Reading old books is advice given by Professor Steven Smith at the conclusion of Yale lecture series PLSC 114: Introduction to Political Philosophy. [1] It is a

Reading old books is advice given by Professor Steven Smith at the conclusion of Yale lecture series PLSC 114: Introduction to Political Philosophy. [1] It is also advice repeated by someone prominent like Snowden (I recall vaguely) in answer to the question of intellectual self-defence in an age of shallow wilful deceit. Obscure books have a magnetism so I collect and read them. I love wandering through those "bookstores" (which are really private collections with a public storefront) in York, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Oxford, and finding titles that are unthinkable to the modern mind, and which evoke a highly spiritual sense that mixes revelation, melancholy, wonder and an excited sense of the forbidden (I am sure many a hacker can relate to this). Most can be bought for a few quid and I generally read only a little of each, but keep its title/contents in mind as a reference for inspiration. Note for insatiable progressives: minus the fire hazard a good bookshelf provides decent thermal insulation and pleasant acoustics, even if you can't read anything unless it's on a screen. Just reaching out to a shelf now I find: "The riddle of the universe: Being an attempt to determine the first principles of metaphysic, considered as an inquiry into the conditions and import of consciousness by Edward Douglas Fawcett, London 1893. It's got a strange marbled cover and smells of time-travel. I paid 2 bucks for it. If nothing else it contains one of the most original takes on Idealism , Shelling and Hegel, and a delightful "Criticism of Critique" which would make anyone who likes to denounce post-modernism feel like they'd been handed a light-sabre. [1] https://oyc.yale.edu/political-science/plsc-114/lecture-1 https://oyc.yale.edu/political-science/plsc-114/lecture-1