Re: The troubles

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@mindspring.com>]

> On Thu, 9 Oct 1997 01:03:19 -0400 Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@mindspring.com>
> writes:
> "Your reading list doesn't strike me as one that will bring in many
> > takers, even among the scholarly community."   It isn't even the
> beginning of a reading list.  It's just what I happen to read lately and
> some drama and poetry that it reminded me of, but what can be removed
> from a list of such great writers?   It strikes me that any scholar in
> the liberal arts who had not read everything on *that* list isn't a
> scholar.  But, you have aroused my curiosity.  Could you give me some
> examples of what quasi-intelligent people *do* read nowadays?    "Please,
> God, don't let it be Tom Clancy."
>
> Bloom wrote that it was impossible to get a liberal education in the U.S.
> nowadays.  In fact, there was no one to impart it.
> Bye for now / Tom
> *******************************************************************
> > Hugh
> >
> > ************************************************************
> > Hugh Haskell
> > <mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

If that list was "just what you have read lately" then you either read a
whole lot faster than I do, or have a great deal more time to read than I
do, or both. I have no idea what "quasi-intelligent people" read nowadays.
But if the reviews section in the newpapers is any indication, Tom Clancy
seems to be in there along with a whole lot of others of the same ilk.
Personally, I read almost no fiction (at least I try only to read things
that are not *labeled* fiction), not because I have an aversion to it, but
because I all too often get so caught up in a story that I can't put the
book down and end up reading all night long, whereupon I am a zombie the
next day. So I am currently concentrating on scientific biographies,
memoires and histories, with an occasional popularization thrown in, such
as "Climbing Mount Improbable" by Richard Dawkins, or "Dreams of a Final
Theory" by Stephen Weinberg. I am sure that my reading tastes are not
widely duplicated. Even with my relatively restricted reading list, my wife
seems to think I "read all the time" and complains that because of that I
never have time for her. She exaggerates, of course, but it does occupy a
reasonable amount of my time. Hence my admiration of your wide and
ecclectic recent reading list. Where do you find the time? Or are you an
Evelyn Woods graduate?

Hugh

To get random signatures put text files into a folder called "Random
Signatures" into your Preferences folder.The box said "Requires Windows 95
or better." So I bought a Macintosh.
************************************************************