Reading books with which I don’t agree

by D.O.

Ross King has written lots of great songs with many a hard-hitting lyric. One such lyric (while relatively mild on the hard-hitting scale) goes like this:

I’m gonna take some time today
To read a book I don’t agree with
Find out what it has to say

Just days ago I impulsively bought a book from the local Half Priced Books called How to Make Friends and Oppress People: Classic Travel Advice for the Gentleman Adventurer. Upon skimming the books contents and reading the intro at the store, I didn’t realize that it would so heartily fall into the category of “book[s] I don’t agree with.” The paragraph that most opened my eyes to the matter is quoted below.

A crisis undoubtedly obliges the traveller to act in ways that normal polite society would regard as outré in the extreme, but even if his life depends on it there are certain lines of propriety over which a traveller should never deign to step. I must remonstrate with a piece of advice given in Hardships in Travel Made Easy. The compiler of this work clearly states: ‘Shoes of European manufacture are decidedly the best; if they wear out, and none of the party are able to make others from dressed hides, sandals may be adopted.’ In a paper that I gave to the Royal Geographical Society entitled ‘The Detrimental Effect of Flimsy Footwear on the Confidence and Orientation of Travellers’, I laid down a hard and fast rule from which I refuse to be swayed — a gentleman never, ever wears sandals.

I’m going to do my best to tough out the remainder of this book, just for Ross… but it won’t be easy.