Chirag Patel has narrated 10 audiobooks on Listento.it by 8 authors. The most-rated is Zhuangzi | Chuang Tzu: The Foundation of Chinese Esoteric Thought.
The Construct's Childhood (2048-2059)
Summary
The story of the first posthuman, and the unbearable weight of expectation. Sound interesting? The author thinks so too!Listen to The Construct's Childhood and experience the compelling world of science fiction.
©2020 Chirag Patel (P)2020 Chirag Patel
People
Summary
One thing that no one tells you about being a writer is just how much business stuff you have to learn. In retrospect, it makes sense. Modern corporations provide the equivalent of patronage, allowing artists of all stripes to practice their craft with stuff that’s both limited and challenging. Inevitably, what people will pay for producing is stuff directly relevant to their interests, and so over the years I’ve produced a lot of documents over time about management, law, and politics. Some were explanations and guides, some were for courses I took; all were at once fascinating and difficult to engage with properly. Chapters include: What Is English Law, and Who Chooses Its Shape? How the Criminal Justice System Works and How It Could Be Improved Theories of Crime Causation The Moral and Economic Implications Involved in the Occupy Wall Street Movement Legal & Ethical Errata Can Competency Be Measured? Management Styles The Impact of the Digital Revolution on Consumer Behavior Anti-Communism and Anti-Nazism in Warner Brothers’ Productions How-to Guides and Short Articles Q&A on People, Life, Philosophy, Theology, and More
©2016 Chirag Patel (P)2019 Chirag Patel
A Dreamer's Tales
Summary
Lord Dunsany was the most influential writer in the genre that came to be known as fantasy, which his stories set trends for that continue to this day. Before him, the closest thing to fantasy that existed was folktales; after him, people built worlds beyond imagining and epic stories in the lands he first explored. He was an influence on Tolkien, Lovecraft, Gaiman, Borges, Clarke, Moorcock, Yeats, Le Guin, and many more besides. Worlds of monsters and magic, of strange names and stranger tales, were all born in Dunsany’s work. Contained herein are tales of mysteries and monsters, deserted cities and dangerous dreams, of war between the gods and men who are not all they seem. Listen on and luxuriate in this collection of find sixteen stories from the first and greatest master of the fantasy genre.
©2020 Chirag Patel (P)2020 Chirag Patel
Humanism
Summary
What is humanism? For a long time, I thought I knew. I was wrong, though. I thought it was a branch of philosophy that had been born in the Renaissance and had become the foundation for the Enlightenment and everything that came afterward. Looking back, I see that that was horribly Eurocentric. Of course, I learned about it growing up in England, so of course I would be told it was European. The real truth is hugely more sophisticated and ancient. Once I began to realise just how much verified contact between cultures there had been over the millennia and how much of what I was told was humanism was a remnant of an older belief system, I knew something closer to the truth. This is the story of a history and tradition as long and complex as any major religion and far older than most. It has traced a conceptual path around Eurasia, holding onto remnants of each place. Today, part of humanism is the spiritual path trod in India, the ethics born in Confucianist China, and the legal system that came forth in medieval Islam. Secular humanism has hidden much of this history from us. In insisting that humanism is a science-based, post-Enlightenment European project, it has left us without the core spiritual and social components that humanism's rich history has left us. This audiobook aims to redress the balance by exploring humanism's path from China, through India, the Middle East, Northern Africa, and finally, Europe.
©2018 Chirag Patel (P)2018 Chirag Patel
The Guide to Writing
Summary
For a few years, I ran a student support service at a university. Over that time, I discovered that most students were tripping up for easily avoidable reasons, and came in with the same problems each time. Contained herein are solutions for the most common student difficulties, being: 1. Preparation 1.1 How should I prepare to write my essay? How much time should I leave? 1.2 General tips 2. The Question 2.1 What am I being asked to do? Shouldn’t I just read everything I can and then start? 2.2 What is the difference between a claim and an argument? What counts as evidence? 2.3 What does the question mean? 2.4 What does critically analyse mean? 2.5 What’s the difference between objective and subjective? Why does it matter? 2.6 What resources will I need? 2.7 Why is it important to define my terms, and how should I do it? 3. Structure 3.1 How do I structure my essay? 3.2 How long should paragraphs be? 3.3 What is a topic sentence? 3.4 What makes a good introduction? 3.5 How do I write my conclusion? 3.6 What does a completed essay structure look like? 4. Language & Style 4.1 How do I sound academic? Just using the words and phrases without understanding them is getting me in trouble 4.2 How do I avoid using or showing my opinion? 4.3 What language can’t I use? 4.4 How do I make my writing formal and impersonal? 4.5 How do I link paragraphs together? 5. Reading 5.1 How should I read? I don’t understand what these people are saying 5.2 Why shouldn’t I read every word? 5.3 What kinds of reading are there? 5.4 How and why should I take notes? 6. Referencing 6.1 Why can’t I use just anything I find on the internet? How do I know what's okay? 6.2 Why do I keep losing marks for referencing? 6.3 How do I reference? 6.4 How do I avoid accidental plagiarism, or being accused of plagiarism? 7. Exams 7.1 How should I prepare before the exam? 7.2 How should I manage my time? ....and more
©2019 Chirag Patel (P)2019 Chirag Patel
The Cloud of Unknowing
Summary
In the middle ages, Christianity shared much with Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies. Listen on to learn how Christian mystics came to the same conclusions as those from very different faiths. This edition has been adapted from the 1923 version into modern English to make the ideas more accessible to today's listener. The Cloud of Unknowing distills a complex mystical epistemology and discipline into engagingly understandable prose. A work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century, The Cloud of Unknowing is a work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. It is a spiritual guide, which focuses on using contemplative prayer to know God by abandoning consideration of God's particular activities and attributes, and having the courage to surrender your mind and ego to the realm of "unknowing", at which point one may begin to glimpse the nature of God. The book counsels the young student to seek God, not through knowledge and intellect, but through intense contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought. This is brought about by putting all thoughts and desires under a "cloud of forgetting," and thereby piercing God's cloud of unknowing with a "dart of longing love" from the heart.
©2020 Chirag Patel (P)2020 Chirag Patel
The Art of Being Right
Summary
A classic guide to tricks and tactics for winning arguments, with commentary on the use of and defense against each tactic. The best summary of this audiobook is "being right doesn’t mean you’re gonna win, and this is why". It’s the ultimate guide to spotting the many different kinds of bullshit people pull in order to win over the crowd, rather than argue the point at hand. There’s very few of them that don’t immediately bring examples to mind, and having it laid out clearly like this is the perfect armour to stop people derailing you. In the real world, people don’t win arguments based on what’s correct. They win because they win over the crowd, or change the subject, or bully their rival, or 35 other causes. This guide will walk you through the various strategies that people use, with notes on usage and defence for each point. Arthur didn’t intend this work as a guide for winning fights. Much like Machiavelli’s The Prince, this is a satire - a guide on what to watch out for in others and yourself, not a toolkit. If you can’t win your argument on fair grounds, you need to reconsider your position; but that doesn’t mean you should let people steal the day by underhanded means. This audiobook will teach you how to spot and spike them before they get a head of steam.
Public Domain (P)2019 Chirag Patel
The Mad Scientist
Summary
Richard Maxwell, Black Operative, from the British Secret Service is packing his bags and preparing to leave London. At the door to his apartment, he finds a mysterious box with a letter from an assistant scientist inviting him for a meeting. The meeting is to unveil a discovery his father made that “will change humanity forever”. His father was a biologist who studied human cells and development. Over the year, he had fathered an astounding array of advanced studies in the fields of shapeshifting, cybernetics, and the possibility of unlocking the full potential of the human brain. As the meeting goes on, Richard realizes that his father’s discoveries was far more controversial than he ever imagined. But the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, and his father’s precious discovery staggers on the brink of being lost forever. Reeling and facing an imminent threat, Richard is forced into a desperate bid to escape Prague. He races on a perilous quest to locate the answers that will reveal his father’s secret. Navigating on a trail marked by modern art and enigmatic symbol, from Prague to Amsterdam and Bangkok, Richard is about to uncover clues that ultimately brought him face-to-face with his father's shocking discovery! Can Richard Maxwell cope with the strange weapons of the world of science?
©2018 Ed Silva Jr. (P)2018 Ed Silva Jr. / Chirag Patel
Arthashastra, or, The Playbook of Material Gain (Annotated)
Summary
"Truly radical 'Machiavellianism', in the popular sense of that word, is classically expressed in Indian literature in the Arthashastra of Kautilya (written long before the birth of Christ, ostensibly in the time of Chandragupta): compared to it, Machiavelli's The Prince is harmless." (Max Weber, "Politics as a Vocation" (1919)) Chanakya's treatise, written while turning a farmhand into the emperor of the largest empire India had ever seen, focuses on how to manage an empire, covering everything from domestic policy and personal rights to assassination and the dirtier arts of politics. This is not, as with Plato’s Republic, a work of theory. Chanakya’s guidance is entirely practical and is based on both his education and his experience building an empire. It lacks the philosophical ponderings and moralizing of its equivalent Western works (such as The Prince, The Republic, or Leviathan) and instead focuses on how one deals with the messiness of the world in practice. People will occasionally refer to Chanakya as an Indian Machiavelli, but this does some discredit to Chanakya. The Prince is a satire and focused around exposing the tactics and inhumanity of Cesare Borgia. Arthashastra is a manual for every aspect of statecraft, and while it deals in the unethical, it does so only because that is, after all is said and done, one of the options available to a ruler. If you're after a totally pragmatic analysis of leadership, stripped of moralising and focused on what works and how to deal with real-world issues, this is the audiobook for you.
©2019 Chirag Patel (P)2019 Chirag Patel
Zhuangzi | Chuang Tzu: The Foundation of Chinese Esoteric Thought
Summary
The Chuang Tsu is one of the most important books in Chinese literature and philosophy. It is one of the two foundational texts of Daoism. Also titled Zhuangzi, it is a commentary and extension of the Dao de Jing/Tao Te Ching, in the same way that Mencius' Analects are an exploration of Confucius' thought. Written in around 300 BCE during the Warring States period, it is a collection of anecdotes, fables, and stories that are as silly and funny as they are profound and thought provoking. Where the Dao De Jing is a distilled and poetic exploration of the Way, Zhuangi takes a much more human and real-world path through the mysteries of the Dao. Using often humorous anecdotes, allegories, parables and fables mixed with conversations about particular aspects of the Way. James Legge’s translation is perhaps the most sophisticated and exacting one in existence. It carries as much as possible of the subtlety and detail in the original masterwork. It is regarded as one of the greatest literary works in all of Chinese history, and has been called "the most important pre-Qin text for the study of Chinese literature." Its main themes are of spontaneity in action and of freedom from the human world and its conventions. The fables and anecdotes in the text illustrate the illusion of distinctions between good and bad, large and small, life and death, and human and nature. While other ancient Chinese philosophers focused on moral and personal duty, Zhuangzi promoted carefree wandering and becoming one with "the Way" (Dào ?) by following nature. The Chuang Tsu has influenced great Chinese and Western writers for more than 2,000 years, including Oscar Wilde, Yeats, Nietzsche, Sima Xiangru, Li Bai, Su Shi and Lu You.
©2020 Chirag Patel (P)2020 Chirag Patel