teacher; and it worked you got what you wanted. So because your teacher gave you what you wanted, you now claim that's a reason not to like Shakespeare.
Luckily for you, in rejecting Shakespeare in favour of Burns, it gives you another opportunity to establish your nationalist credentials (lest there were any doubt).
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Sorry: let me elaborate, Cyberman.
At the time, we were fourteen.
We were sudying Macbeth as the set play (along with the excellent "Death of a salesman (Miller)
The teacher was a sadist, pure and simple. He belted students for trivial reasons.
One girl wore leg calipers, and he belted her for having the timerity to be late (slow mobility was, apparently, not a valid excuse.)
In those days, and in that regime (1974) it wasn't 'done' to question the teacher.
We had submitted our essays, which had - fortunately - been marked.
We were then asked to give a verbal precis of our understanding of the play.
I did.
The result was demonstrably instructive.
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Dear Me,
Go Set a Watchman was excellent, a real page turner, slow to start but once it got going, excellent, and like To Kill a Mockingbird I will read it again, it certainly made the old grey cells spark, another great insight into a time gone past by Harper Lee.
Gonnagle.
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Just glancing over this thread again and it strikes me as absurd that certain scientific tracts are included but none that are geological in nature. Without the principles of uniformitarianism, stratigraphy, biostratigraphy etc. we would have never come to make use of the mineral and hydrocarbon wealth of our planet. to rectify this I submit the following:
James Hutton, Theory of the Earth; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe - the foundations of modern geology and the first real proposal of the idea of uniformatarianism "a geological doctrine. It states that current geologic processes, occurring at the same rates observed today, in the same manner, account for all of Earth's geological features" (google)
First geological map of an entire country, or 'The map that changed the world' William Smith - not a book I know but a seminal piece of work that included Smith's observation that fossils occurred in a specific order with layers of sedimentary rock. This is the first time rocks could be put in a recognised order based on the fossils they contained and is now known by the term biostratigraphy. It allowed redictions ot be made as to what might lie beneath the ground , simply based on observations at the surface. BEfore this landowners would dig on their estates in the hope of finding coal. After Smiths work it could be shows where the likely places were. A crucial development for industry and understanding the distribution of our natural resources.
Georges Cuvier, Mémoires sur les espèces d'éléphants vivants et fossiles - the first paper to establish a species of animal as extinct. Before this it was widely believed than extinction was impossible. Once extinction was accepted it revolutionised the way fossil remains could be studies and described, freeing scientists from attempting to fit fossil remains into existing groups, changing the way we viewed the past of our world forever.
Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology - the key document that argued for an Earth older than 6000 years, the age taken from Bishops Ushers work on the genealogies in the Bible. Refining and popularising Hutton's earlier theories it championed the idea that the slow processes at work today were responsible for all features visible from fossils to fjords. It required a planet that was far, far older than anyone had dreamed possible. It was a huge influence on Charles Darwin, who took it with him on the Beagle, and whose principle interest as a young scientist was geology.
Without these works the Origin of Species could not have been written. Geology established a view of the world within which the process of natural selection could operate. Most important was its evidence of a vastly ancient Earth, but also that rocks were organised and predictable and contained traces of strange and alien life forms that suggested ancient lineages stretching back far into the past. The idea of stratigraphy was later taken up by antiquarians and applied to their own investigative practices and modern archaeology was the result.
The Origin of Species was not doubt a world-changing book, but it is a shame the equally world-changing discoveries of geology that preceded it are so poorly understood or appreciated.
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1.The Bible (public library; free ebook), to learn that it’s easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself
If, it could do what he suggests then atheists would not exist. Then again could be Christ did things that no amount of being told what to think could affect. Do we need telling?
Who told man before the bible what to think? The clue is God was there at the beginning he will be there at the end but this guy wasn't. Difference between being told what we should do and what we think. The bible is a doers book not about being told what to think.
2.The System of the World (public library; free ebook) by Isaac Newton, to learn that the universe is a knowable place.
We live here don't we? Hey! is the Universe a knowable place or just our little corner of it?
The universe is all time and space with it's contents and here is us sat on a planet called earth, He did say the universe it knowable... Discoverable maybe but not in our day and age.
3.On the Origin of Species (public library; free ebook) by Charles Darwin, to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth.
If our kinship is the same with all life on the earth will they now read this list and actually understand it...
4.Gulliver’s Travels (public library; free ebook) by Jonathan Swift, to learn, among other satirical lessons, that most of the time humans are Yahoos
Would Yahoos read this list of 8 books? Only asking... ::)
5.The Age of Reason (public library; free ebook) by Thomas Paine, to learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world
Yeah! cos that would work right! Did Hitler and all other tyrants since Paine published his book actually make a difference because of it?
6.The Wealth of Nations (public library; free ebook) by Adam Smith, to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself
Couldn't be mans own greed is what causes capitalism??? yes?? no??? A force of selfishness unto everybody?
7.The Art of War (public library; free ebook) by Sun Tzu, to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art
Well do you think Cain would have chosen a different weapon to kill Abel? Would have been more or less affective? Killing humans is not an art it is execution and if the generals of the countries had to battle to the death to decide there would be no armies and no wars.
8.The Prince (public library; free ebook) by Machiavelli, to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it
Where did Christ do all he can to acquire power and do all he could to keep it...
Truth is Christ came with power and did everything to pass it on to everyone even died to make it possible for others. Maybe this is all human prospective and has nothing to do with the first book the bible. Because that is a way of finding God and filling your life with love and power of the kind that matters... the selfless kind.
Purely human trait and a very clear picture of mans own reasoning displayed.
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Interesting on choice of 5 books on war
http://fivebooks.com/interview/cecile-fabre-war/
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Niall Ferguson's choice of 5 books that have influenced him.
http://tinyurl.com/hwh8548
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Scotland's 10 favourite books. Seen worst lists. But no Stevenson? And Knots and Crosses not Ian Rankin's best, or even near it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-37677187
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Scotland's 10 favourite books. Seen worst lists. But no Stevenson? And Knots and Crosses not Ian Rankin's best, or even near it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-37677187
I bet, if you did a survey of who, in Scotland, has actually read any of those books, you'll find number 6 at the top by a mile.
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I bet, if you did a survey of who, in Scotland, has actually read any of those books, you'll find number 6 at the top by a mile.
Undoubtedly true, though a number of the other books are decent sellers. But the choice of a favourite book is not about most read.
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I suppose the choice was on Scotland's best beloved books - and I'm surprised Stevenson didn't make it, either. I'm equally surprised that Dunnett and Tranter were not in the top thirty.
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I suppose the choice was on Scotland's best beloved books - and I'm surprised Stevenson didn't make it, either. I'm equally surprised that Dunnett and Tranter were not in the top thirty.
not sure exactly what the process was for selection of the top 30. I note though that it is 1 book an author and in the case of series, the first book.
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Mind you, NS, I totally agree with the number one choice. I never get tired of "Sunset Song" - or the whole trilogy, if it comes to that.
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Undoubtedly true, though a number of the other books are decent sellers. But the choice of a favourite book is not about most read.
But it is reasonable to assume that if somebody has read and owns HP and hasn't read and doesn't own Sunset Song, that person's favourite book is more likely to be the HP book.
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But it is reasonable to assume that if somebody has read and owns HP and hasn't read and doesn't own Sunset Song, that person's favourite book is more likely to be the HP book.
Yes, but it's a self selecting electorate as well.
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Yes, but it's a self selecting electorate as well.
True.
That's also why numbers 1 and 2 in the BBC Big Read were LotR and Pride and Prejudice. LotR at a stretch, maybe, but there is no way more people's favourite book is Pride and Prejudice than the Harry Potter series or H2G2.
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True.
That's also why numbers 1 and 2 in the BBC Big Read were LotR and Pride and Prejudice. LotR at a stretch, maybe, but there is no way more people's favourite book is Pride and Prejudice than the Harry Potter series or H2G2.
it's people who read a lot and widely that are more likely to participate, added that it is also on average likely to be an older readership.
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it's people who read a lot and widely that are more likely to participate, added that it is also on average likely to be an older readership.
I read a lot and widely, but I haven't read Pride and Prejudice.
I have read LotR and I found it rather pretentious and tedious in large parts. As an aside, my first experience of the BBC Message Boards was posting my views about LotR. It was also my first experience of being flamed on line.
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I read a lot and widely, but I haven't read Pride and Prejudice.
I have read LotR and I found it rather pretentious and tedious in large parts. As an aside, my first experience of the BBC Message Boards was posting my views about LotR. It was also my first experience of being flamed on line.
I would say that adaptations also have an effect, even if people haven't read the book,but in that sense Sunset Song is a bit of an oddity. There has been a recent film but it was unsuccessful and not liked by those who like the book. Also, it should be noted,this was from a preselected long list which was put together by a panel.
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Moderator Thread has had a number of derails removed.
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The tidy up of the thread happened because I was discussing a set of posts I was making on books I love elsewhere with no explanation and Gordon suggested kicking this off again. I had been trying to avoid the books I had mentioned previously but on reading the thread I was not entirely successful. Still the 1st one hadn't been mentioned and here I will indulge in some explanation. This was just so dark and dirty and dank that I loved it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thérèse_Raquin
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Have just thought of another one and it's actually a novel - Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, easily the saddest book I've ever read.
Just scrolling through this thread after three years, and noticed this one, which coincidentally I've just read. I agree with Shaker's judgment; and indeed I agree with a lot of his choices in his splendid list (not that I've read all the ones listed).
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Bloody hell, just found my list from whatever it was years’ ago. How can my tastes have changed so much in so little time? :-\
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I've read 1, 3 and 4. I don't think there are any "essential" books.
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Having used a quote from Fintan O'Toole in the Quotes thread - I should mention his books Heroic Failure and Ship of Fools as collections of his columns.
Also separately there The Five by Hallie Rubenhold on the five women killed by the Jack the Ripper which looks at the story of the women rather than the murders. It triggered off some bizarre reactions from 'Ripperologists' who seemed upset that it argued that it might be that not all of the victims were prostitutes.
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Nudged me to remember Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan) and his book "The Third Policeman" - certainly on my essentials list.
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Nudged me to remember Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan) and his book "The Third Policeman" - certainly on my essentials list.
That is a great one
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Really enjoyed The Immortal Game by David Shenk - a meandering history and memoir about chess.
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How could Mr Tyson forget the most essential book of all, i.e.:
Vinetum Britannicum: OR A TREATISE OF CIDER, And Other Wines and Drinks Extracted from Fruits Growig in this Kingdom. With the Method of Propagating all forts of Vinous FRUIT-TREES. And a Defcription of the New-Invented INGENIO or MILL, for the more expeditious making of CIDER. And alfo the right way of making METHEGLIN and BIRCH-WINE. To which is added, A Difcourfe teaching the beft way of Improving BEES. By J. Worlidge, Gent.
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I woke up very, ridiculously, early this morning, came downstairs, made hot chocolate and put telly on. There was a BBC2 programme called 'The novels that shaped our world'. I didn't see it all but what I did see was so interesting. It concerned books that had (from the British books) the British Empire and from elsewhere colonialism as a theme, included Robinson Crusoe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, James Bond up to Toni Morrison's 'Beloved'. Half asleep, I was fascinated and would like to catch up on the series. Has anyone else seen it?
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I woke up very, ridiculously, early this morning, came downstairs, made hot chocolate and put telly on. There was a BBC2 programme called 'The novels that shaped our world'. I didn't see it all but what I did see was so interesting. It concerned books that had (from the British books) the British Empire and from elsewhere colonialism as a theme, included Robinson Crusoe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, James Bond up to Toni Morrison's 'Beloved'. Half asleep, I was fascinated and would like to catch up on the series. Has anyone else seen it?
Yes, I enjoyed them
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000b8mh/novels-that-shaped-our-world
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I've recently read this book '1000 Years of Annoying the French',Stephen Clarke, loved it and I would equally enjoy reading something similar written by the French about the U K, if there were such a book it'd have to be written in English.
Jeremy Paxton's book 'The English', I remember his reference to a newspaper headline in his book, 'Fog in the channel Continent Cut Off', so typically English and quite right too!
Paxo's book was really funny and at the same time very close to home, I absolutely loved it.
I've a great nephew that is involved with a French girl, when I mentioned the book to him, his eyes lit up so it looks like he's next on the borrowing list.
ippy
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Started reading Pale Rider which is about the Spanish Flu epidemic. So far it's excellent
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I have just read a book called, 'Prison Doctor', by Dr Amanda Brown. It is an interesting read about her experiences as a doctor working in prisons, including Wormwood Scrubs.
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I'm currently reading 'Said and Done', Roger McGough's autobiography, published in 2005. I was slightly shocked to realise that he is now 83! I've seen him live three times - once at a 'Scaffold' concert at the 'Everyman' Theatre in Liverpool in the early 70s, and once at the Old Town Hall in Hemel Hempstead, doing a poetry reading, in 1978. At the interval, I went to the bar and ordered a pint. Turning away, I saw the great man at the bar next to me. The third time was a chance encounter in Liverpool City Centre, probably in 1974, the one complete year I lived in Liverpool, when I saw him walking towards me, carrying a bag. He saw me gazing open-mouthed, and gave me a nod.
I have also discovered that I may have lived a few doors down from Adrian Henri in 1973, when I lived for a couple of months in a grotty bed-sit in Canning Street. He was living a few doors up in the late 60s, but I don't know if he was still there in 1973. I'd've thought I'd've seen him once or twice if so, and I'd certainly have recognised him, being a fan of him and the other two Mersey Sound poets. Being a fat slob with a big black beard, he'd've been hard to miss. I saw him live once, reading some of his poems with others in a field at the end of the Aldermaston March of 1972. I saw the third 'Mersey Sound' poet, Brian Patten, at Hemel Old Town Hall in 1979, a year after Roger. Adrian appeared there in 1980, but I missed him, unfortunately.
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The link is to Neil DeGrasse Tyson' s list of the 8 books any intelligent person should read. Comments, disagreements, additions?
http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/12/29/neil-degrasse-tyson-reading-list/?utm_content=buffer45269&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Haven't read The Art of War. My adds (some of which gave more meaning to some on Tyson's list.)
Dante's Divine Comedy
The Grand Inquisitor - Dostoevsky (This is really an excerpt from The Brother's Karamazov, but I could never get through the latter.)
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
The Sleepwalkers - Arthur Koestler
The Matter Myth - Paul Davies and John Gribbin
Annie's Box - Charles Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution - Randal Keynes
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The Motorcycle Diaries - Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (The unabridged version)
Grendel - John Gardner
Beloved - Tony Morrison
Frankenstein - Mary Shelly
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Hadn't heard of Annie's Box. Ordered
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Hadn't heard of Annie's Box. Ordered
And now read and enjoyed.
Now reading amongst others
The Summer Soldiers: 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down
by A.T.Q. Stewart.
Fascinating details of how the positions people have taken on the idea of colonialism in Ireland are not as fixed as many assume
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Started reading this (https://flic.kr/p/2jr2xP8), which I bought recently: selected articles from the Staggers from its foundation in 1913 to the present. Orwell on hop-picking, Bertrand Russell appealing to Krushchev and Eisenhower to agree to limit nuclear weapons; David Reynolds in 2016 on the first world war and its long shadow; and lots of other stuff. I've just read the longish Reynolds piece: good and moving.
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Just started reading "Independence or Union: Scotland's Past and Scotland's present" by Prof Tom Devine.
If it's anything like his other works, it will be scholarly, absorbing and stimulating.
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I have just read a book called, 'Prison Doctor', by Dr Amanda Brown. It is an interesting read about her experiences as a doctor working in prisons, including Wormwood Scrubs.
Nick Marks would know all about that ;).
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Read and enjoyed Broken Greek by Pete Paphides. Very evocative about growing up as a Greek immigrant in Birmingham in the 70s and 80s filled with his love of pop music.
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Bought these (https://flic.kr/s/aHsmQAnt8K) at St Albans Oxfam Bookshop yesterday, to add to my modest but growing collection of Folio Society volumes. The 'Secret History' should be interesting: 6th-Century Byzantine scandal. I was sorely tempted by a beautiful FS set of Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall...', going for £45. Maybe at the end of the month, when I get my pension as well as my wages, if it's still there.
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Bought these (https://flic.kr/s/aHsmQAnt8K) at St Albans Oxfam Bookshop yesterday, to add to my modest but growing collection of Folio Society volumes. The 'Secret History' should be interesting: 6th-Century Byzantine scandal. I was sorely tempted by a beautiful FS set of Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall...', going for £45. Maybe at the end of the month, when I get my pension as well as my wages, if it's still there.
Lovely
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Finished Deborah Orr's memoir/autobiography Motherwell. It's very interesting and haunted by her relationship with her ex Will Self. She died shortly before it was published, tragically young.
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Damn! I had no idea she had died, though I knew she'd had health problems - cancer, I think. I used to enjoy her in the Grauniad.
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Damn! I had no idea she had died, though I knew she'd had health problems - cancer, I think. I used to enjoy her in the Grauniad.
You might enjoy this from Libby Brookes on Deborah Orr
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/oct/20/award-winning-columnist-deborah-orr-dies-aged-57
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Really enjoyed This is Shakespeare by Emma Smith. Review from last year below. I think it benefits from at least a little knowledge of some of the plays.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/06/this-is-shakespeare-emma-smith-review
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Read Peter Pomersantsev's book, This is Not Propaganda which was very interesting but didn't really make clear about how anyone could tell in most cases.
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Read the updated edition of Joan Smith's Misogynies which I had read originally 30 years ago. The chapter on the Yorkshire Ripper is an incredibly powerful reveal of why the inbuilt misogyny of many on the police force contributed to the failure to find and stop Sutcliffe much sooner.
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On a lighter note, read Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club, great fun if a little busy plotwise. Clever idea.
Apparently Spielberg has bought up the rights so spent some time thinking about the casting of the main characters who are all over 75.
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Just bought this biography of the great but flawed John Martyn - looking forward to reading it
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/12/small-hours-the-long-night-of-john-martyn-by-graeme-thomson-review
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Started reading "The Silmarillion" - yet again, then onto LOTR for the umpteenth time. On a serious note, I'm also going through Aidan Dodson's latest work, "Nefertiti, queen of Egypt", which is afollow on to his two excellent Amarna books "Sunrise" and "Sunset". I was looking for a book on a specific Egyptian topic the other day and ransacked my shelves....I now have a horrifying 179 books on all things AE ....and that's after giving five boxes of them to a local Library in February.......
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Currently reading 'Darwin', a biography by Adrian Desmond and James Moore, and have decided to collect all four of his books that are available from the Folio Society. They aren't cheap (£50 new), but are very handsome. I've got 'The Voyage of HMS Beagle' on the way from AbeBooks (because it isn't currently in print), and have just ordered 'On the Origin of Species' from Folio, so I've now got 'The Descent of Man' and 'The expression of the Emotions...' to go. I read 'Origin' a few years ago, in an ordinary edition I've got which also contains 'Voyage', but I love Folio books, and have before now bought their version of something I've got in an ordinary version (usually second-hand, which is a lot cheaper).
When I searched on AbeBooks for 'Voyage', as well as the recently-published Darwin version, it came up with a Folio version of Captain FitzRoy's account, published in 1977, so I ordered that as well, as they seemed a natural selection. That arrived yesterday. I'm now waiting for 'Voyage', from another Abe Books seller, and 'Origin' from Folio. When I've got all four, I will read them all (including 'Origin' again) in succession.
The second edition, (https://flic.kr/p/2kQ6oNy) 1979. of the Folio FitzRoy account, which arrived yesterday.
The Folio 'Origin' (https://flic.kr/p/2kQ6oNd), which I've just ordered. Photo from Folio's website.
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Because of the Book Link thread I was reminded of the book Flanagan's Run which I had a copy of many years ago. Going to Amazon, there is no Kindle edition and a paperback reprint from 2014 but it's 77 quid (see link). I see this with books I want to rebuy every few months but just cannot get my head round why this happens.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flanagans-Run-Publisher-Sandstone-Paperback/dp/B00SLVXZ7K/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Flanagan%27s+run&qid=1618565560&sr=8-3
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Because of the Book Link thread I was reminded of the book Flanagan's Run which I had a copy of many years ago. Going to Amazon, there is no Kindle edition and a paperback reprint from 2014 but it's 77 quid (see link). I see this with books I want to rebuy every few months but just cannot get my head round why this happens.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flanagans-Run-Publisher-Sandstone-Paperback/dp/B00SLVXZ7K/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Flanagan%27s+run&qid=1618565560&sr=8-3
Crap Amazon software ... try a seller on Abebooks directly? Used from 73p +pp (WorldOfBooks):
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?cm_sp=SearchF-_-topnav-_-Results&kn=Flanagan%27s+Run+tom+mcnab&n=200000169
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Crap Amazon software ... try a seller on Abebooks directly? Used from 73p +pp (World Books):
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?cm_sp=SearchF-_-topnav-_-Results&kn=Flanagan%27s+Run+tom+mcnab&n=200000169
It's the why the crap software, I can't get my head arpund.
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It's the why the crap software, I can't get my head arpund.
Algorithmic pricing, used by Amazon and often by the sellers. Quite often the seller does not even have a copy of the book.
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Algorithmic pricing, used by Amazon and often by the sellers. Quite often the seller does not even have a copy of the book.
Surely this just reduces sales?
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Bought today, from Jordans Antiques, Hemel Hempstead, to add to my Folio Society collection. I might even get round to reading them one day.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmVnRq6H
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This arrived yesterday, from the Oxfam bookshop, Wanstead (London) - a facsimile Shakespeare first folio. It cost me nearly £75 (including the courier charge), but it's worth every penny: in fact, I think I may have got a bargain, as it is in pretty much as-new condition.
I owned a FFF once before - I bought it from a second-hand bookshop in St Albans about 20 years ago. it was reduced in size by 20%, and was published in the 50s. A few years ago, I gave it to my niece, who is an actress. This one is full-size, and is consequently ENORMOUS - 14 1/4" x 9 3/4". It is from various first folios in the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, which contains by far the world's largest collection of FFs: 82, of 235 known survivors.
The odd thing about the first folio is that, although copies go for seven-figure sums on the rare occasions that they come on to the market, they are not rare - 235 copies of an early 17th-century book is quite a lot - and neither is it a particularly outstanding example of the printer's craft, nor the Droeshout engraving of the engraver's art. It is valuable for its supreme importance: without it, we might have lost a number of WS''s most important plays, including Macbeth and Measure for Measure, which first appeared in it.
Sorry the photos are a bit blurry - I think the camera lens may have been dirty. I'll clean it up and take some more.
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzEf1M
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The odd thing about the first folio is that, although copies go for seven-figure sums on the rare occasions that they come on to the market, they are not rare - 235 copies of an early 17th-century book is quite a lot - and neither is it a particularly outstanding example of the printer's craft, nor the Droeshout engraving of the engraver's art.
I don't think it's odd at all. After all there can't be many books that practically everybody with an interest in literature wants to own.
It is valuable for its supreme importance: without it, we might have lost a number of WS''s most important plays, including Macbeth and Measure for Measure, which first appeared in it.
Don't let Anchorman hear you say things like that about Macbeth. He can't quite get his head around the fact that it is fiction.
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I
Don't let Anchorman hear you say things like that about Macbeth. He can't quite get his head around the fact that it is fiction.
One of my favourite fictions of all time, and for me, Shakespeare's best play.
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One of my favourite fictions of all time, and for me, Shakespeare's best play.
I prefer Dorothy Dunnet's 'King Hereafter'; equally fiction, but with a rather interesting twist regarding Macbeth's identity.
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On a lighter note, read Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club, great fun if a little busy plotwise. Clever idea.
I read this. Also enjoyed it, but you are right a bit too much going on.
I've read a similar style book by Robert Thorogood (best known as the creator of "Death in Paradise") called "The Marlow Murder Club" which again features an older central character. To my mind, it is the more satisfying of the two books precisely because it isn't quite as busy & convoluted. And the whisky-drinking, 77-year-old female busybody is my kind of detective. Also great fun. Except for the murders obviously.
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The Enid Blyton thread started me thinking about my reading recently .. over the last few years I have read only factual books - no fiction - not deliberately, just felt that needed to understand more physics, economics, history, psychology and so on
But in the past I have enjoyed a huge range of fiction and now I felt inclined to pick up a novel - my inclination was to reread Solzhenitsyn - Cancer Ward or First Circle say, but not wanting to restrict my reading decided to pick a book at random from my bookshelf - ended up picking nunquam (L Durrell), that I have started (can't remember reading it before - though I must have).
Does anyone belong to a reading club/group - are there online groups? It might be worthwhile reading books at a similar pace, with others - and discussing as you go along?
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I read fiction when I'm on a proper holiday. Tends to fairly light crime. And it's usually 1 fiction, 1 non fiction. So my weekend in Barcelona last week, I read Playmates by Robert B Parker (I've been rereading his Spenser books), Mary Beard's Twelve Caesars - which I found very interesting, and relevant about representations of the Caesars given the Queen's death, The Art of Dying - Ambrose Parry (penname of Christopher Brookmyre, a long term favourite, and his wife Dr Marisa Haetzman), A Cry From the Far Middle - collection of the last columns and articles by P J O'Rourke, and Scottish Widows a series of monologues by Grae Cleugh, an old friend, very influenced here by Alan Bennett.
I'm always a bit dubious about reading clubs, not entirely sure why. I think we discussed the possibility of one on here once. Not sure we have the critical mass for it now.
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I read fiction when I'm on a proper holiday. Tends to fairly light crime. And it's usually 1 fiction, 1 non fiction. So my weekend in Barcelona last week, I read Playmates by Robert B Parker (I've been rereading his Spenser books), Mary Beard's Twelve Caesars - which I found very interesting, and relevant about representations of the Caesars given the Queen's death, The Art of Dying - Ambrose Parry (penname of Christopher Brookmyre, a long term favourite, and his wife Dr Marisa Haetzman), A Cry From the Far Middle - collection of the last columns and articles by P J O'Rourke, and Scottish Widows a series of monologues by Grae Cleugh, an old friend, very influenced here by Alan Bennett.
I'm always a bit dubious about reading clubs, not entirely sure why. I think we discussed the possibility of one on here once. Not sure we have the critical mass for it now.
Tried to reply on my tablet .. had to give up after too many errors and interruptions.. .will reply when home.
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Quote from nunquam - the 1970 Durrell book:
"Has anyone seen Johnson lately? I wonder where he's gone. I last heard he'd been locked up in Virginia Water for making love to a tree."
Durrell, his protagonist and the story are all quite mad.
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Tried to reply on my tablet .. had to give up after too many errors and interruptions.. .will reply when home.
hurrah
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That is a great one
Certainly is.
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Quote from nunquam - the 1970 Durrell book:
"Has anyone seen Johnson lately? I wonder where he's gone. I last heard he'd been locked up in Virginia Water for making love to a tree."
Durrell, his protagonist and the story are all quite mad.
I remember a quote from that (or maybe Tunc), which is appropriate for a 'religious' forum:
"One God distorted neophyte
Cut off his cods to see the light.
Now, though the impulse does not die,
he greets erections with a sigh"
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Have read a lot of thrillers and crime fiction over the last few years: Lisa Jewell, Erin Kelly - that sort of thing. Very fond of Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks books, partly because of all the musical references.
On a philosophical tak, I've started reading John Gray again. Just finished Black Mass, and have ordered Heresies and Seven Kinds of Atheism.
I have to say his 'anti-progress' outlook does seem more and more relevant in the present world situation. Though NS has said here that his views are not at all consistent.
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I read fiction when I'm on a proper holiday. Tends to fairly light crime. And it's usually 1 fiction, 1 non fiction. So my weekend in Barcelona last week, I read Playmates by Robert B Parker (I've been rereading his Spenser books), Mary Beard's Twelve Caesars - which I found very interesting, and relevant about representations of the Caesars given the Queen's death, The Art of Dying - Ambrose Parry (penname of Christopher Brookmyre, a long term favourite, and his wife Dr Marisa Haetzman), A Cry From the Far Middle - collection of the last columns and articles by P J O'Rourke, and Scottish Widows a series of monologues by Grae Cleugh, an old friend, very influenced here by Alan Bennett.
I'm always a bit dubious about reading clubs, not entirely sure why. I think we discussed the possibility of one on here once. Not sure we have the critical mass for it now.
That is a lot of reading! I just can't keep up with my own list these days. Having books on an tablet does help a lot though. Beard's, Twelve Caesars is on my list but I will probably never get round to it (as I never managed to get to SPQR).
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I remember a quote from that (or maybe Tunc), which is appropriate for a 'religious' forum:
"One God distorted neophyte
Cut off his cods to see the light.
Now, though the impulse does not die,
he greets erections with a sigh"
That is from Tunc. Both books have sexual mutilation and exploitation, both physical and psychological, as a running theme. *
Somewhat regretting sticking to to my random choice even though Tunc was right next to it on the shelf - re-reading it first would have made nunquam much easier going.
*The description of the search for the cure for Koro (or "Shook Yong") is quite amusing.
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That is a lot of reading! I just can't keep up with my own list these days. Having books on an tablet does help a lot though. Beard's, Twelve Caesars is on my list but I will probably never get round to it (as I never managed to get to SPQR).
Twelve Caesars was a bit tough. It's very visual so has problems on a tablet.
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I've got the original Twelve Caesars, by Suetonius (in English translation, of course), but have never read it, and probably never will, though maybe.
Just started reading a Folio Society edition of 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' by Mary Wollstonecraft, and am about three-quarters of the way through Darwin's 'Descent oof Man', and a third of the way through 'Adam Bede' by George Eliot.
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Suetonius is quite an easy read in a good translation. The revised Graves is good, I'd avoid Rolfe. Beard's look at how we visually know the Caesars is a typically sideways glance at knowledge and very interesting but I was hoping for something more around our general perception. Suetonius is amazing propaganda but it is propaganda.
Colleen McCollough's Masters of Rome Ceasars is brilliant till she gets to later Julius and then she falls in love with him, and even the later book on Mark Antony, Cleopatra and Octavian is too haunted by him.
Allan Massie is the one writer who gets Octavian/Augustus right for me - pace Graves who only really does Augustus and seems to me to buy into the propaganda of Suetonius a bit much.
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My 12 Caesars is the Graves version. It doesnt say anything about it's being revised, so presumably the original.
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I've got the original Twelve Caesars, by Suetonius (in English translation, of course), but have never read it, and probably never will, though maybe.
Just started reading a Folio Society edition of 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' by Mary Wollstonecraft, and am about three-quarters of the way through Darwin's 'Descent oof Man', and a third of the way through 'Adam Bede' by George Eliot.
Never quite know what to expect with George Eliot.
Middlemarch- magnificent.
Romola - virtuosic.
Silas Marner - quite touching but on the edge of saccharine.
Couldn't get anywhere with The Mill on the Floss.
What might I expect with Adam Bede?
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Never quite know what to expect with George Eliot.
Middlemarch- magnificent.
Romola - virtuosic.
Silas Marner - quite touching but on the edge of saccharine.
Couldn't get anywhere with The Mill on the Floss.
What might I expect with Adam Bede?
I'm finding AB a bit boring, tbh. I loved SM and TMOTF, b ut MM bored me to tears.
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I'm finding AB a bit boring, tbh. I loved SM and TMOTF, b ut MM bored me to tears.
Extraordinary judgment on Middlemarch! The only thing I found a bit hard to accept is that Daft Dorothea couldn't see that Casaubon was one of the walking dead. But then a lot of the plot hinges on that. Otherwise, I reckon it's the tops.
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I suppose one of the reasons that MM clicked with me is that at the time I read it, I was just becoming aware that there had been well over a hundred years of biblical studies carried out - known as the Higher Criticism - and the first advances in this research are alluded to in the novel (George Eliot of course was the first to translate David Friedrich Strauss into English).
Casaubon represents the old, totally faith-based attitude to research, and is completely unaware of what has been happening on the continent, particularly in Germany, where biblical studies have taken a more objective direction. Whereas Will Ladislaw, though perhaps not the polymath and Romantic hero that George Eliot might have wanted him to seem, is fully aware of the research being done.
Things haven't moved on that much in these matters over the last 150 years or so, at least in England. There are those whose attitude is entirely faith-based, and the reading they do tends to be directed to reinforcing their faith, and there are only a small number who are interested in more objective biblical studies, most of the unbelieving camp being only interested in sustaining a hard atheism, in which "science" is the guiding light. There are also those who think the Bible text alone and in itself will deliver all that needs to be understood about it - and there are even atheists here (well, at least one) who take this approach. SSh! You know who...
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I might give MM another go one day.
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Currently reading an anthology of Jeeves & Wooster stories that I bought on Prime.
Have to confess that my reading has dropped off dramatically over the last couple of years due to the effects of the medication that I am required to take - I always used to read in the evenings and in bed before sleep, but nowadays by early evening I'm just too fatigued to concentrate.
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Currently reading an anthology of Jeeves & Wooster stories that I bought on Prime.
Have to confess that my reading has dropped off dramatically over the last couple of years due to the effects of the medication that I am required to take - I always used to read in the evenings and in bed before sleep, but nowadays by early evening I'm just too fatigued to concentrate.
and yet maybe there is a podcasts thread?
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and yet maybe there is a podcasts thread?
I'm astounded by the number of excellent podcasts available, covering a huge range of subjects. In addition there's audiobooks and apps - eg. BBC Sounds allowing listening to programmes at any suitable time. Also a huge range of devices that can be used to listen to them on.
The only problem from my pov is that I have a tendency to fall asleep very quickly when listening at bedtime!
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I'm astounded by the number of excellent podcasts available, covering a huge range of subjects. In addition there's audiobooks and apps - eg. BBC Sounds allowing listening to programmes at any suitable time. Also a huge range of devices that can be used to listen to them on.
The only problem from my pov is that I have a tendency to fall asleep very quickly when listening at bedtime!
My current favourite podcast is "The Rest is History". Each episode is typically an hour long and consists of Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook and sometimes a guest discussing some aspect of history between them. It's usually very entertaining and very educational.
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I think, as NS noted, it's time for Podcasts thread - I listen to loads, including the one just mentioned by Jeremy.
If nobody gets there first I'll start one over the weekend.
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One of my favourite fictions of all time, and for me, Shakespeare's best play.
Better as Verdi's operatic setting. As is Othello-Otello.
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Rereading the Charlie Muffin books by Brian Freemantle. Forgotten how much I liked them.
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Surprised (using the Search function) that there is only one reference to this here - and that from dear old bluehillside, of all people. I've just started reading The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Have to say, it's taken me quite a while to get round to it. Reading a few critiques, I see it is supposed to anticipate various ideas of depth psychology, and how psychological traumas affect the whole of an individual's health, as well as expatiating on various ways in which Christians have interpreted the idea of sin and guilt.
So far, I can only say I like the style of writing very much.
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Reading All Crazee Now: English Football and Footballers in the 1970s by David Tossell, and enjoying it.
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A sort of big advert of '50 best books of all time' put together by Pan MacMillan but I've seen worse. Not sure they needed a specific section on dystopian novels, as this, as with many such lists, seems packed with them. There is HG2TG but even that is dystopian but funny.
https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/general/must-read-books-of-all-time
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A sort of big advert of '50 best books of all time' put together by Pan MacMillan but I've seen worse. Not sure they needed a specific section on dystopian novels, as this, as with many such lists, seems packed with them. There is HG2TG but even that is dystopian but funny.
https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/general/must-read-books-of-all-time
I haven't read ay of the literary books, and can't say I'm tempted to read any of them. I've read all the Classic books except for Gatsby and Fred Douglass, and enjoyed all of them except Middlemarch, which bored the pants off me. Of the sci-fis, I've read and enjoyed HHGTTG, TWOTW and Frankenstein. I've only read 'A room of one's own' of the non-fiction, and only 'Brighton Rock' of the Crime and Thrillers. I did it for A level Eng Lit, and haven't been tempted to re-read it, though I quite enjoyed it. Haven't read any of the historical fiction. Of the translations, I've read 'The Little Prince' many years ago - twee shite, as far as I can remember - and the Tao Te Ching, which is profound and moving. Of the dystopias, only 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', which is depressing, but perhaps the most important novel of the 20th or 21st Centuries.
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Read Graham Linehan's Tough Crowd. The first half is standard autobiography, and gives a lot of insight into his writing, and the success of his comedy. The second half is concentrates on what has happened following his speaking out against the idea of gender.
It's an odd combination because the first half is like any standard 'sleb' autobiography, and then is followed by something completely different. I'm not sure it tells anyone not familiar with the gender issue much in a way that would help them understand it but then I'm not sure that is what the book is for, or could be for.
The funniest bit in it is about his father trying to give him the sex talk.when he was growing up which would be a brilliant piece in a sitcom.
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Just finished Babel by R F Kuang. Interesting but felt the message overwhelmed the world it tried to create.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babel,_or_the_Necessity_of_Violence
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I am currently reading the third in a detective book series written by an author Russ Thomas called "Cold Reckoning". The previous two books are "Nighthawking" and before that "Firewatching".
It would be best if you read them in order to make sense of them.
It is about a detective called Tyler and his sidekick Rabbani and is set in Sheffield a city I used to know reasonably well in the past.
Anyway, thoroughly enjoyable for me. It is complicated enough to wrong-foot me (frequently) but not so opaque that I want to stop reading. He is spot-on with his portrait of the city and the speech patterns of its residents.
If you like detective novels these are pretty good.
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Rereading Jonathan Raban's Soft City. 40 years after I first read it, and 50 years after it was written. When I read it first, it already seemed about a lost world but that was more to do with me being 20 than anything else. Reading it now, I see that a lot of what he was writing about could now apply to the Internet, the ultimate 'soft city'?
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Another reread with Mark Steyn's Broadway Babies Say Goodnight on the development of the musical. It's written with live and care, and yet the ineffableness of a great musical is so hard to pin down. The reread was triggered by a quiz question from Duglas T Stewart of the BMX Bandits about Bill, from Showboat, and who wrote the lyrics - PG Wodehouse - but not for Showboat itself.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Broadway-Babies-Goodnight-Mark-Steyn/dp/0415922879
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Currently reading 'Julia' by Sandra Newman, a retelling of Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-four' from the point of view of Orwell's anti-heroine. Doubleplusgood so far - she captures the dirty seediness of Oceania well; the blocked toilets and bed bugs and coarse soap that makes the skin itch.
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I am currently reading "Young Mungo" by Douglas Stuart.
It is set in 1990's Glasgow and is a very vivid portrait of that time. I don't know enough about Glasgow to comment on its complete accuracy, but it has brilliantly realised characters and wonderful dialogue.
Apparently, the BBC have commissioned a TV adaptation of the book.
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I am currently reading "Young Mungo" by Douglas Stuart.
It is set in 1990's Glasgow and is a very vivid portrait of that time. I don't know enough about Glasgow to comment on its complete accuracy, but it has brilliantly realised characters and wonderful dialogue.
Apparently, the BBC have commissioned a TV adaptation of the book.
I read Shuggie Bain, his previous book, and felt conflicted by it. I did think that the dialogue and catacterisation were the best bits. I did also feel that it went down the route of 'poverty porn' a lot and wasn't the most balanced reflection of life. I think he writes in some was in a picaresque style so it's more exaggerated than accurate in that sense. I hadn't felt inclined to pick up Young Mungo on the basis of Shuggie Bain, but I might well do now given you are enjoying it.
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Well, now that you mention it, poverty porn..hmm.
Also, it is much more violent than the fiction I normally read. Still, I did find it engrossing and very well-written.
Having now looked at the themes of "Shuggie Bain" I probably won't read that, as it sounds as if the author was mining the same seam.
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About 2/3 through 'Byzantium' by Judith Herrin, a brief history of the Byzantine Empire. I red JJ Norwich's three-volume history a few years ago. The Byzantines were horribly fond of punishing people by blinding, but, as she points out, it was at least preferable to the death penalty, which they used only rarely. Also, she points out that Byzantium never developed anything like an inquisition, nor burned heretics at the stake. Well, for good or bad, it lasted for a millennium, which is not bad going.
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I'm starting on The Earth Transformed by Peter Frankopan. But at 700 pages long, and reading a couple of pages a day, it means being in for the long haul :o