Books: What are you currently reading?

[Agent Minivann]

Currently reading The Complete Works which includes both Handbook and Discourses from Epictetus, my personal favorite stoic philosopher. I've noticed it's quite a bit easier to read, less nihilistic, and contains more actionable knowledge than Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

I liked Meditations. I'll have to get this.

 

[chas]

The Sabres of Paradise by Lesley Blanch. This is a truly amazing, frightening, and colorful history book about the Caucasian resistance to the expansion of the Russian Empire in the mid 19th Century. It was a primary source for Frank Herbert back when it came out in 1960 when he was writing Dune! The fierce Muslim mountain tribesmen fought for 30 years before being conquered. Both sides were brutal and unrelenting. The volume was famous when it came out; Jackie Kennedy asked Krushchev about it and got an evasive reply! This book is so well written that you feel like you've been sent back in a time machine. It also serves as a biography of the charismatic Imam Shamil, the leader of the fanatical Murids, who fought from deep mountainside forests and almost inaccessible mountain peak villages against the Tsar's rapacious army of conquest.

 

[Ninja Status]

Currently on my 2nd read-through of Silent Music by William Johnston. Real interesting if you like meditation and want to learn more about its history, science and importance.