Book Review: The Book of Dead Philosophers

The Book of Dead Philosophers
8.5 of 10
Writer: Simon Crtichley
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Admittedly, I don't know much about philosophy or philosophers. I only know Socrates and Plato by name, which is a shame. The only philosophy I've read, and kept re-reading, is The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. But I don't know if he's even considered as a philosopher because he's a Samurai (a warrior philosopher maybe?). I've also read a tiny bit on Nietzsche, Voltaire, Confucius and Lao Tzu. But that's about it. That's why I picked up The Book of Dead Philosophers so I could acquaint myself with various philosophers.

At first, when I was reading the book's introduction, I thought my brain was going to explode due to philosophical overload. It was just too intellectual for me. But, later on, after getting through the long introduction and foreword by the author, it became an enjoyable read. The book isn't what I expected it to be -a long arduous read about philosopher's lives and deaths. Instead, it's a miscellany that contains anecdotes and other short writings about the deaths of 190 philosophers, from classical to modern times.

As morbid as it sounds, the book is actually quite funny. Because the deaths of the philosophers, as featured in this book, are quite ironic -most of them died because of their philosophy. Take Empedocles, for example, who believes that heat is the source of life, threw himself into a volcano (Mt. Etna) in his quest for immortality. Then there's also Francis Bacon who, in his efforts to study refrigeration, caught pneumonia while stuffing a chicken with snow on a cold day and died.

This book is really entertaining to read. While it wasn't the book I was looking for -the one that'll give me a detailed information regarding philosophers and their philosophy- I still learned a lot from it: The unsung philosophers and the deaths of philosophers. So if you're looking for a book to read this summer, a quick and enjoyable one, I highly recommend The Book of Dead Philosophers.

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The Next Three Books

After a week of waiting, I finally received my package of books (and CDs too) from Amazon. These three books (pictured above) are part of my reading program this Spring. I'll probably start my reading with The Next 100 Years because its synopsis is very interesting. Then I'll follow it by The Book of Dead Philosophers. As for Anthem, I've already read this book (twice). But since I bought a new copy, I think I'll read it again. Unfortunately, with Dawn of War II keeping me occupied, and Empire: Total War just around the bend, I don't know when I can start with these books.

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Steaming Snow

Finally, I've been granted a much needed time off from work for 4 straight days. On top of that, it's also the weekends, and coincided with pay day too. So I made plans on how to spend it and, so far, I couldn't complain. Yesterday, I had a haircut, pulled my comics, and ate at Portillo's (got myself a greasy Double Bacon Burger). Today, my plan was to get a copy of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, one of my most anticipated games of this year, and shop for some books and CDs. However, when I woke up this morning, I saw the snow whipping the living daylights out of the day.

Dawn of War II, available on Steam.

But the snow didn't really ruin my day because of online shopping. Yes, thank God for online shopping. I would've been left dejected if I got snowed in, on my 4-day pseudo vacation, without playing Dawn of War II. So, instead of whining about the bad weather, I opened my Steam account, purchased a digital copy of Dawn of War II, and waited for a little less than two hours for the download to finish. It's that simple and fast. Normally, I don't do digital purchases -for the reasons that I like to keep a hard copy of my games (the same goes for all my media). But I needed Dawn of War II, direly. Hence, my first digital purchase of a game.

As for the books and CDs, it was also easy. I just went to Amazon and got them. I already knew what music I wanted, which was Carving Desert Canyons by Scale the Summit. It took me awhile to decide which books to get. But, in the end, I went with The Book of Dead Philosophers and The Next 100 Years. I'll be reading both of these in the next two months. In addition, I also got the hardcover copy of Ayn Rand's Anthem. It is one of my favorite books but I had to donate my copy (a mass market paperback) to make some space for my new library of hardcover books and large paperbacks (see my post here).

Well, that's how I spent day two of my 4-day off. While I won't be able to read books or listen to some new music, at least I'll be able to play Dawn of War II for the next two days. As for the Steam purchase, it was actually a good experience and I might consider of buying my games, digitally, from them.

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