So once again I'm reading more books than I can handle at once. I'm currently reading The Waves by Virginia Woolf, who I would have to say is up there in my few most favourite authors. I started reading it last year some time, but for whatever reason (probably essays and uni work) I abandoned it not far in. Woolf's writing is the most aesthetically beautiful I have come across - her novels are constructed to fit a whole, with much attention paid to form. To The Lighthouse is another of her novels where her attention to the detail of the whole novel (for it to form an 'H' shape) is executed perfectly. The Waves demonstrates Woolf's stream-of-consciousness style pushed to an extreme that is breathtaking to read. I'll write more about it when I finish it, I guess.
I'm also reading Six Easy Pieces by the venerable physicist Richard Feynman. It is basically a collection of some of his lectures that serve as an introduction to physics. These were lectures that he gave as a freshman course to prepare students for the physics to come in later years, and they serve as an experiment and example in how to teach, if anything else. Feynman's teaching style was famous - he rarely had much in the way of a lecture plan, and would turn up and simply start talking about whatever took his attention at the time. Such was his popularity that whenever he guest-lectured they would have to keep his appearance a secret otherwise there would be no seats left for course students. His way of explanation certainly is illuminating, and has been emulated by the writers of popular science books ever since. Feynman manages to convey the complexity of physics with the simple wonder that things that appear so complex can usually be reduced to simple explanations.
I'm addicted to popular science books, and I feel very passionate about them. They are the perfect opportunity for the scientific community to engage with the mainstream population, and it has been shown repeatedly that people actually want to know more about science. As so much science these days is less demonstrative - consider the science of the human genome project compared with the science of the space race - it is less visible and open to the casual observer. I myself did not take as much science in school as I should have because, with the exception of biology, none of the teachers communicated the wonder to me (or perhaps it is more likely that I just wasn't listening.) Ever since rediscovering my old passion for science (through philosophy, and a critical thinking course) I've read popular science books as fast as I can buy them. Feynman's is an example of how it should be done, despite its now old-age.
I'm also reading Six Thinking Hats by Edward DeBono. I started browsing through a copy of his book Think! Before it's too Late and came across a description of his thinking-hat method of lateral thinking and was hugely intrigued by the idea of attentional or 'guided' thinking. When we are left to simply 'think' by ourselves, our minds are quite inefficient. By directing our attention towards aspects of a problem, we can increase productivity and ensure that we come up with a working solution.
I looked everywhere for a decent copy of Six Thinking Hats, and could not find one. I vaguely remembered seeing it in one of the Penguin Classics editions, but could not find that either. Eventually, straying into a less-common bookstore, I happened across it. Ten bucks. Thankyou very much.
It's a very interesting read, and I think it also has some implications for Western philosophy, focused as it is on argumentative thinking. I intend to post more on the topic a bit later.
I would like to again emphasize how good the Penguin Classics editions are. Every single book in the series so far (well, less in the second series they released) has been a book I've wanted to read, or have heard good things about. The best thing about the series is the mish-mash of popular genre, high-brow literature, popular science and philosophy. If a person were to buy every single book in this series, she would have a very well-filled and interesting bookshelf. As an example of this let me consider a few - Six Easy Pieces By Feynman, Six Thinking Hats by DeBono, Lolita by Nabokov and The Consolations of Philosophy by DeBotton.
Four diverse books that can only expand a person's mind. Four books that will involve them with the world and do everything that good books are meant to do. And here's the best bit, which I will repeat again and again: these four books for just under $40. That's amazing value.
Books can change the world, and they have the best chance of doing this when they are cheap and smartly produced. Again, and I don't think I will tire of saying this: congratulations, Penguin.
