My 2018 In 25 Books
Reading In Aid Of Constructing Fresh Narratives To Live By
I’ve been taking greater care to integrate my choice of reading matter with what’s going on in my life, so each informs the other to the benefit of both.
The year’s standout book was George Lakoff’s Where Mathematics Comes From — How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics Into Being, which set maths in a radical new context for me, utterly dethroning it from its previous position of being unassailably ‘true’. Along with Pedagogy of the Oppressed (and longer ago, Deschooling Society), this book contributed a lot to my increasing desire to be a maths teacher, and understanding of what that means for me. These books also made becoming a maths teacher immeasurably harder, due to the (highly engaging) trickiness of practically reconciling my mathematical and pedagogical perspectives with those of the structures within which I find myself training and teaching.
Perhaps most surprising was Memory Theatre, which unexpectedly turned out to be a wonderful teaser for a book, The Art of Memory (Frances A Yates), that has been sitting patiently on my shelf waiting for the right time to be read for many years now.
Last year I read more poetry than ever before, including Sufi mystic poetry from Rumi and Attar, having found a way to integrate it into my life by reading a verse or few before meditation, increasing my appreciation of both the poetry and the meditation. (Haiku — Love, Leaves of Grass, Rumi, The Conference of the Birds, Invisible Cities)
I found another nice format for reading whereby if I’m in a city with some time to spare, I’ll invite the city to offer me a book to read by wandering into the nearest bookseller that feels nice and letting a book jump off the shelves at me. I’ll usually read all or most of the book on that visit. (Regarding the Pain of Others, Memory Theatre, Dreams — Freud, Strictly Bipolar)
I’ve also been (selectively…) following the recommendations of others a lot more, including recommendations from a long time ago. (Reindeer People — Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia, The Conference of the Birds, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, 18 Minutes, Mrs Dalloway, When the Body Says No — The Costs of Hidden Stress, Where Mathematics Comes From, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Invisible Cities, Don’t Think of An Elephant — Know Your Values And Frame The Debate)
Other key themes of 2018 were:
- myth: Reindeer People, A Short History of Myth, Freemasonry, The Little People of the British Isles
- foundations of perception/reality: A Short History of Myth, Memory Theatre, Dreams — Freud, The Order of Time, Mrs Dalloway, Where Mathematics Comes From, Metaphors We Live By, Wholeness and the Implicate Order
- emotional awareness: When the Body Says No, Alchemy of the Heart
I’ve been making progress chipping away at my long neglected shelf of books waiting to be read, partly by reading the books, and sometimes by cutting them loose — a liberating process. (Reindeer People — Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia, Haiku — Love, Freemasonry, Leaves of Grass, 18 Minutes)
2019 promises to be a year of integrating reading into my life even more closely — active reading, scribbling in books, relating them together, diagramming etc., all in service of whatever it is that I’m up to, over and above the intrinsic value and pleasure of reading for its own sake.
