Books are the Greatest Treasure of Mankind

  Books are the Greatest Treasure of Mankind

A Tribute to the late "Ka Mao" Chanco, veteran journalist, publisher and environmentalist.

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Author inspects piles of books for display at a family museum 
and reading center, or for donation to other reading centers. 

Books, once the privilege of a few in pre-printing machine era, each page painstakingly handwritten, each book a well-kept treasure. 

Books, the authority, the final say, unquestioned, un-refuted, else any one rising contrary faces punishment, including death or damnation. 

Books, the diary, the ledger, the document of conquest and discovery, of battles fought, often in favor of the writer and party.   

Books, the novels that carry the greatest stories of all times are called classics, for which they are regarded timeless for their universal values.

Books, the epics of Homer, stories of the Grimm Brothers distilled from oral literature passed through generations to the present. 

Books, written ahead of their time - Galileo's astronomy, Darwin's evolution, Martin Luther's Protestantism ignited dis-pleasure of the Church.

Books, bedtime stories, baby's introduction to the world, legends and fantasies that take young ones to the land of make-believe. 

Books, the record of ultimate scholarship, are the epitome of the greatest minds in thesis and dissertation, theories and principles. 

Books, the precursor of the Internet, the framework of the i-Pod, Tablet, Galaxy, and other gadgets that man becomes a walking encyclopedia. 

Books, the progeny of the earliest forms of writing like the cuneiform, hieroglyphics, cave drawings, etchings, scrolls of the Dead Sea.     

Books, that gave the idea and structure of the Wonders of the Ancient World, and the significance and belief for which they were built. 

Books, that grew with knowledge, brought new schools and movements in arts and philosophy, in unending search for truth. 

Books, the most widely read, the Bible; the shortest, Albert Einstein’s e=mc2, and book-to-cinema versions of Spielberg, Lucas, Cecil B de Mille et al. 

Books, the greatest treasure of mankind, its collective attributes as humanity, the very stimulus of man's rationality to rise above other creatures - and himself.

Books, that brought about man's disobedience to his creator, playing god, and questioning if god made man, or that man made god.  

Books that enlighten man to care for the environment, guide the young and future generations to a better future, and lead man to save his own species from extinction. ~
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Part 2 -    Living with Nature Center Series 1 -

Books, Lectures and Publication

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

Library and Reading Center

The Center maintains a home library of diverse fields, from literature 

to science, magazines to journals, cum around 6000 topics on the 

blog (avrotor.blogspot.com), topics on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 

DZRB 738 AM, and TATAKalikasan Radyo Katipunan 87.9 FM (AdMU), 

 

 

  

  

Lectures and Manuscripts

Top most, left, compilation of articles about insects written and delivered by the author before students, tour groups, and workshop participants, posted on Blog, Facebook and the like that constitute today's teaching tools and aids. Right, compilation of articles on Environmental Science - An Experiential and Integrated Approach. A good number of articles are posted on blog avrotor.blogspot.com and its extension Naturalism - the Eighth Sense.  I also invite you to visit  A Naturalist World - Dr Abe V Rotor. (There are around 6,000 articles posted in these Blogs, from which were derived articles bound into Book Manuscripts)

"Books are the greatest treasure of mankind, its collective attributes as humanity, the very stimulus of man's rationality to rise above other creatures - and himself."

 - AV Rotor

Part 3 - Guide to Philippine Flora and Fauna 

Book Collection of the Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Flora refers to all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring native plants. The corresponding term for animals is fauna, and for fungi, it is funga. Bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora as in the terms gut flora or skin flora. Wikipedia

Dr Abe V Rotor

The Narra tree (Pterocarpus indicus) is a symbol of many things. It is tall and symbolizes the lofty ideals of the Filipino people. It is tall, strong, enduring and signify the persistence of the Filipinos in their demand for freedom. While other trees are bent or uprooted by storms, the narra usually withstands such disaster. It is the national tree of the Philippines.

Carabaos (Bubalus bubalis carabanesis) are a genetically distinct population of swamp-type water buffaloes from the Philippines. The carabao is the national animal of the Philippines. It symbolizes strength, power, efficiency, perseverance, and most of all, hardwork. Internet

The Philippines is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, possessing more than 12,000 different species of plants, 560 recognized bird species, 180 species of terrestrial mammals, 250 reptiles, 400 species of coral, and 1,000 different fishes.

Excerpt from 
Country Profiles // Main Details
Philippines - Country Profile
Biodiversity Facts
Status and trends of biodiversity, including benefits from biodiversity and ecosystem services

The Philippines is one of 18 mega-biodiverse countries of the world, containing two-thirds of the earth’s biodiversity and between 70% and 80% of the world’s plant and animal species. The Philippines ranks fifth in the number of plant species and maintains 5% of the world’s flora. Species endemism is very high, covering at least 25 genera of plants and 49% of terrestrial wildlife, while the country ranks fourth in bird endemism. The Philippines is also one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots with at least 700 threatened species, thus making it one of the top global conservation areas. The national list of threatened faunal species was established in 2004 and includes 42 species of land mammals, 127 species of birds, 24 species of reptiles and 14 species of amphibians. In terms of fishes, the Philippines counts at least 3,214 species, of which about 121 are endemic and 76 threatened. In 2007, an administrative order issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources established a national list of threatened plant species, indicating that 99 species were critically endangered, 187 were endangered, 176 vulnerable as well as 64 other threatened species.

This unique biodiversity is supported by a large variety of ecosystems, landscapes and habitats, most of which are also greatly threatened by human activities. According to the FAO definition, the Philippines has 7.2 million ha of forest ecosystems, comprising approximately 24% of the total land area. It is however estimated that, between 2000 and 2005, the Philippines lost 2.1% of its forest cover annually, representing the second fastest rate of deforestation in Southeast Asia (second to Myanmar) and seventh in the world. The country’s agricultural ecosystem is also noteworthy. The Philippines is part of the center of diversity of rice, coconut, mung bean, taro and yam, as well as the center of origin and diversity of bananas in Southeast Asia. Yet this agricultural biodiversity is nowadays experiencing general decline, as is the land area devoted to these activities. 

(Acknowledgement: Country Profiles Philippines - Country Profile: Biodiversity Facts (Internet)

Part 4 - Children's Books 

 Nature and the Classics*

 Living with Nature Center 

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

"Write, read Classics about Nature, and vice versa;

Reach for the highest level of arts and philosophy." - avrotor

*The word classics is derived from the Latin adjective classicus, meaning "belonging to the highest class of citizens." The word was originally used to describe the members of the Patricians, the highest class in ancient Rome.

Dr Abe V Rotor

“We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.” –Albert Einstein

"There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter." –Rachel Carson

 

"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living" - David Attenborough

 

“I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.” –Anne Frank

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." –John Muir

 

“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.” –Langston Hughes

 

"If you wish to know the divine, feel the wind on your face and the warm sun on your hand.” –Buddha

“The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.”- Zeno

Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Wikipedia

References: The Living with Nature Series (2 Volumes) by AVRotor, Unversity off Santo Tomas; Living with Folk Wisdom, Light from the Old Arch, AVRotor (UST), Living with Nature in Our Home and Community AVRotor (Sadiri Publication, 2023) 

                                   ANNEX 1 - 

17 Ilokano Books - Collection of the Living with Nature Museum and Library

Dr Abe V Rotor

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                               ANNEX 2 

           The 100 most meaningful books of all time (Internet)

A 2002 survey of around 100 well-known authors from 54 countries voted for the most meaningful book of all time in a poll organized by editors at the Norwegian Book Clubs in Oslo. Voters included Doris Lessing, Salman Rushdie, Carlos Fuentes and Norman Mailer. Miguel de Cervantes’ tale gained 50% more votes than any other book, eclipsing works by Shakespeare, Homer and Tolstoy.

Ten authors got more than one book on to the list. After Cervantes, Fyodor Dostoevsky emerged as the most worthwhile read with four books listed. The only Shakespeare plays the authors agreed on were Hamlet, King Lear and Othello. The Bard was matched by Franz Kafka whose three angst-ridden tales of grotesque alienation on the list were The Trial, The Castle and the Complete Stories. Three works by Leo Tolstoy made it: War and Peace, Anna Karenina and The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories. William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf both scored twice, along with the Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Other than Don Quixote in first place , the remaining 99 titles are reproduced as published by De Norske Bokklubbene in alphabetical order and are not ranked.

·         Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes

·         Things fall apart Chinua Achebe

·         Fairy tales and stories Hans Christian Andersen

·         Pride and prejudice Jane Austen

·         Old Goriot Honore de Balzac

·         Trilogy: Molloy, Malone dies, The Unnamable Samuel Beckett

·         Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio

·         Collected fictions Jorge Luis Borges

·         Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte

·         The Outsider (The Stranger) Albert Camus

·         Poems Paul Celan

·         Journey to the end of the night Louis-Ferdinand Celine

·         Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer

·         Nostromo Joseph Conrad

·         The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri

·         Great expectations Charles Dickens

·         Jacques the fatalist and his master Denis Diderot

·         Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Doblin

·         Crime and punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky

·         The Idiot Fyodor Dostoyevsky

·         The Possessed Fyodor Dostoyevsky·   

      

     The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky

·         Middlemarch George Eliot

·         Invisible man Ralph Ellison

·         Medea Euripides

·         Absalom, Absalom William Faulkner

·         The Sound and the fury William Faulkner

·         Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert

·         A Sentimental education Gustave Flaubert

·         Gypsy Ballads Federico Garcia Lorca

·         One hundred years of solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez

·         Love in the time of cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez

·         The Epic of Gilgamesh

·         Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

·         Dead souls Nikolai Gogol

·         The Tin Drum Günter Grass

·         The Devil to pay in the backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa

·         Hunger Knut Hamsun

·         The Old man and the sea Ernest Hemingway

·         The Iliad Homer

·         The Odyssey Homer

·         A Doll’s house Henrik Ibsen

·         The Book of Job Anon

·         Ulysses James Joyce

·         The Complete Stories Franz Kafka

·         The Trial Franz Kafka

·         The Castle Franz Kafka

·         The Recognition of Sakuntala Kalidasa

·         The Sound of the mountain Yasunari Kawabata

·         Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis

·         Sons and lovers D H Lawrence

·         Independent people Halldor K Laxness

·         Complete poems Giacomo Leopardi

·The Golden notebook Doris Lessing

·         Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren

·         Diary of a madman and other stories Lu Xun

·         Mahabharata Anon

·         Children of Gebelawi Naguib Mahfouz

·         Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann

         

      The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann

·         Moby Dick Herman Melville

·         Essays Michel de Montaigne

·         History Elsa Morante

·         Beloved Toni Morrison

·         The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu

·         The Man without qualities Robert Musil

·         Lolita Vladimir Nabokov

·         Njal’s saga

·         1984 George Orwell

·         Metamorphoses Ovid

·         The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa

·         The Complete tales Edgar Allan Poe

·         Remembrance of things past Marcel Proust

·         Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais

·         Pedro Paramo Juan Rulfo

·         The Mathnawi Jalalu’l-Din Rumi

·         Midnight’s children Salman Rushdie

·         The Bostan of Saadi (The Orchard) Sheikh Saadi of Shiraz

·         A Season of migration to the north Tayeb Salih

·         Blindness Jose Saramago

·         Hamlet William Shakespeare

· King Lear William Shakespeare
· Othello William Shakespeare
· Oedipus the King Sophocles
· The Red and the Black Stendhal
· The Life and opinions of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne
· Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo
· Gulliver’s travels Jonathan Swift
· War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
· Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
· The Death of Ivan Ilyich and other stories Leo Tolstoy
· Selected Stories Anton Chekhov

· Thousand and One Nights

·  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain

·         Ramayana Valmiki

·         The Aeneid Virgil

·         Leaves of grass Walt Whitman

·         Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf

·         To the lighthouse Virginia Woolf
  Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar ~