The 306 Greatest Books #76 - Self-Reliance

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This book can be found on the Sybervision Book List.

After having read the original Nature, I was not looking forward to continuing to read Emerson, however this was a very short read and that always helps me power through if need be. Reading Self-Reliance had actually improved my opinion of Emerson. I found it difficult to understand what Emerson was talking about a lot of times in Nature. However, Self-Reliance was anything but difficult, it was straight forward and actually provided a good lesson. Self-Reliance was about how man (and woman) have become too reliant on other people and things and that they are no longer their own person. Emerson stated that we need to break free of the things we rely on to truly become individuals. Only the individuals are remembered through history, not the ones who just copied other people. Overall a relatively straightforward and easy read with a positive life lesson.

The 306 Greatest Books #75 - Nature

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This book can be found on the Sybervision Book List.

While reading through the 100 Greatest Books I sometimes have difficulty in determining exactly which books the list creator was referring to. This was one of those problem books. It turns out that Emerson wrote three different works entitled Nature and I was resolved to read all of them until I came across a website that stated that his first Nature was published in 1936 was the most prominent of the three. It was also the only Nature work published before Self-Reliance, and since the Sybervision Book List is listed chronologically, I assumed that the original Nature must be the one being referred to. Overall, Nature was not all together as exciting or interesting as I thought it would or could be. By far I feel that Thoreau had the same ideals and intent but had managed to portray them in a better way. So, it turns out that Emerson is not one of my favorite philosophers, but I can see how his work might have been groundbreaking at the time.