Marx and Engels

Because I do like to read quite a bit, my friend recommended I purchase the Kobo. So, because it came preloaded with 100 classic titles, it weighs far less than a regular book and I can take it anywhere, I purchased it.

The first book I read off of it was The Communist Manifesto. My husband would not let me purchase this book otherwise. My husband can be a bit paranoid sometimes, so I didn't purchase this as a book. However, for some reason, I think this may have been required reading for one of my university history classes. Come to think of it, I know the course, 3rd year history at UNBC. The course was about the study of how history was written down through the course of the ages. Engels or Marx or both were historians (okay, it's been a few years since University, so I think my memory is pretty good). In all truth, I have probably read this book before. However, when you pick up a book in university because it is required, sometimes it gets skimmed quickly rather than reading it word for word (sorry to offend any professors who may be reading this). I also had a different purpose for reading this then. The intent of reading it then was to see how the facts of history were written down and used to prove a point. I think the over reaching lesson in that course was that history is a tool to interpret events in the past to prove a point. One event has several interpretations and although it happened, no one ever knows for sure why it happened.  Anyways back to the challenge at hand:

I wanted to re-read this book without any blinders on to absorb what it was they were trying to say. I have to say I can see how revolutionary it was for its time. The authors used certain segments of the population (eg women) to reach out to for support. By making claim that women would no longer be oppressed under the communist system, it allowed for more people to support the changes they were proposing. I think in that avenue, the two authors were marketing geniuses. The more people they reached out to or made promises to, the more people they could count on for support. I am leaving the whole idealogy out of this argument because I don't think it is needed here. Based upon this fact, I can see how and why history is forever linked to this one book. The more people they preached to, the more promises were made, the more support they gained, the more power they came into. It just goes from there.

As far as the whole ideology goes, I will tread lightly here. In a perfect perfect world I think everyone wants equality and for everyone to get along. However, due to human's imperfect nature, I highly doubt that it is possible. There will always be people who are easily led and those that are the leaders. I will end the discussion on that topic there. Whew!

As for me and my Kobo, I'm not sure this is going to work out all that well. I like actually having a book to hold in my hand. If it's mine, I like highlighting favourite passages. That way, when I'm blogging or facing a particularly difficult time, I can go back to the book and look at what I've highlighted for help. You clearly cannot do that with this Kobo.
Another thing is that I actually like going to the book store to search out titles. I can see what's on sale and what I actually feel like reading. I also am a big fan of illustrations. They make the pages so much more prettier.
However, I guess there are some perks: some books are far cheaper and not as heavy to carry around. Perhaps they should have had this when I was a university student. 50 lbs of books was nothing then. But then again, how much of it did I actually read?

Thanks for reading.

Lynn