Big Intellectual Books You Own and Would Really Like to Have Read

I do have one book on my shelf like that: The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. The summary sounds so good. But I just can't get past the dry academic tone and the getting nowhere fast that I perceive in the book.
 
Parson said:
I do have one book on my shelf like that: The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. The summary sounds so good. But I just can't get past the dry academic tone and the getting nowhere fast that I perceive in the book.
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Try selected chapters. I don't have my copy at hand, but the one on "Love" was interesting, as I recall.
 
Oh so many

A lot of Philosophical texts, Such as Leviathan by Thomas Hobbs, and assorted Nietzsche works.

As well as many texts on Folklore or religious texts like the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Bhagavad Gita and the Holy Vedas as well as actually reading the Bible.

Then just things like the Divine Comedy (which I have a beautifully leather bound copy) and the Argonautica etc

Oh so much reading to be done...........I should get off the internet and read!
 
Before you shuffle off the 'net, Shuffle093: welcome to Chrons!

And a big recommendation for Dante. Don't know what translation you have. I read the entire Comedy in Mandelbaum's translation, and the first two of the three books also in the Sayers version. My impression is that Mandelbaum's translation was easier to read but that the notes in Sayers' version (Penguin Classics) were excellent. I would imagine Esolen's recent translation is a good choice. A leatherbound edition might be a lovely book, but perhaps an older translation that some of us would find harder to read than a recent one.
 
Edith Grossmans’s translation of Don Quixote is eyeing me up on the shelf but I don’t think I’m ready.
 
In 2008 I bought a copy of the repubbed (or whatever) Voynich Manuscript facsimile (cost a bomb before they all came down in price - and now you can download the PDF anyway), for a stimulus for my students at college. We kept it in the office but it 'mysteriously' (i.e not mysteriously at all) went missing.

I'd've have liked to have had the time to go through and - well, 'read' is not the right word - but 'ponder' on it.

pH
 
Shuffle093 said:
Oh so many

A lot of Philosophical texts, Such as Leviathan by Thomas Hobbs, and assorted Nietzsche works.

As well as many texts on Folklore or religious texts like the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Bhagavad Gita and the Holy Vedas as well as actually reading the Bible.

Then just things like the Divine Comedy (which I have a beautifully leather bound copy) and the Argonautica etc

Oh so much reading to be done...........I should get off the internet and read!
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Bhagavad Gita is the shortest and easiest of that selection. There is a nice slim Penguin Classics edition.
 
Any book by Roger Penrose, but especially his Road To Reality. I'd say it qualifies for this thread since it is huge.

Also most of what Carl Jung has written, where he hasn't had help to soften up his academic tone.
 
Extollager said:
Before you shuffle off the 'net, Shuffle093: welcome to Chrons!

And a big recommendation for Dante. Don't know what translation you have. I read the entire Comedy in Mandelbaum's translation, and the first two of the three books also in the Sayers version. My impression is that Mandelbaum's translation was easier to read but that the notes in Sayers' version (Penguin Classics) were excellent. I would imagine Esolen's recent translation is a good choice. A leatherbound edition might be a lovely book, but perhaps an older translation that some of us would find harder to read than a recent one.
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Thanks for the welcome Extollager!

Yeah it's beautiful but can be difficult to read. I can't recall which translation it is atm but it is on my list which I am very slowly making my way through.
 
I've got an entire shelf dedicated to my non-fiction books, about half of which I kept so I could read later. I always end up going back to my favorite fiction though, lol. I've got several different religious texts I should get around to reading, as well as some political books. Also, A Brief History of Time.

And I've got a book about the origins of music and language that I keep meaning to pick up.
 
The Water Margin Outlaws of the March by Ship Naian. It's been around for centuries.:)
 
night_wrtr said:
I still haven't read Darwin's Origin of Species.
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I've got 3 or so copies of it and a digital and I've still not read much of it!

One problem is that the general understanding is so heavily presented in modern science that reading the old reference is actually reading older information; its already dated and the general theory itself lacks the same power that it once had when it was originally penned and published.

I'm also half concerned it will turn out a bit like Sun Tzu Art of War - something which I have recently read a translation of and was honestly very surprised at, overall, how simplistic the work is. Again the understandings it puts forth are mostly what one would consider general common military sense - which shows how much influence and how accurate it is with regard to military affairs, but at the same time its very generalist and basic approach to the topics (which fits, it was originally an advisory document for an Emperor of China to better understand his generals and their thinking).
 
night_wrtr said:
I still haven't read Darwin's Origin of Species.
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Overread said:
I've got 3 or so copies of it and a digital and I've still not read much of it!

One problem is that the general understanding is so heavily presented in modern science that reading the old reference is actually reading older information; its already dated and the general theory itself lacks the same power that it once had when it was originally penned and published.
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LIKE. (Since that option doesn't appear on my screen.)
 
Years ago, I bought my wife a stunning two-piece box set of the Bhagavad Ghita; "a new translation and commentary" by Paramahansa Yogananda. It must have been something like $80. I'd love to say I devoured that sucker at some point. Instead, I'll just say that I surely will at some point. :cautious:

She's owned the complete works of William Shakespeare since before I met her, and I haven't gotten around to reading that, either. Not that I don't respect the man and his influence. It's just... I'd rather read something else. :censored::whistle:
 
C.G. Jung's "The Red Book" . The 40cm high one. Considered too private to publish until a few years ago. Somewhat expensive.

Come to think of it I used to own his Collected Works back in the 80s (in hardback, no less). I think it ran to 22 volumes. Maybe there was an index volume as well. Technically I still do, but I lent them to someone in the 90s and have never regretted it. I believe he still has them.
 
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