This month I've been on semester break from university, and busy at home helping with my newborn daughter. I've also been working overtime studying Arabic, because I'm going to take a political science class this next semester entirely in Arabic (until now my classes have been taught in English). A friend gave me a freshman-level political science textbook to help me prepare. I'm working my way through it, but at around 20 minutes a page, it's hard, brain-scrambling work.
All that to say, I've taken a break from serious reading for a few weeks. I've mostly been reading fun stuff. Reading, underlining, and scribbling notes in a serious history book is hard work when you're holding a baby; reading a novel on my Kindle is easy. Here are some of the books I've been reading:
My Arabic-speaking FAO buddy (who comments here as da kine) recommended Wasp by Eric Frank Russell. It's a classic 1950s SF novel about a guy who gets dropped covertly onto an enemy planet with a simple mission: sow as much chaos as possible. It's like John Robb: the Novel. For those of you aren't familiar with Robb's work, his core idea is that it's extremely easy for individuals or small groups to disrupt networks and wreak disproportionate damage in our world today. Wasp is a fun book and short enough to read in an evening or two. I thought the writing was mediocre and the plot far too contrived, but my friend assures me that this is an intentional stylistic feature. I guess I can buy that.
One of my favorite novelists is Tom Wolfe. It's a rare pleasure to read an author who makes me stop after every paragraph and say, "Wow, this guy is a genius." I am Charlotte Simmons, which I read a couple years ago, is one of the most impressive novels I've ever read (and by far the crassest), exposing the mindlessness and debauchery of the modern university. I decided recently to go back and read Wolfe's earlier Bonfire of the Vanities, which is a fascinating sketch of race, power, wealth, poverty, justice, and injustice in New York.
One of my favorite science fiction authors is Kim Stanley Robinson, probably most famous for his Nebula and Hugo-winning Mars trilogy. He has a new book out, Galileo's Dream, which is sort of an alternate history about the life of Galileo Galilei--and the post-human visitors from the 35th century who try to change his destiny.
I'm currently reading Lebanon: A House Divided by Sandra Mackey, which is an enjoyable and highly readable introduction to the complex mosaic of Lebanese identity and history. It's not a scholarly book, but for someone who knows very little about Lebanon, it's a great place to start.
I'm also reading A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe, a 1722 piece of journalistic fiction based on the experiences of the author's uncle. It describes life in London during the plague of 1665. I guess this doesn't exactly qualify as light reading, but I've had kind of a morbid fascination with the plague ever since I read Thucydides' account of the plague of Athens. The most chilling and lasting impression I took from Thucydides was the speed with which human pretenses of nobility and civility can collapse into anarchy. We see it in his account of the plague, the breakdown of lofty wartime rhetoric into naked cynicism, and in the barbarism of the war itself. This book offers a rare window (just kidding, Tom) into London life during the plague. It's available on the Kindle for free.
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2 comments:
I just re-read my other recommendation, The Man Who Never Missed and it isn't as all-out awesome as I remembered. It's still a good read, though. Maybe I've matured or something.
If you're really interested in reading John Robb: The Novel, then you need to get your hands on a copy of "Daemon" and it's sequel "Freedom (TM)." I couldn't put either down and read them in a couple days straight. Like Shloky, I didn't want either to end.
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