By: Pablo Morales on October 8, 2016
SUMMARY Beauty, power, betrayal, murder. These are not words of the latest movie, but words that describe centuries of world history as captured by Peter Frankopan, director of the Centre for Byzantine Research at Oxford. In the book, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, Peter Frankopan challenges the linear understanding of history by…
By: Jason Kennedy on October 7, 2016
I was sitting in my dorm room with 8 other men. Because I could not sleep, I decided to get out of my cot, pass the outdoor restroom and look across the river into El Paso, Texas. While El Paso is not the most cosmopolitan of towns, it is light years ahead of Anapra, Mexico. …
By: Kevin Norwood on October 7, 2016
Summary: Peter Frankopan, an accomplished academic at Oxford, where he is director of the Centre for Byzantine Research, has introduced us to a new path “the Silk Roads.” He has changed the centre of history to a new path, changing from the historical path, the that is traditionally followed. He has done this through the timely…
By: Chip Stapleton on October 6, 2016
Through much of Pierre Bayard’s, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read I put this text alongside the other preliminary work (most notably Adler, How to Read a Book) we have been assigned as we ‘ramp up’ into the meat and serious study of our doctoral program. And to be clear, it definitely contains some helpful hints…
By: Kristin Hamilton on October 6, 2016
Taking seriously the advice of our lead mentor, Dr. Jason Clark, I read a vast number of reviews about Bayard’s How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, before reading the book itself. If the reviewers are to be believed, Bayard’s book is either pure satire, a serious treatise on discussing a book without reading, an offering…
By: Phil Goldsberry on October 6, 2016
Introduction “Follow the money!” Has anything really changed? In Peter Frankopan’s book, The Silk Road: A New History of the World, he reiterates this very thought of money, currency, trade goods and the impact upon the world. Of greater interest is his shifting of the “center” of the world away from the “alluvial lowlands of…
By: Aaron Cole on October 6, 2016
Summary Silk Road by Peter Frankopan is a historical view of the world that is taken from a non-eurocentric perspective. Frankopan is a well noted scholar and academic from Oxford, England, where he is the director of the Centre for Byzantine Research. Frankopan ignores the common thought of the world’s history going back through the…
By: Aaron Peterson on October 6, 2016
In many ways, The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan is the quintessential book for this doctor of ministry leadership and global perspectives track. Frankopan’s stories of leaders, networks, conquests, religion, economies, and of course, his conclusion that the Silk Roads are rising again, each epitomize what we learned last year and what we are currently…
By: Mary Walker on October 6, 2016
Now that we understand “How to Read a Book” we can learn how “Not to Read a Book” and still talk about it!!! What a time saver for poor, tired students! In “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” Pierre Bayard encourages us to learn why we strive for an image of cultural literacy.…
By: Stu Cocanougher on October 6, 2016
How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, by Pierre Bayard When I first looked at the title of this book which I was required to read and discuss, the irony was almost too perfect. In fact, I half expected that this was one of those books you find in novelty stores that have a…
By: Jim Sabella on October 6, 2016
How can you talk about a book without reading it? When I first started reading Bayard’s book, I wondered if this was a tongue and cheek piece with a twist of dry French humor. Or maybe Bayard is the antithesis, the mortal enemies of Adler and Van Doren? After all, Adler and Van Doren suggest…
By: Marc Andresen on October 6, 2016
As we walked the stairs and passage ways of Oxford University we could hear echoes. We could hear the echo of our own footsteps and perhaps an echo of the voice of Harry Potter. But far more importantly we could and can hear the echoes of history. The walls and halls of Oxford in general,…
By: Garfield Harvey on October 6, 2016
Long ago, there was a boy by the name of Zeus, son of Cronus and Rhea. He later became the god of sky and thunder in ancient Greek religion and also ruled over the gods of Mount Olympus. He would overthrow his father and drew lots with his brother Poseidon and Hades to decide who…
By: Geoff Lee on October 6, 2016
“It is not the quantity that is read, but the manner of reading, that yields us profit. Those who read fast, reap no more advantage, than a bee would by only skimming over the surface of the flower, instead of waiting to penetrate into it, and extract its sweets.” (Madame Guyon – A Short…
By: Claire Appiah on October 5, 2016
Peter Frankopan – Silk Roads: A New History of the World Introduction Peter Frankopan, is Director of the Centre for Byzantine Research at Oxford University and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. In this comprehensive and compelling book Frankopan presents a perspective of world history through the lens of the East. With superb…
By: Rose Anding on October 5, 2016
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan Frankopan’s study reminds us that one-way systems are a recent invention. Traffic—physically and culturally—typically runs two ways, and certainly did along the Silk Roads. Introduction Peter Frankopan, the director of Oxford University’s Centre for Byzantine Research, has rethought world history while relocating all…
By: Katy Drage Lines on October 4, 2016
Our relation to books is a shadowy space haunted by the ghosts of memory, and the real value of books lies in their ability to conjure these specters—xxi I must confess at the outset of this post that Bayard convicted me of the danger of becoming too immersed into a book, thus “distancing [oneself] from…
By: Lynda Gittens on October 4, 2016
When I entered college I was introduced to the Cliff Notes. Never heard of it? Well, it was a study guide which assisted many students in addressing what a book was about without reading the entire book. The books I have read so far, I sort of wish I had cliff notes. Or should…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on October 2, 2016
“How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” by Pierre Bayard The irony of a non-reading professor issuing reading assignments to his students, and authoring a book presenting non-reading techniques on how to talk about books you haven’t read, is not lost on me. As I read “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read”,…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on October 1, 2016
I find it very clever that the table of contents for the book How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard is structured in a way that you can skim it and understand what each chapter and section is intending to convey. It allows the reader to choose what they want to read…
