Thread: Book Club

Originally Posted by Dilettante

I'd be willing to sign on for just about any of the titles mentioned (though I'm not sure I could bear reading all of Catch 22 again).

I think Alice would possibly make for the most interesting discussion, but The Prince and Rights of Man are ones I've wanted to read but never gotten around to.

Prince and Rights of Man are on my to-do list too. I could go for either one.

Its looking like Machiavelli's The Prince is the choice for the first round. We can certainly do another book when this one is done.

I propose we allow two weeks as time for all those interested to read this book. On August 15th, I will post a political-philosophic review of the book to launch the discussion. All are welcome to participate - all you have to do is read the book!

The Prince

Originally Posted by White Rabbit

A few of us were discussing maybe trying the 'book club' thing again.

The most important part of doing something like this is to have a book that everyone can have easy access to.

On this basis, I scanned through the USPO Document Archive in order to find some titles that might be fun or interesting to have a group discussion about - particularly titles that have a political or philosophical component to them (and are fairly small).

Here's a few of the books that caught my eye...

1. Shakespeare's Romeo & Juiliet
2. Voltaire's Candide
3. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
4. Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
5. Lewis Caroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

These are all fairly smallish books, all are loaded with political philosophy and a couple of them are particularly fun. I'd be willing to 'lead' a discussion on any one of these five titles. Numbers 1 or 5 might be the most fun.


And if people are more ambitious...

1. Machiavelli's The Prince
2. Locke's Two[second] Treatise on Government (we could do them one at a time).
3. One of Plato's lesser dialogues (Republic is too big) such as Gorgias, Phaedrus, Protegoras or Meno (for example). Heck, I'll do the Republic if enough people are interested!

Any interest in any of these? Or any other suggestions?

The idea of a 'forum book club' is that a group of us would agree to read a book and then someone opens a thread with a 'review' of that book and then we can have a discussion about that book.

(in prevision of the next round)

I'm not sure it's a good idea to read locke's first treatise on government. I mean, the second one is much more meaningful today.

I've boldened the books in which I'm interested.

I don't know shit about Thomas Paine's book.

Originally Posted by IIIX

I'm not sure it's a good idea to read locke's first treatise on government. I mean, the second one is much more meaningful today.

Quite true. I didn't think Locke would be popular either way.

I should think Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding would be far more interesting piece for discussion, but alas, I figured it to be too large.

Originally Posted by IIIX

I don't know shit about Thomas Paine's book.

Interestingly enough, Paine was elected as a Girondist to the French National Assembly in 1792 (despite not speaking a word of French) - so says Wiki!

Btw, for those reading Machiavelli's The Prince, I can helpfully suggest that it really is only Chapters XV to XIX and Chapter XXV that are the real 'meat and potatoes' of Machiavelli's fame and notoriety.

The other Chapters are fun to read and helpful to get a better understanding of Machiavelli's mindset and his contemporary world, but it is the chapters I mentioned above where you will find Machiavelli's famed advice for rulers that forms the core of the meaning of the word, machiavellian.

I had forgotten how boring some of those first ten chapters could be if you're not into 15th century Italian history (heck, I find it boring and I am into 15th century history!). And for Machiavelli's views on war, mercenaries and fortresses, I strongly recommend Sun Tzu's Art of War as the far superior work!

But for political philosophy, Chapters XV to XIX and XXV are the key ones.

Count me in for 1984.

Been taking my "downtime" in court to give The Prince a re-read. I had actually just purchased a copy for my own library a few weeks before this thread was started, but hadn't started reading it until a few days ago. I skipped the obligatory hundred (or whatever) page introduction by the translator, interpreter, et. al. but that could be interesting to discuss as well (if only I had the time to read it )

Is Machiavelli's book the one we're going to do (if it's Orwell, I'll have to get my copy back from a buddy I loaned it to, who's been too lazy to read it anyway, the bastard).

Originally Posted by drgoodtrips

Been taking my "downtime" in court to give The Prince a re-read. I had actually just purchased a copy for my own library a few weeks before this thread was started, but hadn't started reading it until a few days ago. I skipped the obligatory hundred (or whatever) page introduction by the translator, interpreter, et. al. but that could be interesting to discuss as well (if only I had the time to read it )

Is Machiavelli's book the one we're going to do (if it's Orwell, I'll have to get my copy back from a buddy I loaned it to, who's been too lazy to read it anyway, the bastard).

Yes, we are reading The Prince and I believe the 15th is when we will have the discussion.

Originally Posted by Crystal

Yes, we are reading The Prince and I believe the 15th is when we will have the discussion.

Giddyup... now, if, after five days away from Outlook, I could just figure out today's date

Originally Posted by Crystal

Yes, we are reading The Prince and I believe the 15th is when we will have the discussion.

Yes. August 15th (Wednesday) is the scheduled beginning of the discussion of the book.

After that (hopefully) we can choose another book to do based upon popular demand at that time.

I havn't started yet ...

Due to underwhelming responses (and a shortage of participation by those who indicated that they intended to participate), I have no intention of suggesting doing another book.

My compliments to JHC and Sucre for their thoughtful contributions.

If anyone else wants to do it, its all yours.

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
by Thomas L. Friedman

Anyone ever read this?, interested in reading this?, reviewing this?

I was reading Jv's thread in Economics and it made me think of this book. Also, the author was on George Stephanopoulos' show last Sunday.

Takers?