I know Richard reads political books. I don't. My political education comes from a lifetime, from reading the Times, the Post, and many other sources, but I don't read the books by O'Reilly and Franken et. al.
I read philosophy some, though not as much as in my youth. The latest I've been reading is Martha C. Nussbaum's Hiding From Humanity: Disgust, Shame and the Law. This book is best described by Booklist:
A citizen filled with grief or anger may advance the cause of liberal equity, but a citizen filled with disgust never will. So argues an acclaimed legal theorist in this sophisticated exploration of how emotions enlarge or contract the nation's commitment to equal dignity for all. Nussbaum insists that no strictly intellectual approach to law will ever illuminate the true reasons humans join in self-governing unions. Because they reflect humans' true vulnerability, the emotions of fear, compassion, and indignation provide guides to sound legal philosophy, but disgust, Nussbaum argues, should never form an emotional basis for law because it springs--in her view--from fantasies of superhuman purity and omnipotence. Too scholarly for most casual readers, Nussbaum's analysis nonetheless treats topics (such as same-sex marriage and nudity) sure to interest nonspecialists--many of whom will find her theories about disgust and shame too psychoanalytic to justify her support for judges who have frustrated electorates motivated by such passions. Populists and communitarians will lock horns with legal theorists in the debates this book will provoke.
Hey, and as philosophy goes it is very accessible. Her earlier book, The Fragility of Goodness : Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, is one of my favorites of all time. I love the parts where she disusses Derrida and Plato's Phaedrus. Hope that's not too obscure.
On the fiction front I'm in the middle of the first book in Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle," Quicksilver. It's a playful book, but also a fascinating look into that age that gave birth to philosophical liberalism. Among the characters in it are Newton, Leibniz, Charles II, and a very young Ben Franklin.
I highly recommend both books.
