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Chesterton is mostly in the US public domain now (and wholly PD in death plus 70 regions), so we’ve got a decent selection of his work available for free at Standard Ebooks. I have a soft spot for The Club of Queer Trades if you’re looking for a recommendation.

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/g-k-chesterton




I can't recommend it enough, together with the Paradoxes of Mr. Pond, but the reader needs to enter the same state (half serious, half playful) mindset that the Author evidently was in when writing them.

As a side note a (very short) note on punishment, not easily available, is one of my preferred things by Chesterton, main part is here: http://books.google.com/books?id=QtWvMclbR9YC&pg=PA503&lpg=P...

The essence of it being:

The modern world is wicked, because it is civilized. What is specially shameful and pitiless in modern punishment is not the severity of punishment, it is the continuity of the punishment.


>What is specially shameful and pitiless in modern punishment is not the severity of punishment, it is the continuity of the punishment.

Beautifully said! I have always wondered why our "Society" still stigmatizes people even though they might have paid their dues eg. ex-cons. Forgiveness, Redemption, Rehabilitation are nowhere to be found in our "Laws".




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