Candide - Voltaire

Candide
by
Voltaire

In "Candide", Voltaire satirizes the idea of philosophical optimist, championed by philosophers like Gottfried Leibniz, who argued that at the point of creation, God had before him a choice of many possible worlds. God, in his infinite wisdom, necessarily chose to create the best of all possible worlds.

Through Candide's tribulations, Voltaire presents the reader with the many forms of evil and suffering in our world. He ridicules the notion that we live in the best of all possible worlds, illustrating plainly how individuals must endure unspeakable indignity in the course of their lives. Like Candide, we are forced to re-examine our personal philosophy of life when faced with evil.

What, then, is the cause of evil, original sin, or bad karma? Voltaire is not interested in that question. Instead, he focuses on the individual's response to evil, as he advocates a practical, pragmatic way of looking at life, one that is not caught up in "metaphysico-thelogo-cosmolonigology" ( la métaphysico-théologo-cosmolonigologie ) or needless philosophizing. The value of life is in the living. Only when Candide realizes this fact does he arrive at a state of emotional equilibrium.

Beneath its absurdist veneer, Voltaire's "Candide" masks a great deal of philosophical thought, which makes you stop and ponder.


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The Mummy - Anne Rice

The Mummy
by
Anne Rice

The Mummy is the story of an immortal Eygptian king, Ramses, who drank the elixor of life and now has to forever walk the earth. A lover of the great Queen Cleopatra, Ramses interred himself in a tomb after her death hoping to never be disturbed from his grief. Awakened by an English Archeologist who is murdered shortly after unearthing the ancient king, the mummy is sent to Edwardian England to the archeologist's daughter Julie.

He is displayed for polite society. When a murderer tries to kill Julie too the Mummy awakens and saves her life. Julie and Ramses begin to fall in love but he decides that he must put his past to rest. The two soon to be lovers, and friends set out on a ship to Eygpt. However, once there Ramses comes face to face with his past in a way no one could ever imagine. His actions change his world forever and let loose a creature of unstoppable evil on a helpless population. "

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The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
by
Douglas Adams

"The British author of the Hitchhiker trilogy and other immensely popular lunacies, Adams
permits no whiff of common sense to spoil his new novel, which combines fantasy, hilarity
and creeping horrors," remarked PW . Here, sleuth Dirk Gently investigates a lawyer and an
advertiser who possess the soul of the god Odin. "The plot's ramifications are marvelous,
bloody and irresistible."

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Audio 8 parts
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams

The Meaning of Liff
by
Douglas Adams

It is a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet"; all the words
listed are place names, and describe common feelings and  objects for which there
is no current English word.  Examples are Shoeburyness ("The vague uncomfortable
feeling you get when sitting on a seat which is still warm from somebody else's
bottom") and Abinger ("One who washes up everything except the frying pan, the
cheese grater  and the saucepan which the chocolate sauce has been made in").

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Mostly Harmless

Mostly Harmless
by
Douglas Adams

In this installment of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy saga, Ford Prefect of the planet Betelgeuse relies on serendipity and his own quick wits to protect a new edition of the Hitchhiker's Guide from the loathsome Vogons.

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