Your Bible

[Real Real]

I have a copy of Montaigne's Essays that I interact with in some way on a near-daily basis. It's dog-eared, soaked in coffee, covered in pencil and pen scribblings, with many of the margins so choked with notes that there isn't any space left to write anything else. Almost every one of the 500+ pages in the book has a creased corner, because I've saved my place in the book at that page at some point in the last 8 years. Any time I need to remind myself of myself, I can open the Essays to nearly any point, read for 5 minutes, a half hour, three hours, and get what I'm looking for.

That's the purpose I imagine (hope) the Bible (or Torah, or Koran) serves for true believers in that religion.

Is there a book you've found that you can and have turned to throughout your life for guidance, to center yourself, and so on? If that book is actually the Bible, say that.

[theetruscan]

Bellare and Rogaway's Cryptography notes. Lately I've been working nonstop, and for the last 6+ months, not a day goes by that I'm not digging through a chapter.

[DHC]

Yeah, my bible is the bible. Over the years I have found guidance for every situation I've confronted in life. So many meanings can be drawn from a single passage. The good book is a good book, but you gotta go old school KJV.

[skecr8r_l8r]

I'm not old enough to have found such a marvelous book, nor young enough to believe that such a book would exist for me.

But if I for the sake of argument had to choose.... Arnold Hauser's Sozialgeschichte der Kunst und Literatur.

[Real Real]

Bellare and Rogaway's Cryptography notes. Lately I've been working nonstop, and for the last 6+ months, not a day goes by that I'm not digging through a chapter.

Sounds interesting - is it something you've constantly turned to for moral instruction, to remind you of your core principles - or is it just a book you've been referencing a lot recently?

[theetruscan]

Sounds interesting - is it something you've constantly turned to for moral instruction, to remind you of your core principles - or is it just a book you've been referencing a lot recently?

Just referencing constantly. I don't think there's anything I can think of which I turn to for moral instruction. I read for work and fun, I don't really consider morality much, I just kind of try to do what's right whenever it comes up.

[maldoror]

there isn't any book which I rely on to hold moral compass, but, in terms of a centering text, or a text with which I have a real and ever evolving relationship jesus' son comes immediately to mind. it's not that johnson's stories have directly influenced the course of my life (they haven't), but rather that I find myself regularly seeking out the space of these stories, needing to return to them like staying in touch with my oldest closest friends. the specific reality limned by his strange language is something I find myself unable to leave, or to forget.

vollmann's the rifles had/has a similar effect on me, although my return visits to that grimly beautiful place are far less frequent.

edit: also, not a book, but this would probably be the most important in terms of my core principles

[kompressorkev]

The Holy Bible. i read NASB and ESV.

[Faust]

It's hard to pick a book for me as well. It'd have to be The Master and Margarita, I guess.

[theetruscan]

It's hard to pick a book for me as well. It'd have to be The Master and Margarita, I guess.

The red-covered translation (I'm an idiot and can't remember the translator's name)?

[Faust]

The red-covered translation (I'm an idiot and can't remember the translator's name)?

Doesn't matter to me.

[zamb]

the Bible Like DHC does it for me......... an yea i am biased towards the good ole KJV, i especially like the gospel of John, which reveals the divine nature of Jesus Christ.
i also like Critique of pure reason by Kant

[DHC]

the Bible Like DHC does it for me......... an yea i am biased towards the good ole KJV, i especially like the gospel of John, which reveals the divine nature of Jesus Christ.
i also like Critique of pure reason by Kant

[Magician]

[skecr8r_l8r]

the Bible Like DHC does it for me......... an yea i am biased towards the good ole KJV, i especially like the gospel of John, which reveals the divine nature of Jesus Christ.
i also like Critique of pure reason by Kant

Do you honestly just glance at a few pages from Critique of Pure Reason and suddenly everything makes a bit more sense?