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Books and glitches

I was waylaid last night by upgrading Firefox from 1.04 to 1.05. Firefox lost all of my bookmarks (most of which can be replaced) and forgot my toolbar customizations (easy enough to redo). It also started to do some other annoying things. It took a bit of time to get it all sorted and so, no post last night. The lost bookmarks also means that some of the things I had intended to write about might be lost if I can't find them again (or remember what they were). I may be busy for the next day or two as well, but you never know. I might sneak in here and put something together. While I'm here telling you stuff, I might as well tell you I got my latest package of books last week, including:
  • Augustine's Confessions
  • The Viking Portable Plato
  • You Can Understand the Bible, Peter Kreeft's latest.
  • and, finally, Volume One of Federick Copleston's A History of Philosophy
I picked up Augustine because I've never read anything he wrote and figured it was time to put that little bugbear to bed. I got the Viking Plato because although I've read the Republic through (it's excellent, esp. for anyone interested in politics), there's more to Plato than that. I'll start with the selections here for the time being. Viking offers a lot of these 'portables' and they're a great way to get a quick overview of a subject. Love'em. I got the Kreeft book because I have a long term goal of reading through the Bible and his overview - aimed at interested amateurs and not theologians - seemed just the thing. I have a heavy 'study' Bible that, despite it's weight, does not always have the answers to my questions, even though it has a lot of footnotes. Often the question is really broad, like 'what are the issues that this book is known for raising?' Finally, I've already eagerly jumped into the Copleston book. Copleston was a Jesuit Preist who wrote his nine volumes on philosophy as a guide for seminary students in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Yeah, philosophic study is encouraged in seminary. His series interests me because I think it will be in a little more depth than some of the things I've read (although Scruton can really get into it at times), and because I want to hear the story told from his point of view, which, I'm certain, will not be the same as that of the average academic.

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