Voltaire’s Candide and Other Stories 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work  44. The Alexiad by Anna Comnena

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patti Smith’s Devotion was a huge disappointment after first having read the second book in the Why I Write series, Inadvertent by Karl Ove Knausgaard, one of the best books on any subject I’ve ever read. I’m even considering reading Knausgaard’s multi-volume autobiographical novel, My Struggle, even though I’d never have considered it were it not for Inadvertent. Devotion not only wasn’t anywhere near as good as Inadvertent, it was terrible! And it didn’t even answer the question the series poses. It also didn’t keep the promise printed on the inside of the front flap to reveal Smith’s writing process. It was the worse thing I’ve read since I tries to read The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. For the record, I’d never even heard of Patti Smith (any more than I’d heard of Knausgaard) before I ran into this series under “Essays” at Barnes & Noble. 35. Siddhartha (Dover Thrift Editions) by Hermann Hesse Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha hit home with me. You see, like Siddhartha, I too had to learn things the hard way. And yet, like Siddhartha, I expect my son not to make the same mistake (Or is it a mistake?) Recommended to all fathers. 34. Faust: Parts One and Two (Dover Thrift Editions) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Goethe’s Faust was the last of the three works covered by Santayana in Three Philosophical Poets, and the last of them I read. The other two, Dante’s Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia) and Lucretius’s On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura) are both personal favorites I’ve read and reread for the pleasure of it. Goethe’s Faust, like Homer’s Odyssey (unlike Homer’s Iliad) didn’t land well for me and will require rereading for me to full appreciate. 33. Gilgamesh Retold (Carcanet Classics) by Jenny Lewis Jenny Lewis’s Gilgamesh Retold  32. The Letters and Other Writings: Selected Songs and Poems (Hackett Classics) by Abelard & Heloise (Author), William Levitan (Translator), Stanley Lombardo (Translator), Barbara Thorburn (Translator) Abelard & Heloise’s Letters  31. Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) by Joseph Campbell Joseph Campbell’s Pathway’s to Bliss  30. The Alchemy of Happiness by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali’s The Alchemy of Happiness