These are three books I read whilst in Belize, all fiction.
1. The Night Climbers is the first book by Ivo Stourton, which is about several students at Cambridge and after, told through flashbacks, coping with their extravagant lifestyle and the crime they end up committing to support their opulence. The conflict centers on the relationship between the main character and the self-destructive yet utterly charismatic leader of their group. The ending feels slightly weird, but is believable and brings about fairly comprehensive resolution.
2. Turpentine is the first book of Spring Warren, and is the story of Bayard Turrentine (Last Name) the Third; I am writing this from memory. "Turpentine", as he is nicknamed, is an invalid sent to the West to recuperate at a Sanatorium that turns out not to exist. The sheer fact that he is away from his doctor means that he improves, and he proceeds to meet a variety of interesting persons, including a transvestite, an insane paleontologist, various Irish people who include his love interest and possibly the worst behaved child imaginable, a painter, Mormons, and an extremely stubborn, yet quite sensitive, horse. The book is well written, but is incredibly sad, with only a very partially happy ending.
3. 2010: Oddysey 2 is the sequel to 2001: a Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clark. The first book is the story of the discovery of an alien monolith on the moon and a second, much larger, monolith between Saturn and one of its moons. A ship is dispatched to investigate it, and the ships computer, HAL, decides it ought to kill the crew, ya know, cause they are fleshy organic sacks made of pulp and therefore incompetent, gets several, then they get HAL and reache the monolith, and then things get very weird in a way that cannot be concisely explained. The book was written at the same time the Stanley Kubrick film of the same name, and the movie is very good if you have already read the book, or at least the final chapter. The sequel picks up where it left off, with another expedition being sent to determine what happened to the first, so you find out why HAL went crazy and get to see what the moons of Jupiter are like, and then, once again, things get weird, not in a bad way, but certainly in a way that is too long to describe beyond it results in the destruction of Jupiter as a planet. I recommend 2001 as it is a masterpiece of Sci-Fi, one of the top ten most important books of the genre, and it is worth reading even if you know the general outline of the plot already, as you now do, and recommend 2010 if you like it.
17 June 2009
Epicurus Reader
This book was basically an overview of Epicurean philosophy, including all the known fragments of text from his works, as they are all now lost as full books. The philosophy is basically antithetical to what I believe, being essentially atheistic and hedonistic, but does have some good points in it emphasis on friendship and simplicity. Basically this is a case of false reasoning leading to a positive conclusion. The point of life, according to Epicurus, is pleasure, which can be achieved through the avoidance of pain and in particular anxiety through the living of a simple life, staying out of politics, and not craving honors or praise.
Perhaps the most edifying part of the book were discourses on physics, as it is interesting and unusual way of thinking to examine what was thought on that subject by ancient authorities. It seems the habit of modern authorities to discount them, but even if they have been proven wrong the complexity of, and intensity of thought necessary to produce, their systems make them worthy of respect, and an examination of their beliefs is a good exercise of the mind. The Epicureans were atomists, and pure materialists, after Democritus, and posited that the universe was composed of both unlimited void and limitless quantities of atoms, as any other configuration would result either in a dispersal of all matter or a contradiction (such as their being a limited void to hold limitless quantities of atoms).
For a cursory examination of this philosophy, I would recommend a summary off the internet, as reading these original sources can be difficult and repetitive, but to hear arguments for a very different way of looking at every facet of life, this book is recommended
Perhaps the most edifying part of the book were discourses on physics, as it is interesting and unusual way of thinking to examine what was thought on that subject by ancient authorities. It seems the habit of modern authorities to discount them, but even if they have been proven wrong the complexity of, and intensity of thought necessary to produce, their systems make them worthy of respect, and an examination of their beliefs is a good exercise of the mind. The Epicureans were atomists, and pure materialists, after Democritus, and posited that the universe was composed of both unlimited void and limitless quantities of atoms, as any other configuration would result either in a dispersal of all matter or a contradiction (such as their being a limited void to hold limitless quantities of atoms).
For a cursory examination of this philosophy, I would recommend a summary off the internet, as reading these original sources can be difficult and repetitive, but to hear arguments for a very different way of looking at every facet of life, this book is recommended
13 June 2009
Living the Cross-Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney
Living the Cross-Centered Life exhorts Christians to be always mindful of the basic message of the gospel. We never “move on” from the fact that Jesus died on the cross for us. When we neglect the cross, we are in danger of falling into the following traps:We may slip into legalism, trying to earn God’s favor. We may become subject to our emotions and our circumstances. We may fall into self-condemnation.
Since I am prone to all three of these errors, I appreciated Mahaney’s brief and simply-presented book. Particularly helpful was the admonition that instead of “listening to yourself” – accepting your feelings and opinions as fact, and dwelling on them – you should “talk to yourself”—that is, deliberately remind yourself of the truth.
Since I am prone to all three of these errors, I appreciated Mahaney’s brief and simply-presented book. Particularly helpful was the admonition that instead of “listening to yourself” – accepting your feelings and opinions as fact, and dwelling on them – you should “talk to yourself”—that is, deliberately remind yourself of the truth.
03 June 2009
Evil for Evil and Escapement
I failed to post on the Meditations, and will do so soon. In the meantime I will post about the last two of three books in this series.
Both of these books are from The Engineer Trilogy, written by K. J. Parker. The series is part of the fantasy genre, in the sense that it is a complete deconstruction of the fantasy genre. Of course, it has a made up world and military conflict, but the other normal parts of such a story are subverted utterly. The main character is a very competent engineer, but a horrible fighter. He sets in motion events, out of love for his wife, which result in the sack of at least one major city and the deaths of 200+ thousand people. Obsessive love is in fact the motivator for much of the plot. Other tropes are also subverted. The two best fighters, who are intensely capable in general, are a boring buffoon and a murderer/rapist, the Evil Empire is run not by any grand emperor, but by committees and guilds, and characters are not able to take pain very well. In the end, the two great love stories throughout the series (for which all the death has occurred) fail or turn out to be partially false, meaning that most of the things that happened were almost pointless in and of themselves, although they turn out to be instrumental to the punishment of the person who manipulated the main character into initiating the horrifying conflict that is the center of the plot, meaning that there is satisfactory resolution. Overall, it is a very good series, even if it is quite grim, but at sixteen hundred pages or so is probably not worth it for someone who is not a fantasy reader like I am. So, if you want to see a criticism of the genre in the form of an interesting and somewhat realistic novel, then go for it, but, once again, its longer than The Brothers Karamazov.
Both of these books are from The Engineer Trilogy, written by K. J. Parker. The series is part of the fantasy genre, in the sense that it is a complete deconstruction of the fantasy genre. Of course, it has a made up world and military conflict, but the other normal parts of such a story are subverted utterly. The main character is a very competent engineer, but a horrible fighter. He sets in motion events, out of love for his wife, which result in the sack of at least one major city and the deaths of 200+ thousand people. Obsessive love is in fact the motivator for much of the plot. Other tropes are also subverted. The two best fighters, who are intensely capable in general, are a boring buffoon and a murderer/rapist, the Evil Empire is run not by any grand emperor, but by committees and guilds, and characters are not able to take pain very well. In the end, the two great love stories throughout the series (for which all the death has occurred) fail or turn out to be partially false, meaning that most of the things that happened were almost pointless in and of themselves, although they turn out to be instrumental to the punishment of the person who manipulated the main character into initiating the horrifying conflict that is the center of the plot, meaning that there is satisfactory resolution. Overall, it is a very good series, even if it is quite grim, but at sixteen hundred pages or so is probably not worth it for someone who is not a fantasy reader like I am. So, if you want to see a criticism of the genre in the form of an interesting and somewhat realistic novel, then go for it, but, once again, its longer than The Brothers Karamazov.
24 May 2009
Liberalism and The Road to Serfdom
I think it is useful to post about the books we have read, if anyone thinks there is a better way or if mine need to be shorter please let me know. I will say one thing about each of these two books
1. The Road to Serfdom- In this book Hayek points out the Socialist roots of Nazism, as many people at the time he wrote it thought that Nazism was the last gasp of a dying capitalist system. Economic planning was in vogue (it was 1943) and many were calling for the continuation of planning past the war. Hayek notes the necessity of a free market society for the continuation of social liberty, such as free speech and press. He also noted the need for laws that are predictable and relatively unchanging for society to be just, as people need to be able to plan their actions. He was fighting against an intellectual orthodoxy that called for "scientific" governance, and basically pointed out that this was not going to work, I recommend this book highly.
2. Liberalism, by L.T. Hobhouse- Sociologists should not write books on political theory. Period.
3. OK, seriously, the intellectual orthodoxy obsessed with planning seems to have a large portion of its roots in Hobhouse and his contemporaries, although his emphasis is on the "general will" which showed up in Rousseau and many enlightenment writers. Basically his is a liberalism that justifies itself more on the basis of democracy than on rights and is very fond of economic and social engineering. In fact, his refutation of rights is quite disingenuous, as he does not really focus on the theorists who described rights and more on the vague assertions of the French Revolution. The social engineering part is actually very creepy, as he talks about influencing (conditioning) people to be socially proper. I would not really recommend this book, parts of it, such as his section on the history of English Liberalism is useful, but other parts are a train wreck.
I'll post on Marcus Aurelius' Meditations tomorrow.
1. The Road to Serfdom- In this book Hayek points out the Socialist roots of Nazism, as many people at the time he wrote it thought that Nazism was the last gasp of a dying capitalist system. Economic planning was in vogue (it was 1943) and many were calling for the continuation of planning past the war. Hayek notes the necessity of a free market society for the continuation of social liberty, such as free speech and press. He also noted the need for laws that are predictable and relatively unchanging for society to be just, as people need to be able to plan their actions. He was fighting against an intellectual orthodoxy that called for "scientific" governance, and basically pointed out that this was not going to work, I recommend this book highly.
2. Liberalism, by L.T. Hobhouse- Sociologists should not write books on political theory. Period.
3. OK, seriously, the intellectual orthodoxy obsessed with planning seems to have a large portion of its roots in Hobhouse and his contemporaries, although his emphasis is on the "general will" which showed up in Rousseau and many enlightenment writers. Basically his is a liberalism that justifies itself more on the basis of democracy than on rights and is very fond of economic and social engineering. In fact, his refutation of rights is quite disingenuous, as he does not really focus on the theorists who described rights and more on the vague assertions of the French Revolution. The social engineering part is actually very creepy, as he talks about influencing (conditioning) people to be socially proper. I would not really recommend this book, parts of it, such as his section on the history of English Liberalism is useful, but other parts are a train wreck.
I'll post on Marcus Aurelius' Meditations tomorrow.
21 May 2009
Crystal's list
The books I've finished so far have been light reading:
--The Giver - Lois Lowry
--The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve (yeah, I know.)
The books that are now in my purse every day:
--Bible (ESV)
--The Loveliness of Christ (excerpts from Samuel Rutherford's letters)
--Christian Apologetics - Cornelius Van Til
--Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture - David Powlison
Stuff I never finished reading in undergrad that I want to read now:
--Purgatorio and Paradiso - Dante
-- Confessions and City of God - Augustine
-- The Midnight, The Nonconformist's Memorial, and Singularities - Susan Howe
-- The Office of Soft Architecture - Lisa Robertson
-- Augustine of Hippo (biography) - Peter Brown
Other stuff I might get to:
-- Some Yeats, Eliot, Frost, and Bukowski
-- The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
-- The Concept of Anxiety - Kierkegaard
I haven't unpacked my books yet. I might have to update this list later.
--The Giver - Lois Lowry
--The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve (yeah, I know.)
The books that are now in my purse every day:
--Bible (ESV)
--The Loveliness of Christ (excerpts from Samuel Rutherford's letters)
--Christian Apologetics - Cornelius Van Til
--Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture - David Powlison
Stuff I never finished reading in undergrad that I want to read now:
--Purgatorio and Paradiso - Dante
-- Confessions and City of God - Augustine
-- The Midnight, The Nonconformist's Memorial, and Singularities - Susan Howe
-- The Office of Soft Architecture - Lisa Robertson
-- Augustine of Hippo (biography) - Peter Brown
Other stuff I might get to:
-- Some Yeats, Eliot, Frost, and Bukowski
-- The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
-- The Concept of Anxiety - Kierkegaard
I haven't unpacked my books yet. I might have to update this list later.
20 May 2009
I feel completely outdone by the postings on here so far. Crystal, you need to put up your reviews from summer conference! :o)
My reading list thus far includes:
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
The Pursuit of Godliness by Jerry Bridges
Moo by Jane Smiley (academic satire as a graduation gift from my advisor)
Of more distant interest:
Middlemarch by George Eliot
works by Virginia Woolf
works by Eudora Welty
Canticle for Leibowitz
The Sound and the Fury by Soren Kierkegaard (if I feel particularly adventurous)
Also, as lighter reading:
Ted Dekker's Circle trilogy
novels by Stephen Lawhead
Sophie's World and The Pursuit of Godliness are currently in my backpack that I'm taking overseas, so they'll be read first. They're both good so far. Sophie's World is a leisurely philosophical novel, and I've only read the first couple of chapters of Bridges's book, in which he stresses that our search for living Godly lives must be based on an understanding of grace and the help of the Spirit.
That's all for now.
My reading list thus far includes:
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
The Pursuit of Godliness by Jerry Bridges
Moo by Jane Smiley (academic satire as a graduation gift from my advisor)
Of more distant interest:
Middlemarch by George Eliot
works by Virginia Woolf
works by Eudora Welty
Canticle for Leibowitz
The Sound and the Fury by Soren Kierkegaard (if I feel particularly adventurous)
Also, as lighter reading:
Ted Dekker's Circle trilogy
novels by Stephen Lawhead
Sophie's World and The Pursuit of Godliness are currently in my backpack that I'm taking overseas, so they'll be read first. They're both good so far. Sophie's World is a leisurely philosophical novel, and I've only read the first couple of chapters of Bridges's book, in which he stresses that our search for living Godly lives must be based on an understanding of grace and the help of the Spirit.
That's all for now.
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