pm01

Matclone's thread on great books made me curious as to what you are presently reading (or have recently finished).

Long ago I started reading My Experiments With Truth by Mahatma Gandhi but never finished it. I just restarted it and wonder if anyone has read it and if so what are your thoughts.

I recently finished two short memoirs on the Cultural Revolution (Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang and Spider Eaters by Rae Yang). Jiang's target audience is moreover young adults but still acceptable for a mature reader. Being a novice in Chinese history, Spider Eaters was a vivid glimpse into very dark period of Mao Zedong's era.

What are you reading?

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Wiltz

Kill Me by Stephen White

http://www.authorstephenwhite.com/Bo...Me/killme.html

I've read all his books and then I took a break and now I have 3 to catch up on.

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matclone

Still on Plato's Republic.

Also reading Martin Luther King's Why We Can't Wait. I guess he was strongly influenced by Gandhi--something I did not know until recently.

A portion of a sentence from the Letter from...Jail, written this month in 1963 to white clergymen in Birmingham: when you suddenly find your toungue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky...

I think that line about ominous clouds...little mental sky is particularly powerful.

JensenS

At the moment, nothing. Too jammed up with work near the end of this semester.

Within the last week or so I finished "Homicide" by David Simon (the creator of The Wire), which involved him spending all of 1988 with the BPD Homicide Unit.

When I can find the time, I'll probably grab Simon's other book "The Corner", along with "The Meditations", and maybe "A Confederacy of Dunces".

pm01

Matclone, twenty years ago I read Strength to Love by MLK. In its forward Coretta King wrote that more people told her this book changed their life than any other. She felt this was so because of the way MLK married the concept of nonviolence with the disobedience movement. I'm not surprised hearing Mahatma was an influence.

Also in the book is an essay where King argues for a need of tough-mindedness while remaining tender-hearted. It was particularly poignant chapter. On one had he seemed to be talking about how one should conduct their life and personaly spirituality, while metaphorically addressing his brother and sisters under struggle.

Perhaps you've read this book; if not, do me a favor and browse through it on your next library visit. I think you will find it worthwhile.


Edit:
Matclone, here is a link to the book and as luck would have it the first chapter contains the essay I referenced and is readable.

http://books.google.com/books?id=err...with-thumbnail

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Life is not a having or a getting, but a being and a becoming. --M. Arnold.

sgallan

A book on Canada's history and a book on the battle for Moscow.

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BonnieJ2

A beautiful handbound custom printed book from the 1920's about Plantin, an Antwerp printer in the 1500's.

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ODH

Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant.

matclone, I can't believe your are reading Plato's Republic for pleasure. I took a philosophy class years ago where it was required and I did not enjoy it at all. Definitely not a "page-turner"

ban basketball

I actually hate reading several things at once, but it just worked out that way this time.

The American Sociological Review (1 1/2 years behind)

Racism Without Racists-Eduardo Bonilla Silva

Truth and Consequences-Keith Olbermann

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matclone

ODH, time or circumstances can sometimes do wonders for your reading perception. Although I admit The Republic is not a page turner at the end of the day when I am sleepy, overall, I find it quite readable, especially as compared to some other philosophy classics. The translation of my edition is by Desmond Lee.

pm-01, I have not read the MLK book you mention. In fact, I believe Why We Can't Wait is the first. It's funny now that I think about it: one of the very first literature courses I had in college was Black American Literature. I'm pretty sure we did not read any MLK, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was not considered literature, although Frederick Douglass's narratives, for example, are.

From various interviews and a History documentary I saw a week or so ago, MLK was big on civil disobedience, while holding steadfastly to non-violence (he was challenged on the non-violence issue by others within and without the civil rights movement such as Stokely Carmichael and Bull Conner). I believe he took this idea straight from Gandhi. If you see the movie Gandhi, in the scene at the Salt plant where the people are beaten by the authorities, it's the very same thing that happened in Birmingham and Selma (and captured on film) where the peaceful protesters were water hosed, attacked by dogs, and beaten.