Happy new year! Hope that you had a merry Christmas and great holiday with the ones you love. I’m back to blogging and am hoping to have two book reviews out in the next few weeks on SUPRISING and EARTH SHATTERING topics. I 100% guarantee you will enjoy both.
In the meantime, here are some of the books I read in 2023. Because I am a cataloging and categorization obsessive, I usually write down books that I’ve read at the end of the year. I then promptly forget that I read them—much less what they were about or my thoughts thereon. This year I figured it would be fun to share my impressions on some of these books, both to see what readers thought and to help me remember the contents of each.
What did you read in 2023? Please elaborate on your in the comments—along with any impressions you have of the books I read!
PS: Substack informed me that this post is “too long for email.” If it gets clipped, check out the full post at my main substack site.
Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche
Do you guys like Nietzsche? He is one of my favorite philosophers, not only for his advocacy of classical excellence and warnings on how bourgeois democracy easily shades into socialism, but also because of his great sense of humor. What other philosopher would open a book with: “Suppose truth is a woman. What?”
Nietzsche intended Beyond Good and Evil to be his most accessible work and a general introduction to his way of thinking. It succeeds on both counts, and preps the reader for his greatest works, The Genealogy of Morals, Zarathustra, and The Birth of Tragedy.
Nietzsche’s humor, fun, and bombast also serve a greater purpose. Normal people probably won’t be interested in reading a philosophical tract. But many (most?) normal people like to laugh.
In making bold, funny, and shocking claims, Nietzsche draws in readers he otherwise wouldn’t and exposes them to his ideas. This approach also enables Nietzsche to mask the radical nature of those ideas. Subversive thoughts, cloaked in humor, may appear much less subversive than they actually are, and thus avoid prohibition by the censorious and moralizing—who, incidentally, have the most to lose if Nietzschean ideas enter the discourse. In his method, Nietzsche harks back to fellow SUBVERSIVE philosophers like Machiavelli, and his bête noirs Rousseau and Plato (sort of). Note too that all of these thinkers are good writers—which is why their thinking has fascinated readers for centuries and endures in our time.
I read the Penguin Classics edition, which was translated by RJ Hollingdale. I don’t speak or read German, but my friend, with whom I read the book, said that this is a better translation than Walter Kaufmann’s, which I read in college. If you’re interested in philosophy or just tired of the SOUL CRUSHING nature of modern life, check it out!
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Apart from To the Lighthouse, which I read in high school and have no memory of, I’d never read anything by Virginia Woolf. This was conscious avoidance: unfairly (and ignorantly) I grouped Woolf with DH Lawrence and James Joyce, of whom I suffered an overdose in college. Not wanting to reenter the world of Modernism, I wrote off Virginia and pretended she didn’t exist.
For shame. Mrs. Dalloway was probably my favorite of the books I read this year. The plot is simple: it recounts a day in the life of the eponymous Mrs. Dalloway, a society matron in interwar London, as she plans a party for her friends. In the process, Mrs. Dalloway encounters party guests, her servants, her husband, and other individuals. Woolf uses flashbacks to explore the thoughts of and emotions of each, shifting narration between characters, sometimes with no obvious break between the two. Once you get used to this device, it is a moving and realistic treatment of human interaction.
Woolf’s use of 24 hours as a frame for the novel is not only a comment on the power of time and mortality. It is also a riposte to Joyce. Ulysses, Joyce’s masterpiece, follows Leopold Bloom during the course of his day, as he wanders around Dublin and encounters various people. Ulysses is famous (or infamous) for being a complicated and demanding read—so much so that some people consider it unreadable. Every sentence can be unpacked, with references to other works (be they philosophy, scripture, or literature), or self-referential to earlier (and later) parts of Ulysses itself. This complexity wasn’t an accident. Joyce lacked faith that the traditional novel, which developed as an art form prior to the industrial revolution, remained capable of conveying human emotion in modern times.
Woolf didn’t agree. Modernity had radically altered human experience. But the novel was still an effective tool to express it. To prove her point, she took Joyce’s methods—the 24 hour structure and narrative shifting techniques—and produced a work that is as readable and enjoyable as earlier novels. I’m looking forward to reading more of Woolf’s work in the new year.
The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
Do people actually still read Jack Kerouac? They must, because Penguin just rereleased his books in a new printing, with sexy cover designs and fancy paper. I am sort of a fan, having read (and reread) On the Road and his first novel, The Town and the City.
Like most of Kerouac’s work, The Dharma Bums is auto-biographical. It describes his relationship with Bay Area artists, aesthetes, and writers in the late 1950s, and their exploration of the magnificent landscape of the American west.
While that sounds sort of interesting, the book is a snoozefest. The passages on nature are occasionally compelling. But the bulk of the novel is about the partying, recreational drug use, and not-so-recreational boozing in which Kerouac and his friends engage. What deeper insight into the human condition can you gain from your fifth orgy—and anyway, why would you want to tell anyone about it?
Moreover, despite Kerouac’s non-interest in (and later hostility to) the hippie movement, The Dharma Bums contains a lot of drivel about the horrors of consumerism and modern American life. This sentiment is stupid and tiresome. The 1950s were actually a time of techno-optimism (NASA! Computers! Supercharged V-8s!), bourgeois consumption of high culture (the Book of the Month Club; symphonies in midsized cities; evening and weekend openings at museums), and mind-boggling economic growth (TVs in every home; rising wages; full employment). It’s no accident that American politicians—both Democrat and Republican—constantly invoke the 1950s as America’s heyday and promote policies that will supposedly deliver the stability and living standards of that decade.
Kerouac had no prescience on this front and is a lame guide to the beauty and power of the American landscape.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
For a much better take on the 1950s – 1960s, check out The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. This was a reread for me (Wolfe is one of my favorite writers), but was just as exciting on the second go-round. Check out the below to see my take on Wolfe’s time with the Merry Pranksters.
If you’d like to know more about Wolfe, Netflix also just added a new documentary about him. It’s not very good, but is worth seeing just for the archival footage.
Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Empire by Robert Remini
Andrew Jackson is one of the greatest American presidents. Like Sarah Connor, he is also at risk of being TERMINATED! Fearing that good books on him will be banned as a result, I finally bought the 3 volume biography by Robert Remini. Published in the 1970s and 80s, it was widely acclaimed at the time. I learned about the series in school, and used snippets of it to do research, but never sat down to read the entire thing.
The first volume didn’t disappoint. I realize that I’ve been using a lot of superlatives throughout these reviews, but it is one of the best political biographies I’ve read. Remini skips expertly between political history of the early 1800s to capsule biographies of the politicians, lawyers, and diplomats in Jackson’s orbit. He also presents Jackson’s life in novelistic detail. Check out this description of Jackson, serving as military governor of Florida, during a fire in Pensacola, the capital at the time:
One night, a fire raged in the business district of Pensacola and the Spanish congregated to watch it. Suddenly Jackson appeared and immediately began issuing commands and calling for help. But the Spanish, knowing little English, did not understand him. They saw only a wildly excited man waving and yelling at them. In a panic, they fled to their homes, leaving the governor to watch the conflagration alone.
I can’t wait to read Volume II, which covers the election of 1824, Jackson’s first term, and his war with the Second Bank of the United States. Once I finish it, I’ll finally write a post on this topic, which I’ve been threatening to do since last August.
The Price of Time by Edward Chancellor
The title of this book is the best thing about it. Interest charged on loaned money, says Chancellor, is “the price of time.” This is a wonderful and elegant description of the concept, which Chancellor traces from ancient Sumeria to modern America. Chancellor is a great writer and has command of the material—he is able to discuss Thomas Acquinas and quantitative easing with equal fluidity—but the book didn’t work out. This is due to lackluster editing (occasional repeats of facts and concepts addressed earlier in the book; summations of viewpoints with which Chancellor doesn’t agree that needed to be expanded to make his criticisms effective) and the second part of the book (an attack on the Federal Reserve’s suppression of interest rates after the Great Recession). It’s not fair to fault Chancellor for the latter point, because it is his book and that is how he wanted to structure it. But he missed a chance to produce a classic of financial history by leaving the polemic for another day.
On the Nature of Things by Lucretius
One of my college profs told me to read On the Nature of Things as background reading for a course on Augustan literature. Of course, I didn’t read it. This year, I did so with a friend—and it’s a bummer I didn’t listen to my professor! Check out this post to read my take on Lucretius and Epicureanism.
The South During Reconstruction, 1865 – 1877 by E. Merton Coulter
As noted, one of the best things of the “Greatest Generation” was its interest in self-improvement. Ordinary Americans—often just elevated to middle class status from want and poverty—sought to read, listen to, and experience the classic works, music, and plays of Western civilization.
The History of the South, published from the 1940s – 1980s by Louisiana State University and the University of Texas, is very much in this tradition. A comprehensive history of the region, each volume is written for the general reader by a university professor with expertise in the applicable period. Unfortunately, some of the volumes are out of print, but you can still order most of the series from LSU Press’s website.
The one I read this year was The South During Reconstruction, 1865 – 1877, by E. Merton Coulter. Coulter was a history professor at UGA. I read a few books on Reconstruction in school, including Eric Foner’s Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, which is now the standard work on the subject. This is ironic, because Foner’s book was the capstone of a long-standing revisionist effort when it was first published in the 1980s. Foner attacked the scholarship and supposed political and racial biases of the Dunning School, the members of which argued that Reconstruction had been a disaster—a borderline authoritarian imposition of corrupt, lawless, and inept government by a triumphalist (and small) group of Northerners on their former countrymen
After reading this article on WEB Du Bois—which rightly points out that revisionism of it only began when the generation that actually lived during Reconstruction had died—and listening to this podcast on Reconstruction, which mentioned Coulter, I ordered and read the book. While dated, it’s worth reading to understand a different perspective on Reconstruction, prior to the civil rights revolution of the 1960s.
Harry Potter 1 – 7
Over the Christmas break, I reread the Harry Potter series. It was a fun experience. Will summarize my thoughts on this in a separate post. Live in anticipation until then!
Please comment on the above if the mood strikes you. And what books did you read this year? Look forward to hearing about them in the comments section.
I thought you'd never ask.
Like you, I started recording the books I read because I couldn't remember them. I had intended to write my thoughts on them as well, but found my remarks were superficial and lame. Sometimes I will grind out notes if I am motivated. 2023:
The Greeks and Greek Civilization- Burkhardt: Incredible book, worth every minute. I actually felt smarter after reading it. He has a "cicerone" on the artwork of renaissance Italy, I'd love to travel there and follow along with the book.
The House of the Seven Gables - Hawthorne
The Knights/ Birds/ Peace / Assemblywomen - Aristophanes
Under Western Eyes - Conrad: I love his books but for some reason I don't find them easy to read
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
The Hollow Man - Sci Fci by the guy who wrote Hyperion
Inventing the People - Edmond Morgan. This was a re-read, I was going into it again excited that he was going to pwn democracy, which he sort of does, similarly in form (but not style) to what Lasch does to progressivism in The True and Only Heaven. He shows that "the people" is a made up sham, but he concludes that it is good. I would have liked for him to got one step further in showing not just how the concept was used for gain (in the style of Jouvenal) but why we even think democracy is "just" in the first place. He also wrote a great book about slavery, from which I learned that white slaves outnumbered black slaves far longer than we think. He is not political but you get a good sense of what is bs and what is not in current day thinking.
The Marriage Feast - Par Lagerkvist: Charming short stories by the Nobel prize winning author of The Dwarf, which was quite a bit darker!
Human, All to Human - Nietzsche
Twelfth Night - WS
MacBeth
Much Ado About Nothing
The Number of the Beast - Heinlein. I enjoy reading Heinlein but this was my least favorite
The Gay Science - Nietzsche
Leave it to Psmith - Wodehouse: Wodehouse rules
Romeo and Juliet - WS. Had never read, one of my favorites now
The Problems of Philosophy - Bertrand Russell: He didn't solve any of them
The Man Upstairs and other Stories - Wodehouse
Parallel Lives (Vol 1) - Plutarch: Enjoyable but long
Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
Time Enough for Love - Heinlein; Pretty good, although there is one part where the main character travels back in time to bang his mom, spoiler alert
King Lear
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis : His "The Discarded Glove" about the medieval age is one of my favorite books
Reaction and Reunion - C. Vann Woodward: I was excited to see your recommendation of the "South" series, will check it out, and your comments on how reconstruction has been retconned. I actually read a retcon book by a wordcel lawyer titled "Reconstructing Reconstruction" - I'll pause for you to vomit. The first thing I read disputing that storyline was from a series of history books by Claude Bowers. His book of reconstruction is called "The Tragic Era" and in rollicking fashion documents the "borderline authoritarian imposition of corrupt, lawless, and inept government by a triumphalist (and small) group of Northerners on their former countrymen" that you note above. I also learned the origin of "the bloody shirt." His other books about Jefferson v. Hamilton are similarly fun. Reunion and Reaction is about the end of reconstruction, and is a brilliant and detailed analysis of the political actions that brought it about. Mostly the railroad guys.
Perelandra -C.S. Lewis
Maxims and Reflections - Duc dela Rouchefoucauld: I'll have to give this one more time to do it justice
Adolph Hitler - John Toland: I only read the first volume but I have a feeling that he doesn't make it in the end
Collected Fictions - Borges: I started just wanting to read the first few but couldn't put it down
I am also reading Harry Potter with the kids
Happy New Year
Great post! I enjoyed the description of BGE the most. And I agree that Kerouac is often a snoozefest; the best that one could say is that he is sometimes intentionally snoozy to show that the edgy things he was interested in ultimately weren't as satisfying as he wanted them to be--which is to say, that perhaps he faithfully represents that way of life. Idk, though; I haven't read him in awhile.
Since we are knee deep in 2024 I can't remember everything from 2023, but:
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey; Sophocles' Antigone and Oedipux Rex; Plato's Hippias Minor; Beowulf; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear; Jack London's Sea Wolf; Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac; Arthur Milikh's Up from Conservatism; Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine; Clawson Smith's A Time for Tomahawks; Michael Anton's The Stakes; Camille Paglia's The Birds (on Hitchcock). Maybe others, but if I can't remember them than they don't matter as much.
I think that it is good to take stock of these things. I will make a similar post at the end of 2024 and I hope that you do the same.