What Book(s) Are You Reading?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
Kuci, who do you read?

I've read Mill's On Liberty, Representative Government, Utilitarianism, and IIRC another thing by him the name of which I forget. I've read An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Berkeley's Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonious, and parts of the Philosophy of Right and the Metaphysics of Morals. Does the Federalist count?

[Immortal Wombat]

IMHO, Dan Brown's books are all structurally very similar, formulaic and about as deep and meaningful as a teaspoon. However, they are pretty gripping and provide a good afternoon's entertainment, so they're still definitely worth a read.

[St Leo]

Originally posted by Krill
Strata by Terry Pratchett. I've read the entire Discworld series (started when I was 8, still reading 50% of my life later ) and;

Are you twelve or sixteen?

[Whaleboy]

Kuci, why haven't you read Plato's Republic?

Hobbe's Leviathan is also a good bet. I'd suggest also reading Montaigne's essays (try to find a complete volume... the Penguin classics version is pretty good) and of course the obligatory "Problems of philosophy" by Bertrand Russell. Wittgenstein is also a good idea for you I think, and for god's sake, avoid Karl Popper like the plague!

Berkeley:

Try reading some Hume too. If you want to start on existentialism, start with Sartres "Existentialism and humanism" and then move to Husserl and Heidegger. There's also a great book by Appignanesi on the subject too, which I treasure like a child. However, and most importantly, my work on the Mill Limit and contextual relativism

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
Kuci, why haven't you read Plato's Republic?

I read one of his dialogues and thought he was stupid.

Try reading some Hume too.

Did you miss my mention of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding?

[lord of the mark]

oh yeah, ive also started "A Bend in the River" by V. S. Naipul.

[Krill]

Are you twelve or sixteen?

Sixteen. Though sometimes I feel sooo old...

[Whaleboy]

I read one of his dialogues and thought he was stupid.

I suppose you're one of those people who doesn't look at it in its context, and tries to think of it in the modern world. Plato was working in a time when philosophy was an art, not a science or a function of sociology.... metaphors and concepts were expressed abstractly, and open to interpretation... indeed one must approach his works as literature not canonical reasoning.

Did you miss my mention of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding?

Evidently

[Wernazuma III]

I'm through with Baudolino now, so I just started reading "Ancient Roman Nightlife".

[Gibsie]

I am currently reading "Warlock" by Wilbur Smith. It's okay.

[Al'Kimiya]

.NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide by Adam Nathan

and

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

[Verto]

I think I'll read Les Mis.

[Vlad Antlerkov]

Currently re-reading The Numbers Game by Alan Schwarz. For class, I'm in the middle of the Aeneid (the Fitzgerald translation, of course; ANYTHING is better than the Dryden translation ).

I've somehow managed to avoid reading The DaVinci Code and any of the Harry Potter books.

On my "I'll get around to it eventually" list:

-- Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men and The Starmaker
-- Jon Stewart's America (The Book)
-- The Hobbit. Dunno how I've avoided reading that for so long.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
I suppose you're one of those people who doesn't look at it in its context, and tries to think of it in the modern world. Plato was working in a time when philosophy was an art, not a science or a function of sociology.... metaphors and concepts were expressed abstractly, and open to interpretation... indeed one must approach his works as literature not canonical reasoning.

His conclusions are still stupid.

[Whaleboy]

No they're not.

I've somehow managed to avoid reading The DaVinci Code and any of the Harry Potter books.