It is interesting that you spend long periods focusing on specific writers because I jump backwards and forwards reading them. I usually have about 3 novels and 5 non fiction on the go. I can't multitask with practical matters but I find dipping in and out of books sort of works for me. But your approach probably allows for more systematic order and focus.

:up:

Either way, one learns. :)

After reading Bommi Baumann's How It All Began, I came to realize that kind of lot of people that I had met in the Anarchist movement were fairly similar. They weren't terrorists; I could just relate he and they fairly easily. The ultra-Left is kind of just like the Anarchist movement in that everything that people suspect about it is just kind of simultaneously true. They have this extraordinary gift for political critique and poetry, despite that the caricature of them being a rather cultish adventurous elite that hasn't put more thought into engaging in political terrorism than vapid contention that it would be the coolest thing that they could possibly do. Actual terrorists among such sets are extraordinarily rare, though.

I also once tried to apply an odd kind of liberation theology to some sort of extremely left-wing ethos. I think that I had reasoned that the Holy Bible was a metaphor for the creation of society that was to culminate in the common liberation of all of humanity. It made for some pretty far out reasoning.

I mostly just wanted to suggest that people just shouldn't get lost in whatever their general ethos is, though. I never would've hatched that conspiracy were it not requisite to justify a theoretical far-Left of my own invention. It doesn't just occur within political extremes, despite their being the most cited examples of it; it's just kind of a generalized cult phenomenon that, to my experience, was born out of isolation. I feel like the rule of Reddit to "be a human" is good advice that not enough people take.

Oh man, I read like that since my late teens until 4-5 years ago! Just check my posts on the Currently Reading thread which I update every month only with books (even graphic novels) on philosophical topics. I used to read double or triple as many per month! Recent years I've found myself rereading a lot of books I should've read more carefully, more patiently, the first time around. As for the post you responded to, yeah I was reading and rereading Nietzsche continuously throughout the '80s as I read bunches of other philosophical (& shamanic!) works at the same time. Spinoza was one of the greats I had to start over and over again before his thoughts caught fire in mind! By '89/'90 I might've been mature enough by to half my reading input and really study deep works like the Ethics. Maybe that coincided with seismic changes in my life at that time including quitting my "wild years" of hallucinogen, etc binges and other borderline excesses. Grad school & hungover-recovery-mellowing was how I traveled through the '90s. In many ways, with hindsight claritty, body & mind gradually became more disciplined and deliberate, especially in my reading and praxis. Apologies for the ramble, Jack, just want to let you know that quality displaces quantity soon enough with maturity like a finer aged vintage from an old dusty bottle. :death: :flower:

Apologies for the ramble, Jack, just want to let you know that quality displaces quantity soon enough with maturity like a finer aged vintage from an old dusty bottle. — 180 Proof

I wish I had what it took to read like that. It takes an appreciation for time (there is more of it than we think), and an ability to ignore, or get away from distraction. It takes the ass-opposite of mania. I've got the mania down pat.

After a decade or more of having Hegel (The Essential Writings, Harper Torchbooks 1974) put me to sleep at night, I'm still only a 1/4 way in and keep restarting it. You may disagree, but I somehow get the feeling he's got something there. Now I've got the book you recommended (Black Holes, Information and the String Theory Revolution, A Holographic Universe) and I'm trying to plow through that and stay awake.

Sometimes I pray that simply reading something, whether I get it or not, will work it's magic in the back of the old brain pan somewhere, like osmosis or some shit. Like someday the mere fact that I read it will be the yeast in the oven and it will all make some bread some day some how. LOL! That way I keep reading. But I know that's not the way it works or I'd have ten PhDs.

Anyway, good on ya, mate.

Schopenhauer will not put you to sleep.

A portion of Russell as well as William James should even fun to read in short bursts. :)

I read James back in the early 80s. By Russel, is that Bertrand? I may have run by him too. I have not tackled Schopenhauer yet. I've seen him mentioned a lot, here on this board. Might have to give him a look if he won't make me sleep. LOL!

The only ones that really kept me awake was the S Dialogues. But I pound down non-philosophical classics and enjoy those.

By Russel, is that Bertrand? — James Riley

Yes. He's great and can be quite clear. He wrote over 30,000 articles in his life, so there's a lot of stuff you can choose to look at.

Yeah. Schopenhauer would take some dedication, but he was a fantastic writer and very insightful. But it would take some time.

Can't go wrong with the dialogues. ;)

Can't go wrong with the dialogues. ;) — Manuel

I'm not into little boys, but I could really walk around a Mediterranean climate in robes all day, talking with smart people. When I finally started to see what was happening, I was not only impressed with the methods, and the exchanges, and the subject matter, but I had to sit back and wonder about how long ago that was, and how we haven't advanced all that much.

I know individuals, and individual segments of society, then and now, from different societies, and geographies, are just as impressive. But I would have hoped that by now our dumbest people would be as smart as Plato, et al. Hell, it's been about 2,500 years! No joy.

I know individuals, and individual segments of society, then and now, from different societies, and geographies, are just as impressive. But I would have hoped that by now our dumbest people would be as smart as Plato, et al. Hell, it's been about 2,500 years! No joy. — James Riley

We've progressed in some fields which are important, but it's small slice of the whole of life.

Where we haven't advanced, we're the same as your average well educated Athenian.

:up: Keep at it, man, mania and all, osmosis is a thing and the ol' brain pan depends on it.

Where we haven't advanced, we're the same as your average well educated Athenian. — Manuel

I don't know. I'm not an authority on the average well educated Antenian, but I've a strong suspicion they were smarter than most Americans.

:victory:

I have read some of your reading lists. I do read a lot about shamanism. I don't write down all the books which I read, especially fiction and when it is probably a good practice for thinking about them afterwards. Really, I enjoy writing fiction and before lockdown started I used to go to creative writing workshops and groups. I only began writing about philosophy after coming across this site during last autumn.