1434, Gavin Menzies

1434:  The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance by Gavin Menzies is an audio book that I picked up when looking for another book that was titled with a number.  This book claims that China inspired the renaissance and suggests that Da Vinci was really a decent draftsman, but not inventor.  Reviews of this book pretty consistently label it as fiction (as here in the Telegraph) or at least an effort by the author to willfully misconstrue "evidence."  This perception is not helped by his subsequent publication of a book on Atlantis.  Menzies is not taken seriously by any established historian.

Started:  09/09/2016

Completed: 09/10/2016

Recommendation: Not recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

I stopped listening to this book part way through.  I enjoy history.  I have noticed that books that purport to be history, but are not, tend to give very detailed information about undisputed things and then make casual assertions about highly debatable things.  In this book, exhaustive analysis was provided for the location of certain islands (lat/long down to the the second) which is easily found numerous places.  Exhaustive analysis was given on plausible ways to calculate lat/long from information given by the star charts available to the Chinese in the 12-1400s.  No evidence was given, however, that any of the methods of calculation were actually used (the assertion that something could be done implied that it must have been done in that way).  I overlooked the assertion that because the Chinese used some method of calculating something like lat/long, then they must have known that the Earth was spherical, that they must have assigned lat/long, etc.  I also overlooked obvious non-correlations like the Chinese word for the distance of a star from Polaris being called "ascension."  The actual word is 入宿度 and I have no idea how to seek out the etymology of this word in Chinese, but I doubt seriously that it corresponds to "ascension" and it seems more likely that the word is simply translated to "ascension."  The author claims that the current European understanding of "ascension" comes from the Chinese which just seems remarkably unlikely given that the concept of "ascension" predates interaction between the cultures.

What really got me, however, was the discussion of the attire of students at Al-Azhir University in Cairo, Egypt being the ancestral source of the clothing worn at Oxford, England.  There is little doubt that the 11th century University predates Oxford (founded in 1326).  But the similarity in attire is surface only and it seems highly unlikely that a Muslim practice which originated at the same time as the crusades started would be adopted by a Christian nation.  Moreover, the Oxford attire is characterized by a hood (worn for warmth) which is not present at all in the attire of Al-Azhir.  The assertion that one derived from the other was thrown off as a casual comment in the work, but it stopped me cold.  If it were true, then it would suggest an enormous influence over education between the Muslim and Christian world.  While such a link is clearly possible (they had in common the works of the Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans), to suggest such a strong link that the English even don the style of the Muslim's dress seems to suggest an intimate relationship and even a paternal relationship which simply does not exist.

That this was casually thrown out by the author with none of the detailed certification linked to the obvious facts and the nonsensical use of a translated word to imply derivation suggested to me that this author was no historian at all.  Further research bore this out.  I wish I could enjoy whatever portion of his work is genuine, but it is so entwined with what can only be described as fanciful that I cannot figure out how to resolve one from the other.  I'd rather not have such a combination lingering in my subconscious, so I stopped listening to the book.

John Adams, David McCollough

John Adams by David McCullough won the Pulitzer Prize among other awards and receives rave reviews.  This is the audio version which I got for the commute.

Started: 8/28/2016

Completed: 9/9/2016

Recommendation: Slow Read, but good history

Recommended By: Everyone

Review:

Our first vice-president and second president manages to fall under the radar of most.  I was unaware of his role in the Declaration of Independence, though I was aware that he and Jefferson had an on-again off-again relationship most of their lives and that both died on July 4th in the same year.  I new that Adams was a plain man who viewed the role of the Founding Fathers within a proper historical context even if he was unsure whether it would be fame or infamy.

I learned a lot about his role in relationships with foreign countries and though I had a passing knowledge that he was involved at one point as a French ambassador (I read about this in the book 46 pages) but I did not realize the scope and length of his foreign travels.  On some level I thought that he had been more active in the Revolutionary War than he actually was and I was unaware that he was the lawyer who defended the British troops after the Boston Massacre.

Adams was truly an interesting man who lived his convictions.  I admire him in this way and also share his love of books.  I have several more books about Adams and about the difficulties between Adams and Jefferson so I am inclined to reserve judgement on this book without having learned more about him.

It would seem that Adams and Aaron Burr had little or no relationship given what I have read here and in Gore Vidal's Burr but it seems odd to me that the two would not have interacted.  It also seems odd to me that Adams and Hamilton did not interact much more than the book describes.  Perhaps this is a want of space or perhaps it is because the book clearly uses the letters between Adams and his wife Abigail as a primary source of information.  It could also be that both Burr and Hamilton were young, ambitious, and rude--the latter two characters would certainly have rubbed Adams the wrong way.

I was inspired by Adams' position on slavery and found his attempts to address this with Jefferson (who seemed conflicted at best) interesting and insightful.  I also was not surprised to find that a large part of Adams' success as a man of the world could be attributed to Abigail who supported him unquestioningly.

Anathem, Neal Stephenson

Anathem by Neal Stephenson  is a book that has been on my to-read list for a while and has been ponderously progressing through the pile.  It is a HUGE book and I have to admit that I have grown tired of moving it from stack to stack and shelf to shelf.  I checked to see if it was on Audio and, indeed, all 28 discs can be had from the library.  So, I picked it up and I have something new to which I can listen in the car.  This novel received the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2009.  Discouraging, Michael Dirda (whom I respect) found the book "pretty darn dull."

Started:  7/24/2016

Completed: 8/28/2016

Recommendation: Well worth the volume

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

It is easy to think that this is a work of science fiction.  It isn't.  This is a book about physics and, in particular, the Many World's Theorem of Physics.  I finally get it.  It finally makes sense to me.  Thank you, Neal Stephenson.

As a novel this book is pretty good.  Stephenson does a very good job of building a consistent, completely alien, world.  It is different enough from our world to be clearly alien, yet familiar enough that most of the behaviors and technologies only need cursory explanations.  The audio version has lots of music that really makes the world seem more real.

As a love story, this book is a flop.  Boy ignores girl, boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.  C'mon Stephenson, you can do so much better.  The romance between Fra Leo and Valore (not a character, but a kind of loving history of martial technology) is so much better then the romance between Fra Erasmus and Sur (sp?) Aela.  Even Cord (sp?) has a better romance then "Ras."

The world building is second to none, the basic plot that carries the story forward, however, is physics.  The physics sort of falls apart at the end, but it needs to be a novel for some reason.  I'm comfortable with that.  The relationships between the main character group collapses and sort of drags as the story moves forward and I'm completely unclear about the extensive side trip in the snow (it doesn't seem to forward the story, but does offer a little foreshadowing) and so, I found that hard to enjoy.  The end product, however, and the clear explanation of the Many Worlds Theorem was excellent.  It was completely worth the time and there is a need to build up a lot if one is going to make an incomprehensible theory understandable.  Thank you, Neal Stephenson.

The End of Work, Jeremy Rifkin

The End of Work:  The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era by Jeremy Rifkin.   This book was recommended to me by a friend who heard I was interested in trying to work on poverty.

Started:  08/06/2016

Completed: 11/18/2016

Recommendation: N/A

Recommended By:  Dr. Amen

Review:

I have been struggling to read this book, but I have been frustrated with the claims and it just seems like, in light of the recent election, it is simply unrealistic.  I'm not saying it is fantasy, but trying to implement the reforms this book recommends seem so incredibly unlikely as to convince me that we will need to derive a different solution then that proposed.

Riddled with Life, Marlene Zuk

Riddled with Life:  Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites that Make Us Who We Are by Marlene Zuk is a book that I picked up due to a book review in Science News.

Started:  5/27/2016

Completed: 8/6/2016

Recommendation: Very interesting, worth the time

Recommended By:  Science News

Words for which I sought help:

facile -- easily achieved, effortless

Review:

Yuk.  OK, so that is out of the way.  Parasites are gross and this book digs into them.  There is no doubt that there is a tremendous amount of cross-fertilization between animals and parasites.  This book makes that remarkably clear.  Parasites are not all bad, however, as some of the stuff they do actually helps us out.

The author would pretty much have you believe that evolution is simply the story of this interactive battle between animals and parasites.  This is a strong conclusion to draw and, when faced with it directly, the author demurs.  The scale of data, however, and the arguments in the book say otherwise.  This is timely information as well.  The author makes a strong argument for infection in general causing some other ancillary long-term illnesses.  The author does not extend to the likelihood that vaccinations could induce these long-term illnesses, but the argument is a logical extension.

So, there is a huge amount of information involved here and the reading is rather dry.  The argument is made clearly, however, that bacteria in particular and parasites in general aren't going to go away no matter what we do.  They will adapt to the environment we present for them.  We are simply irresistible and they have evolutionary capabilities that facilitate adaptations to deal with everything we can throw at them.  To some extent, in the end, we are going to have to figure out how to live with them--this will be particularly true when antibiotics are no longer effective.

In the meantime, it makes sense to pay attention to the stuff that grows in you and lives on you.  Should you eat dirt?  Maybe, it probably should have clay in it if you do.  This book is not a big cautionary tale, it is more of an effort to just let all of us know a little more about stuff that most microbiologists know really well.  Should you eat sushi?  Those in the know simply don't take the risk, even if it is small.

The book is well worth reading, the material is interesting, there is, however, a yuk factor.

The Information, James Gleick

The Information:  A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick is a book I've had sitting on the shelves for a bit.  It was not next on my list, but I went looking for some books that I could pick up in an audio format to hear in the car and this was the first one that was available in a nearby library.  So, I have the book and the audio.  I enjoyed Gleick's book, Chaos, a few decades or so ago and I really respect his ability to use his journalistic talents to make science understandable.

Started:  6/25/2016

Completed: 7/23/2016

Recommendation: Mild recommendation

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

I would never have thought it would be necessary to describe what the nature of "information" is to anyone.  It seems a ubiquitous and well-understood term.  On the other hand, there are a variety of types of information (as well as methods of conveyance) that would never have occurred to me.  The exhaustive look at language as a method of conveying information and the implications thereof had, frankly, not occurred to me although it was obvious the instant he mentioned it.  Moreover, the implications of the printed page on the way in which we think, forget how we communicate, is a complication I would not have realized without careful thought.

It is also worth noting that I would have been inclined to find definitions for a whole bunch of words if they had not been either explicitly defined in the book or used with great pains to provide meaningful context.  Since the book is about information and a fair portion of the early part of the book revolves around defining words, this makes sense.

The book is a trip down memory lane for most of those familiar with the history of computing and certainly those familiar with crypto-analytics.  For me, the revelation surrounded the role of Claude Shannon, so it must be clear that while I am conversant with Information Theory, I am not a student of its history.  In that sense, this book was good for me because it opened up some more avenues of research of which I had not been aware.

This is a mild recommendation because I fear that if someone is not interested in Information Theory, Cryptography, and/or Computer Science, this book swiftly becomes much too technical.  For those with interests in these areas, this book is unlikely to provide a lot of new information.  If you know Babbage, Turing, and Shannon, this book will fill you in on a few more details.  If you know Wiener, Ada Lovelace, and Clement, then the odds are good that you already have a strong sense of this material and it is highly unlikely, to my eye, that you will learn much more.

Ready Player One, Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is a book recommended to me by two friends, Joe and Mike.  I picked up the audio version from the library (the bulk of the books on my shelf are not in audio format) and found that it was read by Wil Wheaton.  I had a bit of a Sheldon moment when I noticed that, so I should probably amend the sentence to read my friend Wil Wheaton.  I looked at Wil Wheaton's blog which I linked above and it looked mildly interesting.  Much better than this blog, but not something to which I would turn all that often.  Of course, I don't turn to my own blog very often.  So, anyway, if you are reading this, please go look at Wil Wheaton's blog.  He'd like that.  And, of course, he's my friend.  Feel free to remind him if you find yourself talking to him.  He, uhm, might need a reminder...

This book received the Alex Award from Young Adult Library Services which should tell you something about my friends Joe and Mike.  It also won the Prometheus Award from the Libertarian Futurists Society which is a higher honor and a bit more off kilter.  The book has been picked up for a movie that is apparently going to be directed by Steven Spielberg.  Oh yeah, and it is a New York Times Bestseller.

Started:  6/1/2016

Completed: 6/23/2016

Recomendation:  Highly Recommended.  Excellent.  Go get it.  Don't put it on a shelf.  Go get it and read/listen to it.

Recommended By:  Mike and Joe (who should go look at my friend, Wil Wheaton's blog)

Review:

An audio book you can't put down?  Are you kidding me?  So I thought until I sat in the driveway listening to "just a little more" over and over.  This book is AWESOME!

The "Tomb of Horrors" is easily my favorite D&D module and it brought back a huge stream of memories when I ran into it in this book.  It is truly sad that I remembered it so well after not playing in well over 30 years, but that is the kind of impact the module had on this geek.  To wrap it into another book is simply awesome.  The way the author related all of the events reminded me of the first time I "stepped" into the tomb as a player-character.  All of those traps!  It truly took forever to move through the first hallway.

The parallel story of a kid from the "stacks" and his actions within the Oasis blend nicely and appropriately.  The smooth transition back and forth reminded me of Tad Williams' Otherland series of books.  It is nice when the "real world" has consequences like having to go to the bathroom or eat.  It is also nice that this is explained without being constantly relived (so we know the characters are all busy taking care of basic bodily functions, but we aren't constantly exposed to it).

The pure love of 80s stuff is really nice and makes for a warm and homey return to the era when I was a geek and got all geeked out on stuff.  Oh, honestly, I didn't have the grasp of the material that the lead character does (but, really, who does?) but it is mostly familiar and some has caused me to go back and look at (or listen to) things I brushed by at the time (like most of Rush--it turns out that I was pretty familiar with their music even though I didn't realize it; there was one girl in college who used to drink Jack Daniels and listen to Rush like crazy, so I got a big dose of it without realizing it).  Mostly, it let me think of the 80s as a time when I did "cool" stuff instead of "on the outs" stuff.  It is a pleasant fiction.  I also preferred Tempest to other games back when I occasionally went to arcades.

For those of you who have read the book and are just reading this little blog post as a trip down memory lane, remember to keep your quarter in your inventory.  I think that will be a take-away from this book in the same way that always carrying a towel came from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Or something else.  As you may have guessed, I'm not great with society.

Finally, I should note that it is worth getting the audio version.  My friend Wil Wheaton does a masterful job.  He isn't terribly good at making his voice into another person, but he is good enough that you know when the protagonist is speaking and when someone else is speaking.  It is like having a person read a book to you instead of a group of actors "voice act" the book.  It is nice.  In addition, I felt it only appropriate to plug the audio version, 'cause I heard that Wil Wheaton makes something like a nickle a book and it can't hurt to send him an extra nickle (of course, if you are a cheapskate--er, supporter of local access to information--like me, and get it from the library, then you are stretching that nickle pretty thin).