What's in your Library?

[GoshisDead]

Can a dead person get well?
lol

[No0ne]

I only have one book, and it's myself.

[FatalMuse]

My reading in Philosophy has just begun, so I don't have much of a Philosophical bookshelf to speak of. My bookshelf is packed with literature & chess books, but to give an idea of what I read, my purchases over the last 2 weeks have been:

Hermann Hesse: Klingsor's Last Summer, Peter Camenzind
J.D Salinger: For Esme With Love and Squalor
John Steinbeck: Tortilla Flat
William Styron: Sophie's Choice
Thomas Mann: The Holy Sinner, Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man
Royal Highness, Death in Venice and 7 other stories, Essays

Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy
Religion and Philosophy (unknown ed. until it arrives)
The Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy & Philosophers
edited by J.O. Urmson & Jonathan Ree

[de Silentio]

Originally Posted by FatalMuse

My reading in Philosophy has just begun, so I don't have much of a Philosophical bookshelf to speak of.

If you are looking for good introduction texts to philosophy, I suggest Frederick Copleston's The History of Philosophy series.

[VideCorSpoon]

I agree with de Silento on the Copelston texts as a good introductory to philosophy series. I have found volumes 4 and 5 on the rationalists and empiricists invaluable to me. Whats great about the series is that they give you a brief yet very thorough history of the philosopher himself before they get into the material. Knowing the background of the philosopher is very helpful. But you don't have to read the book from page one because each philosopher has its own section, which is a relatively short section considering the density of some of texts they are famous for. And it makes sense, like a cliffs notes version of the original text. Further, it tells you what to look for when you do read the original text. Great series.

[FatalMuse]

Thanks for the suggestion, I have had a look at a local online bookstore and they have the complete series. I also noticed it is currently 11 volumes which would cause considerable distress to my pocket, though I guess I don't need to buy them all at oncee. Would you recommend buying the individual volumes or would the concise compiled edition (below) be a suitable introduction?

Copleston's History of Philosophy, Concise Edition - edited by John Cumming
ISBN:0826471307

[VideCorSpoon]

Yeah, it’s a great series. You can indeed buy the individual volumes if you want. The series is not connected in any way accept for the chronology of the philosophers in the different books. You could pick up volume 5 and not notice that that there are any other books in the series. I only have volumes four and five on modern philosophy, but I have found them especially useful. They function as a very good companion reader, where you could read the original text of Descartes meditations on first philosophy and follow along in the Copelston book, which underlines the key features you should look for. But now in hindsight, I could have just read the Copelston books and got the same amount of relevant information.

This is a link to amazon with all the books on it. They are not that badly priced since when I bought them a while back. I originally paid $50 for each book. But this was also at the school bookstore, so go figure.

Amazon.com: history of philosophy copleston

[de Silentio]

Originally Posted by FatalMuse

Would you recommend buying the individual volumes

They're free at the library. Or the pseudo-library: Barnes and Noble.