I heard a joke once that went something like this: "Since I've been retired, I don't have time for anything!" Well, I wouldn't use the word 'anything', but I think that when you're retired you have a tendency to pile-on yourself all kinds of things you'd like or want or think you should do. That's why blogging has been slow.
What with getting an early start on spring cleaning, other ongoing projects around the house which will consume most of the year, babysitting, and being a grampa for the fourth time--yep, I now have 2 girl and 2 boy grandkids--there hasn't been much time for blogging.
Also, my stack of books to be read is growing by leaps and bounds again. Last week a local bookstore called and said my copy of 'Comrade J' was in. Comrade J is subtitled "The untold secrets of Russia's master spy in America after the end of the cold war."
The next day my order of books from the Ayn Rand Bookstore arrived. They include 'Ayn Rand Answers', a collection of the best of her Q&A's.
'The Ominous Parallels' by Leonard Piekoff, which shows the frightening similarities between the ideas popular today in America and those of Germany just before the rise of Naziism.
'The God of the Machine' by Isabel Paterson. It's a political and economic defense of free-enterprise. Although this book was originally published in 1943, it can still be purchased at the Ayn Rand Bookstore at a good price.
'The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts" by Harry Binswanger. I want this to clarify my own thinking on such concepts as goal directed and purposeful action.
There is another book on study methods which was out of stock but which I hope to get soon. Meanwhile I'm still immersed in 'Good Calories, Bad Calories' by Gary Taubes.
I don't speed read or skim. I read slowly looking at every word. Oh yes, in between all this I'm still reading my spring edition of The Objective Standard. Right now I'm reading 'Isaac Newton: Discoverer of Universal Laws', an essay by David Harriman. Good stuff. I like the way Mr. Harriman takes the reader through the steps Newton took to arrive at his discoveries. I'm looking forward to the next two essays, 'Caspar David Friedrich and Visual Romanticism' by Tore Boeckmann, and 'The Exhalted Heroism of Alistair MacLean's Novels' by Andrew Bernstein.
So my spare time will be regimented for awhile but I promise to make more time to do some blogging at least once a week if not more.
2 comments:
Mike, I am always interested in methods for doing things. As you said, time is short. So many books, so little time.
Would you mind saying how you select the particular books that you read?
Burgess:
I really don't have a particular method of choosing books. Last year and this one I had about $200 set aside for ordering books and CDs from the AR Bookstore. So money is a constraint of sorts. I've wanted God of the Machine, Ayn Rand Answers and The Ominous Parallels for several years now. The first and last help me with my historical perspective. Ayn Rand Answers helps with with my clarity of thought much like the Lexicon. Besides, I'm impressed with the way she could think so clearly when answering qustions on the spur of the moment. One can edit what one writes, but not with speech.
I wanted Harry Binswanger's book The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts because I definately need to refine my understanding of more complicated higher level concepts.
Next year the plan is to add a little more money and purchase some of the more expensive lecture series. You might say I'v been going from clearing up my thinking on some lower level abstractions and now its time to go for the higher ones. That's about it for my methodology, if you could call it one.
Post a Comment