Collier’s Row
Jan Webster had a deep and instinctive feel for the Scots people of whom she wrote.This is an affecting saga of Scots life. ISBN 978-0446825825
The Philosophy of Schopenhauer by Bryan Magee
This volume allows Bryan Magee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Magee) the length to set out the arguments of the great German pessimist. He is largely sympathetic to Schopenhauer. Firstly he takes over 100 pages to explain how Schopenhauer’s starting point is very much the ‘transcendental idealism’ of Immanuel Kant. Briefly put this is a stance that Kant arrived at
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Historic New Lanark
The Dale and Owen Industrial Community Since 1785 Are you ever embarrassed about not knowing more about your local area when visitors arrive? Bone up on this book and have it to hand. It traces New Lanark’s history from its conception as a centre of mass production in 1785 to its present day standing as
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The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
Nicholas Carr’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_G._Carr) contention is that the internet is rewiring our brains to negative effect. He is not merely talking about ‘dumbing down’. What he posits is more significant: that human culture has been built steadily over our literate history by deep and meditative reading, and the internet threatens to undo this process. Millions of people are
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The Super-organism
A superb study (2009) into the social insects – ants, bees, wasps and termites. Richly illustrated and brimming with first class scholarship throughout, this volume will give you an exciting and absorbing education into its subject matter. 576 pages in W.W. Norton & Co. hardback edition. ISBN 978-0393067040
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Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture by Jonathan Dollimore
Jonathan Dollimore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Dollimore) tackles a huge theme here. It is the tangled topics of death, desire and loss in Western culture. His aim is to investigate the central paradox that desire is the bedfellow, so to speak, of loss and death. As he puts it ‘what connects death with desire is mutability–the sense that all being
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Consilience by Edward O. Wilson
Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson) argues for the position that there must be a fundamental unity to all truth across the sciences and humanities. This is a noble vision. Wilson sees its origin in the Ionian Greek belief that the cosmos is an orderly whole running by laws discoverable in thought. His own inspiration is
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Necropolis
A really entertaining whilst informative work about how London has disposed of its dead throughout history. This can be dipped into and enjoyed especially by those of a ghoulish disposition. Ironically, Arnold’s writing brings London richly ‘to life’. ISBN 978-1416502487
Reaching Out
Dutch born Catholic priest and writer Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen wrote some of the most profound yet accessible works about the spiritual life in the twentieth century. This is one such, about the spiritual life in three movements. Our best chance at salvation is found in reaching out to others. ISBN 978-0006280866