From Goodreads
Elizabeth II: Life of a Monarch
Ruth Cowen
As a nice, short biography this Audible freebie works. It has enough history and anecdotes to be informative and entertaining without a gross tabloid aftertaste. While I don't see myself going out to grab a more authoritative biography on the queen I enjoyed listening to the book on our way home from Memphis.
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Prague: Capital of the Twentieth Century: A Surrealist History
From Goodreads
Prague, Capital of the Twentieth Century: A Surrealist History
Derek Sayer
Like with all surrealist literature, a surrealist history of a surrealist movement makes for a semi-lopsided and disjointed reading experience. I enjoyed this book and it had the same effect on me that most surrealist literature has had. It frustrates me and pushes my boundaries leaving me intrigued, eager for more and ready for a break, simultaneously. The book is a good history, but as with much of my attempt to learn Czech history I have found myself without a firm foundation to many of the things alluded to in this book. That said, the author does give a lot of information in a digestible way that verges on the gluttonous. I probably didn't read this fast enough to retain the whole of it and will need to reread it to fully appreciate it, but I feel like I have a better understanding of Prague having finished the book.
Prague, Capital of the Twentieth Century: A Surrealist History
Derek Sayer
Like with all surrealist literature, a surrealist history of a surrealist movement makes for a semi-lopsided and disjointed reading experience. I enjoyed this book and it had the same effect on me that most surrealist literature has had. It frustrates me and pushes my boundaries leaving me intrigued, eager for more and ready for a break, simultaneously. The book is a good history, but as with much of my attempt to learn Czech history I have found myself without a firm foundation to many of the things alluded to in this book. That said, the author does give a lot of information in a digestible way that verges on the gluttonous. I probably didn't read this fast enough to retain the whole of it and will need to reread it to fully appreciate it, but I feel like I have a better understanding of Prague having finished the book.
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Notes on Confessions Book I
Having just read A Separate Peace by John Knowles and realizing that I am a bit too much like Brinker for my own good, I decided that I needed something to charge me. Like Brinker, who Knowles wrote, developed a sort of general resentment at the war and sunk into himself throughout the last year, I find myself agitated with current events and withdrawing from them. I feel spiritually empty, not necessarily hungry, but aware that something that ought to be there is not. In the darkness I've found myself returning to certain things to bring me back to the light in a jarring sort of way. Christianity has taught us that God is not Zeus, ready with the lightning bolt to strike man down. Christianity has taught me this, but having conceived of God as Zeus, it is hard not to imagine Him that way. Zeus both gives and kills - all the Greek gods and goddesses do. The Lord giveth and taketh away. Having arrived at this conception of God as the man ready to reward or drop an anvil in comic fashion on his creation at a very young age I find myself looking askance at the sky waiting for the anvil in my current spiritual stagnation. In times past, the jarring experiences that have brought me back from the darkness have been bound up in a few important passages - The book of Lamentations, C.S. Lewis, Ayn Rand and Augustine all have accomplished this for me for their own reasons. This time, for no particular reason, I have chosen Augustine as the springboard to leap back from this current spiritual standstill.
Confessions was written, "to excite men's minds and affections" towards God and I need that at the moment. Nothing to me is exciting my mind towards, or really away from God at the moment. But, I know that every step that is not towards God is one that is a step away and I would rather not meander down some dead end path, again.
Book I: Chapter I
- Man carries the evidence of his sin
- Restless is the heart of man until it rests in God. I know the word "restless" well.
- Those that seek God find Him; those that find Him praise Him
Book I: Chapter II
- God sustains all things; is in all things
Book I: Chapter III
- God is present in all things but nothing can contain him.
Book I: Chapter IV
- "Thou recoverest what thou has never really lost. Thou art never in need but still thou dost rejoice at thy gains". I don't know why, but this struck me. What is God recovering that was never really lost? Man carries his sin, and yet God draws that man to Himself to recover what was never really lost. Sin, separates man from God. Sin, causes the man to be lost. But if man is lost, what is he lost from if God recovers what is never really lost? This passage struck me as important at this moment. I'm not sure why. I don't feel lost. I don't feel like I'm moving at all. How can one be lost if one is constantly standing still?
Book I: Chapter V
- Tell me God, that you are my salvation. Speak to me that I may hear - I know this plea!
- I am not large enough to contain thee. Enlarge my soul.
Book I: Chapter VI
- "The consolations of thy mercy have sustained me from the very beginning".
- All good things come from God. People that give good things to others are better understood as people by which God has delivered good things.
- God is the stable cause of all unstable things.
- Augustine rambles a bit towards the end of this chapter about the ever-present nature of God. All things past and all things present and all things future will come, have come and are coming and have passed, will pass and are passing away in that one present day of the Lord. Augustine asks how can we understand this? Even if we can't, it is better to ask and try to understand it than not. He also doesn't become despondent when he realizes that it isn't an easy thing to understand. Instead he asks God, and thanks him.
Book I: Chapter VII
- God created man, not the sin in man.
Book I: Chapters VIII-X
- An interesting social criticism on the current educational system. The teachers punished the boys for playing because it interfered with their learning how to play the grown up games.
- Yet, even though Augustine acknowledges that the education was being given to him for trivial purposes, that he disobeyed his teachers because of vanity, not because of some noble purpose. He acknowledges his sin in the part.
- "Look down on these things with mercy, O Lord, and deliver us who now call upon thee; deliver those also who do not call upon thee, that they may call upon thee, and thou mayest deliver them". For someone who is seen as severe, there is a lot in this early part of Confessions that shows Augustine cares for his fellow man.
Book I: Chapter XI
Book I: Chapter XII
- By his own sin Augustine was punished. That's how it was designed to work by God. "For it is even as thou hast ordained: that every inordinate affection brings on its own punishment".
- That sentence hangs heavy on me. The word, inordinate is weighing down my shoulders. Inordinate: a disproportionately large or excessive. Every affection that is excessive brings about its own punishment.
Book I: Chapter XIII
- "The friendship of this world is fornication against thee". There is the severity of Augustine.
- Let me confess to God what my soul desires and let me find some rest. It is in the confession of the desires that brings rest to Augustine, not the acquisition of the objects of his desire.
- Curiosity, he states, is more advantageous to learning than discipline based on fear. Yet, by God's design, discipline is brought into being against the excesses of freedom. This discipline produces a "wholesome bitterness" that draws us back to God and away from the "poisonous pleasures" that had drawn us away from him.
Book I: Chapter XV:
- Augustine asks God to re-order what he has learned in order to make it useful in His work rather than in some vain project of man.
Book I: Chapter XVI:
- Augustine criticizes Homer for his immorality. In Homer, the gods commit sins like adultery and are unpunished. Men, in turn, use the acts of these gods to justify their own sins like adultery.
Book I: Chapter XVII:
- Augustine bemoans participating in using his God-given talents in trivial matters that he could've used to praise God instead.
Book I: Chapter XVIII:
- Augustine sees man as carried toward vanity and away from God by pride
- "For it is not by our feet, nor by change of place, that we either turn from thee or return to thee"
- Augustine is haunted by pride, haunted by a desire to be preeminent
Book I: Chapter XIX
- "Good, then, is he that made me, and he is my God; and before him will I rejoice exceedingly for every good gift I had"
- Augustine's sin was to seek pleasure, honor and truth in the created and not the creator. From this inordinate seeking came his error as he fell into sorrow, trouble and error.
Confessions was written, "to excite men's minds and affections" towards God and I need that at the moment. Nothing to me is exciting my mind towards, or really away from God at the moment. But, I know that every step that is not towards God is one that is a step away and I would rather not meander down some dead end path, again.
Book I: Chapter I
- Man carries the evidence of his sin
- Restless is the heart of man until it rests in God. I know the word "restless" well.
- Those that seek God find Him; those that find Him praise Him
Book I: Chapter II
- God sustains all things; is in all things
Book I: Chapter III
- God is present in all things but nothing can contain him.
Book I: Chapter IV
- "Thou recoverest what thou has never really lost. Thou art never in need but still thou dost rejoice at thy gains". I don't know why, but this struck me. What is God recovering that was never really lost? Man carries his sin, and yet God draws that man to Himself to recover what was never really lost. Sin, separates man from God. Sin, causes the man to be lost. But if man is lost, what is he lost from if God recovers what is never really lost? This passage struck me as important at this moment. I'm not sure why. I don't feel lost. I don't feel like I'm moving at all. How can one be lost if one is constantly standing still?
Book I: Chapter V
- Tell me God, that you are my salvation. Speak to me that I may hear - I know this plea!
- I am not large enough to contain thee. Enlarge my soul.
Book I: Chapter VI
- "The consolations of thy mercy have sustained me from the very beginning".
- All good things come from God. People that give good things to others are better understood as people by which God has delivered good things.
- God is the stable cause of all unstable things.
- Augustine rambles a bit towards the end of this chapter about the ever-present nature of God. All things past and all things present and all things future will come, have come and are coming and have passed, will pass and are passing away in that one present day of the Lord. Augustine asks how can we understand this? Even if we can't, it is better to ask and try to understand it than not. He also doesn't become despondent when he realizes that it isn't an easy thing to understand. Instead he asks God, and thanks him.
Book I: Chapter VII
- God created man, not the sin in man.
Book I: Chapters VIII-X
- An interesting social criticism on the current educational system. The teachers punished the boys for playing because it interfered with their learning how to play the grown up games.
- Yet, even though Augustine acknowledges that the education was being given to him for trivial purposes, that he disobeyed his teachers because of vanity, not because of some noble purpose. He acknowledges his sin in the part.
- "Look down on these things with mercy, O Lord, and deliver us who now call upon thee; deliver those also who do not call upon thee, that they may call upon thee, and thou mayest deliver them". For someone who is seen as severe, there is a lot in this early part of Confessions that shows Augustine cares for his fellow man.
Book I: Chapter XI
Book I: Chapter XII
- By his own sin Augustine was punished. That's how it was designed to work by God. "For it is even as thou hast ordained: that every inordinate affection brings on its own punishment".
- That sentence hangs heavy on me. The word, inordinate is weighing down my shoulders. Inordinate: a disproportionately large or excessive. Every affection that is excessive brings about its own punishment.
Book I: Chapter XIII
- "The friendship of this world is fornication against thee". There is the severity of Augustine.
- Let me confess to God what my soul desires and let me find some rest. It is in the confession of the desires that brings rest to Augustine, not the acquisition of the objects of his desire.
- Curiosity, he states, is more advantageous to learning than discipline based on fear. Yet, by God's design, discipline is brought into being against the excesses of freedom. This discipline produces a "wholesome bitterness" that draws us back to God and away from the "poisonous pleasures" that had drawn us away from him.
Book I: Chapter XV:
- Augustine asks God to re-order what he has learned in order to make it useful in His work rather than in some vain project of man.
Book I: Chapter XVI:
- Augustine criticizes Homer for his immorality. In Homer, the gods commit sins like adultery and are unpunished. Men, in turn, use the acts of these gods to justify their own sins like adultery.
Book I: Chapter XVII:
- Augustine bemoans participating in using his God-given talents in trivial matters that he could've used to praise God instead.
Book I: Chapter XVIII:
- Augustine sees man as carried toward vanity and away from God by pride
- "For it is not by our feet, nor by change of place, that we either turn from thee or return to thee"
- Augustine is haunted by pride, haunted by a desire to be preeminent
Book I: Chapter XIX
- "Good, then, is he that made me, and he is my God; and before him will I rejoice exceedingly for every good gift I had"
- Augustine's sin was to seek pleasure, honor and truth in the created and not the creator. From this inordinate seeking came his error as he fell into sorrow, trouble and error.
A Separate Peace
From Goodreads
A Separate Peace
John Knowles
I remember disliking this book when we read it in high school. I don't remember the reason for disliking it, but after having finished it again I probably think it was something to do with it being a rather boring read. There isn't anything too intriguing about the book. At times, Gene, the main character, has an almost Augustinian obsession with his crime and, without going into spoilers, the amount of 'pranks' going on within the setting of this book, make his crime to be about as bad as St. Augustine's stealing a pear for the sake of stealing, though in this case the consequences were worse. Honeslty, the only really poignant statement written about this guilt-obsession is when Gene is dealing with the fallout of the accident, not the crime, that brought about the conclusion. Gene think to himself, "I had to be right in never talking about what you could not change, and I had to make many people agree that I was right". Gene's guilt, in my opinion, is still misplaced. His crime was self-invented. But, his feeling guilty and living with the consequences by stuffing it struck a resonance with me in that line. The not talking about it was the semblance of control. The not talking about it was crucial to Gene's continuing to exist.
The end of the book is fairly anti-climatic and I wouldn't strongly recommend this book to anyone. It's not a bad book, but I don't think it necessarily deserves the moniker of a "classic". The final chapter has an interesting take on what life in war time does to you, what life in extremely stressful situations does to various people. Today, there are Lepers who crack under the pressure, there are the Ludsbury's who are too good for the muck and mire of the situation and peer down on it from a safe, snobbish perch and there are the Brinker's who withdraw and, "develop a careless general resentment". I am a Brinker in some respects. But, in spite of somehow earning the nickname Phineas from my high school friend, Warren, I don't understand the character's significance. Knowles lifts him as an oddly idealized and morphed messianic figure in the book; and frankly, I just don't get it.
A Separate Peace
John Knowles
I remember disliking this book when we read it in high school. I don't remember the reason for disliking it, but after having finished it again I probably think it was something to do with it being a rather boring read. There isn't anything too intriguing about the book. At times, Gene, the main character, has an almost Augustinian obsession with his crime and, without going into spoilers, the amount of 'pranks' going on within the setting of this book, make his crime to be about as bad as St. Augustine's stealing a pear for the sake of stealing, though in this case the consequences were worse. Honeslty, the only really poignant statement written about this guilt-obsession is when Gene is dealing with the fallout of the accident, not the crime, that brought about the conclusion. Gene think to himself, "I had to be right in never talking about what you could not change, and I had to make many people agree that I was right". Gene's guilt, in my opinion, is still misplaced. His crime was self-invented. But, his feeling guilty and living with the consequences by stuffing it struck a resonance with me in that line. The not talking about it was the semblance of control. The not talking about it was crucial to Gene's continuing to exist.
The end of the book is fairly anti-climatic and I wouldn't strongly recommend this book to anyone. It's not a bad book, but I don't think it necessarily deserves the moniker of a "classic". The final chapter has an interesting take on what life in war time does to you, what life in extremely stressful situations does to various people. Today, there are Lepers who crack under the pressure, there are the Ludsbury's who are too good for the muck and mire of the situation and peer down on it from a safe, snobbish perch and there are the Brinker's who withdraw and, "develop a careless general resentment". I am a Brinker in some respects. But, in spite of somehow earning the nickname Phineas from my high school friend, Warren, I don't understand the character's significance. Knowles lifts him as an oddly idealized and morphed messianic figure in the book; and frankly, I just don't get it.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
The Basque History of the World
From Goodreads
The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation
Mark Kurlansky
I am starting to really enjoy pop history books because there is such a wide variety out there. The Basque History of the WOrld grabbed my attention in the dollar bin and I made out like a bandit. It's a niche subject that I probably wouldn't have given a second's glance had it not been in the bargain bin. But it's a good read and sheds a light on a subject that remains obscure by American bookstore standards.
The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation
Mark Kurlansky
I am starting to really enjoy pop history books because there is such a wide variety out there. The Basque History of the WOrld grabbed my attention in the dollar bin and I made out like a bandit. It's a niche subject that I probably wouldn't have given a second's glance had it not been in the bargain bin. But it's a good read and sheds a light on a subject that remains obscure by American bookstore standards.
Friday, July 12, 2019
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Goodreads
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer
This was a welcome departure from my normal reading selection. It's a gut wrenching tale that cuts with humor and the writing is good. At times I felt it was too clover for its own good, but it was a good read.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer
This was a welcome departure from my normal reading selection. It's a gut wrenching tale that cuts with humor and the writing is good. At times I felt it was too clover for its own good, but it was a good read.
Friday, July 5, 2019
The Outsiders
From Goodreads
The Outsiders
S.E. Hinton
The story in The Outsiders is good; the plot develops nicely and the story makes a lot of internal sense. What sort of drove me nuts is probably what makes it such a classic for teen readers. It reads like a teen writing for other teens to read, which is what it is. Strange things like kid's names (Sodapop & Ponyboy) only make sense in a teenage mind. There is a bleakness in this book that still betrays the innocence of the characters. I read somebody else's review and they stated that the book was too nihilistic for their taste. But the nihilism that is present is coming from a false bravado and can't fully culminate in people that young. Sure, the sixteen years on the streets may have been tough and led to a tough character, but sixteen years isn't long enough to achieve a mature nihilism, no matter how rough the sixteen years is. And then, the ending, without spoiling it, can only possibly make sense in a world controlled by teenagers. Honestly, I enjoyed the book and don't want to pick at it. I think this would have been a little bit better to me had I read it when I was Ponyboy's age or even Darry's age. Now in my mid thirties, I can appreciate the book, but I don't relate as well to the angst the protagonist feels. His determination leads to a quick fix and the book ends. There is much too much hope in this book to be labeled nihilistic. It is that hope that would resonate well with her audience that makes this a laudable classic. But, it is that hope that pigeonholes it into a young adult literature bookshelf designation.
The Outsiders
S.E. Hinton
The story in The Outsiders is good; the plot develops nicely and the story makes a lot of internal sense. What sort of drove me nuts is probably what makes it such a classic for teen readers. It reads like a teen writing for other teens to read, which is what it is. Strange things like kid's names (Sodapop & Ponyboy) only make sense in a teenage mind. There is a bleakness in this book that still betrays the innocence of the characters. I read somebody else's review and they stated that the book was too nihilistic for their taste. But the nihilism that is present is coming from a false bravado and can't fully culminate in people that young. Sure, the sixteen years on the streets may have been tough and led to a tough character, but sixteen years isn't long enough to achieve a mature nihilism, no matter how rough the sixteen years is. And then, the ending, without spoiling it, can only possibly make sense in a world controlled by teenagers. Honestly, I enjoyed the book and don't want to pick at it. I think this would have been a little bit better to me had I read it when I was Ponyboy's age or even Darry's age. Now in my mid thirties, I can appreciate the book, but I don't relate as well to the angst the protagonist feels. His determination leads to a quick fix and the book ends. There is much too much hope in this book to be labeled nihilistic. It is that hope that would resonate well with her audience that makes this a laudable classic. But, it is that hope that pigeonholes it into a young adult literature bookshelf designation.
The Call of the Wild
From Goodreads
The Call of the Wild
Jack London
This is one of those books that I loved as a kid and have sort of outgrown. The adventure story pattern was sort of predictable and having read Kipling recently, I find London to be a bit lacking. It's not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination, just not a favorite of mine.
The Call of the Wild
Jack London
This is one of those books that I loved as a kid and have sort of outgrown. The adventure story pattern was sort of predictable and having read Kipling recently, I find London to be a bit lacking. It's not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination, just not a favorite of mine.
Thursday, July 4, 2019
The Echo of Greece
From Goodreads
The Echo of Greece
Edith Hamilton
I have enjoyed this book immensely. Hamilton has an exceptionally readable quality to her work. I am sad this book is over. Her interlocking the bits of history into a portrait is done so well that you feel as though you understand the Greeks of 2,000 years ago like you understand a contemporary culture. I can't wait to pick up another of her works sometime soon.
The Echo of Greece
Edith Hamilton
I have enjoyed this book immensely. Hamilton has an exceptionally readable quality to her work. I am sad this book is over. Her interlocking the bits of history into a portrait is done so well that you feel as though you understand the Greeks of 2,000 years ago like you understand a contemporary culture. I can't wait to pick up another of her works sometime soon.
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