“I have always imagined paradise will be a kind of library”
~ Jorge Luis Borges
So many books, so little time! For avid readers, one of the simple yet great pleasures in life is to just sit back and enjoy a good book. Whether it is fiction, biography, history, popular science or spirituality, a great book has that magical ability to transport readers to a world that encapsulates us with knowledge, wonder, thrills or just simple entertainment. To get an idea about the great reads we should all dive into, we have asked HU faculty members to list some of the favorite books on their nightstand and their recommendations for students, staff, and others for 2020.
Reading List for 2020
‘No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam’ by Reza Aslan
During Reza Aslan visit to HU in June 2019, he spoke about the book and its theme. The discussion around the beauty and complexity of the origins and evolution of the faith was quite interesting and therefore I wanted to read it.
Favorite book read in 2019
‘Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life’ by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
Favorite excerpt
It’s from ‘Designing Your Life’ and goes like this:
“Designers don’t think their way forward. Designers build their way forward. Designers embrace change. They are not attached to a particular outcome, because they are always focused on what will happen next — not what the final result will be.”
Reading List for 2020
I am planning to read a book called ‘Normal People’ by Sally Rooney. It’s a love tale of two teenagers. It’s cool and precise prose is full of feelings that will allow readers to believe in love.
Favorite book read in 2019
I love to read various books. Whether it is a collection of good essays, a memoir, maybe a book on history or a good nonfiction book. Therefore, this year I read a book about the untold story of Chernobyl, the 20th century’s worst nuclear disaster, ‘Midnight in Chernobyl’ by Adam Higginbotham.
It is the most important written document about the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station, and a riveting narrative about a nuclear disaster that defined the Cold War.
Favorite excerpt
“Learning never exhausts the mind!” ~ Leonardo Da Vinci
Reading List for 2020
On my reading list for 2020 is ‘Lolita’ by Vladimir Nabokov, ‘Killing Commendatore’ by Murakami and ‘The Age of Revolution’ by Eric Hobsbawm. Since I read some 15 to 20 books a year, I imagine there will be more, but these are for sure.
Favorite book read in 2019
I am loving ‘The Shock Doctrine’ by Naomi Klein. I am about to finish it. I loved ‘Dove va la Germania?’ (‘Where is Germany going?’) An essay by Italian political scientist Gian Enrico Rusconi about far-right movements in contemporary Germany.
Favorite excerpt
There would be a million from Philip Roth’s ‘Sabbath’s Theatre’, but I don’t have the book with me at the moment. So I choose this from Pankaj Mishra’s ‘A Great Clamour’, an essay about Asian politics and history:
“Japan caught up, and even surpassed the West, only to find out there was no place to go to, no new path to chart.”
Reading List for 2020
I have to finish the final two novels by Douglas Adams of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ called ‘Mostly Harmless’, ‘And Another Thing’. Other books on my reading list include ‘Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe’, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz and ‘The Wizard and the Prophet’ by Charles Mann. As you can see, most of literature I read for fun is centered around science fiction or history and 2020 feels like no exception to this.
Favorite book read in 2019
‘21 Lessons for the 21st Century’ by Yuval Noah Harari.
Favorite excerpt?
“We do not understand the Big Bang – therefore you must cover your hair in public and vote against gay marriage” from ‘21 Lessons for the 21st Century’.
Favorite book read in 2019
I really enjoyed ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’ by Yuval Noah Harari. As the title says, it really is a brief history of humankind. I also finally read Bruno Snell’s ‘The Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Thought’. It’s a bit more academic, of course, but all the more surprising for it. Snell is reminiscent of an era when academic writing was really enjoyable.
Favorite excerpt
Snell got me interested in Sappho again, which led me to the Anne Carson translation of her fragments, and lines like this:
‘Eros shook my mind like a mountain wind falling on oak trees’.
Reading List for 2020
‘Discrete Mathematics and Functional Programming’, by Thomas Van Drunen. It is a very technical book, but it does provide fascinating insights on the application of discrete mathematics to programming and computer science.
Favorite book read in 2019
‘Ray Tracing from the Ground Up’, by Kevin Suffern. The author of this book is the Associate of The School of Software at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), where he has decades of teaching experience. Anyone interested in understanding the rendering technique of ray tracing should pick this one up.
Favorite excerpt
Ellsworth M Toohey: “Mr. Roark, we’re alone here. Why don’t you tell me what you think of me? In any words you wish. No one will hear us.”
Howard Roark: “But I don’t think of you.” ~ ‘The Fountainhead’ by Ayn Rand.
Reading List for 2020
There are a number of books that I would like to read next year. Top of my list would include ‘Why You Should Be a Socialist’ by Nathan J. Robinson; ‘Manufacturing Consent’ by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky; and Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Favorite book read in 2019
I really enjoyed ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’ by Yuval Noah Harari.
Favorite excerpt
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” ~ ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell.
Reading List for 2020
I don’t plan and read. I keep piling up books next to my bedside and I read from this pile. So many books I will read in 2020 are those I have already selected for reading. I am looking forward to reading Haruki Murakami’s new book The Killing Commendatore. I always look forward to re-reading classics. I want to re-read Thomas Mann’s magnificent Buddenbrooks again and the great Russians. A long journey or vacations get me re-reading the classics.
Favorite book read in 2019
Among the books in 2019, I really liked Dozakh Namah ably translated by my colleague Inaam Nadeem. I was fortunate to read in the manuscript stage Afzaal Ahmed Syed’s translations from the Indo Persian poets, Baada e Dosheena and I am looking forward to its publication. I have really enjoyed Julian Barnes’s new book The Man in the Red Coat. I am now fascinated by Ninni Holmqvist’s dystopian The Unit. The future as horror. Ni, I mean the horror as future!
Favorite excerpt
“A book should be like a pick-axe to break the frozen sea within us.” ~ Franz Kafka
