Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction
by Norberto Bobbio

The biography of Dewey and American Democracy was a long but excellent read. If you aren't familiar with Dewey, it would be phenomenal as a deep introduction to his thought.

The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan.

Welcome to the forum.

Carl Sagan was a great thinker. I have another book titled 'Cosmos'. I remember it had interesting points, but it was tough to follow as I am not very proficient in science.

I watched the original Cosmos series in the early 80’s. It was profound.

Black Mass - John Gray

Strong critique of utopian thinking throughout post-enlightenment western political thought right up to recent American neocon foreign policy, especially re war on terror etc. Little in the way of solutions though.

Finished The Tacit Dimension by Michael Polanyi.

The first part of the book was quite impressive, it's been quite a while since I found something new in philosophy which is very interesting. The rest of the book was also quite good, but less so than the first third of it.

Currently reading The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector, very very good.

Started China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty by Mark Edward Lewis a few days back

China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty — Maw

It sounds pretty interesting. Any thoughts on it?

Liberalism and Social Action
by John Dewey

Blinding, Book Three: The Right Wing by Mircea Cărtărescu.

The last volume of this excellent trilogy. Mircea has become one of the best authors I have read for the past years. I am looking forward to reading other works of his, but I will do a pause after finishing this one.

The Death of Ivan Ilych by Tolstoy. Pow!

Started Kripke's Naming and Necessity. I appreciate the preface begins on page 1. Often prefaces start with i then ii, then iii and so on and you have to read 20 pages before you get to the first page. I don't feel it gives enough feeling of accomplishment early on when things are most challenging. Someone should write a book on that alone.

Often prefaces start with i then ii, then iii and so on and you have to read 20 pages before you get to the first page — Hanover

I wasn’t aware that anyone had ever actually read the preface to any book.

I wasn’t aware that anyone had ever actually read the preface to any book. — T Clark

I haven't read any preface ever. I tend to avoid them as much as I avoid introductions; I would rather not get affected by opinions before I start the book. I want to get mine when I finish it.

It's crazy to me that people never read prefaces. There are cases where I don't, when I read the preface afterwards, but I don't skip them completely unless they're obviously just formalities. Otherwise, a preface is often an important part of the work. Reading Don Quixote without the preface is not advised. Reading Pale Fire but skipping the foreword is a catastrophic error.

I understand the utility of a preface. It can help the reader to begin with an introduction and basic points of what the work will be about. But this is the precise reason I want to skip them. I'm afraid that the preface will give me one interesting idea, and I'll end up with a completely different one. The only time I read a very well-written, interesting preface was in Gasset's The Revolt of the Masses.

He wrote a preface to French readers and an epilogue to British readers (or the other way around; I don't quite remember). I think that was clever because the 'mass-man' was focused on a Spanish context, but Gasset was aware that his essay would only have success if it ended up being read by French and British philosophers.

It's crazy to me that people never read prefaces. — Jamal

I understand the utility of a preface. It can help the reader to begin with an introduction and basic points of what the work will be about. But this is the precise reason I want to skip them. I'm afraid that the preface will give me one interesting idea, and I'll end up with a completely different one. — javi2541997

I’d like to say that my reasons for skipping prefaces are as thoughtful and reasonable as Javi’s. Fact is, I’m just too effing lazy.

I feel like if you don't read every page, then you can't honestly say you read the book. That includes the acknowledgments page, but that's typically very short, usually thanking one's wife for her support while he ignored her while writing the book, but the wife actually liked the time alone, saved from having to hear about the book he's writing. If a woman wrote the book, she probably thanked her friend Emily. I'm not sure why, but that sounds right.

I don't read endnotes, but I feel somewhat obligated to read the footnotes. I won't read the footnotes when they start taking up half the bottom of the page because that feels like they're trying to have a side conversation about something else. Not that I'm big on focusing my attention when I talk about things, but I do expect it from others. It's a do as I say and not as I do sort of thing. My issue with endnotes is that you have to search them out by finding the chapter you're in and then finding the corresponding endnote for that chapter. Sometimes you might read the wrong endnote, and you might end up seeing into the future of what is going to happen which will destroy your sense of surprise and your finger might slip and you'll lose your page to where you were in the book proper. You then have to backfill (I'm pretty sure that's the word I'm looking for) from the endnote to find the place you were at pre-finger slipping.

I got a copy of Brothers Karamazov that is in like 6 point font, which is just over standard microfiche size. It's difficult reading because of that. I ordered an oversized version, but now I fear it will be too large and will crush my chest with its weight. It's a weighty book. The weighty book joke is about as funny as the difficult reading joke. They're of the same genre.

Brothers Karamazov — Hanover

I have been reading that for years.

but now I fear it will be too large and will crush my chest with its weight. — Hanover

I suppose it's one of those books that grows on you.

"On Quality" - Robert Pirsig (published posthumously)

Good as a short introduction to Pirsig's thought.

"Event" -Slavoj Zizek. Good start. Relevant to something I've been writing.

Consdering buying:

"The Radical Luhmann" Hans-Georg Moeller

The sample is really good. I'll probably buy the full thing when I've got through reading some other material.

I think the preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit is probably the most famous part of the book. Also the least accessible, which is really saying something. Apparently it was written in a hurried draft as Napoleon was bearing down on the city.

I wonder how many it has scared away (of course, it's not like the introduction is that much easier). I think a lot of lecturers actually have classes read it last though.

I think the preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit is probably the most famous part of the book. Also the least accessible, which is really saying something. Apparently it was written in a hurried draft as Napoleon was bearing down on the city. — Count Timothy von Icarus

Avoiding reading prefaces represents a character flaw, one of my many. I acknowledge that.

The Sociological Imagination
by C. Wright Mills

Dewey's Liberalism and Social Action is an absolutely phenomenal little book on the tension between individualistic liberalism and the embedded-embodied forms and features of socialized intelligence. An optimistic and practical perspective, still very much relevant today as social-commentary.

I just got done with the End of Phenomenology by Tom Sparrow.

Interesting read, basically it's a Speculative Realist criticism of the problems of phenomenology. The real clincher is, does phenomenology ultimately end up resorting to idealism, at the end?

The era of the Tang Dynasty is interesting; a high point in Imperial China from a cultural and religious standpoint. We also see the beginnings of tremendous economic growth due to novel production and farming technics and social advancement being driven by merit over birth, which will continue to see vast improvement during the subsequent Song Dynasty. Don't love the formatting of the series, which reads more like it was written for a college course, given that chapters are divided by themes (e.g. "Religion", "Rural Life", "The Outer World", etc.) rather than in a true chronological order, which I would prefer. I did just pick up a book on Tang Poetry, so interested to dive into that during my summer vacation.

With that, just started the next book in the series, The Age of Confucian Rule: The Song Transformation of China by Dieter Kuhn

Leaves of grass - Walt Whitman

Inquisiciones by Jorge Luis Borges.

A bunch of two-dimensional semantics papers.

On Quality" - Robert Pirsig (published posthumously)

Good as a short introduction to Pirsig's thought. — Baden

I've got to think it pales in comparison to Motorcycle Maintenance just from me not having heard of it.

Interesting read, basically it's a Speculative Realist criticism of the problems of phenomenology. The real clincher is, does phenomenology ultimately end up resorting to idealism, at the end? — Bodhy

I’m no expert in this area but I’ve wondered if the idealism comparison was apt in some contexts.