RSSReviews Archives
February 22, 2007
Bookish Things
Picked up a number of books today, for business and pleasure. In no particular order:
Infidel
Yes, I bought the Hirsi Ali memoir, largely in response to Lounsbury's post (and Economist review, which I thought rather more fair and balanced than the saccharine glurge I just saw in the NYT). She'll be in my neck of the woods sometime soon for a book signing, wonder if I should make an appearance?
Wikinomics
This book seems to be rather popular in some circles I travel in, and my work is sending me to a talk by one of the authors. Appears to cover Web 2.0 (collaboration, social networking) and associated value proposition, impact analysis, etc. Looks interesting.
Continue reading "Bookish Things"
Posted by eerie at 06:46 PM | Comments (31) | TrackBack
November 04, 2006
Saturday Night Reading
I'm supposed to go to another girly gathering tonight but I just can't bring myself to brave the cold weather. As well, I'm reading two very interesting books at the moment. The first one is Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a detailed account of life in the Green Zone after the Iraq invasion. I've mentioned it before, if only to complain about the media hype, but the book itself is fascinating. As expected, the author spends a lot of time describing poor decisionmaking by hilariously incompetent political appointees, but he also notes that the CPA wasn't entirely staffed by green 20-something Republicans. Unfortunately, the experienced post-conflict veterans were often stymied by bureaucracy, inter-agency squabbling, lack of resources and overly optimistic commitments made by Bremer and the White House.
None of the anecdotes are terribly surprising (most were reported in the news), but it's enlightening to see the events arranged as part of a larger narrative that includes US domestic politics, foreign policy, public perception (Iraq and American), etc. Ties everything together rather nicely.
Continue reading "Saturday Night Reading"
Posted by eerie at 06:51 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
August 04, 2006
Possession
Earlier, I mentioned being struck by A.S. Byatt's Possession, after having read about a third of it in a single evening. Unfortunately, as I approach the halfway mark, my attention is wandering and I find myself unable to read more than a chapter without having to put it down.
The premise seemed intriguing at first: a rumpled scholar named Roland, who specializes in the life and works of a long-dead poet, discovers some affectionate notes written by him to a mysterious poetess. Roland subsequently meets up with a female scholar (whose specialty is of course the poetess in question) and together they discover that the two poets enjoyed a sort of intellectual infatuation/affair through a series of letters. Alongside this mystery is an amusing satire of the literary-academic world, and an emerging relationship between the two modern scholars as they attempt to uncover this secret romance.
Posted by eerie at 09:44 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
July 03, 2006
On Precious Delusions and Randomness
I've almost finished reading Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and the Markets. It is brilliant in a quiet, unassuming way. Actually, I find the book annoying because it takes apart so many of my carefully crafted intellectual delusions, for example, the one that allows me to believe I know what's going on because I read a lot of news. However, there is something to be said for an argument that forces you to pause and reflect on your own behaviour (even if the very idea of doing so is irritating).
Continue reading "On Precious Delusions and Randomness"
Posted by eerie at 12:02 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
April 26, 2006
Half-formed thoughts on plagiarism and buggery
[Apologies in advance for my incoherence, wanted to get this down before I forgot]
Lounsbury's note (and the ensuing degenerate commentary) on Kaavya Viswanathan's chick-lit plagiarism caused me to spend a good portion of the afternoon observing blogosphere responses to the allegations. Sepia Mutiny (a desi blog) posted a useful summary of events that led to a rather lively discussion with links to new developments as they were reported. Aside from the knee-jerk schadenfreude, some pondered the impact of this scandal on the wider South Asian community, others commiserated over the "pushy-parent syndrome" that seems to afflict so many Asian cultures and a few balked at the idea of paying $10-20k to a consulting firm (IvyWise in Kaavya's case) to assist students in preparing college applications.
Continue reading "Half-formed thoughts on plagiarism and buggery"
Posted by eerie at 06:20 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
