I found this book a few years ago on the sidewalks of Park Slope and I regret I haven’t read it sooner!

Adler and van Doren provide a wonderful set of techniques for getting a better grip on your “To Read” pile and help you feel more comfortable in choosing what level of attention is appropriate for the material. By making this calculation in an informed and methodical way, you can process your pile more effectively. I really needed this help because I’m such a completionist, I’m always afraid I’m going to lose a critical fact if I’m not diligent to the end degree. I hope these techniques will help me move more quickly and exercise better judgment.

Having provided those techniques, the authors provide a very considerate introduction on how to read books in genres that you might not be comfortable in: science, social science, or philosophy.

Over and above those practical points, the book serves as a good set of advice on how to do anything actively: active listening, active reading, active programming, active conversation, etc. The skills of acting actively, we’d say “mindfully” today, were seen as related to reading and writing when this book came out in 1940, but the truths that underlie that view have not changed. I found many places where “read/write a book” could have been swapped with “read/write code” or “converse” or “learn to play guitar” or “meditate” or “make tender love to” and the value been as impactful.

This book in the right hands at the right time could make for a huge change in educational quality and life quality of the reader.

This is all the “reviewing” I’ll do here. Below I’ll cover the techniques and distillations I made of the text. I’m posting them here for quick reference :).

One of the few books that I’ve ever read twice, and one that I read twice in short order, Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles hits me in the sweet spot intersection of my love of classics, adventure, and beautifully-imagined writing. Said the by-no-means-modestly-gifted writer Donna Tartt: “[she] carries the true savagery and chill of antiquity.” Tartt’s is a wonderful summation and compliment to Ms. Miller. This is a beautiful book that captures the voice, and the mind of the ancients so perfectly that I felt like I was back in one of my Latin classes, chipping away at granite-hard sentences to discover the wit, barbarity, and glory of those days gone by.

The book centers on Patroclus, the friend (and lover) of Achilles, greatest of all Greeks. Patroclus sets up for us the life and fears of kingdoms within the Hellenic region. While we moderns see ancient Hellas as the cradle of our civilization, but a few centuries earlier it was a loose association of island warlords spoiling for an excuse to declare war on their neighbors. Patroclus, neither strong nor beautiful, but keenly observant helps us slide into the world of pre-Iliad Hellas. The exposition established Patroclus becomes disinherited and travels to the court of Achilles’ father.

A few months ago I was at my barber’s and while Alex was giving me a trim I managed to catch Alan Alda on some morning show talking about his latest book.

Now to me, Alda will always be Hawkeye. It seems like all the times I turned on the TV in my youth after 9 pm, he was on in an episode of “MASH.” Likable, affable, and sensitive, beneath his ironic detachment, his bleeding heart was bare on the show. Later, I enjoyed watching him on “Scientific American Discovery” as he, it seemed to me, always managed to get the scientists to have fun and to show their passion for their study.

This was, of course, long before I thought I would ever document my love of a science (programming) and share it with the world.

In any case, Alda, in this morning spot, talked about his communication issues and the humility he has had to have with communicating with his wife over their 60 years of marriage! That someone who could offer so much sympathy and pathos in his performances couldn’t communicate emotions effectively was nothing short of gob-smacking. Furthermore, Alda points out that our inability to communicate science well has lead to the baffling counter-science movements of anti-vaccination and flat-Eartherism (for reals?). Based on that, I decided to take a look at this book in hopes that it might help me become a better partner, manager, and friend.