Ruminate on this...
Why do you read? To be entertained? informed? in an attempt to understand? Right. Me too. Is it working for you? You're entertained, right. You do become informed, right. Do you understand? You do understand what you're reading, but does what you're reading help you to fully (even partially) understand the world, its events, its inhabitants, humankind? Thought not. And why is that? Do we expect too much of ourselves? Or is it because humankind is beyond rationality? I expect so. Still, trying to come to an understanding of why we behave as we do, cannot but help. You, individually, the world at large. Intelligent introspection.You've likely seen the film "Schindler's List", and enjoyed it, and felt you came away with some (informed) understanding of what the events therein described were like. Fooled you! Try reading the book by Thomas Keneally, "Schindler's Ark". Isn't it always said that the book is better than the film? Never more true.
Ever read the Nobel Prize winner (1988) Mahfouz Haguib? He's kind of a rare bird, an Egyptian novelist of some repute (whom you've never heard of, nor had I). His novellas, "Midaq Alle", "The Thief and the Dogs", and "Miramar" have been translated and published in one volume (Quality Paperback Book Club, New York). If you ever wondered what British-occupied Cairo during WWII was like, this might give you an inkling through the lives and thoughts of the inhabitants of an ancient alley in the city.
Try also: "A History of the Arab Peoples" by Albert Hourani, and "The Jew in the Medieval World" (315 - 1791, Jacob R. Marcus) Atheneum, New York, for a study in contrasts. Neither are books likely to be completed even by the most avid reader, but worth reading in patient interludes of determination.
It's raining out. Looks like we're going to be skunked out of our daily ravine walk. Nothing like ambling in a forest (unleafed as yet) to clear the mind and provide some tranquility to one's sore soul.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, April 07, 2005
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