Adi
A memoir written as a letter to the mother. It's beautifully written, though disjoint as times, as our thoughts often are.
I loved the sections of experiences with mom and grandmom, of finding love, of loss (twice), and of addiction. The short section of friends lost to drug addiction was simple yet moving. The prose sometimes, written as thoughts flow, often made comprehension hard. It was a bit hard to read, to stay interested in. Yet, there are many moments from the book, both beautiful and sad, which have stayed vividly in memory.
A very interesting set of notes/memoirs/thoughts from a left leaning British Jew. This book can evoke contrasting responses from people depending on where they lay on the politico-social-populist divides.
Many chapters are informative (God, family, comedy, security), others were confirmatory for me (Israel, race). The two that stood out were the ones on the internet and Poland.
The former was a bit all over the place—it has several important messages but could've been massively improved by skipping some bits (this chapter will also trigger a lot of people on all sides of the political landscape. The latter chapter was tremendously moving, even for anyone who thinks they know all about the Holocaust.
The book is slow to start. It is also hard comprehend initially—is a book length dialog with interspersed timelines and characters, and few names.
Yet, by the time the key characters start getting drink, so did I start getting hooked on the slow, bubbling conversation.
Three book is nothing special. It's just two nearly 60yos spending an evening if drinking and talking, jumping back and forth over 30 years.
If there wasn't a pandemic around, I'd inviting friends over for a catch-up in Dublin tomorrow.
No one writes about training as well as John.
No one can write about the race as well as John.
Most of the book was an average 5 or 6. But the chapters with training and races again hit it out of the park. A decent 8 overall from me. Not as good as the 11 for ‘Once a runner', but fairly good nonetheless.
(Everything on a 10 point scale)
Is the limit in the body's physiology or in the mind, or in a combination of the two? (Mine is surely in the mind, I haven't gone close to limits of my body for running, swimming or cycling)
An exploration of research on limits of endurance performance and how to stretch them. I really enjoyed the middle and last section of the book—covering various physiological elements affecting the body, and the research on identifying and stimulating areas of the brain to stretch performance.
9/10.
A well written primer of our understanding of specific genes and their impact on sports performance—from natural physical traits (height, strength, achilles, calf size, etc) to training ability to pain thresholds and more. David tries to balance the nature (genes) vs nurture (environmental) factors. He also points out, repeatedly, that our understanding of impact of specific genes, specially in combinations, is still very incomplete.
Another takeaway, for me, is that much of what our understanding of these genes reveals is what separates the (say) Olympians from everyday people. The performance differences amongst the people at the top is too small to be explained by our current understanding of genes.
Finally, even at the very top, there are multiple paths to get there. The story of two high jumpers illustrated this well.
Fast, breathless, always moving...
I never connected with the characters. I understood term. I may have even known some Sals and Deans. But I just couldn't connect with them, as people.
Yet, I enjoyed the writing.
Enjoyed the vividness of the scenes.
Enjoyed discovering a subculture of 7 decades ago.
Even, at times, enjoyed the wild wanderings of minds constantly high of mj, insomnia and youth.
Not bad for a book I picked up by mistake.
4.5 ⭐
A really good book covering the state of money power and politics in India over the last decade. The title is a misnomer as the book looks way beyond just the growth and dominance of Billionaires. It covers, apart from the Billionaires, politicians, bureaucrats, media, cricket and more.
Anyone who has followed developments in India closely may already be aware of most of the facts in the book. But even for them, the description of interplay between various sections of the power set will be useful. The analysis of how things work in India, how they got to this state, the challenges ahead, and the potential paths forward are all interesting.
The author pulls his punches, specially when criticising the politicians. This could be to maintain access for himself and the media organisations he works with. This may also just be the journalistic prudence at play—presenting facts not judgements.
I enjoyed the book. The topic, the research, the details felt like they'd been written for me. Read for an understanding of the other view, opposing the early and hyper specialisation that rules the current social and business structures.
Yet, it was a slow, sluggish read. Shorter by a third, and it'd have been a crisp 5* book. Now I'm struggling to choose between 3 and 4.
A really good assessment of South Africa during years of Mbeki's presidency (starts with transition from Mandela, ends with rise of Zuma). Uses a wealth of interviews, anecdotes, and historical perspective to cover all key areas of the society - the party, the violence, failure to deliver, Afrikaners, AIDS, BEE, Zimbabwe and more.
It had its slow moments, specially in the beginning, and a tiny bit of (Western?) proselytising, but they are rare.
3.5* upgraded to 4 🙂
Really enjoyed this book. The descriptions of the trails, the people, the personal relationships and the injuries were all great. My favourite bit tough was the mental battle in the last quarter. We all hit the wall. Some like me hit it at 20 miles. Some like Scott hit it at 1800 miles. Reading his and Kali's thoughts around that was a huge learning and sobering experience. It's been a huge inspiration reading the book after following Scott's movements on social media during the actual event.
A mix of stories, sometimes touching each other. I enjoyed a few - Milly and the fox faced bear man. Others were ok. I really didn't like the punctuation-less flow of the left story - though I understood the fast, punctuation free flow indicating the uncontrollable flow of thoughts the story indicated.
Overall the book was a mixed bag.
This is probably the book that I liked the most in a few years. It made me think, and it taught me to think. It helped me identify flaws in my thoughts and decisions, to categorise them, and then approach them... like an Econ.
It also helped me develop empathy - by helping understand why we sometimes do what we do, when we shouldn't be doing it.
If only it were not so hard to read in the earlier bits, I'd love to give this 6 stars out of 5 🙂
Jake and JZ mix personal experience, academic studies and humour to deliver an excellent list of tactics to help focus, and improve energy and productivity.
Personally, it was good to see the changes I've made in my life in the last two years listed in the book. More comforting was that their reasoning was similar to mine in deciding at those changes.
The best bit was the list of more changes I can now experiment with to further improve focus, productivity and calmness.
Thanks for the book, guys.
Cheers!
Hard to stay interested initially, but well worth the effort
It took me a few weeks to get through the first third of the book, and just a few days to polish off the rest. A marginal case of applying what I read. I'm already planning on reading it again in a month or so - to go from understanding to absorbing the paths to more grit.
The quality of this book is evident from how well it's aged. Written in late 1970s, much of it is still very relevant today.