Ten More Books
Okay, since people are very keen on listing books, I thought I’d offer up ten books which haven’t changed my life.
1. Thus Spake Zarathustra – haven’t read it (not sure I can spell it either).
2. A Critique of Pure Reason – nope, not read this either (pretty sure that’s all spelt correctly, though).
3. Capital, vol 1 – can’t really claim to have read this (have looked at it in a bookshop, though).
4. Capital, vol 2 – haven’t read it (but I have read Marx for Dummies).
5. On Liberty – I make a point of reading nothing written before 1893.
6. The Fountainhead – like I’d read that!
7. Economy and Society (Max Weber) – meant to read this, but never got around to it.
8. The Republic – see 1893 rule, above.
9. Phenomenology of Spirit – nobody has read this.
10. Of Grammatology – didn’t understand a single word of it.
Tsk. Boast boast boast. Well, I’ve never read a single word by Durkheim! So there!
What about a list of the ten books you started but never finished, indicating the page at which you threw in the towel?
Or the ten books of which you’ve only read the ‘CliffsNotes’ summaries?
“She stood looking after him through the screen door, watching his gaunt figure move across the rigid neatness of her parlor. He always made her uncomfortable in the house …”
zzzzzzzz ….
(page 18 of ‘The Fountainhead’ — where I stopped)
Kind of like:
“Shall I compare thee…” zzzzzzzzz …
“It is a truth universally…” zzzzzzzz … (Sorry, OB!)
Yup, that’d work!
Oh now cut that out. I’ll put up with a lot, but going to sleep after four words of Shxpr’s sonnets or P & P is the sort of thing up with which I shall not put.
(Mind you, the sonnets do vary, and that’s not one of my favorite beginnings either. It’s too familiar, and it sounds soppy. But the best of them – and there are a lot of those – are brilliant. So shut up.)