I read this book back in high school, as it was a required reading, and I read it in translation, since I wasn't born in an English-speaking country. Now, decades later, I read it in the original, and it is still amazing. Notwithstanding the excellent movie with Henry Fonda, movies cannot quite catch the subtleties of the written word - the well written word. Scout's words jump off the page as so lively as a real tomboy little girl in blue overalls is standing right in front of you. Atticus Finch is a glorious character, the perfect father, just, controlled and measured, always having the best for everyone on his mind. Jim and Dill are lovable characters, each showing their own strengths. Calpernia must be one of the most lovable African-American nanny characters.
The Yules are probably the primordial white-trash family, of which every town in the South has some, and some have more. They could have been the original Trailer Park Boys if born 50 years later. Tom's unfortunate fate evokes much more sympathy today that in the 70s when the book was popular and the civil rights in the South still had a lot of work to do.
Although I've read critiques around the Web that the book is too culturally-narrow and that it cannot be fully appreciated by other nations than the Americans, as it has so much localized details. But, in my humble opinion, that is the main strength of the book. It gives even non-American an intimate and in-depth view of the complicated beginnings of the American nation and shows the evolution of values and societal mores that resulted in a much more multicultural and tolerant American society today.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
"Emotional Intelligence 2.0" by Travis Bradbury
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 is a book by TalentSmart, a company that works on identifying human potential and performance in a business setting. The book, or booklet, which, although 270 pages, is in a small format and is usually accompanied by a course (which costs much more money). An audiobook exists too, but I thought that this kind of subject is best internalized while reading it ink-on-paper.
The book consists of 4 sections with 17 (very) short chapters each. The sections are: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social-Awareness and Relationship-Management. Each of the 17 chapters in the section talks about one useful technique that should become a part of everyone's repertoire. Some of the advice seems very common sense, but that's because the hardest things to do/implement are usually the common-sense ones.
Very easy to read and with lots of re-usability, this book reminds me of the famous Dale Carnegie books. If Dale was alive today, this is probably the book he'd write on "How to win friends and influence people" as the subject matter is almost the same. Recommended as a read, though don't expect anything earth-shattering (there's NO magic pill!).
The book consists of 4 sections with 17 (very) short chapters each. The sections are: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social-Awareness and Relationship-Management. Each of the 17 chapters in the section talks about one useful technique that should become a part of everyone's repertoire. Some of the advice seems very common sense, but that's because the hardest things to do/implement are usually the common-sense ones.
Very easy to read and with lots of re-usability, this book reminds me of the famous Dale Carnegie books. If Dale was alive today, this is probably the book he'd write on "How to win friends and influence people" as the subject matter is almost the same. Recommended as a read, though don't expect anything earth-shattering (there's NO magic pill!).
Friday, July 25, 2014
"Contact" by Carl Sagan
"Contact" is the only fiction book that the great Carl Sagan has written and even as such should be on the reading list of every SciFi enthusiast. "Contact" has much more scientific detail than most science fiction works out there since it was written by one of the greatest astronomers and scientists of our time.
The book talks about a possibility of a contact with an alien civilization through radio telescopes based on the fact that once a civilization is sufficiently advanced it will produce radio and TV signals powerful enough to leave the planet's ionosphere and be detected by another civilization . For our planet this happened during the 1930s Olympics in Berlin, during the rule of the Nazis.
Ellie, the main protagonist, who's the director of the Project Argus, an array of radio-telescopes in New Mexico related to SETI engaged in listening for alien transmissions, receives a message from outer space which is the first confirmed contact of intelligent aliens with humanity.
When the message is decoded, a transport machine is built which transports five chosen human representatives to the constellation of Vega, 26 light years away, where a federation of inter-galactic advanced alien civilization has one of their outposts, their main station being near the center of the Milky Way galaxy, with it's central mega black hole.
I always found it very curious, and breaking with stereotypes, obviously on-purpose, that Sagan chose his main hero and protagonist to be a woman, and middle aged and unmarried, without ever having children (or wanting to). That must have been too progressive even for the 1980s, when the book was first published. Also, having the rest of the characters as a very international bunch (including women, and women of color, imagine!), without being the paper-thin stereotypes of other nations and races, makes this novel a social statement as well.
The scientific accuracy of the plot is simply astounding. From the message being encoded in the amplitude and frequency of the carrier wave, but also in its polarization, all the way to exhaustive quantum physics descriptions of the properties of black holes and wormhole tunnels. This might at times detract from the human drama going on, unlike, for example, Dan Brown's novels, where the drama never stops and cliffhangers are the norm, but then again, this novel is not just a passing entertainment.
The film staring Jodie Foster is really good as movies go, but Jodie at that time is much younger than what Ellie should be in the book and several main components of the book were changed, like the international team that goes to Vega. The book is still much better and has much more depth.
In conclusion, a great novel, with original, scientifically-plausible plot, which should be part of every educated person's general knowledge. The fact that it came from the mind of the amazing Carl Sagan just makes it a double-gem!
The book talks about a possibility of a contact with an alien civilization through radio telescopes based on the fact that once a civilization is sufficiently advanced it will produce radio and TV signals powerful enough to leave the planet's ionosphere and be detected by another civilization . For our planet this happened during the 1930s Olympics in Berlin, during the rule of the Nazis.
Ellie, the main protagonist, who's the director of the Project Argus, an array of radio-telescopes in New Mexico related to SETI engaged in listening for alien transmissions, receives a message from outer space which is the first confirmed contact of intelligent aliens with humanity.
When the message is decoded, a transport machine is built which transports five chosen human representatives to the constellation of Vega, 26 light years away, where a federation of inter-galactic advanced alien civilization has one of their outposts, their main station being near the center of the Milky Way galaxy, with it's central mega black hole.
I always found it very curious, and breaking with stereotypes, obviously on-purpose, that Sagan chose his main hero and protagonist to be a woman, and middle aged and unmarried, without ever having children (or wanting to). That must have been too progressive even for the 1980s, when the book was first published. Also, having the rest of the characters as a very international bunch (including women, and women of color, imagine!), without being the paper-thin stereotypes of other nations and races, makes this novel a social statement as well.
The scientific accuracy of the plot is simply astounding. From the message being encoded in the amplitude and frequency of the carrier wave, but also in its polarization, all the way to exhaustive quantum physics descriptions of the properties of black holes and wormhole tunnels. This might at times detract from the human drama going on, unlike, for example, Dan Brown's novels, where the drama never stops and cliffhangers are the norm, but then again, this novel is not just a passing entertainment.
The film staring Jodie Foster is really good as movies go, but Jodie at that time is much younger than what Ellie should be in the book and several main components of the book were changed, like the international team that goes to Vega. The book is still much better and has much more depth.
In conclusion, a great novel, with original, scientifically-plausible plot, which should be part of every educated person's general knowledge. The fact that it came from the mind of the amazing Carl Sagan just makes it a double-gem!
Friday, July 4, 2014
"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck
I have never read this American classic until now, and it was an experience to be had. Not as gripping as Murakami's works, nor as page-turning as Dan Brown's literary offspring, it is nevertheless an interesting and beautiful account. The book depicts the Joad family as the move out of Sallisaw, OK to California along route 66. Tom Joad, the eldest son, just released from prison for homicide is one of the most important characters in the book, though Mother Joad is a striking character on her own.
The book depicts the Dust Bowl disaster of the 1930s, together with the Great Depression forced thousands of people from the south-east to move to California, mostly on promises of great climate and great jobs. The promises vanish when families arrive in California. Even though the family is cheated and hated during the entire trip to California, it is only when they arrive and pass the state police road block - that they realize the extent of hatred that exists in California towards the newcomers. The local gas station attendants call the newcomers 'non-human' and 'animals' and 'different species' because of the lowly poor conditions under which they are forced to travel, eat and live, since their money was taken by the banks back east and everybody on the road tried to get as much money out of them as they could, regardless of the life and death consequences.
Once in California, they realize that the evil local landowners cheated them into coming in huge numbers so they can manipulate the pay rate and pay next to nothing for hard labor, even down to 2.5 cents for a basket of peaches - impossible to even buy food on such wages. Tom Joad gets involved with some local strikers, who are derogatorily called 'reds' by the sheriff deputies and the landowners. Tom gets injured when trying to defend a preacher who gets killed because is helping organize a strike.
At the end of the book Rose Sharon, the eldest daughter of the Joads, who had still birth, after her husband left her, gives her breast milk to a man dying of hunger in an abandoned barn amidst hellish downpours that lasted for weeks - in that wonderful land of California.
The book depicts the Dust Bowl disaster of the 1930s, together with the Great Depression forced thousands of people from the south-east to move to California, mostly on promises of great climate and great jobs. The promises vanish when families arrive in California. Even though the family is cheated and hated during the entire trip to California, it is only when they arrive and pass the state police road block - that they realize the extent of hatred that exists in California towards the newcomers. The local gas station attendants call the newcomers 'non-human' and 'animals' and 'different species' because of the lowly poor conditions under which they are forced to travel, eat and live, since their money was taken by the banks back east and everybody on the road tried to get as much money out of them as they could, regardless of the life and death consequences.
Once in California, they realize that the evil local landowners cheated them into coming in huge numbers so they can manipulate the pay rate and pay next to nothing for hard labor, even down to 2.5 cents for a basket of peaches - impossible to even buy food on such wages. Tom Joad gets involved with some local strikers, who are derogatorily called 'reds' by the sheriff deputies and the landowners. Tom gets injured when trying to defend a preacher who gets killed because is helping organize a strike.
At the end of the book Rose Sharon, the eldest daughter of the Joads, who had still birth, after her husband left her, gives her breast milk to a man dying of hunger in an abandoned barn amidst hellish downpours that lasted for weeks - in that wonderful land of California.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
"The Law of Success" by Napoleon Hill
This is one of the largest self-help books out there (or does it just feel that way because it is so boring?). Hill was a vagabond child, then started and failed at many businesses (great learning experience though) until finally he decided to become a motivational speaker and a sort of a prophet of success (he never says that directly, but from all the hyperbolas, it is easily inferred).
This book was started with an interview with Andrew Carnegie, the Steel Baron of USA, that the Gen.X and Y-ers today barely know about, if at all, except by the names of a bunch of libraries and concert halls. He gave Hill access to his exclusive group of top American businessmen, including Henry Ford, in order to figure out what it is that made them so successful, despite many of them starting from dire poverty and modest beginnings. Although The Hill Foundation makes an argument over and over again that the principles expoused are solid and timeless, many of the actual examples feel out of date and irrelevant in 2014, which is why about 50% of the audio book is a modern commentary explaining things in context.
The commentary is so voluminous (by necessity, as things aren't clear), that this 550 page book becomes over 1,000 pages when commentary is included. The 17 principles (15 in the beginning, but then Hill added the metaphysical "MasterMind" as No.1 which is nothing more than re-stating of the occult "Egregore" and the "Cosmic Habit Forming" as No. 17 which is mostly mambo-jumbo) could be probably summarized in one paragraph each, with not too much of loss of clarity or usefulness, but that would not sell a voluminous correspondence course where each lesson was sold separately and embellished with numerous words of praise by seemingly important people, of whom almost no one is in the sphere of general knowledge today.
The silly things like espousing telepathy and similar superstitions, instead of looking at 'cold reading' and the actual psychology of unconscious cues, detract even more from the perception of the book as a serious, scientific one. It gives an impression more of a self-confirming bias (as Hill constantly claims that he tested everything he says many, many times) than a scientific study. The long exposures on "Ether" as the medium of transference, which was proven wrong even before Hill was born (if he bothered to read scientific books), detracts even more from the reading experience. Hill rightfully points out the great role of the subconscious in people's lives, but he is too lazy and too full of himself and his 'self-made' philosophy of success to bother with reading on the real science of the subconscious which was exposed by actual scientists like C.G. Jung, who was his contemporary and whose books were widely available.
Summa summarum, reading this book is mainly an exercise in patience and persistence, while the actual principles can be gathered just from their titles and short explanations floating around the web.... The rest is just pink noise.
This book was started with an interview with Andrew Carnegie, the Steel Baron of USA, that the Gen.X and Y-ers today barely know about, if at all, except by the names of a bunch of libraries and concert halls. He gave Hill access to his exclusive group of top American businessmen, including Henry Ford, in order to figure out what it is that made them so successful, despite many of them starting from dire poverty and modest beginnings. Although The Hill Foundation makes an argument over and over again that the principles expoused are solid and timeless, many of the actual examples feel out of date and irrelevant in 2014, which is why about 50% of the audio book is a modern commentary explaining things in context.
The commentary is so voluminous (by necessity, as things aren't clear), that this 550 page book becomes over 1,000 pages when commentary is included. The 17 principles (15 in the beginning, but then Hill added the metaphysical "MasterMind" as No.1 which is nothing more than re-stating of the occult "Egregore" and the "Cosmic Habit Forming" as No. 17 which is mostly mambo-jumbo) could be probably summarized in one paragraph each, with not too much of loss of clarity or usefulness, but that would not sell a voluminous correspondence course where each lesson was sold separately and embellished with numerous words of praise by seemingly important people, of whom almost no one is in the sphere of general knowledge today.
The silly things like espousing telepathy and similar superstitions, instead of looking at 'cold reading' and the actual psychology of unconscious cues, detract even more from the perception of the book as a serious, scientific one. It gives an impression more of a self-confirming bias (as Hill constantly claims that he tested everything he says many, many times) than a scientific study. The long exposures on "Ether" as the medium of transference, which was proven wrong even before Hill was born (if he bothered to read scientific books), detracts even more from the reading experience. Hill rightfully points out the great role of the subconscious in people's lives, but he is too lazy and too full of himself and his 'self-made' philosophy of success to bother with reading on the real science of the subconscious which was exposed by actual scientists like C.G. Jung, who was his contemporary and whose books were widely available.
Summa summarum, reading this book is mainly an exercise in patience and persistence, while the actual principles can be gathered just from their titles and short explanations floating around the web.... The rest is just pink noise.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
"Iron John" by Robert Bly
Robert Bly is primarily a poet, if that sentence makes any sense, as who's a professional poet anymore? Thus, his work to resurrect ancient fairy tales about male initiation and man's role in life. Because of Bly's poetic inclination the movement he jumpstarted in the early 90s has been called Men's Mythopoetic movement. It was similar to the Men Groups that were formed around that time as a reaction to extreme feminism which seemed to wand a society without men, or only with castrate, feminine men, much to their own detrement born out of ignorance and hate.
Bly used the Grimm Brothers collected tale about EisenHans or better known in English as Iron John, to get insight into the proper way of initiating men into society and adulthood while at the same time giving meaning to their lives and determining their place in society. Bly points out that each element in the story is not accidental or random, but it is clearly meant to convey meaning and instruction, something like a mathematical formula where each element is indispensable for the correctness of the whole.
Fairy tales have been used for centuries to glean wisdom from the past, as our ancestors, largely illiterate, but no less intelligent, preserved the main principles of organizing the life of men and women in stories. Freud and Jung both have looked into fairy tales, with differing conclusions. Bly's move adds poetry and mysticism to the Men's movement, which grows and falters in turns, but which is a clear sign of the realization that feminine men will not do for fulfilling the society's male roles.
Bly used the Grimm Brothers collected tale about EisenHans or better known in English as Iron John, to get insight into the proper way of initiating men into society and adulthood while at the same time giving meaning to their lives and determining their place in society. Bly points out that each element in the story is not accidental or random, but it is clearly meant to convey meaning and instruction, something like a mathematical formula where each element is indispensable for the correctness of the whole.
Fairy tales have been used for centuries to glean wisdom from the past, as our ancestors, largely illiterate, but no less intelligent, preserved the main principles of organizing the life of men and women in stories. Freud and Jung both have looked into fairy tales, with differing conclusions. Bly's move adds poetry and mysticism to the Men's movement, which grows and falters in turns, but which is a clear sign of the realization that feminine men will not do for fulfilling the society's male roles.
"How to stop worrying and start living" by Dale Carnegie
Another reading of the classic Dale C. hustling and bustling his way through human emotions. The book is full of "grandaddy" advice with some pretty trivial things given as cures, like religion. Maybe in the 1930s religion was still considered something to show off and be proud off, but in 2014 that is not the case. Religion has been delegated to the category of mass hallucination or consensus deception, for some higher, societal reasons.
The book reads, more or less, like a 12 step program. "Surrender your worries to a higher power." Hmmm, ok, but doesn't that mean substituting your worrying (not a good thing, of course) with a more dangerous delusion that is bound to have detrimental influence on your life unless you keep it extremely narrow and bounded (virtually impossible in the case of religion)?
Lenin used to say "Religion is Opium for the masses." In this case Dale recommends one takes religion, not because one believes in some kind of deity, or for the inherent goodness of many religious principles, but simply as a 'magic pill' that will take your worries away. I guess the same could be said about Opium, or other drugs. And who is to say which is more harmful, having in mind how many lives have been ruined by fundamentalist religion.
The other advices is OK, but probably the same things you heard from your grandfather, and you never paid any attention to anyway. One maxim that stuck in my mind was "live in day-tight compartments." Never allow the worries of tomorrow to spoil today, as tomorrow those worries might still be there to worry about, or they might disappear, or something may happen to make them irrelevant (like you getting hit by a bus).
All in all, worry is a good motivator, but mostly a waste of time.
The book reads, more or less, like a 12 step program. "Surrender your worries to a higher power." Hmmm, ok, but doesn't that mean substituting your worrying (not a good thing, of course) with a more dangerous delusion that is bound to have detrimental influence on your life unless you keep it extremely narrow and bounded (virtually impossible in the case of religion)?
Lenin used to say "Religion is Opium for the masses." In this case Dale recommends one takes religion, not because one believes in some kind of deity, or for the inherent goodness of many religious principles, but simply as a 'magic pill' that will take your worries away. I guess the same could be said about Opium, or other drugs. And who is to say which is more harmful, having in mind how many lives have been ruined by fundamentalist religion.
The other advices is OK, but probably the same things you heard from your grandfather, and you never paid any attention to anyway. One maxim that stuck in my mind was "live in day-tight compartments." Never allow the worries of tomorrow to spoil today, as tomorrow those worries might still be there to worry about, or they might disappear, or something may happen to make them irrelevant (like you getting hit by a bus).
All in all, worry is a good motivator, but mostly a waste of time.
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