Looking Forward
Greetings, Bookworms. It's good to see some discussion going on here. Considering the nature of the Levin's book the postings are staying remarkably gracious (I'm sure I'm the worst offender, I'll be a little more quiet after this weekend). I hope some more of you are inspired to contribute.
While I happen to stand politically to the right of just about anywhere Levin can lean I still do not particularly enjoy reading a book of this nature in this environment. I'm learning new things about the political process and US history around the edges but neither is something I'm deeply passionate about or bound and determined to convert everyone I meet to my views (I didn't vote for this book in our selection process).
It seems like a good idea to start people considering what book we might tackle next now that we have a little better feel for the group and the format. It's my personal hope that we can draw a little bit more toward the literary end of the spectrum or at least towards original works and not modern commentary. If you haven't read Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book, I would strongly encourage you to do that (I had suggested that for our first book, but George excised it). It's really good for providing an overall picture of what the literary world has to offer across the full spectrum and what we can hope to get out it. Just imagine, if you will, if we were reading the Federalist Papers now or even Aristotle's Politics instead of Levin's take on the judiciary. I think you should be able to see how that might be more directly beneficial to our understanding of the political process and history without the stress of reading something slanted across some pretty raw political nerves.
So, if you stumble across a good book, or have an old favorite you'd like to share with the group go ahead and post it in a comment here. We can glean from this list for our next selection or just use it for personal edification in our own reading lives. Happy reading with our current selection, and let's see some more view points up here!
While I happen to stand politically to the right of just about anywhere Levin can lean I still do not particularly enjoy reading a book of this nature in this environment. I'm learning new things about the political process and US history around the edges but neither is something I'm deeply passionate about or bound and determined to convert everyone I meet to my views (I didn't vote for this book in our selection process).
It seems like a good idea to start people considering what book we might tackle next now that we have a little better feel for the group and the format. It's my personal hope that we can draw a little bit more toward the literary end of the spectrum or at least towards original works and not modern commentary. If you haven't read Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book, I would strongly encourage you to do that (I had suggested that for our first book, but George excised it). It's really good for providing an overall picture of what the literary world has to offer across the full spectrum and what we can hope to get out it. Just imagine, if you will, if we were reading the Federalist Papers now or even Aristotle's Politics instead of Levin's take on the judiciary. I think you should be able to see how that might be more directly beneficial to our understanding of the political process and history without the stress of reading something slanted across some pretty raw political nerves.
So, if you stumble across a good book, or have an old favorite you'd like to share with the group go ahead and post it in a comment here. We can glean from this list for our next selection or just use it for personal edification in our own reading lives. Happy reading with our current selection, and let's see some more view points up here!
posted by Jon K. Houghton | 5:06 PM
5 Comments:
Good points, both of you, B & K.
But let us not get discouraged about the present reading. It is a difficult / taboo topic to discuss - but let us try our best to keep our emtions and sensitivites out, so that we could make the best out of this reading.
I agree. It would be a good idea to move into fiction, so that we can be sure to get a good cross-section of what's out there. I think no type of book should be banned from the group, and that we should read many different types of books on many differnt topics or ideas.
After this book, something non-political would be great and then after that a classic, after that, a cultural treatise, after that, a memoir, after that, any book full of ideas or good writing. Let's not say how much we dislike our current reading, but remember that broadening our minds and purposeful fellowship are our goals no matter what we might currently be reading.
I might not like the next book, but I will read it and learn what I can form it, and you.
Thanks for the comment, John. I guess I was bellyaching a little. You're right that we can't always read what most intrigues us personally when reading as a group and I am learning a lot from Levin.
Another book to consider for our next is The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelly. It's better known as Frankenstein, but I find that people are less turned off to the idea of reading it when they don't recognize the title. It bears little resemblance to any movie adaptations I've seen, but is a psychologically rich text that tugs some deep chords in our hearts and asks some hard questions of our minds.
Another advantage of this book is that it's available for free as annotated HTML online! ;)
I've heard that the book Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell is a good/weird/strange/psychological book as well. (if that's the direction we are headed) although Frankenstein would probably be better.
lol... I'm a little leery of any titles that start with "Jonathan" ever since reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull (with apologies to anyone named Jonathan or Livingston or who enjoyed that book). It took me several trips to ABC and many months of counseling to recover from that book.
I'll try to overcome my fears, though, John, and check that one out. I'm not familiar with it.
Post a Comment
<< Home