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sigh, I forgot what a melancholy experience it is reading this thread and seeing other people getting to enjoy really incredible books like 'Cryptonomicon' (they melt because that's the easiest way to get it out, that's all), 'Kavalier and Clay' and 'His dark materials'. We can never reclaim that first blushing contact with the pages. The second read is... soiled.
Anyways, been reading lots recently myself.
Currently am particularly mesmerized by The Shield of Achilles which is easily one of the most insightful things I've ever read. It's an examination of the interplay between military technology, peace settlements and constitutional law, which sounds unbelievably dull, but is actually like taking a scalpel to the body politic and watching all the guts squirm around. It's opened my eyes to entirely different ways of looking at things, and also alerted me to what an extraordinary individual Bismarck was. Why wasn't I taught this in school?
(If anyone can recommend a Bismarck biog, please do...)
But the best thing, and the bit I haven't got to yet is that the author, Bobbit, basically predicted 9/11 and has a whole thesis on what the nation-state is evolving into and what might happen in the next few years. It has a little quote on the back saying something along the lines of "the book all the worlds leaders are reading". And if they're reading it, comrades, so should we....
Also toying with Murakami's Norwegian Wood which hasn't really grabbed me the way his others did yet.
Then there's Simon Baron-Cohen's The essential difference which is a psychological analysis of the difference between the genders and is fascinating reading, but playing second fiddle to the Bobbit which is v time consuming.
Sitting and waiting to be read are The Rat and The Flounder by Gunther Grass and that Emotional Intelligence book, which i have very low expectations of, but feel is too zeitgeist to miss out.... |
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