Here you will find a chronicle of what I’m reading right now, the ideas that are shaping my ever-changing world view. Feel free to read along with me.
I have been a reader as long as I remember. CS Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were as much as part of my family as my siblings and parents. A Hobbit, a Wardrobe and a Great War is a look at the men behind the books that I knew so well as a young child, the books … Continue reading A Hobbit, A Wardrobe and a Great War
"Everyone except an economist knows what 'money' means, and even an economist can describe it in at the course of a chapter or so..." ~ A.H. Quiggin Best chased (in my opinion) with a little eurodollar crash course (like this) Money, The Unauthorised Biography is one of the better efforts in the genre of "attempting … Continue reading Money (the unauthorised biography)
What I read in 2019, the comprehensive list. How to read this list: * = Recommend ** = Really recommend NC = No comment (or, really, do not bother) RR = Re-read F = Fiction NF = Non-fiction If you trust my reading recommendations, I suggest you purchase a copy of whatever catches your eye … Continue reading 2019 – A Year in Books
Eric Hoffer was an American dock worker. An everyman. Not a rich man, not a man you would have noticed in the streets in the 1930s and 1940s. One of the nameless, voiceless masses we live and work with every day. But he was more than that. He was also a keen observer of human … Continue reading The true believer
Reflections on the Revolution in France... a book written by a rich Englishman of leisure, critiquing the working-class French Revolution from the other side of the pond... Revealing, (although perhaps more revealing of Burke himself than the author may have intended) as much for what it gets wrong about the French revolution itself (Burke was … Continue reading Reflections on the Revolution in France
Shirley Jackson's collection of dystopian short-form fiction The Lottery (and other stories) is a stark reminder of the fragility, banality and horror of the un-scrutinised human condition. It's all too easy to slip into group-think that priorities the "greater good" over the individual life. And once we have accepted that, it is a slippery slope to treating people … Continue reading The Lottery
"They have a phenomenal memory. If you were to read them a twenty-volume encyclopaedia they could repeat the contents in order, but they never think up anything original. They'd make fine university professors." ~ R.U.R The defining text for robots, Rossum's Universal Robots is a facial science fiction play written in the 1920's as … Continue reading Rossum’s Universal Robots
"...I have developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility..." ~ Richard Feynman The inimitable and endlessly quotable Richard Feynman always makes for entertaining - and enlightening - reading. Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman is part physics lecture, part biography and complete delight. A Nobel prize, winner, atom-bomb contributor, and occasional amateur philosopher, Richard Feynman, … Continue reading Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman
"I reject inevitability, and it is my hope that as a result of our journey together, you will too. We are at the beginning of this story, not the end... There is still time to take the reins and direct the action towards a human future that we can call home." ~ Shoshana Zoboff … Continue reading The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
The Foundation trilogy by grandfather of futurism and former RAND corporation forefather, Isaac Asimov is a masterclass in playing the long game. If you want to understand foresight and strategy, you could do worse than to "waste" a weekend on this highly entertaining work of science fiction; almost like the Art of War, for nerds. … Continue reading Foundation
