A Book about Books: Part I of III

By E.H. Bernstein

A Book about Books discusses what nonfiction books and subjects the author believes are important to know about. This book is volume I of III. Only the first volume is available at this time. The second volume is forthcoming and will be available in 2020. E.H. Bernstein is a former librarian turned author. The subtitle of the book describes the author's objective: "A handbook in 3 parts to a choice of essential books, writers and subjects in order to understand the world we live in, about ‘big questions' and possible answers, about books and writers that may improve people's lives, about neglected writers, and other books and subjects." A Book about Books attempts to share what the author has learned from nearly 50 years of nonfiction reading and to provide the reader with samples of the most important authors and subjects from that reading. While the book is based on research, it is intended to be a handbook or guide by trying to make that research understandable to the general reader and to students, and for teachers--by pointing to what the author believes is missing from today's education. Note about how the volumes are related: each chapter is on a separate subject. So the chapters can be read individually, but the full message requires reading all the volumes. Volume I is important, but preliminary to the more important Volumes II and III. A future website, bookaboutbooks.com. is planned for later in 2019 and will include additional material not in the books. Note also that the book is not just about books, since other sources are also mentioned. This book tries to point to problems in how we live and to see if books have any answers. A contemporary writer once said that one of the purposes of writing is that books should be useful. I hope that my book will be of use.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781635684346

Book preview

A Book about Books

Part I of III

E.H. Bernstein

Copyright © 2018 E.H. Bernstein

All rights reserved

First Edition

Page Publishing, Inc

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc 2018

ISBN 978-1-63568-433-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63568-434-6 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5a

Chapter 5b

Chapter 6

Notes to the reader:

How the volumes of this book relate to each other: The first volume of this book is intended to be preliminary to the second and third volumes. The first volume primarily raises questions about how we live which the subsequent volumes try to answer, although some questions are raised in the second volume as well. Each chapter is on a different subject. Consult the Table of Contents of each volume for a guide to the subjects in each volume. So while the volumes are related, the chapters can stand alone. While the completion of all volumes is necessary for me to fully present the ideas I want to present, the reader is free to choose to read it all or just the parts that interest them. For further information on the decisions I made about how I chose to write this 3 volume book, see the Introduction to this volume.

The reader may wish to know why I selected the particular images on the cover of this volume of my book. They are all images of books I discuss in my book. Most importantly, I want the reader to have some idea of what my book is about by looking at the cover of my book. However, there are various reasons why I selected these particular books for the cover of my book from among the much larger number of books that I discuss in my book. In some cases, the books on the cover were most important to me, so I want the reader to look at them. In other cases, the books on the cover are simply representative of an author or representative of some of the subjects which I discuss in my book. Where it is representative of an author, I may discuss several books by that author in this or future volumes of my book. Nevertheless, there are a few books on the cover that I hardly discuss at all in my book due to time or space limitations, but I also want the reader to consider looking at those books. Some books on the cover were chosen because they are good introductions to those subjects for the general reader. Finally, note that the order of the images on the cover of this book follows the order of the subjects discussed in this book. I will follow the same format described here for the future volumes of my book.

For your inquiries, reading suggestions, etc.: please e-mail

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Introduction

This is a book about books. What do I mean by a book about books? Before I try to answer this question, let me first ask: Why do people read, how important are books, and why write a book about books? In other words, I want to try to explain what I am trying to accomplish in this book and who my intended audience is. I would like to begin by looking at some of the reasons why people read. Note that while I speak here primarily about books, this book is not limited to discussing only books, i.e., printed books. Some subjects also lend themselves to being presented or are easier to understand in other forms, such as through computers, audiobooks, documentary films, etc. I also want to mention from the start that this is a book in progress. Only part I is complete at this time. As the other parts are finished, I will attempt to have those parts published as well.

In order to talk about why people read, let me talk first about what people read. I think most people understand the distinction between fiction and nonfiction, which can be described as follows: Fiction is out of a writer’s imagination. It may well be based on the writer’s experience, persons the writer has known, etc., but the work of a fiction writer is not usually taken as factual unless a lot is known about the writer’s life and a comparison of the life and work reveals a close relationship.

I think most people who read fiction read for entertainment. Now it is entirely possible for fiction, literature, etc., to teach valuable lessons either to a reader who reads for that purpose or to a teacher who uses such books to teach themes, i.e., a thematic or subject approach to teaching. Almost any subject can be treated thematically. To find such books, just search for titles containing the word thematic along with the subject. An example of a book that takes a thematic approach to reading is mentioned on the back cover of the book I am writing here. The themes in that book include: family ties, significant others, places, aspirations, etc., so the book groups together writings according to these subject themes.

However, for reasons which I will discuss later in this chapter, I do not think fiction is the best way to teach ideas, and I do not think that most fiction readers read for the purpose of learning. For example, I don’t think it would be practical to learn a trade by reading stories about workers who practice that trade. It would be too inefficient a way to present technical information.

The opposite of fiction books are nonfiction books. Nonfiction books state their content directly rather than by portrayal. Nonfiction represents a writer’s knowledge, ideas, life, etc. I also believe that the nonfiction form can convey more information than fiction. I like to think of nonfiction books as being in two broad categories: occupational books and books about life. By occupational books, I mean how-to books that teach either a practical skill or an intellectual skill. They are used to teach virtually every profession, especially specialist professions. There is a place for how-to books. I read them myself when there is a practical skill I need to learn. However, occupational books are not the subject of the book I am writing here.

The book I am writing here will be concerned almost entirely with nonfiction but limited to certain genres that represent my interests and that lend themselves to the purposes of this book. Note that just because a book is considered nonfiction does not mean that the book is truthful, enlightening, meaningful, etc. I look for books that fit this description, and these are the kinds of books I want to talk about here, especially books that I believe represent a truthful description of life, the world, etc. I always read for a purpose.

What is my purpose? When I started reading seriously as a teenager around age sixteen or seventeen, I needed to discover the answers to certain questions as a matter of survival in the sense of trying to understand myself or how to meet my needs and to try to understand the world or other people. What those questions are will be discussed in the following chapters. I have searched during my life for books that provided guidance and that told the truth, at least as I see it. So I had to find writers that I trusted.

For whatever reason, I am the kind of person who has always questioned everything I was told, taught, etc. I do not take anything I am told or taught without comparing it against my beliefs or against other sources I trust. The books I found either formed my beliefs or helped me verify what I believe. Most of my beliefs come from the books and writers that influenced me throughout my life and, to a lesser extent, from music, movies, art, etc. Part of the reason for writing this book is to discuss those writers and those who express themselves in other formats and why I think they are important.

It usually takes me more than one book by a writer to decide whether that writer is reliable, but once I have found a writer I consider reliable, I like to read as many of their books as possible that are on subjects that interest me. In some cases, I try to collect almost everything they wrote. Their writings then become the standards for my beliefs and judging other writers.

Whenever I want to learn about a subject, I also like to receive information about it from several sources, i.e., from several points of view. I find that this helps me to understand the subject and also helps me to feel that I am being thorough, i.e., that I haven’t missed anything important. Very often one source will mention something that is not mentioned by another source. So taken together, I have more confidence in what I am learning. This applies especially to technical subjects. So one of the major features of this book is that many ideas I am discussing here are from multiple sources, which I believe increases their reliability.

How important are books? One way to answer this question is to look at the different ways in which people learn. One can learn by being told or taught something, by observation, example, or imitation, by reading, and by doing, i.e., by practical experience, especially bad experience which is one of the best, if unpleasant, teachers. I believe that more people prefer to hear than read, i.e. prefer to receive information verbally rather than in writing.

In chapter 4 of this book, a writer I discuss admits reservations about the goal he has set for himself in his writing. I feel the same way about writing this book. I have my doubts about the extent to which books can change people’s lives. I think this kind of change is hard to do. I also think books are an inefficient way to learn. Books are no match for the effects of family, friends, coworkers, the media, etc. I also have doubts about whether even those whom I want to be my audience are able to benefit from what I want to say here due to enormous differences in learning styles which may be related to differences in personality types. More on that later. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to try. However, there probably are lessons that simply can’t be taught from books. If books (or psychology) could solve all problems, then all problems would be solved. Clearly this is not the case, so there are things we do not know. I will return in part II to the importance of the proper attitude toward knowledge and the implications of its being incomplete.

What about changing a society? It seems to me that this requires a political leader or a teacher, someone who is respected enough to be followed. The latter used to be religious figures but includes someone like Martin Luther King, Gandhi, etc. I will mention later a book that discusses such persons. Such persons are rare. Can a society change itself from books? I have serious questions about how a society changes its values when there is no law preventing certain behaviors such as inequality in accumulation of wealth or because the behaviors have deep roots in basic human nature.

So books, especially nonfiction books, are one of the ways that people learn, which brings me back to the question I posed earlier: why write a book about books? It is my purpose here to write a kind of handbook, i.e., an introduction to books that I think are important and can have a practical use. When I say practical, I don’t mean how-to books. Instead, I mean books that can improve people’s lives or shed light on the way the world is and how it got that way. However, before I get to those books, which I think have a practical use, I want to discuss several other subjects first as a foundation.

I will mention briefly here, but expand on it later, the idea that while science progresses, other aspects of human knowledge do not progress in the same way. Instead they tend to remain much the same over time. Since the beginning of recorded history, human beings have also asked certain questions, usually referred to as the big or perennial questions. I think that given how long civilization has existed and given the great minds that have come along from time to time, whatever insights that have been discovered have already been written about, but for some reason, we tend to forget what they once taught or ideas are overlooked by receiving insufficient attention. One of my purposes here is to remind whomever reads this book of some of what has been forgotten. I think some knowledge is also intentionally ignored because it questions the ideologies we are taught to believe.

The reason why I intend to write primarily about writers is because, as a practical matter, unless ideas are available in some form so others can be exposed to them, whatever ideas a person may have are lost. This does not mean that just because a person is not published or famous that they have nothing important to share. It is an unfortunate truth in our society that there is much talent that goes unrecognized. It is one of my purposes here to point to neglected writers or other unsung heroes.

Another way of saying what I want to accomplish is that this book is concerned with books that help people live, not books that help people work. Freud is supposed to have said that love and work were the two most important parts of life. I am inclined to agree with this, but in my view, books about improving one’s work life are for specialists to write about, although some ideas about work in general are worth examining. For example, our society does not always reward talent. By reward, I mean something as basic as having enough money to live. Our society discriminates about work. See more on this subject in Chapter 1 under subheading the Human Condition and under Education in chapter 4 of this book. I believe all the subjects I will discuss in this book can teach us something, but they are not all the same level of scholarship. Parts I and II require a more systematic presentation. In part III, I will discuss subjects that are less scholarly.

So who is my intended audience? I do not believe most people read for the same reasons I do. Therefore, I imagine my audience will be those with a similar attitude as mine about reading, i.e., readers who need certain books to improve how they live and readers who read to learn. I would also like college students to see this book. At least one semester, perhaps the beginning of junior year would be best, when students have found out what school is like, but before they concentrate on their major, on graduating, and a future career. However, in order get this book and the future volumes of it before students, I would need to get administrators or teachers interested in it first. So if you are an administrator or teacher, I would like to hear from you. I would also like to reach those who are disadvantaged. It is also my intention to address this book to those in our society whose decisions affect the majority, i.e., those in government. More on this later. This division of subjects corresponds to the distinction various feminist writers make between the personal (what we can try to control in our own lives) and the political (the ways in which society affects or controls us). I think it is good to work on our own lives first, but we cannot ignore society around us and its institutions.

A writer, one of whose books I will discuss later, remarked that he doesn’t believe most people spend a lot of time thinking about living. They are more concerned with the daily practicalities of living their life. If they are already successful, then I do not see why they would be interested in what I say in this book, so I do not write for them. I write for those who are searching for answers to the kind of questions I raise later in this book.

This book is designed to present the ideas of others. I wish to write this book that way not only because I wish to present those writers who influenced me but there may be readers who question by what authority I present my ideas. The writers I discuss are the authority. In addition to speaking through others, I also consider myself to have certain personal qualifications to say what I say based on my knowledge, life experience, and my particular type of thought process. I doubt there is much to be said about human nature that is original, but the way it is discussed can be original. Even more important is the selection of whom and what to discuss. I am very unlike the average person, so unlike that we live in different worlds. I am not necessarily happy about this fact, but I cannot change it. So I think I have a unique viewpoint.

I return now to my original question: what is a book about books? Many books have been written about books. One bookstore chain puts books like the one I am writing here in a section they call Literature Studies. Their section also includes literary criticism and essays. When a book is written about a particular writer or writers, it is usually called literary criticism, i.e., a series of essays. Literary criticism is almost always about fiction writers, i.e., about literature. Note that books about books can appear in several sections of a bookstore or library. They can be placed in general reference or nonfiction, essays or literary criticism, or under the name of the author of the book or the name of the person who is the subject of the book.

I have also occasionally seen a collection of essays about a nonfiction writer or about a particular book by that writer. Especially when the writer or book is difficult, this can be one way to better understand the writer or book. Sometimes this type of collection is called a symposium and may appear in professional journals rather than in a book. A professional journal is usually published several times a year for the purpose of educating members of a particular profession. However, as with any collection of essays, the essays will not be uniformly written or uniformly understandable. So each essay should be judged on its merits.

With only a few exceptions, I don’t read fiction or literature because I read to learn. I don’t read for entertainment because reading is work to me, so I won’t be discussing literary criticism as such here, although I should mention that some writers of fiction or literature are also writers of nonfiction, and I will discuss some of those writers in later chapters. However, I still would not consider my comments on those writers to be literary criticism. Since this is a handbook, I am trying to introduce their work, not be their critic. Note that some of the nonfiction by well-known fiction writers is very important to me. While I have read very little fiction or literature, I will watch filmed fiction, literature, plays, etc., some of which is also important to me. I will discuss essayists in a separate chapter.

Besides literary criticism, other kinds of books about books that one bookstore chain places in their Literature Studies section (there is a similar section in libraries) are variations on a similar theme. The following are examples:

(1) An annotated list of favorite books by a well-known writer, a celebrity, or other well-known person.

(2) An annotated list of favorite books by several well-known writers and/or celebrities edited by another writer or by someone else, i.e., someone who reads a lot of books. There are even a few librarians who have written this type of book.

(3) An annotated list of books recommended by an institution, such as a large urban public library, university, book foundation, including those that award prizes to writers, etc.

(4) An annotated list of recommended books associated with some other source, like a TV book review show, TV interview show, etc.

(5) Someone’s idea of the one hundred, one thousand, etc. books to read before you die or similar idea, like someone’s idea of the book that changed my life.

(6) Someone’s idea of great literature, especially required reading to be considered educated; these choices are nearly always from literature, especially classics, i.e., Greek, Roman, etc.

(7) Reference books, handbooks, etc., are in a sense books about books. There are publishers that specialize in publishing reference books on specific subjects: Oxford, Cambridge, Routledge, Blackwell are a few like that. They usually are the work of several authors or an anthology of authors. Their quality varies. Some I have found very useful and will discuss below.

(8) There is also what are called publisher’s catalogs, which are a list, usually with descriptions, of all the books in print at the time by a particular publisher or by several publishers. The Reader’s Catalog, a 1,400-page partially annotated list of 40,000 of the best books in print in 1989 (rev. 1997) in 208 categories, chosen by nearly 150 experts, must be the ultimate publisher’s catalog.

(9) I also do not want to minimize the importance of the Internet. One could say that there are many websites that are the equivalent of books about books, such as Amazon.com’s readers’ book reviews. There is even a documentary film, Stone Reader, about one filmmaker’s obsession with books.

(10) Book reviews. Note that libraries rely on reviews to select the books they buy to stock the library shelves, so in a sense, almost all the books that are purchased by libraries are guided by lists of recommended books on particular subjects.

I have looked in bookstores or libraries at many books about books, including a number of such books shortly before starting this book just by way of comparison and to make sure that I was not missing anything that met my purpose. I found few books that I would recommend; however, I would like to mention four books I recommend for comparison purposes to the book I am writing here. The first book I bought many years ago but only read in recent years. The second I only came across recently. The third and fourth I have lived with for most of my life.

The first book is Thomas Mallon’s A Book of One’s Own: People and their Diaries (Diaries). I mentioned above reviews on Amazon. Sometimes I get more out of reviews than the book itself or the review sums up my impression. One review of Diaries sums it up: the reviewer called Diaries the gold standard of a book about books. When I read Diaries, I wondered why Diaries included some books and not others; however, when I began to write the book I am writing here, I realized that a writer who writes a book about books will probably always find themselves in that situation. I also wished that Diaries included longer quotations, but again, I don’t know how the quotations could have been longer without making the book considerably longer.

I will likewise have to make decisions as to how much to say about the writers I intend to talk about. Note that I include Diaries in this introduction mainly as what I consider a good example of how to write a book about books rather than for the specific content of Diaries, since Diaries is limited to a specific genre, namely, a type of autobiography. I will discuss autobiography further in a later chapter.

Before discussing the second book, I should mention that there are two basic ways I find books. One is to search systematically, and the other is by accident. For the most part, I think I have been fairly systematic in choosing the books I read. Starting as a teenager, I intentionally sought out books on particular subjects. However, I also rely on discovering books that I did not know existed. I can imagine that a person can never stop discovering books that contain something new, interesting, and useful. The next book I discuss was one such accidental discovery.

Another book that is similar in quality to Thomas Mallon’s book is Bookworms: Great Writers and Readers Celebrate Reading, edited by Laura Furman and Elinore Standard. Rather than attempt to describe this book myself, I will defer to the description on the inside cover:

"Bookworms contains selections from diaries, letters, plays, and books written over the last two centuries that reflect our relationship to the act and skill of reading."

Just as with Diaries above, I am not recommending this book specifically for what writers or books are mentioned in it but rather for the quality of the effort, as well as the inclusion by the editors of nonfiction writers and works.

The third book about books that I recommend is one I have looked at many times since I bought it forty years ago, according to the bookseller’s date inside. The book is Henry Miller’s The Books in My Life (New Directions, 1969). There are many striking features about this book. First is the choice of books. There is nothing in this book that remotely resembles any other book about books I have seen, especially versus those books that contain lists of classics that a person is supposed to read to be considered educated. If anything, the list of books in The Books in My Life always struck me as puzzling. Why these books? Several biographies of Henry Miller answer this question. More on that later.

Like me, Henry Miller was reading for a purpose. Like me, he too read to search for answers to certain questions, as a matter of survival. His first chapter title, They Were Alive and They Spoke to Me, represents the kind of books I want to discuss here in my book, and it was another of his chapter titles, Living Books, whose idea I will mention again in a later chapter in this book.

I will discuss Henry Miller in more detail later in the book I am writing here, but I need to discuss The Books in My Life now because it was one of my models for the book I am writing here. I recommend reading The Books in My Life in its entirety, if possible, as there is much of value in it in every chapter. Most of the book comments on particular writers. However, throughout the book are comments on books in general. Here are highlights of a few of the ideas in it:

one should not read any more than necessary (p.23)

importance of chance mention of one writer by another (p.29)

you have to reach a certain age to appreciate some books (p.47)

The idea that a person cannot appreciate certain things until they reach certain ages should not be underestimated. A book read when a person is too young will simply not make much sense. Age also applies to understanding more than just books. This idea reminds me of the line in the film The Magnificent Ambersons: Forty can’t teach twenty.

early man is not inferior to civilized man (p. 84).

the failures of formal education. Here is one quotation:

"… in boyhood we came to realize that there were two sources of instruction: the one which we discovered ourselves and secretly strove to guard, and the other which we learned about in school and which impressed us