Reading

I have never read Sun Tzu's The Art of War all the way through. I've read explanations of the concepts, and I've read interpretations, but I've never read the whole thing. I suspect that a fairly decent college or adult-ed could be put together based on an examination and amplification of the concepts in that thin book. Whats ironic to me is that insofar as the book speaks tightly about situations and how to handle them, through recognition of the situation as belonging to a certain archetype, its exactly the kind of book I like -- short and sweet, with a tight focus on the essentials. But I've never read it.

Similarly, I've never read Machiavelli's The Prince, and my chagrin about that is about equal to not having read TAOW. I can, however, say that I intend to, as when I was at the bookstore last week, and picked up a couple of cut-price science fiction collections, I saw a whole slew of The Prince reprints in thin binding, and I picked one up. Once I get through the first scifi novel, I intend to read that.

What brings this all to mind is a review I read of a book called The Four Hour Workweek, which apparently (I haven't read it) makes the point that much of what makes life delightful is in fact achievable if you're willing to give it some serious thought -- not as part of a 'oh wouldn't it be nice if we could do that some day' daydream, such as we all have, but a serious 'damn, but I'd like to fly in a glider -- how could I make that happen?' Its much the same message as The Number gave -- happiness doesn't necessarily require a lot of money; sometimes yes, but sometimes no -- you just have to think about it, and focus on it.

Which reminds me: that guy hasn't given me The Number back yet, that I loaned him. Have to talk to him -- I want to reread part of it.