Library and Anti-Library

"An 'anti-library'?" I hear you say! Indeed. Let me explain.

This concept derives (in my life) from a friend of mine telling me a story about someone with a huge library of books who when asked if he'd read them all answered with a defiant 'no'. The following statement summarised to the point that we should appreciate that there is more to learn than we have learned, and thus more to read than we have read. We might never get through the books that we purchase but at least gathering reading material is an acceptance that we should continue to learn. I prefer the simple quote:

"all we know is infinitely less than all there is to know"

That said, the term anti-library is a reference to the books we own but have not read. Or potentially, plan to read whether we own them or not.

This year I've read somewhere in the region of 26 books ranging from philosophy, to nutrition and health, to travel, sports (basketball and surfing) to social/psychological science, to serious physics. But the following list is simply what remains on my shelf to be read.....

• The Four Hour Body - T. Ferris
• A Little History of the world - E. H. Gombrich
• :59 Seconds - Professor R. Wiseman
• The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing - R. Dawkins
• The Paleo Solution - R. Wolf
• The Talent Code - D. Coyle
• The Red Queen - M. Ridley
• The Drunkards Walk - L. Mlodinow
• A Rough Guide to the Earth
• A Rough Guide to the Brain
• Eddie Would Go - S. Holmes Coleman
• The rise and fall of the third chimpanzee - J. Diamond
• Why Don't Penguins feet Freeze? - New Scientist
• Do Polar Bears get Lonely? - New Scientist
• At Home - Bill Bryson
• The Selfish Gene - R. Dawkins
• All for a few Perfect Waves - D. Rensin

Anyway, I realise this isn't as entertaining or as educational as you might have liked or as previous blogs, but realistically we learn something in everything. At the end of the year I will blog a little more about me, what I've done with the year, and more detail on what I've read and written. In the mean-time perhaps this is a little window into who I am.

Any other recommendations are very welcome

Be Well

JF