Archive for books
March 9, 2007 at · Filed under books, middle east, politics
last time i was in israel i picked up a few books in hebrew. mostly centered around israel's recent history.
the first one i read was "good arabs" by hillel cohen. it is based on documents from the israeli police and shin-bet services that were only recently declassified.
the picture the book paints is not one that will be easy to read for many israelis. while i personally give little credit to government agencies and don't buy the israeli myths around our superior moral standards, it was still surprising to learn how corrupt and immoral the israeli government was at the time.
one of the most disturbing revelations as far as i am concerned was the involvement of the israeli security services in trying to control the arab vote and direct it to the party in power (map"ai).
but more than anything it made me realize how inadequate are the history lessons that i got in school. now it looks to me as if i was subjected to propaganda. what you learn in school in israel is very one sided, trying to present the heroic efforts of the jews versus the heartless and barbaric arabs.
i think it will go a long way in making peace process and peace itself feasible if the history taught in schools was more objective, spending as much time on the way things looked to the arab population and the systematic mistreatment from the government.
the arabs are no saints, far from it. and even today their governments, religious leaders, media and general public are operating based on a moral code that is lagging several generations behind the west (yes, i do think there is such thing as moral and less moral cultures. don't buy the relativism approach).
this book is narrowly focused. i wish the school programs will teach some of its findings, but more importantly provide the true history of the early years of israel, the good and the bad.
February 10, 2007 at · Filed under books
it seems that the only reading i am doing these days is on planes (after my battery runs out..). which makes it hard for me to make progress.
i liked snow, even though i think the best dialogue was very early in the book (between the director on the institute of education and his assassin), but this is probably because the thing that was most appealing for me in the book was the clash between the secular and religious points of view.
the main character, Ka, is someone i could not really connect with. orhan probably did a great job in building Ka along the book, because he feels very real, with serious character flaws and annoying behaviors.
(MY FLIGHT IS BOARDING. MUST GO)
January 14, 2007 at · Filed under books
i have a policy against reading non-fiction on vacations, but i figured in cold blood does not really count as a non-fiction.
i saw the capote film earlier this year, and had in cold blood in my "to read" list ever since. i was happy that when i started reading the book i forgot all of what i have seen in the movie, so i could be surprised by much of it.
i have not read many books that tell the story of a crime (under the banner of heaven, was the most recent one), but this one is probably the best. capote tells the story in such detail that you start thinking he was there as a fly on the wall the whole time.
the story itself is quite disturbing. mostly because the target of the crime (the clutter family) was so arbitrary. they just the extremely bad luck to be the victims of two losers who set their mind to commit the "perfect crime", by doing a robbery and leaving no witnesses. and they almost got away with it.
what i found most interesting in the book is the detailed descriptions of the backgrounds, mindset, rationale and emotions the killers had leading to the murders. though you get to know perry and dick (the two murderers) as the story progresses, i think it is impossible to feel sympathy for either maybe pity.
December 29, 2006 at · Filed under books
the places in between is the account of rory stewart walk from heart to kabul shortly after the fall of the taliban in 2002. i bought the book after i heard an interview with rory about his latest book (prince of the marshes) about his time as lt. governor in a province in iraq.. he is a special guy.
he walked in asia (india, pakistan, iran, afghanistan) for 16 months, but the timing of his trip to afghanistan and the way he went about it (staying every night in the houses of people willing to take him in and feed him) is extraordinary.
he walks in rural afghanistan and most of the people he meets are illiterate, don't have access to media and never went too far outside their village. unfortunately this is true for most of afghanistan. their country has just been bombarded and conquered by the coalition, and they don't really have a clue of the context. quite amazing.
reading this book it is hard to be optimistic about afghanistan's future. i hope the UN, NATO the US are spending real time and resources trying to understand the situation there, and help the local population make real progress.
the book is easy and quick to read. i felt rory was very honest in his writing. he is not making himself to be a hero, not every sentence he says is full of wit or wisdom, and his behavior is not always admirable. he is also not being very dramatic (beside a few understandable slips). he has a good sense of humor and it comes out in many of the passages in the book.
December 13, 2006 at · Filed under books, middle east, politics
i got the iraq study group report yesterday and stayed up late to finish reading it.
i find the approach of co-chaired, bi-partisan, old-men groups that are supposed to come up with conclusions and recommendations a bit weird. 5 republicans and 5 democrats, all greatly honored for serving with each other on the committee, quickly establish a group-think and reach consensus.
it is a system than guarantees that not the best solution will be offered, but rather the lowest common denominator.
so i was surprised that the report actually did a reasonably fair job in describing how dire is the situation in iraq, and hopefully put an end to the "we're making progress", "the media is only covering the bad news out of iraq..", mantra from bush and his aides.
with regard to the specific recommendations:
- the general approach - i think what they are trying to suggest with regard to a graceful exit from iraq is a scenario in which the US will be able to say "we did all we could to help the iraqis govern themselves, the iraqi government is unable/not willing to make the progress required from a sovereign body and we no longer feel it is our responsibility to support them". which will allow the US to pull out most of its troops and not call it a defeat.
they are offering real measures to improve things on the ground, but at this stage the situation is so hopeless, that it will not account for much. i don't think they really believe their operational recommendations to better the situation in iraq have a real chance of succeeding.
- the diplomatic offensive - i believe the US can get everyone to cooperate beside iran. the path to syria probably lies with getting israel to return the golan heights (one of the recommendations), which i believe israel will have to do, but this is not going to happen quickly enough to have an impact on the situation in iraq.
the US will not be able to create strong enough incentives or disincentives to move iran. iran is just having too much fun watching the US bleed in iraq, and the international community will not side with the US as long as this administration is in power.
actually i doubt that the current administration can not lead any "diplomatic offensive". it's not just that they are not competent to do it, bush is too stubborn and too you're-either-with-us-or-against-us kind of guy. as he is so proudly admits he lacks this type of nuance.
- the milestones to the iraqi government - great milestones. no chance what so ever they are going to meet (or even try to meet) these milestones.
- the military recommendations - sounds good. i am not sure why it took these wise old men to come up with this list, and why these issues are only being addressed 3.5 years into the war, but i guess it is better later than never.
changing the main military mission to training is a very clear path for the US to reduce the number of troops and gradually pull-out.
considering the fact that the ISG was not supposed to look on the past, but rather focus on where do we go from here there are a few interesting comments in the report
- strong criticism of the administration handling of the funding to the war outside of the main budget
- calling for the administration to be more open and honest with the public
- pointing out inaccurate reporting of violence level
- criticizing the number of arabic speaking officials in the embassy (6 out of 1000)
now i understand why bush looked like a ghost when he received the report last week (i'll be interested to know whether he actually read it, or did someone just summarize it for him in a few bulletpoints in powerpoint).
i think he'll wait a few more weeks till the pentagon finish its own review, and while he speaks with "advisors" and members of congress. he will then have a prime-time TV address where he will say "over the past few weeks i have conducted an intensive review of the situation in iraq. i would like to thank the iraq study group, the pentagon analysts, and all those who dedicated their time and efforts to think about this challenge…. blah, blah, blah. i believe there is a path for victory in iraq… there were some great ideas offered by the different groups that looked into the situation… i am planning to adopt some of these ideas into a new comprehensive plan that will clear the path to a successful conclusion of the mission in iraq… blah blah blah"
bush will embrace some of the operational recommendations in the report, he will set milestones (but will not link them to troop levels), he will send a special envoy to the middle-east, he will call for a "stakeholders" conference of all the countries that have an interest to see iraq come out of its crisis.
the bottom line will be that troop levels will not come down significantly and there will be no end in sight for the current US approach in iraq as long as bush is president.
john mccain will not win the 2008 elections (and maybe not even the republican primaries) because of his position on iraq. a democrat will win 2008, and will pledge to be out of iraq by any meaningful measure by Jan 2010.
too many predictions for one post.. 
December 11, 2006 at · Filed under books
i had this book on my "to read" shelf for a while. the problem with my shelf is that there are books there that could be there for years, because i am kind of implementing a last-in-first-out algorithm to picking the book i will read next. i chose gilead because i wanted a non-fiction for my next read, and i didn't have much space in the bag i was carrying to hong-kong..
gilead is a great book. one that deserves all the critical acclaim it got. it is written in a form of an extended letter from an old father that is about to die to his young son.
the old-father is a preacher in a small shabby town in iowa, and the text is full of references to his sermons and describes a life in which religion plays a major role (not a setting i will usually relate to), but it is full of wisdom and knowledge of the human heart.
it struck a cord with me from the beginning, not just because it written so well and inspiring, but also because it immediately got me thinking of myself being put in the same situation. i could not get that thought out of my head through out the book.
highly, highly recommended.
November 3, 2006 at · Filed under books
after way too long time i finished stumbling on happiness (NOT A SELF HELP BOOK). i think the author should have chosen a different title..
the book sheds light on some of the basic behaviors of people, with a focus on our impressive inability to misjudge our past, present and future. it is filled with anecdotes from researches conducted in different universities and is written with lots of humor.
i highly recommend!
September 28, 2006 at · Filed under books, internet, technology
i am going to hear chris anderson talk about the long tail later today, so i pushed myself to finish the book in time.
the long tail is a pretty simple concept that anderson is applying mostly to the business world. wait better let wikipedia define it:
Anderson argued that products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough. Examples of such mega-stores include the online retailer Amazon.com and the online video rental service Netflix. The Long Tail is a potential market and, as the examples illustrate, the distribution and sales channel opportunities created by the Internet often enable businesses to tap into that market successfully.
A former Amazon employee described the Long Tail as follows: "We sold more books today that didn't sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday." In the same sense, the user-edited internet encyclopedia Wikipedia has many low popularity articles that, collectively, create a higher quantity of demand than a limited number of mainstream articles found in a conventional encyclopedia such as the Encyclopædia Britannica.
the origin of the book is an article published in wired, which then grew to become a book.
the book got my entrepreneurial cycles going, which not many books do, but overall i think it is a simple concept and phenomenon that does not require 225 pages to explain and analyze. there is A LOT of repetition. at a certain point i thought i am reading "the long tail for dummies".
to anyone who is interested i recommend reading the original article and some of chris's blog entries. …but the book is a good read and it is thought provoking, so maybe you should read the book, too.
September 24, 2006 at · Filed under books
i started reading this book during our latest vacation, but after the first night i forgot it in the hotel. i hate it when it happens. so i re-ordered from amazon and finished it quickly.
post office is charles bukowski's fictional, yet semi-autobiographic novel (james frey would probably have published it as a true story…). it is the first bukowski i read, and i was not very impressed. but probably it should be judged based on the time when it was published (1971). back then it was probably considered as breaking some new ground.
the book reads very fast. and doesn't require the reader to think much. so like the main character you can do all your reading while you're drunk.. the 'hero-anti-hero' is hank, a constantly drunk, chain smoking, chain coffee drinking, don't-give-a-shit, tough-guy who works at the post office (on and off).
i think james frey actually copied a lot from this book..
anyway, back to bukowski. i'll try reading some of his other stuff, but i don't have high expectations.
September 21, 2006 at · Filed under books
this is another book which took me a while to finish. it sheds lights on the condition of China's peasants (estimated at over 900 million). the book became a best-seller in china and sold over 10 million copies. it was banned after the first 250,000 were sold, since the government was concerned that it will cause civil unrest.
the picture the book is painting is not pretty. it seems that not much have changed in the life of peasants from the period described by pearl buck in "the good earth" (which takes place in the same province, anhui. if anything it seems now there is a system in place making corruption and abuse much more wide spread.
for those who believe china's rise is imminent and nothing could stop it, i think this book could shed a new light. if china will not find a way to improve the lives of the peasants it may be the one thing that will stop it from catching up with the west.
the book itself is poorly written in my opinion. the writers paint every village/township boss a cartoonish villain and every villager as a prosecuted saint. and the way they choose to describe some of the situations is so one-sided in the way it is described that it in my opinion it loses some of its credibility. but this may also be some kind of cultural gap between current western writing and the state of non-fiction writing in china.
recommended reading for anyone who is interested to learn more about china.
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