About us
Are you interested in improving yourself? In watering the seeds of virtue and pulling out vice by the roots? Are you looking for guidance but the self-help section at the bookstore looks like shelves of unproven fads and nonsense that was invented ten minutes ago?
We agree: the old ways are still the best!
The Old School Self Improvement Book Club will meet once a month to discuss a selected time-tested work of practical philosophy, psychology, or advice for living. We'll come together somewhere in the greater Fort Lauderdale area to make it as easy as possible for anyone from Miami-Dade, Broward, or Palm Beach counties to attend.
Spaces for our next meetup are limited, sign up now!
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Upcoming events
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Essays of Michel de Montaigne, Book 3
Vinos on Las Olas, 901 E Las Olas Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL, US"When the mind is satisfied, that is a sign of diminished faculties or weariness.
No powerful mind stops within itself: it is always stretching out and exceeding its
capacities."Still unsatisfied, still stretching out, we come to it at last: the third and final book of Montaigne's essays. If you've stuck with me from the beginning, I salute you, although reading Montaigne is really its own reward. If you're here for the first time, I welcome you. This one you really can pick up anywhere; there is no shame in starting on book three and reading the others whenever you can, so don't be shy! Montaigne, after all is one of the fun ones. Here is another taste of the fun we'll have in October:
"The ridiculous and simple look of another always warns and advises me; that which pricks, rouses and incites much better than that which tickles. The time is now proper for us to reform backward; more by dissenting than by agreeing; by differing more than by consent."
Indeed, the time IS proper for just that. So bring your dissent to Vino's on October 26, at 7:00 PM, and be ready to incite.
Veterans will have already chosen an edition to read, but for those who are just setting out, here is a list of four well-known English translations:
- John Florio (1603)
- Charles Cotton (1685, but updated by William Hazlitt in 1877)
- Donald Frame (1957)
- Michael Screech (1991)
I have been reading Frame's translation, but it's up to you. Ian Chadwick published a useful comparison of the four on his blog.
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Past events
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