My 2011 Top 5 List of Non-Fiction

Salutations!

I doubt anybody's actually on here to read this right now. If they have any sense they're out celebrating, but I shall keep my promise all the same, and put down the second half of my 2011 reading list. Enjoy!

My Top 5 Non-Fiction Books I Read in 2011

5. What the Buddha Never Taught by Tim Ward

I saw this book in the Travel Lit. section at Bolen Books in the Spring, and thought about it for months afterwards, till I finally read it. I have often wondered what the world of a monk is like, and Ward offers a small glimpse inside, in What the Buddha Never Taught. This book is an account of his stay at Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand, a Theravada Buddhist monastery founded by the revered Ajahn Chah, and filled with a cast of flawed but endearing characters. He arrives seeking enlightenment and release from suffering, and finds there is suffering inside Pah Nanachat’s walls as well. Only here, there’s nothing to distract you from it: suffering must be faced head on. It is all too easy to romanticise the monastic life, but Ward shows that there is nothing romantic about it. The life of a bhikku, a Buddhist monk, is very hard. One gets bogged down in day-to-day suffering like anybody else, not to mention the possibility of falling asleep after hours of meditation, a cobra snake coiled behind the toilet door, the intense summer heat in a tin-roofed, and the constant threat of boredom. Ward also encounters what he sees as problems with the way the monastery is run, buttressed by centuries of deeply ingrained tradition. The appeal of the exotic wears off quickly, and what remains is a daily struggle to overcome ego and find peace. But while you can sense a clear tone of skepticism throughout, Ward tells the story of his adventure with humour, honesty, and humanity.

4. Harperland: The Politics of Control by Lawrence Martin

Remember, during Canada’s election campaign this year, the website Shit Harper Did? This book is basically that, written in long form. Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin chronicles the unlikely rise of this brilliant, pragmatic, and provincial-minded politician, from a fringe player, to Opposition Leader, to Canada’s “Dear Leader”. Martin sets out to offer readers a clear overview of the past half-decade, to make sense of the “episodic renderings of the daily press”. And that overview shows something very disturbing. But rather than a broad-sweep of the shit Harper’s done, Martin focuses mainly on the exercise of power; how under Harper’s rule more and more control has been sapped from the cabinet and rerouted to the Prime Minister’s Office. Because Harper’s team has been so secretive in operations, a great deal of the material in this book is provided by interviews with several former members of the PMO staff. What they reveal is a regime that has taken the government to new heights of authoritarian control, and new lows of mud-slinging politics. Think about that for a moment. These individuals being interviewed worked more closely with Prime Minister Harper than anybody else. They were Conservatives, and even they were troubled by the way Harper ran things.

I didn’t enjoy this book, at least not in the same sense as I did the others on this list. It was definitely well-written, and I can assure you I could not put it down. But it made me angry as I read about Harper’s “march of audacities”, one after the other. (I suppose it was a masochistic kind of enjoyment.) Now, I’m no fan of Harper, and from the looks of it neither is Martin. I admit that bias. But whatever your political leanings are, you have to admit that Harper has not done much to ennoble Canadian democracy. I don’t think it is fair to demonize Harper, nor is it constructive to just seethe in hatred for the government's actions, but the damning grist for Martin's mill is plain to see in the news from the past five years. All Martin did was piece it together so we can see the pattern, and act accordingly. Martin wrote this book in 2010, before the election. After the election, and a half year of majority government that has seen one demonstration of arrogance after another (e.g. the Gov’t response to Attawapiskat, Bill C-10, pulling out of Kyoto), it’s clear that “Harperland” is becoming a more and more real place every day. this book is worth reading just so we can become more aware of this pattern, and decide for ourselves what we should do about it in the next few years.

3. The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris

I first came across this argument put forward by Harris over a year and a half ago on TED Talks. Since then, I became increasingly intrigued by it. At the very beginning of the New Year I bought The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, his book which explains in greater detail the ideas he put forth at TED. Arguing from a neurological point of view, Harris states that science will eventually be able to not only comment on how humans behave, but how humans should behave, a role most often played by religion. The morality of an action can be measured not by the arbitrary, superimposed laws of a God-figure, but by the amount of well-being, or suffering, the action causes in the physical world. An action is placed on a gradient of peaks and valleys, or a ‘moral landscape’ if you will, where the deeds that gives the most people the highest amount of well-being are the peaks, and those that cause massive and intense suffering are the valleys in this landscape. The question is how do we measure well-being? Harris places it in the physical realm of the brain, the domain of neuroscience, and as happiness as a study is being taken more and more seriously in these circles, Harris is confident that we will be able to map out this landscape. It is merely a matter of time.

I found his ideas incredibly provocative, and very encouraging that we can find human answers to human suffering. However, as I mentioned on this blog before, I felt he devoted too much time to ripping into religion. I’ll admit it was warranted and well-argued, but it could have been reduced somewhat, or saved for another book (like his previous one, perhaps!). The bitter polemic just didn’t seem necessary to strengthen an already formidable argument. But however you may feel about religion, it’s still well worth the read, for a glimpse into the fascinating science of the brain, and the challenging but desperately needed route he suggests we take as a species.

2. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

In the Spring, my good friend Geneviève of NoFrillsFox approached me as well as various other colleagues of hers to perform a radio dramatization of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. I had never really read anything by Woolf before, so it seemed like a good opportunity to get some voice work to put on my ol’ acting resumé, while immersing myself in the words and world of one of the 20th century’s most venerated writers. I got much more than that.

Woolf was asked to deliver a series of lectures on “Women and Fiction”, and the result was a brilliant extended essay about female writers and the challenges they have faced in a male-dominated world. The entire book, written from the point of view of a fictional speaker, revolves around the argument that 'a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction'. The fact that good writing depends on physical needs like finances and space, both of which women have usually been denied in the past, accounts for the dearth of literature produced by women. These, and not some natural inferiority as a sex. The clarity of her prose and the sharpness of her wit, as well as the evidence she marshals to support this are testament enough. But Woolf does not simply rant at men and blame them for the problems women face. She tempers her critiques with compassion, believing that bitter resentment and anger, however well-meaning, can only be destructive forces, and that imagination and humour are much more powerful tools. But, she soberly reminds us, it all depends on having that room, and money. Without, we won’t make an inch of progress.

First of all, as a man, rather than make me feel guilty for my fortunate lot in life, this book made me extremely grateful. Woolf wrote it in 1929, but her words are still relevant today in 2011(2012, etc.). Secondly, as a writer, there is much I can learn from Woolf; like the best writers before her, her powers of reason and imagination transcend gender: creativity needs space and nourishment, whether you are a man, woman, both or neither. And finally, I just really enjoyed it as a good read. I found it entertaining, as well as insightful, and even if you’re not a writer I recommend it for no other reason than this.

1. Twelve Steps to A Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong

Following her TED Wish to have leaders of world religions to draw up a Charter for Compassion, an act of restoring compassion and the Golden Rule to the centre of the major religions and moral systems, Armstrong wrote this book. It's basically what its title says: a step by step guide in becoming a more compassionate person. Distilled from the methods of compassion of all the major faith traditions, including the three Abrahamic ones, Confucianism, Buddhism, and even the Western tradition of rationalist philosophy, Armstrong has cleverly modeled the process on the Twelve Step program for AA. Twelves Steps is a template for how we can draw inspiration from various religions and philosophies to specific action and make compassion a tangible part of our day to day lives. Beginning with Step One: Learn About Compassion, it goes on to looking at our own community and the role we play in it, to having compassion for yourself, and it culminates in the seemingly daunting twelfth step: Love Your Enemies. It is a simple, pragmatic, and hopeful little book, one which I’ve found myself reading near the beginning of the year, and rereading now at the end. I suspect this will happen again. And again.

That's it! Happy New Year, folks! See you in 2012!

Liam