Summer Reading List 2011

Sunday, May 29, 2011

What Is It

Summer's just around the corner – what philosophers, philosophies, or philosophical issues do you want to read up on? Kant'sCritique of Pure Reasonmay not be the obvious choice to take on vacation, but there are lots of readable, beach-friendly classics and non-classics to add philosophical depth to your summer reading. Not to mention new and classic fiction books with a philosophical bent. John and Ken share some of the philosophically-minded titles on their reading list and take suggestions from listeners and special guests.

Listening Notes

Recommended by John & Ken

Bernhard Schlink,Self's Punishment

Bernhard Schlink,Guilt About the Past

Bernhard Schlink,The Homecoming

Nassim Taleb,The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

Troy Jollimore,At Lake Scugog: Poems

Robert Rowland Smith,Breakfast with Socrates: An Extraordinary
(Philosophical) Journey Through Your Ordinary Day

Recommended by John McMurtrie (SF Chronicle Book Editor)

Garry Wills,Augustine's Confessions: A Biography

T.C. Boyle,When the Killing's Done

Simon Critchley,The Book of Dead Philosophers

Sarah Bakewell,How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty-One
Answers

Apostolos Doxiadis et. al.,Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth

Manning Marable,Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

Alain de Botton,A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary

Recommendations by other guests

Diane Ackerman,One Hundred Names For Love

Irv Yalom,The Spinoza Problem(forthcoming)

Helen Fisher,Why Him? Why Her?: Finding Real Love By Understanding Your Personality Type

Helen Fisher,Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love

Martin Jay,The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics

Recommended by listeners on the air

Noam Shpancer,The Good Psychologist

William Shakespeare,Coriolanus

Leo Tolstoy,The Devil

Jorge Luis Borges,The Library of Babel(reprinted inLabyrinths)

Kathleen Dean Moore,Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature

Edward S. Casey,The Fate of Place

Transcript