Re:I like unusual books. Here’s what I’d read – if I had time
by nonrandomstring on Monday April 04, 2022 @05:43AM
(#30904780)
Reading old books is advice given by Professor Steven Smith at the
conclusion of Yale lecture series PLSC 114: Introduction to Political
Philosophy. [1] It is also advice repeated by someone prominent like
Snowden (I recall vaguely) in answer to the question of intellectual
self-defence in an age of shallow wilful deceit.
Obscure books have a magnetism so I collect and read them. I love
wandering through those "bookstores" (which are really private
collections with a public storefront) in York, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and
Oxford, and finding titles that are unthinkable to the modern mind,
and which evoke a highly spiritual sense that mixes revelation,
melancholy, wonder and an excited sense of the forbidden (I am sure
many a hacker can relate to this).
Most can be bought for a few quid and I generally read only a little
of each, but keep its title/contents in mind as a reference for
inspiration. Note for insatiable progressives: minus the fire hazard a
good bookshelf provides decent thermal insulation and pleasant
acoustics, even if you can't read anything unless it's on a
screen. Just reaching out to a shelf now I find:
"The riddle of the universe: Being an attempt to determine the first
principles of metaphysic, considered as an inquiry into the conditions
and import of consciousness by Edward Douglas Fawcett, London 1893.
It's got a strange marbled cover and smells of time-travel.
I paid 2 bucks for it. If nothing else it contains one of the most
original takes on Idealism , Shelling and Hegel, and a delightful
"Criticism of Critique" which would make anyone who likes to denounce
post-modernism feel like they'd been handed a light-sabre.
Obscure books have a magnetism so I collect and read them. I love wandering through those "bookstores" (which are really private collections with a public storefront) in York, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Oxford, and finding titles that are unthinkable to the modern mind, and which evoke a highly spiritual sense that mixes revelation, melancholy, wonder and an excited sense of the forbidden (I am sure many a hacker can relate to this).
Most can be bought for a few quid and I generally read only a little of each, but keep its title/contents in mind as a reference for inspiration. Note for insatiable progressives: minus the fire hazard a good bookshelf provides decent thermal insulation and pleasant acoustics, even if you can't read anything unless it's on a screen. Just reaching out to a shelf now I find:
"The riddle of the universe: Being an attempt to determine the first principles of metaphysic, considered as an inquiry into the conditions and import of consciousness by Edward Douglas Fawcett, London 1893. It's got a strange marbled cover and smells of time-travel.
I paid 2 bucks for it. If nothing else it contains one of the most original takes on Idealism , Shelling and Hegel, and a delightful "Criticism of Critique" which would make anyone who likes to denounce post-modernism feel like they'd been handed a light-sabre.
[1] https://oyc.yale.edu/political-science/plsc-114/lecture-1