Review: Portraits From Memory and Other Essays

Portraits From Memory and Other Essays by Bertrand Russell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First how i came across this book. I see Tolstoy's hand of Prudence in that matter.
One day as I scrolled down in one of my google searches , I found an article about 'an antique bookshop in Lahore' my home city. Caught my attention immediately. I read the article, then i read some more about the store online, called the proprietor, and finally made up my mind to visit as early as possible.The next day I was standing in front of the shop. Looked like some deserted shop from the 70s. At the facade was a stall full of Urdu digests and children books so I had to enter from a narrow path left. As I entered, I realized there was actually a shop behind the shop. I was looking for the second shop. As soon I was in the indie antique shop it was just a beautiful and wonderful feeling to be around all those old books patiently waiting to be read and share words of the wise. I started my visit from the fiction section, moved on to philosophy and obviously things got interesting. There I came across this book lying on the shelf full of dust fighting the wear and tear of time. I picked it up remove the dust and read some here and there and then decided to come back to it. When I came back to this book after visiting all the sections, I had selected five books for final selection. I had in my mind to buy two books because they just keep piling on. I spent more time selecting two books out of five than I had spent on selecting five out of the whole shop because its just hard to put them off. In the end I just followed my intuition and decided to buy this book and another book on Second World War. I'm getting off track...

Although the beginning was not very interesting for me but Russel has such a good sense of humor and i don't know from where he gets his super-examples that i couldn't put this book away. The first essays are autobiographical, then comes the essay about growing old, then an essay on eightieth birthday followed by essays on other important writer of his time. In the last there are twelve essays bearing the power to change people's life. He covers most important yet less understood aspects of life i.e. happiness, peace, wisdom, thinking etc. Russel had a clear understanding of problems faced by humanity and I found him very passionate in trying to eradicate those problems. How humanity is suffering, why humanity is suffering and how to overcome this suffering. Since Russel's time some things have improved and many things have become worse. It wouldn't have surprised him though.

This book is very much compatible even today i.e it has no time stamp philosophically. But I am afraid most people don't read books like these anymore. Still being an optimist, I strongly recommend this book to every living soul and especially to the leaders of this world.

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