I've been reading some books for well over a year, sometimes 2 or even 3 years, if I am going really slowly--Guns, Germs and Steel would be one such book, which I seem to be reading at the pace of 25 pages a year. But occasionally, if I get really intense about a book, I can read it quite quickly, putting other books aside to concentrate on a particular book that I am enjoying. One such recent book was The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which I received as a part of a bundle of books given as gift from my friend, Ben.
The story is set in a post-apocalyptic America. At first, I understood that most of the world has been destroyed due to some kind of use of weapons of mass destruction, but after further reflection, it is apparent that the author never specifies what was the reason why the world became this way. In any case, McCarthy paints a truly nightmarish landscape. The world is shrouded in a perpetual penumbra, freezing, covered in grey ash which falls from the sky, and pitch black at night. Signs of the former civilisation remain, burned cities, gutted vehicles at the side of the road. The ground is littered with mummied corpses. "Hell on Earth" would be an apt way to describe McCarthy's bleak vision of the future.
It is one of the bleakest, most depressing books that I have had the "pleasure" to read. It's essentially a book in the genre of survival horror, but, due to the special bond between the father and the son, who are the protagonists of the story, it is much more than just that.
I finished it and later watched the motion picture, which was a pretty solid adaptation of the book.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Breakout Nations
Reading Breakout Nations, by Ruchir Sharma.
It concerns the author's review of various emerging market nations to assess which have the best chance of breaking out economically.
Some interesting points include:
- He considers India as only having 50/50 chance of breaking out.
- He is high on Poland and South Korea.
- He is interestingly high on Turkey, particularly because wages are still quite low there. But it will be interesting whether he writes about it more negatively in his Epilogue (I'm only halfway through the book) in light of recent issues there, including the failed coup, the terrorism issues, the chaos of the war next door and Turkey's intervention etc.
- He argues that wealth accumulation in the hands of a few individuals suggests economic stagnation--he provides a table which shows that Malaysia has very concentrated wealth (not surprising).
- He is down on Hungary. Down on Mexico. Down on Russia.
- Interestingly, he draws a divide between whether a country will be a breakout nation and whether its stock market will do well, arguing that a country can have a good stock market, without being a breakout nation.
- Overall, he argues that, emerging market nations as a whole, will not rise and fall together, like they once did. So picking winners will be important going forward.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Things Fall Apart
I recently finished Things Fall Apart, which was written in 1958 by Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian author and, allegedly one of the most famous if the not most famous published African writers. The reason I picked this book up is obvious. I wanted to get a little bit of background about Nigeria, not only its history but also a sense of its literary talents and this book did not disappoint. In fact I had never read a book by a real African writer, at least not that I can recall.
This book was a real pleasure to read despite its sad ending. It is very easy to read, with very simple prose but there is so much meaning in each phrase, each sentence. The book is about the Ibo tribe in Western Africa. The reader is introduced to the ways and customs of the Ibo tribe and you get to see both the simple and beautiful aspects and the horrible aspects, i.e., it's a society like any other. In some ways they are quite backward, but on the other hand, they are also very practical and pragmatic. The book centers around the life of Okonkwo, a fierce warrior in the tribe whose life is "dominated by fear and anger". He is strong and ambitious and fierce, but also proud, at times domineering and fearful of failure. In some respects, Okonkwo exhibits many of the finer qualities of the Ibo people but also their flaws.
The white colonists are introduced only towards the end of the book. I won't disclose too much else, but the ending is saddening and tragic. In fact this book has been compared to a Greek tragedy and I can easily understand why.
It's a great and fairly quick read but there is a lot to think about. I still marvel that Achebe was able to write such a powerful allegorical novel with sentences that are so simple. I will consider reading another book by Achebe in the future.
This book was a real pleasure to read despite its sad ending. It is very easy to read, with very simple prose but there is so much meaning in each phrase, each sentence. The book is about the Ibo tribe in Western Africa. The reader is introduced to the ways and customs of the Ibo tribe and you get to see both the simple and beautiful aspects and the horrible aspects, i.e., it's a society like any other. In some ways they are quite backward, but on the other hand, they are also very practical and pragmatic. The book centers around the life of Okonkwo, a fierce warrior in the tribe whose life is "dominated by fear and anger". He is strong and ambitious and fierce, but also proud, at times domineering and fearful of failure. In some respects, Okonkwo exhibits many of the finer qualities of the Ibo people but also their flaws.
The white colonists are introduced only towards the end of the book. I won't disclose too much else, but the ending is saddening and tragic. In fact this book has been compared to a Greek tragedy and I can easily understand why.
It's a great and fairly quick read but there is a lot to think about. I still marvel that Achebe was able to write such a powerful allegorical novel with sentences that are so simple. I will consider reading another book by Achebe in the future.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
1st Quarter of '07
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!
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!
R-Rated Harry Potter
I'm typically reading about 8 to 10 books at the same time. Well, no not at the exact same time, not simultaneously. Just during any given period, I'm typically reading quite a few books. I find that doing so helps me to keep reading. When you're reading just one book, you have to be in the mood for that book. If you're not in the mood, you're less likely to read. Reading several books simultaneously means that you can't use that excuse not to read. There will almost always be some kind of book that will be right for the mood.
That means that I like to keep good variety of books around. Some are fiction. Some are non-fiction. I read a lot about the world, about investing, about history and about international politics. Some books are educational. Others are simply for entertainment. Fantasy and sci-fi stuff that I've liked since I started to read books in general. I'm going to mention one book that I'm currently reading that falls very squarely in the latter category: "Lord Loss" by Darren Shaw.
This is probably the least ambitious book that I have read during the last 4 years (not counting porn of course, though that can get a little ambitious at times, and not counting "101 Tips About Wine" that I brought back from California, which, as far as I could tell, wasn't serious enough to convince any person to overcome his or her embarrassment and list him or herself as the author of that "book").
But, Lord Loss is easy to read. And it's kind of fun, in a very amateurish kind of way. I've only read the first 48 pages or so, but I read them in under an hour. The story is about this kid, Grubbs, living a fairly ordinary life in an ordinary town in modern times, who one day finds out that his parents are actually secret devil worshippers. I have to admit, I like that kind of premise for a book.
Chapter 1 concerns character development, where the author builds up the characters enough that the reader develops a mild apathetic sympathy for them after about 20 pages or so. The family likes to play chess together. The kids sometimes fight. Grubbs gets in trouble with his dad for smoking at school. You know, prosaic family type stuff.
In Chapter 2, those sympathies are shredded as Grubbs's mother, father and sister are brutally massacred by the demons that they summon during a seance that goes awry. The father is decapitated in fact. So much for character development. Three out of the first four characters introduced are dead wtihin the first 30 pages. I love it.
But, in Chapter 3 it turns out that Grubbs's uncle is a magician. Uncle Dervish, as he is called, takes pity on Grubbs and takes him in from the mental asylum in which Grubbs is staying in the aftermath of his parents' brutal slaughter and houses him in a massive mansion in the country side. Hopefully Uncle Dervish isn't also a pedophile. But with this book, it's anything goes, so I wouldn't be completely surprised if things indeed begin to take a queer turn. I'm on about page 48 already and Uncle Dervish has just offered to teach Grubbs a few "magic spells". It sounds a lot like something Michael Jackson might do. Can you see where all this is going?
It seems to be basically Harry Potter for "adults", if you know what I mean.
Anyway, I just thought I'd start the online discussion with a very unambitious book. Hopefully with the bar lowered, people will feel more inclined to post something and we'll get some discussion going.
That means that I like to keep good variety of books around. Some are fiction. Some are non-fiction. I read a lot about the world, about investing, about history and about international politics. Some books are educational. Others are simply for entertainment. Fantasy and sci-fi stuff that I've liked since I started to read books in general. I'm going to mention one book that I'm currently reading that falls very squarely in the latter category: "Lord Loss" by Darren Shaw.
This is probably the least ambitious book that I have read during the last 4 years (not counting porn of course, though that can get a little ambitious at times, and not counting "101 Tips About Wine" that I brought back from California, which, as far as I could tell, wasn't serious enough to convince any person to overcome his or her embarrassment and list him or herself as the author of that "book").
But, Lord Loss is easy to read. And it's kind of fun, in a very amateurish kind of way. I've only read the first 48 pages or so, but I read them in under an hour. The story is about this kid, Grubbs, living a fairly ordinary life in an ordinary town in modern times, who one day finds out that his parents are actually secret devil worshippers. I have to admit, I like that kind of premise for a book.
Chapter 1 concerns character development, where the author builds up the characters enough that the reader develops a mild apathetic sympathy for them after about 20 pages or so. The family likes to play chess together. The kids sometimes fight. Grubbs gets in trouble with his dad for smoking at school. You know, prosaic family type stuff.
In Chapter 2, those sympathies are shredded as Grubbs's mother, father and sister are brutally massacred by the demons that they summon during a seance that goes awry. The father is decapitated in fact. So much for character development. Three out of the first four characters introduced are dead wtihin the first 30 pages. I love it.
But, in Chapter 3 it turns out that Grubbs's uncle is a magician. Uncle Dervish, as he is called, takes pity on Grubbs and takes him in from the mental asylum in which Grubbs is staying in the aftermath of his parents' brutal slaughter and houses him in a massive mansion in the country side. Hopefully Uncle Dervish isn't also a pedophile. But with this book, it's anything goes, so I wouldn't be completely surprised if things indeed begin to take a queer turn. I'm on about page 48 already and Uncle Dervish has just offered to teach Grubbs a few "magic spells". It sounds a lot like something Michael Jackson might do. Can you see where all this is going?
It seems to be basically Harry Potter for "adults", if you know what I mean.
Anyway, I just thought I'd start the online discussion with a very unambitious book. Hopefully with the bar lowered, people will feel more inclined to post something and we'll get some discussion going.
The cover pretty much says it all...
Welcome to the DBC Online Bookclub~
It's been a while since we've had a face to face DBC book club meeting. But people still read books. Hopefully this forum will again revive some interest in sharing your thoughts and discussing about the books you read. Having the book club online will also help to reintegrate DBC members who are outside of the current base station (Korea) back wthin the club.
If you read something, tell everyone about it here. Book reviews, ideas and book suggestions. Favorite books lists. Pretty much anything goes.
Fiction or non fiction.
If you read something, tell everyone about it here. Book reviews, ideas and book suggestions. Favorite books lists. Pretty much anything goes.
Fiction or non fiction.
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