My book reviews may be a little esoteric, and are my way of making note of what I’ve learned from each book, or drawing parallels with other books I’ve read, rather than a comprehensive analysis of the book itself.
This extraordinary book examines how ‘animate beings can come out of inanimate matter’ and how meaningless symbols acquire meaning despite themselves. Illustrated with a rich array of metaphors, dialogues, allusions, paradoxes and plenty of puns, and riffing on the mind-bending art of MC Escher, and the intricately composed works of Bach.
First published in 2007, The Black Swan’s influence has continued to be felt, and its advice ignored as people continue to be surprised by events.
In The Trial of Socrates, the prominent dissident journalist I. F. Stone takes a contrarian view of Socrates and shows that he is something other than the unalloyed saint he is often remembered as.
As the name suggests, this book is brief, very brief in fact – the seven lessons are about 10 pages each. But there is great deal of wisdom packed in this brevity.
Through a careful study of human evolution, this book shows how so many health problems we face today are the result of a mismatch between our evolutionary biology and our current lifestyle.
The author combines his extensive knowledge of the plays with his experiences as a jobbing actor to make suggestions for the roles which Shakespeare played in each of his own plays.
There is something troubling yet satisfying in reading about other people’s business failures, especially those as narcissistic, unpleasant and generally removed from reality as the characters in these two stories.
Centuries of Darkness makes a powerful case for over-turning the traditional chronology of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean and Middle East, and the subsequent assumed Greek and other Dark Ages.