Wednesday, February 24, 2010

One Man's Reading

Here I will post my thoughts on interesting books I find.  Assuming that my tastes do not change radically overnight, the books I review will probably include many in the following categories:

(1) Anthropology.  I include here all things relative to man (the ungendered anthropos).  Psychology, philosophy, and theology are all fair game. 

(2) History.  This is really a subset of anthropology as far as I can tell, but some like to separate it.  I like to read it.

(3) Old Texts.  Technically these also fall under the absurdly broad rubric I have made for anthropology, but they merit independent mention.  There are few old books (by "old" I mean something like "predating the 20th century," though much of what I study is much older than that) in which I am not interested, at least superficially.  I am currently a classicist by profession, meaning that my job is to read things in Greek and Latin. 

(4) Science.  As a boy I wanted to be a paleontologist.  While my career path has taken a wide detour, my interest in biological systems remains.  I am especially interested in ecology, nutrition, and human performance these days.

(5) Martial Arts.  This is primarily what I meant by "human performance" above.  I started studying taekwondo about 17 years ago and have been involved in martial arts ever since.  Currently I am more involved with grappling arts (judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu) than striking.

(6) Science Fiction.  My wife and I read together pretty regularly, and when we do, it seems that we read a lot of sci-fi.

(7) Foreign Literature.  My favorite novel of all time is Tolstoy's War and Peace, and I have studied a number of foreign languages that I like to pretend to understand every now and then.  So do not be surprised if I decide to delve into some non-English stuff.

This list is descriptive, not prescriptive.  If there is anything holding all of it together, it is an interest in everything that goes into the formation and development of the universe that is man.