I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter

I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is a little uneven but it has three basic ideas: 1) the relative size of souls from small mosquitoes all the way to the most compassionate, selfless humans, and 2) the ability to share one's soul closely in great detail or largely in a general way, 3) consciousness arises from conscience.

Leaving aside the issue of animals for the purpose of this review I believe in the equal treatment and honor of all humans as the basis for good and my conception of goodness itself or God. On the flip side, sociopathic cruelty towards any human is evil and I am not open to relativism. In other words, I completely reject #1 and embrace #3.

The book itself feels like it jumps from these three topics sometimes accompanied with logic puzzles or personal stories without actually persuasively tying these topics together. It wasn't a bad read though, it definitely gets your brain going and introduces some new things to think about.

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Secrets of the Heart: Poems and Meditations by Kahlil Gibran

Secrets of the Heart: Poems and Meditations by Kahlil Gibran
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Allegories and poems about philosophy and religion. They vary in quality and interest. Mostly I liked the misanthropic hermit at the beginning. He's like a jerky Buddhist. I also liked "John the Madman" about the difference between real Christianity and false Christianity. There's a story about saving Satan and mermaids judging mankind. A lot of the mostly Christian philosophy (but also Muslim and Buddhist philosophy) resonated with me, but I didn't feel like I gained any new insights.

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God's Problem by Bart D. Ehrman

God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer by Bart D. Ehrman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's a thorough refutation of C.S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain. Unfortunately, both works depend on a world view that the Bible can only be approached literally where in reality a majority of Christians in the world treat the Bible metaphorically. It's precisely this evangelical literalist prejudice that kept me away from Christianity for so long. Wide reading has brought me back.

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The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The basic premise of the book makes sense - pain has many positive purposes. He focuses on the religious and spiritual purposes and ignores, for example, the clear evolutionary purpose of pain. Additionally, many of his side points have a very weak premise that Lewis takes for granted and therefore the overall argument fails. Worth reading if you're Christian or borderline. It would probably be a waste of time for nonbelievers or agnostics.

Finally, in my opinion, Lewis skips the most troubling kind of pain- the pain sick children suffer. That's a pretty big oversight.

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The Social Animal by David Brooks

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The beginning was really good. It was a compilation of the science of human thinking and culture with a hypothetical couple as a storytelling vehicle. But at the end, there were a lot of Brooks's own political views without enough research cited. Frequently Brooks made policy assumptions or cited correlations with no clear explanation of why he was assuming causation. Correlation is not causation! Say it ten times before bed every night!

5 stars for the beginning and end, 2 stars for the word vomit in the politics section.

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Existentialism by Jean-Paul Sartre

Existentialism by Jean-Paul Sartre
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Just a short explanation of Sartre's views on what Existentialism is and is not. Neither the philosophy nor this book did much for me.

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Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that really changed my perspective-- which is such a gift. I was certainly open to what he had to say, but there were many concepts in here that I hadn't considered in the way that Giridharadas analyzes it. Part of my preparation for this book includes having already read 56 "popular nonfiction" economics books and some additional behavioral economics books. I'm not sure if someone who doesn't otherwise read economics books would be open to the concepts in here.

The basic premise is that the richest 1% claim to be trying to help with social problems but what they should actually do is pay their employees living wages so that they don't need charity, stop polluting the environment so that the subsequent disaster areas don't need charity money, stop lobbying against things that help the 99% of citizens like regulations, stop creating tax shelters so that government can't function properly, stop impeding government in general. In other words, instead of being bad guys and covering up their sins with philanthropy, they should stop being bad guys. In addition, actual income equality creates a huge power inequality. Democracy cannot work when a small percent of the population wields such disproportionate power. Part of that is the money itself, part of that is the disaster of current day finance regulations. The central thesis is that the rich can't even fix problems with philanthropy because their solutions involve mostly self-interested band-aids that don't address the underlying causes: them.

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No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre

No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very dark and funny. Full of great lines exploring the simple tortures of everyday life.

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Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking

Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this collection of Hawking's last essays on "the big questions." But 1) skip all the introductions, 2) I wish scientists stopped opining on the concept of God in general on the basis of science specifically. If Hawking were still alive I'd ask, what if God is hiding in a parallel universe but He can see us perfectly well? What if He's inside a black hole? What if God is in all the particles of dark matter? What if He’s the fabric of space-time? What if He's inside us? What if He's the most important metaphor ever created by man come to life? What if He's any combination of those or even something else entirely? What then, Stephen? What could science have to say about any of that?

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The Theory of the Leisure Class

The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An important economic classic for bringing a new perspective to the cultural value of the consumption of items, but also of conspicuous leisure. Definitely interesting but very academic in tone.

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Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was short and definitely inspired some deep thinking. I've had some of these dreams myself, and some of these scenarios (like no memory) exist here in this universe.

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Mr g by Alan Lightman

Mr g: A Novel About The Creation by Alan Lightman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a strange little book. I’ve never read anything quite like it. It starts like Douglas Adams book, then it’s full of delightful physics, and then it goes somewhere unexpectedly nihilistic. Possibly Lightman himself would disagree with that final assessment but that’s how experienced it.

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The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Stranger by Albert Camus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't really get from this what I read I'm supposed to get from it. I liked the story mostly because I find the protagonist captivating like he's stuck in a dream, and because the author narrates an interesting perspective. But there's an underlying issue with the protagonist that seems not directly related to existentialism. Is he depressed because his mother died? Is he fundamentally a sociopath that until now has been functional and productive? I could imagine a main character who professes to be Christian acting in much the same way. Whether or not it matters in the long run, many humans would still personally suffer from harming another thanks to empathy and sympathy. And when he's confronted by death, the main character seems to reject whatever previous apathy he suffered from which seems to somewhat run contrary to existentialism, even though he doesn't reject his atheism.

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The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There are lots of really beautiful parts to this. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

“You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.
This is but half the truth.
You are also as strong as your strongest link.
To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of the ocean
by the frailty of its foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

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What I Believe by Bertrand Russell

What I Believe by Bertrand Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My version contains, “What I Believe,” “The Good Life,” “What is a Christian,” and “Fear, the Basis of Religion.”

The best of the bunch is “What I Believe.” Feminism! Consent! Birth control! In the 1920s! How can you not love Bertrand Russell?

I love his logic, and I agree with a lot of what he says, indeed for years that was all there was to it for me. However now, after much reading, I'm a Christian primarily because I believe in human rights, and justifying it all back through a number of steps that are perhaps not as logical as Bertrand, I arrive at God and agreement with the teachings of Christ. (I am told this is not good enough by my Evangelical friends, but luckily they don't get to decide who is and isn't a Christian. I am equally unimpressed by their version of Christianity.) Although clearly Russell is highly ethical, I don't think he really addresses ethics as the argument for God.

“The Good Life,” is solid but it feels very incomplete to me. “What is a Christian,” is both descriptive and an analysis and I didn’t find it particularly useful. Finally, “Fear,” brings up some solid points but seems to apply not to “religion” generally but Christianity specifically, and while I don’t disagree with his points, it seems unfair in its incompleteness.

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A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought I would feel smarter than I do when I finished this book. Nonetheless an interesting review of the classical philosophers. I don't think it would have killed him to throw in at least one woman, at a minimum with reference to western feminist philosophy, especially considering he included some not terribly deep political philosophers (who weren't necessarily concerned with consciousness or the cosmos but only political realities). I know this suggestion makes me sound like a millennial, but I assure you I'm not.

Bertrand correctly predicted that science would take over a lot of the inquiries on reality- as it has in consciousness and the cosmos, though he wasn't correct that, as in theoretical physics, it would never be based in thought experiments. I wish someone wrote a summary of philosophers and their central ideas picking up where Russell left off.

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Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed

Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Truthfully, I should have given it 3 stars because it is the most repetitive book I’ve ever read. But I imagined reading a book half this length with all the repeat sentences removed. Here’s what I appreciated: the focus on the falsity of the idea of the feminist as the cause her own suffering. I’ve recently encountered the argument here on Goodreads, that feminists aren’t unhappy because of outside injustice but because they’ve pushed back on this injustice too much. Ahmed also explores the idea of how people label those who complain about these injustices as killjoys. That’s really familiar.

I liked the exploration of the often ineffective diversity initiatives at most workplaces. How the reports and measurements and self-congratulatory events can become the very tool of oppression by managers that do not at all understand the issues of diversity in the workplace.

I also liked the idea of a feminist survival kit. I am not sure what I’d put in mine, but I’m working on it.

I didn’t like the idea that she put forward of feminists (be the feminist women, men, trans, other races, disabled) constantly snapping at each other. It’s okay to discuss different experiences but it’s exhausting not to have allies that don’t also attack.

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Race Matters by Cornel West

Race Matters by Cornel West
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting nuanced views. I was especially interested in his specific ideas about capitalist consumerism and mass media pushing particular values, especially increased sexuality and violence. I was also interested in his discussion of redistribution of wealth that predominantly affects the middle class and not the poor and his short essay on Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill which stood the test of time pretty well.

West's essay about black and white sexuality reminded me a lot of some essay I read in college about sexuality as rebellion in Cuba's oppressive regime. And feminism also talks a lot about the patriarchy's restriction of sexuality. It doesn't strike me as intuitive, and I struggle to understand why sexual control leads to political control? But it seems universal and pervasive in oppressive regimes all over the world.

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Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've purchased some of his previous books, but I borrowed this one from the library, and this will be my last Taleb book. Taleb said several times that all that matters is the reader (although the future reader- so probably still not me), so let me join the ranks of people who think the manner in which he conveys his ideas is ridiculously rude, offensive, and ineffective. I've read satire and that is certainly not the issue here. His tone was a disaster even at the beginning of the book, but I thought-- I can handle it, I'm not a delicate flower. Then I noticed his extreme lack of logical argument or evidence for his points in this book. I could think of numerous counterarguments and counter-examples to things he said, which Taleb never subsequently addressed. Then I noticed his tone and accusations were getting progressively ruder and more unsubstantiated.

While the basic "skin in the game" premise makes sense in a way that can be explained in a few sentences or a short essay, the rest of this book is mostly a diatribe against intellectuals and academics. And then Taleb tires to periodically rely on intellectuals for numerous arguments he makes. It's completely crazy. I mean, did he go off medication or develop a brain tumor? Because I actually really liked Black Swan, and I found Antifragile interesting. But I wouldn't recommend this one at all unless you want to waste a chunk of your life and maybe raise your blood pressure.

Also, you know what a central problem is with Taleb, in particular, attacking well-read educated individuals? They constitute the majority of the reading public, and especially the portion of the reading public that sits down with books about statistics or probability. He even specifically attacked intellectuals with Black Swan on their bookshelves. I mean, really.

PS. Is he pro-anxiety? I can oblige him there.

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Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There are many interesting little thoughts in here, but I had some issues. One is that I found the language very cumbersome. I looked at two different translations so I don't think it was the translations' fault precisely, but I think the issues originated from Nietzsche trying to sound grand like in a religious text.

Also, this is neither a nonfiction philosophical work where ideas are organized in a logical way and then reasoned through for readers nor is it a true work of fiction such as in Siddhartha. It's sort of a hybrid. Zarathustra was apparently a historical person, and this book is pretty much, as the title suggests, Zarathrustra just talking about his philosophy. That was... okay.

Maybe if I learn more about the work and then return to it, I'll be better able to understand it and therefore like it better?

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