Reading Freely

Books this Update

• Frank Sinatra: An American Legend, Nancy Sinatra
• The Sun Shines Bright, Isaac Asimov
• The Art of Happiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
• Enigma, Robert Harris
• I to Myself, Henry David Thoreau

Friday the 13th began spring break at my university, and subsequently I will be away from the computer for a little over a week. While I will have intermittent Internet access, the every-other-day or so posting I typically do will probably not be possible. When I am able to post my comments, they will be backdated slightly. I am also unsure as to which books I will actually be reading this next week, so next week you may be in for a surprise.

I began with a biography of Frank Sinatra, although Frank Sinatra: An American Legend is not a biography in the traditional sense. It is more of a timeline with commentary and pictures — a great deal of pictures, as a matter of fact. The book, compared to the other biographies I’ve read, offers a pretty fair depiction of Sinatra’s many faces although — being his daughter — Nancy Sinatra doesn’t really address his negative side.

Next I read The Sun Shines Bright, a collection of science essays by Isaac Asimov. The essays cover a variety of scientific topics, although about half relate to astronomy or physics in some way. Outside of those topics, Asimov also writes on demographics, the scientific method, and the possibilities of cloning. His style is enjoyable.

I returned to philosophy with The Art of Happiness by the 14th Dalai Lama. The Art of Happiness is a dialogue between himself and a psychiatrist based in Arizona, the book being written from the psychiatrist’s point of view. The book begins with the simple assertion that all human beings seek and deserve happiness and that it is perfectly within our grasp if only we are willing to practice and learn patience, tolerance, compassion, and mental disicpline. Along the way the Dalai Lama explores romance, suffering, anger, difficult people, and spiritual practices in general. I found the book to be excellent. It is mostly free from religious constructions like karma and reincarnation (although he does mention both once or twice). The book is wholly practical and very much based on reason and empathy. Although I may not agree with some of his opinions (that human beings are basically good, for instance), I found much to reccommend this book to anyone who is serious about personal growth.

After the science and philosophy I engaged myself in a little light reading in Robert Harris’ Enigma, a novel set in the darker days of World War 2. Our main character is Tom Jericho, a mathematician in the employ of the British government. His job is to help crack the Enigma code used to protect U-boat transmissions — a code that may mean the difference between the Allies losing or winning the war. While Jericho and his comrades worry themselves over this, Jericho also has to deal with the loss of an old flame — who may just be a Nazi spy. It was fairly enjoyable, although not nearly as much as his Roman books.

I ended the week by finishing I to Myself, selections from the journal of Henry David Thoreau. The selections are organized by decade and year and track the life of an uncommon man as he ages in a time of great change. Throughout this change — industrialization’s first impact upon America — Thoreau holds himself to higher truths and purposes. He is above petty things like society and organized religion and prefers to spend his time strolling through the woods, reflecting on the beauty of life and helping his neighbors intermittently. He is a private man — or so the journal makes him out to be — so reading the book felt like infringing upon his privacy. The book was quite helpful in understanding the man and gave me food for thought as well.

Pick of the Week: Thoreau would have won easily in an ordinary week, but this week he was competing with the Dalai Lama. The Art of Happiness deserves my unqualified reccommendation.

Quotation of the Week: In my journal I have quotations from Frank Sinatra, Isaac Asimov, Henry David Thoreau, and the Dalai Lama: all gleaned from this week’s reading. Because there is so much from which to choose, I shall go with the shortest and simplest: “Be resolutely and faithfully what you are; be humbly what you aspire to be.” – Henry David Thoreau

Potentials for Next Weekish:

• Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis. A request from a friend.
• Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal, Joe Nickell. Nickell is a frequent guest of the skeptical podcast Point of Inquiry.
• Archangel, Robert Harris
• The Wordy Shipmates, Sarah Vowell.
• Here If You Need Me: A True Story, Kate Braestrup
• The Naked Sun, Isaac Asimov
• The Associate, John Grisham

If you think that’s a little too much for one week, I remind you that I will be without television or internet distractions and largely away from school until the 22nd. Potential distractors include German and and sociology work.

Books this Update:

• Lost on Planet China, J. Maarten Troost
• The Compleat Gentleman, Brad Miner
• Desire of the Everlasting Hills, Thomas Cahill
• Evolution for Everyone, David Sloan Wilson
• Pompeii, Robert Harris

I began this week with a travelogue by J. Maarten Troost, who humorously describes his adventures in China. Maarten, upon hearing repeatedly that China is “the future” and upon witnessing signs that China has changed from the China of his youth and is still changing, decides to visit the Middle Kingdom. In between accounts of stumbling over dead pigs in the street, visiting Tibetan monasteries, and haggling with Chinese merchants for the “real” price of everything from sex to Little Red Books, Troost reveals a China still establishing its own identity, but seemingly copying the United States in its unrestrained embrace of materialism. The book is quite funny.

Next I read a recommendation from a friend in The Compleat Gentleman by Brad Miner. The book purports to be an examination of the historical roots of chivalry as well as thoughts for how to apply it to the lives of men — and that’s men with an XY — in the modern era. The book strikes me as being overly romantic and self-congratulatory, and the code of honor promoted to be hypocritical. I did not enjoy the read.

I then continued in Thomas Cahill’s “Hinges of History” series with Desire of the Everlasting Hills, a book examining “the world before and after Jesus”. Cahill begins in the age of Alexander, exploring the absorption of Judea into the Hellenic and Roman empires and its consequences. We see Judaism growing, splitting into various traditions. Although Cahill does not comment on Greek philosophy’s effect on Judaism here, he did in Mysteries of the Middle Ages. The book is not a stern chronology: Cahill explores the way Jesus was perceived by different people at different periods in the sect’s growth, and consequently does portray a picture of the evolving church, but it is not a staid history. It’s more personal than that, and this is Cahill’s gift: he knows how to connect the reader to the lives of his subjects. While I enjoyed the first five-sixths of the book, the remainder — the lasting effects of Jesus — seems as forced as The Gifts of the Jews did. He maintains his integrity for the most part, though.

Moving from history and religious philosophy to science, I read Evolution for Everyone, in which author David Sloan Wilson states that evolution ought not be to seen as controversial or difficult to learn. The problem in his view is not that evolution is not accepted, but that it is not acted on by people who study various aspects of humanity. He quickly and effectively explains the basic principles behind evolution and then launches into the heart of his book, in which he applies evolutionary thinking to all manners of topics from medicine to beauty to religion.

I ended the week with a little light reading in the form of Robert Harris’ Pompeii, a novel set in the last days of that Roman city. As you may know, Pompeii was depopulated and partially destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius — but the eruption helped preserve much of the city. After it was rescued from the layers of ash and rubble on top of it, Pompeii’s death proved to be a source of information about what Roman towns were really like. It is from the details preserved by the volcano and from accounts written about its eruption that Harris builds a story. Our main character is Marcus Attilius, an aquarius of the Roman Empire. He has been ordered to oversee the Aqua August and investigate the reason as to why the water has stopped flowing south. As he investigates, tension in the Earth builds — as does tension in the town of Pompeii, where Attilius‘ investigation into where the former aquarius went has attracted the ire of Pompeii’s resident robber-baron. I thought the book was excellent reading, considering that it began with an engineering problem.

Pick of the Week: Pompeii, Robert Harris

Next Week:

• Frank Sinatra: An American Legend, Nancy Sinatra
• The Sun Shines Bright, Isaac Asimov
• Enigma, Robert Harris
• I to Myself: Annotated Selections from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer