Reading and the Art of Profundity

……My Brief But Insightful Interview With Marc Friedman

Profundity — deep insight; great depth of knowledge or thought

Marc Friedman and I connected via LinkedIn, where he is very active in conversations with others. A retired lawyer now career strategist and executive coach, he doesn’t mince words in terms of his opinions and views. 

Yep, lets just say that he calls it how he sees it. 

Which by the way is one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed having him as a guest contributor to “Great Books, Great Minds” these past few months. His book reviews have been very well received.

That being said, his views have rankled a few feathers, even catching the ire of one of my loyal subscribers who after reading this weekend book review noted: 

“Interesting review, made me want to read the book, until the end when the reviewer compared Trump to kkk Stephenson. It totally disqualified the review as an objective recommendation.”

She’s probably right here, making a case to me privately that I should have edited the bias out. And Marc offered a bit of a mea culpa to me as well. 

So, as far as I’m concerned, we’re all good. In fact, I love it when folks have an opinion about something they’ve read that ignites dialogue, debate, and maybe even some raw opinions and disagreement. In my opinion, our world would be a much better place if we could listen and hear one another out regarding how we really feel about certain things.

Ok, I digress…..

Curious about Marc’s broader backstory, I had a few questions for him about his lived experiences with books. Here’s what he had to share: 

What are some of the major accelerants that fuel your reading interests?

Generally I choose books to read because of the New York Times Book Review and, occasionally, other book reviews such as Goodreads. Also, on occasion I read books recommended by my wife, who is an avid reader, because she knows what interests me. The books she recommended include ""Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin, "Caste" by Isabel Wilkerson, "How To Be An Anti-Racist" by Ibram X. Kendi, and "People Love Dead Jews" by Dara Horn.

Describe something about you that our reading community might be surprised to hear in terms of the types of books you are drawn to.  

I am drawn to books that describe the deceptions created by British Intelligence that helped the Allies win World War Two. I have read all the books by the great Ben MacIntyre that take deep dives into the creation and execution of these amazing deceptions. One outstanding example is "Operation Mincemeat" which was made into a movie.

I’m curious as to what your collection of books looks like. Where are they housed? How are they situated (floor, shelves, nightstand, scattered throughout the house)? 

I do not have a book collection. While I have a small amount of technical and travel books in my home office, I use our local library extensively. It’s part of a network of almost 80 local libraries from which I can borrow books. I also have access to Libby by Overdrive that offers many thousands of books and magazines. According to our library's records, my wife and I have saved almost $20,000 by using its resources.

What authors or books have had the greatest impact on your thinking and worldview? 

Wow, this is a hard question to answer. I was deeply influenced by David Hume's "Treatise on Human Nature" which I read in college (I have a B.A degree in philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University). When I was young, I read "Conscience of a Conservative" by Barry Goldwater which turned me into a Liberal. More recently I was deeply influenced by "Caste" referred to above, which helped me to gain greater insight into the struggle of Black Americans. Finally, I found myself deeply impacted by “The Social Contract” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. There are many more books I have read that have impacted my thinking, too numerous to mention here. 

If we were to search for you in a bookstore or library, what section would we be most likely to find you in? 

As I stated above, I regularly access the resources of our library including Libby's online collection. But when I do visit a bookstore, I usually hang around general nonfiction, as well as historical fiction. As to historical fiction, the trilogy of books by the great writer Robert Harris, starting with "Imperium" were among the best I ever read.