List of books I’ve read in 2021

  • 2021-12-01 Keith Hitchins: A Concise History of Romania
    I’ve been taught history largely during the communist regime. The propaganda lies and exaggerations were obvious, but that’s not enough to figure out the actual story. And then there were the books of Lucian Boia. I liked how he picked propaganda myths and would explain what we actually know about the historical issue. Keith’s book by contrast is a relatively balanced book. There are a few interesting points like the suggestion that the unity of written Romanian language might be linked to it being derived from the first printed books by Coresi (hence similar to the Braşov/nearby northern Valachia dialect). It’s not a entirely neutral either, it has an American point of view feel (not surprising, given the author) e.g. in the selection of topics to emphasise: the focus on the major political actors, the focus on the fate of historians in the communist period and the choice to de-emphasise the experience of the majority of the population throughout history.
  • 2021-08-14 Marcus Aurelius: Meditations
    Lovely insight into the stoic thinking. Roughly that word is made out of earth, water, air and fire, that somehow it has purpose, that gods exists, that we have soul and that our purpose is to do good and justice for the benefit of all. Ironically, though not Christian, you can see the roots of some Christian ideas. He had 14 children, of which half died early in childhood, a mark of the times where even a Roman emperor had to suffer that.
  • 2021-08-03 Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene
    The book that coined the term meme. Most of the book though is an accessible argument that evolution relies on selection at gene level (e.g. not at group level). Interesting examples of how complex behaviour (deception, altruism) could emerge: e.g. hawks and doves, but it’s more like modelling rather than explaining. Likes argument for the argument’s sake. The “selfish” part is at odds with the variations in nature. Anthropomorphism a bit over used. Also a bit obsessed with refuting religion (that’s too easy of a target). I might sound critical about it, though actually it’s a book that I would recommend reading.
  • 2021-07-21 Stephen M. R. Covey: The Speed of Trust
    Full of fluff and overly verbose as if written by a “management consultant” paid by the hour, which probably is his career. In the first 100 pages there was half of page mildly interesting. Gave up. Lots of metaphoric terms usage in the style of horoscopes that are true in some sense, but meaningless “Nothing is as fast as the speed of trust” (the speed of light in void, duh?). Random quotes, someone said this and that, without context. “Research shows” again without context. Rubbish.
  • 2021-07-11 Lucian Boia: Balcic - Micul paradis al României Mari
    Interesting, though overly royalty centred history
  • 2021-07-09 Hannah Fry and Thomas Oléron Evans: The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus
    Intended to be light funny maths. Too light. Not recommended. It does mention Euclid though.
  • 2021-05-30 C. Northcote Parkinson: Parkinson’s Law (or the pursuit of progress)
    Finally I traced the story about bike-shedding.
  • 2021-05-30 C. Northcote Parkinson: In-laws and Outlaws
    It would be funny advice if it would not be so sexist.
  • 2021-02-21 Matt Parker: Humble Pi
    Easy math errors read. The interesting part was about non-transitive odds on coin sequences.
  • 2021-02-14 Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou: Logicomix
    Cartoon on Bertrand Russel’s contribution to mathematical logic. Easy read, sometimes inaccurate. The best part was the notebook at the end. The best idea is that logic with invalid premises is dangerous.
  • 2021-02-13 J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
    It’s all explained
  • 2021-02-10 J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
    Snape dispatches Dumbledore
  • 2021-02-06 J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
    DA
  • 2021-01-16 J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    But why did Barty Crouch, impersonating Mad-Eye Moody, teach Harry how to handle the Imperius curse?
  • 2021-01-16 J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    It has a very happy ending.
  • 2021-01-01 J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    Oh well, a quick read.