Top 25: The Best Books I Discovered In 2015
December 28, 2015 at 5:33 am
(This post was last modified: December 28, 2015 at 5:38 am by Mudhammam.)
Well, it's that time of the year my friends, and as I did so in 2014, I have once again decided to reflect upon the reading experiences that I found most delightful these past twelve months (including last December). First, a brief note on the following list.
In some instances on my list I have alloted an author a single spot though including more than one of his works (sorry, no female authors made the cut, for reasons which are entirely historical!). For example, at #22 I placed Aristophanes for Clouds, Wasps, and Peace. In this case, all three of his relatively short comedies comprised a single volume in the Loeb Classical Library series. For other authors, such as Plato or Lucian, instead of highlighting each of the separate titles included in a particular collection, I specified those that I found most memorable or enjoyable. This is in contrast to the list I compiled in 2014, in which Fyodor Dostoevsky took three separate spots.
If you’re a reader, I hope you will find my list suggestive, even if my area of interest is different from yours. For various reasons, I highly recommend them all!
25. Octavius (160-250) - Marcus Minicius Felix, Gerald H. Rendall (trans.)
24. The Way of Zen (1957) - Alan Watts
23. Outlines of Pyrrhonism (190-210) - Sextus Empiricus, R. G. Bury (trans.)
22. Clouds/Wasps/Peace (422-416 B.C.E.) - Aristophanes, Jeffrey Henderson (translator)
21. The History (440 B.C.E.) - Herodotus, David Grene (trans.)
20. Parallel Lives (90-120) - Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Plutarch), John Dryden (trans.)
19. The Fall (1956) - Albert Camus, Justin O’Brien (trans.)
18. The Aeneid (19 B.C.E.) - Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil), W. F. Jackson Knight (trans.)
17. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) - Charles Dickens
16. Confessions (397-401) - Augustine of Hippo, Henry Chadwick (trans.)
15. At the Water's Edge: Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore but Then Went Back to Sea (1998) - Carl Zimmer
14. Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale (late 12th century) - Ibn Tufayl, Lenn Evan Goodman (trans.)
13. Metamorphoses (8 C.E.) - Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid), Allen Mandelbaum (trans.)
12. Letters From A Stoic (64 C.E.) - Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger), Richard Mott Gummere (trans.)
11. Apology (197) - Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus (Tertullian), T. R. Glover (trans.)
10. On Old Age/On Friendship/On Divination (44 B.C.E.) - Marcus Tullius Cicero (Cicero), W. A. Falconer (trans.)
9. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement (1969) - James B. Pritchard (editor)
8. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) - David Hume
7. The Consolation of Philosophy (523) - Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius (Boethius), Victor Watts (trans.)
6. The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers: The Complete Extant Writings of Epicurus, Epictetus, Lucretius, Marcus Aurelius (1940) - Whitney J. Oates (editor)
5. The Peloponnesian War (411-396 B.C.E.) - Thucydides, Steven Lattimore (trans.)
4. Plato: Complete Works (399-360s B.C.E.) - Plato, John M. Cooper (editor)
Notable mentions: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Parmenides, Timaeus, The Republic, & The Epistles
3. On The Origin of Species/The Descent of Man (1859/1871) - Charles Darwin
2. Lucian: Volume V (160s-180s) - Lucian of Samosata, A. M. Harmon (trans.)
Notable mentions: The Passing of Peregrinus, Toxaris or Friendship, Lexiphanes, The Eunuch, The Mistaken Critic, & The Parliament of the Gods
1. The Iliad/The Odyssey (725-675 B.C.E.) - Homer, Robert Fagles (trans.)
Honorable mentions
The Guide of the Perplexed (1190) - Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides), Shlomo Pines (trans.)
The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts (1957) - G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, & M. Schofield
Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (2015) - Jerry A. Coyne
In some instances on my list I have alloted an author a single spot though including more than one of his works (sorry, no female authors made the cut, for reasons which are entirely historical!). For example, at #22 I placed Aristophanes for Clouds, Wasps, and Peace. In this case, all three of his relatively short comedies comprised a single volume in the Loeb Classical Library series. For other authors, such as Plato or Lucian, instead of highlighting each of the separate titles included in a particular collection, I specified those that I found most memorable or enjoyable. This is in contrast to the list I compiled in 2014, in which Fyodor Dostoevsky took three separate spots.
If you’re a reader, I hope you will find my list suggestive, even if my area of interest is different from yours. For various reasons, I highly recommend them all!
25. Octavius (160-250) - Marcus Minicius Felix, Gerald H. Rendall (trans.)
24. The Way of Zen (1957) - Alan Watts
23. Outlines of Pyrrhonism (190-210) - Sextus Empiricus, R. G. Bury (trans.)
22. Clouds/Wasps/Peace (422-416 B.C.E.) - Aristophanes, Jeffrey Henderson (translator)
21. The History (440 B.C.E.) - Herodotus, David Grene (trans.)
20. Parallel Lives (90-120) - Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Plutarch), John Dryden (trans.)
19. The Fall (1956) - Albert Camus, Justin O’Brien (trans.)
18. The Aeneid (19 B.C.E.) - Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil), W. F. Jackson Knight (trans.)
17. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) - Charles Dickens
16. Confessions (397-401) - Augustine of Hippo, Henry Chadwick (trans.)
15. At the Water's Edge: Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore but Then Went Back to Sea (1998) - Carl Zimmer
14. Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale (late 12th century) - Ibn Tufayl, Lenn Evan Goodman (trans.)
13. Metamorphoses (8 C.E.) - Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid), Allen Mandelbaum (trans.)
12. Letters From A Stoic (64 C.E.) - Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger), Richard Mott Gummere (trans.)
11. Apology (197) - Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus (Tertullian), T. R. Glover (trans.)
10. On Old Age/On Friendship/On Divination (44 B.C.E.) - Marcus Tullius Cicero (Cicero), W. A. Falconer (trans.)
9. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement (1969) - James B. Pritchard (editor)
8. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) - David Hume
7. The Consolation of Philosophy (523) - Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius (Boethius), Victor Watts (trans.)
6. The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers: The Complete Extant Writings of Epicurus, Epictetus, Lucretius, Marcus Aurelius (1940) - Whitney J. Oates (editor)
5. The Peloponnesian War (411-396 B.C.E.) - Thucydides, Steven Lattimore (trans.)
4. Plato: Complete Works (399-360s B.C.E.) - Plato, John M. Cooper (editor)
Notable mentions: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Parmenides, Timaeus, The Republic, & The Epistles
3. On The Origin of Species/The Descent of Man (1859/1871) - Charles Darwin
2. Lucian: Volume V (160s-180s) - Lucian of Samosata, A. M. Harmon (trans.)
Notable mentions: The Passing of Peregrinus, Toxaris or Friendship, Lexiphanes, The Eunuch, The Mistaken Critic, & The Parliament of the Gods
1. The Iliad/The Odyssey (725-675 B.C.E.) - Homer, Robert Fagles (trans.)
Honorable mentions
The Guide of the Perplexed (1190) - Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides), Shlomo Pines (trans.)
The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts (1957) - G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, & M. Schofield
Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (2015) - Jerry A. Coyne
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
