Sometimes you are faced with a really lousy set of options.Sometimes that lousy set of options is your own fault.Cormac McCarthy’s The Counselor wrestles with exactly that problem.A brilliant book. Just brilliant. You won't forget it. First though, we need to straighten one thing out. This book is called a screenplay. Don’t even think about watching the movie. It’s awful. Just read the book. McCarthy is an amazing novelist, perhaps the greatest living … [Read more...] about The Undesired Crossroad
Life Advice
Leadership in The Republic
As a manual on leadership, Plato’s The Republic is a very useful thought experiment. But, it is a useful guide to leadership? First off, The Republic a mammothly sprawling book. It is a conversation which wanders all over the place, constantly circling back to the general theme. But even there, it isn’t entirely clear what the general theme actually is. Justice? Good Government? Education? Moral Character? In previous readings, I had read the book as an … [Read more...] about Leadership in The Republic
How to get More People to Read Your Blog
If someone you knew was reading a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, would you commend them or get worried? Even more troubling: if a college professor assigned the book to a class of undergraduates and they take took the book to heart, would said professor have been doing a noble or vile act? When I was putting together my course “Leadership and the Liberal Arts,” I Googled things along the lines of “Great Books on Leadership” and browsed through the many … [Read more...] about How to get More People to Read Your Blog
Does the World Fit You?
John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces is one of the books I recommend to people the most often. This book is funny, very funny. And thought-provoking.It is interesting, well written, and has some of the most memorable characters you’ll ever meet. The main character, Ignatius J Reilly is a modern day Falstaff. Take Shakespeare’s character, put him amongst the working (or non-working as the case may be) classes of New Orleans in the 1960s and you would have this … [Read more...] about Does the World Fit You?