Books Read: December 2007 Edition

It’s hard to get anything read during holiday time, so once again, only got a few in. But it’s going to get worse when Lost comes back on. I WILL be spending 24 hours a day thinking about, talking about, and researching, that special TV show that has melted my brain and replaced the missing parts with nano theories and numerical coincidences and family connections…all FICTIONAL. Who needs real life??

So anyhoo, here’s what I read in December…

1. 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out, Vol. 1, eds. David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott. This book is a collection of essays by people who have the authority, education, and/or power to say something important about 9/11: what it was, how it happened, and how it affects the growth of the American Empire. Many excellent perspectives, especially if you don’t know a whole lot about the official story of 9/11 or what legislative and economic changes have occurred since that event.

2. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. A little outdated, being published in the late 90s, but still quite relevant to see what ol’ Carl had to say. The book was more or less a collection of essays put together in book form (with transitions) that discuss the past, present, and future of how science illuminates the dark corners of the world that humans tend to imagine are filled with demons, angels, and gods. Carl Sagan is generally very diplomatic and careful in this book to not offend the religious. But the point is simple: those things we have always attributed to gods are growing fewer in number as science steps forward and explains the whys and hows. And those explanations are just as beautiful and miraculous, if not more so, than magic or religion.
3. The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott. Yes I laughed my ass off that “Michael Scott” wrote this book. A good start to a new series about current adventures with a pair of twins who meet up and fight magical bad guys with Nicholas Flamel, who is a real guy from the past, but in the book discovered the secret of immortality. He and his wife are now hundreds of years old and are helping the twins fulfill a prophecy. As I read this book, I kept replaying some of the stuff in Carl Sagan’s book about how now days too much attention is given to astrology and stories about sorcery. That we raise our children on stories about magic instead of stories about science. In fact, more often than not, the bad guy is the scientist. What’s more, what appears to be science, often is just magic disguised (Nicholas Flamel, the ALCHEMIST…). Seems like science until they have to add flimflam or voodoo in an attempt to cross boundaries that can’t be crossed in science. Meaning, unreality. Still, I liked it and will probably try to read the next one.
4. Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads by Joel Best. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, but I read it cuz it was short. Too specific to academic fads, too general once inside that category. Basically like someone put hard covers on their doctoral thesis.
5. Tell No One by Harlan Coban. Heard Harlan Coban is the next big thing. He has several books, but people are really just now reading them. Heard from several people that this one is one of his best and to start here. It was ok. I don’t know, it just didn’t live up to the hype. It was pretty good, and I could definitely see it as a movie or something, until the umpteenth twist at the end. That last twist really seemed contrived and I felt like the behavior of the main character would not have been quite what it was had this contrived ending been true. Meh. Oh well. Still a good fluff read.
6. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein. READ THIS BOOK. LISTEN TO THIS BOOK. KNOW ABOUT THIS BOOK. Easily the best book I’ve read about economics and politics ever. Of course, I’ve not read that many. Also the most important book I’ve read about American empire (without ever saying it) since The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson. I will be buying this book.