Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Books I Should Be Reading
Last year I posted a list of books I was hoping to read over the coming year, and invited y’all to chip in with suggestions. Thank you for your help. I figured I should report back as to what I actually read this year. Okay, that’s part of it, but mostly I’ve been tarrying overlong in giving my Mom a Christmas list. If you have suggestions, I’m sure she’d appreciate them. Right, let’s start with books from that post that I’ve actually read.
Books I Read Last Year
The Horatio Hornblower series, by C.M. Forrester. I’ve read the first three of these so far, will pick up the others as time allows. I enjoyed them quite a bit, first because they’re solid adventure stories, and second because some of the devices are genuinely new to me. If you recall the rice from Mr. Midshipman Hornblower you’ll know what I mean. I’m reserving the rest of the series as fun reads, and will read them as needed. From there, I’ll move on to the Aubrey Martin and the Sharpe series (thanks @Clavius and @KevinKrisher for the suggestions)
The Wasteland and The Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot. This was part of an experiment into poetry. I listened to the Young Heretics podcasts on these poems twice [1] [2] [3], [4], read them both, then listened again to the podcasts explaining them. Still can’t say I understand it. I’m certain that T.S. Eliot is a great poet, but he’ll have to reach other people than I with his poetry.
The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. This was an excellent work, if at times a bit trying to read. You can find the copy I read here, though I’ll warn you that it’s a translation old enough to be in the public domain and hence has somewhat arcane English. Thanks, @SaintAugustine, for recommending it. For Augie, I think he’s wrong in his argument that evil is nothing, and while I don’t have the proof thought through, I think you start from the phrase “Jesus Wept.”
The Prisoner of Zenda, and Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope. Thanks to @Arahant for recommending this one, and to my mother for giving me a copy as a Christmas gift last year. Again, a really excellent adventure novel. I’d say “along the lines of The Princess Bride,” but this book came first. My copy is still lent out to my cousins, otherwise, I’d be regifting it to one of my brothers this year.
Books I Haven’t Yet Read
Ada, by Vladimir Nabokov. I said last year that I wanted to read something of his that wasn’t Lolita, for obvious reasons, but that the bookstores and libraries only had Lolita, for what I hope aren’t the obvious reasons. Well, I found Ada in a used book store not too long ago, and a collection of Nabokov’s shorter fiction some time before that, but I still haven’t read them, preferring to read other Russian fiction this past year (a collection of Soviet satires I received as a Christmas gift, and The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov).
Shadows of the Mind, by Rodger Penrose. This one was recommended to me by @Clavius some time ago when I read and reviewed Penrose’s The Emperor’s New Mind. Though I finally got myself a copy of this one I still haven’t gotten into it. Too many other things that demand reading. Never mind my bookshelves, my stacks of books are reaching critical mass.
The Iliad and the Odyssey, by Homer. I went through a Greek mythology phase in middle school, so I’m reasonably conversant on the gods and heroes of remembered Hellas. That said, I’ve never read the originals in their entirety, which is something I’m looking to rectify. I’ve got copies of them but haven’t yet completed the project. Thanks, @PostmodernHoplite, @KevinKrisher, and @JDFitzpatrick for the recommendation.
Books I’m Looking to Read
This list should begin with every other book from last year’s comments, complete with special thanks to those suggesting it, but I’ll only abuse your patience by mentioning one more. Special thanks to @MiffedWhiteMale for suggesting The Fleet at Flood Tide, which my mother got for @SamRhody for Christmas. It’s more in his line than mine.
That said, there are two categories I’d appreciate recommendations in. The first is physics. I studied it at college some fifteen years ago, but mostly dropped out of the field since then. What’s been going on in that timeframe? The state of science journalism is appalling, so have care with your suggestions. I’d like a book that actually explains things.
The second is Constitutional Law. Last time I picked up a volume on it, the book was intended for working lawyers, so mostly it covered things like the rights of defendants and what constitutes plain view evidence for police officers. That’s fine and all, but I was looking more for society-wide concerns, things like the laws on free speech and the cases that affect it. There ought to be an in-depth primer for the citizen as to what those black robes have been up to.
Aside from that, literally anything. I’m of the firm conviction that if you only look where you know to look, you’ll only find what you already know. If you have a suggestion for a book — fiction or non-fiction, ancient or modern, classic or pulp — that you think I should read, please, by all means, suggest it. Thank you, and may I pass along thanks from my mother too.
Published in Literature
Waugh wrote a pretty entertaining if not “spikier” sequel Vile Bodies. And if one is to decide to go down the Waugh path, his best work is Brideshead Revisited.
Foucault’s Pendulum was fantastic. I remember when I read it, thinking, did Dan Brown just rip this off wholesale?
Yes. Yes he did. ; )
I really enjoy Milton and Rose Friedman’s “Free to Choose”.
For Constitutional law I will suggest “The innocent man” by John Grisham. The book give a history of the “right to counsel “ and also explains the current use of “habeas corpus“ in criminal trials and appeals
Finished this book last night, and a quick thank you to Drew for recommending it and to my mother for giving it as a Christmas present.
I liked most things about this book, but not the main character. He’s a sad sack who gets walked over by every other character in the book. He’s at his most interesting when he’s inventing adventures for his network of agents. The other thing I didn’t much like was the mid-century enlightened cynicism of assuming the politics of east and west isn’t really important compared to romance. This is hardly the first book where I’ve come across that opinion; I’m a little confused as to why I reacted so strongly now.
I was impressed at Greene’s writing in that, at each turn of the comedy I didn’t see where it was going until it had gone, and afterwards felt like the change was inevitable and couldn’t have gone any other way. That’s harder to pull off than it sounds.
And when I finally can afford my time share on the time machine, pre-revolution Havana remains one of my first choice destinations. Though more on the sipping daquiris in a club while losing at checkers and less on the brothel side of things.
Wormold was based on a real spy, Juan Pujol García, codename Garbo. The Germans thought he was in England running a network of subagents when he was actually in a Portugal library, mixing stuff he saw in travel books, magazines, newsreels, and what have you. When the Germans relied on his reports and made a great effort to locate a convoy that only existed in Garbo’s head, the British recruited him and brought him to England. Garbo’s fake intelligence got even better after that.
Whoa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Pujol_Garc%C3%ADa
I like how after he died of malaria in Angola in 1949, he moved to Venezuela and ran a bookstore.
Greene worked for the Iberian branch of MI5 during the war. He would definitely have known about Garbo.