Tag: the true believer

Have we lost confidence in our way of life?

The Americans are poor haters in international affairs because of their innate feeling of superiority over all foreigners. An American’s hatred for a fellow American (for Hoover or Roosevelt) is far more virulent than any antipathy he can work up against foreigners. It is of interest that the backward South shows more xenophobia than the rest of the country. Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life. – Eric Hoffer, The True Believer

If you like to struggle with the big questions, if you want to understand how the world works, I can’t recommend a better book. It will challenge you and generate a lot more questions than it answers, which I think the best books do. Highly recommended. I wrote this book summary almost exactly one year ago, and it’s reminded me to reread the book. Going to do that now!

Books I recently read: The True Believer, Darwin’s Cathedral, Battle Hymn, and more

here-is-new-york-eb-whiteHere’s an ongoing list of finished books.

The below are my favorites since the March update, sorted into the order of “if I only had one month to live where would I start”. I hope you like them, too!

  • Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marques (excerpts)
  • Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (for the 2nd time; excerpt)
  • Here is New York by EB White
  • The True Believer by Eric Hoffer (summary)
  • Technology Matters by David Nye (for the 2nd time; here is my summary)
  • Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (didn’t expect to like it, but I did!)
  • On Writing Well by William Zinsser (review)
  • Darwin’s Cathedral by David Sloan Wilson (summary)

“It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck. No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.” – EB White, Here is New York