List, List, O List
Speaking of Keats and Wordsworth and Bronte – speaking, in short, of books – I was going to do that Ten Books that changed my thinking list. So now I will. It’s not a literary list – more of an argumentative list. And it’s also not really a top ten or ten best or ten favorites list. It’s not definitive. That list would have to be much longer, and more fluctuating. But this is a sample of that list.
1. Montaigne’s essays.
2. Hazlitt’s essays. That’s cheating in a way, because they’re not all in one book (whereas Montaigne’s are). But just think of them as one huge super-book.
3. Keats’ letters.
4. On Liberty. Same what Norm said. I’m really, really partial to Mill. It seems we all are. That contest or quiz or whatever it was that people were chatting about last week (I didn’t look at it myself), the one about ‘which philosopher are you?’ The people I saw who’d taken it – Anthony at Black Triangle and – was it Norm? – both had Mill at the top. Martha Nussbaum in a recent interview when asked who her favorite philosopher was, said Mill. I should just throw in his autobiography and On the Subjugation of Women for 5 and 6, but that would be a little dull. Take all three as one book then, and throw in his essay on Coleridge, and –
5. Walden. A more rhetorical On Liberty.
6. The Flaubert-Sand letters.
7. Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.
8. Eichmann in Jerusalem.
9. Paul Gross and Norman Levitt’s Higher Superstition.
10. Martha Nussbaum’s Sex and Social Justice.
OK, I’ll give this a shot. Here are some books, not necessarily listed in order of importance.
1) Bertrand Russell – Why I am Not a Christian and Other Essays. This book really stimulated my own thinking about religion, and probably gave me the decisive shove toward atheism.
2) William James – Varieties of Religious Experience. After reading this, I became very interested in the psychological components of religious experience.
3) Stephen Jay Gould- An Urchin in the Storm. This is a collection of Gould’s book reviews. Reading this collection taught me a great deal about the art of the book review, not to mention the art of critical thinking.
4) C. Vann Woodward – The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Opened my eyes to the complexities of race in the Old South, and the complexities of race relations in general.
5) Voltaire – Candide. A hilarious expose of life’s absurdities.
6) Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs and Steel. Drew together information from countless sources and disciplines to present a novel and surprising view of human history.
7) Feodor Dostoevsky – The Brothers Karamazov.
8. William Shakespeare – Hamlet.
9) Isaiah Berlin – Crooked Timber of Humanity. A great collection of essays about political and intellectual history, and the havoc caused through the quest for certainty.
10) Charles Darwin – Origin of the Species. Reading the book teaches you how to think about science.
Phil
Thank you, Phil!
Do you mind if I put your list in a post? More people read the posts than read comments (at least I assume so).
Excellent list, and nearly all of it would find a place on my mega-list. ‘Hamlet’ especially – that has changed my thinking and even my life, more than once. It’s the single most staggering piece of literature I know.
I definitely agree about Hamlet. I re-read that every now and then, and probably will read it again soon. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Sure, feel free to post the list. It’s hard to just come up with 10 books! My own mega-list would have to include Walter Kaufmann’s excellent “Faith of a Heretic” (a book I’ll have to review for you someday), McPherson’s “Battle Cry of Freedom,” Herodotus’ “Histories” (despite some tedious parts) and many others. Of course, my list of books that HAVEN’T changed my life would also be very long, and would include at least a few of the books on JerryS’s list.
Phil
Yes please, to the Kaufmann. His Tragedy and Philosophy is on my mega-list – great book. And I love Herodotus too, but I love Thucydides even more. Surly old bastard that he was.
Oh yeah. I have a veeeeeeeery long list of non-changers. Especially of novels I’ve slammed shut after one page. zzzzzzzzz