Tag: author

Island

About this book

This review is of the book Island, written by Aldous Huxley. Aldous Huxley’s novel Island was written and published in 1962. I bought the paperback version from ThriftBooks, where I paid $15.74 for the book (new). The paperback is 354 pages long. The book has a nice binding and has a medium-sized font, making it easy to read. The quality of the pages is good, and the book is 8″ high x 5 1/4″ wide, making it a book that you can hold comfortably. In addition to the 15 chapters in the book, there is an About the Author, About the Book, and a bibliography of all his works.

Summary

As with all my book reviews, I won’t bore you with a blow-by-blow review of the contents, as I feel that takes away the pleasure you may experience reading it. Instead, I will provide a brief synopsis of what the book is about and the value it brings to you, the reader. My hope is that I provide you enough information to understand at a high level the plot, some of the characters, and most importantly, how reading this book can benefit and create a level of enjoyment that reading an outstanding piece of literature provides.

I’ve written three other book reviews of Huxley’s work, including: Brave New World, Brave New World Revisited, and Ape and Essence. The reason I mention this is that Island was Huxley’s last novel, and there is some value in reading Brave New World, for instance, to understand the contrast between the dystopian world depicted in Brave New World and the near-perfect world described in Island.

The main character of the book was the highly disturbed but inquisitive Will Farnaby, an Englishman who became shipwrecked on the island of Pala and was discovered by the native people who lived on the island. Much of this book is about his experience learning about the island culture that can only be described as a utopia compared to Western culture. There are heavy overtones of Buddhism and Hinduism in the culture, with an emphasis on education, not for the sake of creating little capitalists, but focused on fostering an environment that facilitates the development of aware human beings and community. One might say the antithesis of the UK or the United States of America. The Palanese culture was the creation of a Doctor and Elder from the island. The elder is called the Raja, and in some contexts, this is like royalty in this culture. As in Brave New World there is a drug similar to Soma, but without the negative side effects, called moksha. While in Brave New World, Soma relieves pain and helps whoever uses it endure their lives, but moksha instead creates visions and is used to help one see the world for what it is.

As Will Farnaby learns more about the culture, he is made aware of a desire by an offspring of the Raja named Murigan, who is more interested in exploiting oil resources than preserving Pala’s culture. Will Farnaby has relationships with the oil industry and is supposed to facilitate a transaction with one of the oil companies, and he becomes torn between brokering a deal and preserving the culture he has been learning about. The question is, will this utopia be subverted by the capitalists, or will Pala’s culture survive?

Recommendation

Aldous Huxley appeared to have a fondness for Mahayana Buddhism, as it is featured as a cornerstone of Pala’s society and culture. What struck me the most was the eloquence and mastery of language that Aldous Huxley possesses. Having read three other novels by him, this was by far the very best of his writing that I have read so far. He builds a case for a society based on virtue, self-awareness, compassion, and community that does not exist in the world today. He is able to bring this Utopian society to life in this book. I slowly devoured this book one chapter at a time, much like any activity that you look forward to. If you are interested in reading something that shines a light on what an ideal society would look like, then Island is for you.

About the author

Aldous Leonard Huxley; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.

Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.

Additional Information

About the Author – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

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Food For The Heart

About this book

This review is of the book Food For The Heart written by Ajahn Chah. I bought the paperback version probably six months ago, where I paid less than $22.00 for the book (new). My introduction to this book actually was through an audio version on Audible, where I listened to the book maybe a dozen times. The Audible version is incredible, narrated by Graeme Malcolm who gives an incredible performance making the book so enjoyable to listen to. The audio book is about 15.5 hours long. The paperback is 396 pages long. The book has a nice binding and has a medium sized font making it easy to read. The quality of the pages are good and the book is 9″ high x 6″ wide, making it a fairly large book, but still one that you can hold comfortably. In addition to the chapters in the book there is an Introduction, Glossary, Notes, Sources for Text, and an Index.

Summary

Much like the Buddha the venerable Ajahn Chah was a master at adapting his teaching to his audience. Food For The Heart is a collection of his teachings “dhamma talks”. In this book Ajahn Chah one of the greatest teachers from Thailand covers conduct, meditation, the keys to liberation, and the various aspects of wisdom. Most of the content of this book are the teachings of Ajahn Chah and there is a conversational quality to the reading as if the master himself was talking to you or a small group. This conversational quality was of course one of the aspects that make this such a great audio book.

For those new to Buddhism or those just needing a refresher, the Introduction provides a basis for the rest of the book by covering the 4 Noble Truths, the Law of Kamma, Uncertainty, and the characteristics of Theravada teaching, which Ajahn Chah’s Thai Forest teachings are modeled after. The Introduction also covers Ajahn Chah’s life and teaching methods providing some context about the man for the rest of the book.

As you read Food For The Heart the resounding theme is the dharma is not found in books, but learned by experience. Much like Zen philosophy, Ajahn Chah emphasizes meditation as the key to practice. It is not that he feels books or dharma talks are useless, but they only facilitate or provide a conceptual framework. The true practice must be experienced with sitting and walking meditation. One of my favorite quotes from Ajahn Chah from this book is as follows:

The value of the Dhamma isn’t to be found in books. Those are just the external appearances of Dhamma; they’re not the realization of Dhamma as a personal experience. If you realize the Dhamma you realize your mind. You see the truth there. When the truth becomes apparent it cuts off the stream of delusion.

One of the other keys that Ajahn Chah repeatedly proclaims is the need to be diligent with your practice and this may include accepting some suffering to get through say a meditation session. He continuously urges you to devote yourself to your practice; to be disciplined and not give up when it becomes difficult. Of course he is correct, there is no point in reading or listening to the dharma without implementing these concepts in your life. Buddhism is not a spectators sport. Ajahn may be the coach, but to be on the team you need to play in the game and exert effort. Buddhism without effort is merely philosophy and while there is nothing wrong with a little philosophy it will not lead to the end of suffering and nibbana.

Recommendation

I won’t go into some long diatribe regarding why I love this book and strongly recommend it. One of the things I enjoyed was listening to or reading about a chapter everyday. This allowed me to think about the lesson / chapter and absorb what was being taught. Reading or listening to the book is very easy and enjoyable because of the straight forward English used; mostly due to the conversational style of the text.

I have read dozens of books on Buddhism over 20+ years, and I would rank Food For The Heart in my top 3 favorite books on Buddhism. The author Ajahn Chah was a brilliant teacher and gave his life to teaching the dhamma. One final thing regarding the format of the book. I love real paper based books, but in this case I just loved the audio version of this book. The narration was nothing short of excellent, but because the chapters are dharma talks and self contained you don’t need to consume it as if it was a story. This makes it nice to listen to and read when you have time.

About the Author

Normally I would provide you the Wikipedia link to information about an author, but I was able to find some nice sources on an Ajahn Chah website dedicated to the master.

I would recommend reading this short biography of Ajahn Chah located below as it comes from his website: https://www.ajahnchah.org/book/About_Ajahn_Chah.php

If you would like to know even more Ajahn Jayasaro speaks about the life of Ajahn Chah. Ajahn Jayasaro is an English disciple of Ajahn Chah, and the writer of Ajahn Chah’s biography in Thai language. https://www.ajahnchah.org/videos.htm

Additional Information

Notes: dharma and dhamma are the same thing “dhamma” is just the Pali spelling of dharma.

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Ape and Essence

About this book

After reading Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited I ended up buying a couple other books by Aldous Huxley. This review is for the novel Ape and Essence. I bought the paperback version from Thriftbooks, where I paid $12.65 for the book (new). The book has a decent binding and has a large sized font making it easy to read. The quality of the pages are good and the book is 8″ high x 5″ wide, making it an easy size to hold comfortably. The book is divided into only two chapters (Tallis and The Script) and is 205 pages long. The book reads like a movie script where there is a scene that is described and a narrator. One of the things I found a little annoying was that the book title APE AND ESSENCE is printed at the top of each page, but pretty close to the text, and the page number has a similar proximity to the text being closer to the bottom of the page.

Summary

I provide the caveat for all my reviews that I will not get so detailed that I spoil your experience reading the book. So instead I will attempt to give you an overview of the plot, my thoughts about the book, and the benefit I received from reading it.

The vast majority of this book is presented as the script for a movie. The book starts when a couple writers who work at a movie studio find a bound movie script called “Ape and Essence” by William Tallis on the ground, where it was discarded. The discovery of the book and after reading some of the contents, the two men become curious and they go seek out the author. The author Tallis has passed away and that’s is where part two of the book begins. This second part of the book is the movie script for Ape and Essence. Now the society of the movie studio writers appears to be something analogous to the dystopian Brave New World, but that is not the focus of the book. The first chapter is 32 pages long and the 2nd chapter, which is really the remainder of the book starts on page 33 and ends on page 205.

The plot is about a New Zealand sailing vessel that ends up sailing and docking near Los Angeles, California. This journey by the New Zealanders comes at a post nuclear war scenario, where New Zealand was spared primarily because they were deemed insignificant. Dr. Poole one of the crew is captured and then is introduced to the people of this post apocalypse society. This post nuclear war society is made up of mostly scavengers and mutants from the radiation. The people of this post nuclear war world do not worship God, but instead worship Belial (Satan). I’m going to stop here before I give too much of it away.

Recommendation

I honestly considered putting this book down after reading the first chapter, but I’m glad I didn’t as I ended up finishing it just a few days after first picking it up, as I was engrossed in it. I think what spooked me at first was reading a book that was written like a movie script. Please don’t let that dissuade you from what turns out to be a very interesting book. This post nuclear war society is as you might imagine it would be somewhat savage, but like most societies it used mythology or religion as a way to align the populace around a way of life. There were some common themes around sexual activity, and the lack of love or commitment to individuals of the opposite sex just like in the society of Brave New World.

If you read Brave New World, the characters you will encounter in this book are much more grandiose and outrageous. Unlike Brave New World this post nuclear war world is also much more violent, and those living in this society are controlled by force. Huxley does a great job of putting you the reader right in the middle of this dystopian society and you often feel like you are seeing this world through the eyes of the captured New Zealander Dr. Poole. I feel that Huxley does a great job of depicting a somewhat savage society that one might expect would evolve from the post nuclear event. For me this was a real joy to read and further proof of Aldous Huxley’s story telling and forecasting what the future might look like in these circumstances.

About the Author

Wikipedia does a nice job providing information about the author. Here is snippet:

Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.

Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

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Brave New World Revisited

About this book

After reading Brave New World, I discovered Brave New World Revisited and after checking out a few reviews decided I needed to read it to understand Aldous Huxley’s thoughts about the world some 26 years after writing his original book. This is a relatively short book at 123 pages. I bought the paperback version from Thriftbooks, which has become my source for books during the past 5 months. The book is nicely bound and has a medium sized font making it easy to read. The quality of the pages are good and the book is 8″ high x 5 1/4″ wide, making it the ideal size to hold comfortably. I don’t recall what I paid for it, but it was less than $17 USD. The book has 12 chapters and most of them have only a few pages, which facilitates a book you can read a chapter and resume later. At the end of the book there is some pretty cool additions like About the Author, Some reviews and some of the authors own words about this book, a letter to George Orwell, and the complete Aldous Huxley bibliography.

Summary

There are so many interesting things about this book, but in my usual way I will try not to give you so much that its spoils your experience when reading the book. Remember, Brave New World was published in 1932 and Brave New World Revisited in 1958, so some 26 years had passed between the two books. Brave New World Revisited is a very philosophical look at the factors that exist or may exist that could make the dystopian society of Brave New World come true. One of the themes that Huxley mentions several times, is that he views the authoritarian regime of the future to be more like Brave New World than that of the brutal dictatorship of Orwell’s 1984.

I will outline a few of the factors that Huxley expounded on that could lead us to the authoritarian society:

Over-Population

At the time Huxley wrote Brave New World Revisited the population of the world was booming. He mentions that in 1931 when he was writing Brave New World the world’s population was a little less that 2 billion people and 27 years later it was 2.8 billion. People were beginning to live longer with new discoveries in agriculture and medicine were helping to spur on a larger population. His fear was that the population would get so large that the we could no longer support it with the resources we would have available. It was a valid assumption in 1958 and this theory was held by most people up until recent times, where we now are seeing declining birth rates. Huxley felt that over population to be one of the factors that would lead away from democracy to aristocracy. Remember at the time birth control pills were not yet available. Strangely enough he mentions that there would be 5.5 billion people by time his grand daughter was 50, so let’s say that was 2008. It turns out the world’s population in 2008 was about 6.7 billion.

Up until maybe the last 10 years or so, the fear of over population was a major concern, and still is in some parts of the world, but today we might not look at over population as a major driver of authoritarian regimes.

Quality of the Populace

One of the claims that Huxley makes is over the past few decades there has been an overall decline in IQ and health of the population. Some of this has been caused by advances in medicine, where in the past people may have died, but now were able to propagate their genes on to the next generation. His concern here also goes back to a declining death rates adding to overall population. If in fact IQ has been declining over the decades for various reasons, does this bode well for a flourishing democracy? This may sound confusing, but think about it as kind of an anti eugenics scenario brought about by a weaker gene pool surviving due to advances in medicine.

Over Organization

Under this title of over organization Huxley discusses his growing concern that technology would result in power being consolidated in fewer and fewer hands. His concern is that small business would be squeezed out by large multi-national corporations and wealth would belong to a few oligarchs that had near monopolies. Can you say Amazon, Tesla, Meta, Google? He wrote this around 1957 and it rings true today in 2025. These large, near monopolies have also created super organized companies. Huxley’s fear was this would create people that were more like robots and lacked creative thinking, and any appreciation for freedom, making them easy marks for authoritarianism.

Additional Drivers

In addition to the factors of over population, quality of the people, and over organization Huxley provides the details on how the would be autocrats use propaganda, salesmanship, brainwashing, and even chemical persuasion to stamp out democracy.

When you look at all the factors cited in Brave New World Revisited it is almost a playbook for the would be autocrat or dictator. One of the scary points that Huxley makes, is that we have a certain percentage of the population that is very responsive to outside suggestion. These people will make it almost impossible to support a democracy or even foster the environment for one to form. Now we look ahead from 1958 when Huxley provided his analysis and forecast for the future to today, in 2025. It appears that this relatively small slice of the population that is extremely suggestible has grown to be anywhere from 25-30% of the US population.

I usually avoid politics in most of my writing, but the Trump Administration and (MAGA) Make America Great Again movement is moving quickly down the authoritarian road. I can tell you that they haven’t read Brave New World as their methods are somewhat crude, often in your face, and are not very clever. This doesn’t fool the populace as much as it enrages it.

Recommendation

If you enjoyed reading Brave New World you will find it quite natural to read Brave New World Revisited. In the 26 or 27 years that passed between each of these books the world changed considerably, which gave Huxley some insight into what the future might hold. Aldous Huxley had an eerie sense of how the world would change in the future and as you read this book you will see just how spot on he was when you compare his forecasts to the world today. When you read Aldous Huxley’s books you are struck with just how intelligent he was. Truly an amazing individual, part story teller and part philosopher. I highly recommend Brave New World Revisited. Of course with the caveat that you read Brave New World first.

This won’t be the last book I review written by Aldous Huxley, so stay tuned.

About the Author

Wikipedia does a nice job providing information about the author. Here is snippet:

Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.

Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times,[9] and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

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Please check out my companion blog thestoicbuddhist.com

I appreciate all comments and likes. Please follow my blog and you will be emailed notification of all new posts.

Namaste

Post Office

About this book

I recently read Post Office by Charles Bukowski, which was published in 1971. This is a relatively short book at 196 pages. I bought the paperback version from Thriftbooks, which has become my source for books during the past 4 months. The book is nicely bound and has a large font making it extremely easy to read for those of us that don’t have the best eyesight in the world. The quality of the pages are good and the book is 8″ high x 5 1/4″ wide, making it the ideal size to hold comfortably. I don’t recall what I paid for it, but it was less than $20 USD.

Summary

Post Office is a story about Henry Chinaski and his career with the United States Post Office. If you are unfamiliar with Charles Bukowski he worked in the post office for around 10 years, eventually quitting and becoming a fulltime writer. The book starts with a dedication “This is presented as a work of fiction and dedicated to nobody”, then the code of ethics for the post office is printed on what is really the first page of the book. The plot is about how Henry Chinaski started as a postal carrier and then as a clerk. The book is primarily about this miserable job, his interactions with supervisors and other workers, the women he had sex with, and of course drinking. I have read quite a bit about Charles Bukowski prior to reading Post Office and the details he writes about in this book could only have come from his own experiences, possibly embellished a bit, but the level of detail leads you to believe this book was a lot closer to an autobiography than fiction.

Throughout the book you realize the physical and mental struggle a Postal Carrier or Postal Clerk go through, and what a mind numbing experience it was. Of course these struggles were exasperated by all the late nights drinking and carousing with women that Chinaski participated in on a daily basis. One of the key themes in the book was the constant interactions with the supervisors and Chinaski’s disdain for them, which only got him in more trouble. Henry Chinaski was a crude character always drinking and chasing women, and if he wasn’t doing those things he was betting on horses.

Recommendation

I found this book very entertaining, actually laughing frequently while I was reading. If I have any advice I would spend some time reading about Charles Bukowski’s life before reading Post Office. It just helps to bring the whole thing into context as the character traits of Chinaski are pretty much the same as Bukowski and it makes reading Post Office much more fun. Lots of dialog between Chinaski and all the other characters, but all easy to follow. Understanding Bukowski and his attitude towards women and structure give you a better understanding of the time period and characters.

Ultimately this is also a novel about the plight of the working man and his complete hatred for the bureaucracy of the post office. I highly recommend it with the caveat I mentioned earlier regarding gaining some knowledge of the author first. I enjoyed it so much that I read it in a couple days. I’m looking forward to reading more from Mr. Bukowski who not only wrote novels, but was also well known for his poetry.

About the author

From Wikipedia:

Henry Charles Bukowski born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted home city of Los Angeles. Bukowski’s work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. The FBI kept a file on him as a result of his column Notes of a Dirty Old Man in the LA underground newspaper Open City.

Bukowski published extensively in small literary magazines and with small presses beginning in the early 1940s and continuing on through the early 1990s. He wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books during the course of his career. Some of these works include his Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an 8 Story Window, published by his friend and fellow poet Charles Potts, and better-known works such as Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame. These poems and stories were later republished by John Martin’s Black Sparrow Press (now HarperCollins/Ecco Press) as collected volumes of his work. As noted by one reviewer, “Bukowski continued to be, thanks to his antics and deliberate clownish performances, the king of the underground and the epitome of the littles in the ensuing decades, stressing his loyalty to those small press editors who had first championed his work and consolidating his presence in new ventures such as the New York Quarterly, Chiron Review, or Slipstream.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bukowski

This is a nice overview of Charles Bukowski https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charles-bukowski

Brave New World

About this book

This book review is of Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley. Brave New World was published in 1932. I read a hard cover version of the book with dimensions 8 1/2″ high by 5 1/4 wide, which makes it comfortable to hold while reading. The book is 232 pages long, making it a fairly easy read in terms of time. The book has a nice Introduction that explains the premise of the book and some of the philosophy that Huxley borrowed from. What follows is a Notes section, Bibliography, and a Chronology of the life and events of the author, and then finally the chapters of the book. My hardcover version of the book is published by Everyman’s library in London, UK. The book has a nice cover, a relatively large font that is easy to read, high quality paper, and even includes a ribbon book mark. Overall this is a super nice, high quality book that makes a great collector item for your library.

Summary

If you read George Orwell’s 1984 you familiar with a society that was controlled by force and constant monitoring. Brave New World adopts a much different paradigm for controlling the population. In Huxley’s world the government uses eugenics to tightly control birth and create different classes of people. Aldous Huxley borrows many of his ideas about society from H. G. Wells, Bertrand Russel, J. B. Watson Behaviorism, and Vilfredo Pareto. From Pareto, a philosopher he uses General Sociology where the state is not run by dictators but by a management approach to society. From Watson he gets many of his ideas on what is referred to as conditioning. In Huxley’s Brave New World the masses are controlled by consumerism, conditioning, class, sexual promiscuity, and a drug called Soma. The people in this world are made so comfortable that they cease the desire for any form of personal expression and are rewarded by going along with the program.

In Brave New World there is no traditional family and as such no mother or father. In the first couple of chapters the book explains the process of how human beings are created and grown in test tubes in large factories. The government manipulates this process to produce different classes of people such as Alpha Plus, Alpha’s, Beta’s, and Epsilon’s. There may be other classes, but you get the idea. The higher level jobs in this society go to the Alpha Plus and Alpha’s, while what we might call factory worker jobs go to the Beta’s and Epsilon’s. This scientific breeding process is setup to create a particular class who’s numbers are created to fit the demand in the society.

I won’t go into the plot in any level of detail as that would spoil it for you, and I make an effort not to retell the story in all my reviews. Understand, that what we see from some of the primary characters is an awakening to the conditioning that this society has imposed upon them. The conditioning of the society happens as soon as the person is just a baby through repetition that teaches them that things that might inspire any sense of freedom are bad. In this society there are few books and the ones that exist are only those created by the state. Sensuality is a big theme of this society, with events that help to create lust in the public, encouraging multiple partners, and of course the appropriate birth control and hormone enhancement.

Unlike in Orwell’s 1984 those people that violate the society’s norms are not tortured, but instead attempts are made to reform them, and when that doesn’t work they are exiled. This removes the free thinkers from society, isolates them, and thus stability is maintained. A conscious effort was made to remove all traces of the past including museums and books published prior to a specific date. As the society that Huxley describes is based on consumerism the manufacture of goods and consumption becomes their religion if you will. Henry Ford has become a revered figure through what is called Fordism. When the populace has free time on their hands they are encouraged to consume Soma, which creates a high that lasts for hours and sometimes days depending on the dose. This creates a euphoria that masks any mental pain they may be experiencing and is a key component to keeping the people servile.

Overall in Brave New World we have a society without emotions, critical thinking skills, or even violence. A society that is in lock step to produce for the state and be easily managed. Reminds me of what we are progressing towards in the modern day Western world.

Recommendation

While I struggled with the first couple chapters, it was worth it as they built a foundation for understanding this dystopian society that Huxley writes about. I really enjoyed reading Brave New World and the ending is much as you might expect. This is not a book about the triumph of mankind over the machine, but really just the opposite. In this society science that leads to production and control over the populace is the goal, not science for the sake of discovery. It would not be too difficult to imagine our own society becoming this Brave New World. I would think Huxley was providing a warning for us, showing how easily we could be trapped into a world where pleasure is the primary goal along with the stability of the state at all costs. Highly recommended and a fairly quick read. Brave New World is a blueprint for controlling society using the carrot and not the stick.

About the Author

Aldous Leonard Huxley; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.

Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.

References

About the Author – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

“Copyright 2025 InspirationalBookReviews.com. All Rights Reserved”

Please check out my companion blog thestoicbuddhist.com

I appreciate all comments and likes. Please follow my blog and you will be emailed notification of all new posts.

Namaste

Novels, Tales, Journeys – Alexander Pushkin

About this book

The stories in Novels, Tales, Journeys were written by Alexander Pushkin translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. This book is the complete prose of Alexander Pushkin and as such it doesn’t include his poetry, but instead has a number of stories that he wrote. The book dimensions are 8″” high x 5 1/4″ wide and consists of some 484 pages. I have the paperback version, which is well constructed with nice cover and well printed pages. There is an Introduction, 10 stories, a section of Fragments and Sketches, and a Notes section.

Summary

As this is a collection of Pushkin’s prose I won’t be able to say there is a plot to this writing. I am a big fan of Russian writers having read all of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novels and stories, Anton Chekhov’s stories, and a couple books by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Pushkin proceeded all the authors I just mentioned, although there was some overlap with the life of Dostoevsky. One of the more interesting stories was called Dubrovsky, which was also one of the longer ones at 60 pages. The story of Dubrovsky had all the great elements including revenge, love, and intrigue. The Captains Daughter was another favorite for me and was over 100 pages, which makes it the longest story in the book. I also enjoyed The Queen of Spades a story about gambling and greed, one of Pushkin’s vices. As with reading Dostoevsky or Chekhov, you will be glancing back through the pages at times to determine who Pushkin is referencing. This has to do with the author referencing anyone of three names for a character or even abbreviated names. This may have slowed me down at times, but it was worth the effort. Even though I only mentioned these three stories all of the other stories are also very entertaining.

Recommendation

Pushkin is very skilled at describing the settings for the stories and the characters. His ability to pull you into the time period is outstanding. You feel like you are right there in early 19th century Russia with its nobility, serfs, terrible weather, alcohol addiction, military campaigns, and the ridiculous lack of medical science that accounted for the infant mortality and the short life span of the people. You also get a understanding of the ties between Russia and European countries especially France and Germany and the imprint it had on Russian society via art, literature, language, and fashion.

I read about half the book some time ago, and picked it up again starting over from the beginning. Reading about one story or part of the longer ones each day. It took me about two weeks to finish the book. I thoroughly enjoyed every page; looking forward to reading each day. If you are searching for a book that you can really enjoy and you have an interest in Russian literature then Novels, Tails, Journeys is a wonderful choice. Pushkin was in a league of his own and is still regarded as Russia’s greatest poet and story teller. In my own opinion I put him in the same class of Russian authors as Dostoevsky or Chekhov. Now with that said I have yet to tackle Tolstoy; more on that in the future.

About the author

Alexander Pushkin (1799 – 1837) dying at just 37 years old in a duel was a playwright, poet, and novelist who became prominent before he was 20 years old. He participated in some radical politics that had him banned from the Russian capital a couple times.

Pushkin was born into the Russian nobility in Moscow. His father, Sergey Lvovich Pushkin, belonged to an old noble family. One of his maternal great-grandfathers was Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a nobleman of African origin who was kidnapped from his homeland by the Ottomans, then freed by the Russian Emperor and raised in the Emperor’s court household as his godson.

He published his first poem at the age of 15, and was widely recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Upon graduation from the Lycée, Pushkin recited his controversial poem “Ode to Liberty”, one of several that led to his exile by Emperor Alexander I. While under strict surveillance by the Emperor’s political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play, Boris Godunov. His novel in verse Eugene Onegin was serialized between 1825 and 1832. Pushkin was fatally wounded in a duel with his wife’s alleged lover and her sister’s husband, Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d’Anthès, also known as Dantes-Gekkern, a French officer serving with the Chevalier Guard Regiment.

Reference regarding the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin

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The Odyssey

About this book

I purchased both the ILIAD and Odyssey (boxed set), both books are believed to be written by Homer. These versions of the books were translations by Peter Green. The books are both high quality hard cover books about 9 1/2 inches high and 6 1/2 inches wide. The Odyssey has an introduction of 16 pages, before you get into the story which is 358 pages. There is a synopsis of each of the books (chapters), Glossary, Select Bibliography, and Index. The font is small but readable and the book and pages are all high quality. I bought the boxed set (ILIAD and Odyssey) for less than $44 US dollars at Amazon.

Summary

I hate to repeat myself, but my book reviews are intended to provide a brief introduction to the plot, characters, and a recommendation. I focus primarily on what I find interesting about the book and the level of satisfaction I received as a reader. I will not go into great detail about the plot or characters in the book. I do this primarily as to not spoil it for the reader. Too much information takes all the fun out of reading a story such as this. When reading The ILIAD and The Odyssey, you should read the ILIAD first. The Odyssey builds upon the ILIAD and because many of the characters and background come from the ILIAD it just makes the Odyssey easier to follow.

The Odyssey tells the story of the return of Odysseus to his homeland after 20 years. It describes the suffering he had to endure to return to his home. After the end of the Trojan war Odysseus spends the next 20 years attempting to get back to his home in Ithake. The god Poseidon (the earth shaker) is determined to make his life a living hell and causes many different calamities along his journey. At the same time the goddess Athene decides to help Odysseus after getting permission from her father Zeus. While Odysseus has been away his son Telemachos has become a man, but neither he or his mother Penelope think that Odysseus is still alive. As in The ILIAD there a lot of interplay of mortals and immortals (gods). The story is really about suffering, perseverance, a man’s love for his family, and revenge.

Recommendation

If you read my review of the ILIAD you know that I enjoyed reading it, but I actually enjoyed The Odyssey even more. Where the ILIAD had many characters the Odyssey was more focused on a handful of characters with a focus on Odysseus. Here Homer delves deeper into the personalities and feelings of his characters.

While reading most of the Odyssey you are unsure whether Odysseus will ever return home to deal with the mess caused by his long absence, even with the assistance of the goddess Athene. Of course this only adds to the drama and as with any book by Homer the gods intervene at every opportunity. Certainly the Odyssey is a story of revenge and redemption for Odysseus, his son Telemachos, and his wife Penelope.

As a reader you will be rooting for Odysseus to deliver his revenge and reunite with his family. Let me just say you will not be disappointed. I enjoyed the Odyssey so much that it took me just a few days to finish the book. While both the ILIAD and the Odyssey are fairly long books the stories and characters are so compelling that you could read both in a 2 or 3 week span, maybe spending a couple hours a day.

Because this is such an emotional roller coaster of a story and the characters are so compelling. I enjoyed it so much that when I had finished I was a bit saddened that this would be it for Homer. However, I found out from someone on social media that Virgil had written a similar book called Aeneid, that is supposed to be very good.

To wrap this up I would say the Odyssey ranks in my top 10 books ever read. Easy to read, a compelling story, emotional content, and a joy to read.

About the Author

Homer was an Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.

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

Peter Morris Green (22 December 1924 – 16 September 2024) was an English classical scholar and novelist noted for his works on the Greco-Persian Wars, Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age of ancient history, generally regarded as spanning the era from the death of Alexander in 323 BC up to either the date of the Battle of Actium or the death of Augustus in 14 AD.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Green_(historian)

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The ILIAD

About this Book

I purchased both the ILIAD and Odyssey (boxed set), both books are believed to be written by Homer. These versions of the books were translations by Peter Green. The books are both high quality hard cover books about 9 1/2 inches high and 6 1/2 inches wide. The ILIAD has a long introduction of about 25 pages, before you get into the story which is 437 pages. There is a synopsis of each of the books (chapters), Glossary, Select Bibliography, and Index. The font is small but readable and the book and pages are all high quality. I bought the boxed set (ILIAD and Odyssey) for less than $44 US dollars at Amazon.

Summary

I became interested in reading this book while reading Walden where Henry David Thoreau referred to Homer and the Iliad. I figured if it was good enough for Thoreau, then I should give it a read.

I don’t want to get too deeply into the story as it might spoil it for you. The basic premise of the book is about a war between the Trojans and Greeks, more specifically the Trojan War, which is said to have been over a 10 year period. The story of the ILIAD itself covers only about 2 months of the war. Strangely enough the ILIAD is considered to be a poem or collection of poems.

The primary focus of the ILIAD is about the quarrel between Agamemnon the commander of the Achaian (Greek) forces and Achilles his most fearsome warrior. Achilles is deeply offended when Agamemnon takes away his war prize, a captive woman named Briseis. This causes Achilles to sit out much of the battle during the ILIAD, until the later part of the book. A second part of the plot is that Helen was abducted by the Trojan Paris and brought back to Troy. The Trojans live in the city of Ilion (Troy) and the Achaian’s have sailed to Troy to destroy the city and take back Helen.

There is a preponderance of interference by the Greek God’s Zeus, Apollo, Here (Zeus’s wife), Poseidon, Ares, and Athene just to name a few. The God’s even take sides and actively participate in the war sometimes saving some of the mortals they favor from death and at other times causing deaths. It is as if the whole war is for the God’s amusement, and even their allegiance to one side or another is often compromised. The God’s tend to view the Trojan War as some kind of chess game where they are the Chess Masters. While the God’s are immortal their conduct is juvenile, often unethical, and many times just cruel.

Homer explores the full gambit of human emotions from lust, love, greed, loss, grief, hatred, and resentment. Homer is very descriptive when discussing the battles and deaths of the participants. If the ILIAD was a movie it would at least be “R” rated, primarily for the violent content.

Recommendation

The ILIAD is one of just a few surviving classics of Greek literature. When I first picked up the book it seemed a bit daunting, but in the span of a couple of weeks I had read it from cover to cover, probably spending one or two hours a day reading it. I found it very difficult to put down as it is a fascinating story of human emotions, bravery, and the carnage of war. Should you choose to read the ILIAD be prepared to be exposed to an uncountable number of characters both mortal and immortal (God’s). There were times when I had to really think about what character was on which side, i.e. a Trojan or a Greek as Homer doesn’t always clarify.

Homer has a bit of fun intertwining how the God’s interfered with the outcome of this epic battle between the Trojans and Greeks. There petty desires were all to human as were the conflicts between the God’s. While the ILIAD is often classified as a poem, it reads like an epic story of this well immortalized war. If you have read any of my other book reviews you know I tend to concentrate on what it feels like to experience reading whatever book I am reviewing. The ILIAD will hold your attention from the very first page through the last as you uncover the story page by page.

There is little to criticize about the ILIAD, other than some lengthy descriptions in the beginning of Greek and Trojan forces involved in the conflict or possibly the explicit descriptions of how the combatants died. Overall I highly recommend The ILIAD, so much so as I just started reading the Odyssey. Note it is preferable if you read the ILIAD first and then follow it up with the Odyssey as the stories follow a historical chronology.

About the Author

Homer was an Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.

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

Peter Morris Green (22 December 1924 – 16 September 2024) was an English classical scholar and novelist noted for his works on the Greco-Persian Wars, Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age of ancient history, generally regarded as spanning the era from the death of Alexander in 323 BC up to either the date of the Battle of Actium or the death of Augustus in 14 AD.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Green_(historian)

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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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