Thread by @Usherwood

So, a new thread for 2020

Books I have had in my pile of books to read, but didn't, which I'm now reading

Pithy, I know

I read a lot (nearly 50 books last year), so I always have a pile of things to read at home.

But some books just fall down the pile, to sit there, unread and (except very occasionally) unnoticed

This New Year, foreswearing anything more active, I decided this year I would Clear The Backlog

A bit like Draining the Swamp, but without the chanting, or the class warfare

It's not a big pile, just 6 books, so I'm going for reading one every other month, so I can read stuff I'm more keen on in between

And since it's good to reflect on such things, I'm going to keep this thread going

Maybe it'll help me avoid such situations in future

Book 1

"Creating Freedom" by Raoul Martinez

I got given this by my father in law a couple of years ago, with a strong recommendation that I'd find it very insightful

For reference, this is the only family member I'm not married to who read my thesis after my viva. And returned it with typos marked up

I didn't read it then because it had cover quotes from people like Brain Eno and Russell Brand, and because I think I have a problem with philosophizing

Of course reading it, it turns out not to be that much philosophizing, but rather one proposition (we're structurally unfree), spun out into almost 400 pages

So it wasn't tough going, intellectually, but I don't really care for the approach of quoting endless numbers of other people: it reads like pop philosophy (maybe why all the gushing cover quotes)

There's also the issue of how to challenge this freedom. Martinez argues we have to be thoughtful and critical and active.

But if the system is stacked against us, how can this succeed?

We never really find out

One benefit of reading this now, is that it was published in early 2016, so pre-Brexit/Trump, and the constraints to action seem all the clearer

But I don't regret reading it, if only to think some more about how we might fit together political and social action, in the round.

Plus, I get to give it back to my father in law