Walden

About this Book

This is a book review of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. I just finished reading Walden and wanted to provide a little information about the copy I read. It is a paperback book consisting of 242 pages, excellent type and page quality. The book is 9 inches high and 6 inches wide and for me, this is just about the right size because the font is easy to read and large enough for those of us without perfect eyesight. This is the complete edition with original illustrations. For a paperback, it is very high quality with substantial paper quality and a nice cover. Amazon has many versions of this book, but this one is still available and was less than $10 last time I checked. It always amazes me that such a notable work of literature is so cheap. I guess it is all about supply and demand.

Summary

This review will be significantly longer than most of my book reviews. It took me several months to complete reading this book, due to some degree that this is not a fast read. I’ll go into why later in my recommendation. Walden is a combination of philosophy and nature study, or maybe the intersection of the two disciplines.

There are 18 chapters in this book with most of them covering the 2 years and 2 months that Henry David Thoreau lived in a small cabin from July 4, 1845 – September 6, 1847, that he built near the shores of Walden Pond close to Concord Massachusetts. In the first chapter Thoreau outlines his philosophy regarding how man spends their time on this earth and the ramifications of this work on their lives. In the very first chapter “Economy” he outlines his philosophy regarding the plight of the working man. I will quote passages from the book that stood out to me to provide some insights into his philosophy.

“I have traveled a good deal in Concord: and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways.” (Economy p.5)

Then on the same page about his views regarding ownership, he states:

“I see young men, by townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes that field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born?” (Economy p.5)

Regarding the labor of men, Thoreau believed that their professions were so overwhelming that it left little time for leisure. “It is hard to have a southern overseer; it is worse to have a northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.” (Economy p. 7)

Going on to say “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” (Economy p. 7)

Above all, Thoreau was what we would call a minimalist today and he viewed anything beyond food, clothing, and shelter as weighing man down, vying for the time he could be spending on more lofty pursuits.

Thoreau was also keenly aware of the inherent inequality of capitalism stating:

“The luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of another. On the one side is the palace, on the other are the almshouse and silent poor.” (Economy p. 27)

Much of the rest of the book is about building his cabin, and his keen observations regarding the seasons, neighbors, and geography at Walden Pond. These are so detailed as if written by a Naturalist. There is a passage in one of the chapters that goes into great detail about a war between two different species of ants. Thoreau also goes as far as to measure the depth of Walden Pond and other ponds in the area at different points in the bodies of water. Then there are the details of when Walden Pond froze in the Winter detailing the attributes of the ice such as the depth, color, and consistency.

It is obvious to the reader of this book that Thoreau had an immense curiosity and love for the nature that surrounded him.

Henry David Thoreau is often referred to as a Transcendentalist. There are many definitions of Transcendentalism, but I like the one that refers to an essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson “The Transcendentalist”. From a very basic definition, we can think of Transcendentalism as:

Transcendentalism emphasized the importance of individualism, intuition, and a direct connection to the divine, and rejected the materialism and conformity of contemporary society. In “The Transcendentalist,” Emerson argues that Transcendentalists are people who seek to transcend the limitations of the physical world and find truth and meaning through spiritual and philosophical pursuits. He also notes that Transcendentalists embrace the power of the individual and reject the notion that authority should come from institutions or tradition.

Reference: https://emersoncentral.com/texts/nature-addresses-lectures/lectures/the-transcendentalist/

Recommendation

Now you are subjected to my opinion of Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I mentioned earlier that there were times when reading Walden that I struggled due to an older form of prose with sometimes difficult to understand metaphors and long sentences. For me, the first couple of chapters “Economy” and “Where I lived, and What I Lived For” were the most difficult to comprehend. That said, this can be easily overcome by slowing down and carefully reading the text.

On the positive side, Walden is the kind of book you can relish each page while reading. So clear and explicit were the descriptions of nature that I often felt like I was there on Walden Pond experiencing nature myself. Thoreau calls us to experience a life of simplicity and investigation. As you read Walden you are likely to consider a life of minimalism, living off the grid if you will. From a philosophical perspective, Thoreau provides ample reasons for rejecting materialism, returning to nature, deep thought, and an appreciation of classical literature. I was so intrigued by his reference to the Illiad and Odyssey by Homer that I am reading the Illiad at the time of writing this book review.

I consider Walden as one of the great examples of classical American literature and highly recommend it. It is one of those books that will influence the way you think for the better. For me, it was tailor-made for the 20th or 21st Century audience. Walden is a breath of fresh air for the materialistic, capitalistic, me-oriented society that we live in today. The purpose of this blog has always been and will continue to be to review “inspirational books”, and Walden is a great example that you should consider adding to your library.

About the Author

Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay “Civil Disobedience” (originally published as “Resistance to Civil Government”), an argument in favor of citizen disobedience against an unjust state.

Thoreau’s books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and attention to practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life’s true essential needs.

Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the fugitive slave law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau’s philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of notable figures such as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Thoreau is sometimes referred to retrospectively as an anarchist, but may perhaps be more properly regarded as a proto-anarchist. In his seminal essay, “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau wrote as follows:

“I heartily accept the motto,—’That government is best which governs least;’ and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe,—’That government is best which governs not at all;’ and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have…. But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.”

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau

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The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov

About the Book

I own the paperback version of The Greatest Short Stories of Anton Chekhov. The book was translated by Constance Garnett who in addition to translating the stories to English also wrote a short bio of Anton Chekhov. This book is 623 pages long and the print is a comfortable 10 pitch so it is easy to read. Most of the stories in the book are just a few pages long with the exception of three or four stories over 20 pages in length. After reading a number of short stories the next one was called “A Dreary Story” and it was 63 pages long. I only noticed maybe a half dozen misprinted words, which was a bit odd to me, but overall the quality of the paperback version is excellent.

Summary

This is a compilation of 50 stories written by Chekhov over about a 20-year period from 1883 through 1903. One of the cool things is that the translator shows when the story was first published and where it was published. While only living 44 years Anton Chekhov wrote 522 stories over his short life and a number of plays. This book as titled is supposed to be a compilation of his greatest stories. To put things in context these stories by Chekhov were written prior to the Bolshevik (Russian) Revolution that started in 1917. There are several things that stand out about Russian society when you are reading these stories.

  • The disparity between the rich and poor was monumental. Many of the people in Russia at that time were serfs or peasants who worked in various trades, but were little more than slaves in Russian society.
  • Alcoholism was rampant in Russia during the late 1800’s. I suspect it is not that much better today.
  • The state of medicine as a profession in comparison to today was abysmal. Life expectancy was 30-35 years much of this due to infant mortality and the state of health care at the time.
  • In many of the stories, characters were thought to be dying of consumption, viruses, fever, alcoholism, and madness.
  • The weather well was as you might expect with long wet winters that made travel on dirt roads that were typical of the period difficult at best.

Of course in the late 1800’s this would not have been unique to Russia and my guess is that many of these issues existed in many parts of the world. However, there is something special about how Chekhov described the plight of his characters. Each story is different and has a special message for the reader. Chekhov had an incredible talent for describing things like the weather, scenery, or the emotions of his characters. In a way, this is not unusual given he was a playwright.

I would typically read one or two stories a day, so if you have limited time this book allows you to read a story and not have to worry about if you remember where you left off as is the case with a novel. The writing is clear and easy to read without some of the complexity you might find with other Russian authors such as Fyodor Dostoevsky. Much of these stories is dialog between characters and there were times I had to figure out who was saying what to who, but that was not a frequent issue. If you are new to reading Russian literature you may be a bit confused about the names, but after a while, you will figure it out. If you want to learn more about Russian names check out this blog post by Janet Fitch, it does a nice job of explaining how Russian names work.

Recommendation

This is one of my favorite books and while it is over 600 pages long the fact that it contains so many interesting stories allows you to consume a story in one sitting and the book as a whole over time without getting lost. Chekhov has a real talent for describing a scene and his characters. You feel like you are being taken back to the Russia of the late 1800s and you are experiencing the joy and tragedy of the characters in the story. I can understand why Tolstoy was such a fan of Chekhov and I will be seeking more of his work to read. Without getting too emotional about Chekhov’s work, I enjoyed reading all 50 stories in this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys great writing and wants to go back in time and understand the culture of Russia during that time period. I would put Chekhov right near the top of the greatest Russian writers and maybe the greatest short story writer of all time.

About the Author

There is a nice 4-page bio of Anton Chekhov at the beginning of the book. Chekhov was an extremely influential author and there is a lot of information about his life and his work. I’m going to provide what I found online at Britannica as it seemed the most readable and best organized.

Anton Chekhov Summary

Anton Chekhov, (born Jan. 29, 1860, Taganrog, Russia—died July 14/15, 1904, Badenweiler, Ger.), Russian playwright and short-story writer. The son of a former serf, he supported his family by writing popular comic sketches while studying medicine in Moscow. While practicing as a doctor, he had his first full-length play, Ivanov (1887), produced, but it was not well-received. He took up serious themes with stories such as “The Steppe” (1888) and “A Dreary Story” (1889); later stories include “The Black Monk” (1894) and “Peasants” (1897). He converted his second long play, The Wood Demon (1889), into the masterpiece Uncle Vanya (1897). His play The Seagull (1896) was badly received until its successful revival in 1899 by Konstantin Stanislavsky and the Moscow Art Theatre. He moved to the Crimea to nurse his eventually fatal tuberculosis, and there he wrote his great last plays, Three Sisters (1901) and The Cherry Orchard (1904), for the Moscow Art Theatre. Chekhov’s plays, which take a tragicomic view of the staleness of provincial life and the passing of the Russian gentry, received international acclaim after their translation into English and other languages, and as a short-story writer, he is still regarded as virtually unmatched. https://www.britannica.com/summary/Anton-Chekhov

As I mentioned Britannica has an extensive biography on Anton Checkhov with some very interesting information about the stages of his life and career. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anton-Chekhov

I would also point you to Wikepedia who also has some great information on the life and work of Anton Chekhov. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov

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Same as Ever

About the Book

The above book is my copy of Same as Ever written by Morgan Housel. Just a note I did read his first book The Psychology of Money. It has been a while since writing my last book review on the Tipping Point. I haven’t been hiding but was instead involved in somewhat of a death march project at work. Well, all of that is over now and I retired so you will have to hear from me from time to time as I get back to the important things. Hopefully by providing some reading options for you and my insights into the books.

I read the hardcopy version of Same as Ever that I purchased for $18.75. I prefer to buy the hardcover version because it is more durable than a paperback book. The type is above average and I would say about 10-point font making it very readable. The actual length of the book excluding the acknowledgements and notes is 203 pages and can easily be read in 2 or 3 days.

If you have read any of my other book reviews you know that I don’t go into excruciating detail regarding the contents of the book, but instead focus on summarizing the book, what I liked and disliked, my recommendation, and some information about the author. My goal is to help you decide if the book is something you should invest your time reading. “I’m here to enhance your experience, but remember, 90% of the fun is in reading the book yourself.”

Summary

In a sentence what this book is really about is what doesn’t change in a world that is changing all the time. Most of these stories provide insights into human behavior that is the same today as it was a hundred years ago. So the author has really put together a series of stories that focus on universal truths that can help guide your decisions. Some of the themes regarding these universal truths include:

  • The world hangs on a thread. You and I are a decision away from safety or oblivion.
  • Risk is what you don’t see coming. Think of the Great Depression starting in 1929 or September 11th, 2001.
  • We all have unrealistic expectations and they tend to be relative to someone else. “Investor Charlie Munger once noted that the world isn’t driven by greed; it’s driven by envy.” p. 26
  • There are some very unique people that we admire, but like us they are flawed in some way that we don’t like. The lesson is you kind of have to accept the whole person, not just their admirable traits.
  • The best story always wins, not the best idea, but the best story and storyteller. Dr. King’s famous speech “I have a dream”. The funny thing is that he went off script that day and began ad-libbing and the rest is history.
  • Growth happens over time kind of like compound interest, but a catastrophe can occur in the blink of an eye. Think Pearl Harbor, September 11th, or Covid-19.
  • The author called this chapter The Casualties of Perfection, but the philosophy outlined is more about not over scheduling yourself and leaving free time to really think about things instead of worrying that you are productive every hour of every day.

I’m only including a sampling of some of the themes you get from the book there are many more to explore.

Recommendation

The book is easy to read, and it contains some great quotes and supporting information for his theories on what he calls universal truths. Just like his first book The Psychology of Money, it left me without anything actionable to take away from it. The stories he told were interesting, but lacked any great insights. If I took anything away from reading the book is that life is much more precarious than one might think. While this is an entertaining read it is not something I would recommend as an inspirational book.

About the Author

I couldn’t find a lot of information about the author. The information below came from Audible.com.

Morgan Housel is a partner at The Collaborative Fund. He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, winner of the New York Times Sidney Award, and a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two kids.

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The Tipping Point

Summary

The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell it the 4th or 5th book I’ve read from this author. The book is only about 260 pages, quality printing and the font is decent size, making it easy to read for almost everyone. If you haven’t read Malcom Gladwell before, you are missing out. He has an easy to read writing style and I’ve found his books are very well researched.

Like all my other book reviews, I will summarize the primary themes in the book, but I don’t want to spoil it for you with a review that outlines all the chapters. Hopefully, I will provide enough information that helps you make a decision of whether you want to invest your time reading it. I will also provide my recommendation which consists mostly about why you might want to read this book. Finally I’ll provide some information about the author.

The Tipping Point is a book about how an idea, sometimes referred to as an epidemic tips or spreads, often very fast. There are three key roles that help to create the tipping point including Mavens, Connectors, and Salesmen. When an idea tips, a change has occurred in one or more of three areas:

  • Law of the Few
  • Stickiness Factor
  • Power of Context

As I mentioned above a tipping point relies on the three roles mentioned above. A brief description of them would include:

  1. Connector – Connectors know lots of people and have a special gift for bringing the world together. “Sprinkled among every walk of life, in other words, are a handful of people with truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances. They are Connectors.” p. 41
  2. Maven – A Maven is one who accumulates knowledge. “These are the people who keep the marketplace honest. In the ten years or so since this group was first identified economists have gone to great lengths to understand them. They have found them in every walk of life and in every socioeconomic group. One name for them is price vigilantes. The other, more common, name for them is Market Mavens.” p. 61
  3. Salesmen – Salesman have the skills to persuade and are critical to creating word of mouth tipping points. They have enthusiasm, energy, and likeability that make them irresistible.

As I mentioned I won’t go into great detail reviewing this book, but the Power of Context was interesting to me in that a lot of ideas and tipping points thrive because of their environment. One of the examples was this that Gore Associates a privately held company in Delaware that makes Gore-Tex fabric, dental floss, and a number of specialty items has found an organizational construct that works for them. This contextual construct is called the Rule of 150. The Rule of 150 provides the guideline for the size of a group of people and any group greater than 150 people will suffer problems in communication, leadership, and the ability to innovate. Gore Associates takes this seriously and makes sure that their business can be sub divided with this number in mind, keeping plants smaller, and this allows more decision making and autonomy within this relatively smaller group of people. Having worked in very large groups sometimes in the thousands, it is not hard to understand how this would foster teamwork, communication, and just a better quality work life.

This whole book focuses on how epidemics are created, what was the tipping point and how the Law of the Few, Stickiness Factors, and the Power of Context factor into rapid change or tipping point.

Recommendation

I’ve read several other of Malcom Gladwell’s books including David and Goliath, Outliers, and Blink. While it is hard to dislike any of Mr. Gladwell’s books because he has a great writing style and as I mentioned before seems to do a lot of research to support his work. In this case it was a bit more difficult for me to enjoy the whole book. I often found myself speed reading some of the chapters to get to the next one, as I became somewhat bored by all the examples that were used to make a point. Here is the thing, if you are interested in how trends get started or why something may be a success from a commercial perspective then this is a good book for you. I think if you are in Marketing or Social Media or in some other profession where you want to persuade people then by all means read this book. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

About the Author

English-born Canadian journalist, author, and speaker Malcolm Timothy Gladwell is known for his articles and books that identify, approach and explain the unexpected implications of social science research. In addition to his writing work, he is the podcast host of Revisionist History.

Early Life

Malcolm Gladwell was born on September 3, 1963, in Fareham, Hampshire, England to a father who was a mathematics professor, Graham Gladwell, and his mother Joyce Gladwell, a Jamaican psychotherapist. Gladwell grew up in Elmira, Ontario, Canada. He studied at the University of Toronto and received his bachelor’s degree in History in 1984 before moving to the U.S. to become a journalist. He initially covered business and science at the Washington Post where he worked for nine years. He began freelancing at The New Yorker before being offered a position as a staff writer there in 1996. 

Malcolm Gladwell’s Literary Work

In 2000, Malcolm Gladwell took a phrase that had up until that point been most frequently associated with epidemiology and single-handedly realigned it in all of our minds as a social phenomenon. The phrase was “tipping point,” and Gladwell’s breakthrough pop-sociology book of the same name was about why and how some ideas spread like social epidemics. became a social epidemic itself and continues to be a bestseller.

Gladwell followed with Blink (2005), another book in which he examined a social phenomenon by dissecting numerous examples to arrive at his conclusions. Like The Tipping Point, Blink claimed a basis in research, but it was still written in a breezy and accessible voice that give Gladwell’s writing popular appeal. Blink is about the notion of rapid cognition — snap judgments and how and why people make them. The idea for the book came to Gladwell after he noticed that he was experiencing social repercussions as a result of growing out his afro (prior to that point, he had kept his hair close-cropped).

Both The Tipping Point and Blink were phenomenal bestsellers and his third book, Outliers (2008), took the same bestselling track. In Outliers, Gladwell once again synthesizes the experiences of numerous individuals in order to move beyond those experiences to arrive at a social phenomenon that others hadn’t noticed, or at least hadn’t popularized in the way that Gladwell has proved adept at doing. In compelling narrative form, Outliers examines the role that environment and cultural background play in the unfolding of great success stories.

Gladwell’s fourth book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009) gathers Gladwell’s favorite articles from The New Yorker from his time as a staff writer with the publication. The stories play with the common theme of perception as Gladwell tries to show the reader the world through the eyes of others – even if the point of view happens to be that of a dog.

His most recent publication, David and Goliath (2013), was inspired in part by an article that Gladwell penned for The New Yorker in 2009 called “How David Beats Goliath.” This fifth book from Gladwell focuses on the contrast of advantage and probability of success amongst the underdogs from varying situations, the most well-known story concerning the biblical David and Goliath. Although the book didn’t receive intense critical acclaim, it was a bestseller and hit No. 4 on The New York Times hardcover non-fiction chart, and No. 5 on USA Today‘s best-selling books. 

Reference: https://www.thoughtco.com/profile-of-malcolm-gladwell-851807

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Bullshit Jobs

Summary

I read this book a few months ago called Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. What led me to read the book was most likely something I had seen on YouTube. Here is an example on YouTube of David Graeber explaining 5 types of Bullshit jobs:

The paperback book I read was almost 300 pages long without the Notes section at the end. The book was printed well with a font a little on the small size, maybe a 9 or 10 pitch, but readable. The author starts in the first chapter defining what a “Bullshit” job is.

Having worked in corporations for the vast majority of my life I had seen my own share of bullshit jobs up close and personal. The author goes on in subsequent chapters to elaborate on what kinds of jobs are bullshit jobs, why most people that have a bullshit job are unhappy, what it is like to have a bullshit job, and why are bullshit jobs proliferating. After you have a good understanding of what these bullshit jobs are the author in Chapter 6 and 7 goes into a decent amount of detail into what impact these jobs have on society.

There is also what the author calls the working definition of a bullshit job.

Provisional Definition: a bullshit job is a form of employment that is completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence.

One of the things that Mr. Graeber elaborates on is the rise of the management role in industrialized capitalism. This of course created its own layer of bullshit jobs as management roles proliferated and left the actual producers (people doing the work) with almost zero autonomy.

Working Definition: a bullshit job is a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.

Of course bullshit jobs do not only exist in our capitalist enterprises. Academia has taken what used to be a Dean and the majority of employee’s at a university being faculty to what exists today more administrators than faculty.

What the hell?

Wonder why your tuition is so expensive?

Graeber also goes into detail on how these bullshit jobs invent processes that justify their existence such as multiple levels of approvals, pointless reports, and metrics with little to no meaning. Such is the surge in organizational bloat. So instead of donating the profits to charities, paying the real workers more, or investing into capital equipment, the modern goliath of a company builds additional layers and can’t understand why they are not more profitable and nimble.

Recommendation

I would recommend this book to most people that want to learn more about what is going on in corporate, government, and educational institutions. If you were starting a business you might look at this book as uncovering what you don’t want to do. For me it confirmed a lot of things I had thought for some time, but I also learned a lot about what these types of jobs do to the people that hold them.

The fact that we as a society are so utterly oblivious to the existence of these bullshit jobs is very telling. They say we are approaching a demographic tipping point, where in many countries we are not replacing the elderly with sufficient amounts of younger people to be consumers, drive growth, and work for our institutions. If this is so then maybe this will become the demise of bullshit jobs as we know it today.

Why is it we get so much satisfaction from accomplishing real work on the weekends, such as doing lawn work, building something? Is it because the work we do is often mundane and meaningless?

About the Author

David Rolfe Graeber; (February 12, 1961 – September 2, 2020) was an American anthropologist and anarchist activist. His influential work in economic anthropology, particularly his books Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Bullshit Jobs (2018), and The Dawn of Everything (2021), and his leading role in the Occupy movement, earned him recognition as one of the foremost anthropologists and left-wing thinkers of his time.

Born in New York to a working-class Jewish family, Graeber studied at Purchase College and the University of Chicago, where he conducted ethnographic research in Madagascar under Marshall Sahlins and obtained his doctorate in 1996. He was an assistant professor at Yale University from 1998 to 2005, when the university controversially decided not to renew his contract before he was eligible for tenure. Unable to secure another position in the United States, he entered an “academic exile” in England, where he was a lecturer and reader at Goldsmiths’ College from 2008 to 2013, and a professor at the London School of Economics from 2013.

In his early scholarship, Graeber specialized in theories of value (Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value, 2002), social hierarchy and political power (Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, 2004, Possibilities, 2007, On Kings, 2017), and the ethnography of Madagascar (Lost People, 2007). In the 2010s he turned to historical anthropology, producing his best-known book, Debt: The First 5000 Years (2011), an exploration of the historical relationship between debt and social institutions, as well as a series of essays on the origins of social inequality in prehistory. In parallel, he developed critiques of bureaucracy and managerialism in contemporary capitalism, published in The Utopia of Rules (2015) and Bullshit Jobs (2018). He coined the concept of bullshit jobs in a 2013 essay that explored the proliferation of “paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence”.

Although exposed to radical left politics from a young age, Graeber’s direct involvement in activism began with the global justice movement of the 1990s. He attended protests against the 3rd Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001 and the World Economic Forum in New York in 2002, and later wrote an ethnography of the movement, Direct Action (2009). In 2011, he became well known as one of the leading figures of Occupy Wall Street and is credited with coining the slogan “We are the 99%“. His later activism included interventions in support of the Rojava revolution in Syria, the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn and Extinction Rebellion.

David Graeber died unexpectedly in September 2020, while on vacation in Venice. His last book, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, co-written with archaeologist David Wengrow, was published posthumously in 2021.[5]

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Graeber

Namaste

Let me know if you think you have a bullshit job.

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The Alchemist – Book Review

I decided to read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho because of so many recommendations I encountered in my reading and possibly from something I saw on YouTube. As with the majority of my reviews I am not going to spoil the book for you by giving you a blow by blow commentary, but focus more on what I perceive as the reasons you should consider reading it.

Book Quality

Before I provide a brief summary of the book I wanted to discuss the physical aspects of the hard cover version I read. Overall the book is very high quality from the cover, quality of the pages, and type. The size of the book is just right 8 1/2 inches high and about 6 inches wide. As mentioned the type quality is pretty good and probably about 11 pitch making the 176 pages easy to read. This version of the book by Paulo Coelho  (Author), was published by HarperCollins translated by Alan R. Clarke, can be found at Amazon costing a bit more than $22 USD and strangely enough the same book in paperback was $27 USD. The author Paulo Coelho has written many books; more about him in the section About the Author below. Buy the hardcover version, the Alan R. Clarke translation; you won’t regret it.

Summary

To start out with The Alchemist was written as a fictional story first, more specifically it is the story of a shepherd boy named Santiago that is on a journey to follow his dreams. His adventures take him far from his home where he meets a number of very interesting characters, and during his travels he experiences a number of personal revelations. While this is a good story, the book has several themes, which are intended to be teaching moments. Some of those key themes include:

  • Our propensity to give up on dreams and call it fate
  • When you want something bad enough the universe conspires to help you achieve it (Law of Attraction)
  • Faith and the importance of religion
  • The importance of pursuing your dreams
  • Omens as a guide on your journey through life
  • How following your dreams is about what you become
  • Life, conflict, and death

This book is only 176 pages long, so something you could read in a day or two. There are some interesting, almost mystical characters that the boy encounters during his adventure. At the end of the book there is an Epilogue and a brief section about our author.

Recommendation

I really enjoyed reading this book and think it lives up to the hype that I had heard about it. I feel that it belongs on this blog site as it is inspirational, has some fairly profound messages, and is fun read. The author paints a picture of this fantastical journey for our hero Santiago. It is really a story about personal growth and the attainment of your dreams.

As often happens to us from time to time we need some inspiration to to either begin or continue following our dreams, The Alchemist can provide that to you. I read the book over a couple of days and couldn’t put it down. In addition to enjoying a good story, I also found inspiration in the numerous not so subtle messages conveyed by the author.

As I mentioned in my opening paragraph I am hesitant to go into the plot, explaining this story in a lot of detail as especially in this case of this book, it would ruin it for you. Reading is about discovery and this story flows and builds upon itself, and if you know all the characters and how it turns out, well then you just won’t enjoy it as much. With that said, if you need a little kick in the ass to start following your dreams, then I would highly recommend The Alchemist.

Note: If you enjoy The Alchemist and I think you will, there is a companion book called Warrior of the Light that I have yet to read, but it is next up for me from the Paulo Coelho library. Here is a little overview from a page on Amazon:

Warrior of the Light is a timeless and inspirational companion to The Alchemist—an international bestseller that has beguiled millions of readers around the world. Every short passage invites us to live out our dreams, to embrace the uncertainty of life, and to rise to our own unique destiny. In his inimitable style, Paulo Coelho helps bring out the Warrior of the Light within each of us. He shows readers how to embark upon the way of the Warrior: the one who appreciates the miracle of being alive, the one who accepts failure, and the one whose quest leads to fulfillment and joy.

Namaste

About the Author

Paulo Coelho de Souza born 24 August 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. His novel The Alchemist became an international best-seller and he has published 28 more books since then.

Biography

Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and attended a Jesuit school. At 17, Coelho’s parents committed him to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20. Coelho later remarked that “It wasn’t that they wanted to hurt me, but they didn’t know what to do… They did not do that to destroy me, they did that to save me.” At his parents’ wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of becoming a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippie, traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and started using drugs in the 1960s.

Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter, composing lyrics for Elis Regina, Rita Lee, and Brazilian icon Raul Seixas. Composing with Raul led to Coelho being associated with magic and occultism, due to the content of some songs. He is often accused that these songs were rip-offs of foreign songs not well known in Brazil at the time. In 1974, by his account, he was arrested for “subversive” activities and tortured by the ruling military government, who had taken power ten years earlier and viewed his lyrics as left-wing and dangerous. Coelho also worked as an actor, journalist and theatre director before pursuing his writing career.

Coelho married artist Christina Oiticica in 1980. Together they had previously spent half the year in Rio de Janeiro and the other half in a country house in the Pyrenees Mountains of France, but now the couple reside permanently in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 1986 Coelho walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. On the path, he had a spiritual awakening, which he described autobiographically in The Pilgrimage. In an interview, Coelho stated “[In 1986], I was very happy in the things I was doing. I was doing something that gave me food and water – to use the metaphor in The Alchemist, I was working, I had a person whom I loved, I had money, but I was not fulfilling my dream. My dream was, and still is, to be a writer.” Coelho would leave his lucrative career as a songwriter and pursue writing full-time.

The Pilgrim – Story of Paulo Coelho is the international title for the biographical film Não Pare na Pista, a co-production between Brazil’s Drama Films and the Spanish Babel Films, in which the younger and older Coelho are played by two different actors. One of the producers, Iôna de Macêdo, told Screen International: “The film tells the story of a man who has a dream. It’s a little like Alice in Wonderland – he’s someone who is too big for his house.” The film, shot in Portuguese, had its premiere in Brazilian theaters in 2014 and was internationally distributed in 2015.

Read more about the author and a complete list of his books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho

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Marcus Aurelius MEDITATIONS

I am writing this review of the book Marcus Aurelius MEDITATIONS translated and with an introduction by Gregory Hays. There are a number of translations of Meditations, but this is the one that Ryan Holiday recommended and is considered by many to be the best. I would recommend getting the hard cover version of the book, available at Amazon for around $11. I’ve listened to the audio version, but for me the written version is superior, making it easier to focus and really absorb the information. The hardcover version has very clear type, not too small and easy to read. The book overall is very high quality.

My copy of Meditations with a few bookmarks, well more than a few.

Summary

In this translation of Meditations the introduction is about 50 pages, not a trivial amount of reading. I would recommend reading the introduction at least once, as it contains a lot of historical information about the times and about the author Marcus Aurelius. The introduction also helps you understand the origin of this book.

A little background on Marcus Aurelius:

“Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors (a term coined some 13 centuries later by Niccolò Machiavelli), and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161.”

“Marcus Aurelius was born during the reign of Hadrian to the emperor’s nephew, the praetor Marcus Annius Verus, and the heiress Domitia Calvilla. His father died when he was three, and his mother and grandfather raised him. After Hadrian’s adoptive son, Aelius Caesar, died in 138, the emperor adopted Marcus’s uncle Antoninus Pius as his new heir. In turn, Antoninus adopted Marcus and Lucius, the son of Aelius. Hadrian died that year, and Antoninus became emperor. Now heir to the throne, Marcus studied Greek and Latin under tutors such as Herodes Atticus and Marcus Cornelius Fronto. He married Antoninus’s daughter Faustina in 145.”

Written during his rule as Emperor of Rome, Meditations was never intended to be a book, let alone read by anyone else. It is the intimate thoughts captured on paper by Marcus Aurelius. Written as a personal journal so that Marcus could capture his thoughts and the challenges he faced during his rule as an Emperor, the writing is often short notations organized as books and versus. Here is an example:

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. But death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all  these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble nor shameful-and hence neither good nor bad.” Marcus Aurelius Meditations 2:11

If you omit the introduction there are only 191 pages in this translation of Meditations, making this a book you could read in a day or two. In all there are twelve books, that could be thought of as chapters in Meditations. When I first obtained this book, I would read one chapter a day, but later on during subsequent readings I might read a page or two in the morning. I’ve read the book 5 times now, and intend to keep reading it into the foreseeable future. My copy of Meditations sits right next to the Tao Te Ching, which is another one of my favorite books. I would often read a couple versus from each of these books in the morning.

Recommendation

There are no words to describe what an incredible book that Meditations is. Meditations reveals what a great ruler Marcus Aurelius was and if you know anything about some of the others that ruled the Roman Empire, then you will understand what a rare person he was. Marcus Aurelius is regarded as one of the great stoics including Seneca, Epictetus, Zeno Of Citium, Chrysippus, and Diogenes of Babylon. Marcus was a philosopher Emperor, not a likely profession from which one of the greatest stoics of all time would be born.

Having read hundreds of books in the last 20 years, I rate Marcus Aurelius Meditations as one of the top 5 books I have ever read. This is the kind of book you should read in small increments on a daily basis if possible. The stoic philosophy that screams out from every page will change your life. I’m sure if Marcus Aurelius knew that millions of copies of his journal were read by so many people he would turn over in his grave. It is our good fortune that it survived and we have the good the opportunity to be enriched by it.

What can reading Meditations do for you?

Well throughout history being a human being has been a struggle. There has been plenty of pain, suffering, and death that we all face. The Stoics viewed virtue as the primary goal in life, expressed as wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. Meditations will address all of these virtues and help you cope with your own challenges. What more can you ask from a book?

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius

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In the Buddha’s Words

Summary

This review of “In the Buddha’s Words” will undoubtedly be a bit longer than many of my other posts. If you haven’t guessed by now I am more than a little interested in Buddhism, which you can find out more about on my other blog thestoicbuddhist. I have the soft cover version of the book, which is 485 pages. The books has high quality print and the font is not too small, making it very readable. The book starts out with a forward by the Dalai Lama, then a preface, list of abbreviations, key to pronunciation in Pali, and a detailed list of the contents of the book. This is a scholarly explanation and exploration of discourses in the Pali Canon. The book is divided into 10 sections and each section includes a somewhat lengthy introduction that helps provide a better understanding of the the text in the Pali Canon.

The Pali Canon represents the words of the Buddha, more specifically his teachings, which his followers had committed to memory and recited to each other. Within the Pali Canon texts know as the Nikayas are the earliest cohesive collection of the Buddha’s teaching in his own words. The preface goes into a lot of great detail about how the Pali Cannon is organized and a good bit of history. Bikkhu Bodhi hand selected the texts for this book and has ordered the chapters in a way that build upon each other. To give you an idea of the concepts that are included in the book here are the 10 sections:

  1. The Human Condition
  2. The Bringer of Light
  3. Approaching the Dhamma
  4. The Happiness Visible In This Present Life
  5. The Way To A Fortunate Rebirth
  6. Deepening One’s Perspective On The World
  7. The Path To Liberation
  8. Mastering The Mind
  9. Shinning The Light Of Wisdon
  10. The Planes Of Realization

Of course I could not help myself from bookmarking and highlighting some of the Buddha’s teachings, such as in Chapter 3 Approaching The Dhamma on page 88:

“These three things, monks, are conducted in secret, not openly. What three? Affairs with women, the mantras of the brahmins, and wrong view. But these three things, monks, shine openly, not in secret. What three? The moon, the sun, and the Dhamma and Discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata.”

Without going into all the details the Buddha speaks of the Five Precepts in Chapter 5, The Way To A Fortunate Rebirth, page 173. Note: I am using the location in the book and not in the Pali Canon.

“There are further, monks, these five gifts pristine, of long standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated and never before adulterated, that are not being adulterated and that will not be adulterated, not despised by wise ascetics and brahmins. What are these five gifts?”

“Here, monks, a noble disciple gives up the destruction of life and abstains from it.”

“Further monks, a noble disciple gives up the taking of what is not given, and abstains from it.”

“Further monks, a noble disciple gives up sexual misconduct and abstains from it.”

“Further monks, a noble disciple gives up false speech and abstains from it.”

“Further monks, a noble disciple gives up wines, liquors, and intoxicants, the basis for negligence, and abstains from them.”

There are many of the Buddha’s teachings to numerous to mention contained in this book, along with The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold path as you would expect. In explaining the difference between the Tathagata (Buddha) and a monk liberated by wisdom, the Buddha said:

“The Tathagata, monks, the Arahant, the Perfectly Enlightened One, is the originator of the path unarisen before, the producer of the path unproduced before, the declarer of the path undeclared before. He is the knower of the path, the discoverer of the path, the one skilled in the path. And his disciples now dwell following that path and become possessed of it afterward.”

Recommendation

I really enjoyed reading this book and the author Bhikkhu Bodhi does a great job of setting up sections of the book mentioned above. His introductions are quite lengthy and I sometimes found myself skipping some of this text in a hurry to read what the Buddha had to say. If someone was new to Buddhism, I would not recommend this book as there are many other books that are easier to read that would prepare someone for what is basically excerpts from the Pali Canon. For the novice of Buddhism, you will not be introduced to the history of Buddhism or various flavors of Buddhism, but if you already have a good grasp of the religion then I would recommend this book to you. On reading the text presented from the Pali Cannon, you will find that the Buddha’s teaching contained a lot of repetition that can sometimes be painful to read, but this is easily overcome as you can skip ahead to the next paragraph.

Overall this is a great presentation of selected texts from the Pali Canon organized in a logical fashion. It is obvious that the author has an in-depth knowledge of the books (Nikayas) that make up the Pali Canon. For me this was an opportunity to read what the Buddha said, not some modern day interpretation of what the Buddha said. If you are a student of Buddhism, I would classify this as a must read. This is a book that you can read over and over again, providing new insights with each reading.

Namaste

Check out my companion blog The Stoic Buddhist for more on Buddhism, Philosophy, and Stoicism.

The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck

Overview

Well here we go again, another book making use of the word Fuck. You might remember another book review I did on Unfu*ck Yourself by Gary John Bishop. This book The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck by Mark Manson was a book I read partially a couple years ago. More recently I ran into a review of this book on YouTube by the author and decided to give it another try. It turns out this book is pretty good and kind of got me out of a funk I was feeling.

Don’t let the title fool you, it’s not about meandering your way through life and not giving a shit about anything, far from it. One of the key messages is stop giving a fuck about everything. When you give a fuck about all the little things in life, you lose focus on what is really important. The author encourages you to seek out your values and ruthlessly give a fuck about them, but stop giving a fuck about all the other bullshit that is occurring around you. In the span of a few sentences I have said the “F” word way too many times. Let’s take this in another direction and substitute care for fuck.

These values may relate to some aspect of your work, spending more time with your family, a hobby your are passionate about, or anything you consider important, with the caveat that it cannot be everything. That’s the problem if you care about everything you drive yourself and everyone around you crazy.

Another key concept in the book is this idea that we are all pursuing happiness often via pleasurable or hedonistic experiences. You know spending time on vacation, drinking, smoking pot, chasing men or women, or buying shit. All of these things seem fine for a while, but ultimately leave us feeling somewhat empty and consequently we really aren’t all that happy. The author contends it is the challenges in life that present us with problems to solve that truly makes us happy. It’s not that happiness is bad, but the fact that we value it so much and we orient our lives to try to achieve some constant state of happiness that is the issue. Maybe it’s really those times where you achieved something like getting that job you wanted, pursuing a degree, starting that business that took 2 years to become profitable, or any other goal you had set that aligned with your values that really brought you a sense of satisfaction. It was the struggle, overcoming the problems, and this is where you look back and say this thing I achieved brought me happiness.

There are some other interesting topics explored in this book that reinforces the two concepts we just explored, like you are always making choices, suffering is underrated, failing is good, your not really that special, and we all die in the end. Listen, I don’t want to spoil things for you by reviewing every chapter, so I’m going to leave the rest for you to discover.

Recommendation

If you can get by the first couple chapters of using the “F” word in mega doses then I would recommend you read this book. I have the hardcover version and the type is decent size and the book itself is of high quality. Mark Manson interjects a fair amount of humor in his writing, so not only are you learning, also but being entertained at the same time. Here’s the thing he is brutally honest about the fact that we seem to be seeking a life of bliss, when in reality life has way more suffering and overcoming obstacles in store for all of us. This is not a self help book to help you make more money or reach Nirvana, but instead kind of a kick in the ass to help you set your priorities and determine what the hell is important to you. Once you have done this you can truly not give a fuck about some of those things that annoying the hell out of you on a day to day basis.

If you have read this book, I would love to hear your take on it, so just drop me a comment.

Namaste

Tao Te Ching

I have a couple different versions of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, one is the print copy translated by Jonathan Star “The New Translation From Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition” and I also have a wonderful Audible version “Tao Te Ching” read and translated by Stephen Mitchell. Both of these versions are excellent translations and worthy of a read or listen. It is believed that Lao Tzu, who was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer was the author of the Tao Te Ching written around 500 B.C. The story is that he was leaving his province in China on a horse when he was asked by the towns people to write down his wisdom before embarking on this trip. He spent the next couple days writing the Tao Te Ching consisting of 81 verses or chapters.

Summary

Now that you have a bit of history I will make an attempt to summarize this book. Let me first start with I have read hundreds of books and this little book some 102 pages is in my top 5. In fact, I read a couple verses from it every morning. The soft cover version costs a whopping 10 USD. While I enjoy the Audible version, I recommend getting the written version, which you could read cover to cover in a couple hours of less. The key to understanding the Tao Te Ching is to try to grasp the concept of the Tao. You might think of Tao as the path or the way. The Tao can also be thought of as the underlying life force or for me the nature of things. This little book addresses how you should live in accordance with the Tao, and the philosophy conveyed is not confined to individuals, but to the greater society and government as a whole. The Tao Te Ching had such an impact on the world that it spawned a whole movement called Taoism, that still exists today. You would be hard pressed when reading this book to find any verse that is not profound, this is the true genius of this work. I think to make my point I will share Verse 1 from the Jonathan Star translation:

Verse 1

A way that can be walked in not The Way
A name that can be named is not The Name

Tao is both Named and Nameless
As Nameless, it is the origin of all things
As Named, it is the mother of all things

A mind free of thought, merged within itself, beholds the essence of Tao
A mind filled with thought, identified with its own perceptions, beholds the mere forms of the world

Tao and this world seem different but in truth they are the same
The only difference is in what we call them

There are many themes in the Tao Te Ching that will remind you of the teachings of the Buddha such as less is more, living in accordance with nature, and that much of our suffering is self imposed from an attachment to desire. If you are already a fan of Stoicism or Buddhism this book will resonate with you.

Conclusion

As you may have noticed already, I am a big fan of the Tao Te Ching. There is absolutely nothing that I don’t love about this book, except to wish it was longer. This is the kind of book that could change your life if you let it permeate your consciousness. It is a recipe for living and for society, that has withstood the test of time and will live on long after we have left this world.