Book Review: The Book of Dead Philosophers

The Book of Dead Philosophers
8.5 of 10
Writer: Simon Crtichley
Buy book (Paperback) from Amazon
Buy book (Kindle) from Amazon






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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Comics Bundle: 06.03.09 Pt. 2

Part 2 of my comics bundle. As usual, it's composed of titles from DC, Vertigo, Image and other publishers. Part 1 of my bundle can be found here.

Chew #1
10 of 10
"I need to have this on my pull sheet". That was what I said when I saw Chew's preview on the last issue of The Walking Dead. Because this title is just too damn good and too damn unique to pass up. The book is mainly about Tony Chu. He's a detective and he can get psychic impressions from what he eats -except canned beets. So if he eats a tomato, he'll know what fertilizers and pesticides were used on it. If he eats a part of a serial killer, he'll know the names of all the killer's victims and how they died. It's a gruesomely entertaining title. So if you're looking for a new comic book, I highly recommend this one.

Four Eyes #3
9.3 of 10
This title continues to astound me. I really love the art and setting, an alternative history in which dragons exists during The Great Depression. This issue brilliantly depicts the day to day life during that era. Of how desperate the people are that they'd take on a dangerous jobs, like dragon hunting, just to feed themselves, and of how the rich takes advantage of them. Like Chew, if you're looking for a comic book without capes and masks, pick this one up. It's a brillant book. The only problem I have with it though are the delays.

Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3
7.9 of 10
The Battle for the Cowl concludes in this issue. After the battle between all the Robins, Dick Grayson finally steps up to take on the mantle (or rather the cowl) of Batman. I knew it's going to be Dick Grayson, I don't think there's no one else. So this run has disappointed me. On the other hand, Damien being the new Robin pretty much surprised me.

Batman and Robin #1
8.6 of 10
This new title takes off after the Battle for the Cowl, which shows the adventures of the new Batman (Dick Grayson, first Robin) and Robin (Damien Wayne, son of Batman with Talia Al Ghul). This is an interesting, and probably the most refreshing, take on the Batman continuity. I just loved how Grant Morrison switched the personalities of Batman and Robin. In this title, Batman is much more light-hearted and Robin is more of a bad-ass. It somewhat reminds me of Grant Morrison's other work, The New X-Men, where he revisioned everything for the better. So I'm going to keep an eye on this one.

Jack of Fables #34
6.0 of 10
This issue is the fifth part of The Great Fables Crossover. As huge fan of Fables I thought this crossover is going to be really epic. But as I found out in this issue, there's nothing epic nor great about it. In fact, it even messed up the world of Fables. It looks to me like Kevin Thorn, the antagonist in this story that can change reality at his whim, isn't the only one suffering with a writer's block in this issue.

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Comics Bundle: 06.03.09 Pt. 1

I was actually able to pull my comics much earlier this time (3 weeks worth of comics instead of 4). However, I didn't finish reading my Marvel comics bundle until earlier today. That's because I've been in too deep with Warhammer Online lately and everything seems to be on hold (reading, music, books and this blog). But that's okay, I'm having a blast playing WAR.

Anyways, for some reason, most of the Marvel titles on this current pull sucked. So there's really nothing much I can say about them.

Runaways #10
9.0 of 10
One thing about the Runaways is that they have a bit of everything in the group. An alien, a mutant, an android and a witch. So you could basically tie them to every section in the Marvel universe, from cosmic to mutant. In this issue, the gang gets tied up with the mutants as Molly heads to San Francisco to answer Emma Frost's rally call (as seen in the Manifest Destiny arc of Uncanny X-Men). This is a really fun issue as Molly gets a tour inside the new X-Men facility, and her guide is none other than Wolverine. The rest of the Runaways get to have their fun too as they get to hang out with the Young X-Men.

The New Avengers #53
7.0 of 10
Weak. That's all I can say about this issue, and the whole arc as well. I was pretty stoked when this arc was announced. Mainly because I was hoping that they'd make either Scarlett Witch or Nico Minoru (Runaways) to be the next Sorceress Supreme. Instead, they picked someone else, who was on the bottom of my list, to become the numero uno magickero. The only consolation here is knowing that the team will finally move on to the next arc. Hopefully, to tackle Osborn.

The Dark Avengers #5
8.0 of 10
I really loved this book during its debut. I liked how they tainted and mocked the Avengers title by injecting a bunch of crazy and quirky characters from the Thunderbolts. However, in the past couple issues, the only character being crazy and quirky enough is Osborn. And in this issue he just outshines everybody when he gave his speech to defend his Avengers and debunk Clint Barton's accusations. However, it is getting clear that this book is slowly slipping down the gutters. The content is not worth the price any longer.

Avengers: The Initiative #24
7.7 of 10
This book have been on my pull sheet since I started reading comics again. Admittedly, however, I don't remember any stories featured in the Initiative besides the Secret Invasion arc. The characters are forgettable as well since there's too many of them, and none holds the spotlight. So just when I decided to cancel this book from my pull list, something pivotal happens in this issue. Norman Osborn relinquished the control of the Initiative to Taskmaster (Deadpool's buddy as well as mortal enemy). I guess I'm going to give this book another shot.

X-Men #510
7.5 of 10
This issue concludes that attack of The Sisterhood on Graymalkin Industries, which is the new X-Men headquarters in San Francisco. Nothing big happened in here except that The Sisterhood got a lock of Jean Grey's hair. So they're probably going to resurrect her. Oh, Emma Frost rocks in this issue as well, both literally and figuratively.

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L4D2

I'm not really looking forward to a Left 4 Dead sequel because the first game itself is already addicting as it is. But this is nice too. Based on the video, the only thing I can see new in here are the melee weapons. Though I wish they will bump the number of players in a group, from a four-man team to an eight-man team. After all, sequels are expected to one-up their predecessors.

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