New Notions
There's a great new challenge up at Grasping For The Wind. It's called New Notions 5 Reading Challenge, and the requirements for books (you only have to read one a month) is that they have to challenge your thinking on any given topic. That's the kind of challenge I love!
I haven't had much time to think about what I might pick, but Wikipedia does have a list of controversial books and there is a long list of banned books here, and a list of the most harmful books here.
Some of the issues I'd be interested in reading around would include:
- Climate change theory; I'm in the camp that does not believe global warming is due to carbon emissions, but I'm always interested in reading about different theories)
- White supremacy; I've been fascinated by the supposed allure of blonde hair and the status accorded those who have blonde hair for a long time and want to look at the darker side of the Aryan ideal and its supporters
- Conservative politics; I'm pretty left wing and want to know how these people think!
- Che Guevara; I loved the film The Motorcycle Diaries, but I get the feeling it isn't a very objective interpretation of Guevara's life
- Cloning; I am very against cloning in theory, but perhaps if I knew more about how it can change people's lives and how it actually works, I might change my mind
I can't wait to start finding books that will count toward this challenge, and I also can't wait to see the selections other participants make. Half the point of reading books is to increase knowledge and stretch the mind, but that sometimes gets neglected.
6 comments:
Now that does sound like an interesting challenge -- I like wide-open ones like that.
I'm going to take a look at those links you posted on controversial books. I like the sound of the challenge too.
I have Jon Lee Andersen's bio of Che Guevara, and it's pretty amazing. Fairly certain it's the go-to book in the field. :)
That sounds like a fun challenge--there are so many tempting ones these days. All your topics look interesting! Ineed to look at that wiki list.
I think you're definitely braver and more open-minded than me with the issues you're going to tackle. White supremacy? Conversative politics? Cloning? I know I'll start to foam at the mouth if I get anywhere near stuff like that.
I wish you good luck on this endeavour.
I'm giving it a pass, partly because I've too many reading commitment to fulfill.
Thanks for putting up the links, I'm directing folks to check out your links and ideas to if they are having trouble getting started.
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