List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?
Despite the age of schizophrenic media sensationalism and dopamine hitting love buttons, books retain incredible value. Unlike ephemeral tweets, they train the mind to sit with thought and hone in on the continuous present.
One book can change your life, maybe even save it. The Metaphysical Club described a nation in flux, worth preserving through trial and error. In a pluralistic society, the best idea wins, not the loudest. Relapses, round-trips, and tests are part of any idealistic path.
Then came the tragicomic grace of the short stories. If you haven’t suffered, you haven’t really lived, Malamud said. And finally, a riposte on the obsession of Bauhus minmimalism, a perfect antidote to today’s design-obsessed nubes sniffing their own farts.
The telos of these books? To crack the mind, explore the dialectic, and to laugh hard at our mimetic delusions.
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