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Books that have added to our culture

Be a scribe! Engrave this in your heart
So that your name might live like theirs!
The scroll is better than the carved stone.
A man has died: his corpse is dust,
And his people have passed from the land.
It is a book which makes him remembered
In the mouth of the speaker who reads him.

Egyptian scribe circa 1300BC

Today’s white-collar worker spends more time reading than eating, drinking, grooming, travelling, socializing or on general entertainment and sport – that is, five to eight hours of each working day.

What music is to the spirit, reading is to the mind. Though reading and writing go hand in hand, reading is actually writing’s antithesis – indeed, even activating different parts of the brain. Writing is a skill, reading is a faculty. Writing is expression, reading impression. The faculty of reading has, in fact, very little to do with the skill of writing.

The purpose of this section is to:
  • Provide a number of ‘must read’ books
  • Advise on what one aught to have read
  • Counsel on where one can find information
  • Explain as to how one can use a library

Throughout history, some books have  changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and  each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted.  

For your convenience the following book texts are provided along with appropriate notes as to their background and authorship. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them – they are the  works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

‘Wisdom of Soloman’

'A selection from the Qur'an (Koran)'   with introductory  notes

'Nicomachean Ethics'     by  Aristotle

'The Confessions'  by Augustine of Hippo

‘The Prince’ by Niccol Machiavelli (1469-1527)

‘The Art of War’ by Sun Tzu, Chinese general circa 500 BC

‘The History of John Bull’ by John Arbuthnot

'The Book of the Courtier'  by Baldassare Castiglione  (with  notes)

'The Consolation of Philosophy' by Boethius

'Moral Epistles'   by Seneca

'The Meditations' by Marcus Aurelius (with notes)

'Essays'  by Michel de Montaigne

'A Tale of a Tub'   by  Jonathon Swift

'The Social Contract'  by  Jean Jacques Rousseau

'Common Sense'  by Thomas Paine

'The Rights of Man' by Thomas Paine

'Studies in Pessimism'  by Arthur Schopenhauer

'Vindication of the Rights of Woman'  by  Mary Wollstonecraft

'The Communist Manifesto'  by Karl Marx with Biography of Freidrich Engles

'The Origin of the Species'  by  Charles Darwin with a glossary of scientific terms

'The Critique of Pure Reason'  by  Immanuel Kant

These texts will constantly be added to both in number and depth.


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