Books and Ideas (12)

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

The Once and Future King. T.H. White.
Why read it? A delightful story of the education for leadership of King Arthur by Merlyn. Part of his training was in learning to live with the animals and gain their perspective. His purpose in founding the Round Table was to channel the natural aggressiveness of men into fighting for good causes.

The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod. Henry Beston.
Why read it? Like Thoreau at Walden, Beston took up a solitary residence in a cottage on the beach where he could observe the life of the sand and the dunes and the moods of the ocean.

Oxford Book of Aphorisms. John Gross, Ed.
Why read it? There’s much wisdom in this collection of aphorisms listed by topic. Perhaps the best advice for reading books of aphorisms is the aphorism on page 2: “The only way to read a book of aphorisms without being bored is to open it at random and having found something that interests you, close the book and meditate.” Prince DeLigne, 1796.

The Ordeal of Mark Twain. Van Wyck Brooks.
Why read it? To understand why Mark Twain did not become America’s Shakespeare. According to the author, Twain was a writer who could have made a significant contribution to the world’s literature, but became sidetracked by his success and popularity as a humorist. Possibly explains his extreme bitterness in the latter part of his life. He never fulfilled his destiny. Desired wealth and prestige as well as fulfillment of his creative instinct. He couldn’t have both.

Out of Chaos. Louis J. Halle.
Why read it? To understand the apparent contradiction between accident in the foundations of matter and order in its developed form, between molecules bouncing by chance from one to another like pinballs and a fully grown, fully developed human being. The closer our perspective, the more chaotic things appear to be; the wider and broader our perspective, the more ordered things appear to be.

The Passions of the Mind: A Novel of Sigmund Freud. Irving Stone.
Why read it? To understand Freud’s ideas in relatively plain English. All right. It’s a fictionalized biography of Freud, and not one of Stone’s best, either. [His best fictionalized novel was Lust for Life on Vincent Van Gogh.] Freud’s original writing reads like a textbook and so does Stone’s fictionalized biography. But the novel does explain Freud’s thought in readable prose so that ordinary people like me can understand his ideas. Freud suggested that childhood experiences significantly affected adult lives. Freud was viciously insulted for his work in describing the reality of human nature. Inhibitions are caused by repressed instinctual drives. Freud showed us how much of our rational lives is influenced by the unconscious.

Persuasion. Jane Austen.
Novel. Why read it?. To appreciate Jane Austen’s humorous observation of the people in her social circle and her keen sense of the place of women in her society. The heroine, Anne Elliot, and her lover, Captain Wentworth, were engaged for eight years before the story begins but Anne broke the engagement in deference to family and friends—they didn’t like him. Reunited, they fall in love again. Austen’s impressions of the people around her are delightful.

The Pickwick Papers. Charles Dickens.
Why read it? Novel. One of the funniest books ever written. The history of the Nimrod Club, the members of which go out shooting, fishing, etc., and get themselves into difficulty because of their lack of dexterity. In short, a club of klutzes. A mixture of wit and wisdom; the introduction of Sam Weller (pronounced, “Veller”) and his widow-hating father. The sheer joy in using language. Simply hilarious.