A Note on Reading Books – A Note on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
Episode Stats
Words per minute
155.94794
Summary
In this episode, I talk about why you should not just read a book in order to be able to say that you ve read it, but to gain a certain insight into the person behind it. For example, if you are interested in Russian society during the Bolshevik revolution, then you should read Crime and Punishment. However if you know the context of the book, then it becomes supremely interesting. That is why this book is interesting.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Greetings my esteemed subscribers. Today I want to talk a bit about books.
00:00:27.320
I have a great teaching to share that will hopefully make your reading a bit more rewarding
00:00:32.840
and insightful. Now to explain this I will share an anecdote. A few years back I was at an event in
00:00:39.920
good old Netherlands and there were many supporters of mine there as well. One supporter in particular,
00:00:46.060
shout out to you if you see this, a connoisseur of whiskey. We started talking about whiskey and he
00:00:51.620
had brought some fine whiskey with him. Now as you all know I'm no fan of alcohol, I never get drunk
00:00:57.140
or anything like that. Now I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to gain some new insights so I took
00:01:05.100
a few sips and he guided me through the sensation and basically what he told me and this is what I
00:01:11.640
will tell you to do when it comes to books. So he told me to focus on certain flavors and to focus
00:01:16.780
on certain sensations when I took the sips and it made sense. It made sense in a completely different
00:01:23.700
way. I had tasted whiskey before many years prior to this and I thought it tasted absolutely horrendous
00:01:30.760
but tasting it again with a different mindset it made a great difference. Now you can say the same
00:01:38.100
thing about coffee for example. You can have this gourmet coffee right here and it says on the packaging
00:01:44.220
characteristics. Chocolate, red berries and citrus. Then if you're a connoisseur then you can try to
00:01:52.280
find those flavors within the coffee. Same thing if you're a connoisseur of wine. You try to find
00:01:58.720
certain flavors within the wine. This can be applied to anything including books which brings me into my
00:02:05.980
main point of this video. I read this book a while back.
00:02:14.820
Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. A true classic. Now if you read this with the intention of
00:02:21.540
just wanting to be able to say that I have read this book you will fall asleep 10 pages in and I can't
00:02:29.000
blame you in the least. It's not a particularly good or interesting book taken outside of its context.
00:02:35.400
However, here is the main point. If you know the context of it then it becomes supremely
00:02:41.880
interesting. So what is this you might ask? It's a novel. Yes, but it's more importantly it's a
00:02:48.780
discussion on morality and it's a historical document as it were from Russia during the 19th century.
00:02:58.240
So written a few decades prior to the Bolshevik revolution. So one of the most horrific events in
00:03:04.540
world history. That is what makes it interesting. So if you approach this as a connoisseur you know
00:03:11.980
that why am I reading this? Yes, I am reading this because I want to get a glimpse at the discussions
00:03:18.060
on morality in Russian society leading up to the Bolshevik revolution. That is why this book is
00:03:25.480
interesting. If you don't read it with that in mind it will not be a good book. This is not an interesting
00:03:31.060
book in terms of characters or plot or whatever. The interesting part is the social commentary.
00:03:37.860
Now I read this and yeah, it was quite hard to get through. Not particularly exciting as such but I got
00:03:45.620
a bit of a taste for the works of Dostoevsky so I decided to read Notes from Underground.
00:03:51.620
Now this was much more enjoyable because I knew how to approach the book in a different way so I had
00:03:59.540
learned how to read Dostoevsky. I knew what to look out for in the book. I know what sort of things I
00:04:07.860
could expect so now I actively looked for discussions on morality and this is a good book to start with
00:04:14.420
by the way especially if you want a good discussion on the yes it says the it doesn't say but the
00:04:20.260
underground man the lower that I've talked about before the the mentality so it can be a good way to
00:04:26.420
put yourself into the mind of such a person and whatever you do don't read it just so that you can
00:04:32.340
say that you've read it because then you won't understand anything and you will only waste time.
00:04:36.580
Now of course there are many books if you are just if you are just starting out I suppose all
00:04:41.540
of you are interested in Roman history. I can't imagine I have any subscribers that are not so I
00:04:47.460
can recommend Harry Sidebottom. He is a historian I've mentioned him before I think he writes really
00:04:54.020
well really insightful so this is set in the waning years of the Roman Empire so not the golden years
00:05:00.900
anymore so basically this is historical fiction which is good if you want something that is more
00:05:06.980
easily digestible you can read in the sun whilst relaxing so keep that in mind why do you read
00:05:12.980
something yes to gain a certain insight into something don't just read to be able to say
00:05:18.820
that you've read because that's yeah a waste of time so if you aren't interested in a discussion on
00:05:25.940
morality in the Russian society during the 19th century don't read this don't read it if you are
00:05:34.180
interested in Russian history the social developments that led up to the Bolshevik revolution then you can
00:05:41.700
read it otherwise no. Now what is absolutely mandatory to read of course I've said it before
00:05:47.060
absolutely aesthetic so this as it says it's a handbook this is how you should approach it you
00:05:56.340
should approach it in the sense that you try to find some teachings you can implement successfully in
00:06:01.780
your life find habits that you can implement in your life that is the purpose of it and of course some
00:06:08.660
social insights as well so point being know why you are reading a certain book if you have
00:06:18.020
that understanding i'm reading this because of x y z whatever then you know what to look for if
00:06:25.060
you don't know what to look for you will just yeah skim through it and and you won't get any
00:06:30.100
appreciation for the material so before you begin to read say to yourself okay why am i reading this
00:06:36.420
then you start reading then you know what to look for just as a connoisseur of whiskey or coffee or
00:06:41.780
wine he knows beforehand sort of what to look for and how to enjoy it same thing with these books so
00:06:50.340
anyway that's how you should approach at least dostoevsky in my humble opinion there are those there are
00:06:55.940
those who are much more well read than i am who have better takes on dostoevsky this is just my
00:07:02.420
impression i've read two of his books so by no means an expert but if you read that's how i would
00:07:08.820
advise you to approach the material at least so anyway thank you for watching looking absolutely
00:07:16.340
juicy today if i may be so bold this fine polo shirt is also available at legiogloria.com same page
00:07:23.140
as dauntless so if you haven't already ordered dauntless do so immediately any arguments to the contrary
00:07:31.540
are totally invalid no thank you for watching xxo boom