Books

Anon
It is hard to imagine a more beautiful and epic poem than the Bhagavad Gita (gita means song). Its theme is a dialogue between Arjuna and Lord Krishna, as they drive a chariot between two parts of an extended family, about to go to war. Arjuna tells Lord Krishna that he has no heart to kill people who are his own blood, and Krishna tells him not to be silly, that he should go calmly into war, because no matter what he does in life, his fate is not his own to command, but rather Lord Krishna's. Anyway, once the...
E.W.F. Tomlin
This is one of the most influential books I have ever read. I can't even find a decent link to it on the web, so no chance of anyone buying a copy, and I am unlikely to lend it either. It would be wrong to think that this is merely a book about Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism, it ranges far deeper than that. It was meant to be a companion to his other book called Great Philosophers of the West, and he seems to have tried to cover everything else of major note in this book. It starts out talking...
Bertrand Russell
"Its Connection With Political & Social Circumstances". Bertrand Russell is a wonderful philosopher and author, and this is the classic introduction to what we call Western philosophy. His range of knowledge is vast, his insight into the great philosophers is excellent, and at times his wit is wonderfully understated. I would recommend this book, as the history of thoughts reveals something about the processes of history that have led to ourselves. When thinking about the great thinkers of the past who have believed such ridiculous things, we can see how long humanity has struggled with its own limitations. The people...
Joseph Gaer
Another book I can't find a good link to, but this review is not really to recommend this book. It is to recommend reading a book similar to it. Like it or not statistics say that the overwhelming majority of humanity consider themselves religious. A huge percentage of them subscribe to a handful of "Great" faiths, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Many other subscribe to folk, animist, and other religions. If you would like to understand the mind of humanity, what drives it in so much of its day, I'm not sure you can do so without at...
Dale Carnegie
There are few much more maligned books than this, I first heard about it in high school from a friend who used to joke about the sort of people who read books like it, so often indeed that it stuck in my mind. Well, wherever you are Jesse, I'm sorry but I became one of those people who read and enjoyed a book like this. I can only think people dislike it because they baulk at the title and never actually read the book, which is at worst harmless and at best an example of how people should treat each...
Raymond Moody Jr. MD.
What happens after we die? Why don't we investigate it, amongst other things look at the experiences of people who have been declared clinically dead and survived? Part of the reason we don't, apart from the difficulty of study, is that many people have already decided what happens after death. Their infallible religion has already spoken on the matter, so there can be no logical debate about it. The debate is so muddied, that it has people who believe without any evidence in some religious wonderland after they die on one side, and on the other people who deny the...
Why we behave the way we do
Hans and Micheal Eysenck
There are many ways in which people behave that have been shown by numerous studies to be detrimental to the human condition. Being harsh in disciplining children and distant in their emotional relationships with them was a trait the fathers of Nazi leaders exhibited. Being unconditionally rewarding of a child, whilst a better extreme than the other, is also shown to bring up children with poor emotional self-control. Many studies have shown the best way of bringing up emotionally mature children is consistent, well thought out light discipline, from a loving parent interested in their child. In fact, it was...
Lao Tze
The best word to describe this book would be inscrutable. It has beautiful, poetic lines in it, that one can't help but agree with ("To know and not think we know is the highest; not to know and yet think we know is a disease"), it has simple statements of fact that make one wonder why they are in it ("That which is brittle is easily broken") but the vast majority of it is inscrutable ("May not the space between the heaven and the earth be compared to the bellows?"). I read it a couple of times when I was...
Alain De Botton
I first saw the television show "Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness" and enjoyed it immensely. On finding out the series was based on the book, I couldn't wait to read it. Basically. it is an attempt to bring philosophy into our everyday lives. Sure a lot of philosophy is stupid and rambles on about whether a chair really exists or not, but over the thousands of years and millions of words, some good has come of it. De Botton is very selective about what he chooses from each philosopher, Nietzsche, who was in actuality a complete bastard, is portrayed as...
Sogyal Rinpoche
I didn't want to read this book. My sister asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said "The Tibetan Book of the Dead", but also told her if it was the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying don't bother because that is a modern book. Something got lost in translation and thus I was presented with a copy of this book for my birthday. This was probably for the best. The main theme of this book is compassion. The first time I read it, I liked it, but it wasn't until the second time that I read...