Well, it has been a while since I did one of my reading updates, so it’s time to do one again. I try to do these every so often, and it has been about three months since the last one, and I’ve read thirty more books since then. In any event, if you’re new to my site or if you’ve simply forgotten, here’s the drill as it is supposed to work: I write a blog post about ten books that I’ve read, and include my comments on them. I also include links to Amazon, where you can buy the books fairly cheaply, and I get a small percentage. The money goes towards the costs of the domain name, and other such blog related fees, and possibly to more books to review if I end up with a couple leftover dollars.
In reality, I write the post and include the links, most of you glance over the post, a few of you click on the links, and none of you buy anything. I continue being poor, and all of us remain vaguely irritated with one another about the whole situation. Nevertheless, in order to keep up the beautiful circle of blogger and readers, we both continue to do this ad nauseum. Far be it from me to alter the facts of life! Here we go:
Ender’s Game — Card
The Limerick — Legman
World Of The Odd And The Awesome — Berlitz
What The Church Teaches — Conway
Germs: Biological Weapons And America’s Secret War — Miller
Good As Gold — Heller
The Philosophy Of Space And Time — Reichenbach
Kolyma Tales — Shalamov
You’re Only Old Once — Seuss
An Interpretation Of Christian Ethics — Niebuhr
Ok, now the reviews:
Ender’s Game is a classic of science fiction. I had heard about this book for years, but had never gotten around to actually reading it, and I wish I had when I was younger. Not only is it an excellent read as far as the science-fictiony elements, but it’s also a masterful insight into childhood psychology. As the preface to the copy of the book I had said, many people violently disagreed with the thought that young children actually thought in the way that Card presents it. I know that my own thoughts as a child were not quite so developed and precise, but at the same time I remember thinking a lot of the types of things that so disturb people with idyllic ideas of what childhood was like (in other words, people who don’t really remember it). Definitely recommended.
The Limerick — Legman
is a book about (what else?) limericks. There was an interesting (if occasionally dry for the layman) introduction explaining the history of limericks, and doing some analysis of them. The rest of the book was filled with examples. Having grown up with my only real exposure to limericks being a 45 rpm record of various Ogden Nash limericks and poems, I did not realize just how naughty the limerick genre is generally considered to be. A few of the limericks were quite naughty. The rest of them, however, were extremely naughty. It was definitely an entertaining (if ribald) read. I suggest against reading it all in the course of a day or two, however, as you will start feeling the necessity of talking in limerick form, and be vaguely irritated with yourself when you can’t.
World Of The Odd And The Awesome is a book filled with interesting tidbits of facts that are interesting, if a bit odd. I don’t know how true all of them are — I’ve heard that Berlitz is not necessarily known for his strict adherence to the truth — but they definitely make for an interesting look at the odder side of existance as we know it.
What The Church Teaches is a book from a Catholic perspective about what Catholics believe. As you might expect, it’s quite similar to what a Protestant would write about the same topic, but actually goes out of its way to examine the differences and how those differences relate to interactions between different members of the various Christian faiths. Quite thoughtful and insightful in many places.
Germs: Biological Weapons And America’s Secret War is a fascinating tour of the American projects run out of Fort Detrick during the early part of the Cold War, as well as what the Soviet Union was doing at the same time. Advanced biology like this is not something easy to understand, but Miller manages to explain it carefully and thoroughly, and also shows the political maneuvers that led to the rise and decline of the offensive weapons programs in both countries. After reading this book, I definitely felt better informed about biological weapons and defense, as well as the possibilites of biological terrorism and what those might mean. Definitely a good book.
Good As Gold isn’t much like Catch-22 in most ways. While there are many of the same crazy, logic-bending bureaucratic maneuvers, the book focuses much more directly on family relations. True, the main character goes on a meteoric political career, but on the whole this is a more introspective and social work. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing — pulling all of the Catch-22 zaniness (zanyness?) in a book about family just wouldn’t work well. On the whole, it’s an interesting and amusing book on family life for a Jewish family, and how that family interacts.
I have to admit that I did not read all of The Philosophy Of Space And Time. I read the first two parts (of three), but the calculus that the third part was based on went over my head. The book as a whole is absolutely incredible, however. The book discusses such fascinating things as 4 dimensional geometry, and manages to explain them in a way that you can almost visualize the behavior of objects in 4-d space. Not an easy read by any means — I suggest that you only tackle this if you have a decent grounding in geometry and some of the more basic bits of calculus (or even more advanced, if you want to be able to finish it), as well as an acquaintance with philosophy. Fascinating book though.
Kolyma Tales is another set of stories from the Soviet Gulag. The book is shorter and has a more literary feel than Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago (books one, two, and three), which is more of a history. There is more of a personal feel, and it somehow connects more deeply than Solzhenitsyn’s work does (on the whole, at least. The Gulag Archipelago is also quite poignant in places).
You’re Only Old Once is a Dr. Seuss book for old people. I was visiting my grandmother’s house in Indiana, and someone had given the book to my grandfather. It’s a story about being old — the doctors, the poking and prodding — but with the typical Dr. Seuss flair.
Last (and least) we have An Interpretation Of Christian Ethics by Reinhold Niebuhr. I don’t remember much about what this book was about (I’m assuming it was on Christian Ethics, but one never knows). I remember being glad that it was fairly short, and telling everyone who asked (and many of those who did not) that, “Reinhold Niebuhr is a blowhard.” Quite probably, if I hadn’t decided to read this book myself (if, say, it had been assigned for school), I would have stopped about 40 pages into it, and thrown it across the room. I tended to do that with books I didn’t want to read for school, like this one. In any event, I don’t plan on reading anything else by Niebuhr. It’s possible I even agreed with some of what he had to say, but his know-it-all style of writing was such a turn-off that if he tried to talk to me like that in real life, I would not hesitate in tossing HIM across the room with disgust. Luckily, that isn’t likely to happen, as he is DEAD.
In any event, I don’t recommend reading this book, although feel free to buy it both to get me money, and possibly to throw it across the room for the therapeutic value.
Oh, one more thing — The Adventures of Brisco County Jr — Not actually a book, but how can you possibly turn down a sci-fi western with Bruce Campbell? The only way to improve that concept is to add zombies with bad food-based special effects.