Non-fiction audiobooks page 50

Thornton Chase (1847 – 1912) is commonly recognized as the first convert to the Bahá’í Faith of Occidental background. During his life he organized many Bahá’í activities in Chicago and Los Angeles and was considered a prominent Bahá’í. In 1907 Chase was able to go on pilgrimage. Though Chase was able to be with `Abdu’l Bahá in Akka for only three days, the experience transformed him. `Abdu’l Bahá, highly impressed by Chase’s qualities, conferred on him the title Thábit, “steadfast.” On returning home Chase wrote an account of his pilgrimage, which was published under the title In Galilee in 1908. The short work gives a detailed and poignant description of `Abdu’l-Ba...

This book, published in two volumes called “books” by the author, is a treatment of everything from the origin of our ideas to how they are to be divided. It includes important statements of Scepticism and Hume’s experimental method. Part 1 deals with the nature of ideas. Part 2 deals with the ideas of space and time. Part 3 deals with knowledge and probability. Part 4 deals with skeptical and other systems of philosophy, including a discussion of the soul and personal identity.

This is a recording of Volume I (or Book 1). Volume II (which contains Books 2 and 3) is in production at the moment.

Dole briefly sketches the history of life, and shows how it has a definite direction - toward the survival of the kind and gentle people. It's a challenging, and quite persuasive argument, and also a much needed one in light of the dog-eat-dog theories out there. Dole shows that in our evolving society, our traditional understanding of "survival of the fittest" needs to be updated. A book that was way ahead of its time, yet so suited to it. Some may argue that - since he was writing The Coming People before the first two world wars - that he was obviously wrong. However, his argument remains valid given current scientific evidence cited in such books as "Evolution and Empathy", and "The A...

The words in this essay on positive thought sing like those in Whitman's "Leaves of Grass." The author praises joyous living and recommends certain routes to its attainment. He explores schooling (public secondary and the university), travel, and the study of nature as ways to stay buoyant during life's trials. He also praises the power of the arts (literature, music, painting, sculpture) to keep spirits soaring.

"This 1922 book by poet and sometime cultural critic Vachel Lindsay might have been the first to treat the then-new medium of moving pictures as an art form, one that was potentially as rich, complex, mysterious as far older ones, and whose physical and aesthetic properties were only starting to be understood. The highlight of the book might be “The Motion Picture of Fairy Splendor,” which examines the relationship between film storytelling, magic, myths, legends and bedtime stories. It’s discombobulating, in a good way, to read Lindsay’s attempts to grapple with what, precisely, cinema is. Being supposedly sophisticated 21st century people, we all feel as though we know what cinema is, a...

“Galloped on with no stopping, but merely to change horses until five o’clock in the evening—very tired indeed, but . . . saw fresh horses in the corral, and resolved to push on. At half-past seven, after having galloped a hundred and fifty-three miles, and been fourteen hours and a half on horseback got to the post—quite exhausted—I could scarcely speak . . . an hour before daylight was awakened by the Gaucho, got up, had some mate, mounted my horse, and as I galloped along felt pleased that the sun should find me at my work. . .”

Later in life nicknamed “Galloping Head,” for his exploits on the Argentine pampas, Sir Frances Head Bond, went to the Argentine in 1825 as mi...

First published in 1894, this wonderful travelogue by a famed naturalist and conservationist still remains a book that delights and informs its readers.

The Mountains of California by John Muir recounts the author's exploration of the Yosemite Valley, Mount Whitney, the famed sequoia forests and King's Canyon among other places of immense natural beauty. Written in his characteristic zestful style, with a deep understanding and respect for nature, the book is a treasure trove of geography, geology, botany, biology and sheer love of the magical planet we live in. His descriptions of the flora, fauna and magnificent scenery around him are amazing word pictures that bring...

If this book were written today, it would be called "The Story of the World's Rubbish".

That may not sound a promising subject for a book, but we are taken on a journey all over the world (and beyond) to explain the many varieties of dust and refuse - animal, vegetable and mineral - how it is made both by man and by nature, what happens to it, and why we need it. We find that recycling is nothing new: man has been doing it for centuries, and nature has been doing it for billions of years. As every schoolboy knows, 'matter is neither created nor destroyed', so it stands to reason that every particle of it must be somewhere.

This study of our knowledge of the earth was...

A recording of the first 2000 prime numbers (2-17389). Recommended listening for math fanatics and insomniacs!

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the only book-length philosophical work published by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein during his lifetime. He wrote it as a soldier and a prisoner of war during World War I. The slim volume (fewer than eighty pages) comprises a system of short statements, numbered 1, 1.1, 1.11, 1.12, etc., through to 7, intended to be such that 1.1 is a comment on or elaboration of 1, 1.11 and 1.12 comments on 1.1, and so forth. It is an ambitious project to identify the relationship between language and reality and to define the limits of science.