WHICH 150 BOOKS TO READ?
In his iconic novel, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, Alexander Dumas, through the character of an educated, unjustly-imprisoned abbey, proselytizes to an illiterate, unjustly carceral prisoner that his best means of escape and to exact vengeance upon his tormentors, is by the acquisition of knowledge, and great riches. Thus, he patiently instructs, tutors him bit-by-bit up from illiteracy, also mentioning 150 unidentified books that he must read to finish his understanding. Later, the abbey maps out the secret location of vast, buried underground treasures. That same hagiographic abbey also physically provided the actual means of our hero's escape, when, years later, the student encased himself into the burial shroud of the abbey, before being tossed into the sea, by prison personnel, making good his flight from Chateau D'If prison, by ripping apart the shroud and swimming to safety, beginning an even more thrilling adventure tale!
I have long wondered what 150 books the abbey had referred to? He did not say. Nor have others.
Happily for me, at least, Dr. Ayi Kwei Armah has listed three of such books in his own epic, THE ELOQUENCE OF THE SCRIBES (2006). Therein he writes:
"Few read the world's key philosophical and literary texts in the original. So it is reasonable, if one cannot register for formal courses, to form a study group with like-minded persons, draw up a reading list of helpful translations, and begin studying the texts. Those whose working language is English might start with the following basic reading list:
"Theophile Obenga, 'African Philosophy: The Pharaonic Period..'
Miriam Lichtheim, 'Ancient Egyptian Literature,' Volume I, 1975...
Alan Gardiner, 'Egyptian Grammar,' ... 1982"
P.201
To this impressive list, that I have yet to complete, I would also add to it Dr. Ayi Kwei Armah's own above-referenced book; EUCLID 'S ELEMENTS, and THE HOLY BIBLE . That would make 6 books, still far away from 150, but progressing.