Book Group: Which books?

[Vanquish_V12]

i have to say am not big on fiction but the poisonwood bible wasnto bad, as some1 suggested it.

 

usually i stick to non fiction with historical basis, my last read was the professor and madman, i remember correctly. this book has to do with how the oxford dictionary come to be, interesting book.

[pearl]

many of u might have seen the movies such as runaway jury, a time to kill, the firm, the client etc..etc....all written by john grisham....

 

believe me reading the book is waaaaaaaaaaay bettter...cuz its soo description,funny,trilling, and addictive. i find myself reading till 3am...every unusual of me to be up reading at such an hour....

 

Regrettably i wish the somali books could be translations to english so that i can read them...

[Tony_Montana]

My favorite books:

 

Sayyid Qutb - Milestones (*****)

 

Sheikh Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarkpuri - The Sealed Nectar(*****)

 

Edward Said - Orientalism (****)

 

Klein, Naomi - No logo (****)

 

Schlosser, Eric - Fast Food Nation (*****)

[Thinkerman]

I got to be honest people, am not much of a book worm. But am trying to change that now that i have some time on my hand.

 

What would be a recommendable book to read? It could be factual or Fictional, but must be im some way informative or beneficial..........or help pass time :cool: .

[Sophist]

Elated to see this thread being resurfaced. :cool:

 

Thus Spake the Old Nomad

Sophist

[Sophist]

Fabious Adeer,

 

It is all depends upon what you are into. Tell me what you naturally like and I glance at my collection and revisit the delights of reading about that subject.

 

Cheerio

 

Thus Spake the Old Nomad

Sophist

[Zaylici]

nothing makes me more happy than reading a book that helps me understand why the collapse of the Somali state and how can we contribute to the re-institution of such entity, I am profoundly preocupied with these twin questions, that is why the state failure and how can we rejuvinate this noble political organizaion.

Naturally, I have attempted to read any thing that aids me to grasp the forces that had shaped the history of African horn, to this end I have red many books, the one that left great impression on my mind and continue to do so is the following, The Shaping of Somali society,Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900, L V. Cassanelli

The auther regards Somali soceity, as I understand, the product of interactions between the following, urban dweller, nomad, farmer and literate religious men,

NB I have to go now, I will finish the writting later

NB Sophist you owe me an answer to a question that you asked a while ago regarding high culture and civilizations, I will send it to you soon.

till then may we secure the happy life that we are all striving for.

By

[Sophist]

Zaylici!

 

Much obliged! just remind me the question and I shall answer it within my capacity insha Allah.

[Warmoog]

A Fine Balance – By Rohinton Mistry:

So far, this is one of my top 3 novels of all time. It’s deeply moving and packed with gut-wrenching twists throughout, particularly at the end (some of my friends literally cried). The writer puts together wildly different characters, yet manages to tell a very believable story at the same time. This saga will make you feel like you’re watching a good Hindi film, but unlike some of Bollywood's melodrama, it’s far from predictable.

 

Tar Baby – Toni Morrison:

I think Toni Morrison is the most talented American writer alive and Tar Baby is my favourite one of hers thus far. Yes, it’s a love story. And a very realistic one at that, which means a fairytale ending isn’t always possible… but I don’t want to reveal too much. One of the marks a good writer is the ending and much like A Fine Balance, Tar Baby also has a memorable finale. Unlike Mistry, however, Morrison doesn’t leave you depressed… she leaves you hungry.

 

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens:

Ok, some people think Dickens is a bore. I must admit the man possessed an inexplicable desire to use extremely long sentences with minimal punctuation, but give him a chance! This is a highly acclaimed novel throughout the English-speaking world and, based on first-hand experience, I can tell you it isn’t hyperbole.

 

There are many more I would recommend and although I don’t have time to write a review for each, I’ll just state the basics.

 

Tamarind Mem – Anita Rau Batami

The God of Small Things – Arudhati Roy

A Glass Palace – Amitov Ghosh

Paradise – Toni Morrison

(If you hadn't already guessed, I have a thing for Indian writers:D)

 

Salaama.

[Zaylici]

I red in literature course a long time ago, a book by the name the Bluest eye by Tonny Morrison, she wonderfull artisit, although I did not enjoy the book, however, the book was a realistic depiction of the life of the Black American life, I currently, live in neighbourhood wher black people dominate, Morrison was helpfull in making me understand some of the realites that these folks face.

 

you could say Yasmine this is a random thought and you are right, I developed this habit, after school, to just say whatever comes to mind without editing, so mach for a rondom thought

[Zaylici]

I red this year the following books, The Republic by Plato, The Politcs By Aristotle, Commonwealth by Cecero, the Roman thinker, Metaphiscs of moral by kant, Human nature By David Hume, Ethnic groups in conflict by Horrowitz, and many more

The Republic

In this book Plato responds to a prevailing dogma that asserted "injustices are good and pragmatic and justice to be miserable and unfit for state or an empire. In other words the Athenian civilisation and culture viewed justicce and other high moral grounds to be unfit for empire, to maintain empire, they thought, one does not need to be just or right to others, he can take the properties of others as he sees fit and subject them to his wishes as his emperial circumstances demands, such was the policies of Athenian state, though Athens has enjoyed a great empire, however, it altimately lost the war to Sparta, the historical event set the stage for Plato who in his magnificient work, The Republic explores democracy, empire and varity of other political organisations in his quest to find a stable human political organisation capable of providing secuirty and basic human needs to the Athenian citizans.

The argument of the Republic

People have different natural apptitudes, some are good for shoemaking others are good for a metal work, others are good for soldeiring and millitray affairs, still others are good for philosophy and learning, let every one do what he or she is naturally suited for, that is do whatever you can do the best, with this in mind we can understand his diviion of labour; the labor of the state was divded in the following fasion, philosophers should rule, hence his famous saying no peace without philospher kings, soldiers should protect the city-states and manual workers should produce for th city.

[Warmoog]

I made a few mistakes in spelling the names of authors whose books I recommended in my last post... opps! Before any of you avidly reading nomads start looking for the works of non-existent writers, I’ll have to correct myself.

 

Tamarind Mem – by Anita Rau Badami

The God of Small Things – by Arundhati Roy

 

Zaylici, I’m definitely going to check out The Republic. It sounds very interesting. If we could all do what we’re good at, life would be so much easier. I’m having my own conflicts of interest with regards to 'what I’m good at' vs. 'what I think I should be doing'. Unfortunately, several factors – such as the reality of being a first-generation Somali and feeling the silent pressures of the need to take advantage of the opportunities presented to us in the West in order succeed above all else - make the decision difficult. Yet, while I worry so much about my worldly affairs, I also feel the guilt of not giving equal dedication to more important issues... namely my duties as a Muslim. I think more than a few Somalis my age are in the same boat of confusion. With that said, I’m definitely adding that book to my list of works to digest during Reading Week.

 

Salaama.

[Zaylici]

The following is written for the benifit of Yasmine and people like her, it is a discourse that aims to share experiences, bewilderment and above all usefull ideas and information, it is also a further eloboration of some of the themes coverd in the Republic and the works of Muslim philosopher Abu nasar Al-farabi, I wish, you would enjoy this work for I enjoyed during the process of my writting.

 

Since my simple exposition of the Republic, or jamhuriyyah Afladoon, as iit was known in the Islamic medivial world, has attracted an attension of someone, I may as well provide the rational behind the divsion of labor.

Division of labour

If a women or a man is a good at sheomaking and produces good shoes, that is confortable and everlasting shoes, Plato would say the shoenaker should specialise and DEDICATE to the production of sheoes for the rest of her life, since Plato was a philospher obssesed with reasons, his reasons for a division of labor are the following

1- by specialising in sheoemaking and doing it alone, the sheomaker practices his art and thus becomes more perfect, consequently, it will take him less time and less work to produce confortable and everlasting sheoes.

2- since she practices her work all the time, the work becomes part of her life, consequently it becomes easy for her to produce good shoes, since it easy for ther to produce a good shoes she easily produces more shoes and with good quality, unlike the shoesmaker who speacialise many professions, she( the specialised shoesmaker) attains from her specialisation two benifits, i) by specilalsing and doing only one work, the work becomes easy to do, good for the individual for he does an easy job, ii) if the work becomes easy she produces more with good quality, this is good for the city or the state because they are more goods are available. Thus as Plato envisioned in 2000 years ago and Marx in 19th century eloborated, the divsion of labor not only benifits the professional in question, but also allows the community to have access to more good quality products, in other words the city that encourages its citizans to do and especialise what they most naturally suited for benifits both the citizans and the soceity for, such was the reasoning behind the division of labor.

 

 

I as student of philosophy student and medivial history, was once an advanced student( second year undergratuate) of physics, after expereicning difficulties regarding what I would specialise red this work, and some of commontatary of tenth centruy eminiant Muslim philosophr by the name Ubu Nasar Alfarabi, both authers proposed the following proposition

1- excellecnce that is Sacaadah( liibaan in Somali) is attained by doing what you think you are naturally suited for regardless what others say including your family, culture and leading members of the society, in this scenerio this idea at their time was revolutionery idea, it is not wonder therefore, they have both been leading critic of existing socioeconomic and political order, Alfarabi in his celebrated treaties, Ara ahl al- madinah Al- fadilah, or the vertuus city, evnvisions, like Plato different political order than the one that he was living under,( I can discuss this in another article).

Afarabi, the Turkish Philosopher, insprired me more than any other philosopher for the following reason

i) he learned the philosophy from Christian monophosite, in other words he was a student of Christian Monk, at his times philosophy was not studied feild in the Islamic world, imagine therefore, the difficulties that he ecountered during that time, moreever, he was a stranger in Baghdad for he was Turkish non Arab Muslim, the leading conservatives did not approve his studies, however, he wrote more than 150 treaties on the follwoing subjects, Philosophy( political regimes, vertues city and many more) Music( strangely I am fanatic of Music, like Alfarabi and Ibn Hazm, for I am taking courses in Guiter and world Music) , Physics, and various Islamic feilds, after him Philosophy and sceince have flourished in the Islamic world( it culminated to the establishment of high instutite of transilation, learning and research in Baghdad, the institute was named Dara al Hikmah, or the House of Wisdom) untill declining when the extreme conservatives like the Kurish cleric Ibnu Tammiyyah( which by the way modern Islamisist in Somalia and the Arabs in the Gulf celeberate and study his work, Alfatawa Alkubra, is one of his celebrated work that he has produced, I think it is over 30 volumes)and his followers contributed to the eventual destruction of the study of sceinces and philosophy leading, perhabs, the the entire Islamic world into civilisational decey and primitiveness which to this day we are unable to free our selves from, this also explains why modern Islamasis, like Altittahad, and Al-islah abhore the study of Philosophy and do not encourage excellence( they do encourage people to study but not be to be excellent like Einistein or Newton, they fear, I suspect that they may be encouraging Atheisim, suspecision that had been conmfirmed on many times unfortunately) in sceinces and other productive feilds.

I went too far, however, the central point of my argument was directed towards Yasmine and people like her, and the massage is clear do and study what you are most naturlly suited for,that what have desire and recurring tendency and learn from even Christian Monks, this massage is in direct contrast, I think, to the philosophy of the dominant Modern islamisis in Somalia, who strangely become a force in the Somali soceity for the last 10 years, do not take me wrong, these poeple called wadaadaa were miniority in Somalia before the civil war,sufis wer the dominant Islamic movements in the Northeast Africa, however, after the civil war their call had guined currency, many people have joined conciously or unconciously, the reasons were many, but cheif among them was, as I think, their version of Islam was simple and popular, morever, it provided a simple explanation to the inhuman realities that we as nation were facing, the simple explanation, perhabs obscurred more complex dynamics behind the war, God knows the best, this is my idea you can have different one, but show tolerence, after we are all Muslims,

 

So Yasmine learn what you admire, and ENSLAVE your self, as Alfarabi said your slef to the objectives conciously decided, and learn it from whoever teaches regardless their backgroud, as it was narrated from Prophet Mohammed PBOH, said persue knowledge even it means to go to china, surely Chine at the time and even today was not an Islamic state, this perhabs is the theological basis of my recomdentations.

I did all this with sprit of good will an honest, no hard feeling to those of you of have Islamasist inclinations, so much for a discussion of division of labour

[Sniper]

VALHALA RISING: by Clive cussler,adventureous,about conspiracy similar to that of conspiracy theories that Bush and his guys were behind the sept 11 attacks,it is about 500 pages,and his Hero Dirk pitt is the character,if any of you reads,and starts thinking something let me know,and also read NIGHT PROBE, and SHOCK WAVE,by him too,you might suspect there is some truth to the crazy theories about the events.

[Sophist]

Salaams

 

Zaylici, habitually you thread where only bold men dare to indulge their fancy!. I suppose it is the nature of those who have tasted the bitter flavour of reality—it is such a bore. Anyhow, with that adoration let me say I abhore teribly Al-farabi. Though the west calls him the Second Father; I think he was too platonic; a charge made by the defender of Islam Al-ghazali---tahaafut Al-Falasifa: Incoherence of Philosophers.

 

Anyhow, brother enjoy swimming through the murky waters of Philosophy; it is damn blidingly enlightening

 

Sophist

PS: ooh by the way that Hadith is Daciif: Udlubul Cilmi walow kaana fi siin-- Seek knowledge as far a place as China!