Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Existential Wisdom in a Small Package

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

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I finished this book just before the new year, then immediately reread it and finished it again yesterday. I needed the time to process and absorb it. It has some of what I think would be considered postmodern elements, and I needed the re-read to help me separate the fiction from the philosophy of how to view the world. Richard (the narrator, not the author) meets Donald Shimoda while barnstorming: flying from farm town to farm town and taking locals for airplane rides. Donald used […]

Embrace the Absurd!

The Stranger by Albert Camus

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BINGO – People Meursault learns that his mother has just died. This news has no discernible effect on him other than he requests off from work to attend her funeral and burial. He displays no typically displays of grief and returns promptly to his life; hardly anything has changed. He starts dating an old acquaintance; he helps his friend with some relationship problems; he goes on vacation. Then, Meursault murders a man. All of the recent events and Meursault’s character are discussed and argued over […]

“All is Brahman”

The Upanishads by Eknath Easwaran

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It seems unhelpful to review the substance of a spiritual text, so here I want to focus on the impact the book had on me to help other readers determine if they want to have a similar experience. When I was in high school we used as textbooks special versions of Shakespeare’s texts. On one side was the text itself. On the other side was a kind of contemporary Pop Up Video commentary explaining the cultural and literary references made by Shakespeare. That marginalia was […]

The Good Life is not the goods life.

Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism by Kate Soper

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Kate Soper’s Post-Growth Living is split in two. It’s about environmentalism and true human flourishing. It’s about doing the right and also pragmatism. This isn’t a pie in the sky philosophy book – it looks at where we are right now and how we can change our thinking and therefore our action in order to build a more sustainable and happy future. In some ways this book could make more enemies than friends – Soper goes after our current cultural desire for more more more. […]

The Non-Academic Version of this Book Could Be Great

Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism by Kate Soper

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Best for: Philosophy students and lecturers In a nutshell: Soper’s project is exploring how people can rethink their idea of the good life to fit in with the reality of our current consumer culture’s negative impact on our own lives and the environment. Worth quoting: “However critical they may be of capitalism in other respects, socialists are still much too ready to subscribe to conventional views on the ‘good life’ and what constitutes a ‘high’ standard of living.” Why I chose it: A podcast I […]

“The practice of yoga teaches us to live fully.”

Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom by B.K.S. Iyengar

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Iyengar is something of an ambassador of yoga. Even though he has died, he continues to educate and influence those curious about yoga’s practice and precepts. Personally, I first started reading Iyengar because he was on the reading list of Yoga with Adriene’s Adriene Mishler. The Tree of Yoga is the short and nourishing title on Adriene’s list, and that was the first one I read. This book is longer (around 300 pages) and still dense. However, while other books may be better introductions to […]



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