all the books i read in september and what i thought of them
All the books I read in September and what I thought of them
In September I read 4 books, and I read one of them twice, except two of the books were fewer than 100 pages, so I wouldn't really count them as books. I can’t recommend reading the Republic twice in one month unless doing so makes you seem smart in your philosophy class. I also can't recommend reading the Republic twice in one month if you want your philosophy class to feel positively toward you. It's wild how I enjoyed approximately none of the books I read this month. But sometimes you just have to accept that an event didn't go how you wanted it to go and try again tomorrow. It's been a minute since I lamented in my blog post intro that I don't sleep enough, which might have led my readers to believe I've fixed that problem, but I've actually never been more sleep deprived in my life. This is just a fun fact.
✨✨✨
The Republic by Plato
rating: ⭐⭐
I am such a big fan of the way my poli sci professor taught this book, and I don’t even like the book. We are learning about what enlightenment means, which I honestly don’t really care about, but I appreciate that my professor takes students seriously and answers my questions. Socrates can’t make a good argument to save his life and half of the points in the book rest on the idea that a human soul is analogous to municipal government. And that you can compare everything to a horse. You can’t compare everything to a horse. A man in a really good Halloween costume isn’t the same as a horse. I stole that joke from my friend PJ. My professor says that the Republic is about how being a good citizen and being a good person are different things, and that whenever Socrates says something dumb, Plato wants you to think about the contradiction in his argument. So that explains pretty well my main grievance. I still think this book is tedious and Socrates is an annoying character.
🐎🐎🐎
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
rating: ⭐⭐⭐
I once again did this really fun thing where my friend recommends a book that I'm sure is actually quite good and then it just doesn't really grab me and I read it in short installments over a criminally long period of time which makes me not care for it much. My friend Celina found this book in a pile of free stuff in the CLXF lobby and kindly let me borrow it over the summer, and then I didn't read it until late August, and then she spoiled the ending when I was 50 pages from the end, although I think it made me appreciate the plot twist more. It is a good thing this book exists. Reform schools sure were bad, and now I know that reform schools sure were bad.
🪙🪙🪙
The Republic by Plato (reread)
rating: ⭐⭐
I read this book for two classes at almost the same time, and it was the same translation, and I borrowed it from the library. I am winning so severely. I'm not going to speak ill of my philosophy professor on the internet, but we didn't go into nearly as much depth with the Republic as we did in my poli sci class. But it was fun to talk about one thing in that class and then talk about the same thing in my philosophy class and I would just know everything. I am sure at least one person in my class thinks I’m so annoying and has beef with me. I hope the next person who reads the library book thinks my annotations are funny.
Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
rating: ⭐⭐
My poli sci professor told me to read this book because I asked him why every psalm is the same and he didn’t have an answer, but evidently Dietrich Bonhoeffer does (this is true, he says that every psalm is about one of eight topics and you’re supposed to go through all of them over a period of time so it’s okay to repeat a topic a week apart, and also the psalms are meant to be sung, but you sing psalms antiphonally, so they have to be about the same thing for several paragraphs). No one has ever put this much effort into answering my questions except my parents. This is an appreciation post for my poli sci professor. I don't know what antiphony means.
🙏🙏🙏
I know you didn't phrase it as a question, but doing what I can to stay ahead of your poli sci prof:
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia:
The looser term antiphony is generally used for any call and response style of singing, such as the kirtan or the sea shanty and other work songs, and songs and worship in African and African-American culture. Antiphonal music is that performed by two choirs in interaction, often singing alternate musical phrases. Antiphonal psalmody is the singing or musical playing of psalms by alternating groups of performers.