Member Polymath35

About My Library

My library is comprised almost exclusively of non-fiction. I am interested in American History, European History, Religious History, Political Science, the History of Science and Science.

I try to read between 50 and 100 books per year, 5 to 10 at a time--always reading a mix of subjects. I consider my library an important tool and believe that books should be highlighted and scribbled in to get full use of them. In order to keep track of my reading impact, I use the following 5-Star rating system to rate each book I read so that I can have each book categorized and calculate an average book score per year.

Book Rating System: My book rating system is used for informational tracking purposes and the categorize the intellectual impact each book has for me. Specifically:

One Star: Meaningless, superficial. Should be very, very rare.

Two Stars: Mostly trivial or derivative. A waste of time to read. Should be few of these.

Three Stars: Good basic knowledge that should teach you something new and expand your intellectual base. Majority of books should fall in this range.

Four Stars: Very good book that teaches very new things or ways to think about something. Almost paradigm shifting. Relatively uncommon.

Five Stars: A book that is so important with new knowledge or ways to think that it can literally change the way to see the world in some aspect. Very few.

Location

Bangor, ME

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Currently Reading

Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics by Bart D. Ehrman

The Catholic Labyrinth: Power, Apathy, and a Passion for Reform in the American Church by Peter McDonough

Another America: The Story of Liberia and the Former Slaves Who Ruled It by James Ciment

The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society by Brad S. Gregory

Global Pension Crisis: Unfunded Liabilities and How We Can Fill the Gap (Wiley Finance) by Richard A. Marin

China Goes Global: The Partial Power by David Shambaugh

Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction by John Brockman

The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals by Thomas Suddendorf

Glorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian America by Owen Matthews

The Antidote: Inside the World of New Pharma by Barry Werth

The Power of Knowledge: How Information and Technology Made the Modern World by Jeremy Black

The Gnostic Discoveries: The Impact of the Nag Hammadi Library by Marvin W. Meyer

The American State from the Civil War to the New Deal: The Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism by Paul D. Moreno

Rediscovering Antiquity: Karl Weber and the Excavation of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae by Christopher Charles Parslow

A Voluntary Exile: Chinese Christianity and Cultural Confluence since 1552 (Studies in Christianity in China) by Anthony E. Clark

Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing (Foundational Questions in Science) by James Owen Weatherall

The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy: How America’s Civil Religion Betrayed the National Interest by Walter A. McDougall

The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force by Eliot A. Cohen

The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Mercier

Lift: Fitness Culture, from Naked Greeks and Acrobats to Jazzercise and Ninja Warriors by Daniel Kunitz

The Rise and Fall of the Christian Myth: Restoring Our Democratic Ideals by Burton L. Mack

Avignon and Its Papacy, 1309–1417: Popes, Institutions, and Society by Joëlle Rollo-Koster

Bankers and Bolsheviks: International Finance and the Russian Revolution by Hassan Malik

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