| The topic is pretty clear: share the latest book(s) you've picked up! I'd like to see what everyone else is interested in whenever you folks buy a book or two; it shows what's occupying your mind at the moment, and possibly shows what's ahead for you, as well. Let's get on with it. Today, I picked up: "On Liberty" by J.S. Mill "The Early History of Rome" by Livy "9-11" by N. Chomsky The first two are the Penguin Classics versions. As I've been reading and thinking of Machiavelli often now, so I decided to reach back to one of his main sources, Livy. As for Mill, I'm interested in the classic works in political philosophy. The Chomsky book is basically a collection of interviews, so I thought it'd be a good look into where his thinking was at that time (the interviews were conducted all within a year after 9-11, if I remember correctly). |
| "Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way" by Nagarjuna It cannot be intellectually understood though. It is more like anti-philosophy/anti-ontology. Nagarjuna is pretty much the "progenitor" of all Zen and other schools of Mahayana Buddhism. If you want to understand his views well, then I recommend reading this essay: http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/Nagarjuna/NagarjunaTheLimitsOfThought.pdf Here's a significant quote: "To quote Nagarjuna, quoting the Prajnaa paramita, 'All things have one nature, that is, no nature.'... all things lack fundamental natures, it turns out that they all have the same nature, that is, emptiness, and hence both have and lack that very nature... In traversing the limits of the conventional world, there is a twist, like that in a Mobius strip, and we find ourselves to have returned to it, now fully aware of the contradiction on which it rests." |
| I'm familiar with some of the basic ideas of Mahayana Buddhism, and I'm reminded of Nietzsche and Wittgenstein in their more mystical modes of thinking, e.g. Wittgenstein's "ladder" and Nietzsche's idea the nature is one messy causal flux (an idea going back to Heraclitus). Whenever I get back into studying Buddhism again I'll be sure to make note of Nagarjuna! Not long ago I grabbed the following: "Motherland: Russia in the 20th Century" by David Marples "The Collapse of the Soviet Union" by David Marples "Russia, America and the Cold War" by Martin McCauley I was reading another book on the Soviet economic transition to capitalism, so I decided to grab these three to better understand the wider social contexts taking place. |
| I like Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.Not that I'm neo-Nazi but I like the meaning of the book.A united with peace lasting for a millennium. |
| *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland*, by Lewis Carroll. That is the the lastest, though bought it since I'm planning to start *Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid*, by Douglas Hofstadter after it and wanted to refresh a bit my memories on this book. Read it when I was a kid and still my favs book of all time, but as years passed forgot most part of it. |
| Not sure if this fits but my book knowledge is pretty poor and I quite like reading "philosophy-themed" fiction books. Currently in the middle of Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse and am really enjoying it. Recently also read -Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, -The Stranger by Camus, -1984, all of which I quite enjoyed, though 1984 to a lesser extent. I'm wondering if you guys could recommended me anything? |
| I'm now reading one hundred years of solitude, I guess it's 'philosophy-themed' story about the recurring nature of people and stories. Chomsky, and the book of nothing seems interesting. |
BiddingGortonioMay 27, 2015 3:35 AM
| I'm currently waiting for my copy of "The Elementary Particles" by Michel Houellebecq to arrive. Apparently this author has quite a controversial reputation for the extreme, unrelenting levels of pessimistic nihilism found in his works. I've seen everything from claims that he's the most important french writer since Camus, to criticisms that his work is nothing more than vulgar trash. It certainly has me interested enough to see for myself. |
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