The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman

The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was interested in this book mainly because of the title. I thought it would be a sociological exploration of the concept of childhood and how it's changed. The first half of this short book was mostly that but then it was mostly about television dumbing down the world. In part, due to its short length, it wasn't enough of an exploration of anything. It was an okay read though.

View all my reviews

Humble Pi by Matt Parker

Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors by Matt Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was getting ready to give this book 3 stars at the beginning but as I went on I realized that some of these math mental hurdles are driving the covid spread. For starters, many Governors, even 11 months in seem fundamentally unaware of how exponential growth works which is the underlying prediction threat of covid growth. Additionally, most people have very little familiarity with even the basics of how statistics work, useful in understanding all types of science research, for example in vaccine trials. Another example is the Swiss cheese engineering strategy which is also necessary to implement to avoid covid spread but many people and even state governments seem unaware of this.

This book is interesting both for people that do not understand math and for those that do. Those that understand math are usually unaware of how deeply clueless others are but since they make systems for people who do not understand- or at a minimum are fallible humans- humans are likely to screw everything up, possibly with fatal results. It's also a pretty entertaining book as the author genuinely seems to enjoy math and resultant foibles.

View all my reviews

“I love the example of someone who starts work at 8 a.m. and by 12 p.m. they need to have cleaned floors eight to twelve of a building. Setting about cleaning one floor per hour would leave a whole floor still untouched come noon.” 

“There is always the chance that something else is influencing the data, causing the link. Between 1993 and 2008 the police in Germany were searching for the mysterious ‘phantom of Heilbronn’, a woman who had been linked to forty crimes, including six murders; her DNA had been found at all the crime scenes. Tens of thousands of police hours were spent looking for Germany’s ‘most dangerous woman’ and there was a €300,000 bounty on her head. It turns out she was a woman who worked in the factory that made the cotton swabs used to collect DNA evidence.” 

The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am torn about how to review this book. Yes, of course, it's as badly written as everyone who read this 10 years ago says it is. And it's ridiculously disgustingly sexist- and it appears to be the author pushing this sexism more than it being a reflection of the subjects of the book. The thing is, 10 years ago, we didn't know that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook would contribute to the destruction of democracy. While it's not necessarily accurate, it at least lets us see what Eduardo Saverin thought of Zuckerberg at a younger age.

View all my reviews

Permanent Record by Edward Snowden

Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really interesting and informative regarding US technological internal spying capabilities. Explains Snowden's behavior whether or not you agree with it. It makes me want to reread Clapper's book now that I have the other side of the argument.

View all my reviews

The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The interesting part of this book for me is that computers and the internet have changed how we think and how we write. I'm in a strange age group in that I both owned a typewriter as a kid and wrote a few grade school reports by hand, but mostly wrote reports for school on computers, and was already teaching myself html in college. I thought the difference that writing by hand, on the typewriter, or on the computer makes on the style of the writing is particularly interesting since Jennifer Egan says that she drafted the first version of all her novels by hand.

The book seemed a bit disorganized for me though. And it felt insufficiently researched or fleshed out especially in the science section.

I think I have a particularly strange perspective because I only began to read in such a large quantity specifically because as someone with no job or car from 2016-2018, I could get free ebooks and audiobooks from my library. I think since then, my transformation as a reader has been akin to a second college education. I've read about 200 books a year since 2016, including this year, for a total of over 800 books in 4 years. Many of those books were some serious literary tomes- such as the Bible and Moby Dick. So it's easy for me to dismiss the overwrought idea that the internet has made me unable to read serious books and concentrate on them when it's precisely the internet that has increased my reading and understanding of the world.

View all my reviews

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first quarter of the book is necessary and terrifying to contemplate. Much of the rest of the book turns into a discussion of world religions that I found less relevant to the beginning thrust of the book. I also don’t usually like religious discussions by people that are mostly dismissive of religion. Not because I’m especially religious myself but the dismissals are often less interesting than say the nuanced explorations of Karen Armstrong or other religious scholars. Not my favorite of Harari’s books.

View all my reviews

The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would have given this at least 4 stars if it had been edited to a reasonable length, with less repetition. Despite what many of the reviewers suggested, it wasn't a fully one-sided account of free trade. Though Friedman's position was mostly pro-free-trade (most economists are pro), he did discuss problems and inequalities that arise and acknowledged the complexities of free trade. The book was also pretty thorough, discussing not just government policy, but also technology, education, cultural attitudes, and even terrorism. I'd recommend it but only if you're prepared to do the hard hard work of slogging through.

View all my reviews

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fascinating and intricate. Harari builds a spiderweb, starting with the history of human thought, building and building until you understand how plausible his predictions of the future are.

This was the first time I had encountered this particular explanation of why we should study history- not just to avoid repeating it, but to understand that the actions that we take as a given are actually options. (See his section on lawns.)

This was the first time I had considered humanism in the particular way he explains it, and the first I even heard of dataism. Strongly recommend this book for its intellectual content, but it's worth mentioning that it was also so fun to read that I could not stop.

If you want the super short summary, Harari wrote this article for the Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/50bb4830-6...

View all my reviews

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ever want to experience the mental illness/breakdown of a philosopher? Also need a few motorcycle maintenance tips? This is the book for you. Some talk about mindfulness and zen as well but not the main topic in my opinion.

Spoiler alert. My hard copy is an original copy. My digital loan from the library had a 10-year anniversary edition Afterword that totally devastated me.

View all my reviews

The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria

The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is basically about the end of American hegemony. According to the author, this was partly caused by America ruining worldwide trust with the second Iraq war, buy mostly caused by China and India's quiet economic development, and Russia's increased aggression while we were busy with the Middle East. Most of the book is a description of the politics and economics can of America, China, and India. Then there are some warnings and hopeful statements about how this might all lead to greater security. But this was back in 2008. I'm having a hard time imagining how our precarious position in the world is going to work out okay with Trump at the helm.

View all my reviews

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first read this as a kid, but my rating is the same as then. There are many interesting things to consider in this novel: a conscious computer, consciousness versus having a conscience, the principles of freedom and rebellion, the dangers of a crowded dystopian Earth, and some fun guesses at utopian futures: racial integration, varying family structures, tax-free government etc. All of this, plus the tricky revolution plots, make for a very fun book. But large chunks of the book drag, especially in the second half.

View all my reviews

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A new favorite! Harari covers the history and potential future of the human species, including the research of many other prominent authors. He organizes everything very well. The entire book is interesting, and none of it drags. I particularly appreciated his unique analysis. If an alien species wanted to read one book to understand the human species this would be it, although that might be unfortunate for us if they did.

Everyone should read this!

View all my reviews

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is pretty different than the other humor books I've read recently. It's not a humor memoir. Ansari discusses aspects of modern dating compared to dating a generation ago, and he did a lot of research and employed researchers to assist him. It's interesting on its own with discussions of psychology and economics, but it's also very funny.

View all my reviews

Steve Jobs by Karen Blumenthal

Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An unauthorized biography. A quick fun read. Blumenthal reveals Jobs's faults but tries to be balanced and kind. I don't think there's much of a template for success unless being obsessive and nearly maniacal in one's pursuits is a template.

View all my reviews

Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As for the first half of the essay: If you are an excellent person and follow the advice in this essay, then it's probably going to work out well. If you're a horrible person, or if you think you're an excellent person but you're really kind of a low-grade specimen, and follow this essay, it's a recipe to be a huge jerk.

I like the second half of the essay better. I appreciate it's anti-consumerist bent. Even it's anti-technology section has some good points.

View all my reviews

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Takes place in the semi-wilderness of 1870s in Wisconsin, US. Takes us through a year in the life of a middle sister age 4 (celebrates her 5th birthday during the book). There are at least 4 stories just about bears in this book.

I think I like this book even better as an adult. It's like a survival guide for the zombie apocalypse or a pandemic.

View all my reviews