"The great books," O'Hear
it says a journey through 2,500 years of the West's classic literature. Critical synopses of Homer, some Greek tragedy, Plato, Virgil, Ovid, St. Augustine, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Milton, Pascal, Racine, and Goethe. Here's a sample about
The Iliad:
It shows what war does to men and women. War turns women into booty and men into things: either killing machines or victims. We see this phenomemnon again and again in The Iliad. To what once were men, spears lance beneath the brows, down to the eyes' roots, skulls are cracked to splinters, brains are splattered beneath helmets, shrieking heads tumble to the dust, spears skewer men through the groin and guts, livers split, stabbed hearts judder in their last throes, until blood stains the dust of the plain and night blinds men's eyes; these victims once were men, often individualized by Homer and captured in a few brief phrases, phrases which often recall the homes, the families, the flocks and the fields they never again will see. Meanwhile, their butchers, the killing machines, vaunt and taunt--their own humanity as much lost in the orgy of slaughter as that of their victims.
and so on.
"The American heritage science dictionary"I like their dictionary 'cause of its tasty etymological stuff. This is, well, a dictionary.
"The plot to subvert wartime New Zealand" Price
Conman Syd Ross convinces NZ officials that Nazi infiltrators are working to prepare NZ for invasion from Japan and approached him for help. He also convinced them he needs to live in the best hotel, drive a big American car, and have lots of spending cash, all in order to string the Nazis along until they can be caught. Three month later Ross went back to jail.
"The Sumerians" Kramer
I can't get enough of this stuff. Maybe the Sumerians didn't invent writing, but they were the first to be aware of its importance. Includes the Sumerian King list and a curious document (we don't know the reason behind it) that uses the word "freedom" for the first time in history, and lists some rights of men.
edited for poor typing
