Book Notes: "The Qur'an: A Biography" by Bruce Lawrence

The Qur'an: A Biography by Bruce B. Lawrence

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I remember reading about this book while in Amman, Jordan in 2006. Bruce Lawrence mentions that he was assisted by Dr Ibrahim Abu Nab of Amman in the beginnings of this book. I have had it on my "reading now" shelf for years, and despite being half-way though, I started from the beginning yesterday and finished it today. I think the problem with my earlier attempt at reading the work was my lack of historical, geopolitical, and theological knowledge at the time. So this reading I found rather gripping. The book is a chronological biography of the Qur'an, and is part of a series of "Books that Shook the World". If this book is the standard for the series, then I will invest in some of the other books. What I like about Lawrence's work is that it is scholarly, contemporary, and pragmatic all at once. The fifteen chapters each present a different story about the Qur'an, in chronological order, and from various cultures and geographical locations. It might have been useful to read this book before I read Pioneers of Islamic Scholarship by Adil Salahi, and I may now revisit this work to pick up on many of the names and chronologies that I struggled with on my first reading. I do not think this is a book for beginners, although it is easy enough to read, but much would be lost without a basic understanding or a willingness to undertake background study while reading the book. While it took me a long time to read, I am glad I had put it off for so long, otherwise I would have missed a good deal from my lack of background knowledge.

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Book Notes: "The Analects" by Confucius

The Analects by Confucius

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my first proper reading of Confucius. Again, the ancients set the tone for so many things that followed. Given that Confucius lived during the 6th century BCE, I am not surprised to read familiar words that have somehow crept into modern language but without sufficient acknowledgement of the original source. There are many surprising similarities with Stoicism, and, dare I say, Christianity. While reading the Stoics, I was conscious of the need to avoid the Occidentalist assumptions, hence my choice to read Confucius now. This work has encouraged me to read The Book of Odes, Shi-King to lift the veil of my ignorance in this important area - religion, spirituality, ethics, morals, philosophy, call it what you will. It is regrettable that I do not have enough life remaining to study all the things I wish to learn.

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Book Notes: "Letters from a Stoic" by Seneca

Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Letters is regarded as one of the three key Stoic works, along with Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and Epictetus' Discourses. My initial thoughts were that Seneca's letters provided gems of genius amid banal everyday topics. Indeed, one critic compared Seneca's style with a boar taking a whiz (provided in the detailed notes to the letters). But the moments of genius continue to resonate as if Seneca showed me, empirically, a primal instinct. There is so much of the source of contemporary social norms in this work. I am often surprised how modern complaints were "old hat" even in the time of the classics. For example, Seneca despises those who follow the crowd and let the majority following determine right and wrong. Further, he complains about the modern conveniences and how people suffer from what we might today term "affluenza". Maybe this does not bode well for the present state of affairs. I have learnt a great deal from this book, as I did with Meditations, and I am eager to delve into Discourses.

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Book Notes: "History of the Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides

History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This work is a proper classic, therefore it is difficult to "review" it. This is my first cover-to-cover reading and I must say that putting the "speeches of democracy" into context is helpful. I have read Pericles "Funeral Oration" so many times, but it takes on such an insignificant role in the long history of Thucydides' incomplete work. We are lucky to have such a document survive, yet I was surprised by the lack of studies in English of the text and its context. For such an important document, I assumed that the scholarly work would have been done to death. At times, the History reads like an adventure novel, and often I found myself turning pages eagerly to discover what happened next. Nowadays, I try to read classics cover-to-cover because I, like many, have never devoted proper time to do so, but the effort is most rewarding.

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Book Notes: "The Warrior Ethos" by Steven Pressfield

The Warrior Ethos by Steven Pressfield

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have a firm view that the only way to end war is for people to refuse to go war. It really is that simple. In the present, I often wonder whose nation is being secured through "national security". It tends to relate to a particular categorisation of humans that distinguishes one from the "other". I have firm views about global trade, institutional frameworks, and so on, that transcend the tribal. When reading this work, I could not help but think that the "ethos" discussed was Orientalist at its core. The sense of awe directed towards the Spartan way of life denies that the Spartans brought about their own demise, and indeed, ended the grandeur of Ancient Greece. The idea that dominant cultures are somehow "right" and everything and everyone else suffers while "to the victor go the spoils", denies Sun Tzu's realist understanding of conflict and its aftermath. The final section deals with inner wars, and I found this most useful. But I could not help but think that the ideas of courage put forth here are a significant portions of the Tsar's cake: "we rule you, we fool you, we shoot at you". That is not to say that a warrior ethos did not exist, but I think the simplicity of the warrior ethos today assumes a monocultural entity defending itself from an attacker. Such simple conceptions of morality are so far in the past that the notion of a warrior ethos, beyond the internal wars that individuals must fight each day, is, in effect, a shirking of one's responsibilities as a citizen of humanity. If this view is naive, then what is it to simply do one's duty unquestioningly? Hannah Arendt supplies many of the answers to such a question. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to be regarded as "courageous" for holding such individual principles. Until, of course, we are found wanting for not having stood up to tyranny. Pressfield mentions Jung's "collective consciousness" and other ideas that counter the romantic view of the warrior ethos, but I was disappointed that the connection between Ancient Greece and the present whitewashes a good deal of history. Pressfield mentions that such ideas are anachronistic, but this is mentioned in passing, and barely scratches the surface. Reading this has sparked more questions than answers and therein, I think, lies its value.

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Book Notes: "Turning Pro" by Steven Pressfield

Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life's Work by Steven Pressfield

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the third in Pressfield's "success manual" genre I have read. As with The War of Art and Do the Work, I have gained much from reading this book, in particular, ideas around space, time, practice, and working for the sake of the work. Pressfield says that turning pro means that your life becomes much simpler. This makes a good deal of sense. But I wonder if somebody younger reading this could bring themselves to their senses? I don't think I could have understood if I were younger. Pressfield appears to have been in his thirties when it started coming together. But that is what I like about this series and Pressfield's work. His is about the work. He is not a silver-tail who had mum and dad to support his little sojourns of self-exploration to allow his inner gifts to burst upon the world. He had to do the work. But if he did it, that means we can do it too. I suppose this is what he meant by the conclusion. I found it rather abrupt, like he had lost his train of thought. But of course, I will reserve my opinion on this until I have finished The Warrior Ethos. As an aside, I have been getting some good work done since finishing Do the Work, and, along with The War of Art, this set of three books has provided the kick in the pants I needed.

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Book Notes: "Reach for the Sky" by Paul Brickhill

Reach For The Sky: Story Of Douglas Bader, Dso, Dfc by Paul Brickhill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Each time I read this book I am overwhelmed by the Boy's Own enthusiasm that pervaded my early youth. But this reading was different. I picked up on numerous philosophical perspectives resembling Stoicism, confirmed by the quote from Hamlet at the end of the work: "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so". There is so much of the history of the Battle of Britain that I did not know at the time of my earlier readings. With a better understanding of Leigh-Mallory's "big wing" theory, and Bader's part in it, made very interesting reading. Not that all agree with either the success of the theory or indeed the truthfulness of its successes in practice (see Tom Neil's comments here. Regardless, Bader's story is written in captivating style by Brickhall and still manages to excite this poor, brain-washed Colonial time and again.

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Book Notes: "General and Social Letter Writing" by Andrew George Elliot

General And Social Letter Writing by Andrew George Elliot

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This work was a quaint historical oddity, dating to the early 1950s. I recall learning the fascinating rules and etiquette of letter writing in the 1970s and early 1980s, from the days of the address slanting from top left to bottom right, and new paragraphs indented under the first end point of the previous paragraph. Then came golf ball typewriters and later word processors, and the formatting was all left aligned for speed of communication. Letter writing is a lost art, and although there was little in this book I was not taught previously, it does remind me of a time when communicating in writing was an act of good grooming. It is regrettable that email and more recently social media-speak has deteriorated written communication to an ego-driven demonstration of bad manners and laziness. Reading Elliot's guide to the art of the simple, meditative function of letter writing was a peaceful activity. I am glad to have read it, and I immediately put it to good use by pursuing one of my favourite hobbies (letter writing) and wrote to my dear mother.

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Book Notes: "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've had this book on the shelf for nearly three years but decided to read it after reading Do the Work. I have been procrastinating by reading about ways to stop procrastinating, but since starting this book, I am now 6,000 words down and off and running. TO keep the momentum going, I have Turning Pro on the way, too. Usually when I read modern self-help books, the authors are either overtly atheist or overtly Christian. Each to his own, and while it is always possible to absorb some insights or (at least be exposed to) wisdom from books, I find it difficult to identify with the author when their approaches differ markedly from mine. Not so with Pressfield. There was one part where I felt like I had bought the same book twice (many parts of Do the Work are more or less replicated here, but the overall experience was quite different. As a handy reference to flick to for inspiration when stuck, the Tom Peters-esque format suits this function well. It is interesting how, once you name something (Resistance), and label it as the enemy, one's subconscious takes over the battle. I find my subconscious rising up with words such as "That's Resistance, that's the enemy. Do the work!" And my obsessive compulsiveness is having a field day. Whenever I go to leave something (the washing up, putting something in the drier, changing the chook's water, you name it - oh, better change the chook's water straight after this), my subconscious says "Do it now!" Of course, when I wake tomorrow, I will have to go to war again, but Pressfield has made available to me Somerset Maugham's approach: "I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp". Better change the chook's water now.

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Book Notes: "The Art of Manliness - Manvotionals" by Brett McKay

The Art of Manliness – Manvotionals by Brett McKay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This work is an anthology from the team at The Art of Manliness, with the content organised around seven 'manly' virtues. Manliness in this case is defined by its opposite - childishness - and I would be lying if I were to say I had not learnt a great deal through the Art of Manliness website. Many of the excerpts were familiar, while others were real gems unearthed from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At times, the identification of virtuousness with nationalism had me cringing and I could hear "We rule you, we fool you, we shoot at you" echoing in my subconscious. Then, without warning, Thoreau or Emerson would rescue me and I could take the best while leaving the rest of the conservative where it belongs. The book itself is well-presented in textured paper, with superb artwork and an interesting cover. The seven virtues work well as the organising principle of the book and many of the excerpts have given me glimpses of other works that I will read in full. This is an inspiring and entertaining read, and a good starting point for my reading journey for 2017.

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