The Silvered Heart

Not knowing anything about the legend of the Wicked Lady, except after reading the bonus material at the end of the book, I read this novel as if it were simply fiction. Well, the only thing I did know about that period in time in England was thanks to me having recently watched the film "Cromwell" (1970). This book, written from a royalist's perspective, of course has a different feel from that of the movie.
  I imagine one can enjoy the book only if one sympathises with the Lady Ferrers portrayed in the book. I did not sympathise with her. Her logic at all times felt bogus, her motivations childish, and despite her constant insistence at every new chapter of her life that she was now finally aware of how wrong she had been in the past, she never truly changes, she never truly learns anything. She is doomed to make the same fey mistakes over and over again. The way in which the story developed did feel like it would make for a classic Netflix film or series.
  Honestly, the most interesting part of the book was the bonus material. Those extra six pages on actual history were the most interesting and most enlightening.

Essays in Idleness

I just learnt that this is a classic, and that in Japan students often get questions on their exams about this book, but I did not find it very interesting. One can tell that Kenko was quite of a conservative mind—which is not a bad thing per se. But it appeared to me that he could not hide his contempt for people who did not stick to tradition. Suddenly Marcus Aurelius's Meditations came to my mind. In it Marcus Aurelius says that much of our dissatisfaction with other people's behaviour is due to our judment of their actions; that we should get rid of our judgment and that way we would be happy. I find myself siding with Marcus Aurelius. It is fine if Kenko, or anyone else, wants to stick to tradition, but one should not judge others because they do not behave the way we expect them to behave.

  There are other essays with which I disagree, like the one where Kenko basically says that there is no such thing as an intelligent woman. There was only one essay in which Kenko explicitly expressed misogynist thoughts. But finding those opinions in his book was still quite concerning.

  At some point, when I was trying to figure out why I was not agreeing with many of his thoughts I said to myself: "It must be because the book is so old." Except, Meditations is even older and there are many more things with which I agree in that book. I guess there are people that lived in the distant past whose opinions I like, and likewise others who lived in the distant past whose opinions I do not like. Maybe I should stop judging people just because they lived in the past. Maybe I should just stop judging people, period.
  Oh. I almost forgot. There are some good ideas in Essays in Idleness. Like: we should be humble and not be quick to show off the knowledge we have, that we should not procrastinate, that death is inevitable and therefore we should not waste our time. But there are other books that say the same things and are much better than this one. Starting with Marcus Aurelius's book.

War and Peace

 What a masterpiece. Even more, I think that anyone who might read this book will agree that it is a masterpiece. That being said, I will mention a few things that I believe could have improved my enjoyment of the novel. Amy Mandelker, the editor of the edition I read, said in the introduction that there is a way of thinking of War and Peace as having "three separate components—a philosophical essay, a family chronicle, and a historical novel about the Napoleonic wars" [1, p. xi]. I would agree with two of those components. In my opinion War and Peace can be divided into the following three different components: nonsensical rambling, a family chronicle, and a historical novel about the Napoleonic wars. Although I admit my opinion might betray my feelings about philosophy more generally.
  Perhaps the first thing one can admire about War and Peace is simply the astonishingly immense amount of knowledge and intellect that it is required to write a novel like this one. Not only did Leo Tolstoy must have had to research very deeply about the Napoleonic wars, he  must have also been a master of languages, and even if I disagree with his philosophical discourse, I do acknowledge he made some good points.
  The component I liked most was the family chronicle. All the couples I know in real life that are of a certain age (fifty years old or older) have separated from their spouse. Giving me little evidence that there might be a point in marriage at all. Tolstoy seems to be of a similar opinion, with several of his characters being in disappointing relationships. That is not what made me like the family chronicle so much. What I did like, however, was the vivid descriptions of the feelings that each of the characters experience in situations that have faithful equivalents in contemporary society. How easily one can convince oneself of one thing, and just how equally easy it is to suddenly change our mind about anything.
  That leaves the historical novel about the Napoleonic wars as my second favourite component. As we all know by now, I know nothing about the world. And I knew nothing about the Napoleonic wars prior to reading War and Peace. I did not know the Russians fought the French in 1805. I knew nothing of the European events in the years between 1805 and 1812. What I did know is that at some point in history the French invaded Russia but were defeated somewhere near Moscow, but never made it to Moscow. Well, I was wrong. The French did make it all the way to Moscow and captured the city! What?! I found the retelling of history by Tolstoy quite fair, as much as I can judge fairness knowing nothing about the topic. What I meant is that it seemed to me that Tolstoy did not appear to me as having a noticeable bias in favour of the Russians, at least not in the core of the text. He was much more critical of Napoleon in the epilogue. It might have been my general ignorance that made learning any and all bits of history very interesting to me.
  Now, I do not want to say much about the philosophical ideas in the text. Maybe I will just say that I believe that just because in mathematics or in science one can deal with knowledge in certain way that does not mean that those same ways can be applied to or have direct equivalents in history. I do, however, admire Tolstoy's keen interest not only in history but in mathematics, statistics, and science.
  With respect to the length of the novel, Amy Mandelker also says in the introduction that "Tolstoy cut down his novel and discarded hundreds of pages of drafts, including complete episodes in which, for example, Pierre adopts and travels with an orphan and saves the life of a young Italian count. Early drafts even contain an entire novella based on the exploits of this Count Poncini, who arranges Pierre's marriage and who is taken captive by Nikolai Rostov" [1, p. xv]. Well, I believe Tolstoy should have whittled down his novel even more. There were certain parts where he talks about the nature of historical thought that in their aggregate were too repetitive for my taste. But there were also passages, like the one where Nikolai Rostov goes hunting, that I simply did not enjoy reading, and I thought added virtually nothing to the novel. And the epilogue could have been omitted altogether.
  I know I may have appeared too critical of War and Peace. But if I was it was only because I enjoyed it so much. That may not make any sense. Except, maybe it does. I swear, you will not regret taking the time to read this book.

References.
  Both quotes above were taken from
[1]. Tolstoy, L. War and Peace. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Meditations, with selected correspondence

 First, thank you to my friend Claire Young for recommending this book to me, and to my sister for giving it to me as a Christmas present.
  It is quite a decent book. The only other book whose "literary style" is close to Meditations is perhaps How to Be a Gentleman, which is another great read for everyone. The thing I thought most interesting was that this must be the closest thing to having a conversation with and listening to the personal thoughts of someone who lived virtually two thousand years ago. It is thus interesting to see how those thoughts are so similar to and could very well be those of a person who is alive today. I do not think I read in it any idea that was revolutionarily new to me, but I did like how many things it contained with which I did agree. I was happy to learn about stoicism and, to a lesser extent, about cynicism and epicureanism. I was surprised to see that I agreed with stoicism to a lesser extent than I had previously believed—this I say not having ever formally learnt anything about it before. One of the "chapters" I liked most was:
  "Practise even at the things that you have lost all hope of achieving. For the left hand, though inefficient at everything else through lack of practice, is more powerful than the right when it comes to gripping the bridle; for it has had good practice at that."
(Aurelius, M. Meditations. p. 148. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Oxford University Press, 2011).

  Which is advice I have given to myself at least on a couple of ocassions. Most recently when I started running, I genuinely thought I would never be able to run 5 km. I gave up on that goal, but continued running nonetheless. Now I can comfortably run 23 km.
  And there was another "chapter" that made me think of people who have been victims of HIV stigma:
  "[I]n other words, let it judge nothing to be good or bad if it can happen to a good person or bad without distinction."
(Aurelius, M. Meditations. p. 64. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Oxford University Press, 2011).
  Not that I believe that there are "good" people and "bad" people. But if something can happen to anyone, do not judge them for what has befallen them.
  There are indeed many other ideas that are very much worthy of consideration and discussion, so do read this book of you are looking for some guidance or reassurance. Now, my book came with a selection of letters between Marcus Aurelius and Fronto, one of his eighteen tutors. They are an excellent complement that allows us to take a further look into Marcus Aurelius's mind and life. There are some people who think that Marcus Aurelius and Fronto had a homoerotic relationship. What do I think having read those letters? It is hard to tell. Yes, there are certain letters that had me convinced that they must have had a romantic relationship. But having read all of the thirty-one letters included in my book, I was left thinking: "Well, maybe they were simply truly very good friends". I do not know. Perhaps the reason I am inclined to dismiss their affectionate style in the letters is because Marcus Aurelius did make a couple of homophobic remarks in Meditations, which was not intended for publication, it was simply his personal record of thoughts. I guess, I am unable to form a verdict having only read this book. Maybe if I read more about his life and work I would be better able to form an opinion with regard to his relationship with Fronto.

Romeo and Juliet

 I am happy and pleased to see that this book lives up to expectations. Wait, did I have expactations about it? Perhaps what I wanted to say is that, in my opinion, this is a book that deserves the reputation that precedes it. The book I read (The Oxford Shakespeare) contains the first and second quartos. Only The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet comes with extensive commentary, which I really appreciated. It made me enjoy the play so much more. It did take me several months to finish reading it, but I admit that I tended to procrastinate and that greatly increased the time it took me to read it. Whereas, once I got to the first quarto (which comes second,) I finished reading it in only three days. I definitely noticed certain differences between the second and first quartos, and I want to say that I did enjoy the second quarto much better. Not only because I was guided by the editor to the meaning of virtually all the lines in the play. I also, genuinely, noticed how some parts of the dialogue in the first quarto were shorter, and consequently, just a little less elegant than in the second quarto.
  Well deseved praise to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It was so much more than I imagined. I highly recommend it.

The Oxford History of Mexico

 Hmm. I am having a little trouble understanding how I feel about this book. I am certainly glad I finally got the chance to read it. I cannot stop thinking that my prior knowledge of the history of Mexico was really useful when trying to better understand it. Not that I knew much. What I am trying to say is that, in my opinion, this might not be a book for complete beginners. At the same time, this is also not an in-depth perspective on the history of Mexico. As perhaps no single book that covers such a large period of time can be.
  I am grateful that I got to learn many interesting details of history, and that I got to read the opinion of several people who have devoted much of their time to studying the history of my country. Yes. I am glad.
  Simultaneously, though, I am somehwat... dispirited. Is that how I feel solely about the book? Or could my feelings be inevitably mixed with the thoughts I get when I look around me?
  Meditate on this, I will.

The Historian

 It has been a few months since I finished reading this book, I finished reading it in February this year, but I have been procrastinating writing this entry. Like several pilot episodes of a series, this book had an excellent start. The first chapter was just thrilling. Unfortunately, the rest of the story monotonically drecreases in quality, until one starts wishing that the dragging on of the plot would simply end. I wonder if some people would be discouraged from reading the book based solely on that. I will say this: if you already have it in your bookshelf, like mine was for many years untouched, read it. Otherwise, you might want to consdier a different book.