Watching the movie adaptation of a book doesn’t count. Movies are not a substitute for reading. Movies and books do different things. Movies show you a problem being resolved (usually). A book gets into how people think about what they do. Through books we can explore how an enormous number of minds have worked on problems from personal to global in significance. It is a chance to get into why people do what they do and why without ever personally interacting with them. We spend a lot of time making assumptions about how someone else thinks, but books give us an intimate familiarity with many lifetimes of thinking. Learn how others think. You don’t have to learn all of life’s lessons the hard way. Our culture that doesn’t read has become comfortable with bimodal thinking because it is easy. Reading throughout your life trains the mind to deal in ambiguities, confusion, subtilty and contradictions better for having seen so many example of complex problems played out in someone else’s mind.
Struck by the "Tyranny cannot survive a society of readers" line. Insightful and leads one to hoping that the bad actions we've seen of our society and especially our government(s) can be undone with a resurrection of the basic commitment to fostering reading among young people. I don't know how you get around the technological problem, since I believe that's the number one barrier (like asking kids whether they want cake and ice cream or carrots and broccoli).
The irony being that probably more books are published now than at any other time in history. Which is fascinating, and encouraging (but also troubling, because a lot of it is slop).
But you do point the ultimate finger at the responsible party for this reading malaise: the adults (whether that's parents, teachers, or an apathetic society of people who don't have a sense of what's at stake). So, if it's going to change, it's gotta change with us first, individually and collectively.
We can all start by committing to reading more, and more widely, than we currently do. We will not be perfect in this. But it has to start somewhere.
Thank you for this, Jeremiah! I know you have a special relationship to this topic and I appreciate your thoughts. It does have to start somewhere -- and that lies both in the act of reading more, and in allowing that act to be visible to others. Modeling and example are huge -- we are primates after all, and we love to copy what looks cool.
Beautifully said. Right now, I'm loving Robert Greene's Power, and it offers insights into how the human mind works and how people can influence and be influenced. It is, in essence, a "how-to" book that serves as a warning to us all about our weaknesses and how one can exploit them, for good or evil purposes.
In one sense, it is amoral in that it tells the reader how to cleverly but ruthlessly exploit a mark.
As Greene would say, "In reversal" it is a moral book because it enables one to protect oneself from being exploited to evil ends, in the sense that if you know what to look for, you can better defend yourself against it.
Thank you for this! Think we share an abiding fascination in understanding how the abuse of power works, how that's associated with what we consider to be "evil," and using that understanding to spot it in others early and often.
I can see you traveling around the world presenting what you just have written, in a talk. At least to all of the "adults" in the room.
I believe your Defense can be converted to be a Powerful Offence.
Ted Talk too.
You write from childhood experience and professional authority, both collegiate andinto the professional world of writing.
Its become a lifestyle personally , most obviously as well with reading 70 books in one year!
Though I can't begin to approach that annual number of book reads, my own white haired reading is something that has evolved over the years into a greater subject variety . Certainly quite a precious aspect of living.
My eclectic approach of historic and current fiction balanced with variety of nonfiction subjects , is like having a never ending variety of available food menus available at any time , at one's choosing.
Reading feels quite physical in that way of body sustenance . The brain also being an organ that profits from continued usage, it is a valuable, sometimes even quite exciting, type of stimulation.
With some aging eye challenges, I am ever grateful for recorded books as a continual support!
Thank you so much for this! I love your vision -- and I am immensely honored. I agree about the importance of having variety at the fingertips – it really is like being at an imaginative buffet. And at the same time, as you say, it's physical. Reading doesn't only happen in the head, and it is itself a form of nourishment. I'm so glad you have audiobooks. And yes, libraries – a huge subject for another time!
Zola's 'Ladies Paradise', centered around the first Paris department store and the people who worked there
'New Grub Street', by George Gissing, about people desperately trying to make it in the literary world (including the outer fringes of that world) in the late 1800s
'The Prince of the Skies', by Antonio Iturbe...a biography of the writer/aviator Antoine de St-Exupery
'Vertigo: the Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany', by Harald Jaehner.
'Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China', by Jung Chang
"Modern Times Revised Edition", by Paul Johnson. The world from the '20s to the '90s.
The business novels of Cameron Hawley, which I reviewed here:
'American Midnight, by Adam Hochschild. About the dismal era of the Wilson administration.
'Rockets and People', by Boris Chertok. The author was a Russian rocket developer for several decades, working on the Soviet space program and military missile programs. I actually read & reviewed this book several years ago, but reposted the review a few months ago. Highly recommended:
Watching the movie adaptation of a book doesn’t count. Movies are not a substitute for reading. Movies and books do different things. Movies show you a problem being resolved (usually). A book gets into how people think about what they do. Through books we can explore how an enormous number of minds have worked on problems from personal to global in significance. It is a chance to get into why people do what they do and why without ever personally interacting with them. We spend a lot of time making assumptions about how someone else thinks, but books give us an intimate familiarity with many lifetimes of thinking. Learn how others think. You don’t have to learn all of life’s lessons the hard way. Our culture that doesn’t read has become comfortable with bimodal thinking because it is easy. Reading throughout your life trains the mind to deal in ambiguities, confusion, subtilty and contradictions better for having seen so many example of complex problems played out in someone else’s mind.
Preach! Agree!
Thanku for this added comment, so insightful! And definitely worthy knowledge on the subject.
Truly applicable to living in today's contentious world.
Struck by the "Tyranny cannot survive a society of readers" line. Insightful and leads one to hoping that the bad actions we've seen of our society and especially our government(s) can be undone with a resurrection of the basic commitment to fostering reading among young people. I don't know how you get around the technological problem, since I believe that's the number one barrier (like asking kids whether they want cake and ice cream or carrots and broccoli).
The irony being that probably more books are published now than at any other time in history. Which is fascinating, and encouraging (but also troubling, because a lot of it is slop).
But you do point the ultimate finger at the responsible party for this reading malaise: the adults (whether that's parents, teachers, or an apathetic society of people who don't have a sense of what's at stake). So, if it's going to change, it's gotta change with us first, individually and collectively.
We can all start by committing to reading more, and more widely, than we currently do. We will not be perfect in this. But it has to start somewhere.
Thank you for this, Jeremiah! I know you have a special relationship to this topic and I appreciate your thoughts. It does have to start somewhere -- and that lies both in the act of reading more, and in allowing that act to be visible to others. Modeling and example are huge -- we are primates after all, and we love to copy what looks cool.
Beautifully said. Right now, I'm loving Robert Greene's Power, and it offers insights into how the human mind works and how people can influence and be influenced. It is, in essence, a "how-to" book that serves as a warning to us all about our weaknesses and how one can exploit them, for good or evil purposes.
In one sense, it is amoral in that it tells the reader how to cleverly but ruthlessly exploit a mark.
As Greene would say, "In reversal" it is a moral book because it enables one to protect oneself from being exploited to evil ends, in the sense that if you know what to look for, you can better defend yourself against it.
Thanks for another great post.
Thank you for this! Think we share an abiding fascination in understanding how the abuse of power works, how that's associated with what we consider to be "evil," and using that understanding to spot it in others early and often.
Brilliant! All of it.
Just one of your many wonderful quotes:
"getting better by getting over ourselves"
I can see you traveling around the world presenting what you just have written, in a talk. At least to all of the "adults" in the room.
I believe your Defense can be converted to be a Powerful Offence.
Ted Talk too.
You write from childhood experience and professional authority, both collegiate andinto the professional world of writing.
Its become a lifestyle personally , most obviously as well with reading 70 books in one year!
Though I can't begin to approach that annual number of book reads, my own white haired reading is something that has evolved over the years into a greater subject variety . Certainly quite a precious aspect of living.
My eclectic approach of historic and current fiction balanced with variety of nonfiction subjects , is like having a never ending variety of available food menus available at any time , at one's choosing.
Reading feels quite physical in that way of body sustenance . The brain also being an organ that profits from continued usage, it is a valuable, sometimes even quite exciting, type of stimulation.
With some aging eye challenges, I am ever grateful for recorded books as a continual support!
Libraries - a huge subject for another time...
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
Thank you so much for this! I love your vision -- and I am immensely honored. I agree about the importance of having variety at the fingertips – it really is like being at an imaginative buffet. And at the same time, as you say, it's physical. Reading doesn't only happen in the head, and it is itself a form of nourishment. I'm so glad you have audiobooks. And yes, libraries – a huge subject for another time!
Neo's blog has a thread about poetry:
https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/02/why-poetry-matters/
Wonderful and thank you!
Some books that I've read in 2024...
Zola's 'Ladies Paradise', centered around the first Paris department store and the people who worked there
'New Grub Street', by George Gissing, about people desperately trying to make it in the literary world (including the outer fringes of that world) in the late 1800s
'The Prince of the Skies', by Antonio Iturbe...a biography of the writer/aviator Antoine de St-Exupery
'Vertigo: the Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany', by Harald Jaehner.
'Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China', by Jung Chang
"Modern Times Revised Edition", by Paul Johnson. The world from the '20s to the '90s.
The business novels of Cameron Hawley, which I reviewed here:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/70636.html
'American Midnight, by Adam Hochschild. About the dismal era of the Wilson administration.
'Rockets and People', by Boris Chertok. The author was a Russian rocket developer for several decades, working on the Soviet space program and military missile programs. I actually read & reviewed this book several years ago, but reposted the review a few months ago. Highly recommended:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/71955.html
What a great list -- I will look forward to exploring the new titles here. Thank you and happy new year!
Happy new year, Erin!