I read Milosz book-reading-style and thought it was so strange, but then realized I have a different "problem". I don't like to take books that I might finish before my subway ride ends. SO~ this leads me to having a few book in the house that have less than 50 pages to go!
So far this year I've read the following (or am 50 pages from finishing...):
"A Fine Balance" (1995) by Rohinton Mistry 603 pages
Details of the lives of 4 individuals before and after they end up meeting in some unnamed town in 1970s India. Fantastic book! Couldn't put it down but no happy endings at all.
I'd really like to hear from people with India-experience and hear what they think of the politics (such as forced vasectomies in the name of "family planning") and lives in the stories.
"The Mystery of Capital - Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else" (2000) by Hernando de Soto 228 pages
In a nutshell: de Soto's thesis is that most poor people in the world live in countries that make property ownership difficult, therefore they can't get their hands on capital (in the form of land/home/business ownership) as we can in the west.
"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" (2004) by John Perkins 281 pages
My mom sent me this for my birthday. She loves the conspiracy theories! But I really enjoyed this book. It was a fast read and hopefully makes some people think of the consequences of their financial goals.
"Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" (2006) by Haruki Murakami 334 pages
You were waiting for it! YES! Yet another (my 12th?) Murakami book! It all started with the DBC! This is a compilation of short stories, some written long ago. I'm not that in to short stories, but some of the stories here are quite interesting and unusual. I'm reading this for a book club with Jake! and Hong Ju-hee and some other people.
"Unhooked Generation" (2006) by Jillian Straus 262 pages
Let me explain how this former Oprah Show producer of 8 years book got in my personal library! I was at Co-Ex waiting for a date to show up, looking around the book store, and it jumped in my hands!
There are no surprises. Just a lot of common sense. I'll loan it to you if you're really curious!
"Collapse - How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" (2005) by Jared Diamond 560 pages
Takes a look at several societies that had environmental difficulties and made choices that either led to the continuation of the society or to the downfall of the society. Great book! This guy packs in so much info. Did he really just study birds before? I think individuals have social responsibilities, so this book is really an important read.
"Globalization and its Discontents" (2002) by Joseph Stiglitz 258 pages
I'm cheating. I finished this in December, but it was a great book worth recommending! It's a pro-globalization book with an asterisk that says the IMF and World Bank and others have to do more to be socially responsible with their goals and policies. Basically, the whole book is an account of how terrible the IMF and World Bank are in his opinion.
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I look forward to seeing posts from the rest of you!
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2 comments:
Test comment. Just want to see if it will be better to respond by leaving comments or starting new posts.
Ok, let's try the comment route first and see how that goes. Though, anyway is free to just comment through a new post--whatever works for you.
With regard to Rob's posts (D-Bookworm), thanks for that review. It seems that all of the books that you are reading are fairly serious. That's nto the case with me, though I am also reading some very serious books as well, I've also got my 2 or 3 trash reading books as well.
Just a few comments on your recent selections:
1. Collapse by Jarod Diamond. We talked about this and as I mentioned, I'm having some difficulty of finihsing Guns, Germs and Steel. It's well written, full of information, but, in the end, not the most interesting material, at least for me. I've been reading this book for over a year and it seems to be going at the pace of aobut 10 pages per month. So, I doubt that I'll get to Collapse any time soon, though from what I heard "Collapse" is better than "Guns". My friend recently told me that she thought that the essence of the idea in "Guns" is racist. Frankly, at the pace of 10 pages a month, I didn't feel like I was in a position to see the big picture clearly enough to knowlegably respond to that comment.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman -- Dean read this book so I'd be curious to hear again from him about what he thought. From what I recall from his conversation, I think he didn't think it was that great, but the reasons escape me now.
Haruki - It's cool that the Murakami flame was lit in D-Book as a result of the DBC. I have to confess, I've been tempted several times to pick up another Murakmi selection. I've been circling around Norwegian Wood for several months now, which I think was Rob's recommendation if one were to choose one Murakami work--Rob to confirm.
Stiglitz - I think the one thing that came as a big surprise when I briefly attended Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs before coming to Korea, is (i) there is no agreement what globalization really is, and (ii) there is a strong and growing backlash regarding the effects of globalization, the flames of whcih were being fanned primarily by academics. But that was in 2002 after all. I'm still convinced that this issue is mainly "academic" in nature. Stiglitz is writing primarily with his fellow academics in mind and not the real world. But at least he's on the right side of this argument--but that of course depends on what you mean by globalization.
Don't know the other works well enough to comment, but those are my thoughts. Cheers!
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