Well, it’s that time again. Time for me to talk about books I’ve read, and try to convince you, dear reader, to buy yourself a copy of the book to explore for yourself, and raise me a little bit of money to keep the site up and running. Without further ado, here are the books:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
— Nietzsche
Alice In Wonderland — Carroll
Eyewitness To History — Carey
How To Live With A Neurotic Cat — Baker
Strange Stories, Amazing Facts — Reader’s Digest
Les Miserables — Hugo
The Mouse On The Moon — Wibberley
Stalin In Power — Tucker
The Hot Zone — Preston
Forensic Detective — Mann
Thus Spoke Zarathustra is definitely an interesting book. Nietzsche chose a fascinating way to exhibit a development of a philosophy. Not only can we see Zarathustra developing the philosophy through the book, but the reader can more easily separate the philosophy expressed therein from the author himself. I suspect that portions of this work are essentially a philosophical exercise, and not intended to be taken as seriously as some of his other works.
Alice In Wonderland was a book I chose one day from the High School library when I discovered that I had left the book I was currently reading at home. It’s fairly short, and always an entertaining little story.
Eyewitness To History was a very interesting book. Not only does it explore every corner of written history, but it does so using primary sources — accounts from people who actually experienced the important (and sometimes not so important) events of the history of the world. There’s a little bit for everyone in this book — some of the accounts of major disasters rival the best of today’s action/adventure fiction, but with the added kick of knowing that everything you read actually happened. Definitely a good work to read if you want to get a grasp of the reality of human experience in history.
How To Live With A Neurotic Cat was a book I found laying around one day, and since it was short, I read it. I really don’t remember anything about it, but you cat lovers out there may enjoy having a look at it.
Strange Stories, Amazing Facts was another fascinating book. This one is a series of short articles about bizarre occurrances, phenomena, and events throughout history. While occasionally the authors lean toward the overly-credible side, the articles are on the whole very well balanced, without as much melodrama than many books of this type.
Les Miserables is a classic, and with good reason. It’s incredibly long, but very detailed and full of action. The book covers an extremely long period of time, but manages to develop the characters realistically throughout. The only problem I have with it is the tendancy of Hugo to stop in the middle of an exciting bit of action and give an enormous amount of background material on something. One point in particular has two main characters escaping into the sewer system under Paris, and they no sooner disappear down the grating than the reader is subjected to half a hundred pages of the intricate history of Paris’s sewers. When you finally make it through that, the author has to remind you again what happened earlier that made him start off on that particular tangent. The background information is somewhat interesting, and helps a little with the continuation of the plot (the characters are then moving in a more three-dimensional setting), but it’s terribly disconcerting to be kept waiting for fifty pages to continue the plot.
The Mouse On The Moon is a fun little book by the same guy who wrote The Mouse That Roared. In this one, however, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick isn’t conquering America, it’s going to the moon. Once you manage to ignore the completely impossible science content, it’s a neat little story about world politics and the space race.
Stalin In Power is a study of Stalin from the time he took power in the late 1920s to the invasion of the USSR by Nazi Germany in 1941. This book is definitely for those with an interest in political power struggles and the internal history of the Soviet Union — there are so many players and they interact so quickly and get killed off almost as quickly — that it makes things difficult for those who might pick up the book for a casual read. That said, it is definitely an excellent history.
The Hot Zone is an interesting book about major killer diseases, and discusses a local outbreak of one of those ebola-like diseases near Washington, D.C. An interesting story, but it didn’t go into quite as much detail with some of the stuff as I would have liked.
Finally, we have Forensic Detective. This is an interesting book on forensic anthropology — you know, that dead-body-CSI-stuff. On the whole, I didn’t think it was nearly as good as Death’s Acre — but then again, there can’t be too many that good. Nonetheless, it’s interesting.
Ok, that’s all for now. So until next time — um… click on the links and buy books and give me money, I guess.