Week Fifty Two: The Power of Six

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore is the sequel to (or continuation of) I Am Number Four - which I read some weeks ago. It all feels very interstitial and disjointed, yet entertaining enough - without being as good as the first, and probably there are many more in the series.

And so the blog project: 52 weeks of reading comes to a close with the 56th book read and blogged, but If I counted the books I have read my son - the Zac Power books each about 60/70 pages long or so you could add another dozen to the total.

What's next?

Next book and last entry in this blog will be Ulysses by James Joyce, I'll start tomorrow and then see how long it takes, I suspect more than a week.

Next project a new blog where I embark on a year of self improvement.

Week Fifty One: Beyond Good and Evil

Beyond Good and Evil by Frederich Nietzsche is the pinnacle of his philosophic works, or so I am told (having not read the complete Nietzsche library). It's been touted as complete self knowledge, a basis for modern humanity, the death of God, the start of the Nazi party and a whole bunch of things good and bad.

There's a reason for this of course, mostly because the man would not shut up. It's aphorism after aphorism, analysis and opinion on many things often contradicting itself and himself because there's just so much stuff in here - like he can't keep up with himself.

At once you can know nothing, yet speak in absolutes. Is it any of the things above? No. It's just words on a page, the power always lies in the reader. No magic potions, no silver bullets and no answers. Just a German who thought brilliantly, but not always correctly - by his own admission and in this readers mind.

Two points of interest: 1 - He's teribly sexist - embarrassingly so, and 2 - He's a snarky bitch. It's like watching a celebrity roast of the famous in philosophy, none are spared the passive aggressive certainty and clarity of the author - but it comes out snarky.

One week to go, one book to go - what will it be?

Week Fifty: The Lucifer Effect

The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo is two things in one book and has been in progress for me for 3 years now. Firstly it is a first hand and incredibly detailed examination of the Stanford Prison Experiment as conducted by the authour in 1971. And then it's a follow up on the lessons learned and the present abuses of other systems that we cannot understand easily - like Abu Ghraib.

It is a brilliant book and I would recommend anyone to read this, but be warned it is not easy. Apart from the 500 page length and the tiny type filled with big words and not many pictures, it's personally confronting. Not shocking or disturbing even though it is both of those things. It confronts the ordinary origins of "evil" - this is that road to hell paved with good intentions.

I'd like to say I'd be a hero as defined in this book, my ego certainly wants that - but it's confronting because I don't know that to be as true as I once thought. It's easy to conceive what would make me cross moral lines, but impossible to know what won't.

Hard work but ultimately worth it. With two weeks to go to the end of my year of books I'm glad this one is done and dusted.

Week Forty Nine: The Exodus Case

The Exodus Case by Dr Lennart Moller is a book that purports to prove that the book of Exodus is an historially accurate portrayal of the actual events of history.

Spoiler alert - it does not.

There's a LOT of information in this - and it looks scientific - but a cursory glance at the offered proof and backing evidence shows it to be at best misguided or generously the product of belief and not method.

For a writer claiming to be unbiased and to not preach - he does an extraordinary amount of both.

Perhaps best summarised, belief is a matter of faith. If you have faith my opinion does not matter. Then again neither does this guy's.

Next week I'm getting inexorably closer to the end of the Lucifer Effect. (From god to the devil in one easy segue).

Week Forty Eight: Blueback

Blueback by Tim Winton is a modern fable, an old fashioned tale told of a new world for people that don't fit. Not sure whether I liked this or not. It's nicely written, not as dense as his other works and a pleasure to read.

But the subject matter and message - because it feels like there is one - is bordeline Luddite. People who insist that close to nature and returning to the old ways is better annoy me. It shows ignorance and situational blindness.

But as a reminder that crime does exist and that sustainability is needed - it's ineffective and misguided. It's too black and white, while delivered in a grey flannel ordinariness - disguised as battling/old wisdom/nature etc...

Meh.

Week Forty Seven: Infinite Crisis

Infinite Crisis by Geoff Johns et al - is supposedly the be all and end all of DC event Graphic Novels/compilations.

Bollocks.

Overdone, too lofty, too confused and too many mixed messsages.

I've read parts of loads of things this week - but this is the one I had finished. And I started this one months ago - I got it just after I started this Blog and I still found it gruelling work slogging through to the unsatsifying and inconclusive end.

Superman should have fought to the death, Batman should have pulled the trigger - but the Joker wanting to play at the very end was at least a gem. Every thing else seemed pointless.

Week Forty Six: Paris Secrets

Paris Secrets by Janelle McCulloch is a guide to the Art and Architecture of the City and its buildings.

Straightforward enough, it discusses the style and eras of exterior and interior design in Paris, my favourite city in the world (so far) but while illustrated lavishly with pictures taken by the author, the text is often repetetive and Janelle obviously struggles with keeping her obvious passion for the city interesting for the reader.

I love Paris and yet I found myself critiquing her style, prose and even photgraphic skills. I think that some pictures were included to pad the length of the book - much like a lot of the text contained.

But some of the background and detail on the styles, the reason why they were that way and where they can be found - were interesting enough to keep me reading.

A good coffee table read, but one you'll be done/irritated/over with quickly.

Week Forty Five: Whisky

Whisky by Aeneas MacDonald is the classic book on whisky and it's appreciation. Once again a gift book I never got around to finishing, but mostly because I moved house not long after being given it. Another book from the ubiquitous Mr Newby.

And a great choice it is/was. Whisky is informative, witty and reassuring. The instructions for how to imbibe are almost word for word how I was taught and with clear instructions why and how to follow those steps.

The references to the evils of blending, the secrecy and proprietary nature of distillers and the list of distillers - show that little has changed in the over 80 years since it's publicati0n.

A great wee read, makes me want to have a dram.

Where's my Ben Nevis?

Week Forty Four: We Need To Talk About Kelvin

We Need To Talk About Kelvin (What everyday things tell us about the universe) by Marcus Chown is a science book for the uneducated about science. There are two things wrong with this concept for me.

Firstly I am not uneducated about science, not in my lifetime, certainly not in my year of books - so this was covering a lot of ground I had trod before. One or two new things - like the how the burning age of the sun is calculated, for example. Not much else I didn't already know and therefore not that interested in re-reading (for the nth time).

Secondly it's not that interesting, it gets into too much detail in some places, not enough in others and the authour sounds like one of those uber keen science geeks trying to convince you that what they find exciting you will too - how can you not?

Meh - not bad, just not good.

Next Week is unknown.

Week Forty Three: Mother Jones

Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America by Elliot J Gorn is a biography of Mary Jones (nee Harris) who came to America from Ireland, lost everything and everyone she loved to disease and violence. And then she went into high gear.

Starting very late in life Mother Jones was a force to recokoned with in Labour organisation, anti child labour laws and stood against the right wing nut jobs who took the law in their own hands (literally).

From the age of 60 onwards until her 90's she was a fascinating conundrum of power, success, failure and confusion. I knew of her from the magazine named in her honour, but never in this great detail. The biography is warts and all and is ready to point out her failures and lies, but still treats her with respect and dignity - a fine line in such an interesting and controversial character.

Next Week. Unknown yet. Maybe a book on biblical historical records and maybe 1984.

Week Forty Two: This Means This, This Means That

This Means This, This Means That - A User's Guide to Semiotics by Sean Hall is a text book of sorts that examines the science or philosophy - or potentially the hidden language of visual representation.

Anything and everything that you can see has a visual representation, otherwise you could not see it. The study of Semiotics breaks this theory down into components for a holistic view of, your view.

The book is straightforward but often asks you a question about you and what you feel/think rather than give you an answer. One item can have many meanings to many people. An object when photographed for instance is still that item, but if the picture is skewed, out of focus or even black and white then the meaning can be wholly different.

Interesting introduction to the subject - I think I want to read more on the subject in greater detail.

Week Forty One: The Number Mysteries

The Number Mysteries (AKA The Num8er My5teries) by Marcus Du Sautoy takes 5 well known and hitherto unsolved mathematical problems and presents them as challenges for the reader to solve. Not that you are expected to be able, greater minds than the large majority of us have tried so far in vain to solve these. But it's still intriguing enough that in the back of your mind you do start the exercise mentally (until you figure out how much work is involved).

Each of the 5 chapters is presented in readable format - often devolving from the vastly entertaining history and context of the issue down to the impenetrable algebraic representation of the problem in it's simplest (for some) form.

And enjoyable read and it puts some things in context - like how we encrypt Credit Card information on the internet - smart stuff indeed - not just from a concept point of view - but at the sheer scale of the calculations required to decrypt these without the right code keys. I.e. not impossible - but certainly by the time you scratched the surface on one half of the prime key you'd be several years down the track and several code keys on.

Next week: Possibly Orwell, possibly something else.

Week Forty: The Botany of Desire

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan is at odds with it's stated intention. Ostensibly it's an in depth look at four plants and the desires they engender in humanity (or conversely that we seek in them). But it is also a book about the nature of nature, who drives who and classical studies and greco-roman mythology.

One level is about the four plants, The Apple, Tulip, Marijuana and Potato. And the four histories provide some fascinating insight on the history of and subsequent placement of the four plants in our own history. Learned a whole bunch of stuff. Apples were not routinely eaten for pleasure until approx 100 years ago when advertisers came up with an apple a day etc... prior to this they were mainly a source for booze, not nutrition. The Tulip is descended from the Turkish word for Turban (look at a picture of them both). Marijuana inhibits short term memories the same way the cannabinoids(?) in women's brains prevent them from recalling the specifics of childbirth. Monsanto is evil and messes with potatoes (ok I already knew that).

Another level is the desires and the relationship they have with plants - do plants react to our desires or do our desires reflect the directions the plants drive us in, which comes first - the chicken or the egg. Darwinian ideals drive all these thoughts, but to ascribe them to plants seems silly and counter-intuitive - they have no conscious thought - not in conventional sense - but maybe in a genetic imperative one?

And then each section is bathed in the classic fight of mythology and ancient greco-roman classics, Apollonian order vs Dionysian excess. Marijuana's battle in this arena is particularly captivating as it's effect and purpose is Dionysian but it would not exist and thrive without an Apollonian structure for growth and evolution (through Artificial Selection - not Natural).

Very interesting book and just deep enough to be entertaining while not so massively overdone to bore with too much biological detail.

Next Week: Either 1984, or a book on Math or one of my new Book Depository books on Semiotics or children's literature.

Week Thirty Nine: The State of Jones

The State of Jones by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer is a history book, one that turns the stones over on a forgotten piece of a much more famous event. Like Schindler's List on the Holocaust or The IBM/Holocaust book by Edwin Black, the details of an extremely interesting and enlightening sub-set of events often lie there waiting for your attention.

In this case the American Civil War and the County of Jones in Mississippi which effectively seceded from the Confederacy and stood for slave rights, the rights of the poor and the human rights of dissenters. Of course its not as black and white as all that but it's not far from it.

Guerrilla Warfare, insane generals mad with blood-lust and lacking in sense, the futility of war and the ultimate waste of time that the Civil War was. As the defeated racist and bigoted people of the south, who (which I did not know) were immediately put back in charge of the place after Lincoln was assassinated, despite the efforts of the people of the south who did not support slavery, rich plantation owners abuses and other horrible events.

And at the center of it all one man, a giant Clint Eastwood esque hero/villain (depending on your perspective) who ran his own war against anyone who threatened his family and his world view (which was mostly but not 100% liberal and fair) - reads like a movie waiting to be made.

Fascinating and enthralling detail and educational on the Civil War, how Republicans and Democrats seem to have flipped their beliefs in the last 150 odd years is beyond me.

Next week - as yet unknown.

Week Thirty Eight: The Nigger Factory by Gil Scott Heron

The Nigger Factory by Gil Scott Heron is not as confronting as you'd think. I'm sure plenty of reviews would refer to the title as the N-Word Factory but when the book was written back in 1972, a mere decade after the civil rights marches, the deaths of King, X and Kennedy (R not J) the language and the placement of the word are fitting.

And the book expresses so much yet leaves me confused on what GSH is trying to say, perhaps the message is nothing. The angry disaffected black youths, the miltant and hip resonate with GSH's poems and songs, but the protagnonist resonates with his obvious intelligence and balanced view, with an air of fatality and futility.

I would like to know what he thought of this work now, 40 years on, but unfortunately he's no longer with us - having died a couple of weeks ago. Which is how this book ended up on my list.

Next Week. The Dragon Tattoo has been calling me - perhaps that.

Week Thirty Seven: What's Mine is Yours

What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers. This is another book on the effect and structure of networks, where the nodes are people. The specific thing about this being that the new pattern being predicted is sharing over ownership.

This is not a manifesto for communal ownership or commune style living. Nor is it Communism. This is a thoughtful look at consumption, driven by green ideals and finding a way through lifestyle without waste. Trying to redress the balance in favour of consumption versus cost.

Loads of ideas, most of which are predictive and reflective - but it's a guess at what happens next. Driving the idea of un-consumption by foucssing on the need rather than the solution or the need to own the solution. Ideas in play for centuries coming back into vogue like shared land and shared knowledge and experience.

Fascinating that on average Power tools are used in their lifespan by American consumers by only something like 8 to 15 minutes, but in reality what you need is a hole, not a drill. Very Zen.

Next week - don't know - but I'll share this book anyway - it seems fitting.

Week Thirty Six: Bolivian Diary by Ernesto Che Guevara

Bolivian Diary is the last in the set of personal diaries by revolutionary and t-shirt/poster model Che Guevara. The first and most famous of these being the Motorcycle Diaries - which made a fantastic film, and the last being the one he kept until he was captured and executed without trial in Bolivia.

In parts it's boring and banal, in parts it shows you how determined and driven he was, for his causes. He was impatient and ruthless, but also in his own reflections unsure and caring - but unable or unwilling to express anything that did not further the cause.

Because the outcome is well known the diary takes on a fatalistic charm, yet his own racism and lack of compromise - the same thing he railed against in others does come to the fore. It feels like he is of two minds - one the enemy that America and the dictators of South America feared (and rightly so most of the time), but also one a normal man with failings and a judgement that never seems final, he never really gives up on his men despite his often harsh assessments and ultimatums.

A diary is always a biased account, but knowing nothing of how the future would regard him - except hope - there is less glossing and more recording. It's a like a bush walk gone horribly wrong some days.

Next Week: Either the Nigger Factory by Gil Scott Heron (to further the revolutionary theme) or Collaborative Consumerism - to pick up the network theme of a few weeks ago.

Week Thirty Five: Earth by John Stewart and the Daily Show

Earth: The Book.

Or more rightly, the audiobook. As I had quite a few things on this week I settled on catching up on an audiobook, in this case Earth: A Visitors Guide to the Human Race. A few hours listening is a nice way to read a book, specifically good if you have loads of other things to do. In this case at least a third of the book was while I was assembling an "easy to assemble" entertainment unit. So every now and then I would have to skip back for the bit I missed while swearing loudly at inanimate objects.

Typical humour of Stewart and the Daily show - if you like them then you'll like this - lots of witty observations about humanity delivered in varying amounts of self-deprecating, caustic and occasionally deadpan style. Features other performers from the show such as Wyatt Cenac, Samantha Bee, Jason Jones and a guest narrator Sigourney Weaver.

Recommended as a book (which I flipped through) or as an audiobook - as all the subtlety (or not) of delivery are there as intended by the writers.

Next week - your guess is as good as mine (though now that a large amount of unpacking has occurred the number of unread books at my beck and call has increased once again)

Week Thirty Four: Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

Shakespeare by Bill Bryson is a book in a set called Eminent Lives - where the idea is to profile the life and times of a Eminent Life, without being the be-all and end-all of biographies.

A slim volume tackled over two days as there was no way I was going to be able to finish the Phillip Zimbardo book I was barely halfway through and struggling with.

Nice, lightweight and easy enough to read but filled with fact about how very little we know. For someone so written about, so understood by his own writing he is yet vague as the mist. Elizabethan records not being the best and all.

Another book from the Newby collection, if he ever comes back there will be a box of them waiting...

Next week - we'll see if I can get through the Abu Ghraib half of the Zimbardo book.

Week Thirty Three: Connected by Nicholas Christakis MD, PhD & James Fowler, PhD

Connected: The Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas Christakis MD, PhD & James Fowler, PhD - (draw a breath) - is basically everything it says it is in the title.

This book was fascinating for introducing me to the obvious but in logical and reasonable ways - making what I thought (and sometimes the opposite) a rational choice or an untenable position.

A few key concepts, people don't act rationally - this we know from plenty of other books I have read in the last 33 weeks (59 seconds, Freakonomics & Sway) - but newtorks act oddly rational if you can see the wider connections.

Weaker ties can be much more beneficial than stronger ones. Cliques are exclusive and harder to penetrate, weak ones to strongly tied individuals are great for recruitment of new and also for idea and evolutionary innovation.

Positional inequality is often a better driver for success and recognition that hierarchical inequality. In HI there can be only one, a highlander style event that eliminates and isolates all but the top. In PI you can connect to people with a good HI or other trait and by distance and strength of tie you can shortcut your path to influence and recognition.

Fascinating book and a lot of ideas within will migrate to my new job. I will put it aside and note down ideas of relevance in each chapter as I gather the thoughts I had while reading this.

Next week - Philip Zimbardo needs to be finished. Or something else if that gets too depressing (the reason I have not finished it to date).

Week Thirty Two: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones marks the first two books in this project by one author I have read one after the other. Every thing I have read by Jones, I have loved. his writing is clear and lyrical and heat achingly good.

Mister Pip is sweet, fairytale imaginary and shockingly real. The shattering of their otherworldly reality by the factions of Papua New Guinea is both surreal and hyper real and took me completely by surprise and did a great deal to unsettle me as the reader. I can see and feel it taking place.

It is going to be a movie shot in PNG and NZ, starring Hugh Laurie as Mister Watts the teacher. I can totally see that and I think it will make a great film.

Next week: I don't know. Candidates include Sara Paretsky, A book on social networking, a segue to the State of Jones or Mother Jones. One of these I guess.

Week Thirty One: The Book of Fame - Lloyd Jones

The Book of Fame by Lloyd Jones is one of those weird books where you cannot separate fact from fiction. Based on the Originals Tour of the UK, by way of France and America it's a snapshot (or more rightly hundreds of little snapshots) of Rugby, Kiwi Life and the dawning realisation that New Zealanders are a people to be reckoned with on and off the field.

National Identity by way of a game of Rugby. Sounds sad, but is not. Thanks to Steve, by way of Paul who loaned the book to me after being loaned it quite some time ago.

Really enjoyed this book and it reminded me in style of Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke, but with an infinitely better aftertaste.

Next Week expect great things or prepare to be connected to something - we'll see.

Week Thirty - More Than Human

More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon is a classic sci fi novel written back in the 1950's and is way ahead of it's time when aliens and spaceships reigned supreme.

The idea that the next phase of human evolution would be to share hive-mind features and become Homo Gestalt rather than the tradational psychic, telekinetic or other mutant gene selections. Getting away from the selfish "what would you want to evolve" and writing a book about the next phase that arrives without choice, without understanding and without ethics.

In three parts it starts each time in one place and unravels back from there to understanding and eventually resolution.

Enjoyed - the only Sturgeon I have ever read, but may have to dig out some more.

Next week, whatever I can fit around moving ...

Week Twenty Nine: The Prince by Machiavelli

The Prince by Niccolo Machivelli is a misunderstood work of history. Maybe for it's time it was unthinkable to think like a person in the age of reason, but that's really what this book is about.

Supposedly an amoral treatise on how to screw others out of power and how to be a tyrant, the actuality is far from that.

Perhaps this is the original Richard Dawkins, dropping for once in the time of the Medicis the conceit that God, Morality and Power are all linked, Machiavelli dares to suggest that there are many shades of grey and that assessing your situation and reacting accordingly is the "right" thing to do.

Also the idea that perhaps psychology and behavior can be predicted and our actions can affect them in others. Best quote, a man who relies on fortune for good will be at it's whim when fortune turns foul (or something like that).

Surprisingly good read for an old Italian book.

Next Week - something short, less wordy and archaic.

Week Twenty Eight: I Am Number Four

I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore, is not by Pittacus Lore. It's the brainchild of James Frey (The kind of discredited author of A Million Little Pieces) and an unknown writer. The project was to get unpublished writers, collaborate on new works and get them out in the market place.

This book was optioned for a movie before it was even on the shelves, and I can see why. 300 odd pages of fun and predictability, but in a good way.

Reminiscent of Roswell, The Powers of Matthew Star and plenty of other books - this is escapaist fun suitable for teens.

There are zero surprises, pages of cliches and even a few digs at modern morality. It's also a wish fulfillment exercise for one of the authors, bullies being vanquished, the hero secretly being faster, stronger, brighter than everyone else - but hiding it.

Pure teen fantasy.

Week Twenty Seven: Sex, Bombs & Burgers by Peter Nowak

Sex, Bombs & Burgers: How War, Porn and Fast Food Created Technology as we know it - by Peter Nowak is a book that delivers pretty much what you see on the cover.

Week twenty seven and into the second half the year with a light weight science and history book which details how the big three of Porn, War and Food made waves, created innovation and generally re-purposed a whole bunch of stuff that became a bunch of whole other stuff. Some of this I knew, DARPA and the ARPA Net - which is how the internet was born, and microwaves came from RADAR etc...

There's also a bunch of stuff I didn't know, like how Barbie was based on a German sex toy, Playboy centerfold Lena was the test subject for JPEG and GIF type file format engineering and plenty of other interesting facts.

The book is essentially a bunch of interesting facts but lacked a single coherent narrative to join it all together except the recurrance of the big three - which is not much of a theme.

Next week I might talk about Kelvin, because we need to...

Week Twenty Six: How to Win a Cosmic War by Reza Aslan

How to Win a Cosmic War: Confronting Radical Religions by Reza Aslan. This is one of those books that gave me an epiphany when reading it. Like Guns, Germs and Steel and Ender's Game - I'd have to rate this as one of the best books I have ever read.

A few weeks ago I thought that Reflections by Tony Judt would be the most clear and logical representations of history, politics and religion, until I read this book.

I saw this book reviewed on the Daily Show and found it by accident in the Whitcoulls closing down sale and I'm glad I gave into the impulse and bought and read it.

It deconstructs the history of Islam, Judaism and Christianity and ties all three up in the same bounds and cords, in a way that was both unbiased and unforgiving and yet incredibly precise.

I was given a very religious education and know quite a lot about the "facts" and "myths" and history. But this book is the first time I have had a conversation with myself about what I believe without someone trying to sell me the alternative. Instead it reminded me that I have grown and no longer accept certain things. Not about the existence of god, or the truth of a religion, but simply put there is no excuse for the killing of children.

I am impressed.

I'm also halfway through my year at 26 weeks, 26 to go.

Next week either a science book or a book about Porn, Burgers and Bombs.

Week Twenty Five: Cows by Matthew Stokoe

Cows by Matthew Stokoe is now the third book of Matt's I have read, but the first published. Also the second book in this blog series, the other one the excellent Empty Mile way back in week 2.

Cows is brilliantly written and has a lyrical and literary feel to the language that I truly envy.

But.

It's pretty disturbing, like a fairytale it's full of metaphor and imagery and littered with brutality and deliberate shocks.

Would I recommend it? For the strong stomached and strong hearted person who is looking for a well written and incisive dip into the cesspool that is capability but not reality.

Matt has a following it seems of people who like it for the violence and for the shocks and the out and out one-upmanship of the gore and depravity.

It would be a shame if this is the only thing they take away from it, because it is beautifully surreal and well written.

But not for many people, and my reprint edition came autographed by the author and contained a warning "wait til you get a load of this".

Matt. You were right.

Next Week: I've already started on "How to Win a Cosmic War, by Reza Aslan".

Week Twenty Four: Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman.

Yikes, what a long and painful read. It was only 307 pages of book, and lengthy appendices and sources (always a good sign, they have the facts and sources behind them.) but each single page was a crawl through dense words, small typeface and an overabundance of hard facts followed by interpretation.

It is a good book and very seminal to many scholars and dissidents to follow, but just hard, hard work. John Pilger by comparison was more horrifying in his portrayal but easier to read.

The thing is that the media is free, but by right of that freedom, market forces and the desires that drive government and media organisations alike, they waste that freedom in ignorance and acceptance. Even the so-called left-wing opposition press in the mainstream is prey to such basic misconceptions.

If the premise from which you operate is flawed, then all your reports focussing on the details (true or otherwise) never question the basics and therefore perpetuate the myths.

This book is now well out of date, but the comparisons between the "terrorists" and "worthy vitcims" when it was written and nowadays would be well worth a re-examination of the medias involvement today.

I make no secret of my disdain for most media and the bias they maintain, but things have changed some for the better (the internet and instant news) and some for the worse (Fox News).

The current mid-east push for democracy is relevant in seeing where the US support goes to, they support democracy only where the outcome is favourable. This book is over twenty years old but still shines a light on that foible of the US. And maybe we all have these discussions in the mainstream (biased though they are) because of the way this book has been read, appreciated and denounced in all measures over time.

Something shorter, something lighter, something less taxing next.

We'll see what falls into my hands.

Week Twenty Three: Flu by Gina Kolata

Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the search for the Virus that Caused it By Gina Kolata. AKA longest book title yet.

I started this book about 2-3 years ago when the Avian Flu was scaring the pants off of everyone and drugs companies started selling Tamiflu in somewhat indecent and very profitable haste. And the book in and of itself is a hard one to read as it leaves behind a traditional narrative for a disjointed series of biographies and episodic events in the modern life of H1N1 and the virus we call influenza.

A series of obsessive people and half completed hypothesis and experiments with little to show at the end of the day except more questions. One thing it does leave you with though is the sense that we overreact badly to certain things. And that sometimes scientists can be so stupid so as to beggar belief that they represent the greatest minds among us.

On an unrelated note the book also introduced me to the logical tool of Alexanders Question. What information if presented to you would make you change your mind? An excellent exercise in logic and counterargument if you need one.

Done early this week - 2 days of reading and done. May have to pick something longer this week since I have a greater window of opportunity. Charlie Brooker may have to wait.

Week Twenty Two: The Enchantress of Florence

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie. After a few weeks in a row in non fiction, decided it was time to dip back into the made up. And the book I settled on was at times beautiful and lyrical - as the author is so good at being, but ultimately frustrating.

It's an alternative history of sorts, and in re-writing the already scandalous and visceral political beings of Florence and the Medicis and all its swirly eddies of intrigue, it loses something. It belittles the work of Machiavelli by making his life's most remembered work an echo of an Indian fairytale of the impossible, the deluded and the incestuous. Why on earth he thought it a good idea to include the four musketeers? Anyone's guess.

And so in places it becomes too flowery, too magical and ultimately too much.

I was fascinated and entranced by The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which is the same approach with modern and distinctly unmagical times and events. But translating this fairytale approach to a romanticised almost fairytale time and it it cancels each other out and you're left feeling manipluated and confused, like some one has betrayed your readers trust in a story. And so you feel betrayed by this until you do not and this is why you love it.

Ok thats a bit of poetic licence, but that Oprah Winfrey book club feel ruined it for me.

Still like his writing - just not this one.

Next? Charlie Brooker's Book (Try saying that drunk...)

Week Twenty One: Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin.

Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin by Francis Spufford. Another misleading title, because it's neither secret nor a return.

It's a history. An interesting history that went over some ground I knew and some I did not. There are six 'events' that encapsulate the supposed Boffinesque behaviour of the Brits and each one of them is fascinating in some way or another.

Ultimately though what we end up with is a modern Britain, one that can't compete with Europe and America on an equal footing any longer and so produces a very high quality, but ultimately doomed venture that is usually superseded or left behind as a testament to both the quality and futility of British Engineering.

Whenever you say Boffin or British Engineering, it does conjure up the White Coated, Dan Dare, Top Gear Test Track view of a scientist (minus the appalling racism of course) but that seems to be all it does. This quickly goes from the titular promise of "Secret Return" to the actuality of a "History of high quality losses". This is a massive generalisation of course, but that is the feeling it left me with.

Interesting. Racal invented Vodafone, (did not know that). Elite was developed by 2 British nerds who rewired the BBC Mirco (knew that). Britain had a space race of sorts (knew that) and it's propulsion drive HTP was based on hair bleach (did not know that). The chapter on Concorde was really interesting and inspiring, the one on the Human Genome - dull and a little bit of a waste of everyone's time. And to top it all off, Beagle 2. No one knows where that went (well it went to Mars - but when it got there? Anyone's guess).

I'd neither recommend or not recommend this book. It's a book, read it or don't.

Next week. I may have to finish the proto military essays on what might have been...

Week Twenty: Wolfram by Giles Milton

Wolfram: The Boy Who Went To War by Giles Milton. I had read a review of this recently published book by the author in the Guardian Books section (I get a load of recommendations from there and from the Daily Show).

Wolfram Aichele is Giles' grandfather-in-law, the grandfather of this wife. And in writing this biography of his in-law Germanic roots, he brings a humanity and perspective to the "other side" of the war. It's not a book of excuses or mistakes. It is in the authors words the story of many people like Wolfram who got caught in a nightmare not of their own making.

There's no major fighting or heroics, just people who see their country and their friends being pulled apart by one of the worst regimes in our world history, and then like a maze in the darkness, trying to find a way out.

I really enjoyed the narrative, and the characters, all real and sourced from letters and biographies of others as well as the over 60 hours of interview with Wolfram himself.

War is hell no matter which side you are on. But this is how people feel when they discover they are on the wrong side. History might be largely written by the winners and up to much interpretation, but there is not a doubt that we all know it and the Germans did too.

Next Week: No plans, will see what catches my eye. I have started a couple of books that I may just pick a couple of those and finish one.

Week Nineteen: The Madness of Adam and Eve

The Madness of Adam and Eve by David Horrobin (How Schizophrenia Shaped Humanity).

What a fascinating read this was, the first half a treatise on evolution and the building blocks of how the brain works on a physical level. The presence of fats in many shapes and types in various functions where you would not normally associate fat. Specifically phospholipids and how they work.

From there an examination of Schizophrenia, Schizotypy, Manic Depression, Psychopathy and of course the flip sides of genius and creativity.

Not for everyone but a very viable theory with sound evidence and supporting anecdotes that bear further examination. Drugs for schizophrenia are marginally effective and have massive side effects, and I have no problem with pharmaceuticals, just the companies that sell them. So to see a fat/diet based theory deliver twice the effective rate in trials is encouraging, not because it's natural or better so much as it could be driven without profit or side effect. Unless you count deliciousness as a side effect.

The last chapter summarising all the evolutionary steps seemed necessary to go through again. Maybe it's because I read this in less than a week, it felt like we'd been over this already, I guess not everyone will read it that way.

Having finished the book I did look up a bit further into the author and his claims, he died in 2003 and various sources accused him of quackery, but as this book is a hypothesis and quite often claims that further research is required then it seems a bit sour grapes. However the line of inquiry did not die with him as other writers bicker over who's idea it was first. Still a good read and an interesting theory.

Next Week: I have my eye on Giles Milton's, Wolfram an account of his grandfather as a soldier in the German army in WW2.

Week Eighteen: What Every Body is Saying by Joe Navarro

What Every BODY is Saying (An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed Reading People). As opposed to everybody that is.

I was struggling with a series of essays in collected form for alternate military histories this week, and did not think that I would finish it before Monday came, but was persevering. Then at midday-ish today this book arrived in the post from Book Depository in the UK (ordered a week ago, free worldwide delivery - a reader's best friend) and I glanced through it quickly to see what I thought of it. I had been attracted by the cover initially when I was browsing books on Neuroscience and came across this by accident.

Then by 9 pm the same night I had finished the whole thing.

Not because it's short at 234 pages it's a decent length, and not because it's simple or filled with illustrations. It was just that interesting.

I had read books on behaviours before, and on body language, Allan Pease was the go to back in the 80's and 90's - now it seems to be this guy. And I can understand why. Full of real life examples (though that may simply be confirmation bias, it's still got the ring of actual truth, not like religious testimony or Fox News outrage) and good metaphors, it's easy to understand and well written.

It also does not overreach, it's realistic in it's intention to teach good observation, not black and white lie detection. It also refers to plenty of other sources and experts, not it's own self-inflated body of proprietary evidence. One often quoted is Paul Ekman - he whom "Lie to Me" is vaguely based on.

Excellent read, back to military essays or perhaps a new Book Depository deposit will itervene this week.

Week Seventeen: The Mating Game by John Gribbin and Jeremy Cherfas

The Mating Game (In Search of the Meaning of Sex). A book about the biological and evolutionary pathways of sex, gender and reproduction. I picked this book up years ago because I liked the physics book of the co-author John Gribbin, so I figured a book of his on biology and in particular sex, would be a good read. I know I had this for a while, but when I picked it up to read the receipt was still inside. I bought this book in 2001. It's taken me ten years to get around to reading it in a week. Or more rightly 3 days as I started this seriously on Friday.

The book is fascinating, but at times my lack of knowledge in the biological realm made it hard work. Fortunately I was right in my assessment of the author and more often than not he made the distinctions and explanations clearer through metaphor and repetition/reference so that I could catch up.

Interesting facts, women could easily reproduce without men, but would be at serious biological disadvantage in defence against disease and environment. Not that men are the answer, but certainly 'alien' DNA and male sperm and the work of recombinant DNA scours out the faults and mutations that are deleterious to breeding and evolving the best etc...

One of the best chapters was on Sex and Society, and how both incest and homosexuality are explained in evolutionary terms. It seems that regardless of your leanings and meanings, incest avoidance is a built in measure to our biology for sound reasons, bugger all to do with our culture. It seems that biology drove that moral ground forward, not that we learned that it's bad. Same with homosexuality, it's in nature and it's rife in history, but why hasn't it bred out? A long and complicated answer more to do with the state of when and how homosexuality is expressed as well as the "you are or you aren't" fallacy where everything is black and white (but really isn't) comes into play.

Not for everyone, but interesting to dip into a field I usually don't get that involved in. This book is not about behaviour, but about biological factors.

Fascinating.

Next Week: A book on schizophrenia, on alternate theories of history (what if scenarios), possibly some fiction or maybe something random. Who knows?

Week Sixteen: The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.

This was a hard book to get into, the early pages on how banks came about were interesting, but as soon as the calculator came out and interest and returns were discussed, I found myself re-reading a lot to get even an idea of what it was about. The authour does a good turn in explaining these concepts to the mathematically challenged such as myself, but it's understanding the flow on effect where you get the benefit.

Like in Freakonomics where Economic Theory is applied to events and society, this is the same concept but with actual Economics. So applying Economic Theory to Economics is actually boring to me. Where's that irony gone again?

The historical nature of the book is fascinating and if you don't have an appreciation for how religions of all ilks have stuffed up our past, just look into the reason why money lenders were Jewish. Christians could not charge interest, because God said not too, but they could work with the Jews lending because they were all doomed to hell anyway. Well I'm paraphrasing, but essentially a difference in religious beliefs leads to a dominance for one side, which leads to racist views on Jewish people because of adherence to the firsts sides "christian" principle. Boggles the mind.

As the history accelerates to the last 200 years or so the pictures come together and tread familiar territory. World Wars, bonds, stock market crashes are all explained quite well in terms of Bubble/Burst/Bubble cycles and the book comes right up to the beginning of the GFC. Not the first, certainly not the last.

Also Globalisation was just as big in the late 19th century as it is today (albeit slower to move) but again, cycles turned it around and it's on the way back in again at least for a while.

An interesting read if you can get past the first quarter or so of the book.

Next Week: either a book about food, a book about boffins or something as yet unknown...

Week Fifteen: Eat, Pray, Love

Eat. Pray. Love. Stop. Please.

I could spend a dozen pages refuting, attacking, criticising, correcting and just venting.

That would be such a waste of time. 346 pages of emotional masturbation for the self deluded believers in themselves and nothing else.

If you don't know what confirmation bias is, then look it up before you read this book.

There is a great quote on the back of the book that says "... as funny as it is wise." Which is 100% true, because I did not find one funny thing in this book.

I'm ready to move on, The Ascent of Money by Niall Fergusson next...

Week Fourteen: Reappraisals by Tony Judt

Week Fourteen: Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century. Written by the late historian Tony Judt (he passed away a little while after I bought this book) and it has been sitting in the bedroom for a good 6 months or more waiting for me to read past the first chapter. I'm glad I did read it all the way through as it is a seriously good selection of essays and reviews by a great writer and amazing critic.

The forgotten part of the twentieth century is not so much the things that we forgot about as the things about those things we forget. I know that is convoluted, but in reality I had heard of much of the subjects of this book, save some of the early Jewish writers who were once communists like Arthur Koestler et al... But quickly the essays and reviews of other writers work turn to subjects I know much more about. The six day war, the Cuban missile crisis, the state of Belgium and more.

The power of this collection is in the judicious honesty that the writer employs and holds up as a mirror to the others he critiques and criticises. It is hard enough to review books (these don't count as real reviews, just a record of my readings - but I have also reviewed books back when I was reviewing games for Gaz) when you are learning the subject matter for the first time. Tony Judt, being the expert that he so obviously was, is unforgiving to those seeking to misrepresent or edit out history for their own views. Warts and all go into these reviews and essays and they find priase for villains and criticism for heroes, but he tells people and events for what they were.

In school I learned much about Israel, the six day war and the victory that stunned the world. I did not learn that prior to that Israelis and Arabs weren't as visceral as they are today. I did not know that some Arabs thought and continue to think that America defeated them in 6 days, not the Jews. I did not learn that the arrogance and invincibility complex grew from that. My high school education was very biased of course, but then again it was less that 20 years since the events and my textbooks were probably 5-10 years old already.

History is written by the winners, but as long as historians like this are reviewing the works in the middle term (so little can be learned in the short) then with the passage of time we can fire up the crucible of fact, sources, the long view and the distance of emotions and write it for real.

I enjoyed this book a lot and set myself a short goal to finish it, I only started on Wednesday. I was thoroughly engaged and educated not just in facts (as I now knew a lot of this thanks to Chomsky, Pilger, the Daily Show and even Fox News) but in a clear, well written and erudite presentation. I'm not ashamed to say I had to check a dictionary or Wikipedia almost every other chapter.

Next Week the polar opposite. Eat, Pray, Love.

Week Thirteen: Elephants on Acid by Alex Boese

Elephants on Acid by Alex Boese is an anthology of the bizarre and unusual in scientific experimentation. It chronicles the absurd and dodgy as well as the ground breaking and ethically borderline experiments of recent history.

Over all an interesting selection and easy enough to read and pick up/put down at a moments notice as no one account is more than a few pages in length. What is very interesting though is how much intersection there is between this and other recent science and behaviour books I have read. Experiments feature in this book have crossed over with Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, Bad Science, Sway and other recent reads. One crossover reminded me of a very difficult book I was having trouble getting through that I must dig out and read as per this wee exercise (The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil - Philip Zimbardo) which is an account of the stunning and scary Stanford Prison Experiment.

Experiments of note include the weight of the human soul (not 21 grams, dodgy experiment), using chips in the brain to make people violent or passive, the red wine/white wine taste test (the more you know about wine the worse you do) the two headed dog and many many more. Order now and get these free knives...

One note for prospective readers, Alex is not above a bad joke to close sections, terrible puns to make a point and has an annoying habit of writing fictionalized paragraphs to bring the following into personal focus. It's not necessary and slows down the reader.

Next: Unknown - need to choose one, I have plenty to pick from.