YO SOY BACKO!

I know that Kelsi and AJ have missed me and my awesomeness for the past little bit, and repentance is nigh. LET US BEGIN! The following is a co
bbled list of the books I have read
for the past little bit:

Law, Legislation and Liberty (again) by F.A. Hayek. 9/10!

I only reread the first volume which discusses rules and order and how they emerge spontaneously. It's a great read for those who love freedom!

Deconstructing the Republic by Anthony Peacock. 8/10!

A great and short (200 pages) book about how the

Voting Rights Act has corrupted the voting process and perverted the Founder's conception of republican, individual-based government. Great for arguing with your liberal friends!

Politics by Aristotle. 9.5/10!

The only reason this got 9.5 is that even after rereading a bunch of the sections I still struggled to understand some of what Aristotle was trying to say. Aristotle talks about the natures of the different kinds of governments and which of those are best (Aristocracy of course!) and other interesting things, like how to treat your slaves and the proper role of women (you'd love it Kelsi!). A must for everyone who doesn't want to be considered stupid.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 9/10!

A beautiful book about one day in the life of a Siberian concentration camp prisoner. It is simply beautiful. It is fiction, but based on the experiences of people who lived there. It's not gruesome or anything, and I think everyone who reads it will love it.

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky. 8/10!

It only gets 8/10 because the book makes me so sad and Dostoevsky really highlights terrible and evil feelings that we all experience, and because the protagonist thinks and writes in a fairly sporadic style that seems a little unbelievable at times. Overall, it's beautiful, like all Russian masterpieces.

Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek. 9.5/10!

What can I say? Hayek rocks. This is a partisan piece on how the Socialist programs of Europe could lead to the same Totalitarian philosophy that overtook Germany and caused the Second World War. It is short and concise. A MUST!

Faiths of Our Fathers by Alfred Mapp. 5/10....

This book gets a poor score due to my perception of it as bad history. It's title should be, The Founding Fathers Were All Christians In Some Form or Another and Here's Why....It's not so much that I disagreed with the book as that if I weren't a Christian and I read the book I would be more convinced than ever that the stories about the Founding Fathers being Christian were myths and propaganda promulgated by poor histories such as this one. I admit that my perception is limited by my lack of education, but it still struck me poorly.

(FIRST OFF! Check out Calhoun's hair, does he look like the classic conception of Satan or what?!)

Union and Liberty, a collection of works by John C. Calhoun. 8.5/10!

Although Calhoun supported slavery as a positive institution for society, he made brilliant constitutional arguments about that and other things which still influence the debates concerning constitutional problems and questions. I loved this book and shall reread it to gain a better understanding of how John Calhoun got such awesome hair!

The Anti-Federalist Papers. 8.5/10!

The original (and not stupid) tea-partiers! Read what they thought about the inability to stop the expansion of the national government, the danger of the presidency, and the tyranny of the Supreme Court!

The Church Books I've read:

With Full Purpose of Heart, A Collection of Discourses and Writings of Dallin H. Oaks. 8/10! E. Oaks writes and speaks like a lawyer, and I love him for it.

To Draw Closer to God, a Collection of Discourses by Henry Eyring. 9/10!

Pres. Eyring rocks. He speaks to the heart of the matter and you can tell he is focused on getting the message of the Atonement into the hearts of his listeners.

All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, Neal A. Maxwell. 8/10!

E. Maxwell writes a bit like C.S. Lewis, just a bit, and it makes for a short and good read full of great prose and charming thoughts. I wish he'd get a little more into it sometimes, but who can't love E. Maxwell?!

God in the Dock, a Collection of Essays by C.S. Lewis. 8/10!

It only gets 8/10 because it is not quite the concentrated apologetic work that I was expecting, but it is very good nonetheless.

SO THERE! I'm not gone, in fact, I'm back and better than freaking ever! WHO'S GOING TO CHALLENGE ME NOW?!

I read another one.

This time it was Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, no big deal. On an Austenian scale, I enjoyed it more than Sense and Sensibility but less than Emma and Pride and Prejudice. It was a nice read, but didn't excite in me any feelings worth talking about on this blog.

Now I'm reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is excellent. Get ready to hear my feelings on that one in about a week!

Huntin w/ Ruskies!!!

A week or so ago, I can't now recall, I finished The Hunt for Red October. Tom Clancy's break out thriller about submarine warfare in the cold war. It was Incredible!! I'm a huge fan of the movie, as noted by the fact that I watch it several times a year (which if you stop and think about that you'll realize watching any movie several times a year mean about every 4 months (think about it)), this being the case I'm familiar with the story line. But the book totally takes different turns!! Now I won't say Clancy is a literary genius because I felt that he brought in too many side stories, the book had ADD, but where he's the master is in his research and know how. There were so many aspects of naval stuff, tactics and all that, I never would have thought about. All I know is what the movies show me. For example when the commanding officer asks if they have a shooting solution, that process is wickedly complicated and not exact science. Cinema leads me to believe that torpedoes are point and shoot, not the case. And in the film version, and other movies I seen, subs hate to ping because it gives away their position, but in the book they just ping, ping, ping away. They have to ping in order to locate their target. Anyway the book was great, despite being extremely involved and detailed it remains engrossing. I was all wrapped up in the whole experience of the book.

My heart bleeds black

KELSI'S NOTE: I did not attempt to censor myself in any way, spoiler-wise, while writing this review. So if you ever plan on reading The Sorrows of Young Werther (I advise against it) and want to be fully surprised by every plot twist, don't read this post.

I am just a reading machine lately! I recently finished The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a book I only became interested in after seeing this comic. (Sadly, I have to thank Kate Beaton for most of the cultural influence in my life. Her comics either inform me of historical/political/literary events or prompt me to investigate them independently).

The Sorrows of Young Werther (published in 1774) is a short book about a passionate young artist named Werther. While staying in the countryside, Werther meets a lady named Charlotte and falls in love with her on first sight. However, she is already engaged to a suave older gentleman Albert (who I imagine has a mustache). Instead of doing what most normal people would do (wallow in self-pity for a while and then get over it), Werther mopes around the town, pathetically befriends Charlotte and Albert, writes 135 pages of emo poetry about how hard it is to be middle class (seriously), has to deal with a few more sucky things that he makes forty times worse by crying about them for two years, and then shoots himself with Albert's pistols (it's a metaphor).

This is what Werther would like look if he were living today. Luckily, he wouldn't be alive for long because he would soon kill himself when the local Hot Topic ran out of black nail polish.

Am I being harsh or simplistic? No, I am not. The whole book is a sob-fest about how much Werther hates his life, how much despair he feels when he is around Charlotte, how he can never possibly get over it and the only outlet is death. The entire time I was reading, all I could think was, "Emo poetry emo poetry emo poetryyyyyyyy." [In fact, I highlighted some especially dramatic passages from the story with the intention of sharing them on this blog, but for some reason my Kindle deleted them, and the thought of re-reading or even re-skimming the book makes me want to shoot myself for real (and not write three thousand sad poems about it beforehand).] Some of the philosophical insights found in the book were interesting, but they couldn't make up for the insufferable nature of the main character. It was a painful read and finishing it was a relief.

HOWEVER, while doing some post-reading research on the book, I came across an interesting fact: Goethe wrote this novel when he was 24 and loosely based it on some happenings in his own life; however, he later regretted penning the novel because of its immense success. And believe me, its success was immense (from Wikipedia):

The Sorrows of Young Werther was Goethe's first major success, turning him from an unknown into a celebrated author practically overnight ... It also started the phenomenon known as "Werther-Fieber" ("Werther Fever") which caused young men throughout Europe to dress in the clothing style described for Werther in the novel.

It reputedly also led to some of the first known examples of copycat suicide. The "Werther Fever" was watched with concern by the authorities and fellow authors.

Let's face it, if thousands of young sensitive German artist types were worshipping the literary character you created like he was the Messiah, you would be creeped out too. I imagine that Goethe suffered the type of regret that Stephanie Meyer would suffer from, if she had a conscience or a soul. It also annoyed him that, even in his later years, most folks only knew his name for Werther and not some of his other works, like Faust. So I can totally sympathize with Goethe and forgive him for his sin of bringing The Sorrows of Young Werther into the world, because it seems like he was truly penitent at the time of his death.

Plus, I don't exactly regret reading Sorrows, mostly because the payoff was nice when Werther finally shot himself and we learn that no one went to his funeral. Suck on that, you whiny German creep!

photo found here, thanks Google Images