November Project: Question #24
This question comes from Toney through email.
From reading many of your posts you seem to have a fierce intelligence. I am just wondering, what kind of books do you read on a daily basis?
Fierce intelligence? My ruse has worked!! 
If we imagine two kinds of readers…on one side is the person that never reads for any reason, even if they are not illiterate…and on the other side is the person that can’t seem to function without a book, to the point of a strange kind of dependence, I would say I am in the middle, slightly leaning to the side of dependency. 
I usually read everyday, but may go for short stretches with nothing. I don’t really plan on reading; it just happens. If I have to travel a significant, but short distance, I may drag along something small that can easily fit in my pocket. If I am traveling across the country (or leaving the country), I’ll have so many books, my backpack will feel like it is full of dumbbells. But many, many times, I’ve gone on a trip for a week or more, had a bag full of books, and never opened one.
But these days I carry minimalism in my tote bag while traveling.
I’ll give you a short list of the last few books I’ve read, along with a few I’ve bought for the future.
The Last Five Books
The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance – Fritjof Capra
This is Your Brain on Music – Daniel J. Levitin
Beethoven – Barry Cooper
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes – Arnold Rampersad (Editor)
Acting in Film – Michael Caine (Fascinating read!)
The Next Five Books
A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition – Ernest Hemingway (Excited about this one! 2nd time through, but first time reading the restored edition.)
My Bondage and My Freedom – Frederick Douglass (2nd time through)
The Grand Design – Stephen Hawking
Comprehensive Technique for Jazz Musicians: For All Instruments – Bert Ligon (This is a reference book, and not something you just read once.)
In Defense of Food – Michael Pollan
I am not a particularly fast reader, but that is just fine. I like to enjoy the words and seat myself directly into the subject.
Thanks for your question, Toney.
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What about all of you? What sort of books do you like to read?
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Interesting list you have there. Specially the Grand Design by Hawking. A book that claims that philosophy is dead, at least in the sense that it has failed to answer life’s ultimate questions, but without pondering for a moment as to why philosophy may have failed in this quest. The implication from the book is that the questions are much too complicated and thus can only be answered through complicated theories and sciences (though full credit to the authors who successfully simplify it all for the layman). Ironically, I find that one of the best answers to life’s ultimate questions was also the simplest: 42. Well… at least almost as good as a finger pointing at the moon
Thanks, Cedric.
I imagine, if Hawking were a philosopher, he would look for the answers differently than he does as a physicist. Perhaps it is not that the questions are much too complicated and thus can only be answered through complicated theories and sciences…but as a physicist, what else will he do?
I’ve not started the book yet, but am looking forward to it.
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