Some Areas of Personal Interest

Film History; Film Theory: Given my love of film it is high time that I learned more about film history and genres not to mention some of the stylistic and technical aspects of film like camera angles, point of view, editing and so on. I can start with the two introduction to film books that I already own as well as The Story of Film. I can also read more film criticism especially Pauline Kael, past New York Times reviews as well as Roger Ebert's reviews. The aim is to aid in my own personal movie reviewing as well as generally being able to appreciate movies more.

Wine: I can start with my Windows of the World book on wine and follow that up with The Wine Bible. I can also always borrow interesting books on the subject from the library particularly The Judgement of Paris. The idea is to have a greater appreciation of wine - the key grapes, vintages, regions etc. It would be great to pick up a bit on wine appreciation too.

Evolutionary Biology, Darwinism: Another new found interest. I should start with the seminal work, Darwin's Origins of the Species and move on to Janet Browne's Biography of the Book. I can then read the VSI to Evolution and go to to read another introductory book to Evolution that I have also acquired. Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea would be useful to seeing how Darwinism permeates many other aspects of everyday life, and I could also borrow/purchase other similarly themed. It would then be interesting to move on to Ridley's Genome and Nature Via Nurture as well as Dawkin's The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. James Watson's book DNA would also fit nicely into the picture. If still thoroughly fascinated by the subject I can purchase Mark Ridley's textbook Evolutionary Biology.

General Science: The aim is to finish a couple of introductory books on Science namely, Galileo's Finger, A Short History of Nearly Everything and Almost Everybody's Guide to Science. I can then move on to Gribbin's Science: A History. Other more specific introductory books include David Bodanis' E=Mc2, Michio Kaku's Einstein's Cosmos, as well as a biography of Einstein.

Political Philosophy: I can start with the two introductory volumes that I already own by Wolff and Simmons. Vital reading would be Mill's On Liberty and also Plato's Republic and Blackburn's biography of the same. Thomas Paine's Common Sense and other Essays would be a vital read. The key is to get a sense of the core issues in Political Philosophy and a greater historical grasp of the subject. Specific areas of interest to examine include Political Obligation, Liberty, Equality and Justice, Nationality and Cosmopolitanism, Modern Liberalism, and Rights.

Religion: As part of my goal in figuring out the whole God question I intend to read Dawkin's The God Delusion as well as Sam Harris' The End of Faith. God's Funeral would provide interesting historical insight. The Manifesto of the Flying Spaghetti Monster would be a load of laughts. The Portable Atheist would be a handy reference along with God Is Not Great both by Christopher Hitchens. For balance I intend to read Orthodoxy by Chesterton and assorted C.S Lewis. I suppose I should find some books specifically supporting the theistic viewpoint.

Reading/Language: The aim is to develop a greater ability to appreciate books, and to have a better grasp of the mechanics of language (grammar, punctuation etc.) as well as a greater understanding of language itself. To start with I should finish How to Read a Book and Forster's Aspects of the Novel. Alberto Manguel's A Reading Diary should be a good read and How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read an entertaining one. A number of other books about books at Kino can be considered for purchase as well. For language, I intend to fully digest The Elements of Style by Strunk and White and to obtain a copy of the Economist Style Guide. David Crystal's The English Language and How Language Works should be insightful, and I can finish off with Speak on languages and linguistics in general.

Mythology: I can start with Edith Hamilton's book on the subject and also read Malory's Le Morte De Arthur. Robert Graves' The Greek Myths should be very insightful. I also intend to read the Iliad and Odessey. Besides which I can also read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Epic of Gilgamesh and also a collection of Celtic Myths and Folklore. If I can I could also add the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson, and also The Arabian Nights.

Popular Non-Fiction: I have a whole pile of popular non-fiction crossing disciplines including Non-Zero, Stumbling on Happiness, Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast and many others.

Fiction: Of course I have an ever-expanding pile of fiction to read as well. Some massive to-reads including Brideshead Revisited, Lolita, Brave New World, among others.

Other areas: I am always keen to read up more on History. Specifically The Middle East, Russia, The United Kingdom, East Asia (China and Japan), Southeast Asia among others. I am also keen to find interesting layperson books on Economics.