The subtitle of the book sums it up pretty well: “How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them”. A decent book. It really pointed out how ridiculous the fear of terrorism is. The chances of dying in a terrorist attack are microscopic. For example, […]
This is the second book that I’ve read by Richard Dawkins, and I have to say, I’m becoming a big fan. Admittedly, most of the book was “preaching to the choir”, so I was a bit reluctant to read it. Despite this fact, I still enjoyed it immensely.
I had always considers myself an […]
It will be hard to do this book justice. The selfish gene is Richard Dawkins’ theory that people, plants and animals are nothing more than “survival machines” for genes. Genes use us as a vessel. Definitely made me think about human existence, and that it is really, in the end, somewhat meaningless. […]
The Prince of the Marshes tells the story of Rory Stewart’s year working for the Coalition Provisional Authority after the invasion of Iraq. He worked in two provinces in the south of Iraq: Maysan and Dhi Qar. His job was to work with the civilian team to start the development process while the […]
Yet another book finished. Won’t say too much about this one other than it was really good. It’s about the authors travel on foot through Afghanistan just after the fall of the Taliban.
tags: afghanistan, books
The Day of the Jackal follows an assassin as he tries to kill the president of France, Charles De Gaulle, in 1963. The mysterious Jackal is the world’s top assassin, who is hired by a French revolutionary group. The book goes into great detail following the Jackal through his preparations for the assassination […]
What a great book! I knew this was supposed to be a good book, but never got around to reading it because I figured I wouldn’t really learn anything new, and that it would cover the same material as another book I just finished. I was wrong. Fast Food Nation covers quite […]
The title of the book comes from the fact that almost almost one thousand barrels of oil are consumed per second.
The author discusses the history of energy and the cycles that energy sources go through before being replaced by a new energy source.
One of the interesting points that the author makes is that the hydrogen […]
No, this book isn’t about bowling. It’s about community, or rather the lack of it in America. The subtitle of the book is “The Collapse and Revival of American Community”, but, it is really more about the collapse of community (or as the author refers to it: “social capital”). The revival is […]
Very disappointing. I was hoping for a much more subjective history of Islam. The author narrates the book almost as if he is present for the events. I couldn’t stand it.
Obviously, Islam is very topical at the moment. I was really hoping to get some different insight into the religion, but […]