Content tagged with "books"
I’m reading The Secret World: A History of Intelligence, which is the history of espionage around the world. It’s a magisterial work – some 800 pages. I’m struggling with it, and here’s why: it’s basically a collection of episodes and anecdotes. Each chapter is about some country or intelligence…
I just got done reading “Casino Royale” for the third or fourth time. This is the original novel, from 1953. It was the first James Bond novel, written by Ian Fleming from his estate in Jamaica. There are four excerpts I always remember about the book. I often page through to find them, so I figured…
I’m reading more now than at any time in my life. I set a 2014 goal of one book per week , and as of the second week in November, I’m at 58. Additionally, I’ve been keeping track of my reading at Goodreads, and I try to write a short review of each book when I finish it. This has the effect of…
My reading goal in 2014 was 52 books . I ended up reading 66 . My tentative goal for 2015 is to read all of Shakespeare’s 38 plays. I started early with The Merchant of Venice. I read the text first – it’s quite short, but slow, slow going. Shakespeare being Shakespeare, the writing is…
I just finished “Brave New World,” a novel written in 1932 which describes the “perfection” of society through science. Parallel to the advancement of science, “Brave New World” deals in the retardation of creativity and individuality. Humans in civilized society are expected to fit in. “Everyone…