Forgetting my book of Maupassant short stories at home, along with the Bahamian sun and the Economist Christmas issue, kept me from finishing the year as strongly as I'd hoped, but I was delighted, as always to see a pile of book orders waiting for me. I will always order something I come across that looks interesting, but often by the time I am home to pick it up, I've forgotten who recommended it and why I thought it would be interesting. This tends to be a feature, not a bug, as it has been a joy to open the cover on something that I know nothing about, except that at one time, it sounded interesting enough to order.
Full 2016 list
here. Top 5 for the year to follow soon.
My author of the year. This is the book that got him started, and which I did not love as much as the others, although I loved it nonetheless. Perhaps the presence of a smarter third party celebrity detracts from the author's honest and empathetic view of the strange world in which he finds himself.
From the English section of my neighbourhood bookstore. Thought it might be interesting, and it was, mildly, if somewhat repetitive. Didn't see the same poetry in his life that Mickey Rourke did.
Published in 2014. Good look at how movements like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street were nihilistic and without any goal other than to smash the status quo. Brexit and Trump both eerily consistent with the author's claims.
Interesting summary about how much more we know now about how the brain works, and how little that is. Still closer to phrenology than the singularity.
Not as interesting as I'd hoped, but worth the effort. Concepts all well presented, but I was familiar with many of them already. Finally understand the law of large numbers, though.
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Travels with Herodotus
On Writing
The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority
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