Review: Confessions

Confessions by Augustine of Hippo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first part of this book (the first 9 books) is great. The story of his personal journey to Catholicism is intense, personal and relatable. 

Starting at Book X, however, it starts losing me. The whole discussion on memory and thoughts is a tad too philosophical for me, and his discussions on what time is (Book IX) seem more about semantics than anything else. It doesn't really pick up much from there. 

Some of my highlights:

"Grant me, Lord, to know and understand whether a man is first to pray to you for help or to praise you, (Book1)

"Though I liked actors and openly admired them, I should not have wanted their fame and popularity for myself. I would rather have been entirely unknown than known in the way that they were known. I would rather have been hated than loved as they were." (Book IV)

(Re: St. Ambrose) "When he read, his eyes scanned the page and his heart explored the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still." IOW he didn't read aloud, which was apparently remarkable back then.  (Book VI)

"Your apostle did not forbid me to marry, although he counseled a better state, wishing earnestly that all men should be as he was himself" (Book VIII)

"I had prayed to you for chastity and said 'Give me chastity and continence, but not yet'" (Book VIII)

Book X, Chapter 21: Argument about two men. One might wish to join the army, the other not. But both will want to be happy. ie, the army makes one happy, not the other. 

"But there is a true Mediator, whom in your secret mercy you have shown to men. (...) He is the Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ" (Book X)

"What else was the presence of darkness but the absence of light?" (Book XII) - I hadn't realized this expression had originated with St. Augustine

" the gift of speaking in strange tongues is a sign given to unbelievers, not believers" (1 Corinthians 14:22, Book XIII)

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Review: 36 Books That Changed the World

36 Books That Changed the World by Andrew R. Wilson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Great ideas may be executed poorly in many ways. For example, someone may wish to compile a list of what Tyler Cowen called "Quake books" (books that shake your foundation), but then decide only to search for lectures that already exist and simply aggregate them, so the result feels disjointed and often references other lectures that aren't part of the course.

This may also result in incomplete lectures. For example, Aristotle's section might cover just a very small portion of his Nicomachean Ethics, and the St. Augustine section may talk mainly about how St. Augustine influenced later thinkers, rather than his material per se.

Or the books might be compiled by someone who quite obviously is from the US, so the collection is very US-centric (or possibly just western-centric), and there might be just 5 non-western books (Gilgamesh, Art of War, Analects by Confucius, Baghavad Ghita and the Koran).

But many things can be done right as well, and it can introduce you to works you knew nothing about (and usually felt like you should). This happened for me with Tocqueville's Democracy in America and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Or even to works you hadn't heard of before (Denis Diderot's & Jean le Rond d'Alembert's The Encyclopedie, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich)

This collection does all of the above. Overall it has more good points than bad, but I would have appreciated maybe one of the 4 Chinese classics, the Tale of Genji, or maybe Arabian Nights.

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