Tim Patrick's Blog, page 34
June 27, 2011
Book Set #10 Revealed – Society in Western Culture
The Age of Enlightenment (approximately 1650 AD to 1800 AD) and the Victorian Era that followed it (much of the nineteenth century) were transformative to Western culture. In many ways, these two eras define the West. It should come as no surprise, then, that a large portion of the candidate list hails from this time period.
In this tenth set of books in The Well-Read Man Project, the focus is on books that were written during or about this important time in history, and that address issues of relevance in an age of Western enlightenment. (Click on a book to access its detail page.)
Book 35
The Vicar of Wakefield
by Oliver Goldsmith
Book 36
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott
Book 37
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë
Book 38
Vanity Fair
by William Makepeace Thackeray
Book 39
Middlemarch
by George Eliot
Book 40
Possession
by A. S. Byatt
Most of the books focus on families or communities in Europe, the epicenter of Enlightenment and Victorian events. Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, while written in the nineteenth century, plays out its storyline in twelfth-century England. Possession, by A. S. Byatt, also looks back, this time to the Victorian age from its twentieth-century vantage point.
June 24, 2011
Book Set #9 Revealed – Science
The ninth set of books in The Well-Read Man Project encompasses the scientific arts. The candidate list contained about a hundred selections that could be considered science or math, but many of them were filled with thick research: lots of mathematical formulas and complex scientific proofs. They looked really complicated and scary. A few of the books were outdated in that they were superseded by subsequent research. They also looked complicated and scary.
The books included in the final list discuss science at a more common-man level, without the need for advanced degrees. (Click on a book to access its detail page.)
Book 33
The Origin of Species
by Charles Darwin
Book 34
The Logic of Scientific Discovery
by Karl Popper
The Origin of Species is a book of science written by a scientist. And while it has garnered much controversy over the years, it continues to be influential. The Logic of Scientific Discovery has also been influential and controversial, and this despite having been written by a philosopher instead of a scientist.
June 23, 2011
Book Set #8 Revealed – Poetry
The fifty selections in The Well-Read Man Project include a single book of poetry. Different commentators define poetry differently, and some selections from the candidate list that appeared to me to be poetry were listed among the general fiction volumes. Other works that showed up in the poetry block were, from what I could tell, indistinguishable from other verse-laden works that didn't make the poetry cut.
There are a few choices in the final set of fifty books that employ metered verse. The book listed here conforms to more common expectations of poetry, instead of long-form storytelling. (Click on a book to access its detail page.)
Book 32
Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass went through several editions, and Whitman added poems during each release. The initial thin book of a dozen poetic samples ballooned to a sizable paperweight that contained hundreds of poems. For the project, I will choose one of the later editions to get as full an experience of Whitman's work as possible.
June 22, 2011
Book Set #7 Revealed – Plays
The books in the seventh Well-Read Man Project set are all plays: three tragedies, one comedy, and one legend. One thing that was typical among plays in the candidate list was that they relied on timelines that happened earlier in history from the dates of their initial viewing. Four of the five plays in the final list exhibit this facet. For example, The Crucible recounts events that took place hundreds of years before Arthur Miller wrote the play. But in all cases, the underlying story speaks to the current audience and culture, which is what makes them great plays.
When looking at the entire candidate list for the project, there was a clear trend over time for fewer and fewer plays. The majority of plays were from Greek and Roman days, or from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Perhaps it is a reflection of increased literacy among the general population, where those who read great ideas in books no longer need those same ideas communicated on the stage. Whatever the reason, the selections listed below cover a wide swath of human chronology. Here they are, in the order in which they were first performed. (Click on a play to access its detail page.)
Book 27
Oedipus Rex
by Sophocles
Book 28
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
by William Shakespeare
Book 29
Misanthrope
by Molière
Book 30
Wilhelm Tell
by Friedrich von Schiller
Book 31
The Crucible
by Arthur Miller
Because plays are meant to be experienced through performance rather than just through reading, I plan to watch a recorded performance of each play after my initial pass through the printed manuscript. This will hopefully provide additional insights into the content that I might have missed without stage direction.
June 21, 2011
Book Set #6 Revealed – Transformative Crisis for an Institution or Society
The books in this section present some transformative crisis for a society or nation. While the focus may be on an individual protagonist, the goal of the story is grander. The authors saw in the people in their wider community, or in the hearts of people worldwide, something in desperate need of change. Through the pages of each book, the errant spot or its recommend cleanup method takes center stage.
Many of the societal defects highlighted in these books are things we take for granted as outdated today. But the problems and conflicts in each book are not aged relics from the dawning of civilization. They are all relatively close to us, and there are people around today who were still alive when these books first came out. (Click on a book to access its detail page.)
Book 22
The Jungle
by Upton Sinclair
Book 23
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
Book 24
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
Book 25
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Book 26
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
by John Le Carré
All of these books had an impact on the original readers. In one case, the book prompted government action. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was so shocking, it helped motivate American politicians to enact legislation and programs that would eventually become the Food and Drug Administration.
June 20, 2011
Book Set #5 Revealed – Transformative Crisis for an Individual
One of my main reasons for starting The Well-Read Man Project was to see how great books would transform my life. In several of the reading selections, the main characters go through their own personal transformation, often brought on by a crisis or conflict. Or at least, they should go through a personal transformation. In at least one of these books, the protagonist has transformative input coming in from every direction, but the reviews of the book indicate that the core character remains unfazed to the end.
This fifth set of project books includes five works of individual transformation. (Click on a book to access its detail page.)
Book 17
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
Book 18
Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville
Book 19
The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
Book 20
The Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane
Book 21
The Catcher in the Rye
by J. D. Salinger
All five of these books are fodder for high school English classes, but I somehow managed to pass through my secondary education without reading any of them. Now it's time for my freshman composition teacher's revenge.
June 17, 2011
Book Set #4 Revealed – Government and Politics
Ronald Reagan famously stated, "Government is the problem." But with six selections on government, politics, and economics in this, the fourth set of Well-Read Man Project books, making them part of my reading won't be any problem at all.
You might not know this, but politics tends to be a controversial topic. And the political selections listed here won't disappoint. They were controversial before the ink dried had fully dried on their published pages. Here are those six politically charged choices, in order of publication. (Click on a book to access its detail page.)
Book 11
The Prince
by Niccolò Machiavelli
Book 12
Leviathan
by Thomas Hobbes
Book 13
Manifesto of the Communist Party
by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Book 14
Max Havelaar
by Multatuli
Book 15
The Road to Serfdom
by Friedrich Hayek
Book 16
All the King's Men
by Robert Penn Warren
The Prince starts things off by recommending a powerful leader, while Hobbes' Leviathan introduces political restraints. The Communist Manifesto lays into the greedy business interests; Hayek sees things differently, as in "Communism bad, business good." This should be fun.
June 16, 2011
Book Set #3 Revealed – Religion
Polite conversation typically excludes religion and politics. Fortunately, there's no "polite conversation" rule here. In the third set of books for The Well-Read Man Project, I put the focus clearly on a cornucopia of religious views. The five selections listed here cover the religious preferences of a significant percentage of the earth's faithful, with books from both monotheistic and polytheistic belief systems.
Here are the five religion-specific books that I will be reading, in order of their publication dates. (Click on a book to access its detail page.)
Book 6
Bhagavad Gita
by Anonymous
Book 7
The Confessions
by Augustine of Hippo
Book 8
The Qur'an
dictated by Mohammed
Book 9
The Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri
Book 10
Revelations of Divine Love
by Julian of Norwich
This set includes the project's first female author: Julian of Norwich, a Christian mystic from the fourteenth century AD. I didn't include any books in this section that represent an atheistic or agnostic worldview, but then again, those would need to be in the "Not Religion" section, not in the "Religion" section. There will be some selections in later sets that may warm the hearts of the non-faithy.
June 15, 2011
Book Set #2 Revealed – Philosophy
What makes philosophy so important? Well, just take a moment and think about it.
And there you have it. It's this ability to ponder and think that sets us apart from the animals, the birds, and the creatures of the seas. And the trees; don't forget about the trees.
The Well-Read Man Project includes three philosophical selections. Here are those three intellectually deep books. (Click on a book to access its detail page.)
Book 3
The Analects
by Confucius
Book 4
The Republic
by Plato
Book 5
Meditations on First Philosophy
by René Descartes
Taken together, these works introduce wisdom from both the East and the West, from times both ancient and (relatively) modern. The Analects records the core teachings and thoughts of Confucian philosophy…the real teachings. So don't go looking for those "Confucius say man who run behind car get exhausted" jokes. Plato's Republic examines justice within an individual and within society. Descartes goes for something more basic, attempting to get at the core of what people can truly know. "I think, therefore, I am," comes from this work. I'll read it, therefore.
June 14, 2011
Book Set #1 Revealed – First Things
The reveal of the fifty project books begin today! I've grouped all of the books into thirteen sets, each with a common theme or genre. Each post on this site between now and June 30 will introduce one of the book sets. Don't miss a single action-packed article!
The first two books in The Well-Read Man Project fall under the category of "First Things," naturally. I selected them in the hopes of laying a stable foundation on which to read the remaining books. Without further ado, here are those initial books. (Click on a book to access its detail page.)
Book 1
The Art of War
by Sun Tzu
Book 2
The Epic of Gilgamesh
by Anonymous
The Art of War is a book on military strategy, but for this project it will double as a text on book-reading strategies. Gilgamesh is one of the oldest pieces of literature from any human culture, so it is natural that it shows up early in the list.
These two old and acclaimed books bring an auspicious start to the project on July 1. If you would like to read along with the project, click on the book titles above for information on obtaining your own copies.
