CMT
02-14-2006, 02:14 AM
The books that changed your life/made you who you are - mine are:
1. The Bible: Hey, religious or not, every major Western thinker you can name for the past 1500 years was immersed in this tradition: Jacob wrestles the Angel, Moses murdering pharoah's official, David slays Goliath, David murders Uriah to steal his wife, Hosea and Gomer, Sampson tempted by Delilah, Jesus and the Fig Tree, The Sermon on the Mount, Judas' Kiss, "Neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female" etc. If you could only spend 20 minutes with it, read, God's response to Job in Job 38, et seq., Matt: 5-7, and the Book of Galatians.
2. Thucydides: People do what they do because of who they are, and because of who they are, can no nothing other than what they do. A bit fatalist, but has informed more great people than probably anything other than Plutarch and the Bible.
3. Don Quixote: Most folks know it but have never read it. The impossible dream. Never surrender. The ideal romance.
4. The Road To Serfdom: To say Hayek's prose is dense and difficult would be an understatment, but the seminal treatise on how colletivism breeds totalitariansim did more to shape my political philosophy than all the writings of our founders combined.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird: Something about the character of Dolphus always stuck with me. I couldn't decide if he was wise for recognizing the injustice in his society and that he couldn't change it, or if he was a quitter for not railing against it more vehemently.
So, like, what books do you think I should read?
1. The Bible: Hey, religious or not, every major Western thinker you can name for the past 1500 years was immersed in this tradition: Jacob wrestles the Angel, Moses murdering pharoah's official, David slays Goliath, David murders Uriah to steal his wife, Hosea and Gomer, Sampson tempted by Delilah, Jesus and the Fig Tree, The Sermon on the Mount, Judas' Kiss, "Neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female" etc. If you could only spend 20 minutes with it, read, God's response to Job in Job 38, et seq., Matt: 5-7, and the Book of Galatians.
2. Thucydides: People do what they do because of who they are, and because of who they are, can no nothing other than what they do. A bit fatalist, but has informed more great people than probably anything other than Plutarch and the Bible.
3. Don Quixote: Most folks know it but have never read it. The impossible dream. Never surrender. The ideal romance.
4. The Road To Serfdom: To say Hayek's prose is dense and difficult would be an understatment, but the seminal treatise on how colletivism breeds totalitariansim did more to shape my political philosophy than all the writings of our founders combined.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird: Something about the character of Dolphus always stuck with me. I couldn't decide if he was wise for recognizing the injustice in his society and that he couldn't change it, or if he was a quitter for not railing against it more vehemently.
So, like, what books do you think I should read?