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.