Ok, so I was thinking that while I do read a very significant amount, the vast majority of books I read are Fiction. However, having talked with many of my professors at AIU I became very interested in reading more non-fiction. This reminds me that, when my family installed cable TV for the first time a little over a year ago (I think). I quickly discovered that I enjoyed things such as the "Science channel", "BBC", and "History" a lot more then things such as HBO or Sci-Fi. While going through my mind, there is quite a list of non-fiction books I want to read, however the first 2 books currently on my list are something by Barack Obama (Probably "The audacity of Hope") and the 2nd being "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith.
The reason I want to read the first book is that my Debate teacher keeps talking about him (trying really hard to meet him). Motsumoto-Sensei (debate teacher) says that has read all of Obama's books as well as all the books that Obama likes according to his facebook profile. Motsumoto believes that by reading these books he can get an insight into the person's mind, which I guess fascinates me a bit, could I get a deeper insight into the current president's mind?
The 2nd book is written by Adam Smith, my Economics professor (Lacktorin-Sensei)'s favorite economist and his "Hero". Adam Smith is a strong supporter of free market laissez-faire policies, in other words the belief that the government should not interfere with the market, and that interfering will only cause damage in the long term. Either way some of this guy's ideas sound absolutely fascinating. Afterwards, if this goes OK, I would like to read Marx as well.
Now, the question I would also wish to briefly address here, is why didn't I read more non-fiction before. Well, to be honest non-fiction scared me, what if it uses lingo unique to its topic that I won't understand? What if its an old book (Like the "Wealth of nation") and uses old language that I won't be able to understand? I guess once does have to consider the intended audience when approaching a non-fiction book. If the author intended to reach a general audience, then he should make an attempt to make his book easy to read.
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While idea to examine a person's mind by examining their reading lists has a certain appeal, it only works if the list wasn't manufactured with a certain goal in mind, like to create a desiarable public image. One has to wonder to what extent Mr./Mrs. Motsumoto is in denial about the issue. We're talking about a politician, who drove Chrysler 300C with bling wheels when milling in Southern Chicago and switched to Escape Hybrid for the presidential campaign. You'd think someone making insightful choices in cars would have the foresight to think about a book list.
ReplyDeleteAs for Adam Smith, while it's an essential reading, the density of important ideas is not very high, I'm afraid. I'd leapfrog him in favour of some Milton Friedman. Friedman has an additional advantage of growing up in the age of Progressivism, e.g. when socialism and fascism were respectable intellectual movements. Naturally, he was a socialist, before his in-depth study of economics demonstrated how much damage collectivist dogma deals to well-being of the people. So, reading his works gives a unintentional insight into his intellectual journey.
Ah yes, I think Friedman is the Economics Professor's 2nd favorite economist. I also agree with the first comment, probably the most ridiculious assignment that was ever given to us in debate (this is unanimously agreed by everyone in the class) was to read "Where the wild things are" (Since its one of Obama's favorite books), and use it to psyco analyze him.
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