in I read mostly educational books which I don’t read cover to cover, word for word. My reading is probably more scanning than reading. It’s perfect for this kind of books (as you only read when you don’t understand or it doesn’t match what you expect to be there), but it’s a terrible habit for any other type of book.
I don’t remember the last time I enjoyed reading every word of the book. It has to be a long time. But finally, it happened again with a book Talks With T. G. Masaryk. Not sure if it’s so good in English as well, but I want to let know also, people outside the Czech Republic because not only the form of writing is excellent; content is excellent as well.
It perfectly describes how it looked like here, in the Czech Republic, before and during the First Czechoslovak Republic. Actually, not only here, but also around. At least the relationships between countries and people.
It’s not uncommon to hear people complaining about how bad it is nowadays. How it was better before. Well…
A lot is better now. We have plenty of food. Books. Books in our language. All available in our pockets. We don’t know what war is.
And much more is the same. I often heard it’s better to travel these days, but people were traveling a lot before as well. Even 100 years ago people were complaining about cities and that the countryside is better. Problems with the equivalence of women are the same, kind of.
But sure, something is worse as well. It looks like people knew more languages than today.
For me is also interesting how he saw America or Russia. Americans had practical optimism. Russians had disgusting politics, but very kind people. Masaryk said we should learn from everyone. Including ourselves and our history. Well, the same can be seen today, and we learned nothing!
Or the importance of religion, how church and traditions helped to country life. Also, politics; why we have so many parties when America has only two. Thoughts about communism and where it can be used (only in a family or small friendly town).
And about life. How important it is to have a life rich of events and personal progress. So read this book as this one is really good. :-)
BTW about the First Czechoslovak Republic exists great encyclopedia! (This one only in Czech, sorry.)
feed