Blog 1

Recently, I found myself reading an “autobiography” of a professor who had written it after learning that he had developed terminal pancreatic cancer. What is ironic, however, is that the book, The Last Lecture , is mostly about him preparing for an assignment where the lecturer was to pretend that it will be his or her last lecture. In Randy Pausch’s case, he didn’t need to pretend, this was going to be his real “last lecture.” Many professors are actually assigned to give a “last lecture.” They are expected to give “final” parting ideas to the audience, talk about what matters most and “reflect” on their legacy. Randy Pausch, however, knowing that he had terminal pancreatic cancer, approached the assignment differently than other professors.  This book does not actually contain any of the “transcript” of the lecture, so to speak, but I was curious anyway and read the lecture transcript (There’s a Youtube video too). The lecture was mostly about him and his childhood drea...

I usually don't enjoy reading books in the fiction genre and I have a hard time finding really interesting books in the non-fiction genre. I mostly read political biographies and I've recently been reading a book called Shortest Way Home by Pete Buttigieg, who's running for the Democratic nomination during the 2020 election. Although I have not finished the book yet, I think that this book is really interesting and a good read for someone who enjoys reading non-fiction and provides a lot of political insight. This book is a non-fiction book and talks about Pete Buttigieg's life and plan for America if he wins this election. The book beings in South Bend, Indiana, where Mayor Buttigieg grew up. He talks about what it was like living in a small, Midwestern town in the '80s and '90s and also discusses the economy of the town. He goes in-depth about how the products made locally seemed to deliver quality, and they thrived in the community that was in South Bend,...

The Republic  is one of the most well-known books of philosophy in the world of academia, for good reason. The beginning of the book covers the idea of justice and what it might be. Socrates starts by discussing with Cephalos the concept of justice, and if there is a definition to it. Cephalos said that justice is to speak the truth and to give back whatever one has received. Socrates gives the argument of a friend who entrusts a set of weapons to you when he is in "right mental condition," i.e., not crazy. Then, he says, when he is not in the right state of mind he asks for the weapons back. Your friends would tell you not to give the weapons back. Cephalos then says that yes it would be just to not give them back to the friend when he is not in the right state of mind.  I personally agree with this idea, except for the fact that saying the truth is not justice. I believe that a fundamental part of justice is speaking the truth and supporting the truth. In this situation, w...

Recently, I was bored and wanted to read a book, so I went to the library (duh) and came across a book called Tattoo Atlas , by Tim Floreen, which I realized I could blog about. The book is science fiction, but is quite realistic and revolves around a research laboratory that is trying to cure a sociopath named Franklin. The book is told from the first person perspective of Rem Braithwaite, the main character whose mom is trying to steady Franklin’s sociopathic brain.  Rem has a relatively normal school life with friends, but constantly relives Franklin’s crime against fellow classmate and friend Pete Lund. Franklin, an outsider to his classmates, harbored and still harbors ill will to Pete and others because of inconsiderate words or actions and feels justified to have killed him. Rem’s mom, concerned for Rem’s well-being and jumping at an opportunity, admits Franklin to her research center and implants a chip into his brain that will allow her to “control” his brain’s feelin...

          I started reading this book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, around a week ago and finished it  3 days ago. It's written by Robert D. Putnam, a professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. The book looks into how different it is two grow up in the America of today compared to that of 50 years ago, and whether the idea of the American Dream is still real today or just a myth.           The structure of the books is discussing a different aspect of a child's bringing up and education and gives the reader two stories in each chapter - one of an affluent child growing up in an American city, and one of a poor child growing in that same city.           This book gave me a lot of insight into what it's like to grow up in America with different incomes and parents with different educational backgrounds. The book also shows ways in which the government can help close the opportunity gap whic...

The Dialogues of Plato , written by the philosopher Plato, are a collection of script-like arguments the philosopher makes. This style of writing, as opposed to the traditional 3rd person text, shows two characters discussing philosophical ideas. In the dialogues, it is Socrates, Plato's teacher, and some other individual(s). The "premise" of each dialogue is that Socrates approaches a certain person and asks them a question pertaining to the nature of virtue, knowledge, poetry recitation, etc. Because the book is written in this way, it makes it much more interesting to read than other philosophical texts. Additionally, Plato's arguments are elegant and clear, having a different point of view than you or I would have on the matter. He uses the most obscure connections to prove points. Sometimes you are convinced he is on a tangent, but he then connects it back to the main point at hand. In the book Ion , Socrates confronts a great poetry reciter named Ion. Ion cla...

  Sometimes, reading about an unfamiliar subject can be difficult if the material is not written in an interesting way. Naturally, for me, like most people, my personality gravitates towards fiction because the plot can always change on a whim depending on the author’s personality. However, I still find nonfiction books appealing, just not the generic books. For me, the generic books just drone on and on. What If? was one of the first nonfiction books that really appealed to me at the start of middle school and changed my view of nonfiction books. Grade school nonfiction reading contained many pictures, and was easy to understand. However, everybody seemed to expect that being a middle schooler suddenly meant having a much better ability to comprehend books. Although teachers had read short chapters aloud in school, I never had a chance to finish the book until this summer because I was always reading other material. What If? is a nonfiction book, but not the stereotypical nonf...