mircea

I’ve decided that I must write short notes about the books I read. I’ll try to keep them here.

Books

gulag archipelago

Notes

In the story of Job, “the court of God” seems to be inspired by the court of Cyrus the Great - an emperror that the jews admired because he freed them from their babilonian captivity; even Satan is modeled by the approach Cyrus would have of sending messengers across the empire
Satan literally means “the adversary” in Hebrew
The tower of Babbel story was probably inspired by the Babilonian ziggurat of Marduk that the Jewis saw in their exile

startd Feb
audiobook
i read this when i was in highschool, and all i remember from it was the principle of “you should never eat alone”; recently spurred by a review from one of my friends i decided to see how does it feel 20 years late
chapter 1: nobody thinks about themselves of being wrong (not even al capone, and not even death-row criminals); so think twice before trying to convince that they are wrong

started Feb
re-reading this after I’ve read it last year in audio form and didn’t remain with much; trying to see whether reading on paper results in better retention

Jan, audio
the book is in a sense better than the previous one; galaxy-scale and centuries-scale science fiction, that still succeeds in following a “reluctant” protagonist (Luo Ji)
the book has a huge suspense arc if one knows the dark forest theory. indeed, the solution of Luo Ji is in some sense quite obvious, and once it is set in motion, one can only be eager to see whether it works. (although now I start to wonder whether in a dark forrest, one ever starts an expedition like the one of the trisolarians…)
the alien attack is awe-inspiring - one of the most vivid descriptions of a first encounter with a superior technology that I ever read
towards the end there is a bit of a disappointing deus-ex-machina

October, audio
Learning about the “struggle sessions” during the Chinese cultural revolution; scary how much harm and misery can be brought about by people with good intentions; impressive to see the madness of the crowds; interesting to see glimpses of that on social media; social media really is the ‘wild west’
In parts the book seems too longwinded; some of the motivations of the characters are not convincing; some of the plot feels a bit cartoonish rather than science-fiction
Didn’t make me want to read the second part

J. Haidt G. Lukianoff
September, audio
Very well written
I liked the fact that they start with the goal of understanding the new generation rather than from the premise of judging
The initial parable of the wise man in a cave in Greece is memorable