Information Received

I always liked the D(o)T(he)M(ath) "Information Received" posts so maybe an aspiring young philosopher will enjoy knowing the information I received lately. I got a few good books for Christmas, which prompted me to spend a little too much money at Borders. Knowledge is expensive. I wish I never had to attend to all the pedantry of highschool education again. But I still have half a year of teachers showing up 20 minutes late for class and 15 minute bitch sessions and watered down math classes and YouTube videos and showing movies because you don't want to teach and all of it! I wouldn't be able to recognize that my time was being wasted if I didn't attend the school I do though. Oh well... nothing human is perfect.

Christmas week 2008:

The Blue Castle - Lucy Maud Montgomery (I read it purly because it was recomended to me (it isn't exactly my normal genre), but all in all it is a good read. I'll post a essay on it at The College Blog later this week)
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (I listened to the beggining of the audio book, but I'm going to give the whole book a chance)
Sence and Sensibility - Jane Austen (It was really cheap. How can you turn down paper back books under $7. And I figured if I can't stand it I might be in a better disposition later on in life. I think I might have bought it for the same reason right people listen to Mozart)
Persuasion - Jane Austen (The first of the three I chose to read. So far it's captivating! I refuse to discredit it, even though it is Jane Austen)
Selected Poems - E.E. Cummings (Richard S. Kennedy) (To properly address my obsession. I didn't know he was a painter - that explains it all! His poetry is so artistic!)
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (I threw away the copy I read in 8th grade (oh how stupid!) so in the course of re-reading all those old books I didn't pay attention to, I needed to actually obtain a copy.)
This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald (I have never went wrong with Fitzgerald (The Penguine "Jazz Age Stories" is excellent)
The Rest is Noise - Alex Ross (popular aclaim and a love of Alex's blog (when he used to write on it!) propelled this purchase)
The Imitation of Christ - Thomes a Kempis (I've been thinking about obedience and suffering with respect to Christ lately)
Story of a Soul - St. Therese of Lisieux (recomended to me by a good friend)
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (probobly an important read for the next 4/8 years)
The Problem of Pain - C.S. Lewis (you can't go wrong with C.S. Lewis)
The Great Divorce - C. S. Lewis
The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles (also appropriate given the next president)
This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel J. Levitin (recomended by a sales clerk)
The Dialogues - Catherine of Siena (recomended by my fortunate peers who were taught this book)
The Divine Comedy - Dante Alghieri (John Ciardi) (I have read (for the purpose of attending class, not understanding) the Inferno, but when I have a long time I'm going to go through the whole Comedy slowly so I can actually learn from it!)
The Collected Works - St. John of the Cross (I have read some of his poems in Spanish (the translation doesn't do it justice. You would be well served learning Spanish for the soul purpose of reading "El Noche Oscura" properly) and I've always been fond of collected work type volumes)

I don't have room for all of them on my book shelves; all of my wonderful books are stacked in a leaning pile. I am a very lucky young man. Now I just need to time and energy to go through it all.