Books To Learn From Books To Learn From I have always created opportunities to share my excitement about interesting books.
After reading a fantastic book, I would immediately find someone to tell about it. Captive audiences were best (people at work, during lunch time).
At social gatherings I always managed to bring the subject around to my most recent interesting book. Since these were never "fiction" books, my listeners soon excused themselves to get their drink freshened (read that as: "looked elsewhere for more interesting conversation").
But you, dear visitor to this page, may be the audience that I have been looking for all these years (Praise Intenet!). However, if my book list elicits an immediate "yawn," you have only to click the "Back Button," and you can have instant relief.
Now, let me tell you about some fascinating books!
SCIENCE AND SANITY - Alfred Korzybski
Recommended to me by Prof. Townsend when I was a freshman at NYU (1942). The book's thesis was that language is a map of the world. The better we understand the limitations of our language, the better we can understand the limitations of our perceptions of the world. Korzybski was the founder of the Institute of General Semantics. (1938)
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CYCLES: THE MYSTERIOUS FORCES THAT TRIGGER EVENTS - Edward R. Dewey (with Og Mandino)
I read an earlier version of this book which I believe was Dewey's "Cycles: Key To The Future." I got it as a small pocket book, distributed by the Army to soldiers in the field, during World War II. I was fascinated by the way the book presented it's extensive array of cyclical phenomena, which appear in such diverse observables as weather, war, pig-iron prices, marriage rates, manufacturing, sunspots, mob behavior, stock prices, etc.
The mystery is why so many unrelated phenomena have such similar cyclic periodicities.
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MAINSPRINGS OF CIVILIZATION - Ellsworth Huntington
Here was another book that told a larger story about how cycles influence our lives. The book collected evidence of the many interactions between climatic cycles, geography and cultural pressures, that jointly produced the "forces" which molded the evolution of our several civilizations.
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SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DYNAMICS (Volumes I to IV) - Pitrim A. Sorokin
I never went beyond Volume I which dealt with "Fluctuations of Forms of Art," (Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music, Literature, and Criticism). Apparently Soroken detected a 500 year cycle during which the basis of our belief systems move between the "Sensate" ("I believe what my physical senses tell me" - Science), and "Ideational" ("I believe in what is revealed by higher authority" - Religion).
As the belief systems shift from one form to the other, we experience our wars and social upheavals.
We are currently in a transition from Sensate to Ideational belief systems. Notice any impending upheavals? The period we just passed through, between the extremes, is called the Idealistic period.
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THE REVOLT OF THE MASSES - Jose Ortega y Gasset
Ortega's views provide a stimulating perspective for understanding the problems of our times. Unfortunately it is difficult to discuss his views, which are definitely not "PC" (politically correct).
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BODY TIME - PHYSIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS AND SOCIAL STRESS - Gay Gaer Luce
Gay Gaer Luce must live with frustration. Her book provides a comprehensive description of hundreds of biological cycles that affect each of us, and how they should be considered in timing medical treatments, or understanding our personal experiences.
Yet, even recently, doctor's have told me that they will believe it when they see it in their medical journals. If you are not interested in your body cycles, you should read this book to find out how wrong you can be!
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GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD - Mortimer J. Adler, Editor in Chief
This 54 volume series is in most libraries. It's for people like myself who always felt that they were "uncultured." It contains material on 102 of the major ideas that have been addressed by the world's best minds. The first volume lays out a series of selected readings for a ten-year reading program, although the series can provide stimulating reading for the rest of your life.
If you find yourself pondering a "great question," check out these books to see what other thinkers have had to say about the subject (art, being, courage, love, nature, soul, philosophy, law, happiness, etc.)
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Mort Gale, mortgale@voicenet.com