Most people make new year’s resolution; I make new year’s “to read” lists – a practice I’ve found to yield much more successful results than making resolutions. However as a significant portion of my reading time is now consumed with my half (if not in fact more) mad project of working my way through the entire St. John’s College reading list as well as reading all the books we’ve chosen for our daughter’s curriculum in order that they will be fresh in my mind when I discuss them with her, and all the books I’m called upon to read for my professional reviewing work, the amount of free time left for discretionary reading this year is significantly smaller than in the past.
Nevertheless, there still are a few books I’ve designated as “must reads” for 2014:
The Message of the Qur’ān by Muhammad Asad. Having now finished my reading of the King James Version of The Bible, I think it only appropriate to continue my exploration of the world’s most widely consulted and cited religious texts with The Qur’ān. However unlike the King James Version, which despite being a translation of the original Hebrew and Greek of The Bible – and in some cases even a emendation of previous English translations of the works in these languages – is a significant work in itself as well as an important translation of the older works, The Qur’ān is most commonly read in its original Arabic. Indeed, many devout Moslems would dispute that it remains the same work when translated into other languages – hence the title of the Asad translation.
The Rule of Law by Thomas Bingham. The late Baron Bingham of Cornhill, Britain’s former senior law lord, explores both the letter as well as the spirit of English law in a manner that is reported to be both brilliant as well as accessible to the general reader. The book came to my attention whilst browsing the shelves of Munro’s Books in Victoria, B.C. I should have purchased it on the spot but – for reasons wholly lost to me now – didn’t. Fortunately, I know from previous experience that Munro’s will ship books.
American Heretics; Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and the History of Religious Intolerance by Peter Gottschalk. This historical investigation of the treatment of religious minorities in the United States came to my attention thanks to the podcast of an interview with the author that was originally broadcast on C-SPAN 2’s Book TV.
Under a Cruel Star; A Life in Prague 1941-1968 by Heda Margolius Kovály. The late, and in my estimation most certainly great, Tony Judt recommended this now somewhat difficult-to-find memoir in his and Timothy Snyder’s superb Thinking The Twentieth Century – a book I may also read once again in 2014 as it merits repeated reading.
Night Games; and Other Stories and Novellas by Arthur Schnitzler. I took the copy of this somewhat obscure collection of stories by Schnitzler down from my library shelves in order to read “Dream Story,” the 1926 novella originally published in German under the title “Traumnovelle” and upon the translation of which Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut was based. Finding Schnitzler’s original novella far more interesting than Kubrick’s film, and indeed being wholly transfixed by the author’s beautiful narrative style, I am very eager to read more of Schnitzler’s works.
Alone Together; Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other by Sherry Turkle. Dr. Turkle, the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a frequent guest on Krista Tippett’s public radio program On Being. Not surprisingly, it was on this very program that I came to learn of her work and from that discovery inquire into her books – the most recently published of which being this aforementioned one.
