When I decided I needed a blog again, rather than start fresh, I decided to convert old book review blog to something more general purpose. I deleted all the posts that didn’t age well and in the interest of OCD, I decided to consolidate the old book reviews into batches. This is the seventh batch, they were posted in July 2008 reviewing/commenting on books I read the previously.
Title: Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar
Author: Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
Read: July 2008
Edition: Audible.com audio book
This book presents a survey of the various disciplines of philosophy and illustrates their tenants through jokes. At first, it didn’t seem like it would work, but I listened to the except and was hooked. If you feel like you need the Cliff Notes survey of the field of philosophy, you could do a lot worse. Many of the jokes fall flat and the authors know it, but some are really funny. Of course, you can’t really tell anyone any of them because they are too off the wall and who do you really want to tell you are reading a philosophy book anyway?
Four stars.
Title: On the Wealth of Nations
Author: P.J. O’Rourke
Read: June 2008
Edition: Audible.com audio book
Who knew economics could be funny, much less interesting. Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is one of those books you know you ought to read, but never seem to get around to. It’s 900 pages are pretty daunting. Then my wife pointed me at this version of it, and I have to say, it’s awesome. No, I still don’t consider that I have “read†the Wealth of Nations, but I think I get the gist of it.
I can’t really do it justice, so I won’t try. If listening to the excerpt on the web site isn’t enough to make you buy it, it’s not for you. P.J. O’Rourke is gifted and has a very appealing (to me) sense of humor. If you are a libertarian, this is your book. I have listened to this at least 3 times. It’s a go to book for long flights.
Five stars for a fall down funny book.
If you’d like to really get into the Scottish Enlightenment, I’d recommend Smith’s other book (far more approachable IMO) The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
Title: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman
Read: July 2008
Edition: eBook on the Kindle
This is the second novel by Neil Gaiman that I have tried to read. And failed. He gets a lot of press as a good and creative author and I want to believe it. But, I yet to really get into one of his books. This one is about how people from Europe brought their beliefs and gods with them when the emigrated to America. The concept that the power of a god is directly related to the number of people that worship him isn’t new in fiction, but Gaiman gives it a grittier spin.
The protagonist is an ex-con with absolutely nothing to lose and get mixed up in a power struggle with the old gods (those that came with folks from Europe and who have been steadily loosing power as fewer and fewer people believe in the old ways) and the new gods that were born of the things that modern Americans worship.
But, the action is disjointed and frequently just bewildering. I kept at it, feeling like it’s “almost†there, but not quite. In the end, I just couldn’t go on, the book was depressing and the writing just not engaging enough for me to stick it out.  It may just be me, and there are some good scenes, so don’t take this as something you should stay away from, but caveat emptor.
One star.
Title: Military Intelligence
Author: John Keegan
Read: June 2008
Edition: Hardback (ISBN 0091802296)
This was a pretty good book. Keegan sets out to show how intelligence effects the outcome of warfare. Some of the results are surprising. All of the stories he uses to illustrate the points are good. I really liked the treatment of the Falklands War, something that gets overlooked all too often.
Overall, I don’t think it breaks new ground for me, but it was a good read and has a suitable number of maps and two sections of pictures. I give it 4 stars.