Interview with Farhan Samanani, author of How To Live With Each Other: An Anthropologist's Notes on Sharing a Divided World
Farhan Samanani, author of How To Live With Each Other: An Anthropologist's Notes on Sharing a Divided World recommends some excellent books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Farhan's book:
Review from Book Depository:
An anthropologist looks at our modern world - and shows how we can build a better, more connected one
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How To Live With Each Other: An Anthropologist's Notes on Sharing a Divided World
Increasingly, we are coming to see difference, whether in the form of conflicting values or growing ethnic diversity, as an existential threat. Within much of the world, our main response has been to surround ourselves with like-minded people and double down on our own convictions, in an attempt to hold difference at bay. So, how did we get here, and what can we do about it?
Here, anthropologist Farhan Samanani combines case studies from across the world with his own research to provide insights into the capacity of humankind to connect across divides. Using his anthropologist's toolkit, he explores the roots of our present tensions and casts fresh light on how we can cultivate common ground, build healthy communities and not just live but flourish together.
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Book Depository €16.03
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Wordery $17.52
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
One of the books that's had the biggest impact on me has been Joan Tronto's Moral Boundaries. It's academic philosophy but clearly written, and deftly picks apart the foundations of modern democracy, to show which sorts of relations and ways of valuing one another it supports, and which ones it constricts. A less academic favourite is Proust and the Squid which is about the neurobiology and psychology of reading but which has all sorts of insights into human existence, well beyond reading.
Review From Book Depository
In Moral Boundaries Joan C. Tronto provides one of the most original responses to the controversial questions surrounding women and caring. Tronto demonstrates that feminist thinkers have failed to realise the political context which has shaped their debates about care. It is her belief that care cannot be a useful moral and political concept until its traditional and ideological associations as a "women's morality" are challenged.
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In "Proust and the Squid", Maryanne Wolf explores our brains' near-miraculous ability to arrange and re-arrange themselves in response to external circumstances. She examines how this 'open architecture', the elasticity of our brains, helps and hinders humans in their attempts to learn to read, and to process the written language. She also investigates what happens to people whose brains make it difficult to acquire these skills, such as those with dyslexia.
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Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care
Moral Boundaries contests the association of care with women as empirically and historically inaccurate, as well as politically unwise. In our society, members of unprivileged groups such as the working classes and people of color also do disproportionate amounts of caring. Tronto presents care as one of the central activites of human life and illustrates the ways in which society degrades the importance of caring in order to maintain the power of those who are privileged.
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Book Depository €43.91
Waterstones £38.99
Wordery $47.99
Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
Wolf, a world expert on the reading brain, brings both a personal passion and deft style to this, the story of the reading brain. It is a pop science masterpiece on a subject that anyone who loves reading will be sure to find fascinating.
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Easons €13.99
Book Depository €7.90
Waterstones £9.99
Wordery $11.10
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
A friend, who works as a community organiser, recommended Priya Parker's The Art of Gathering and I finally got around to reading it recently. It's one of those rare books that looks at so many of the things we take for granted -- in this case, gatherings, ranging from meetings, to dinner parties, to simple catch-ups with friends -- and challenges the hidden habits and assumptions behind them, while showing you a more powerful, purposeful approach. My main complaint would be that a lot of it is written from this very upper-middle-class perspective. It assumes that everyone is just going to have these managerial skills to apply to how they gather, or that everyone has a trove of formative experiences that are powerful and affirming, which you can share with others -- which are not just traumatic, or part of the slog of everyday life. I'd go for a 7/10.
Review from Book Depository:
Being deprived of social gatherings revealed just how important they are; to connect with others, collaborate, share ideas and create moving, life-affirming experiences.
If there's one thing lockdown showed us, it's that time together is a gift we've too often taken for granted.
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The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters
In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker shows us how to ensure that however we meet, it's a truly transformative experience. An expert on organizing successful gatherings whether in conference centres, crisis zones or her living room, Parker sets forth a human-centred approach to gathering that can help us create meaningful, memorable moments - large and small, for work and play.
The result is a book full of exciting real-world ideas that will forever alter the way you look at your next business meeting, dinner party and garden barbecue.
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Book Depository €11.22
Waterstones £14.99
Wordery $12.96
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
I read Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series and Neil Gaiman's Sandman series when I was in my early 20's, and really wish I had read those when I was younger. They're both captivating stories with lots of powerful things to say, and I could easily imagine one of those becoming a favorite. But I was hardly deprived; as a kid I was obsessed with His Dark Materials, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Review From Book Depository
First a legendary radio series, then a bestselling book, then a blockbuster movie, the immensely successful Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams needs no introduction.
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The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Boxset
This paperback boxset collection includes all five parts of the trilogy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless.
A phenomenon across all formats, this paperback omnibus contains the complete Hitchhiker's in five parts, charting the whole of Arthur Dent's odyssey through space and time. Share and enjoy.
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Book Depository €28.29
Waterstones £40.00
Wordery $38.70
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Tricky question. I'm an academic so I'm always reading for work. In that case, I find reading on my computer works best for taking notes and being able to come back to things later. For pleasure though, it's always paper.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
There's a little basement bookstore in Edinburgh, run by this totally charming but rather eccentric young guy, called Typewronger Books. It's the only time I've been in a bookshop where it felt like every single book was thoughtfully selected, and despite it being small they had some really unusual and excellent picks. I have no idea if it works as a business model, but I think that a cozy space packed full of unexpected discoveries is exactly what a bookshop should be.
Many thanks to Farhan for recommending some excellent books! Please don't forget to check out Farhan's book How To Live With Each Other: An Anthropologist's Notes on Sharing a Divided World .
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Profile Books Ltd (How To Live With Each Other), Taylor & Francis Ltd (Moral Boundaries), Icon Books (Proust and the Squid), Penguin Books Ltd (The Art of Gathering), Pan Macmillan (The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy).
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