Levi
Yes, I have in fact read this complete textbook in its entirety. Something I don't know I can say about hardly any other textbook. I guess that's what you get when you get the professor who literally wrote the book.
It's thorough, it's very clear, it teaches you what philosophers have had to say about semantics in ancient times up through what many different linguists have discovered in modern times, this guy cites like crazy and clearly knows what he's talking about. There's also several different syntaxes of writing logical notation, set notation, lambda notation, etc. The breadth of this was a bit much to cover in one class but you can't fault a book for being thorough, especially when it's so (relatively) clear compared to many other textbooks.
This is about what you would expect: it reads mostly like a list of encyclopedia entries. I was looking for a quick overview of the French Revolution and this, at only 4 hours long, was a great find for me to prep me for diving into a longer, more comprehensive read. I find that reading something shorter, almost a summary, of a work helps me prepare for reading the work itself so that I comprehend more. This did that. I now feel pretty well equipped with very general, broad-strokes knowledge of the French Revolution.
Most chapters are on a particular person, like Robespierre or King Louis or countless other notable revolutionaries. There are a couple of important nobles but not so many of them. A few chapters are on particular events, like the Reign of Terror or the Storming of the Bastille. And a few chapters are on groups, like the Girondins, the Montagnards, the Sans Culottes, etc. As such there is some overlap in the tellings of each thing: you can't talk about the Reign of Terror without talking about Robespierre, etc. But for me this only helped to reinforce the learning. More repetitions means I'm actually learning it.
Of course, what's lacking from this is any sense of strong dramatic narrative. The topics are laid out in roughly chronological order, and certain important people and events are placed next to each other, etc. So that helps. I think that for the format given (having chapters that are strictly topical), it was done about as well as could be reasonably expected. But it certainly doesn't make you feel as much as a good narrative historian will.
It does a good job of trying to provide a succinct view of controversial events/people while still giving a little balance to them, explaining their detractors and protractors a little, but of course there is always the sense that the story goes so much deeper. But that can be forgiven as the great strength of this little book is that it covers so much ground in so little time. Excellent primer.
The story surrounding the points is really fluff, doesn't connect very well (or at all usually) to the points, and is just meant to impress you by describing wealth, exotic locations, and sensational sounding stories just because they have a pirate or whatever in them, but in reality they are very poor stories, just cheap tricks here, move along.
As for the twelve points delivered, I didn't disagree with any of them, but on only a couple of them does the author have anything interesting to say! He just says “the Bible says such and so, so you know, that's the way it is.” And moves on.
There's also no sense of even a good system of organizing his talking points into a system or order that makes sense or anything. I mean really, this isn't a BOOK. This is just some individual guy's principles that he has probably personally found helpful for being successful in his life, and he's conflated that with what a good book is.
Love the principles. And I think there's PROBABLY a lot of truth to them...
Problem is, I'd rather hear real examples of this stuff being played out in the real world. All of these made-up ideal examples sound too good to be true. There's no grit here. Give me facts, not just a narrative that sounds really cozy. Then I would be able to believe it more.
This is a first rate collection of short stories about people in Thailand, all of them Thai people except one. Several of the voices sound the same but some of them are distinct. The content and themes of each story vary quite a bit though, and there was never a dull moment. These are stories that feel very authentic to real life, no moralism or Disney endings slapped on. They show a world that is full of vibrant life among darkness, a full world, sometimes quite dark, but even in those stories there is usually some kind of small victory against the darkness. And the prose is wonderful.
I didn't realize when I bought this book that it was a collection of short stories, and because it's written in first person and the narrators' names are never disclosed, this became confusing, but after a while I figured out that these were short stories and the world made sense again.
Each story shows a handful of different characters so that by the end of the book you get a pretty good composite view of life in Thailand. There's a lot of foreigners, too, showing different ways that Thais view others, including Americans, Cambodian refugees, and a Filipino cockfighter.
This author has first rate writing chops. He must have lived quite a while in the States, or else read a whole lot of English literature, because he uses words like thespian, recalcitrant, monomania, etc., and uses them correctly. So this book is a real gem for any English speaking person who wants to learn about Thai culture, because you have someone who knows Thai culture and is a first rate author in English.
Of course there is a bit of a downside there, because that means that his perspective is going to be a bit more American than the typical native Thai person's. But all the same. Excellent book.
The main topics are setting prices, divorce laws, incest is bad mmmkay, stealing is bad, animal lending laws, landlord laws, some laws about boats, lots of farming stuff, water rights, and perhaps most interesting were the laws pertaining to marriage.
Basically it was understood that the man had a responsibility to take care of his wife and if he wasn't able to she was entitled to certain things including remarriage depending on circumstances. Also though, she was expected to put out children and if she couldn't do that he could get a second wife or concubine. There's also several laws pertaining to when a woman dies, how her “marriage portion” is divided among her father or her children depending on other circumstances. It isn't specified what the marriage portion is.
I found it interesting that although their roles were very gendered and women were certainly not treated equally, there certainly were many rights afforded to women that other ancient societies didn't necessarily afford. I like how, if her husband dies, her children have to take care of her.
In the laws about property rights, three main possessions are listed repeatedly: a man's garden, a man's house, and a man's field. These were fundamental and couldn't be requisitioned to pay for his debts unless he was a foreigner.
All in all I think there is a lot here worth reading. It's of great historical importance (the heavy influence it had on Mosaic Law is pretty apparent), and it only take an hour and a half. There's an audiobook too.
Out of the nine Robin Hobb books I've read this is my favorite. The level of character development for known characters while simultaneously introducing several really interesting new characters...it's so rich. The relationships that Fitz has with different people, especially the interpersonal conflicts really make this feel real to me. I really feel a lot in those situations.
I love seeing Kettricken as queen doing things she's never done before. I love seeing Fitz realize some pretty big stuff about himself and how he relates to others and how he really grows into being a father figure. I love meeting Thick, who is easily one of my favorite characters ever. I love seeing how Chade and the Fool change. And the intrigues with Henja and others adds even more to it.
This also has an element of grief that makes it very bittersweet.
Just an awesome book.
Original, clear, striking. The story is told from the perspective of being whose exact nature is never explicitly explained. Klara is an AF, which I am guessing is short for android friend, and her purpose is to be a good companion to a child. A child's parents are away at work all day and the child doesn't interact with peers much as they are educated online. The child gets lonely. Solution: an AF.
Klara has a body that is similar to a human body but is clearly artificial. She has a mind that works similarly to a human's but not exactly the same. She is programmed to always be polite and kind and helpful. At first glance you might think that she would be a boring protagonist who wouldn't take any initiatives on her own–but that's not the case.
For starters, Klara has an interesting personal religion centered around the Sun. She recharges with solar, so she has an inbuilt desire to be in sunlight if possible. Throughout the book, in pretty much every scene, Klara notes what the Sun is doing. She heavily personifies the Sun, referring to it as “he,” and has conversations with it, and believes it can do miraculous things. In short she believes that it is God. And she bargains with God for certain important things that she needs throughout the novel. It's very interesting.
I feel like I finally read the first thing in a while that was truly original, a truly unique perspective, and it also was done really well. I'm so glad I read this and think I will look forward to re-reading it over the years. It says a lot about religion, free will, what makes someone a human, etc.
I will also mention, I'm so glad that I give authors second chances. The first thing I tried to read by Kazuo Ishiguro was a DNF for me, and I don't DNF hardly anything! I found Never Let Me Go to be positively boring. I'm so glad that I didn't let that taint my decision process and that I gave Ishi a second chance, because this is one of the best things I've read this year!
Overall really good, the three traits are humility, hunger, and people smarts. It illustrates through story which is a little cheesy but overall feels pretty realistic and helps you see it in a realish situation. Then there's a bunch of practical tips about how to implement this in the back of the book.
The one downside. He thinks part of being hungry is a willingness to work extra hours frequently...not occasionally...frequently! This is how it's scored in the assessment at the back of the book in case there was any question about exactly how strongly he's saying this. Dude, he could not be more wrong about that. Working extra hours frequently is unhealthy for the individual as well as irresponsible, myopic, and just plain dumb in most cases. Why do I say that? There has actually been research that most people who are “workaholics” are NOT actually working while at work for vast portions of the time. Another study of Japan, the highest working-hours country on the planet, showed the same thing. Working extra hours = less productivity. Yeah it sounds counter intuitive but the science shows it. So not only are you tanking your personal life and everything that really matters in life (yeah family and personal goals and passion should matter more than your work even if you love your work! No duh!), but you're also less productive at work. Essentially you're wasting both parts of your life. Don't do it! And don't work at a place that expects you to work more than 40hrs regularly! Or a place that says we aren't going to be that way but just for this one season we've been doing it for a few months...and yes well there have been other seasons...but this time is going to be different...RUN. I interviewed for a company like that recently and I'm so glad I dug in and asked targeted questions to determine the truth.
I used to overwork. One day I found myself standing in line next to a guy who was known at my company for being the go-to guy for whenever a project was behind, throw him on there and he will come through. I asked him what his secret was. He told me, no lie, his secret was that he almost never worked more than 40hrs. That was it. Literally. Changed my life. I know it sounds country intuitive but just try it. You'll be surprised.
“For anyone who needs a break.” Accurate. Very much a comfort read. But also scifi because there's a robot and new religions and stuff.
It's a contemplative book that's meant for the millennial generation. Not bad. I certainly enjoyed some passages. My main criticism is that there's nothing vaguely monkish about this monk. Unless their idea of monks is very different from ours, which would be fine, but if so then their religion should be explained a little bit because as it is there's no explanation of what exactly their religion is supposed to be about. Which is too bad because there's intriguing elements. It's polytheistic. But we never go deep into it.
The best parts of this are when they're exploring through casual conversation the differences between organic consciousness and artificial consciousness. The robot culture is by far the most interesting thing.
An extremely short book full of jargon from the 1920s, and it can all be summed up with: be a go getter. Work really hard and don't take no for an answer. Which really is a message that applies to sales but is far from universal. As an engineer being like that wouldn't really help you.
In fact the protagonist consistently shows a lack of any good judgment. I don't want to live my life like that nor would I want to employ someone who blindly follows directions even when it clearly leads down a ridiculous path. First off, the boss told him that the cost of the blue vase was negligible. When he found out that it cost $2,000 the response of anyone with good judgment would be: oh, clearly this either isn't the case my boss wanted, or else he didn't know how much it cost. Either way I should STOP and reconsider.
There are several other examples of bad judgment throughout the story. You could say that I'm missing the point of the story which is that perseverance really matters more than anything. I would say no...perseverance definitely matters a lot...but it doesn't matter more than anything. Perseverance without good judgment, wisdom, skill, talents, intelligence, creativity ...lots of other things...is not really a good thing in fact it's a bad combo.
So really the only value of this book is pointing out that perseverance matters, but it does this so poorly I can't really recommend it.
This book is short, 250p, but reveals a huge world and lots of interesting worldbuilding potential. It feels like it could be part of a much larger series of books (although I have no idea if that's in Susanne Clark's plans, and would guess no). It's kind of a perfect story, where you have lots of things happening and revealed within a short period of time. It's somehow contemplative and fast paced at the same time. I'd like to figure out how she pulled that off for my own benefit as a writer!
The narrator is in a world completely foreign to our own, where everything is halls, endless halls stretching out forever. The lower halls are filled with the sea and the upper halls have clouds and the protagonist lives mostly on the in between halls. The halls are filled with statues and classical architecture. The only other living human is called The Other. There are 13 skeletons which brings the total all time population (as far as the narrator knows) to 15. He postulated the question of: what if another person one day shows up? He named this person 16 as they would be the sixteenth person the world has ever had. The concept of 16 becomes important as the story develops.
The narrator doesn't remember anything of his life before five years ago. He doesn't know that any other world exists outside of his world. I won't say more on that because it would just ruin the experience of reading this for the first time.
This is a mystery novel. But not the kind that you've ever read before, not a murder mystery but a mystery of what is this whole world we are in and what's the nature of our relationship to it? And who are all those skeletons? And who is The Other? You piece it together one piece at a time and it's very satisfying. The narrator takes a while to figure out some things because he's guileless and innocent and sincere. He's a refreshing voice to hear after all the cynical and selfish voices of so many other books.
People have read into this story in a lot of different ways, seeing it as an allegory for many different things. I think it is that, while simultaneously being also it's own story. And it's just a really good story, the favorite thing I've read all year (and I've read about 50 books). It's hard to talk about this without it just being all spoilers. I'll just say...I think everyone should read it. The author worked on this for 16 years, kind of incredible story, it shows. This feels perfect in so many ways including pace and voice and originality and the surreal style and tone and just how GOOD the worldbuilding and ideas are. She's influenced by some of CS Lewis' ideas but it's subtle; I missed most of that even though I know a lot about Lewis. This is not a Christina book though.
Some themes...isolation, worldview, perspective, the way the modern era relates to the ancient era, the world of magic and mystery that we no longer have, loss of innocence...I will say it's not a depressing story though, it has a surprisingly satisfying ending.
Anyways. Just read it.
Wow this was so good. The principles are taught via a story that feels very realistic, and lets you see how the principles play out in the real world with politics and personalities and group dynamics and conflict and all that. Perfect.
The first thing that hooked me was its statement that a team without conflict is a dysfunctional team! A healthy team works through conflict regularly in a healthy way. The book is largely about how to do that.
This was the first autobiography every written, although technically, Margery Kempe didn't physically write it with her own hand, but dictated it to two different priests. This is the 1400s Medieval England and people are crazy about religion, but none perhaps as much as Margery. The book covers all of her adult life, starting with the first time she (as a young mother, perhaps suffering post-pardum) began experiencing visions of Jesus' crucifixion and experiencing uncontrollable sobbing. Prior to this Margery describes herself as not being really interested in spiritual matters. But she becomes overwhelmed with love of Jesus and being wrecked by the love of all He did for us.
Basically, everywhere she went (she went on pilgrimages and other trips), people reacted to her loud sobbings with confusion, revilement, and occasionally with curiosity and understanding. Oftentimes the populace are reacting very negatively to her and a friar or priest intervenes on her behalf, telling them that they shouldn't be angry with a woman who is sobbing for how much Jesus loved us. But sometimes even the priests and friars are against her, sometimes barring her from attending certain masses or other events. She had a very hard life, socially. To think that some people would accuse her of faking crying–no one would fake that. It made life miserable for her many times. She asked God to remove this from her but she heard Him say that it was His will for her to go through this to bring glory to Him.
The chapters are very short, there's about 100 of them. Each chapter, I think, was probably one session of her dictating on a particular evening. The chapters are not in strictly chronological order, but that's not as confusing as you would think, for she continually acknowledges any confusing things but explaining that this event happened after such-and-such that we already talked about, etc.
Despite being written 600 years ago, the language was pretty coherent. There were only a small handful of words I wasn't familiar with, and the Oxford edition of my book had footnotes to explain some of them; the others I found by googling. Again though, only a small handful.
Margery is one of the female mystics of the Medieval ages. The mystics emphasized visualizing Heaven or Jesus or events that happened in the Bible. In Margery's case, particularly the latter two. There was another female mystic during this period, Julian of Norwich, who was more noteworthy and who Margery briefly meets with. I plan on reading Julian's book next.
This book was of interest to me from a historical perspective, but I can say that you really shouldn't come to the book expecting to get a whole lot of historical detail explained. Places and events are referenced only in passing and nothing is really explained. Margery is really focused on only writing about what she thinks is important, which is basically just her spiritual experiences and how those played out in society. She doesn't tell us anything about her childhood, teenagehood, her children (except for one particular story where one of her 10-ish children became a believer), or really most aspects of her life except as they are related to her spiritual experiences. As such it got a bit monotonous to be transparent. The vast amount of similar weeping experiences and reactions of people were a bit stultifying.
However what I found more interesting were some of the things God spoke to her in her heart. I didn't necessarily agree with all of them–after all this is when everyone was Catholic and believed in purgatory and other such things that I don't agree with–but there were many gems there nonetheless. I took notes and wrote down many.
So while this wasn't necessarily the best thing I've ever read, I am glad that I read it. It will probably be several years till I reread it. I do recommend that Christians read this, especially if you have any interest in discovering what Christians of other times experienced, if you want to get a full broad swathe of Christianity, then this is for you. But if you're not a Christian don't even bother reading this; you will probably be bored and/or hate it.
I'm glad I know Margery. I wish I could have met her.
This book is about the adopted daughter of Death. It's an afrofuturist magical realism story set in Ghana; lots in here about shea butter and the matriarchal society really shines through as well; enjoyed the light touch on giving a slice of the culture.
This is a coming of age story about a young girl who suddenly has the power of death which, at the onset, is completely subconscious; it flares up as her body's reaction to feeling threatened. Towards the beginning of the story her power kills everyone in her town including her mother and father and sibling. From then onward she roams the land from place to place and people give her anything she wants, both fearing and pitying her. Sometimes hating her. Sometimes loving her, when she eases the passing of people who are greatly suffering. Oh and a mysterious fox follows her around. Oh and whenever she touches technology (cars, robots, whatever) it ceases to function.
All of that is basically the setting and initial premise, the setup for the story. What is the story? Well, it's a bit complicated. It feels like the coming of age story often but that's not the only main part. There's an evil corporation doing evil things, but that's just really in the background. There's a significant amount of story around how tech affects culture and vice versa. But I'd say the main story might be more about how one relates to oneself, especially the parts of oneself that are really hard to live with.
Yes, that's a very important part of it. Perhaps the central thread. But certainly just one of many important threads. This book is more like a tapestry than a subway diagram. Which I like. That brings me to another thing I noticed, informed by my studies of cross-cultural communication. There's a big difference between African storytelling and Western story telling. Western story telling is more about cause and effect, a focused linear plot; it's more obvious what the plot is. Non Western cultures tend to think more holistically, like a tapestry. My thought is...this story is a really good blend of the two. It's very cultural, it feels like the author is probably familiar with Ghana (a lot of nuances of a different culture come through), and yet it's written so that Westerners can sink their teeth into it too.
If you're looking to broaden your horizons into non Western literature this would be a great place to start.
A short practical book about time management that focuses on figuring out what's meaningful and aligning yourself with that in practical ways. It starts off by saying that the idea of being “balanced” with your time is BS—a good point—and then goes on to define balance in a different way than it's been used, a way I found much more helpful and realistic.
More of the examples are women than men (lots of moms who have several kids and a job or other commitments), but all the principles are equally applicable to pretty much anyone. I wouldn't hesitate recommending this to men even though it's written by a woman.
I like non fiction like this that is short and to the point and makes me feel like I'm not wasting time by reading too much filler. Also this was certainly engaging and written in a breezy and relatable style. Most importantly perhaps, it also included a link to a free set of worksheets that you print off from online that are useful for helping yourself engage more and do some practical work around this stuff.
I recommend it for anyone feeling stressed about time in their life. This isn't a guide about how to jam pack your schedule even more or how to optimize every minute of your day (things that would add stress). It's about addressing the real problems we have with time (like identifying the different ways in which we end up doing things that aren't important out of a sense of obligation for example or misplaced guilt or perceived value, etc) and talking about how to stop doing those things and start doing what's most important. Which involves also identifying what those most important things are.
Solid book.
Lots of practical advice. This was really useful to me even though I'm not what you would traditionally call an “entrepeneur.” I was mainly applying the advice to my book-writing on the side. Not everything was applicable (like the section on hiring & firing), but most of it was. Time management, how to focus on what to do, how to know when to quit your day job, and many other things.
Paedophilia.
Also, the idea that writing is bad is in here? A bit ironic.
With that said, even in my least favorite of all of Socrates' dialogues so far, I still enjoyed quite a few gems in this. The first 2/3 were about love (specifically, love for a man and his boy), and the last 1/3 is about defining what rhetoric is and should do, including some interesting tangents, particularly the one about how writing is inferior to oral discourse as you can't debate with the writing and it needs its author to defend itself. Of course this argument is kind of laughable to me but still...interesting.
Some of the other interesting things are...
244A madness gets a bad rap
246E reference to man's fallen nature, which apparently was present in Greek mythology before Greek culture was influenced by Christianity
248D Socrates believed people had personality types, basically, although he doesn't exactly come up with an exact system
250B effusive prasie of viewing the glorious transcendent pure forms
251B Love gives your soul its wings back
259B Myth about muses & cicadas
270D Rhetoric targets the soul; therefore we must understand the soul first in order to know what is good or bad rhetoric.
272D Good rhetoricians argue by what is likely, not by what is true.
274E An Egyptian myth (or one invented by Plato but attributed to them) re the invention of writing and discussion of it between two gods
275C Downsides of writing
279B An example given of Socrates praying; here he's praying to Pan
Aside: our culture has changed a lot in the last 10 years. We have quickly gone from where there was almost no M/M and F/F relationships in mainstream books, to today, where we have books where almost every romantic relationship in the whole book is not heterosexual.
This book is interesting, slow, more focused on character development than plot. It is about a traveling spaceship captain, Nia Imani, who adopts a boy. There are overtones about empires exploiting people. There are some interesting concepts about FTL travel, but this is not a hard SF book; it's quite soft but still interesting from a literary perspective.
There is a host of characters, most of them crew members of the ship, and the cast includes a lot of strong females and not really any strong males. It is a bit noticeable. We're in this interesting place culturally where we have reacted so strong against traditional masculinity and traditional romantic relationships that now everything has to be NOT that. Someday I'm sure the pendulum will swing back but that seems to be where we are now. Anyways, moving back to the book.
There's this interesting boy who crash-lands (alone, naked, not in a spaceship) on a particular planet, and they have to figure out what to do with him. That's the opening situation of the main plot. This boy doesn't talk at all for a long time, and it quickly becomes clear that he's suffered a lot of trauma in his past. This sets the tone for the book: this is a serious story that involves a lot of sad things. This is not a light fluffy read where everyone gets married happily forever after in the end. But it is a serious, contemplative read with characters who grow and change and affect each other, and there is a lot of genuine beauty in the sad parts. I don't want to say more about the sad parts to spoil what happens, but it's done very well. This is a good book.
The downside is it's a bit slow. This is a character book. But this is a character book full of characters that are likable.
This book is a study in misery. I loved it.
The first part of the book takes place in Shadrapar, the last city on Earth. It's millions of years in the future and the sun is bloated; dying, perhaps.
There is a recurring theme throughout the book of lost technology and information. There are a lot of archaeologists and scavengers and small factions of people who have knowledge that no one else has. There is also blatant corruption and devious political intrigue happening in the background. The culture of Shadrapar could be described as dystopian, but it's so far in the future that things are almost unrecognizable (and wonderfully original in vibes). The one thing that is abundantly recognizable is the selfish human nature on all sides.
The second part of the book takes place on the prison barge that trawls the water between the city of Shadrapar and their destination, a prison island. The main character has been condemned to suffer. Just in traveling through the swamp and seeing the bizarre creatures that attack them, a lot is revealed about the planet.
Essentially, the planet is going through another phase of accelerated evolution, like the Cambrian Explosion. They theorize that the planet is trying all sorts of things to adapt to Earth's changing conditions. Life is growing really fast and they encounter all kinds of unknown and dangerous things in the swamp, both in this section of the book, and again later. Not only are there all kinds of wonderfully horrifying monsters, but there are several species with varying degrees of sentience.
In addition, there are different human factions that are creating artificial humans of different kinds, and so between those and the sentient monsters there is a lot of interesting shades of intelligence and self-awareness, which gets really interesting.
The next part of the book, taking up the most pages, takes place on The Island, which is a floating prison in a swamp-jungle with no solid walls—just cane bars everywhere. No one has any privacy and monsters from the water come to prey on the prisoners in the lower levels. The prison exists to mine minerals from the water. The Island is floating, sustained by four huge pumps. There is a filtration system to remove living stuff from the water, and that stuff is made into a stew that is all the prisoners have to eat. The prisoners are also subject to the capricious whims of the Marshall, whose true name is never discovered, and who enjoys killing people for the sake of perceived order.
A bunch of people die every time you turn a page in this book. It's a killfest. The prison culture has a complete disregard for the value of human life.
The book is largely about surviving prison, and all the brutalities of that. But there is also so much more. There is a whole part about developing psychic powers, there's this last book of a famous evolutionist scholar who was imprisoned at the end of his life (the main character is set to the task of translating it), there is an underworld with an alternative government system, there's SO MANY fascinating things in this book.
And most importantly, there is a veritable host of interesting characters, some of which seem to represent different aspects of humanity in an almost elemental way, but others of which are complex and nuanced.
This is a great book in so many ways. I realize not everyone enjoys reading about so much misery, but I do. Well, I mostly do. There was one catch for me. As it got to the end I developed a feeling that this book's outlook on humanity was increasingly pessimistic. As if there isn't anything good about humanity. Humans only do allegedly good things out of actually selfish reasons. Humanity has just screwed up and not done anything right. And humanity is just all dying; everyone's going to die.
So the question formed in me, is this book's tone meant to be just depressing and hopeless?
The answer to that is complex. On the one hand, everyone dying kind of makes sense with the theme, because after all, this is the story of the end of humanity, and the end of the world. It fits with the setting.
On the other hand, what about the fact that humans seem incapable of having any actual love and compassion for each other? As I thought carefully, I realized that might not be completely the case. There are some instances where you could argue either way. But I can't think of a single instance where the author makes clear that someone did something truly altruistically. Or at least, where considerable doubt isn't cast on them.
I whole-heartedly reject pessimism. I've experienced my fair share of selfish people doing evil things. But I've also gained some perspective of why people do evil things when they themselves don't want to be evil. And I've also experienced a lot of people doing truly altruistic things when they “shouldn't” have from a psychological perspective. Humanity has all the most beautiful things inside them as well, not just all the most ugly things.
But you could say, does this story have an element of the truth by representing humanity's ugliness? Sure, an element. I just don't think it's very balanced. So that's why I can't really give this a perfect rating. It just doesn't give me hope and seems to be lacking in some relational ways. Out of this entire host of characters, not one person really loves anyone? Ugh. It is mostly set in a prison, so there's that.
But essentially, while I loved the world, the ideas, the variety of characters, the high kill count, and the prose in general, it's the tone that didn't land for me.
All the same, this is still a great book worth reading, so long as you can handle all the misery without it depressing you. It does have worlds of things to say about what is really human, the relationship between man and nature, and ideas about the end of the world. It is vast and varied in its exploration of its worldbuilding and despite its length I found it very engaging.
This is probably a book I will be rereading; it's written well. I'm very grateful to the Tchaikovsky for having written it. He's rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors.
“The last two were a girl and her father...” Full stop. This is my favorite opening line that I've read in a while. It just starts with “The last two.” That makes you stop and think, the last two of...what has happened? It's just so overwhelmingly understated, like you're coming into this after a whole world of pain and suffering has happened, and this is the final chapter.
Now for the full line.
“The last two were a girl and her father who lived on the old eastern range on the side of a mountain they called the mountain that stands alone.”
This sums up the style and focus of this book. It's not focused on the apocalypse, or even the post-apocalyptic period of men fighting each other. It's focused only on a girl and her father, presumably the very last humans alive on earth.
The wording “girl and her father” is intentional, as this is really more of the girl's story than her father's, although he's a very important character.
It is a coming-of-age story, but not really like any that I've ever read, for one, because this story involves a large degree of physical isolation and loneliness, because the world is completely empty of a single other human being once her father dies. This is one of, if not the loneliest book I have read. It got me in touch with my feelings quick.
The first half of the book is essentially a different story than the second. There's no discontinuity between the two halves or anything; chronologically yes it's one story. But the entire nature of the story completely changes halfway through when her father dies. And then the rest of the book is basically a survival story with a very important magical realism element, whereas the first half of the book is not either of those things.
The style of the book is very straightforward; no fancy sentences and few long words. It's a style that is hard to pull off correctly, but in my opinion this book nailed it on the head. Loved the style. It reads like a fairy tale or myth.
This book is so beautiful. It is a requiem for the end of humanity, for nature and its relationship with man and how nature will be here a long time after mankind leaves the scene. It's a very nature-centric book. It's a book of simply describing things beautifully. There are no morals. Things simply are. It is simply a story. It's a very quiet, almost solemn story. I felt more connected with my humanity and the earth, and I'm very glad this has been in my life.
It's a short read and probably different from anything else you've read. It's an easy read, in some ways quite simple, and yet somehow still has a literary, deep feel to it. It imparts a quietness to the soul that is valuable. I recommend it.
This is good, but not as good as A Memory Called Empire. I guess I wish there was more in this book about the aliens and maybe the war. It feels like not much interesting happens with most of the Eight Antidote subplot, except at the end. And the scenes on Lsel Station are also mostly empty of much happening. Also, like half of the book is filler stuff where a short scene is drawn out really long with lots of inner thoughts about very tangentially related stuff that's already been rehashed to death, with the person thinking “I know this doesn't matter right now, but I'm going to think about all this other stuff right now anyways.” And there's just a lot of repitition that waters it down.
With that said, this still has the same beautiful style as the first book, the same kinds of interesting poetry and more of the interesting worldbuilding. The aliens are interesting and exploring the variations of collective thinking is interesting. Also there's a love story developing between the two main female characters. Content warning–most of this book is not sexual but there is one scene that is pretty explicit.
I enjoyed it for the most part. It's just that by the time I was halfway through I found myself skimming and skipping lots of sentences where I already knew what it was going to say before it said it and I wanted the book to stop wasting my time on that. I feel like if this book was just trimmed down to 2/3 the length it would have been perfect.
I'm probably the only one who read this straight from cover-to-cover instead of using it more as a reference. The I-Ching was designed to be used for divination, which is where a question is answered through a process involving luck, with a spiritual belief that the outcome will be accurate. I don't practice divination, but I still wanted to read this to learn all the wisdom therein. The I-Ching is the oldest significant work of Chinese literature.
In ancient times, commentary by Confucius was added to it, the “Ten Wings.” This particular text that I read was a translation into English by Taoist Master Huang, who included not only those commentaries, but also his own commentary, all of which are invaluable for explaining the gua (the original texts) which are written as cryptic poetry which had meaning to ancient feudal Chinese readers, but many (if not most) of the meaning would be lost to us now (random example: I never would have guessed that crossing great rivers signifies undertaking dangerous activities). If you were to read the gua without explanation you would be mystified, but Huang explains everything very well so even a complete Westerner can understand it.
Some of what I found most interesting was the cosmology explained at the beginning of the book: yellow is the color of earth and blue the color of heaven, and when the two unite they generate a multitude of beings. Also, the significance of yin and yang is explored in great depth; the concept is much more sophisticated and interesting then my basic idea of it had been. These concepts that are taught at the beginning come up again and again as you read the 64 gua.
There are 64 gua because there are 8 different elements, and you get two elements, so 8x8=64. The elements are heaven, earth, water, fire, thunder, mountain, lake, wind/wood. (Yes: wood and wind are treated as the same element.) Each gua represents a particular stage of life or season and has wisdom on how to get through that season as well as possible. Some seasons appear to be wonderful, and the I Ching usually teaches caution in these cases. Some seasons appear to be terrible, and the I Ching usually teaches hope and perseverance in these cases—things will get better. In fact I would be amiss to not mention that the overarching theme of the I Ching is change. The only constant in life is change. And after things progress to their extremes, they then alternate to their opposites. This comes up again and again, and when reading the gua in order from 1-64 you can see the progression; Huang calls out why each one alternates to the next one.
While I'm not an expert on the different translations of the I-Ching into English, I can say this, Huang constantly puts in what the other translations named each gua and why he disagrees when he does. He also has a way of explaining things very thoroughly in a way that is satisfying. And he includes commentaries that other translations don't, and that's actually very important from what I can tell. Those commentaries bring a lot of life to the text. So I would recommend that anyone who is a Westerner who wants to read the I-Ching use this translation as it is simply very thorough and well-written.
So how good was the wisdom? Was it life-changing? I would say that it was often very insightful. I took a lot of notes. There were many parts that I didn't really understand or that didn't necessarily click for me, but every single gua always had at least a couple of parts that were really good to think about. This was well worth reading, although it was long! This translation is 500 pages, and they are big pages. So it's not a quick read. But if you really want to delve into the history of ancient literature, I would say this is very rewarding.
The way these are written gives you inadvertent glimpses of what life was like in ancient China. Marshes were associated with joy, because these wide flat marshes were where an abundance of food was grown. Crossing great rivers was a dangerous event, to only be undertaken during auspicious times. Hunted game had three grades: the top grade was killed by shooting it through the heart and could be presented at offerings, the middle grade was hit in the legs and could be used at banquets, and the lowest grade was hit in the belly and could only be eaten by the person who killed it. Under the Shang dynasty, there were slaves, but King Wen abolished slavery, angering a lot of slave owners but ushering in a new era of productivity. On and on, there are hundreds of interesting facts you learn about this era that paint a full vivid picture of what life was like for these people thousands of years ago—for me that is a rich thing indeed to get to see. It isn't all good; the I Ching's view of gender is, well, really different than ours today. But I tried to not let that distract me from learning all I could from this work of art.
This morning I finished the I Ching, and it was a feeling of accomplishment and musing. Remember how the I Ching teaches that after things proceed to their extremes, they alternate to their opposites? The cycle of 64 gua begins with Initiating, which is all yang, followed by Responding, which is all yin. It starts off with alternating between extremes. At the end, the second-to-last gua is Already Fulfilled, followed by Not Yet Fulfilled. Both of these have three yin and three yang and every line alternates from the last one: they are the most perfectly balanced gua. But Already Fulfilled has all the lines in the “correct” places, whereas Not Yet Fulfilled has all the lines in the “incorrect” places. It was interesting that Already Fulfilled is not the ending of the cycle. Actually, it's the second to last, because after fulfilling one goal, then one realizes that there is a completely new undertaking that must be focused on, and the last gua—Not Yet Fulfilled, which is a period of realizing that everything is wrong—leads directly into the beginning of the next cycle, the Initiating, the pure yang energy of heaven that pushes forward to make a new thing.
As always the advice in the last two gua was counter-intuitive on first glance, but makes sense when you think about it. Already Fulfilled is actually filled with warnings, because this is the stage when people become complacent; they have their goals fulfilled and there is nothing else to do. They become given to excess and indulgence. Not Yet Fulfilled is actually more auspicious than you would think; it is a time of trouble, and yet, because one is in a balanced place, one can move forward cautiously and know that, because the time is ripe for change, he will probably have great success moving forward.
Perhaps my biggest takeaway from reading the I Ching is a greater awareness of seasons of life than anything else I've ever read. I feel I have a lot more depth of understanding of the progression of life and how one should act in different circumstances—when to embrace pain, when to be cautious about joy, or when to do the opposite. There was a whole lot of interpersonal stuff in here too that I didn't really touch on. But suffice it to say...this was a truly great book.
This was so sad I probably would've cried if I hadn't known ahead of time how it was going to end. I've heard Of Mice and Men be explored as a commentary on the dualism of each of us having two men (or women) inside of us; one is rational/civilized and the other is physical/primordial. George is the rational man, who is trying to do the right thing, trying to take care of the physical man, but the body has physical needs and is overwhelmed by feelings: fear drives it to do terrible things, after which it feels shame and guilt, but is unable to remember the bigger picture and stop from repeating the same habits again and again. Of course if you apply this analogy to the story then George having to kill Lenny is a pretty dark message, which I wouldn't endorse. But it's an interesting extra lens to view the story through.
This book is really short, and if you haven't read it–and especially if you haven't read anything by John Steinbeck, this is a must read. I love Grapes of Wrath. But whereas that is 500 pages, this is 100 pages. It's so short that you might as well just read it. It's very sad and powerful and deep.
