The book-thread of seriousness

I'll bet you would write a great one TS!

 

I'm reading 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' by Junot Diaz. It's an interesting book about a young Domincan-American guy and his difficulties growing up in his Paterson, New Jersey neighborhood because of his awkwardness and goofiness...there's more to it..but I have only read about 50 pages so far...it's gonna be a good one!

 

I just finished reading Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money. In many ways, this books provides invaluable, if complicated, answers to the changing paradigm of financial implications. Using the structure/agency debate, it puts in context ancient empires as well as modern civilization to bridge the gap between opposing superpowers and their goals. I have been a huge fan of Niall Ferguson and this brilliant composition reinforces his indelible knowledge and understanding of fundamental issues.

I do not have a favorite author per se, as most writers have historically tended to focus on peculiar issues and i prefer a more comprehensive and well rounded writer. However, i appreciate the works of Voltaire, Robert Nozick, John Rawls, Mark Twain, John Grisham, Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Chinua Achebe, Pius Oleghe, Jeremy Bentham and T.S. Eliot.

I am more a fan of prose than poetry due to its penchant for rhetoric and its often too evocative language but i can appreciate a well-written, emotive and genuine poem with hidden meanings and often unintended statements. As a rule of thumb, i prefer sonnets perhaps because of its interchangeable nature, but odes can and often be the most elaborate forms of written work.

My favorite poet of all time is without a question Seamus Heaney. His ability to mix profound if contingent, but seemingly invisible concerns with lessons of history amaze me a lot. In many ways, he seems to write about the small individual using a big mind.

For me, reading is like working out, the more you do it, the bigger and stronger you get. Of course, you do not literally get bigger but i find that reading a diverse array of topics puts you in shape for unexpected events and in many ways provides clues to hidden messages in a certain circle called life. In a month, i read an average of 12 books and that is when i keep to my quota.