What Fred Has Read

Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009), a professor of history of philosophy at the U. of Warsaw, went into exile in 1968 and also became a senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He wrote many books and received many awards. This gift book has 27 essays.  Read more

Huston Smith (1919-2016), born in China to Methodist missionaries, has meditated with Tibetan Buddhist monks, practiced yoga with Hindu holy men, whirled with ecstatic Sufi Islamic dervishes, and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath with a daughter who had converted to Judaism. His world-wide fame was for his classic The World’s Religions (Book 17). (For his books I’ve read, click on his name.)  Read more

Steve Inskeep, a cohost of Morning Edition, the most widely heard radio program in the US, has won awards for investigating journalism. This, his first book, focuses on the problems due to the extremely rapid growth of the coastal city of Karachi, Pakistan. This was a gift book.  Read more

These books – BNR (1932) and BNWR (1958) – are published as a Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) was the author of many critically acclaimed books of fiction and nonfiction. This edition – BNW (231 pp) and BNWR (108 pp) – also has a 17-pp P.S. section of Insights, Interviews, & More. (For his books I’ve read, click on his name.)  Read more

Henry Rosemont Jr. and Huston Smith spent some years at MIT with Noam Chomsky, whose work led to his Universal Grammar for languages. Smith applies it to religions; so he says yes. He and Rosemont discussed this question in a public lecture that led to this book. (For Smith's books I've read, click on his name.)  Read more