Aaditya's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 21 Apr 2025 04:37:34 -0700 60 Aaditya's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Last Question 4808763
En un relato aparentemente sencillo sobre un asunto sobrecogedor, el fin de los días, Asimov demuestra, una vez más, una mente preclara y una mano maestra para sobrecoger al lector y dejarlo en vilo, incluso después de la lectura.]]> 9 Isaac Asimov 1884214495 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.56 1956 The Last Question
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.56
book published: 1956
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/21
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]]> The Fault in Our Stars 25856606
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.]]> 313 John Green 0525478817 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.99 2012 The Fault in Our Stars
author: John Green
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/16
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]]> Looking for Alaska 99561 Before. Miles “Pudge� Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps� even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .
After. Nothing is ever the same.]]> 221 John Green 1435249151 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.97 2005 Looking for Alaska
author: John Green
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> Ariel 395090 Sylvia Plath's celebrated collection.

When Sylvia Plath died, she not only left behind a prolific life but also her unpublished literary masterpiece, Ariel. Her husband, Ted Hughes, brought the collection to life in 1966, and its publication garnered worldwide acclaim. This collection showcases the beloved poet’s brilliant, provoking, and always moving poems, including "Ariel" and once again shows why readers have fallen in love with her work throughout the generations.]]> 128 Sylvia Plath 0060931728 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.22 1965 Ariel
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1965
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Outliers: The Story of Success]]> 3228917 Learn what sets high achievers apart � from Bill Gates to the Beatles � in this #1 bestseller from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review).

In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.]]> 309 Malcolm Gladwell 0316017922 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.19 2008 Outliers: The Story of Success
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2008
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]]> Free Will 13259270
In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.]]> 96 Sam Harris 1451683405 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.86 2012 Free Will
author: Sam Harris
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer]]> 31373633 A little book with a big heart!

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here comes an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family’s efforts to care for him even as they must find a way to let go.

With all the same charm of his bestselling full-length novels, here Fredrik Backman once again reveals his unrivaled understanding of human nature and deep compassion for people in difficult circumstances. This is a tiny gem with a message you’ll treasure for a lifetime.]]> 97 Fredrik Backman 1501160575 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.34 2015 And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> Les Misérables 24280 1463 Victor Hugo 0451525264 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.19 1862 Les Misérables
author: Victor Hugo
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1862
rating: 0
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]]> Life of Pi 4214 460 Yann Martel 0770430074 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.94 2001 Life of Pi
author: Yann Martel
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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]]> War and Peace 656
War and Peace broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves his family behind to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men.

As Napoleon’s army invades, Tolstoy brilliantly follows characters from diverse backgrounds—peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers—as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture. And as the novel progresses, these characters transcend their specificity, becoming some of the most moving—and human—figures in world literature.


Tolstoy gave his personal approval to this translation, published here in a new single volume edition, which includes an introduction by Henry Gifford, and Tolstoy's important essay `Some Words about War and Peace'.]]> 1392 Leo Tolstoy 0192833987 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.14 1869 War and Peace
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1869
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity]]> 615570 The Artist’s Way is the seminal book on the subject of creativity. An international bestseller, millions of readers have found it to be an invaluable guide to living the artist’s life. Still as vital today—or perhaps even more so—than it was when it was first published one decade ago, it is a powerfully provocative and inspiring work. In a new introduction to the book, Julia Cameron reflects upon the impact of The Artist’s Way and describes the work she has done during the last decade and the new insights into the creative process that she has gained. Updated and expanded, this anniversary edition reframes The Artist’s Way for a new century.]]> 237 Julia Cameron 1585421464 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.93 2002 The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
author: Julia Cameron
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling]]> 37786022 368 Matthew Dicks 1608685489 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.23 2018 Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling
author: Matthew Dicks
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> The Vegetarian 25489025
Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.]]> 188 Han Kang 0553448188 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.62 2007 The Vegetarian
author: Han Kang
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/07
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]]> White Nights 29610266
A poignant tale of love and loneliness from Russia's foremost writer.

One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.]]> 128 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0241252083 Aaditya 4 4.02 1848 White Nights
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1848
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/07
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]]> The Essential Rumi 304079 The Essential Rumi includes a new introduction by Coleman Barks and more than 80 never-before-published poems.

Through his lyrical translations, Coleman Barks has been instrumental in bringing this exquisite literature to a remarkably wide range of readers, making the ecstatic, spiritual poetry of thirteenth-century Sufi Mystic Rumi more popular than ever.

The Essential Rumi continues to be the bestselling of all Rumi books, and the definitive selection of his beautiful, mystical poetry.]]> 416 Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi 0062509594 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.40 1273 The Essential Rumi
author: Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1273
rating: 0
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]]> We the Living 668 Ayn Rand's first published novel, a timeless story that explores the struggles of the individual against the state in Soviet Russia.

First published in 1936, 'We the Living' portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three human beings who demand the right to live their own lives and pursue their own happiness. It tells of a young woman’s passionate love, held like a fortress against the corrupting evil of a totalitarian state.

'We the Living' is not a story of politics, but of the men and women who have to struggle for existence behind the Red banners and slogans. It is a picture of what those slogans do to human beings. What happens to the defiant ones? What happens to those who succumb?

Against a vivid panorama of political revolution and personal revolt, Ayn Rand shows what the theory of socialism means in practice.

Ayn Rand (1905�1982) was born in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg to a prosperous Jewish family as Alisa Rosenbaum. When the Bolsheviks requisitioned her family's business, they fled to the Crimea, and she later moved to America as soon as she was offered the chance. After beginning her writing career with screenplays, she published the novel 'We the Living' in 1936. Her status was later established with 'The Fountainhead' (1943) and her magnus opus, 'Atlas Shrugged' (1957). Also a prolific non-fiction writer, as well as the founder of the philosophical school of Objectivism, she has had an unequivocal impact on both literature and culture, regardless of one's perspective of her works.]]> 464 Ayn Rand 0451187849 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.93 1936 We the Living
author: Ayn Rand
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1936
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]]> Of Human Bondage 31548
Marked by countless similarities to Maugham’s own life, his masterpiece is “not an autobiography,� as the author himself once contended, “but an autobiographical novel; fact and fiction are inexorably mingled; the emotions are my own.”]]> 684 W. Somerset Maugham 0451530179 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.13 1915 Of Human Bondage
author: W. Somerset Maugham
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1915
rating: 0
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]]> It 830502
It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real ...

They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.]]> 1184 Stephen King 0450411435 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.28 1986 It
author: Stephen King
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others]]> 52579165 The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faith

How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people--as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn't easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort--by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others--helps to explain the enduring power of faith.

Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more.

A fascinating account of why religious practices are more powerful than religious beliefs, How God Becomes Real suggests that faith is resilient not because it provides intuitions about gods and spirits--but because it changes the faithful in profound ways.]]> 256 T.M. Luhrmann 0691164460 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.10 2020 How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others
author: T.M. Luhrmann
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
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]]> Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.86 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.ĚýYet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> Childhood’s End 414999
But at what cost? With the advent of peace, man ceases to strive for creative greatness, and a malaise settles over the human race. To those who resist, it becomes evident that the Overlords have an agenda of their own. As civilization approaches the crossroads, will the Overlords spell the end for humankind . . . or the beginning?]]> 224 Arthur C. Clarke Aaditya 0 to-read 4.12 1953 Childhood’s End
author: Arthur C. Clarke
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1953
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/15
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]]> <![CDATA[On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous]]> 41880609 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born � a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam � and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.]]> 246 Ocean Vuong 0525562028 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.05 2019 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> The Bhagavad Gita 12379467 297 Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Aaditya 4
Krishna is Ishvara, the cosmic lord who transcends the universe and Atman, the source of all creation residing in every creature as the self, separate from mind and matter, untainted by the universe, action, or desire. Unification with him is the ultimate goal, ending the otherwise perpetual cycle of spiritual evolution. He imparts knowledge of the universe to Arjuna, urging him to realize its true nature.

Gita's subject is the war within and krishna is also analogy for the inner voice.

It lays great emphasis on Yog (not just hath yog) as a means to train the mind and meditation, and draws heavily on other contemporary philosophy of the time like Sankhya and Advait.

Krishna advocates for selfless action to cease the endless creation of karma, born out of every action, good or bad. He instructs to still the mind through meditation; for those lacking discipline, one should dedicate all actions to him or surrender to him with selfless action. While acknowledging Jnana Yog, Karma Yog is preferred, as "yet hazardous and slow is the path to the unrevealed, difficult for dehvat (those with a body) to tread"

The Gita urges to rise above selfish desires and the pursuit of material bliss, and yearn for true realization of spiritual fulfillment, "as we think in our heart, so we are."]]> 4.53 -400 The Bhagavad Gita
author: Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.53
book published: -400
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/12/17
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This translation and introduction place the Gita in a broader context, aligning it with the core tenets of philosophy and major world religions. Rather than being isolated, the Gita conforms to these foundational principles. It explains the Gita's unique status among other scriptures, such as the Upanishads, Shrutis, and the Mahabharata itself, providing context to concepts and terms that might have been ubiquitously understood by scholars of a certain era but are obscure or misunderstood today.

Krishna is Ishvara, the cosmic lord who transcends the universe and Atman, the source of all creation residing in every creature as the self, separate from mind and matter, untainted by the universe, action, or desire. Unification with him is the ultimate goal, ending the otherwise perpetual cycle of spiritual evolution. He imparts knowledge of the universe to Arjuna, urging him to realize its true nature.

Gita's subject is the war within and krishna is also analogy for the inner voice.

It lays great emphasis on Yog (not just hath yog) as a means to train the mind and meditation, and draws heavily on other contemporary philosophy of the time like Sankhya and Advait.

Krishna advocates for selfless action to cease the endless creation of karma, born out of every action, good or bad. He instructs to still the mind through meditation; for those lacking discipline, one should dedicate all actions to him or surrender to him with selfless action. While acknowledging Jnana Yog, Karma Yog is preferred, as "yet hazardous and slow is the path to the unrevealed, difficult for dehvat (those with a body) to tread"

The Gita urges to rise above selfish desires and the pursuit of material bliss, and yearn for true realization of spiritual fulfillment, "as we think in our heart, so we are."
]]> <![CDATA[The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity]]> 56269264
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike—either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself.

Drawing on pathbreaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what’s really there. If humans did not spend 95 percent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities, than we tend to assume.

The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision, and a faith in the power of direct action.]]> 692 David Graeber 0374157359 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.20 2021 The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
author: David Graeber
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention]]> 262579
Drawing on recent groundbreaking discoveries in modern linguistics, Deutscher exposes the elusive forces of creation at work in human communication, giving us fresh insight into how language emerges, evolves, and decays. He traces the evolution of linguistic complexity from an early "Me Tarzan" stage to such elaborate single-word constructions as the Turkish sehirlilestiremediklerimizdensiniz ("you are one of those whom we couldn't turn into a town dweller"). Arguing that destruction and creation in language are intimately entwined, Deutscher shows how these processes are continuously in operation, generating new words, new structures, and new meanings.]]> 368 Guy Deutscher 0805080120 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.20 2005 The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention
author: Guy Deutscher
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> The Kite Runner 20701840
Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970s, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-year-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority.

But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, something unspeakable happened between the two boys.]]> 344 Khaled Hosseini 1408850257 Aaditya 0 currently-reading 4.50 2003 The Kite Runner
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[What Are You Doing With Your Life?]]> 39291052 â€One of the greatest thinkers of the ageâ€� The Dalai Lama

'One of the five saints of the 20th century' - TIME magazine

'Krishnamurti influenced me profoundly' - Deepak Chopra


Who are you?
What are you?
What do you want from life?

One of the world’s great philosophical teachers, Krishnamurti, offers his inspiring wisdom on many of life’s hurdles from relationships and love, to anxiety and loneliness.

He answers such questions as â€What is the significance of life?â€� and 'How do I live life to the full?' to reveal the best way of being true to yourself.

Read by millions from all walks of life, Krishnamurti shows us there is no path, no higher authority, no guru to follow, and that ultimately it is our own responsibility as to how we live our lives.

]]> 234 J. Krishnamurti Aaditya 0 to-read 4.29 1899 What Are You Doing With Your Life?
author: J. Krishnamurti
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1899
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships (Nonviolent Communication Guides)]]> 26203640 The latest edition of the communication guide that has sold more than 1,000,000 copies
Ěý
An enlightening look at how peaceful communication can create compassionate connections with family, friends, and other acquaintances, this international bestseller uses stories, examples, and sample dialogues to provide solutions to communication problems both at home and in the workplace. Guidance is provided on identifying and articulating feelings and needs, expressing anger fully, and exploring the power of empathy in order to speak honestly without creating hostility, break patterns of thinking that lead to anger and depression, and communicate compassionately. Included in the new edition is a chapter on conflict resolution and mediation.]]> 264 Marshall B. Rosenberg Aaditya 0 to-read 4.49 1999 Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships (Nonviolent Communication Guides)
author: Marshall B. Rosenberg
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.49
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/07
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]]> The Symposium 81779
In the course of a lively drinking party, a group of Athenian intellectuals exchange views on eros, or desire. From their conversation emerges a series of subtle reflections on gender roles, sex in society and the sublimation of basic human instincts. The discussion culminates in a radical challenge to conventional views by Plato's mentor, Socrates, who advocates transcendence through spiritual love. The Symposium is a deft interweaving of different viewpoints and ideas about the nature of love--as a response to beauty, a cosmic force, a motive for social action and as a means of ethical education.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 90 Plato 0140449272 Aaditya 0 4.11 -380 The Symposium
author: Plato
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.11
book published: -380
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/04
date added: 2024/12/04
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]]> Thinking, Fast and Slow 11468377 Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.]]> 499 Daniel Kahneman 0374275637 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.17 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow
author: Daniel Kahneman
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
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]]> <![CDATA[David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants]]> 15751404 The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell has explored the ways we understand and change our world. Now he looks at the complex and surprising ways the weak can defeat the strong, the small can match up against the giant, and how our goals (often culturally determined) can make a huge difference in our ultimate sense of success. Drawing upon examples from the world of business, sports, culture, cutting-edge psychology, and an array of unforgettable characters around the world, David and Goliath is in many ways the most practical and provocative book Malcolm Gladwell has ever written.]]> 305 Malcolm Gladwell 0316204366 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.97 2013 David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2013
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]]> Of Mice and Men 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.88 1937 Of Mice and Men
author: John Steinbeck
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 0
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]]> The Death of Ivan Ilych 18386
How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?

This short novel was an artistic culmination of a profound spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life, a nine-year period following the publication of Anna Karenina during which he wrote not a word of fiction.
A thoroughly absorbing, and, at times, terrifying glimpse into the abyss of death, it is also a strong testament to the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.]]> 86 Leo Tolstoy Aaditya 0 to-read 4.12 1886 The Death of Ivan Ilych
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1886
rating: 0
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]]> The Fall 219972 Run Time = 3 hours and 5 minutes

Written by a Nobel laureate and performed by an AudioFile Golden Voice:
Set over a couple of drunken nights in Amsterdam, this philosophical novel recounts Parisian lawyer Jean-Baptiste Clamence’s descent into amorality. “An utterly fascinating bookâ€� (Kirkus Reviews) with over 36,000 five-star ratings on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ!

Jean-Baptiste Clamence, a successful Parisian barrister, has come to recognize the deep-seated hypocrisy of his existence. His epigrammatic and, above all, discomforting monologue gradually saps, then undermines, the reader's own complacency.]]> 92 Albert Camus Aaditya 0 to-read 3.90 1956 The Fall
author: Albert Camus
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1956
rating: 0
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]]> Letters to a Young Poet 29491487 'What matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now.'

A hugely influential collection for writers and artists of all kinds, Rilke's profound and lyrical letters to a young friend advise on writing, love, sex, suffering and the nature of advice itself.

One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.]]> 52 Rainer Maria Rilke 0241252059 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.26 1929 Letters to a Young Poet
author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1929
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method]]> 61310045 A perennial bestseller by eminent mathematician G. Polya, How to Solve It will show anyone in any field how to think straight.

In lucid and appealing prose, Polya reveals how the mathematical method of demonstrating a proof or finding an unknown can be of help in attacking any problem that can be "reasoned" out--from building a bridge to winning a game of anagrams. Generations of readers have relished Polya's deft--indeed, brilliant--instructions on stripping away irrelevancies and going straight to the heart of the problem.

In this best-selling classic, George PĂłlya revealed how the mathematical method of demonstrating a proof or finding an unknown can be of help in attacking any problem that can be "reasoned" out--from building a bridge to winning a game of anagrams. Generations of readers have relished PĂłlya's deft instructions on stripping away irrelevancies and going straight to the heart of a problem. How to Solve It popularized heuristics, the art and science of discovery and invention. It has been in print continuously since 1945 and has been translated into twenty-three different languages.

PĂłlya was one of the most influential mathematicians of the twentieth century. He made important contributions to a great variety of mathematical research: from complex analysis to mathematical physics, number theory, probability, geometry, astronomy, and combinatorics. He was also an extraordinary teacher--he taught until he was ninety--and maintained a strong interest in pedagogical matters throughout his long career. In addition to How to Solve It, he published a two-volume work on the topic of problem solving, Mathematics of Plausible Reasoning, also with Princeton.

PĂłlya is one of the most frequently quoted mathematicians, and the following statements from How to Solve It make clear why: "My method to overcome a difficulty is to go around it." "Geometry is the science of correct reasoning on incorrect figures." "In order to solve this differential equation you look at it till a solution occurs to you."

]]> 272 George PĂłlya Aaditya 0 to-read 3.67 1944 How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method
author: George PĂłlya
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1944
rating: 0
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]]> Norwegian Wood 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 296 Haruki Murakami 0375704027 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.01 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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]]> Kafka on the Shore 4929 Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle—yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.]]> 467 Haruki Murakami 1400079276 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.14 2002 Kafka on the Shore
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The City and Its Uncertain Walls]]> 205358060 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

When a young man’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he sets his heart on finding the imaginary city where her true self lives. His search will lead him to take a job in a remote library with mysteries of its own.

When he finally makes it to the walled city, a shadowless place of horned beasts and willow trees, he finds his beloved working in a different library � a dream library. But she has no memory of their life together in the other world and, as the lines between reality and fantasy start to blur, he must decide what he’s willing to lose.

A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a parable for these strange times.]]> 464 Haruki Murakami 1787304477 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.75 2023 The City and Its Uncertain Walls
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
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]]> <![CDATA[Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life]]> 36064445 New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan, a bold new work that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility

In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one’s own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life.

As always both accessible and iconoclastic, Taleb challenges long-held beliefs about the values of those who spearhead military interventions, make financial investments, and propagate religious faiths. Among his insights:

â€� For social justice,Ěýfocus on symmetry and risk sharing. You cannot make profits and transfer the risks to others, as bankers and large corporations do. You cannot get rich without owning your own risk and paying for your own losses. Forcing skin in the game corrects this asymmetry better than thousands of laws and regulations.
� Ethical rules aren’t universal. You’re part of a group larger than you, but it’s still smaller than humanity in general.
� Minorities, not majorities, run the world. The world is not run by consensus but by stubborn minorities imposing their tastes and ethics on others.
� You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. “Educated philistines� have been wrong on everything from Stalinism to Iraq to low-carb diets.
� Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). A simple barbell can build muscle better than expensive new machines.
� True religion is commitment, not just faith. How much you believe in something is manifested only by what you’re willing to risk for it.

The phrase “skin in the game� is one we have often heard but rarely stopped to truly dissect. It is the backbone of risk management, but it’s also an astonishingly rich worldview that, as Taleb shows in this book, applies to all aspects of our lives. As Taleb says, “The symmetry of skin in the game is a simple rule that’s necessary for fairness and justice, and the ultimate BS-buster,� and “Never trust anyone who doesn’t have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them.”]]> 272 Nassim Nicholas Taleb 0241300657 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.88 2018 Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
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]]> <![CDATA[Sikkim: A History of Intrigue and Alliance]]> 58504085
Aspects of the Indian relationship with Tibet form part of this narrative, in particular due to the British involvement in the Himalayan region as a consequence of the â€Great Gameâ€� and great power rivalry with the Russian empire. For India today, Sikkim remains significant from a strategic point of view, given its proximity to the border with Tibet, now China, and the presence of the vital Siliguri Corridor that connects India’s northeast with the rest of the country.]]> 276 Preet Mohan Singh Malik 9354226914 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.62 Sikkim: A History of Intrigue and Alliance
author: Preet Mohan Singh Malik
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.62
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]]> <![CDATA[Goa, 1961: The Complete Story of Nationalism and Integration]]> 178810916
In this gripping account, former journalist Valmiki Faleiro covers a wide canvas in detail, including the entire story of Operation Vijay, the events that preceded it and those that followed. The diplomatic efforts, the arguments, the run-up, the build-up, the actual ops and their aftermath in Goa, within India and internationally-all of it is vividly related in this nuanced telling. Faleiro lucidly outlines the prevailing political atmosphere and its changing character, the part played by indigenous independence movements and freedom fighters leading to the liberation of Goa, and the impact of its consequent assimilation into India.

Extensively researched and extremely well-written, Goa, 1961 is a seminal book on an important subject and a must-read for anyone interested in Indian history.]]> 408 Valmiki Faleiro 0670097926 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.62 Goa, 1961: The Complete Story of Nationalism and Integration
author: Valmiki Faleiro
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.62
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]]> <![CDATA[Dethroned: The Downfall of India's Princely States]]> 125085944
This is a saga of promises and betrayals, of brinkmanship and intrigue. Mountbatten worked with two of independent India's founding fathers--the country's most senior civil servant, V.P. Menon, and Congress strongman Vallabhbhai Patel--to save the subcontinent from self-destruction. What India's architects described as a 'bloodless revolution' was anything but, as violence engulfed Kashmir and Indian troops put an end to Hyderabad's dreams of independence.

Most states accepted the inevitable, giving up their kingdoms in exchange for guarantees that their privileges and titles would be preserved in perpetuity. Instead, they were led to their extinction--not by the sword, but by political expediency, leaving them with little more than fading memories of a glorified past.]]> 362 John Zubrzycki 1805260537 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.15 Dethroned: The Downfall of India's Princely States
author: John Zubrzycki
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.15
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]]> Sophie's World 25909216
Join the Sophie's World reread and explore life, the universe and everything else with us.

When 14-year-old Sophie encounters a mysterious mentor who introduces her to philosophy, mysteries deepen in her own life. Why does she keep getting postcards addressed to another girl? Who is the other girl? And who, for that matter, is Sophie herself? To solve the riddle, she uses her new knowledge of philosophy, but the truth is far stranger than she could have imagined.

An addictive blend of mystery, philosophy and fantasy, Sophie's World is an international phenomenon which has been translated into 60 languages and sold more than 40 million copies.]]> 444 Jostein Gaarder 1474602282 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.83 1991 Sophie's World
author: Jostein Gaarder
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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]]> Lord of the Flies 7624 182 William Golding 0140283331 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.70 1954 Lord of the Flies
author: William Golding
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1954
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass]]> 24213
When Alice sees a white rabbit take a watch out of its waistcoat pocket she decides to follow it, and a sequence of most unusual events is set in motion. This mini book contains the entire topsy-turvy stories of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, accompanied by practical notes and Martina Pelouso's memorable full-colour illustrations.]]> 239 Lewis Carroll Aaditya 0 to-read 4.07 1871 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
author: Lewis Carroll
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1871
rating: 0
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]]> The Rebel 11990
Translated from the French by Anthony Bower.]]> 320 Albert Camus 0679733841 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.16 1951 The Rebel
author: Albert Camus
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1951
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI]]> 193388249
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And this was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.

As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.]]> 338 David Grann 0593470834 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.12 2017 Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
author: David Grann
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East]]> 225897 intifada, is a direct consequence of those six days of fighting. Michael B. Oren’s magnificent Six Days of War, an internationally acclaimed bestseller, is the first comprehensive account of this epoch-making event.

Writing with a novelist’s command of narrative and a historian’s grasp of fact and motive, Oren reconstructs both the lightning-fast action on the battlefields and the political shocks that electrified the world. Extraordinary personalities—Moshe Dayan and Gamal Abdul Nasser, Lyndon Johnson and Alexei Kosygin—rose and toppled from power as a result of this war; borders were redrawn; daring strategies brilliantly succeeded or disastrously failed in a matter of hours. And the balance of power changed—in the Middle East and in the world. A towering work of history and an enthralling human narrative, Six Days of War is the most important book on the Middle East conflict to appear in a generation.]]> 460 Michael B. Oren 0345461924 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.15 2001 Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
author: Michael B. Oren
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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]]> Annihilation of Caste 59027582
B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important, yet neglected, works of political writing from India. Written in 1936, it is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and its caste system. Ambedkar � a figure like W.E.B. Du Bois � offers a scholarly critique of Hindu scriptures, scriptures that sanction a rigidly hierarchical and iniquitous social system. The world’s best-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, responded publicly to the provocation. The hatchet was never buried.]]> 0 B.R. Ambedkar Aaditya 5 4.68 1936 Annihilation of Caste
author: B.R. Ambedkar
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.68
book published: 1936
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
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]]> Geometry for Ocelots 58245377
Geometry for Ocelots is the story of two monarch siblings gone to war at the end of time—a holy empress, and an alcoholic university dean. With galactic resources dwindling, both believe they hold the answer to the crisis; be it spiritual salvation or technological nirvana. Both will be gravely mistaken.]]> 325 Exurb1a Aaditya 0 to-read 4.41 Geometry for Ocelots
author: Exurb1a
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder]]> 61714633 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then . . . six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death--for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.]]> 331 David Grann 0385534264 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.14 2023 The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
author: David Grann
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> Mythology 23522 The world-renowned classic that has enthralled and delighted millions of readers with its timeless tales of gods and heroes.

Edith Hamilton's Mythology succeeds like no other book in bringing to life for the modern reader the Greek, Roman, and Norse myths that are the keystone of Western culture--the stories of gods and heroes that have inspired human creativity from antiquity to the present. We meet the Greek gods on Olympus and Norse gods in Valhalla. We follow the drama of the Trojan War and the wanderings of Odysseus. We hear the tales of Jason and the Golden Fleece, Cupid and Psyche, and mighty King Midas. We discover the origins of the names of the constellations. And we recognize reference points for countless works of art, literature, and cultural inquiry--from Freud's Oedipus complex to Wagner's Ring Cycle of operas to Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra. Praised throughout the world for its authority and lucidity, Mythology is Edith Hamilton's masterpiece--the standard by which all other books on mythology are measured.

]]> 497 Edith Hamilton 0316341517 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.03 1942 Mythology
author: Edith Hamilton
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1942
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Poe for Your Problems: Uncommon Advice from History's Least Likely Self-Help Guru]]> 56622229 Ěý
As seen in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Baltimore Sun

When life’s got you down and things aren’t going your way, who better to turn to than Edgar Allan Poe? Discover how to say "nevermore" to your problems in this darkly comedic and refreshing self-help guide.

Of all the writers anywhere, Poe might be theĚý least Ěýlikely person you'd ever turn to for advice. His life was a complete dumpster he married his cousin; got fired from one job after another; constantly feuded with friends and rivals; and he was always broke. But that’s also precisely the point. Though Poe failed again and again, he also persevered.

Drawing deeply on his works and life, Catherine Baab-Muguira takes the familiar image of Poe in a new and surprising direction in this darkly inspiring self-help book. Despite what you might think, Edgar Allan Poe is theĚý perfect Ěýperson to teach you to say "Nevermore, problems!" and show you how to use all the terrible situations, tough breaks, bad luck, and even your darkest emotions in novel and creative ways to make a name for yourself and carve out your own unique, notorious place in the world.

An inspirational tale for black sheep everywhere,Ěý Poe for Your Problems Ěýwill teach you how to overcome life’s biggest challenges to succeed at work, love, and art—despite the odds and no matter your flaws.
Ěý]]> 256 Catherine Baab-Muguira 0762499095 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.86 Poe for Your Problems: Uncommon Advice from History's Least Likely Self-Help Guru
author: Catherine Baab-Muguira
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.86
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]]> <![CDATA[BluOne Ink Hindus in Hindu Rashtra (Eighth-Class Citizens and Victims of State-Sanctioned Apartheid)]]> 181591258 152 Anand Ranganathan 9392209479 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.45 BluOne Ink Hindus in Hindu Rashtra (Eighth-Class Citizens and Victims of State-Sanctioned Apartheid)
author: Anand Ranganathan
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.45
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/26
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]]> <![CDATA[My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir]]> 651389 Jagmohan 8170233526 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.16 1993 My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir
author: Jagmohan
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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]]> The Brothers Karamazov 4934
This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel.]]> 796 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0374528373 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.36 1880 The Brothers Karamazov
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1880
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/25
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]]> East of Eden 4406
Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.]]> 601 John Steinbeck 0142000655 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.41 1952 East of Eden
author: John Steinbeck
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1952
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Fire On The Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras]]> 196797761
Banaras, Uttar Pradesh. A place where life and death co-exist in the most unimaginable way. The Doms are a Dalit sub-caste in Banaras designated by tradition to perform the Hindu rite of cremation. They have ownership of the sacred fire without which, it is believed, the Hindu soul will not achieve liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. Despite this, the community is condemned to the lowest order in caste hierarchy, and its members continue to be treated as 'untouchables'.

Fire on the Ganges is the first attempt to chronicle the everyday realities of the Doms. It plunges into Banaras's historical past, while narrowing its lens to a few spirited characters from the Dom community. Through their tales of struggle and survival, loss and ambition, betrayal and love, it tells the at-times-heartbreaking, at-times-exhilarating story of a community struggling to find a place beyond that accorded to it by ancient tradition.

---

'A book of humanity and intimacy, hope and resilience, Radhika Iyengar has chronicled that which is often overlooked -- the enduring power of the voice. This is oral history at its finest.'

-- AANCHAL MALHOTRA (author of Remnants of a Separation)

'Vividly told and richly detailed, Radhika Iyengar's Fire on the Ganges is an untold story that will shape our collective understanding of India.'

-- SONIA FALEIRO (author of The Good Girls)

'At once sobering and enlivening, Fire on the Ganges is a compelling account of how the Doms both contribute to, and are overlooked by, a "new India" that has lost its lustre. Radhika Iyengar makes her subject spring to life through her eye for detail and her immersion in the world she's writing of.'

-- AMIT CHAUDHURI (author of Sojourn)

'By observing their world with a keen, unflinching eye, Radhika Iyengar is able to render the lives of her subjects with compassion and insight while delivering a story that is both uplifting and heartbreaking. Fire on the Ganges is the work of a first-rate reporter and a gifted writer, whose narrative moves like the river, slow and deep, to the ancient rhythms of Indian life.'

-- DON BELT (Former Senior Editor, National Geographic Magazine)

'You might think of Manikarnika as a place for the dead. Th­is fine book is a reminder that the burning ghats are a place for the living.'

-- AMITAVA KUMAR (author of The Blue Book)

'With admirable elegance and empathy, Radhika Iyengar tells stories of a community that has not been spared caste prejudice despite its traditional "prerogative" of cremating Hindus at the most auspicious ghats along the Ganga.'

-- MANOJ MITTA (author of Caste Pride)

'A worthy illustration of show-don't-tell, Fire on the Ganges leaves you both hopeful and anxious about the possibilities of breaking through the barriers imposed by the caste system for those who are placed at its very bottom...Iyengar's work stands out for its dogged curiosity and immersive storytelling.'

-- SNIGDHA POONAM (author of Dreamers)

'With the narrative drive of a novel, this is a non-fiction book that illuminates a profession, a tradition and a society. An absolutely fascinating read!'

-- TABISH KHAIR (author of The Body by the Shore)

â€Deeply alarming and yet never alarmist, Radhika Iyengar’s Fire on the Ganges is essential reading—wise, sensitive and unsettling.â€�

-- DAVID HAJDU (author of A Revolution in Three Acts)

'Deeply-reported, thoroughly-researched, with writing that leaves your skin cold, Fire on the Ganges is a book about the hum of life arranged around death.'

-- MANSI CHOKSI (author of The Newlyweds)]]> 352 Radhika Iyengar 9356994668 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.16 Fire On The Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras
author: Radhika Iyengar
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.16
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]]> <![CDATA[Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career]]> 44770129
Learn a new talent, stay relevant, reinvent yourself, and adapt to whatever the workplace throws your way. Ultralearning offers nine principles to master hard skills quickly. This is the essential guide to future-proof your career and maximize your competitive advantage through self-education.

In these tumultuous times of economic and technological change, staying ahead depends on continual self-education—a lifelong mastery of fresh ideas, subjects, and skills. If you want to accomplish more and stand apart from everyone else, you need to become an ultralearner.

The challenge of learning new skills is that you think you already know how best to learn, as you did as a student, so you rerun old routines and old ways of solving problems. To counter that, Ultralearning offers powerful strategies to break you out of those mental ruts and introduces new training methods to help you push through to higher levels of retention.

Scott H. Young incorporates the latest research about the most effective learning methods and the stories of other ultralearners like himself—among them Benjamin Franklin, chess grandmaster Judit Polgár, and Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman, as well as a host of others, such as little-known modern polymath Nigel Richards, who won the French World Scrabble Championship—without knowing French.

Young documents the methods he and others have used to acquire knowledge and shows that, far from being an obscure skill limited to aggressive autodidacts, ultralearning is a powerful tool anyone can use to improve their career, studies, and life.

Ultralearning explores this fascinating subculture, shares a proven framework for a successful ultralearning project, and offers insights into how you can organize and exe - cute a plan to learn anything deeply and quickly, without teachers or budget-busting tuition costs.

Whether the goal is to be fluent in a language (or ten languages), earn the equivalent of a college degree in a fraction of the time, or master multiple tools to build a product or business from the ground up, the principles in Ultralearning will guide you to success.]]> 305 Scott H. Young Aaditya 0 to-read 3.94 2019 Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career
author: Scott H. Young
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/20
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]]> The Grownup 26025580
“The Grownup,� originally appeared as “What Do You Do?� in George R. R. Martin’s Rogues anthology.]]> 64 Gillian Flynn 0804188971 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.55 2014 The Grownup
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/07
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading]]> 567610 How to Read a Book, originally published in 1940, has become a rare phenomenon, a living classic. It is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader. And now it has been completely rewritten and updated.

You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them � from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading, you learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author's message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science.

Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests whereby you can measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension and speed.

This a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780671212094

]]> 442 Mortimer J. Adler Aaditya 0 to-read 3.97 1940 How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
author: Mortimer J. Adler
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1940
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher]]> 282758 320 Julian Baggini 0452287448 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.74 2005 The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher
author: Julian Baggini
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World]]> 10483171
In our search for truth, how far have we advanced? This uniquely human quest for good explanations has driven amazing improvements in everything from scientific understanding and technology to politics, moral values and human welfare. But will progress end, either in catastrophe or completion - or will it continue infinitely?

In this profound and seminal book, David Deutsch explores the furthest reaches of our current understanding, taking in the Infinity Hotel, supernovae and the nature of optimism, to instill in all of us a wonder at what we have achieved - and the fact that this is only the beginning of humanity's infinite possibility.

'This is Deutsch at his most ambitious, seeking to understand the implications of our scientific explanations of the world ... I enthusiastically recommend this rich, wide-ranging and elegantly written exposition of the unique insights of one of our most original intellectuals' Michael Berry, Times Higher Education Supplement

'Bold ... profound ... provocative and persuasive' Economist

'David Deutsch may well go down in history as one of the great scientists of our age' Scotsman]]> 487 David Deutsch 0670022756 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.16 2011 The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
author: David Deutsch
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> On the Genealogy of Morals 80449 On the Genealogy of Morals (1887) is a book about the history of ethics and about interpretation. Nietzsche rewrites the former as a history of cruelty, exposing the central values of the Judaeo-Christian and liberal traditions - compassion, equality, justice - as the product of a brutal process of conditioning designed to domesticate the animal vitality of earlier cultures. The result is a book which raises profoundly disquieting issues about the violence of both ethics and interpretation. Nietzsche questions moral certainties by showing that religion and science have no claim to absolute truth, before turning on his own arguments in order to call their very presuppositions into question. The Genealogy is the most sustained of Nietzsche's later works and offers one of the fullest expressions of his characteristic concerns. This edition places his ideas within the cultural context of his own time and stresses the relevance of his work for a contemporary audience.]]> 208 Friedrich Nietzsche 019283617X Aaditya 0 to-read 4.16 1887 On the Genealogy of Morals
author: Friedrich Nietzsche
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1887
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]]> The Complete Essays 30735 The Complete Essays is translated from the French and edited with an introduction and notes by M.A. Screech.

In 1572 Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and reflection. There he wrote his constantly expanding 'assays', inspired by the ideas he found in books contained in his library and from his own experience. He discusses subjects as diverse as war-horses and cannibals, poetry and politics, sex and religion, love and friendship, ecstasy and experience. But, above all, Montaigne studied himself as a way of drawing out his own inner nature and that of men and women in general. The Essays are among the most idiosyncratic and personal works in all literature and provide an engaging insight into a wise Renaissance mind, continuing to give pleasure and enlightenment to modern readers.

With its extensive introduction and notes, M.A. Screech's edition of Montaigne is widely regarded as the most distinguished of recent times.

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1586) studied law and spent a number of years working as a counsellor before devoting his life to reading, writing and reflection.

If you enjoyed The Complete Essays, you might like Francois Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel, also available in Penguin Classics.

'Screech's fine version ... must surely serve as the definitive English Montaigne'
A.C. Grayling, Financial Times

'A superb edition'
Nicholas Wollaston, Observer]]> 1344 Michel de Montaigne 0140446044 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.24 1580 The Complete Essays
author: Michel de Montaigne
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1580
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]]> <![CDATA[The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable]]> 242472
A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives.

Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don’t know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the “impossible.�

For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. In this revelatory book, Taleb will change the way you look at the world, and this second edition features a new philosophical and empirical essay, “On Robustness and Fragility,� which offers tools to navigate and exploit a Black Swan world.

Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan is a landmark book—itself a black swan.]]> 480 Nassim Nicholas Taleb 1400063515 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.96 2007 The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2007
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]]> <![CDATA[An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals]]> 839433 Enquiry in its historical context, clarifying its relationship to Calvinism, to Newtonian science, and to earlier moral philosophers, and providing a persuasive account of Hume's ethical naturalism. --Martha C. Nussbaum, Brown University]]> 128 David Hume 0915145456 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.00 1751 An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
author: David Hume
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1751
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]]> Tender Is the Flesh 49090884
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.� Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.]]> 209 Agustina Bazterrica 1982150920 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.75 2017 Tender Is the Flesh
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/26
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]]> Games People Play 49176 We think we’re relating to other people–but actually we’re all playing games.

Forty years ago, Games People Play revolutionized our understanding of what really goes on during our most basic social interactions. More than five million copies later, Dr. Eric Berne’s classic is as astonishing–and revealing–as it was on the day it was first published. This anniversary edition features a new introduction by Dr. James R. Allen, president of the International Transactional Analysis Association, and Kurt Vonnegut’s brilliant Life magazine review from 1965.
We play games all the time–sexual games, marital games, power games with our bosses, and competitive games with our friends. Detailing status contests like “Martini� (I know a better way), to lethal couples combat like “If It Weren’t For You� and “Uproar,� to flirtation favorites like “The Stocking Game� and “Let’s You and Him Fight,� Dr. Berne exposes the secret ploys and unconscious maneuvers that rule our intimate lives.
Explosive when it first appeared, Games People Play is now widely recognized as the most original and influential popular psychology book of our time. It’s as powerful and eye-opening as ever.]]> 192 Eric Berne 0345032799 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.77 1964 Games People Play
author: Eric Berne
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1964
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph]]> 18668059 “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.� � Marcus Aurelius

We are stuck, stymied, frustrated. But it needn’t be this way. There is a formula for success that’s been followed by the icons of history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—a formula that let them turn obstacles into opportunities. Faced with impossible situations, they found the astounding triumphs we all seek.

These men and women were not exceptionally brilliant, lucky, or gifted. Their success came from timeless philosophical principles laid down by a Roman emperor who struggled to articulate a method for excellence in any and all situations.

This book reveals that formula for the first time—and shows us how we can turn our own adversity into advantage.]]> 201 Ryan Holiday 1591846358 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.13 2014 The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
author: Ryan Holiday
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine . . . for Now]]> 46064083
An illuminating dive into the latest science on our brain's remarkable learning abilities and the potential of the machines we program to imitate them

The human brain is an extraordinary learning machine. Its ability to reprogram itself is unparalleled, and it remains the best source of inspiration for recent developments in artificial intelligence. But how do we learn? What innate biological foundations underlie our ability to acquire new information, and what principles modulate their efficiency?

In How We Learn , Stanislas Dehaene finds the boundary of computer science, neurobiology, and cognitive psychology to explain how learning really works and how to make the best use of the brain’s learning algorithms in our schools and universities, as well as in everyday life and at any age.]]> 352 Stanislas Dehaene 0525559884 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.31 2018 How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine . . . for Now
author: Stanislas Dehaene
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Case that Shook India: The Verdict That Led to the Emergency]]> 35530817 414 Prashant Bhushan 9386495872 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.00 1978 The Case that Shook India: The Verdict That Led to the Emergency
author: Prashant Bhushan
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Faith (The Story of Civilization, #4)]]> 78166 1196 Will Durant 0965000753 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.38 1950 The Age of Faith (The Story of Civilization, #4)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1950
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Rousseau and Revolution (The Story of Civilization, #10)]]> 78165 From: ]]> 1092 Will Durant 1567310214 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.27 Rousseau and Revolution (The Story of Civilization, #10)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins Aaditya 0 to-read 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/05
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]]> The Trial 17690 The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.]]> 255 Franz Kafka Aaditya 0 to-read 4.00 1925 The Trial
author: Franz Kafka
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1925
rating: 0
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]]> A Clockwork Orange 41817486 A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition, and Burgess’s introduction, “A Clockwork Orange Resucked.”]]> 240 Anthony Burgess 0393341763 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.04 1962 A Clockwork Orange
author: Anthony Burgess
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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]]> The Catcher in the Rye 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919�2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]> 277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.81 1951 The Catcher in the Rye
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 0
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]]> Siddhartha 52036 152 Hermann Hesse Aaditya 4
Siddhartha having been taught of materialistic things and emotions to be maya which ought to be overcome searches for his own path where his views and ideas are challenged on several occasions culminating in life altering decisions, with an incessant quest to search for meaning he realises himself to be fundamentally no different from the people he ought to be superior from; people driven by desires and instincts rather than purpose and meaning, until finally he makes peace with himself.]]> 4.07 1922 Siddhartha
author: Hermann Hesse
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/08/03
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A reflective tale of search for contentment and fulfillment.

Siddhartha having been taught of materialistic things and emotions to be maya which ought to be overcome searches for his own path where his views and ideas are challenged on several occasions culminating in life altering decisions, with an incessant quest to search for meaning he realises himself to be fundamentally no different from the people he ought to be superior from; people driven by desires and instincts rather than purpose and meaning, until finally he makes peace with himself.
]]> Gitanjali 66414 Gitanjali is regarded as one of his greatest achievements, and has been a perennial bestseller since it was first published in 1910.]]> 80 Rabindranath Tagore 1420926306 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.34 1910 Gitanjali
author: Rabindranath Tagore
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1910
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi]]> 124430 City of Djinns peels back the layers of Delhi's centuries-old history, revealing an extraordinary array of characters along the way—from eunuchs to descendants of great Moguls. With refreshingly open-minded curiosity, William Dalrymple explores the seven "dead" cities of Delhi as well as the eighth city—today's Delhi. Underlying his quest is the legend of the djinns, fire-formed spirits that are said to assure the city's Phoenix-like regeneration no matter how many times it is destroyed. Entertaining, fascinating, and informative, City of Djinns is an irresistible blend of research and adventure.]]> 350 William Dalrymple 0142001007 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.12 1993 City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
author: William Dalrymple
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Why I Am An Atheist: An Autobiographical Discourse]]> 1389596 91 Bhagat Singh 8178710609 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.44 1931 Why I Am An Atheist: An Autobiographical Discourse
author: Bhagat Singh
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1931
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3)]]> 25451264
Now this epic trilogy concludes with Death's End. Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent.

Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?]]> 604 Liu Cixin 0765377101 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.40 2010 Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3)
author: Liu Cixin
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)]]> 23168817 512 Liu Cixin Aaditya 0 to-read 4.39 2008 The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)
author: Liu Cixin
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/24
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]]> 1984 61439040
Alternate cover edition can be found here.]]> 368 George Orwell 0452284236 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.21 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1949
rating: 0
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]]> Brave New World 5129 Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine� (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New Worldd likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.

"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." —Chicago Tribune]]> 268 Aldous Huxley 0060929871 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.99 1932 Brave New World
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.99
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]]> The Metamorphosis 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Aaditya 0 to-read 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis
author: Franz Kafka
name: Aaditya
average rating: 3.90
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]]> Thus Spoke Zarathustra 51893 Thus Spoke Zarathustra is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale in Penguin Classics.

Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his most famous and influential work. It describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor. Nietzsche's utterance 'God is dead', his insistence that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms, and his doctrine of the Superman and the will to power were all later seized upon and unrecognisably twisted by, among others, Nazi intellectuals. With blazing intensity and poetic brilliance, Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in religious pieties or meek submission to authority, but in an all-powerful life passionate, chaotic and free.]]> 327 Friedrich Nietzsche Aaditya 0 to-read 4.10 1883 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
author: Friedrich Nietzsche
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1883
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]]> <![CDATA[The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers]]> 31795
Will Durant chronicles the ideas of the great thinkers, the economic and intellectual environments which influenced them, and the personal traits and adventures out of which each philosophy grew. Durant’s insight and wit never cease to dazzle; The Story of Philosophy is an essential book for anyone who wishes to understand the history and development of philosophical ideas in the Western world.]]> 704 Will Durant 0671739166 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.16 1926 The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1926
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]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Louis XIV (The Story of Civilization, #8)]]> 78161 "Informed and highly readable ... eloquently partisan for the dignity of man and the decencies of life." (Saturday Review)

]]> 802 Will Durant 1567310192 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.34 1963 The Age of Louis XIV (The Story of Civilization, #8)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1963
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]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Reason Begins (The Story of Civilization, #7)]]> 868267 "Mr & Mrs Durant are admirably lucid...This is a book that can be commended very warmly."--The New York Times]]> 729 Will Durant 0671013203 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.37 1961 The Age of Reason Begins (The Story of Civilization, #7)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.37
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]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Voltaire (The Story of Civilization, #9)]]> 78164 898 Will Durant 0671013254 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.42 1965 The Age of Voltaire (The Story of Civilization, #9)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1965
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]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Napoleon (The Story of Civilization, #11)]]> 78163 The Age of Napoleon surveys the amazing chain of events that wrenched Europe out of the Enlightenment and into the Age of Democracy:
* The French Revolution---from the storming of the Bastille to the guillotining of the King
* The revolution's leaders Danton, Desmoulins, Robespierre, Saint-Just---all cut down by the reign of terror they inaugurated.
* Napoleon's meteoric rise---from the provincial Corsican military student to the Emperor commanding the largest army in history
* Napoleon's fall---his army's destruction in the snows of Russia, his exile to Elba, escape and reconquest of the throne, and ultimate defeat at Waterloo by the combined forces of Europe.
* The birth of romanticism and the dawning of a new age of active democracy and a rising middle class, laying the foundation for our own era.]]> 870 Will Durant 1567310222 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.37 1975 The Age of Napoleon (The Story of Civilization, #11)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1975
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]]> <![CDATA[The Reformation (The Story of Civilization #6)]]> 128898 1025 Will Durant 1567310176 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.36 1957 The Reformation (The Story of Civilization #6)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1957
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]]> <![CDATA[The Renaissance (The Story of Civilization, #5)]]> 512145 "Dr. Durant has a keen and mordant wit that flashes forth frequently to enliven his pages...he is an artist in words."--Saturday Review]]> 776 Will Durant 0671616005 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.28 1953 The Renaissance (The Story of Civilization, #5)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1953
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]]> <![CDATA[Caesar and Christ (Story of Civilization, #3)]]> 115998
The Pax Romana broke some heads. Jews felt the scourge in Judea, where Jesus of Nazareth met a dissident's death. His agony foreshadowed the Empire's over the next few centuries.

"Lively, stimulating and accurate." (Saturday Review of Literature)]]> 752 Will Durant 0671115006 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.41 1944 Caesar and Christ (Story of Civilization, #3)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1944
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]]> <![CDATA[The Life of Greece (The Story of Civilization, #2)]]> 174730 The Life of Greece is a survey of ancient Greece whose scope and style recalls the golden age of historical writing, before specialization. Durant, in this second volume of The Story of Civilization, tells the whole story of Hellas, from the days of Crete's vast Aegean empire to the extirpation of the last remnants of Greek liberty, crushed under the heel of an implacably forward-marching Rome. The dry minutiae of battles and sieges, tortuous statecraft of tyrant and king, are given less emphasis in what is pre-eminently a vivid recreation of Greek culture, written in a supple and vigorous prose.
[from cover]]]> 754 Will Durant 1567310133 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.37 1939 The Life of Greece (The Story of Civilization, #2)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1939
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]]> <![CDATA[Our Oriental Heritage (The Story of Civilization, #1)]]> 174722 classic reference on world history, recognized as the most comprehensive general history ever written, the result of four decades of work by Will and Ariel Durant -- a set that The New York Times called "a splendid, broad panorama of hereditary culture in words and images that the layman can fully understand." This series began as an effort to write a history on the nineteenth century, an undertaking that Will Durant realized could only be understood in terms of what had come before. So the Durants embarked on an encyclopedic survey of all civilization, ancient and modern, Occidental and Oriental.


The



Our Oriental Heritage (Volume 1): Will Durant opens his massive survey of civilized history with a sweeping look at the the Egyptians, who perfected monumental architecture, medicine and mummification; the Babylonians, who developed astronomy and physics; the Judeans, who preserved their culture in the immortal books of the Old Testament; and the Persians, who ruled the largest empire in recorded history before Rome.


The Life of Greece (Volume 2): Will Durant's survey of ancient Greece shows us the origins of democracy and the political legacy to the Western world; the golden age of Athens, its architecture, poetry, drama, sculpture and Olympic contests; the blossoming of philosophical thought amid a society still rooted in slavery and barbarism; and the mysterious lost island of Crete, land of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth.



Caesar and Christ (Volume 3): Spanning a millenium in Roman history, the third volume in the Durants' series shows us a world-conquering Roman army, undefeated, unafraid and...vegeterian; Hannibal, who transported an army of elephants over the Alps to invade Rome; Julius Caesar, who brought Western Europe under Roman rule; the life and Passion of Christ; and the struggle of the rising church.



The Age of Faith (Volume 4): Over 1,000 years, we meet the Christian ascetics and martyrs, including Simeon Stylites, who sat atop a pillar for 30 years, exposed to rain, sun, and snow, and rejoiced as worms ate his rotting flesh; the saints, including Augustine, the most influential philosopher of his age; Mohammed, the desert merchant who founded a religion that conquered one-third of the known world in two centuries; and the Italian poet Dante, whose sensibility marks the transition to the Renaissance.



The Renaissance (Volume 5): In this volume, Will Durant examines the economic seeds -- the growth of industry, the rise of banking families, the conflicts of labor and capital -- for Italy's emergence as the first nation to feel the awakening of the modern mind. He follows the cultural flowering from Florence to Milan to Verona and eventually to Rome, allowing us to witness a colorful pageant of princes, queens, poets, painters, sculptors and architects. We see humanity moved boldly from a finite world to an infinite one.



The Reformation (Volume 6): In Europe's tumultuous emergence from the Middle Ages, we encounter two rival popes fighting for control of a corrupt, cynical church; the Hundred Years' War and 13-year-old warrior Joan of Arc; Christopher Columbus' accidental discovery of the New World; and Martin Luther, who defied the pope and ultimately led Northern Europe into the age of individualism.



The Age of Reason Begins (Volume 7): In one of Europe's most turbulent centuries, Philip II of Spain sees his "invincible" armada suffer defeat at the hands of England; Elizabeth I of England receives assistance from explorer Walter Raleigh and pirate Francis Drake; and new appeals for reason and science are exemplified in the ideas of Copernicus, Galileo and Descartes.



The Age of Louis XIV (Volume 8): This installment is the biography of a period some consider the apex of modern European civilization. "Some centuries hence," Frederick the Great predicted to Voltaire, "they will translate the good authors of the time of Louis XIV as we translate those of the age of Pericles or Augustus." Those authors are lovingly treated Pascal and Fenelon, Racine and Boileau, Mme. de Sevigne and Mme. de La Fayette, and, above all, the philosopher-dramatist Moliere, exposing the vices and hypocrisies of the age.



The Age of Voltaire (Volume 9): A biography of a great man and the period he embodied. We witness Voltaire's satiric work in the salons and the theater as well as his banishment to England. With him we view the complex relationships between nobility, clergy, bourgeoisie and peasantry in the France of Louis XV. We explore the music of Bach and the struggle between Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa of Austria. And finally we hear an imaginary discussion between Voltaire and Pope Benedict XIV on the significance and value of religion.



Rousseau and Revolution (Volume 10): This volume ranges over a Europe ...

]]> 1047 Will Durant 1567310125 Aaditya 0 to-read 4.30 1935 Our Oriental Heritage (The Story of Civilization, #1)
author: Will Durant
name: Aaditya
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1935
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]]>