Sunday, November 30, 2014

November Books

Full 2014 list here. Hit my target. Well off my century in 2012.

Books That Changed The WorldBooks That Changed The World

In "Books that Changed the World" Andrew Taylor sets himself the challenging task of choosing and profiling the fifty most important and influential books in the history of the world. He has selected books from every field of human creativity and intellectual endeavour - from poetry to politics, from fiction to philosophy, from theology to anthropology, and from economics to physics - to create a rounded and satisfying picture of how 50 towering achievements of the human intellect have built our societies, shaped our values, enhanced our understanding of the nature of the world, enabled technological advancements, and reflected our concerns and dilemmas, strengths and failings. In a series of engaging and lively essays, Andrew Taylor sets each work and its author firmly in historical context, summarizes the content of the work in question, and explores its wider influence and legacy. A fascinating and richly informative read, and a clarion call to delve deeper into the library of great books, "Books that Changed the World" is a thought-provoking and stimulating read, and the likely cause of many an impassioned debate.
Note: And one that didn't. Short overview of the contents of each, with an even shorter analysis of how each changed the world. The Bible? OK. Catcher in the Rye? Um...

Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies


Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies

A Tribe Called Quest • Beastie Boys • De La Soul • Eric B. & Rakim • The Fugees • KRS-One • Pete Rock & CL Smooth • Public Enemy • The Roots • Run-DMC • Wu-Tang Clan • and twenty-five more hip-hop immortals

It’s a sad fact: hip-hop album liners have always been reduced to a list of producer and sample credits, a publicity photo or two, and some hastily composed shout-outs. That’s a damn shame, because few outside the game know about the true creative forces behind influential masterpieces like PE’s It Takes a Nation of Millions. . ., De La’s 3 Feet High and Rising, and Wu-Tang’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). A longtime scribe for the hip-hop nation, Brian Coleman fills this void, and delivers a thrilling, knockout oral history of the albums that define this dynamic and iconoclastic art form. 

The format: One chapter, one artist, one album, blow-by-blow and track-by-track, delivered straight from the original sources. Performers, producers, DJs, and b-boys–including Big Daddy Kane, Muggs and B-Real, Biz Markie, RZA, Ice-T, and Wyclef–step to the mic to talk about the influences, environment, equipment, samples, beats, beefs, and surprises that went into making each classic record. Studio craft and street smarts, sonic inspiration and skate ramps, triumph, tragedy, and take-out food–all played their part in creating these essential albums of the hip-hop canon.

Insightful, raucous, and addictive, Check the Technique transports you back to hip-hop’s golden age with the greatest artists of the ’80s and ’90s. This is the book that belongs on the stacks next to your wax.
Note: Disappointing, and not because of the author's aim, or the albums covered (though there is room for argument. This is music I love, but the essays are too short, and I didn't learn much about anyone or anything.

My Salinger Year


My Salinger Year

Enjoyed this more than I thought I would. The literary agency is a picture of a bygone era, and the picture of life as a 24 year old in New York is especially poignant. Do I need to read Franny and Zooey again? I thought it was corny a year ago, but maybe I wasn't looking at it correctly.

Listen to This

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

October Books

The full 2014 list is here. I hit my annual goal of 50 for the fourth time, since I started counting in 2011, but I am on track for the lowest total yet. In my defense, I did read War and Peace this year.

Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences

Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended ConsequencesIn this perceptive and provocative look at everything from computer software that requires faster processors and more support staff to antibiotics that breed resistant strains of bacteria, Edward Tenner offers a virtual encyclopedia of what he calls "revenge effects"--the unintended consequences of the mechanical, chemical, biological, and medical forms of ingenuity that have been hallmarks of the progressive, improvement-obsessed modern age. Tenner shows why our confidence in technological solutions may be misplaced, and explores ways in which we can better survive in a world where despite technology's advances--and often because of them--"reality is always gaining on us."  For anyone hoping to understand the ways in which society and technology interact, Why Things Bite Back is indispensable reading.  "A bracing critique of technological determinism in both its utopian and dystopian forms...No one who wants to think clearly about our high-tech future can afford to ignore this book."--Jackson Lears, Wilson Quarterly

Note

Interesting look at the unanticipated consequences of dramatic change over time. A little slow at the beginning, but it gains momentum. More back injuries after the elimination of much back-breaking work.


Kim

KimKim is set in an imperialistic world; a world strikingly masculine, dominated by travel, trade and adventure, a world in which there is no question of the division between white and non-white.

Two men - a boy who grows into early manhood and an old ascetic priest, the lama - are at the center of the novel. A quest faces them both. Born in India, Kim is nevertheless white, a sahib. While he wants to play the Great Game of Imperialism, he is also spiritually bound to the lama. His aim, as he moves chameleon-like through the two cultures, is to reconcile these opposing strands, while the lama searches for redemption from the Wheel of Life.

A celebration of their friendship in a beautiful but often hostile environment, 'Kim' captures the opulence of India's exotic landscape, overlaid by the uneasy presence of the British Raj.
Note
Waffled between two and three stars for my review . The descriptions of colonial India are evocative, but I found the story a little disjointed and the ending unsatisfying--it struck me as an adventure book for young people that ended before the climax. I also found the characters a little one-dimensional and the hero a trifle too resilient and indefatigable to believe. Would not recommend unless you are fascinated by the setting and the era, and, if so, I suspect that there are better titles.

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

by 

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of AmazonAmazon.com started off delivering books through the mail. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn't content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the everything store, offering limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To do so, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition and secrecy that's never been cracked. Until now. Brad Stone enjoyed unprecedented access to current and former Amazon employees and Bezos family members, giving readers the first in-depth, fly-on-the-wall account of life at Amazon. Compared to tech's other elite innovators--Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg--Bezos is a private man. But he stands out for his restless pursuit of new markets, leading Amazon into risky new ventures like the Kindle and cloud computing, and transforming retail in the same way Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing.

THE EVERYTHING STORE will be the revealing, definitive biography of the company that placed one of the first and largest bets on the Internet and forever changed the way we shop and read.

Note

More missteps and happy accidents than I would have expected, but I guess that is the result of extensive experimentation. Looking forward to explaining to my grandchildren how it all started, or perhaps, what it was back in the day. Not sure which is the story I'll be telling.

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
In Decisive, Chip Heath and Dan Heath, the bestselling authors of Made to Stick and Switch, tackle the thorny problem of how to overcome our natural biases and irrational thinking to make better decisions, about our work, lives, companies and careers.
    When it comes to decision making, our brains are flawed instruments.  But given that we are biologically hard-wired to act foolishly and behave irrationally at times, how can we do better?  A number of recent bestsellers have identified how irrational our decision making can be.  But being aware of a bias doesn't correct it, just as knowing that you are nearsighted doesn't help you to see better.  In Decisive, the Heath brothers, drawing on extensive studies, stories and research, offer specific, practical tools that can help us to think more clearly about our options, and get out of our heads, to improve our decision making, at work and at home.
 

Note

Maybe better as an article or a Kindle Single, but easy to read and full of good advice for overcoming biases. Always try to prove yourself wrong. Imagine different possible outcomes. Try not to be human.


Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas

Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous IdeasThe nation's most-cited legal scholar who for decades has been at the forefront of applied behavioral economics, and the bestselling author of Nudge and Simpler, Cass Sunstein is one of the world's most innovative thinkers in the academy and the world of practical politics. In the years leading up to his confirmation as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Sunstein published hundreds of articles on everything from same-sex marriage to cost-benefit analysis. Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas is a collection of his most famous, insightful, relevant, and inflammatory pieces. Within these pages you will learn: 

  • Why perfectly rational people sometimes believe crazy conspiracy theories 
  • What wealthy countries should and should not do about climate change 
  • Why governments should allow same-sex marriage, and what the right to marry is all about 
  • Why animals have rights (and what that means) 
  • Why we misfear, meaning get scared when we should be unconcerned and are unconcerned when we should get scared 
  • What kinds of losses make us miserable, and what kinds of losses are absolutely fine 
  • How to find the balance between religious freedom and gender equality 
  • And much more . . . 
Cass Sunstein is a unique, controversial, and exciting voice in the political world. A man who cuts through the fog of left vs. right arguments and offers logical, evidence-based, and often surprising solutions to today's most challenging questions.

Note

Interesting takes on various issues of the day. I didn't always agree with the author, but he makes you think about things you take for granted.


The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu

The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the MenuWhy do we eat toast for breakfast, and then toast to good health at dinner? What does the turkey we eat on Thanksgiving have to do with the country on the eastern Mediterranean? Can you figure out how much your dinner will cost by counting the words on the menu?

In The Language of Food, Stanford University professor and MacArthur Fellow Dan Jurafsky peels away the mysteries from the foods we think we know. Thirteen chapters evoke the joy and discovery of reading a menu dotted with the sharp-eyed annotations of a linguist.

Jurafsky points out the subtle meanings hidden in filler words like "rich" and "crispy," zeroes in on the metaphors and storytelling tropes we rely on in restaurant reviews, and charts a microuniverse of marketing language on the back of a bag of potato chips.

The fascinating journey through The Language of Food uncovers a global atlas of culinary influences. With Jurafsky's insight, words like ketchup, macaron, and even salad become living fossils that contain the patterns of early global exploration that predate our modern fusion-filled world.

From ancient recipes preserved in Sumerian song lyrics to colonial shipping routes that first connected East and West, Jurafsky paints a vibrant portrait of how our foods developed. A surprising history of culinary exchange—a sharing of ideas and culture as much as ingredients and flavors—lies just beneath the surface of our daily snacks, soups, and suppers.

Engaging and informed, Jurafsky's unique study illuminates an extraordinary network of language, history, and food. The menu is yours to enjoy.


Note

Fun book, although the writing is a little chummy. Did not realize that the language of our cuisine owes so much to the Middle East.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Peppermint Patty is a Peanut

We don't have Song of the Day anymore--even when I'm home the BG gets herself up now--but I started something similar last week.

My office is on the fifth floor of an apartment building.. It's actually two large apartments that have been connected. My guess is that the tenants are equally divided between businesses--lawyer, dentist, "agrominerals" (?)--and residents.

I walk up the stairs every morning, and last week I decided to try freestyle rapping up the stairs. "I'm on the one, like my name was James Brown, you've got to go up if you want to get down." was my first line I think, and I've had fun with it all last week. It's absolutely amazing what you can come up with on the spot: things that would just never occur to you.

Anyway, today, I cheated a little bit. I started thinking about the rap as I was walking down the street. I had the first couplet in my head when I was still a block away. After I unlocked the door, I started. For the purpose of the verse, it's important to know that in Serbia, what we would call the second floor is the first:
You don't start at one around her, it's zero.
I'm talkin' to you like I was Robert Deniro.
You take one to get one and then you're there,
Finally making sense of the whole affair.
After eight is a mint, after one it's two,
Peppermint patty is a peanut, who
chills with Charlie Brown, but isn't friends with Linus,
I had something about "your highness" coming but "Peppermint Patty is a peanut" cracked me up and I spent the rest of the trip congratulating myself on my cleverness.