Medlem: AshRyan

I liked your review of Darwin as well. I especially liked your observations about his rare perspective: a biologist who started as an amateur, and a philosopher who gets out of his chair. I also liked your review of Ulysses. My reaction was similar. JP

inlägg gjort av jpsnow vid 8:53 am (EST) Sep 13, 2009

I actually just added O'Rourke's book 'On the Wealth of Nations' to my wishlist. I currently do not own a copy of it yet. I wish librarything's newsfeed distinguished between books added to someone's wishlist and books added to someone's library.

Regardless, I am definitely looking forward to reading it. I viewed a video of O'Rourke speaking about his book at a Cato Institute seminar. It appears as if his book is well researched and he has a lot of informative things to say, which he delivers in a serious but still funny manner.

inlägg gjort av DarkWaters1 vid 12:49 pm (EST) Sep 8, 2009

Hi again Ash,

Aspiring novelist? I am too. Hope to get a chance to exchange signed copies of our work someday...

All Zee Best, TCW

inlägg gjort av ThomasCWilliams vid 8:50 pm (EST) Sep 4, 2009

Re: "On the history of capitalism, Muller's 'The Mind and the Market' is the best that I've read,"

Thanks for recommending this. Mark Skousen, author of 'The Making of Modern Economics' (an excellent history of economic thought from a pro-laissez-faire perspective) wrote a very favorable review of 'The Mind and the Market' on Amazon.com. I think I will check this out too.

Muller's 'Adam Smith in His Time and Ours' also looks pretty interesting.

inlägg gjort av DarkWaters1 vid 9:53 pm (EST) Sep 3, 2009

Hi Ash,

Thanks for the comment. I guess you liked my 'knucklehead' comment ;-) . But seriously, before people criticize something, they should read it first! Darwin made a pretty good case based on some very thorough and serious research - the best he could possibly do at the time. Plus he was a very careful and humble person, and a very clear writer. His book is one of the few examples of a serious scientific breakthrough that was published in a style that is accessible to anyone.

Cheers, Pete

inlägg gjort av yapete vid 11:01 pm (EST) Sep 2, 2009

Hello Ash, Thank you very much for your note. You have an impressive collection of Ayn Rand! I've only read her "Atlas Shrugged" which I sympathize with. I can see that you're reading a lot of books and hesitate to recommend more, but the one on this theme that really convinced me was Hayek's "Road to Serfdom".
On the history of capitalism, Muller's "The Mind and the Market" is the best that I've read, and Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" is short and entertaining book that really gets it right about communist thinking.

inlägg gjort av Miro vid 11:00 am (EST) Sep 2, 2009

Ash,

Thanks for your comment on some of my book reviews. I appreciate the notice and upon perusing some of your reviews I find them particularly thoughtful. I especially enjoyed your reviews of two of my favorites, Candide and Common Sense. Also one of the books you recently added to your library, Damasio's Decartes' Error, is one that I found a particular joy to read.

Jim

inlägg gjort av jwhenderson vid 5:38 am (EST) Sep 2, 2009

I can relate to what you say about getting through a book via audio, although it's actually the opposite of what you were doing, to a degree. I sometimes treat myself to a lecture from the Ayn Rand Bookstore (ARB) and I've listened to them quite a few times while I'm at work. The reason I'm able to do this is because my current job doesn't require that much mental effort on my part. So I can apportion most of my efforts to listening to philosophy lectures, hehe. I actually got to listen to most of Peikoff's "History of Philosophy" course while working. Fun times there!

I think that if my non-fiction collection were available in audio form I would still want to follow along reading the book while listening to it. I suppose that may seem unnecessary, but I think it's because even though I have an auditory affinity to learning I still like to physically have a book with me. That way for reference you can always look up only what you need and not have to worry about, "at what time did the author mention this point on the audio?" I don't mean to imply that you only read that specific way you mentioned before. I think you were only talking to that specific mode within the context of your work. Perfectly understandable.

And I'm definitely wishing I had a job like that. And only 1/3rd you say? Wow, impressive. Right now I'm in the middle of a quintet series of children's science fiction by Madeleine L'Engle. I had read the first "A Wrinkle in Time" a long while ago when I actually was a kid probably and found out recently that it was part of a series so I decided to get them all and read them through. I'm on the 4th right now. L'Engle's positive view of religion does have a underlying influence in the series, which is disappointing, but not altogether ruinous of the reading experience. I like to break up my reading with "light" books sometimes. These are usually fiction of any kind that interests me. Afterward I intend to read Mayhew's "Essays on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged". Can't wait for that one.

inlägg gjort av mcaution vid 3:37 am (EST) May 14, 2009

I notice you add books frequently to your library. It's pretty astonishing the rate at which you collect them. Is there any criterion you go by when thinking of books to buy, or do you peruse a lot of bookstores picking up those which catch your eye? Do you intend to read them all the way through when you buy them, or are they for reference reading, that is reading selected portions of a book?

I usually only purchase those which I know I will read entirely and have significance to my area of interests/study. I wouldn't consider myself a fast reader (though I'm not sure what qualifies as one) so I currently have a backlog of books on my to-read list. This is just from the books I currently own in my library. I also have a list of books I would like to purchase at some point(Amazon wish-list). I know I can't buy them all at once nor do I want to since I try to stay focused on one topic of interest at a time. I do have a tendency to switch from book to book when I'm reading. How do you handle it all?

inlägg gjort av mcaution vid 3:37 am (EST) May 12, 2009

Thank you for your comment regarding my review of Twilight. I try to fight the good fight, but for every bad review of that pile of garbage there are 100 people claiming it was the best book they'd ever read. I'm trying to get the word out and possibly start a new revolution.

inlägg gjort av quillmenow vid 12:27 pm (EST) Apr 13, 2009

Hey Ash,

Thanks for the comments. It was really surprising to hear that Mayr had read an essay by Gotthelf which caused him to reevaluate his estimation of Aristotle, that's awesome. If you know off-hand, was it Mayr's opinion that Aristotle was a poor philosopher or scientist beforehand?

As for Popper/Quine/Kuhn/Lakatos I agree with your misgivings about their methods and the conclusions they drew. I've actually listened to lectures offered by the Ayn Rand Bookstore on Popper and Quine, interesting topics. But I'll be looking into their systems of thought just the same because I'm interested in philosophy of science in general and I'm attempting to get a full picture of its development throughout history. As of right now I'm leaning towards studying philosophy of physics/chemistry more so than biology. I'm actually a chemistry major and plan on study philosophy later. So I'll probably be studying more in the area of physics than biology, but still good just the same to have a familiarity with the topic I think.

Thanks again

inlägg gjort av mcaution vid 4:30 pm (EST) Apr 10, 2009

Hi Ash,

You're a cutie! Did I mention that before?

I would start with The World According to Garp. Thanks for the link!

inlägg gjort av thenaughtyhottie vid 11:19 am (EST) Apr 10, 2009

Thanks for joining the group Ash!

I think I've heard of Ayn Rand. Is she as good as John Irving?

inlägg gjort av thenaughtyhottie vid 1:12 am (EST) Apr 9, 2009