Hope Against Hope (Nadezhda Mandelstam, 1970)

(401 pages; dense but worthwhile and I took my time)

As with Kolyma Tales, Solzhenitsyn, etc. - I find so interesting the stories of folks struggling against, or at least to survive, the Soviet regime.  This one had all sorts of compelling elements.

The author is the surviving spouse of a Russian poet (Josip Mandelstam) who quickly fell out of favor with the regime, was arrested in 1934, then again in 1937; he died in a transit camp in Siberia (Vladivostok area, perhaps enroute to Kolyma).  

A favorite part of the book was her descriptions of the poet's creative process - helps imagine how this might work (since it never happens for/to me!) Josip didn't write down poetry and work on drafts - she would notice when he was concentrating in a certain way, often with lips moving, then eventually he would start writing - not a finished product but very far along - not good to try to interrupt him in this situation.

Some items - 

1.  Like the linked Kolyma stories - the author uses a spare, unsensational approach to a situation that could support a lot of drama - it's effective.

2. The author and her husband were around through the 1920s so there's a lot of perspective on a decade where I normally haven't seen much. Idealism in the early days. True believers and fellow travelers even then.

3. The idea that the revolution had launched a new era, scientific, inevitable - many liked this idea, or at least big chunks of it.  Also Stalin as strong man following difficult-chaotic times (similar appeal for Mussolini, Hitler, perhaps even FDR in a way) - this has a certain popularity. 

4. But the totalitarian, terror aspects go from unpleasant "necessity" to dominance. The 1930s - when a car pulling up to a residence, the sound of an elevator coming up - instant fear. Lubianka, black cars, interrogations.

5. Some of it echoes recent US approach (even if ours is comparatively lame). Dismissing ideas as "bourgeois" sounds like recent era of dismissing ideas as "whiteness" (or pick any of the 2010-2024 cancel-words).  These words inspire fear, for a while.

6. The poet and the author both work in the world of words, and see how language control is an essential tool of overall control. The progressive left pushes for language control now, areas such as trans, CRT.  Endless examples, just saw a Mt Holyoke tweet - faculty are expected to report misgendering.  As with Soviets, two elements - take over the language, require reporting.

7.  They were closely connected to Anna Akhmatova, another holdout but she survived.

8. Interactions with other famous 20th century Russians - Pasternak, Bulgakov, 

9. Author's efforts to save copies of her husband's work.  Sometimes using memory for items too dangerous to write down. Handwritten extra copies stored in separate locations, dangerous.

10. Poet got off lucky in 1934, merely banished to live at least 100 kilometers from Moscow.  Plenty were in similar straits, making housing difficult to find; they were called "105ers").  Couldn't be published, couldn't get jobs - living in poverty.

11. Author (though not the poet) was around for the famous "thaw" - when Khrushchev denounced Stalin in 1953 - some improvement though short-lived. Still required to speak of the crazy days as historically necessary. Poet was somewhat rehabilitated in this phase.

12. The day-to-day fear - this part hard to imagine - most everyone one encountered was quite probably an informer - especially when younger poetry enthusiasts would show up and exhibit intense interest - they never trusted these folks.

A lot to think about from these awful times.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Robert A. Heinlein, 1966)

(388 pages)

This ended up being an enjoyable read.

Residents of the Moon (called "Luna") mostly arrive via transport (think England -> Australia) or are descended from transportees; they work to supply grain to Earth; many freedoms as a practical matter but things are controlled by a Warden.  Lots of discussion of the way family structures evolved on the Moon.

Protagonist (Mannie) is a computer technician who services the main computer on the Moon; he decides to start "talking" to this computer ("Mike") and it turns out they strike up a friendship.  Mannie kind of accidentally gets tied up in a revolutionary plot (with Wyoming and the Professor), he successfully enlists Mike to help.

Some of this is interesting from the perspective of current AI discussions - how far can a computer go, how to set it up to perform this level of functionality, etc.

The revolution part was kind of annoying in that it sounds pretty much Leninist - the masses of the Moon's population viewed as not slightly interested in a revolt, they needed to be coaxed into action by better-knowing elites who manipulated them in the direction desired by the elites, constantly lying, propaganda etc. The justification for revolution is that the Moon's resources will be exhausted in a few decades under the system imposed from Earth. So that makes the actions of the elite revolutionaries feel less evil.

And fortunately in this case the revolutionary elites were made up of just a few folks who could have been philosopher-kings.

Story construction is pretty interesting throughout; the things the revolutionaries accomplish seem implausible but that's fine in service of a story; and they had Mike!

I liked the finish, how things ended up with Mike.

The Savage Storm - The Battle for Italy 1943 (James Holland, 2023)

(476 pages)

I've been lucky to run across quite a few WWII histories that are very high quality - but this one is a definite favorite - the author was completely effective in knitting an overview of the military strategy and key battles with many contemporary excerpts from diaries, letters and the like; these latter gathered from grunts and officers in American, British, German, and Italian armies; also Italian citizens, Ernie Pyle, etc.  

I'll let the author explain - 

"I have been studying the long and terrible Second World War for some years now, but nothing has moved me in quite such a profound way as researching and writing this book.  Perhaps it's because, for the first time, I've used mostly contemporary sources:  diaries, letters, signals and memoranda, and photographs taken in a split second.  Rather than hearing the memories of those times fifty, sixty or even seventy years on, my cast of very real characters have drawn from the testimonies they recorded at the time. I have deliberately tried to avoid any forward projection and to write purely in the moments, hours and days in which the events described were taking place.  None of those writing diaries and letters knew when Rome would fall. None of them knew when the war would end.  I have found it difficult not to be swept up in their experiences, their suffering, their anxieties, their fears and it has been impossible not to care about their fates." (p. 474)

I was definitely swept up.  It also helped that Irvin Bormann and Vernon Hohenberger were literally there for big chunks of the 1943 timeline covered in this book - Irvin's diaries and Hohenberger's memoir include items that are 100% on point with descriptions here; makes it much more personal.

Some things I have a better grasp of -

--The Allies attacked Sicily earlier in 1943 with overwhelming force and encountered weak Italian resistance in many cases.  Plenty of landing craft available to bring all the stuff that a mechanized army needs, especially when the strategy is to overwhelm the enemy with aircraft and artillery to reduce the expenditure of soldiers' lives.

--Italy in this second half of 1943 was not like this.  Resources were diverted to preparations for Normandy and for the war in the Pacific.  Sicilian success perhaps gave too much confidence; the politicians and high command were promising "Rome by Christmas" and no one could back off this push even though it pretty quickly became evident that there soon was no basis for achieving this goal.

--Landing craft in particular were key - I didn't think about how new large-scale amphibious assault was (not a thing in WWI) - these craft just didn't exist in sufficient numbers to bring all the stuff needed. As manufacturing ramps up, many diverted to Pacific and Normandy.

--And to some extent the lack of mechanized support and artillery didn't matter - horrific winter weather and isolated mountainous terrain made aircraft and tanks and shelling less effective. 

--Italy surrendered in September 1943, and the German army took over - much tougher resistance than encountered in Sicily.  Hitler very concerned about this southern approach to Germany.

--The mountains were just made for defense; and the Germans were expert at exploiting this. Whereas an attacking force might be assumed to need a 3:1 numbers advantage, it probably was higher here. Divisions were pulled out of the line (Normandy), soldiers were expected to keep going way beyond normal tours.

--Yet the decision was made to keep going.  Which meant the infantry had such a terrible time of it here.  

--Mark Clark takes a lot of grief, but this author pins the blame higher up the chain, thinks Clark did well under the circumstances.

--I hadn't read much about the Salerno landing - difficult, interesting.

--The civilian suffering - the mechanized, heavy shelling approach had very different consequences in populated Italy as compared to the North African deserts. The sad stories here, wow.

This book wraps up at year-end, so author doesn't get to Anzio, Rapido River crossing; Irvin Bormann DOW on February 1, 1944 so we don't get battles in his final month. Irvin does mention seeing a big battle down in a valley in the December 15-17, 1943 time frame; that could well have been for San Pietro (p. 440).

Random Acts of Medicine (Anupam Jena and Christopher Worsham, 2023)

(244 pages)

Had seen great reviews on this but did not find it all that useful - that's not really a knock on the book, but Taleb and Kahneman (just read within the last few weeks/months) cover a lot of similar concepts in a way that I found more helpful.

Jena is "Freakanomics" podcast host; I don't listen to these but I know they are highly regarded.

Some of the studies have been in the news - how ADHD diagnoses fall on the very youngest boys in a class; the effect on cardiac patient care if an incident happens when the big guns are off at a conference.  Also look at things like the effect of a provider's birthday on care, whether it's better to have a younger or older doctor in hospitalist (get younger unless older consistently handles high volume) or surgery (probably the older) settings, etc.

But studies are notoriously difficult to construct so have limits; no clear takeaway here, I think we best continue to rely on referrals.  But there are items to keep in mind.

   

The Spy and the Traitor (Ben Macintyre, 2019)

 (335 pages)

Book club selection by POC.

Story of Oleg Gordiansky, KGB agent who rose through the ranks but started working with British intelligence - this continues for years, including during London postings. Gordiansky disaffected by building of Berlin Wall, crushing of Prague Spring (1968); seems to have acted out of ideological conviction, not for money, perhaps other motivations as this is hard to sort out.  

Lots of important information revealed, some quite helpful as Thatcher and Reagan governments deal with a declining Soviet Union and then Gorbachev.

The author can make all of this quite interesting; for example, the story of the escape from Moscow is quite good (playing Finlandia for a fellow in the trunk!)  Several close calls; Aldrich Ames appears. Sneaky rendezvous tactics.

Downside - to me, this was just another spy tale; very little to be learned and I think could have been told effectively with far less detail.  Does help illuminate the stresses under which these folks operate.  

More than Enough (Mike Piper, 2023)

Another book discussing how to handle assets later in life once it seems that you aren't at risk of outliving your savings. Good discussion but pretty much nothing new compared to other stuff I've read in recent years.

Similar to Die With Zero.

Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman, 2011)

(418 pages)

Had heard a lot about this book but didn't check it out until PJr loan of his copy.

Starts with useful discussion of "System 1" and "System 2".

System 1 - efficiency! Once it finds a cause, it likes to rely on it.  Operating continuously, establishing what's normal, alert to threats. Evolution.

Taleb's "The Black Swan" has similarities - efficiency. Useful if not essential for day to day, but prone to error.  Narrative fallacy - we love stories. 

System 2 - the "stop and think" element, though lazy; likes to rely on S1; interaction between S1 and S2 can be hard to sort out despite many clear cases.

Plenty of other good ideas, too many for me to keep track of. 

Base rates - keep in mind as a control on both systems.

Regression effects - complex.

WYSIATI - an easy mistake, I try to get better at trying to think about what is not visible or evident in a given situation.

He cites a definition of intuition that is interesting - essentially it's a cue that retrieves something from memory - persons with vast relevant experience will have more items stored in memory that can be retrieved with the proper cue - we call it intuition but it's really memory.  Makes sense.

But emphasizes trusting rules/algorithms and not intuition/hunches.  Hmm.

The "hot hand" fallacy in sports. I still don't buy it, which probably proves one of his points.

The discussion about the difference between lived experience and remembered experience is interesting, illuminating, not solvable but useful:

"Odd as it may seem, I am my remembering self, and the experiencing self, who does my living, is like a stranger to me." (p 390)

That quote seemed absolutely Proustian.

Extensive reliance on experiments and studies.  Sufficiently robust?  Replicable? Me doubtful but not smart enough to draw a conclusion.  

The book is highly useful no matter.

Sicily '43 - The First Assault on Fortress Europe (James Holland, 2020)

(499 pages)

I'd never read much about this - it sort of falls into a gap between all the activity in North Africa and then larger Italian mainland campaign.

Summer 1943; largest amphibious landing to that point, by a long shot.  So there was lots of learning to be done.

Success seems inevitable in hindsight.  But terribly difficult. Very difficult to storm beaches even with materiel advantages.

Nighttime paratrooper drops - disaster.  Little effect on outcome, however.  Lots to learn, somewhat helpful at Normandy.

Italian troops just not ready - or inspired- in any sense - offered little resistance.

Hermann Goering division touted by name but cobbled together and not very effective.

German balancing needs on eastern front - Kursk battle going on right at this time (July 1943).  Hitler worried about "southern flank" and does move men and material from the east.

German reinforcements arrive - higher quality. Many very difficult local situations, lots of casualties, seems discouraging in a fight whose outcome both sides could readily foresee.  Germans fall back to the NE corner of the island, then they do a good job falling back into the "toe" of the Italian "boot".  And surviving to make difficult fighting for the Allies as they push up into Italy (the author's next book).

This author does a good job weaving individual narratives within the overall story line.  Also history of Sicily, including mafioso development (the Fascists had mostly subdued them and many emigrated to America; the Allies found them useful including in the postwar period, reinvigorating them).  I hadn't known much about Sicily before this other than classical tales, Arab pirates, lingering poverty.

Times Remembered - Algona: 1854-2004 (2003)

(163 pages)

This was a gift from my parents received shortly after the book was released.

It isn't a history book per se; it includes numerous vignettes extending across the named years. 

Useful reminder of conditions being pretty primitive in northern Iowa in the pre-Civil War period. I see that the railroad ("The Milwaukee Railroad" - same line on which I commuted from Glenview to downtown Chicago in the early 1980s) first reached Algona in 1870.

Carnegie library.

For my taste, a bit too much of the content is one-pagers about various retail establishments - maybe this is what the Algona Upper Des Moines was familiar with?  Hutzell's, Hub, Chrischilles, etc.

Easy read, worth the brief time required.

Death Be Not Proud (John Gunther, 1949)

The title is from a well-known John Donne poem.

Author's son dies of a brain tumor after a 15-month illness. The son is very bright. The parents are very devoted.  They pursue all sorts of medical angles (they have money and connections and use them).

Very solemn topic and this was universally considered well-written.  But I didn't get into it. Maybe because it's kind of an uncomfortable thing and the kid seemed too-good-to-be-true?  Not sure. 

I think perhaps the novelists are more captivating with this (easy example the death of the Proust narrator's grandmother).  

Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein, 1959)

This was a fun read.

Johnny Rico decides to join the mobile infantry; war breaks out - interstellar stuff - primary enemy is a group of Bugs - spider-like, large, operate through central brains.

Setting is earth a long time after the order known in the 20th century had fallen apart. By necessity and happenstance rather than design - groups of military veterans started running things in an effort to restore order.  And this worked fairly well - under the new system, only veterans were allowed to vote.  So it continued.

There isn't much fighting/action in the book - good passages at beginning and end.

Interesting musings about how to raise children, how to govern society, preparing folks to fight in the military as constructed in those days.  Boot camp, officer candidate school. Author seemed to know a lot about this world and thought highly of it.

Some of the passages about societal breakdown sounded familiar. 

I, Claudius - From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius (Robert Graves, 1934)

(468 pages)

This title was familiar from a PBS series years ago that I never watched.

It's an interesting look at Rome in the final years of Augustus's reign, then Tiberius (not a great figure), then Caligula (an awful figure); Claudius unexpectedly declared emperor at the end of the book (Claudius the God will pick up the thread, I plan to read it).

A bit more palace intrigue than I was expecting, but probably a useful look at things that happen as authoritarian systems start to decay.

As I understand it, Graves was pretty true to the history of the times.

Livia such a strong character.

Interesting tidbit - Augustus is concerned with the lack of fertility among the higher ranks of society - too much fun, having and parenting children not honored among that set.

Tiberius relying on informers. Episodes of incredible cruelty.

A good read.

Curlew: Home - Essays & a Journey Back (Tom Montag, 2001)

Some years ago - when Mom asked what I'd like for a Christmas gift - I'd ask each year for a book about Iowa stuff.  I received these for several years, recently located them in a storage box, and now am going these gift books.

I do recall paging through Montag's book, and mostly remembering that it was the only written description of corn shelling that I could ever recall encountering - and that it wasn't a bad description, though his writing was overwrought when it came to describing how the physical labor part feels (admittedly that kind of labor does feel good or rewarding or something).  Plus he was just a once or twice per year corn sheller guy - not at the level of we all-day every-day every-summer (and sometimes in other seasons) experts.

What I didn't recall was the incredible extent to which Montag's experiences overlapped with ours. He's about 10 years older, and they were renters at the time this was written - so as I recall it our setting was a bit more "modern" in some significant ways. But nonetheless so much of this is right on target. (He does spend some time trying to sort out why he wanted to become a poet - less interested in that but ok that's his prerogative.)

Curlew is a tiny town about 30 miles or so pretty much straight west of St. Joe. Whereas we saw the West Bend elevator from the east, he was looking at it from the west.  And wandering into Algona, Humboldt, West Bend, Emmetsburg etc - all the familiar towns.

But mostly he was on the farm.

Stuff that sounded pretty familiar:

He's the oldest of nine children.

p. 18 - reading Snowbound

p. 73 - parents using a wagon hoist to lift up the front end of a wagon (no hydraulic hoist) - oats into elevator to be lifted into the bin - there were parts of this that a young kid could help with. (Dropping the pin into a wagon tongue is my very earliest memory of "helping" with farm work.  Ernest J. couldn't turn around far enough to see exactly where he was backing up.)

p. 82 - Sunday bicycle ride "around the block" (meaning the four miles around the section)

p. 87 - Sunday making a fire and roasting hot dogs; marshmallows

p. 89 - narrow highway 18, with curbs (just like 169)

p. 94 - their telephone ring was two shorts and a long (I think ours was the reverse)

p. 102 - talking about the Curlew centennial history book of 1984 (did they use St. Joe (1976) as a model?

p. 112 - oldtimers reminisce about the winter of 1936

p. 116 - hauling coal, delivering it through a little basement window

p. 136 - wringer washer in the cellar (it's not a "basement")

p. 140 - throwing baseball against the front of the barn, "playing catch with myself"

p. 146 - garbage pail in the "entryway" - this is where they always enter the house, it faces east

p. 149 - playing pinochle and 500; a sister bids nine diamonds

p. 150 - they buy The Book of Knowledge; also Encyclopedia Brittanica

p. 167 - visiting the farmstead, pretty much everything gone.  Some trees soughing.  Decaying corn crib.

p. 183 - he reads The Kid Who Batted 1.000

p. 217 - walking beans for the neighbors; cockleburrs; washing up in a pan placed on the porch outside their house

p. 218 - walking around the former farmstead again - "it's all gone, and nothing is gone"

p. 222 - BB guns; shooting a car window

p. 227 - the corn shelling description.  The sheller man arrives early. "He gets so much per bushel shelled and so much per bushel hauled." He remembers the sheller man being very particular ("always insists upon doing this part of the job himself") about linking the chains of the drag sections - EMG the same, this was an important ritual at the start of every set. "Dinner is a big meal" - sitting a spell in the shade after.  Etc.

p. 241 - rotary hoeing the corn; the blade picks up rocks

[He several times mentions the rock pile - a place to play, a place where rocks were brought in from the field, of course.]

p. 259 - butchering chickens; hot water for scalding feathers, barrel with newspapers for fire to singe off hairs

p. 287 - killing rats (after moving the feeder)

p. 307 - visiting the cemetery; a deceased sibling

p. 311 - "I don't want the sadness of the loss to be what is remembered.  I want to remember the joy of those years . . ."

Thanks, Mom & Dad!

A History of the Muslim World From its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity (Michael Cook, 2024)

(846 pages)

I'm trying to better understand why Islam-dominated areas of the world - and now Islam-dominated areas of Western nations affected by immigration - seem to have issues, let's say.  This after what always seems like a rather glorious period hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

Certainly no simple answers based on this book; as with the impression from all the other Islam stuff I've read - this is a complex situation with many different actors and outcomes.

Author starts with helpful background.  Arabia area to the south of the two main empires (Constantinople and Persia). Two main empires expending huge energy fighting each other at end of sixth century and into seventh. Harassed by steppe folk from the north - sometimes an ally, sometimes a dire threat.  Desert folk from the south (Arabia area) don't have anything resembling a state, a few minor kinglets; sometimes harass southern fringes of the two main empires. Two main empires occasionally coopt a local Arab-area leader to help control other tribes/clans.  Arab area does have the black rock at Mecca and various local gods but not part of the main religious strands (Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian).  Lacking political structure and major religion, exposed to these concepts by declining imperial powers.

Ishmaelites = Arabs. Connection to Abraham.

Muhammed and founding of Islam.  Never not inextricably bound up with politics, formation of state, warfare. Fighting to survive in the earliest going.  Fighting to conquer in the following decades. Religious rhetoric is often about who should rule and how - separation of church and state never existed or was even considered in so many of these areas. This seems pretty important! 

Scope of conquered (colonized) territory is astounding. As is pace of colonization - 100 years pretty much did it.

Spread of Islam, spread of Arabic language - population of Arabs compared to populations of colonized territories - how was this possible?

Lots of discussion on this. An interesting idea was a very early decision that in the colonized territories, tax revenue would be collected and soldiers would be paid from this - a path to continued central control. Rather than just giving chunks of the colonized territories to successful generals - a path to atomization, compare feudal Europe. But many other factors mentioned, and scope of centralized control over the colonies was severely limited by distance and communication challenges.

The idea that Arabs - and later Arab nomads - would be placed in the colonies and would need lots of retainers, slaves, etc. These local folks gravitated toward Islam and Arabic. The process continued. Contributed to the long-term change.

Heavy duty taxation focused on non-Muslim populations.  Heavy duty utilization of slaves.

In the early centuries - my impression from this book is that Islamic leadership expended far more energy dealing with civil wars and rebellions than with third party threats. The variations of Islam in various parts of the colonized territories (and Arabia itself) - to a greater extent than I realized - not monolithic.

Early moves into Iraq - Arabia remained special but was not a place to center the Caliphate.

Long discussions of expansion across North Africa and into Spain.  Dealing with Berbers. More than one Caliphate (Spain, Egypt, Iraq).

Moves on to discuss expansion into Iran. India.  Rise of the Turks (in waves).

As more modern times approach - a real failure to keep up with technology, trade, etc.

Author seems to have an incredible knowledge of detail here.  

Good reminder to be very humble what I can figure out about this topic.

Retracing My Footsteps in World War II (Vernon Hohenberger)

The author had given a copy of this book to my parents some years ago; I had paged through it on St. Joe visits, and was pleased to be able to take this from the St. Joe house when we siblings "divided out" things in April 2023.

It's autographed by the author!  Vernon Hohenberger farmed near us in the Luverne/Livermore area though - since he wasn't Catholic - we didn't see him regularly - in fact, very seldom.  I have a dim recall of a very pleasant human being.

The book is fascinating. Partly because I read so few, if any, first-person accounts of the war.

Hohenberger's path overlapped geographically with that of our uncle, Irvin Bormann - North Africa and Italy. But a bit earlier in time (and later). Unlike Irvin, Hohenberger survived Italy and ended up with duty elsewhere after the fall of Rome.

He belonged to the famous 34th Infantry Division - "Red Bull" - an incredibly long combat history - at page 100 he mentions 33 months overseas. Red Bull division is prominent in all the histories of the European theater in WWII.

p. 28 - vivid memories of getting into a theater to see "White Christmas" prior to getting shipped toward N. Africa.

p. 35 - artillery experiences, here in N. Africa - reminds of Irvin's artillery descriptions.

p. 45 - his description of N. Africa "Arab" scenes - again, reminds of Irvin's.

p. 47 - he mentions the soon-to-be-famous 100th Infantry - this is the successful battalion of mostly Japanese-American soldiers mostly from Hawaii - they come up later in his story - Michener covered this in his "Hawaii" novel.

p. 50 - landing at Salerno (Irvin at Naples). I believe this was autumn 1943, prior to Irvin's arrival.

p. 53 - Volturno River - just a terrible area. Lots of detail in ensuing pages about fighting around Rapido River, Cassino. Mentions Christmas 1953.  Irvin killed in action February 1, 1944.  Monte Cassino eventually bombed February 15, 1944.

Additional discussion of finally getting furloughed and a visit home; war wrapping up by the time his overdue leave was expiring - ended up with some duty with occupation troops.

Stories of getting back into civilian life - including a short time working at a store owned by Cliff and Mary Baker (yes, Uncle Daryl's parents).

This is a quick and excellent read.

Farmall Century 1923-2023 - The Evolution of Red Tractors in the Golden Age of International Harvester (Lee Klancher), 2023)

I very much enjoyed routine tractor work - whether in the field or driving the corn sheller from job to job - during my on-the-farm days - from the late 1960s through 1979.  But I definitely was not the gearhead type and remain not-knowledgeable about pretty much anything mechanical, including tractors.

Yet - my dad's 2022 death at age 93 and the subsequent auctioning of all of the farm goods triggered a higher degree of interest for this kind of thing, or nostalgia, or whatever it is.  I'm enjoying seeing various social media feeds and photos of old days tractors. (Dad owned Farmalls until a John Deere 4020 showed up later - so we supported Farmall.)

So I bought this book - thinking it was more of a coffee table item but it turns out that there also is a great deal of interesting history. Much enjoyed.

The foreword portion was captivating - it included a passage about farmers' proclivity for tinkering with their machines - dad certainly did this with the corn sheller, to the point where Charlie put together a mock patent office filing going through his innovations.

The early portion of the book is dedicated to the development of reapers and the like - tractors aren't even on the scene. This part is more interesting to me than lots of the later tractor detail - I never understood very well what was involved in the "threshing" crews that my parents and grandparents talked about; let alone the incredible amount of labor to get anything done during the phases prior to that.  It's easy to see how mechanization depopulated the rural areas.

McCormick family, competitors, reaper wars, early 20th century antitrust, lots of patent litigation, Rockefeller involvement, branding, educating consumers.

Interesting characters - including a John Steward wounded at Vicksburg, started out with John Wesley Powell's second Grand Canyon expedition (1871). Abraham Lincoln hired one of the attorneys involved in the reaper patent litigation for some of his own matters.  

Later hiring a consumer goods artist to design the attractive "letter series" Farmalls - these were the Ms and Super Ms that we were familiar with (followed by the "number series" tractors, such as our 400 diesel). Now that I think about it and see the photos - the design was pretty cool! Designer even put together art-deco type (or was it midcentury modern?) dealership buildings, a few of which have survived.

Replacing horses - early tractors with not much more power than a couple horses. A huge market.

Steam, kerosene, gasoline, diesel, etc.

Lots of pulley work in the early going.  Development of the PTO (something I took for granted).

Did not realize how many Fordson tractors were sold through Ford - it was a great little machine, sold at a low price and a genuine threat to IH (though priced so low that this probably contributed to Ford shifting away from it).

Eventually we get to the F-20, M and then the larger tractors.

I had no idea how much IH was involved in WWII.

Great photography throughout - this will sit on the coffee table for easy access.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1902)

Read an electronic version of this classic while flying to and fro Phoenix -> Bangalore.  Perfect airplane reading material.

Much of my memory of the book is intertwined with memories of the 1939 movie starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce - a favorite as we were growing up; the younger siblings made a tape recording and then a typed transcript. The movie also delights, if varying in some respects from the book.

Anyway - the detective is hired to get to the bottom of a mystery on the moors - a legendary, huge hound-like fiend that haunts the Baskervilles over the generations.  Dr. Mortimer brings in Holmes.  Watson stays on the moor.  Stapleton and his "wife" live nearby; he is a naturalist.  Barrymore - butler - and his wife and brother.

Laura Frankland wrote to Sir Hugo - I don't really recall that part in the movie.

I would avoid the Grimpen Mire.

Great read.  

Die with Zero (Bill Perkins, 2020)

203 pages.

Author's premise is that too many people wait too long to spend their money, quit or downsize their jobs, etc.  I think this is true in many cases, but the book would be mostly of interest to folks with a lot of $$.

Nonetheless - a lot of good ideas on a topic that doesn't get enough attention. Quick read.

I thought a little too much focus on the idea that fulfillment in life depends on experiences which in turn are created by spending money earlier in life.  That's not the author's whole focus by any means - he certainly does also mention and emphasize giving away money to charities and/or children earlier.  But it's given more importance than I think it merits.

Interesting read in part because we are in early retiree years and lucky to have good health - go time.

Author mentions connection to University of Iowa college football, his dad played in early '60s.  So I looked up Don Perkins - turns out to be author's uncle.

The High Window (Raymond Chandler, 1942)

265 pages.

Super quick read, and Chandler writes so very well.  Kind of like Wodehouse - sets up a phrase or sentence in a way that seems familiar and the reader can usually anticipate the author's direction - then drops in something unexpected, interesting, clever.

Philip Marlowe.

This was good, entertaining, well-written - but not a favorite.  Characters not particularly likable (probably the author's intention).  Too much talk-explaining about the crime(s) resolution to wrap up the book.

(Seems like I had a similar reaction to the Chandler book previously read.)

The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy, 1886)

Sixth of his works that I've read, all well worthwhile.

Descriptions continue to amaze - agriculture details, market details, local terrain details, personalities in various social sets. This aspect is enjoyable in its own right.

Story line was good but not my favorite of his works. Too many key characters are disposed of via dying (for example).

Michael Henchard the key character - warts and all - he persists despite impulsive outbursts that cause serious mistakes.

No heroic figures in this one - everyone with some issue or the other, Elizabeth-Jane and the Scotsman perhaps less so.  But that is a strength of the novel, not a criticism.

Sugar Street (part three of The Cairo Trilogy) (Naguib Mahfouz, 1956)

Overall comment spanning parts 1-3 - I really liked this. Length (trilogy format) allows author to develop the family characters. Story line nonetheless compact. Brings out a variety of characters, viewpoints, interests, behaviors; brings out the transition in Egypt from traditional ways to 20th century modernity; excellent with dialogue and especially with showing thoughts, reactions, emotions internal to each character.  And it's set in a part of the world that is not normally the subject of novels as least as far as I've encountered. I hope I learned something as well as enjoying the story, though the latter would be sufficient.

_______________

Specific to part 3 - 

(328 pages_

The next generation is growing up.  Yasin's son (Ridwan) getting well-connected; he takes after his father in looks.  We start seeing the parts of the story through the next-gen eyes.

It's now the 1930s. Egyptian nationalists still desiring to throw out the English but now Nazis and Italian fascists are recognized threats.

Khadija's son Ahmad - admires Kamal - disconnecting from traditional religion to Khadija's dismay - good discussions about how that happens.

Ahmad's brother is part of a group of young men who belief in a holy man - circa p. 1064 - a discussion of Egypt (or Arab world writ large) in relation to other countries - this sounds remarkably similar to today's conversations. "True belief" and faith (fundamentalist Islam) against materialistic cultures that won't stand.

This brother is in the "Muslim Brotherhood"; Ahmad seems himself as a Communist.

The health of the father (Sayyid) continues to deteriorate even though he is only in his early 60s; same is happening to his three closest friends - presumably a message about the effect of their habits.

Aisha's sadness.

Ahmad in love with fellow sociology student, then a co-worker.  Kamal getting older, still resistant to marriage. Lots of discussion of his thoughts on not getting married; reverberations from youth.

Throughout parts 1-2, Kamal is working as a writer - but lots of reflections by him and conversations with others about the value of his work - tends to be abstract/pure thought of limited interest.  How long to stick with this? Kamal continues teaching.  Ahmad writes for a magazine.

World War II arrives.

Role reversal - Sayyid is confined to the home (and then to his bed), Amina (the mother) is able to leave every day (visits mosques and her nearby relatives).

There is an air raid - more intense than those that preceded it - author does a really good job communicating this.  The father is forced to walk down the stairs and to a sheltered area, this is very hard on him.  The author does a really good job communicating this also. Sayyid's passing within a day or two - the author does a really good job with this.  Sayyid with outsize influence despite (or in part because of) his domineering and wayward ways - a core of family care that everyone noticed and relied on.

Author does a good job voicing the views of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Communists - same rhetoric as always.  Authorities dislike.

I like that he doesn't wrap up with some tidy resolution of Kamal's marriage or professional status or beliefs.  The world is changing, Amina on her last days, on it will somehow go.

Palace of Desire (Part two of The Cairo Trilogy) (Naguib Mahfouz, 1956)

(445 pages)

[The names of the three sections are names of streets in old Cairo where characters live and much of the action takes place.]

Part 2 of the trilogy starts with the family very sad because of Falmy.

Amina (mother) affected most; she is aging rapidly, still mostly confined to her house but at least can go to the cemetery and mosque pretty much when she wants.

Father is also aging and getting some health scares - had seemed indestructible but behaviors (resumed after a several-years break) take a toll.  Author explores how aging felt to the father, did a good job.

Some looks at the daughters (Khadija, Aisha) who married the brothers.

Yasin not very good at marriage, impulsive, somehow genuinely likeable throughout.

Yasin's tastes overlapping with his father's.  Which creates situations.

Much focus on Kamal (youngest son) - he's growing up, getting educated, falling in love, has a best friend who is brother of his love interest.  Best friend and his sister move out of Egypt, Kamal loses his previously strict faith as he progress in his studies.  The author does a good job exploring how these losses affect Kamal. Modernity invading traditional ways.

Kamal tries alcohol, runs into Yasin in a brothel.

The father has a major health scare toward the end of this work and vows to change his ways.

Aisha's family is stricken with typhus.

The revolutionary leader so admired by Falmy and Kamal passes away as the book ends.  Another loss.

The Bed of Procrustes - Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2016)

(156 pages)

The content is well-described by the title.

Third book of the five-book Incerto.

Many of the little sayings are valuable; they also tend to repeat or encapsulate the text from the first two books (probably the next two as well, I will be reading those in the not-too-distant future).

While reading, I was thinking that aphorisms overlap with poetry - dense, thus harder to read, thus better consumed in smaller doses.  Taleb himself mentions this comparison in what he called the "Postface" at the end of the book. 

Palace Walk (part one of The Cairo Trilogy) (Naguib Mahfouz, 1956)

(533 pages)

This is the story of a family residing in Cairo.  Story line begins around 1915 - in the midst of WWI.  Not a big direct effect on Cairo, but Australians are occupying certain sections, English are running things, and Egyptian nationalism is roused by the trends affecting so much of the world in those days (Wilsonian self-determination sentiments and the like).

The political stuff gets much less attention than the family.

This first book spends a lot of time introducing the family members.

Father - Sayyid - extremely strict at home (conservative Islam, nationalist politics), boisterous and charming when with his friends.  Highly respected by all family members, admittedly they don't know much about what he does when he goes out with his friends every single evening (wine, women, song). He is a jerk in many ways but strong person, completely loyal as he understands it.

Mother - Amina - dominated by Sayyid but a nice human being.  Not allowed to leave the house except on a supervised basis to visit her mother every now and again. Feel sorry for her.

Yasin - eldest son (different mother than Amina).  He repeats a lot of Sayyid's behaviors. Lacks self-control.

Khadija - eldest daughter - caustic.

Aisha - next daughter - less development of her character - beautiful, likes singing, dislikes conflict.

Falmy - middle son - diligent student, headed for law school, deeply involved in politics.

Kamal - youngest son.

A technique that I really like - the author can convey what it's like when a character in a stressful situation has all sorts of thoughts running through his or her head - fear, humor, non sequitur, absurdity, practicality, etc.  When Sayyid is going to help folks filling the ditch; when he is waiting outside Aisha's delivery room, when Yasin is visiting his mother, etc.

Falmy as the vehicle for discussing political events in Cairo at the time.

Onto part 2!

Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese, 2009)

658 pages.

A good story.  Long, but well constructed.  All the pieces fit, including application of medical specialty.

Ghosh as a perfect person. Also Sister Mary Praise. And Matron.

Hema (and others) bringing across many things we saw in India (rangoli, mask, food).

Genet kind of an annoying character; her mother not stable.

Some idea of what it might have felt like to move from India to Aden and then to Ethiopia.

Gave a reader like me some feel of the uncertainty in unstable government situations (I of course have not had to deal with this).  We grew up familiar with Selassie, Mengistu.  And heard of Eritrea. Author speaks to Italian influence here - more than I would have expected.

I found especially striking the part where Marion lands in NYC for the first time.  The sensations of a new world - one could kind of imagine how this might feel. This was a favorite section. (Reminded me, though in the smallest way possible, of returning to that same airport in June 1975 after three weeks in Europe, though my surprise was mostly seeing (being reminded of) the hugeness of American automobiles and the width of American roads.)

Roman Catholic nuns had so many highly valuable, unselfish roles for a few centuries there.  Kind of sorry that went out of fashion.

Matron's idea of "Nurse Sense" - that made sense to me.  Applies in other professions as well.

Company K (William March, 1933)

(260 pages)

Quick read.  Broken into very short chapters, each presented as a reminiscence of an individual (fictional) soldier. Based upon the author's WWI experiences.

Looking at the "Introduction" after reading the book (always read these after!), I learned that this was one of the first books to depict war experiences as awful and too often futile episodes from the perspective of the typically low-ranking soldier.  We've now used to that sort of presentation, but apparently Company K was groundbreaking at its time. The Red Badge of Courage as a sort of precursor from Civil War days.

It amounts to horror. I don't have reason to doubt that this was pretty much how it felt. 

Sometimes prisoners were shot. Officers made bad decisions, perhaps to preserve pride, that cost grunt lives. French villagers - sometimes sympathetic. Soldiers being supportive of, or cruel to, one another.  Encounters with Germans who could have been friends. On it goes.

The cumulative effect is powerful; it catches up with the reader.  In that way it reminded me of Kolyma Stories (highly recommended, by the way) - short snippets that just keep hitting the reader and building in effect.  Not gratuitously. Just trying to bring home what was happening for those of us who fortunately weren't there (and perhaps dilute the effect of all the pro-war propaganda stuff we are hit with). 

Something else I liked: a number of the stories are from the perspective of soldiers back home after the armistice.  The betrothed who no longer wants to marry the soldier drastically changed by his experiences.  The brother who gets all the attention after a slight wound just before the armistice (the brother who saw years of terrible action doesn't get home until a year later and by then the home front folks have moved on).

Recommended.  Gift from PJr/Nedda.

The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien, 1954-55)

(1,032 pages)

Second time I've read this. Beautiful hardbound 50th anniversary edition with maps, etc., gift from Paul Jr. and Nedda.

Such a pleasure even if quite familiar with the story. Tolkien skill well-known and for good reason.

I had forgotten much of the detail of the final chapter so particularly enjoyed rereading that section.

All the sequences are quite wonderful but I think I best like the Shire scenes that begin and end the work.  Tolkien has a great touch with those small-scale interactions. 

Hawaii (James Michener, 1959)

(1095 pages)

This is recommended as useful background for Hawaii visitors - which we plan to be - so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Long (but quick reading); often interesting; in the end not that great - but I think quite helpful for its intended purposes. 

Michener starts with the formation of the islands - very late geologically.  Then arrival of folks from Bora Bora and Tahiti area - this is interesting to think about if speculative.  Then arrival of missionaries - these folks had tremendous influence on the islands, generation after generation of their descendants pretty much ran things.  (The book is fiction, but I think somewhat tracks the trajectory here.). The transit of the missionaries around Cape Horn was quite the adventure.  Cramped quarters; most missionaries married just prior to embarking to brides they just met (missionaries required to be married).  This is in 1820s.

What I'll call native Hawaiians did not thrive - disease, policy, etc. 

Discussion of sugar plantations, arrival of pineapples, arrival of other plants.  Figuring out irrigation. As labor is required - folks are brought in from China (this story centered on the Kee family).  Intended to be temporary workers that would return to China, but most ended up staying.  Founding of Molokai leper colony and arrival of Peter Damian. Later - arrivals from Japan, pretty much the same story (this part centered on Sagakawa family).  Some rise through the system despite intense prejudice.  Being good at (American) football helped.

Pearl Harbor.  Formation of a US army unit of Japanese soldiers - mostly from Hawaii - they end up in intense fighting near Cassino - very much the same time frame as Irvin Bormann, the Japanese unit has the misfortune of being assigned to cross the Rapido River.  Later they are unexpectedly tasked with rescuing the "Lost Battalion" in France - taking way more casualties than the number of folks rescued.

The discussion moves into 1940s and 1950s politics, labor unions, a descendant of Hawaiian royalty who works as a beach bum - this part not so interesting.

Imperial Twilight - The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age (Stephen Platt, 2018)

I liked this.  

Some overlap with recent book about Brits in India (some of the same folks, lots of trade, India is where the opium poppies were cultivated, etc.) Some of the same opportunism I associate with British adventurers in India.  Things not really planned, but aggressive action when the right excuse came along.

Opening section does a really nice job of bringing to life Macartney's initial trip to visit the Chinese emperor.  I've seen several renditions of this and enjoyed this author's the most.  Hard to imagine.  The "kowtow" kerfuffle, later used to justify aggression.

Explained the origins of the officially sanctioned trade in Canton; the factories; the fallback site in Portuguese Macao.

Chinese bureaucracy getting corrupted, with a few outstanding examples and then widespread problems.  Wasted lots of money putting down White Lotus rebellion (1790s or so).  This is not directly affecting Canton except the corruption issues spread in that direction as well.

A couple missionaries show up (Manning, Morrison); they are more aggressive about exploring China (one of them even went in via Tibet); this helps spark interest back in Britain.  Manning connected to Charles Lamb, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (always these small world stories in Brit-world),  First European to see Lhasa in a couple centuries.

China navy badly outdated, can't even control local pirates.  Brits well aware.

Useful discussion of the growth of the opium trade. It wasn't legitimate, not all firms participated. Author doesn't exonerate China - corrupt officials, users are making a decision as well - but overwhelming driver is Brit aggression as profits started rolling in. Jardine and Matheson as infamously venal, also constantly calling for British navy to attack - ugh.

It's interesting to see how much opposition to the opium trade was raised on the home front.  This was happening shortly after Britain outlawed slavery, and some of the successful antislavery folks turned to attacking the opium trade.

China wavering on policy; some argue to legalize and tax opium (similar discussions as today); the emperor finally decides on an aggressive crackdown (under Li's leadership).  Which is making some headway, surprisingly enough, perhaps would have worked pretty well.  But Li gets crossways with the Brits.  The government back home never seems to have much time to focus on China - this was a very minor backwater as far as Brit Empire matters went - but finally they decide to take action.  Parliamentary vote was very close, the Opium War (here focusing on the First Opium War, 1839-1842) almost didn't happen.

But once started - it took awhile, but outcome never in doubt.  China humiliated; Brits insist on a long list of concessions. This became a bigger issue once Chinese nationalism became more of a thing in the early 20th century - no doubt still used as a rallying cry. With some justification, it was not a pretty chapter.

The Black Swan - The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2007, 2010)

This builds upon "Fooled by Randomness" - some of the concepts reappear but in greater depth, and a lot new.

We evolved in East Africa (presumably) to handle a much simpler world - fewer sources of Black Swans - e.g. a new enemy, a new dangerous animal, a difficult weather change.  In that world one can make quick inferences and generally be largely correct.  Now there are many more sources and many take much longer to play out.

Similar - we automatically seek a cause for occurrences - helpful and efficient but significant risk of being misleading.  Initially valuable for efficiency in a simpler environment.

Similar - categorizing and classifying - much happens unconsciously, it seems.  Misleads all too often.

Similar - we love narratives and explanations - takes much more effort to store long strings of random information.  Our brains unconsciously summarize, theorize, simplify - evolved way of gaining efficiency - again, probably worked well in the long stage of evolution, involves more hazards now  

Positive and tiring effort is required to avoid these wired-in impulses. We can't consistently do so.  Keep reminding oneself.

Not being conscious that there are huge swaths of information outside of what we are aware of. However comprehensive we consider our knowledge to be on any given subject - it's pathetically incomplete.  Need to create the habit of keeping this in mind, would help drive humility as to what we do and can know.

We can often know with confidence that propositions are untrue.  We can seldom if ever know with confidence that propositions are true.  Remember this.

Difficulty or impossibility of identifying causation when looking backward. He mentions the popular business books and states in a better way the problem that caused me to stop reading them - a survivor company looking back in hindsight - even if not perniciously, it's made up.

Looking forward also difficult or impossible - forecaster track records are awful.  It's OK if one is aware of this! 

Futurist writers with the same problem - great at authoritatively telling why things happened a certain way in the past, present/future not so much - I wrote this in 2007 as losing interest in such writers.

He loves Montaigne. (Also here.)

Hayek.  Bottoms-up knowledge.

Off topic in a way, but Taleb adopted an unusual exercise and diet approach - aping primitive man, thinking so many years of evolution in that state suggested modern approaches aren't optimal.  I won't copy this.

It's a little frustrating to hear such a good explanation about limits of knowledge (and limits of knowing), but with little in the way of recommendations about what to do about this.  As well-received as the book was, apparently I'm not the only reader that felt this way.  This edition includes an ~80 page additional chapter through which Taleb took on this complaint . . . though in the end I didn't pick up much in the way of specific action items.  

The value is improving one's ability to keep an open mind, and one's overall approach to recognizing problems and humbly approaching the best response path while recognizing the limits of knowing and remaining flexible as new information filters in.

That's a lot of value.

[Writing about 1987 crash - no internet, we checked market status via phone in those days; not clear what happened or why recovery was so quick.  Later mentions LTCM collapse - Black-Scholes - client companies used their modeling to value stock options.  Big episodes for folks my age.]

Army of Empire - The Untold Story of the Indian Army in World War I (George Morton-Jack, 2018)

 (528 pages)

This was very much worth reading.  Not just for the role of the Indian Army in WWI (highly interesting for various reasons if not highly affecting the outcome), but for what it reveals about British policy of the times, the evolving Indian independence movement of the times, life in the villages from which the British drew recruits, etc.

Britain continuing to rely on Indians for military personnel in the prewar years . . . but aggressively maintaining "prestige" to keep them in their place.  Also a color barrier existed - Indians were not allowed to fight against white armies anywhere in the Commonwealth (what if they succeeded?!)  Let alone become officers with any form of authority over whites.  Selection by race, not merit.

Most of the recruits were drawn from select villages in northern India; many (Afridi, Pashtun) from loosely-organized territories outside British India (these areas functioning like buffer states between British India and places like Afghanistan).  The Afridi/Pashtun types were, and definitely considered themselves to be, independent of British India - and so behaved sometimes when serving in the Indian army.

Some British Army leaders foresaw the coming conflict, and prepared even the Indian army to assist.  Thus they were in position to land Indian troops at a critical juncture of 1914 - before the trenches were developed, just as France and Britain were running out of troops to stand up against German units still trying to break through in the initial drive to Paris.  The presence of those Indian troops - even if they didn't end up with lots of fighting - was essential in plugging the weak points.  Then the Western front settled into years of trench warfare.

Some of those troops were cavalry - and used in charges in a few instances - over time they figured out how to somewhat effectively support ground troops following "softening up" bombardments.

Indian troops were kept in Europe for years in many instances; it seems that they were well treated by the French citizenry in particular.  This was an eye-opener as compared to treatment by the Brits.

I don't want to sound too negative toward the Brits - I think the author does a pretty balanced job on this topic - many of the Brit officers were really good about how they treated their men.  But still.

I also thought the author did a good job exploring the mixed feeling of various of the Indians serving the British.  Genuine loyalty mixed with the primary driver - serving in the Army was a pretty good job for those recruited, and they were able to help the folks back home.  The Indian independence movement didn't have all that much traction as yet - folks like Gandhi were early in the process - and folks recruited from villages into the Indian army were mostly unaware of "independence" as a concept.

While some of the Indian troops - especially those with lesser preparation - were ineffective, the author points out that the Indian army - due to action in various skirmishes or engagements around the British empire - had greater experience than many or most of its European counterparts. They were not struggling "fish out of water" as the artillery boomed - they had seen versions of this, if smaller scale. 

Something I hadn't appreciated - Indian units fought all over the world during WWI. Heavy action in Iraq.  Chasing Germans around East Africa. Gallipolli.  Palestine (including encounters with "Lawrence of Arabia" - who had unfriendly encounters with their officers).  Minor forays into Afghanistan.

Indians transferred from the Western front often were unhappy about this - they enjoyed being in France.

Significant number of Muslim soldiers - this was a touchy subject as fighting occurred in Iraq (Ottoman emperor as caliph, after all).

Lots of change among those who served outside India - they came back with different views - but still tended to remain participants in the Indian army - resentful of some of the mistreatment, but the compensation remained attractive and they had been through a lot of shared experiences alongside their white officers.  Independence movement slow to gain traction among this group.

Amritsar massacre in 1919 - mostly Indian troops firing at the order of their white officers.  Led to repressive steps.

Folks like Gandhi had supported Indians fighting in WWI based on promises that this cooperation would hasten independence after the war ended.  Disillusionment, the transition to a more confrontational (though nonviolent for Gandhi and his group) style.

Fooled by Randomness - The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2004)

 Author is a good Twitter follow, in part because I sometimes if not often disagree with him or dislike his tone.

And I enjoyed the book a lot, in part because I agree with much of it and have absorbed some of the ideas over the years.  There are elements of math, probability, and the like that I don't understand.

The "fooled by randomness" concept is crucial - he discusses why it's so difficult for humans to refrain from inferring causation from linked events - partly because we're wired for efficiency/shortcuts and often the inference is fine or at least not materially detrimental. I've had this concept repeated to me often enough that I think, or at least hope, that I'm applying it every now and again.

Another basic - evaluate decisions solely on information available at the time of the decision. Difficult not to use a hindsight lens (which has value in some other ways).

Respect how little we can really know - it's fine. Be wary of those who claim to know. Richard Feynman continually articulated this very well.

Black swan concept as an example of this.  Seeing only white swans doesn't disprove the existence of the black swan. This seems to be a common error.

Karl Popper's idea.

This ties to what is finally coming to the fore in academia - mountains of studies, research, papers that are useless - impossible to take into account all the variables, let alone that we can't even identify all of the variables. Tease out thought patterns, but mostly:  be humble.

Interpreting statistics can be tricky. I'm not good at the math but at least try to determine the goals of the presenter of the statistics, what might be cherry-picked, etc. Taleb is good on this topic.

Survivorship bias. Hard to overcome.

If Taleb watches TV, he has it on mute! (One of my favorite life rules.) Sounds like he reads a ton and ignores media and much screen-entertainment . . . appealing to my idiosyncrasies . . .

Borrowed from Jr., one of a group of five books (Incerto) that I will continue to read over time.

Goethe - Life as a Work of Art (Rudiger Safranski, 2013)

I spent a lot of time on this biography.  Not quite sure what I think of Goethe, or what I learn from this.

I read a Goethe biography in 2006 that did a very good job of outlining his life; this biography is discussed here.  

The author of the current biography had greater access to diaries and letters of Goethe and folks with whom he was in contact.  That was interesting.

Part of the interest is Goethe as a leading figure starting in the 1770s - royalty doing quite well, even the minor royalty in the German principalities. Along comes the French Revolution (with agitation for democracy and nationalism in France), the Napoleonic era (with this agitation spreading along with the French armies and encompassing the substates in Germany), Napoleon's defeat and the conservative if not reactionary governments throughout Europe, with Metternich as a key figure.  Then the revolution in France again in 1830.  Goethe lived through all of this and was personally acquainted with all these leaders.

He started out with an early "Romantic era" book (The Sorrows of Young Werther) that took the literary world by storm - somehow striking just the right chord at just the right moment. (It's what Napoleon wanted to talk about in their meeting decades later.) This success - of course supplemented by later actions - facilitated "famousness" throughout his long life.  His life took a major turn when the grand duke in charge of Weimar persuaded him to settle there - a smallish state, it was a coup to land Goethe; the grand duke put Goethe in charge of all sorts of things even though Goethe had little expertise. It made him a much more practical person, if not a conservative as the decades rolled along.  Very impressed by Napoleon and wore the French Legion of Honor (awarded to him by Napoleon) all too often for the tastes of many Germans.

Went through a genuine scare when French troops occupied Weimar, including his residence.  Contributed to his dislike of disorder, nationalism, public passions, etc.

Seems like he was an incredibly gifted person in terms of social skills, and could apply this to both men and women. Descriptions of his romantic relationships; seems like he took advantage of his skills in some situations where he should have refrained. 

The 2006 biography talks about the famous people he interacted with.

Uncanny ability to compose poetry and write all sorts of kinds of literature. Difficulty finishing longer works.

Migrating away from Sturm und Drang - he took a great interest in minerology, sparked by his position as official in charge of Weimar mines.  Another favorite topic - how humans perceive color.  As the years by he kept writing but felt that pursuits in the natural sciences were more worthy.

By the time he passed away in the early 1830s - time had passed him by.  Not popular with young Germans.  Seems like his reputation has recovered, though I don't know how much his works are read.

Not sure what to make of him.