Big Intellectual Books You Own and Would Really Like to Have Read

[Extollager]

Erich Auerbach's Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Here again, a book I bought in the 1980s and haven't read. I remember that Auerbach's "Figura," in another book, was a helpful long article when I was reading Dante's Divine Comedy.

The Book of Books - The New Yorker

 

[Theophania Elliott]

A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth. Bought it last month or so because it was going cheap on Amazon and it looked interesting. But it's really, really long...

Kant is good: I read the Metaphysics of Morals a while back.

 

[BAYLOR]

Beyond Good and Evil by Frederich Nietzsche

 

[hitmouse]

A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth. Bought it last month or so because it was going cheap on Amazon and it looked interesting. But it's really, really long....

Dont be put off by the length. It is a really good page turner.

 

[Theophania Elliott]

Dont be put off by the length. It is a really good page turner.

Thanks! It seems to be the kind of book that polarises people, like Marmite. But I am determined to read it Soon(TM).

 

[hitmouse]

Thanks! It seems to be the kind of book that polarises people, like Marmite. But I am determined to read it Soon(TM).

To put it in perspective, it is much shorter than Game of Thrones.

 

[Allegra]

I bought it before a trip that was cancelled later so the book stayed on the shelf. Very much want to read it. Someday.

 

[HanaBi]

A Brief History of Time - Wikipedia

Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time"

A book I bought in 1989, and didn't actually finish until 2006; but didn't fully understand until ..... well, that's still ongoing!

 

[anno]

I loved the Hawkins book til chapter 3 when my nose started to bleed and I lost the use of my bladder...

 

[Allegra]

I read A Gentle Madness, very interesting. The other one is still to be read.

 

[Extollager]

How could I have forgotten?

Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy! I've had a copy since 11 July 2002. I have read at least a bit of it. It has been a comfort to me when having to sit through a campus "pre-service" session before the academic year starts.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I bought it before a trip that was cancelled later so the book stayed on the shelf. Very much want to read it. Someday.

I was lent a copy of this by my mum, and I didn't like it at all. Basically a list of people doing horrible things to one another, with virtually no interpretation, comment or anything vaguely readable. Avoid.

 

[Allegra]

I was lent a copy of this by my mum, and I didn't like it at all. Basically a list of people doing horrible things to one another, with virtually no interpretation, comment or anything vaguely readable. Avoid.

Oh is that so? Hmmm... sounds like Game of Thrones.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Give it a go, you might like it. Myself, I find myself reading too many books that are basically this sort of "list" book, the worst one I read was by Steve Jones - elsewhere a really super author - called The Serpent's Promise.

 

[Extollager]

I've had From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life from 1500 to the Present
sitting on my shelf unread for more than 10 years. I've taken a peck at it now and then, but it's never engaged enough to sustain my interest. I can't bring myself to give it away because I still feel I ought to read it.

This one keeps coming to mind as something I might end up buying and even reading.

 

[BAYLOR]

I bought it before a trip that was cancelled later so the book stayed on the shelf. Very much want to read it. Someday.

I reading his book Stalin in the Court of the Red Tsar . He is an excellent writer

 

[Allegra]

Big, and intellectual of the highest degree. It requires several life times learning!

 

[Bick]

How could I have forgotten?

Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy! I've had a copy since 11 July 2002. I have read at least a bit of it. It has been a comfort to me when having to sit through a campus "pre-service" session before the academic year starts.

That looks fantastic and I think any other poster on this thread will have to go some way to beat it for size and apparent impenetrability. Though the blurb actually makes it look pretty interesting...

My top pick might be:
Brian Greene's Fabric of the Cosmos, which I've partially read, and loved, but I got a nosebleed about a third the way through. Someday I will concentrate very hard and finish it.

 

[Extollager]

Erich Auerbach's Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Here again, a book I bought in the 1980s and haven't read. I remember that Auerbach's "Figura," in another book, was a helpful long article when I was reading Dante's Divine Comedy.

View attachment 32735The Book of Books - The New Yorker

Another article on Mimesis:

An Uncommon Reader

 

[svalbard]

I bought it before a trip that was cancelled later so the book stayed on the shelf. Very much want to read it. Someday.

Opposite to Stephen. I thought it was great.