Books and Ideas (11)

I read for ideas. Here are some of the ideas I have found in books.

Northanger Abbey. Jane Austen.
Novel. Why read it? Satirizes the genre of Gothic mansions with mysterious goings on and horror. I think this novel illustrates Austen’s versatility within the limited experiences she was able to describe. Of course, for another point of view on the Gothic, read Edgar Allen Poe.

Notes from Turtle Creek. Ted Browning.
Essays. Why read it? Makes a convincing argument for man’s learning to live with nature, not exterminate it. A local (Chester County, PA) naturalist helps us to see the world of nature with a fresh view. You’ll never look at nature again in the same way after reading these essays. Ted Browning is right there with Loren Eiseley and Joseph Wood Krutch, though not so well known. They all believe that people should be partners with nature, not dominate it.

Not So Wild a Dream. Eric Sevareid.
Autobiography. Why read it? Most of this book describes Sevareid’s experiences in WWII as a reporter and commentator. To those who heard and watched him on TV or read his newspaper columns, Eric Sevareid expressed himself concisely and memorably. He never wasted a word. One of his prominent traits was irony. This book helps people who are not familiar with Eric Sevareid to learn from him again.

Notre Dame of Paris. Allan Temko.
Nonfiction. Why read it? This book re-creates for the reader the world in which Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral was built. Construction of the cathedral occurred because of the extraordinary faith of the people of its time—the world which Henry Adams describes as a unified society built around the Catholic religion and the universal love for the Virgin Mary. To read this book is to engage actively in the construction of one of the world’s great monuments to faith.

On Aggression. Konrad Lorenz.
Nonfiction. Why read it? To understand something about the causes and cures of human aggression. The author claims to have studied aggressive behavior in animals and to have drawn conclusions from their behavior that might help humans to control the aggressive instinct. Suggests that the aggressive instinct in humans be redirected toward the goals of art, science and medicine—beauty, truth and the alleviation of suffering.

Only Yesterday. Frederick Lewis Allen.
Why read it? Remember the 1920s? You will while reading this book, even though you did not live in the 1920s. Allen vividly re-creates the time that I think marks the beginning of modern society in the United States. You will recognize many of the practices that originated in the 1920s today in the 21st century. The era of the 1920s, from the end of World War I to the collapse of the stock market in 1929, is one of the most colorful decades in U.S. history.

On the Road. Jack Kerouac.
Novel. Why read it? To understand the spirit of the 1950’s that led to the spirit of the 1960’s. In On the Road, the mood is one of “Go!” Stay for any period of time and you will feel the urge to “Go!” Travel back and forth across the U.S. See the different social classes in action. Gather impressions of America in the 1950s. This novel is a “beat” classic, and the tempo of the book carries the reader frenetically through changing moods and experiences in different parts of the country.