Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (bbowling)

 


This is a short book. I read the Gregory Hays translation. This book was written about 2k years ago. Here is how you have to read this book: 

1. rent a hotel room so you have no distractions.

2. read a lot of background on rome and the reign of Marcus, his predecessors, life at the time, religion at the time, and greek philosophy. It is a bit like the bible in that it is important to go back 2k years to be with the author.

3. read this book, then read it again, then read it again, then wait a year and read it again. 

What I am saying is you will get out of this book (much like the bible) what you put into it. Some of the text is quite clear. A lot I did not really get. 

In sum, I did not put a lot of effort into reading this so I did not get much out of it. I found it a bit pessimistic (like jordan peterson's book) and too much about accepting death as part of nature. I am confused about the role of god vs. nature vs. the logos. There is some good advice about reality being based on your perception, instructing the ignorant, and how fame dissipates with time. It is actually quite ironic that this book has lasted so long despite a central point in it being that everything disappears as time flows like a river (of course marcus had no idea this would happen). I enjoyed the parts about finding your place in life and doing your job like a tool does its job. 

Scott and I disagree on this one which is rare so maybe you should read it and see what you think.

I say page it! if you want to say you have read a "classic"/for social purposes but mostly shelf it! unless you are really going to put the time in. I am not in awe of the text/have read a lot of better books. 

Also, I really hated the structure. The random paragraphs were too disjointed for me and made the reading more difficult. I think it is always going to be difficult to read something from 2k years ago that is translated into english from greek. 

Thanks Scott for the recommendation and I recommend you read his review!!!

Comments

  1. Scott GogginsJanuary 3, 2024 at 1:36 PM

    It's a translation of a journal entries which already make it difficult to digest and then slap on it being 2k years old. I think everything you said is correct. After every entry I had to go to another website that translated the already translated text just to comprehend it. I think certain books resonate with people more than other people and at the moment of reading this I was already heavily thinking about how if your mind is strong then nothing can control you and this luckily backed my already self thoughts. Good review getting different perspectives is always beneficial. Read it and see what you think people!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scott GogginsJanuary 3, 2024 at 1:37 PM

    Probably need to swap it out of the top 10

    ReplyDelete

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