What Are You Reading?
posted by Dave Hoffman
It’s not a one-off question, it’s a yearly tradition at Co-Op. The mid-summer reading roundup!
Me:
Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (in part because it was positively blurbed by Jon Hanson).
Robert Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (Caro’s descriptions of Moses and LBJ are strikingly similar, even down to physical details).
Steven Erickson, Reaper’s Gale (with misgivings, but I’m already six books in).
Karl Schroeder, Sun of Suns (very satisfying so far).
July 16, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Posted in: Weird
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Responses (12)
Matt - July 16, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Bar Review materials, unfortunately, at least for another week.
Patrick S. O'Donnell - July 16, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Here’s a few items off the top of several piles to be finished by end of summer (warning: no fiction, but if I take a few days off I’ll read some Graham Greene and anything recently published by Gary Snyder and Pico Iyer). I’ve left off numerous titles in legal theory and reasoning, international law and politics, Islamic Studies, and fairly esoteric material regarding Buddhist philosophy:
Velleman, J. David. Self to Self: Selected Essays (2006). Brilliant stuff on personal identity and moral psychology, involving plausible and provocative interpretations and critiques of Kant and Freud, and using the latter to fill out the former.
Pappe, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006). A must read by one of Israel’s best historians.
Kraut, Richard. What is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being (2007). I’ve tried to read everything by Kraut ever since his Socrates and the State (1984).
Caney, Simon. Justice Beyond Borders: A Global Political Theory (2005). I’ve been meaning to read this for a while and just finished. A must read for those who believe in the need for a sophisticated cosmopolitan ethics with political punch and implications for global distributive justice.
Jacoby, Russell. Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age (2005). Utopian imagination often gets a bad press and Jacoby is one of its more erudite and politically sophisticated defenders.
Jambert, Christian. The Act of Being: The Philosophy of Revelation in Mulla Sadra (2006). I very much look forward to reading this work on perhaps the foremost philosopher in the Islamic tradition.
Jullien, Francois. A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking (2004). I’m trying to read everying by Jullien translated into English because he is one of the precious few who can fill out the meaning of “comparative philosophy.”
Bolton, Derek and Jonathan Hill. Mind, Meaning, and Mental Disorder: The Nature of Causal Explanation in Psychology and Psychiatry (2nd ed., 2003). Fundamental.
Pickering, Neil. The Metaphor of Mental Illness (2006). Provocative.
Sadler, John Z. Values and Psychiatric Diagnosis (2005). Fundamental.
Patrick S. O'Donnell - July 16, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Here’s a few items off the top of several piles to be finished by end of summer (warning: no fiction, but if I take a few days off I’ll read some Graham Greene and anything recently published by Gary Snyder and Pico Iyer). I’ve left off numerous titles in legal theory and reasoning, international law and politics, Islamic Studies, and fairly esoteric material regarding Buddhist philosophy:
Velleman, J. David. Self to Self: Selected Essays (2006). Brilliant stuff on personal identity and moral psychology, involving plausible and provocative interpretations and critiques of Kant and Freud, and using the latter to fill out the former.
Pappe, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006). A must read by one of Israel’s best historians.
Kraut, Richard. What is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being (2007). I’ve tried to read everything by Kraut ever since his Socrates and the State (1984).
Caney, Simon. Justice Beyond Borders: A Global Political Theory (2005). I’ve been meaning to read this for a while and just finished. A must read for those who believe in the need for a sophisticated cosmopolitan ethics with political punch and implications for global distributive justice.
Jacoby, Russell. Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age (2005). Utopian imagination often gets a bad press and Jacoby is one of its more erudite and politically sophisticated defenders.
Jambert, Christian. The Act of Being: The Philosophy of Revelation in Mulla Sadra (2006). I very much look forward to reading this work on perhaps the foremost philosopher in the Islamic tradition.
Jullien, Francois. A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking (2004). I’m trying to read everying by Jullien translated into English because he is one of the precious few who can fill out the meaning of “comparative philosophy.”
Bolton, Derek and Jonathan Hill. Mind, Meaning, and Mental Disorder: The Nature of Causal Explanation in Psychology and Psychiatry (2nd ed., 2003). Fundamental.
Pickering, Neil. The Metaphor of Mental Illness (2006). Provocative.
Sadler, John Z. Values and Psychiatric Diagnosis (2005). Fundamental.
Mike O'Shea - July 16, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Rorty, Richard. Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth: Philosophical Papers Vol. 1. Began as an act of piety for the deceased.
Suzuki, Shunryu. Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai. Elegant commentary.
Tolkien, J.R.R. (ed. Christopher Tolkien). Morgoth’s Ring. Tolkien does the problem of metaphysical evil.
Waugh, Evelyn (ed. Donat Gallagher). The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh. Out of print. I love dipping into Waugh’s journalism. I covet his prose style.
Mike O'Shea - July 16, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Rorty, Richard. Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth: Philosophical Papers Vol. 1. Began as an act of piety for the deceased.
Suzuki, Shunryu. Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai. Elegant commentary.
Tolkien, J.R.R. (ed. Christopher Tolkien). Morgoth’s Ring. Tolkien does the problem of metaphysical evil.
Waugh, Evelyn (ed. Donat Gallagher). The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh. Out of print. I love dipping into Waugh’s journalism. I covet his prose style.
Belle Lettre - July 17, 2007 at 12:02 am
You know I couldn’t resist this, Dave. Your next post should be your annual summer “what are you listening to” query. What do you think of the latest Shins album? Did you get Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky?
Mine:
The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt
Freedom & Necessity by Emma Bull and Steven Brust
Rights at Work by Michael McCann
Legitimizing Gender Inequality by Nelson and Bridges
Frank - July 17, 2007 at 9:37 am
Thomas Frank and Dave Mulcahey, eds., Boob Jubilee: The Cultural Politics of the New Economy.
Richard Powers, The Echo Maker.
Robert Frank, Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class
William Irwin Thompson, The American Replacement of Nature.
Notebooks of Simone Weil.
Sarah S. - July 17, 2007 at 11:37 am
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace.
Bess Vanrenen (ed.), Generation What? Dispatches From the Quarter-Life Crisis.
Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities.
Joseph Ellis, Founding Brothers.
Sarah S. - July 17, 2007 at 11:37 am
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace.
Bess Vanrenen (ed.), Generation What? Dispatches From the Quarter-Life Crisis.
Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities.
Joseph Ellis, Founding Brothers.
Nate OMan - July 17, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Richard Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich
Amity Shlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression
Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire
J.K. Rolling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
AYY - July 18, 2007 at 1:45 am
Chosen Soldier by Dick Couch (Describes the training of Green Berets)
Teammates– David Halberstam
The Big Picture– Edward Epstein (fascinating account of the transformation of the movie business from its early days until now.)
Rick Garnett - July 18, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Paul Elie, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own.”
Philip Roth, “Everyman.”
Michael Burleigh, “Earthly Powers.”
Pope Benedict XVI, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
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