It's a 10-Book plan! How exciting. Here are the books, in my intended order of tackling them:
(1) Marriage and Morals (1929)
(2) Unpopular Essays (1950)
(3) Proposed Roads to Freedom (1919)
(4) The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
(5) A History of Western Philosophy (1945) [Update, July 19, 2009; A History of Western Philosophy has been determined to be immune to summary (or what I later termed "summentary") and is replaced by Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954).]
(6) Bolshevism and the West (with Scott Nearing) -- a transcript of a short debate. I think that the debate took place in 1924, but my copy of the book dates from much later, 1974.
(7) Education and the Good Life (1926)
(8) Portraits From Memory (1956)
(9) New Hopes for a Changing World (1951)
(10) In Praise of Idleness (1935)
Four of the books I have read in the past, but I cagily am not revealing which four. Russell's work within the discipline of philosophy (or mathematics) does not much interest me, as the list suggests. I am a bit concerned about the sort of 'notes' that one could take on A History of Western Philosophy [and hence later dropped it from The Plan]. The list is not exactly arbitrary but it is subject to any manner of alteration, including abject abandonment. But here we go.
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2 comments:
Hi There,
I have been thinking of reading some of Russell's works. I wanted to know what others would suggest reading first. I saw this list and just wanted to know whether you are reading them in that order. Please let me know if you would suggest any other order.
Thank you,
Bharathi.
Hi there,
Sorry, I just saw your comment. I am indeed reading them in the order given (which has been slightly altered). I do not recommend this order in general, however. It depends upon your interests. If you care enough about philosophy to tackle a large (though characteristically well-written) tome, A History of Western Philosophy has proven very popular over the years, and might be a good place to start.
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