Ben Bell has been insisting that I list my favorite books on Facebook. I will do that but I thought I would give them here first so that I can explain briefly their significance for me. In truth I have chosen ten books that are not only favorites but which have had a significant place in my intellectual formation. They have made me what I am.
1. Plato, The Republic. The greatest philosophy book ever. It has everything.
2. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Perhaps the most profound books ever written for a child. The annotated version by Martin Gardner is a delight.
3. Bertrand Russell, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy. It got me first fascinated by what I'm fascinated by. Though I don't share Russell's views on religion or ethics, he is my model for clarity in thought and writing. A second place goes to his History of Western Philosophy. Not serious historical scholarship but a good place to start.
4. Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions. Very stimulating, lots of fun.
5. Martin Gardner, Fads and Fallacies. My first book on the philosophy of science, though I didn't know it at the time. Chapters on assorted cranks, including flat earthers, anti-Einsteinians, and dowsers.
6. Michel de Montaigne, Essays. The inventor of the essay and one of the most entertaining writers ever.
7. George Gamow, One, Two, Three...Infinity. My father gave me this book written by an eminent physicist when I was about 10. The first chapter, which was my first exposure to Georg Cantor's work on the infinite, simply blew my mind.
8. Edwin Abbott, Flatland. An intriguing combination of science fiction and social satire. It made me question my beliefs about reality at an early age and sent me along the path of philosophy. A version annotated by the mathematician Ian Stewart was published a few years ago.
9. Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten. A memoir of the famed neurologist's childhood that doubles as a book on chemistry. Really good.
10. Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon. Yes, it's a dictionary! But it is also a comprehensive record of the language and literature of a great civilization. Liddell was Alice's father (see number 2 above).
Saturday, March 28, 2009
My Favorite Books
Posted by michael papazian at 2:00 PM
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2 comments:
Honestly the George Gamow book is truly the greatest on this list. The last one... the dictionary... im not sure that should count seeing how it has no plot. The rebublic is truly one of the greatest novels that will ever be written, both plato and socrates are truly going to live in infamy forever. I feel that if you ever had children (as unlikely as we know that is) they would be very learned and well read.
The Liddell-Scott may not have an overarching plot, but each entry is like the biography of a word, the story of its development after it first entered into the written language until its last appearance before turning into a lexical shade.
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