Reviews and other ponderings
Get it here.I have developed quite a taste for Conrad recently. Many of his works are complex and highly symbolic, but this, by contrast, is a simple story of a young man setting out on his first sea voyage to the East, as remembered and narrated by his older self. Or is it quite so [...]
Get it here.I have a great weakness for P G Wodehouse. I can list all his faults, but they are all out-weighed by his virtues:• He is funny.• His plots are complex, but magically resolve on the last page, without apparent effort.• His phrase making is unique.• You always know what to expect.• You find yourself [...]
Get it here.Laughing out loud in pubic places while listening to an iPod can be embarrassing. I therefore recommend that this book be read (or listened to) in private.For such an old book, the humour is remarkably fresh; the ‘cheese’ episode in particular reminded me of Monty Python. And I use the term episode with [...]
Get it hereMy general rule with understanding hard subjects, like philosophy (hard for me!), is to read the original source matter. I used to read books about, say, Plato, and got nowhere. Then I read Plato himself, and it all seemed rather straightforward. There is a reason that the original works have survived, and that [...]
This is an ancient work of philosophy, and written in classical chinese. One should not approach such works expecting a ripping yarn, or even for clear advice. ‘Always eat your greens’ would be unlikely to last 25 centuries, which, on reflection, seems rather a pity. Mankind needs a bit of ambiguity in it core texts, [...]
Get it hereThis is an epic book, and one that is much more a part of the American tradition than the European one. I get the feeling that while young Americans are reading (or feeling bad about not having read) Moby-Dick, Europeans are reading (or pretending to have read) The Outsider by Albert Camus. (A [...]
I have seen a lot about twitter recently, and it seems a lot of fun. To save myself time, and to save myself from having to register, I have decided to compose all my twitter entries for the foreseeable future here: 6:30am woken by son8:15am leave for work (listen to book!)8:45am work6:00pm leave for home [...]