In my procrastination of posting any more essays on such matters as love and truth and yada yada yada, I am going to waste time in posting something else. A few weeks ago, NPR spent some time bringing in authors and others to share with the listeners the "books that changed their lives" meaning those books that either made them get into writing or somehow changed their view of the world or otherwise, well, changed their lives. I meant to do the same for myself here on this blog at that time, but for whatever reason, I didn't. So now I am. With explanations as to why I include them. And short, incomplete sentences.
1) The single most important book to me would more than likely be Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I have worn out more copies of it than any other book (except my yearly need to purchase a new dictionary). Walden taught me the need for independence, the lack of need of material possessions, and the wonderment of short, excedingly profound, snippets that can say as much in ten words as could have been in ten sentences. Walden is the first work of Philosophy that I read and understood to be philosophy (though some would not regard it as such) and is a large reason for why I majored, and fell in love, with the subject in school.
2) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger helped to mold my voice when I write. I feel most comfortable in that sort of casual speak that Salinger expresses through Holden. Of course, part of that has to do with Holden's age, but it also has to do with the subject matter which I also find invigorating. To follow a young man explore himself so completely over the course of a few short days helps bring insight to my own life. Holden is a dreamer in a world that doesn't really cater to dreamers and that's definitely something that has helped me through some of the more rough patches of my life.
3) Ecclesiastes is the one book of the Bible that I can turn to in my times of need in order to feel good about life without feeling as though I'm being talked down to or told stories to make me feel good. It is the most straight-forward and honest book of the Bible and is beautifully written. Furthermore, it has taught me that life is meaningless, utterly so, if I take for granted and accept only those things which exist "under the Sun". There is more to life than stuff and love and money and, well, everything material and immaterial. There are things beyond us -- Platonic Forms, truth, God, whatever your heart wants to call them -- and those are the things that bring life meaning.
4) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair has taught me the value of human life and the way that that value is exploited by those that can do so. Through the plights of a single immigrant family, Sinclair wrote about the strife of the labor class, the tyrrany of the rich upon the poor, and the power that money has above all things worldly. It has also taught me that meat is yucky.
5)The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 by Karl Marx was written well before Das Kapital and therefore offers only a little glimmer of his more influentual economic theory. EPM instead examines the way that money affects human existence and how it changes us. It is, in some aspects, an exploration into the nature of money, but I read it as an exploration of the human species -- our purpose and our folly. It is by far the most "existential" of Marx's work and weirdly poetic in its style. Passion is something that I love to read in philosophy -- something the early Marx was not short of.
6)Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is my favorite fictional work of all time. The more commonly discussed issues of cloning and helicopters aside, I find it a fascinating look into the role of pain and suffering as giver of meaning in life. Paradise would be boring and meaningless, but it is the downs that give the ups in our lives so much joy. Furthermore, I find the explorations into the role of money playing such a huge role in the Utopian society presented (praise Ford) to be telling of the direction that our society is headed.
7)Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a study into the life of a young idealist by the name of Christopher McCandless who sold and burned all of his worldly possessions and hit the road in order to live life to its fullest. I identify with the kid as he was also huge into writers like Thoreau, Dostoevski, and Tolstoy and also because our lives have shared tracks much of the way so I found it to be a sort of study into my life and the dangers that dreaming without a touch of pragmatism thrown in for good measure can bring about.
Well, those are the "biggies" I guess. Don't get me wrong, there are many, many other books that I have read that have brought me joy and introspection, but I think that these seven have advanced my life more than any of those others. In any case, I just wanted to throw those out there perhaps to give some ideas to those of you that may be looking for a good read (after exchanging gifts and all). Again, I have put the comment thingy back on this blog so if anyone wants to discuss, add their own, whatever, feel free to do so.
5)
1) The single most important book to me would more than likely be Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I have worn out more copies of it than any other book (except my yearly need to purchase a new dictionary). Walden taught me the need for independence, the lack of need of material possessions, and the wonderment of short, excedingly profound, snippets that can say as much in ten words as could have been in ten sentences. Walden is the first work of Philosophy that I read and understood to be philosophy (though some would not regard it as such) and is a large reason for why I majored, and fell in love, with the subject in school.
2) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger helped to mold my voice when I write. I feel most comfortable in that sort of casual speak that Salinger expresses through Holden. Of course, part of that has to do with Holden's age, but it also has to do with the subject matter which I also find invigorating. To follow a young man explore himself so completely over the course of a few short days helps bring insight to my own life. Holden is a dreamer in a world that doesn't really cater to dreamers and that's definitely something that has helped me through some of the more rough patches of my life.
3) Ecclesiastes is the one book of the Bible that I can turn to in my times of need in order to feel good about life without feeling as though I'm being talked down to or told stories to make me feel good. It is the most straight-forward and honest book of the Bible and is beautifully written. Furthermore, it has taught me that life is meaningless, utterly so, if I take for granted and accept only those things which exist "under the Sun". There is more to life than stuff and love and money and, well, everything material and immaterial. There are things beyond us -- Platonic Forms, truth, God, whatever your heart wants to call them -- and those are the things that bring life meaning.
4) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair has taught me the value of human life and the way that that value is exploited by those that can do so. Through the plights of a single immigrant family, Sinclair wrote about the strife of the labor class, the tyrrany of the rich upon the poor, and the power that money has above all things worldly. It has also taught me that meat is yucky.
5)The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 by Karl Marx was written well before Das Kapital and therefore offers only a little glimmer of his more influentual economic theory. EPM instead examines the way that money affects human existence and how it changes us. It is, in some aspects, an exploration into the nature of money, but I read it as an exploration of the human species -- our purpose and our folly. It is by far the most "existential" of Marx's work and weirdly poetic in its style. Passion is something that I love to read in philosophy -- something the early Marx was not short of.
6)Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is my favorite fictional work of all time. The more commonly discussed issues of cloning and helicopters aside, I find it a fascinating look into the role of pain and suffering as giver of meaning in life. Paradise would be boring and meaningless, but it is the downs that give the ups in our lives so much joy. Furthermore, I find the explorations into the role of money playing such a huge role in the Utopian society presented (praise Ford) to be telling of the direction that our society is headed.
7)Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a study into the life of a young idealist by the name of Christopher McCandless who sold and burned all of his worldly possessions and hit the road in order to live life to its fullest. I identify with the kid as he was also huge into writers like Thoreau, Dostoevski, and Tolstoy and also because our lives have shared tracks much of the way so I found it to be a sort of study into my life and the dangers that dreaming without a touch of pragmatism thrown in for good measure can bring about.
Well, those are the "biggies" I guess. Don't get me wrong, there are many, many other books that I have read that have brought me joy and introspection, but I think that these seven have advanced my life more than any of those others. In any case, I just wanted to throw those out there perhaps to give some ideas to those of you that may be looking for a good read (after exchanging gifts and all). Again, I have put the comment thingy back on this blog so if anyone wants to discuss, add their own, whatever, feel free to do so.
5)
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