I tend to devour books, and they occupy a big space in my life. The ones that I most cherish dwell outside of my professional field. I guess these have great impact because they take my mind away from the daily endeavors. What few books (a) have really made their mark on you, and/or (b) are you reading now that are really page-turners?
I love to read and I often have a book of every flavor open around the house. Our bookclub is reading The Divine Millieu by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin....a scientist (geologist who was one of the discoverers of Beijing man) and a Jesuit theologian. I read excerpts from The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff to my classes at the beginning and the end of each semester. My son's all time favorite book ( and one of mine) is The Power of One by Bryce Courtney (it was also a movie) It is about a whitE boy growing up in South Africa and the conflicts, internal and external, surrounding apartheid.
This past year I ended up focusing on our Constitution, almost backed into it when visiting the Sam Weller bookstore in Salt Lake. One thing led to another and I ended up reading:
- 'America's Constitution: A Biography,' Akhil Reed Amar
- 'The Student's Guide to Understanding Constitutional Law,' John D. DeLeo
- 'The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787' Gordon S. Wood
Once flirting with a history major, I do miss it, and am so glad that I took this trip back in time. The Amar book I found especially amazing, as he offers the background of literally every word and phrase in the Constitution including the amendments. While I thought I knew a thing or two about our nation, this book blew me away-I couldn't put it down.
A few books have really impacted me ove rthe years, seemed to have come along just at the right time:
- 'How I found Freedom in an Unfree World,' Harry F. Browne (& a favorite of Steve Martin's)
- Handbook to Higher Consciousness,' Ken Keyes (one of a few that I've read multiple times, never stops being fresh)
- 'Pigs Eat Wolves: Going Into Partnership With Your Dark Side,' Charles Bates
Alright Loretta and Jim, the two of you can't be the only bookish ones among us. I love to read as well. Trus spy stories are my favorite stories; I have learned a great deal about history from these tales of the human form at its best and worst. The spies of the American Revolution have moved me more than any other period. I do not mean Benedict Arnold or Nathan Hale, either. There was a man named John Honeyman who aided Gen. Washington, and even more heartwarming and heartbreaking is the story of the Culper Ring. I prowl bookfinder.com and the bibliogrpahies of trus spy story compilations to ferret out the old or out-of-print book.
Another subject I have read extensively about is the Kennedy assassination. There are a lot of books outthere, and many purport to be factual, but more often than not, the author has an underlying belief and will slant the facts to their view. Who shot him and got away with it? I have my private theories; not for discussion here.
I have also returned to the books we were forced to read in high school and re-read them. Some of them still feel dry - The Scarlet Letter comes to mind - while others breathe with a life of their own. To Kill a Mockingbird and Lady Chatterly's Lover fall into this category for me.
I've written about 10 screenplays and 1 novel - nothing published, but Jim read my novel and has kindly offered his criticisms/praise/thoughts for me. I will revise my story and move forward as best as I can.
Anyway, hooray for books and thinkers. The world would be a dull place without either.
Phyllis, I recently picked up a used copy of The Scarlet Letter, as three of John Updike's novels are supposedly loosely based on it (his so-called 'Scarlet Letter trilogy'). Now I must read Hawthorne's book to see where there are similarities.
It turns out that Updike, being from Pennsylvania, had a fascination with James Buchanan (our only president from PA), and wrote both a play and a novel dealing with him. Buchanan and Hawthorne were friends, as Buchanan served as Ambassador to Britain for a time. J.B. is not considered by historians to be a particularly stellar president (he preceded Lincoln); Updike seemed to intimate that he was more misunderstood than anything else. His personal story is maybe more fascinating than his presidency.
Like you, I've learned a lot reading fiction, both in terms of historical content, and, for lack of a better word, philosophy.
Loretta, I read The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin in college, but I struggled through it then. Need to go back and re-read it. David Suzuki's 'The Sacred Balance' (which I recommend), I believe, retells bits of the story that de Chardin covered, but in more lay terms, and in the context of broadly describing the earth environment and man's place in it. Got to see Suzuki speak a couple of times (he's really well known in Canada, where he lives).
