Reading list for 2012!

Believe it or not but I have been reading books in 2011. Mostly on my Kindle, but I did forget to update this blog. However I thought it would be good to record, in no certain order, the list of books that I am aiming to read in 2012. It begins:

1. The Odd Clauses: Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of Its Most Curious Provisions
2. Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World
3. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business
4. Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts
5. The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us
6. Thinking, Fast and Slow
7. Memoirs of a Cavalier
8. The Ship-Wrecked Men
9. Catch As Catch Can
10. Candide
11. All Around the Town
12. All the President's Men
13. The Ominvore's Dilemma
14. 1812
15. The Gulag Archipelago, Vol. 1
    
16. The Gulag Archipelago, Vol. 2
17. The Gulag Archipelago, Vol. 3
18. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
19. You Only Live Twice
20. The Man with the Golden Gun
21. If A Pirate I Must Be - The True Story of Black Bart
22. A Short History of the World
23. Ten Great Religions
24. Famous Adventures and Prison Escapes of the Civil War
25. Buffalo Bill's Life Story
26. JFK
27. Auschwitz
28. History Buff's Guide to the Civil War
29. Salt: A World History
30. All Creatures Great & Small
31. Sufferings in Africa: The Incredible True Story of a Shipwreck
32. The World is Flat 3.0
33. Soccernomics
34. Soccer Men: Profiles of the Rogues, Geniuses, and Neurotics Who Dominate the World's Most Popular Sport
35. Unsolved Mysteries of America
36. The Penguin History of Latin America
37. The Penguin History of the United States of America
38. The Enemy
39. Slaughterhouse Five
40. Best Little Stories from the Civil War
    

The First World War

This is not a book for those who want to read about individual battles et cetera. At its length there is no way this could be possible! Instead this book gives a balanced overview of the course of the war, not spending much time on any event but enabling the reader to come away with a decent account of the war. Of course this has made me hungry to actually read a blow-by-blow account of not only this war but the one which followed. In time...

The American

I saw the movie adaption of this book when it came out in September, and I thought it was great. But after listening to the book, I have to say that I think the book was better than the adaption. There are a number of reasons why. The character is more interesting, he moralises his actions more and being able to listen to his thoughts about Spaniards or French Catholics (as per the priest) is very interesting. His friendship with the priest is also more developed. We don't know his nationality in the book, and it seems quite high odds on him being an actual American. I also found the ending to be better, more dramatic and less Hollywood. It was more personally affecting.

This is a great book, and I am curious to find out if any other Martin Booth books are similar as I would love to read more. Great for those who love drama and intrigue and thrillers. I want to listen again some day.

One Second After

One Second After is a book that focuses upon the aftermath of an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) strike that knocks out electricity for the United States and also renders impotent anything with electrical circuitry. It has freaked me out a little as to what I would do in an EMP strike, living in NYC with no farms around means it will not be easy to survive! Perhaps I will begin to stockpile ramen noodles and tinned foods. And a bicycle.

The story itself centers around an ex-Colonel in the US army who lives in a small town in the hills of North Carolina, and the attempts of his town to survive in this new world with no electricity and little food or tools for survival until help arrives. It makes you realise just how much we rely upon electricity for modern life, and the difference that it has made in the world. The story is also a pretty good drama, with intriguing story telling and characters who seem life like. I would recommend it to anyone to read. both as a story and the potential insight to a horrific world.

Aristotle and an Aardvark go to Washington

Perhaps reflecting the fact that I am more interested in politics than philosophy, I found this book a bit more interesting (and probably retained a bit more too) than the authors earlier book explaining philosophy through jokes. This book however is the same premise, but tackles politics. It is a good introduction to the topic, and one is somewhat the wiser from reading it. We all know that politicians tell lies - but what type of lies? Now one can know for sure. Recommended for lazy rainy days when there is not much to do but read something interesting.

The Spy Who Loved Me

This does not start as a normal Bond book. Indeed, it is after more than 80 pages that we get to meet Commander Bond. The book is told from a different perspective than the norm, from the point of view of one of the central characters, a young Canadian woman. This leads us to a different type of Bond tale - rather than being an entire movie, this could a long opening third to a movie. But it would be a great third, with some perfect bad guys and Bond just being Bond.

At first, I was impatient reading this as I wanted to read about James Bond! But once I got past this, I appreciated the bold experiment that Ian Fleming made. It's a 007 story, but not a 007 novel. But very enjoyable. I only wish there were more than 3 original books remaining for me to read.

The Fall

I read the first part of this trilogy, The Strain, earlier this year and really enjoyed it, so it was with a little excitement that I picked up the second book. And it did not disappoint! The story picks off where the last one ended, and continues in its glorious cinematic vein. If it doesn't get made into a movie... well I don't know what to say given the state of most films these days. It is just calling out for it. But regardless of that, The Fall features all the old favourites from the first novel, nuclear power plants, lots of gore, abuse of the aged, some deaths and a lot of action. I would definitely recommend it (I read this in 5 days) but would suggest starting with the first book to get the most out of it.

This is a scatterbrained review, but I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the book and am interested in seeing how the third one ends. Triumph for the Master or will mankind pull it out of the bag?

The Grand Design

The Grand Design puts across the latest theories on the beginning of the universe in an easy-to-follow fashion, all with the benefit of no equations whatsoever. I liked the fact that it covers many subjects with ease and accessibility, with no prior knowledge of mega-level physics necessary. It did teach me a few things (I was interested to learn that Quantum Physics really only affects things at the molecule level and not anything bigger), and is certainly worth a re-listen at some point, as I know that I missed several things.

There seems to be a lot of controversy over the fact that this book makes the statement that God is not necessary to have created the universe, and if you can get your head around there being multiple universes (and the fact that we will probably never be able to fully comprehend such things), it makes a lot of sense. I'd recommend this book to anyone with an interest in such things.

Animal Farm

Having studied the beginnings of Soviet Russia for around 3 years at school, I found it very interesting to re-read Animal Farm for the first time since I read it in English class when I was 15. Incidentally, it is the only book that I can remember reading in school that I want to read again. But reading it and trying to place who was each animal (aside from the obvious two), which countries the two farms represented, what historical events each part of the book was based on... this all added to my enjoyment of this short novel. I think that it has to be one of the cleverest books ever written, and if many issues were boiled down in this way (think the Israel-Palestine conflict), it would add a level of perspective to many who are currently ignorant of the reasons behind them.

Quite simply, an excellent book that I look forward to reading again in 10 years or so.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar... Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

I have never really cared much for philosophy, but this book appealed to me as a simplified presentation of the different schools of thought that exist. In that respect it works fine, I found it to be a very readable and great introduction to the world of philosophy. However, I don't feel like much of it has stuck with me - but on the other-hand, I would not be adverse to browsing through it again one day.

Perhaps that is a little cruel as I am more aware now of what Zen actually is, Existentialism etc so I do think it is a good introduction to the topic. I'm just not moved to read anything in-depth upon the topic.

1984

1984 is a pretty sick book. Sick in the 'well good' sense, not the 'what the hell am I reading' sense. Most people will know of the novel itself, so I shan't go into details aside from it really is a great read and can be quite frightening, especially when you see aspects of the story already in real life. Really would recommend everyone to read this as it is just great.

Bits that I highlighted:

• Here were produced rubbishy newspapers, containing almost nothing except sport, crime, and astrology. (Reminded me of The Sun).
• "I expect you were a beastly little swine in those days," she said indistinctly. "All children are swine."
• In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an airplane they had to make four.
• All past oligarchies have fallen from power either because they ossified or because they grew soft. Either they became stupid or arrogant, failed to adjust themselves to changing circumstances, and were overthrown, or they became liberal and cowardly, made concessions when they should have used force, and once again were overthrown.

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

This is the kind of book that I love. Written in the mid-1800s about the follies of man, it's packed full of anecdotes that I think are awesome. For the most part, I loved this book, aside from the section on Alchemists, which was a bit too long for my liking (although probably full of amusing tales of madness). I've got a shitload of anecdotes to type up, so I will leave it at if you like things like this (and you'll know if you do) then read this book, it's worth it.

Money Mania - The Mississippi Scheme

• They agreed that a man ought never to swear against his doing any one thing, and that there was no sort of extravagance of which even a wise man was not capable.

The Alchymists

• All his life Jean de Meung had evinced a great animosity towards the priesthood, and his famous poem abounds with passages reflecting upon their avarice, cruelty, and immorality. At his death he left a large box, filled with some weighty material, which he bequeathed to the Cordeliers, as a peace-offering, for the abuse he had lavished upon them. As his practice of alchymy was well-known, it was thought the box was filled with gold and silver, and the Cordeliers congratulated each other on their rich acquisition. When it came to be opened, they found to their horror that it was filled only with slates, scratched with hieroglyphic and cabalistic characters.
• The king's reason for granting the patent to find out the philosopher's stone and elixir to, amongst others, monks & mass-priests i.e. ecclesiastics was, that "they were such good artists in transubstantiating bread and wine in the eucharist, and therefore the more likely to be able to effect the transmutation of baser metals into better."
• When Agrippa returned, a few days afterwards, he found his house beset with devils. Some of them were sitting on the chimney-pots, kicking up their legs in the air; while others were playing at leapfrog, on the very edge of the parapet. His study was so filled with them, that he found it difficult to make his way to his desk.

Fortune Telling

• Any maiden who dreams of daffodils is warned by her good angel to avoid going into a wood with her lover, or into any dark or retired place where she might not be able to make people hear her if she cried out.
• If a swarm of bees alight in your garden, some very high honour and great joys await you.

The Magnetisers

• The wonderful influence of imagination in the cure of diseases is well known. A motion of the hand, or a glance of the eye, will throw a weak and credulous patient into a fit; and a pill made of bread, if taken with sufficient faith, will operate a cure better than all the drugs in the pharmacy.
• The Spanish proverb, Hagase el milagro y hagalo Mahoma - Let the miracle be done it, though Mahomet do it.
• The worn-out debauches, who had drained the cup of sensuality to its dregs, and who longed to see lovely women in convulsions, with the hope that they might gain some new emotions from the sight.
• Some of these societies were a scandal to morality, being joined by profligate men of depraved appetites, who took a disgusting delight in witnessing young girls in convulsions.

Influence of Politics and Religion on the Hair and Beard

• The famous declaration of St. Paul, "that long hair was a shame unto man".
• Towards the end of the eleventh century, it was decreed by the pope, and zealously supported by the ecclesiastical authorities over Europe, that such persons as wore long hair should be excommunicated.
• The famous St. Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, was peculiarly indignant whenever he saw a man with long hair. He declaimed against the practice as one highly immoral, criminal, and beastly. He continually carried a small knife in his pocket, and whenever any body offending in this respect knelt before him to receive his blessing, he would whip it out slyly, and cut off a handful, and then, throwing it in his face, tell him to cut off all the rest, or he would go to hell.

The Crusades

• Any maniac can kindle a conflagration, but it requires many wise men to put it out.
• Richard the Lion Heart left a high reputation in Palestine. So much terror did his name occasion, that the women of Syria used it to frighten their children for ages afterwards. Every disobedient brat became still when told that King Richard was coming. Even men shared the panic that his name created; and a hundred years afterwards, whenever a horse shied at any object in the way, his rider would exclaim "What! dost thou think King Richard is in the bush?"

The Witch Mania

• It was believed that the Devil endeavoured to trip people up, by laying his long invisible tail in their way, and giving it a sudden whisk when their legs were over it; that he used to get drunk, and swear like a trooper, and be so mischievous in his cups as to raise tempests and earthquakes; that he used to run invisible spits into people by way of amusing himself in the long winter evenings; that, disguised as a large drake, he used to lurk among the bulrushes and frighten the weary traveler out of his wits by his awful quack.
• In the reign of Philippe le Bel, he appeared to a monk in the shape of a dark man, riding a tall black horse - then as a friar - afterwards as an ass, and finally as a coach-wheel.
• When this ceremony was concluded, they were all amused by a dance of toads. Thousands of these creatures sprang out of the earth; and standing on their hind legs, danced, while the devil played the bagpipes or trumpet.
• When the devil wished to be particularly amused, he made witches strip off their clothes and dance before him, each with a cat tied around her neck, and another dangling from her body in the form of a tail.
• The devil re-baptized witches in their own blood by the names of "Able-and-Stout", "Over-the-dyke-with-it", "Raise-the-wind", "Pickle-nearest-the-wind", "Batter-them-down-Maggy", "Blow-Kale" and such like. The devil himself was not very particular what name they called him so that it was not "Black John". If any witch was unthinking enough to utter these words, he would rush upon her, and beat and buffet her unmercifully, or tear hear flesh with a wool-card.
• Another man gave similar evidence, and swore that he had often seen a cat with Jane Wenham's face.
• Some witches could turn the faces of their enemies upside down, or twist them round to their backs.
• Shortly afterwards twelve black cats ascended out of the floor, and danced on their hind legs around the witch for the space of around half an hour.

Haunted Houses

• It was generally believed in several parishes of Scotland that the devil had been seen in the act of hammering upon the house-top of Baldarroch. One old man asserted positively that, one night, after having been to see the strange gambols of the knives and mustard-pots, he met the phantom of a great black man, "who wheeled round his head with a whizzing noise, making a wind about his ears that almost blew his bonnet off," and that he was haunted by him in this manner for three miles.
  
• It was said that when the goodwife put her potato-pot on the fire, each potato, as the water boiled, changed into a demon, and grinned horribly at her when she lifted the lid.

Popular Follies of Great Cities (This is a list of one-time popular sayings that came and went in London in the 1700s and 1800s)

• Quoz!
• What a shocking bad hat!
• There he goes with his eye out!
• Has your mother sold her mangle?
• Flare up!
• Does your mother know you're out?
• Who are you?

Dead Certainties

Dead Certainties is a curious book. The back cover proclaims it to be "a dazzling and supremely vital work of historical imagination". To be honest, this baffled the shit out of me when I started to read it as I couldn't work out the book's purpose. This is a bit worrying given that I'm in at least the top 10% of the world when it comes to intelligence.

I think I figured it out. Schama reconstructs two stories from history from different sources, and I believe the point is that no-one knows for sure. He used two stories, the death of General Wolfe and a murder in Boston. I think he should have just gone with the murder as a novel as the death of the General is less than a quarter of the book, and it seems strange to have such a short example followed up by a long one.

I did really enjoy the account of the murder and subsequent trial, it was a very interesting mystery drama - another reason why I think it should have just been this story in the book. I especially liked it as there is no way I would have known about this story any other way, so I'm glad I read the book.

I'm just still a little puzzled as to what the supremely vital part of it was.

Assholeology

A decent but flawed book, Assholeogy has several interesting parts but ultimately falls flat. According to what it says, I am an asshole (at least in the making), and I'm not ashamed of that. For example, I've always had the trait of likeability which enables me to do things only to be dismissed because of who I am. But there are two reasons why I say this book falls flat. One is the advice for when you start a new job. To have a mental fit over a slight thing really doesn't seem right to me, for one thing most people are on probation periods and that might get you dropped.

The second is the length of the book. Of a tome consisting 197 pages excluding the index, it is annoying to find the appendix starting on P121 and mostly being complete drivel and/or unrelated topics, such as "know your asshole" or cocktail recipes. Perhaps an asshole move like that should have been expected after all.

But I found this book to have taught me an important lesson. It's all about how people perceive you that counts. I have tried to incorporate that into my being, and really, that is a very important lesson in life.

I'd say this book is worth a skim or a loan, but not really a purchase.

America (The Audiobook)

America... is a very interesting listen, but nothing that you would not expect from the team of the Daily Show. It covers many topics to do with the make-up of the USA, and is quite thought provoking. For instance, why do people think they can read the minds of people from 200 years ago? Why do people treat the Patriots as if they were infallible? What do people understand by an Amendment? But it is not put together in the fashion of a lecture, instead it is very witty and quite brilliant.

I wasn't aware that this was abridged, but at under 4 hours, this is a great listen that teaches more interesting facts than most lectures - and also isn't afraid to point out inadequacies in the current system, something which is to be commended.

Predictably Irrational

Predictably Irrational pretty much tells us that humans are extremely irrational beings. The book (or audiobook in my case) is littered with examples of pre-existing bias or assumption that we have gleaned from somewhere that alter our behavior to the irrational. There are also examples galore of people just being... irrational. Things like how the majority of people are swayed by the offer of something free, even if it is not the best deal. On this basis, this book isn't just interesting from a psychological standpoint but also an economic one. If I ever am in the position in a company to come up with marketing strategies, I am certainly revisiting this book to take advantage of the behavior of the majority.

Overall, I found this book to be very interesting and full of fascinating snippets. I even ordered a copy for my friend as a birthday present! On this basis, I would recommend to anyone interested in the strangeness of human nature, as you won't be disappointed.

How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like

How Pleasure Works is an interesting discourse upon pleasure. The interesting thing about pleasure is that the way we humans discern pleasure is uniquely human, attaching value to things that otherwise would be worthless. It all verges upon perception, and Paul Bloom gives many examples throughout. Some of my favourites include people being unable to distinguish between dog food and pate in a blind taste test, wine experts rating the same wine in two completely different ways solely because one had an expensive label on and the other didn't, and another wine expert example of serving white wine in a black glass (giving it the appearance of red), and having it described as "berry-flavours". Another thing I recall is how monkeys also respond to pornography and celebrity worship.

I got this as an audiobook, and it was a very interesting listen. The nature of pleasure, when you think about it, is very frivolous. But it is one of the things that we define our lives by, and so it may be useful understanding how it works. I come away from this book armed with interesting facts and almost of the mind that pleasure is a useless abstraction. But a world without pleasure would be awful (think Iraq or North Korea hahaha).

The Eaten Heart: Unlikely Tales of Love

The Eaten Heart was quite suprisingly witty. I wasn't expecting a book from the 1300s to be so funny, but there were several times that this collection of short stories had me chuckling away. It seems some of the points of our age were being made 700 years ago! I enjoyed this short collection (possibly as well as it was in modern English), and one day would like to read the larger collection of which this formed a part.

Notable quotations:

• 'Dear me!' said the other. 'Don't you realize that we have promised God to preserve our virginity?' 'Pah!' she said. 'We are constantly making Him promised that we never keep! What does it matter if we fail to keep this one? He can always find other girls to preserve their virginity for Him.'
• She had no conception of the kind of horn that men do their butting with.
• And so, despite the fact that eight separate men had made love to her on thousands of different occasions, she entered his bed as a virgin and convinced him it was really so. And for many years afterwards she lived a contented life as his queen. Hence the proverbial saying: 'A kissed mouth doesn't lose its freshness: like the moon it turns up new again.'

The Strain

The Strain is an incredible book. I listened to the audiobook version, and the story and performance were both amazing. So much so that I am torn between reading the next installment myself when it comes out later this year, or seeing if Audible have another version ready.

The story is the first part of a trilogy concerning a vampire coming to New York and deliberately spreading his virus, and the efforts of a select few to contain and defeat this. It is clear that del Toro is a movie director as listening to scene after scene I could picture it clearly in my mind's eye and would imagine this making an excellent movie. Suspense, horror, intrigue... it's all here. And it certainly is worth reading, that is certain. The characters are extremely human and realistic, which is one of the strengths of the tale. I also enjoyed it being set in New York, being able to picture everywhere the events taking place.

So in summation: I really enjoyed this book, it was awesome and I can't wait for the next installment later this year!

Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas

I've been a bit lazy writing up on this book, as I actually finished reading it at the end of April. In any case, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is great tale, one that purports itself to be true, but you find yourself hoping that it really isn't. I found it to be laugh out loud funny in places, not sure whether that is an indicator of my character or not.

I found it to be a great read, and one that I was looking forward to reading on the subway journeys to and from work. I also found myself reading it outside of these travels, another sign that this is a book that I really enjoyed. This is an adventure that I would love to have one day, possibly without quite all the drugs, but the experience seems to be exhilarating; I'm thinking particularly of the hotel maid tricked into thinking she could be a police informer, the reporter check-in at the poolside bar and the girl with the paintings.

It's quite hard to sum up, and I think almost fruitless to do so, given that most people have heard of this book and will be able to judge accordingly if they would want to read it or not. So I will content myself with saying that I would like to re-read it again one day, and reproduce two of my favourite passages below.

My attorney shook his fist at them. "We'll be back," he yelled. "One of these days I'll toss a fucking bomb into this place! I have your name on this sales slip! I'll find out where you live and burn your house down!"

"That'll give him something to think about," he muttered as we drove off. "That guy is a paranoid psychotic, anyway. They're easy to spot."

============================

About ten minutes later, when she brought the hamburgers, I saw my attorney hand her a napkin with something printed on it. He did it very casually, with no expression at all on his face. But I knew, from the vibes, that our peace was about to be shattered.

"What was that?" I asked him.

He shrugged, smiling vaguely at the waitress who was standing about ten feet away, at the end of the counter, keeping her back to us while she pondered the napkin. Finally she turned and stared... then she stepped resolutely forward and tossed the napkin at my attorney.

"What is this?" she snapped.

"A napkin," said my attorney.

There was a moment of nasty silence, then she began screaming: "Don't give me that bullshit! I know what it means! You goddamn fat pimp bastard!"

My attorney picked up the napkin, looked at what he'd written, then dropped it back on the counter. "That's the name of a horse I used to own," he said calmly. "What's wrong with you?"

"You sonofabitch!" she screamed. "I take a lot of shit in this place, but I sure as hell don't have to take it off a spic pimp!"

Jesus! I thought. What's happening? I was watching the woman's hands, hoping she wouldn't pick up anything sharp or heavy. I picked up the napkin and read what the bastard had printed on it, in careful red letters: "Back Door Beauty?" The question mark was emphasized.