Tag Archives: philosophy

This week at the library: sheikhs, airplanes, and VW vans

Posted on March 16, 2013 by smellincoffee

This past Thursday, some friends drove me three hours into the woods, dropped me off in the midst of some 70 strangers, and left me there. They called it “Cursillo”, and it was a spiritual retreat which I liked enormously … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sparkly Hayek

Posted on December 31, 2012 by smellincoffee

Yesterday I finished my last read for 2012, which was…Twilight. Yes, the sparkly-vampires-playing-baseball book. I read it as a joke. It turned out to be a rather mean joke on myself, because it consisted of 400 pages of two lovesick … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Hamlet’s Blackberry

Posted on December 28, 2012 by smellincoffee

Hamlet’s Blackberry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age© 2011 William Powers288 pages Getting online used to require sitting in front of a computer terminal and waiting for it to dial in, oh so slowly. It was a choice … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Dialogues and Essays

Posted on September 1, 2012 by smellincoffee

Seneca: Dialogues and Essays© 2007 Oxford World’s Classics translated by John Davie263 pages Care to read the thoughts of a man chosen to tutor an emperor? Seneca the Younger lived in the opening century of the Roman Empire, and was such … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

This Week at the Library (7 March)

Posted on March 7, 2012 by smellincoffee

I recently finished Superfreakonomics and A Brief History of Thought, neither of which generated enough mental chatter to merit a full review. Suffice it to say, Superfreakonomics is simply an addition in the same vein as Freakonomics: the authors use … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Siddhartha

Posted on January 29, 2012 by smellincoffee

Siddhartha© 1922 Hermann Hesse119 pages Once in India there lived a young man whose life was everything one might dream of. Not only did he come from a wealthy family, but people loved him for who he was; a handsome, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Discourses and Enchiridon

Posted on September 27, 2011 by smellincoffee

Discourses and Enchiridon, Epictetus© 1967, translated W.A. Oldfather Stoicism might be introduced to the lay reader as Buddhism for the west. Students of Stoicism often take inspiration from Buddhist philosophy, given the common emphasis on mindfulness and freedom from desire. … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Dhammapada

Posted on September 21, 2011 by smellincoffee

Dhammapada, Annotated and Explained© 2001 translated Max Müller, annotated by Jack Macguire129 pages Yesterday I drove to the state capital, Montgomery, and while there visited the main branch library. I noticed they offered several versions of the Dhammapada, one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Posted on October 12, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson©  Edited 1987, Alfred Ferguson378 pages Two summers ago I began to read Thoreau, and as I continue to find him philosophically compelling I wanted to read the works of Thoreau’s contemporary and like-minded friend, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written

Posted on August 7, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Most Influential Books Ever Written: the History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today© 1998 Martin Seymour-Smith498 pages In retrospect, the introduction should have served as a warning to me.  Author Martin Seymour-Smith opened his The 100 Most Influential … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments