Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Banned books!

Great article on Forbes: Five Banned Books That You Should Read (That You Probably Haven't). I had not read any of the five, but now am planning to do so. Fortunately, the two recent books are available at my local library, so I've ordered them. And the classics Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei, Zhuangzi and The Epic of Gilgamesh are all available free for download. I just searched for the title plus free ebook.

I just love my old Kindle for reading stuff like that, and the free application Calibre for managing the downloaded files. It can even be used as a reader, although usually I only use that function to check that the files are readable. (Calibre is available as a package for most linux distros, including Kubuntu)

Over and over, I've been surprised by old classics. They seem to be fusty and boring, until I get into the rhythm of the older language. At that point, it's easy to appreciate why they have become classics. And my recent podcast listen to the History of English has given me a renewed sense of the sweep of history and our modern world's place in that history.

Read the classics! Read banned books, and open your mind!

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