Speakers' Recommendations
In the perhaps idle hope of increasing our cultural literacy, we've asked
the speakers to recommend a book/play/movie or piece of music.
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Ard Louis, who likes to read, recommends Iris : A memoir of
Iris Murdoch by John Bayley. John Bayley, the
Warton Professor of English at
the other place has written
a frank and sometimes unbearingly moving memoir of his life with and marriage
to the great writer and philosopher, Dame Iris Murdoch.
-
Sam Kutter, who plays his clarinet in various orchestras around
town, recommends Brahms' Sonata in Eb major.
-
Andrew Willetts, who has collected Beatles memorabelia
for the past 18 years, recommends Abbey Road as the
best Beatles album ever.
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Jon Doye likes books by Alan Paton; in particular Cry, the
Beloved Country and Too Late the Phalarope.
-
Raul Leote de Carvalho Recommends the opera Einstein on the
Beach by Philip Glass.
-
Evert-Jan Meijer recommends anything by the Flemish chansonier Jaques
Brell
-
Steven Spencer recommends that we read The History of Western
Philosophy by Bertrand Russel
-
Phil Wilson Recommends the trilogy A Scots Quain by
Lewis Grassic Gibbons. In particular he points out Gibbons' use of cadence
in the English language to simulate Scottish dialects as a good example
of "prose as poetry".
-
Marc in 't Panhuis Recommends the Gullivers Travels by
Jonathan Swift, especially for his parody of university life.
-
Juan Anta Recommends we visit the Alhambra in Granada.
-
Jean-Pierre Hansen recommends we go to the National
Gallery and visit the exhibition of 40 of the 60 portraits
painted by Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres
-
Felix Pahl Recommends the The Passion of the Western Mind
by Richard Tarnas, and Western Political Theory and the Face
of the Future,by Cambridge's own John Dunn.
-
Dave Rowan, who is interested in neolithic monuments suggests we
visit the Giants Ring near Belfast.
-
Chris Skylaris, suggests we read books by the Greek author Nikos
Kazantzakis, especially his travel books.
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Ard Louis, who still likes to read, recommends 3 books:
1) "Beyond Science: The Wider Human Context" by one of
his favorite authors, John Polkinghorne, the former president
of Queens College and a prof. of Theoretical Physics here.
The book includes some
fascinating vingnettes of his interactions with great physicists like
Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann and Paul Dirac, as well as
Polkinghorne's thoughts on
the theological implications of science. 2) "The
Naturalist" the very charming autobiography of
E.O. Wilson, the father of socio-biology and 3) "The
Double Helix",
where James
Watson, in classic
"kiss and tell" fashion, describes the exciting race here at Cambridge
to unravel
the structure of DNA. For an little human interest point, see what
E.O. Wilson says about his former colleague James Watson in the
chapter entitled "The Molecule Wars". ;-).
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