Ebano by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa

I don't know why I didn't put this in my post about fun books yesterday, but I'm re reading a book I find very entertaining-Nelson Demille's The Gold Coast. It's set on Long Island, and it's about a mafia boss who moves into a very prestigious north shore Long Island neighborhood. It's lots of fun, but you will learn nothing.

An Uncommon Friendship From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust

Robert E Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories are excellent! Overdone in every sense, short stories where this simple barbarian triumphs over debauched civilization through sheer brawn and determination.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.

It’s so well written, the whole story feels like a memory you are remembering.

"The Undercover Economist" by Tim Harford

Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor

The Merchant of Vernice…abridged version haha

I have been an English teacher all my working life but lack a working knowledge of Shakespeare’s works because in my country, language is taught as a different subject from literature. So I never studied Shakespeare before. Technically speaking, I can coast along in my job without reading Shakespeare. However, given that Shakespeare contributed more than a thousand words to the English language, I feel compelled to understand the role he played in the development of the English language. Moreover, a famous drama company does an adaptation of a Shakespeare play, so any reading I do in advance will help me understand the performance better.

I thought the Merchant of Vernice has some intriguing storylines. Like Syhlock the moneylender demanded for a pound of flesh. Or Portia pretending to be a male lawyer to absolve the defendant from blame. But on the whole, I thought there were so many couples that it kinda distracted me from the main plot.

What do you think of The Merchant of Vernice?

I read this long back. Hilarious. lil dark but hilarious!

Get Anyone to Do Anything: Never Feel Powerless Again--With Psychological Secrets to Control and Influence Every Situation

In his runaway bestseller NEVER BE LIED TO AGAIN, Dr David Lieberman broke new ground with his insights on the way people communicate. Now he revolutionises interpersonal relationships with GET ANYONE TO DO ANYTHING, another phenomenal New York Times bestseller. Lieberman is a master at exploring the human psyche. With this intriguing, provocative book, he explains how to read people, how to avoid being manipulated and how to get the upper hand in every situation.

Ted Kazinsky's manifesto. Ted is better known as the Unabomber but he was was motivated by some incredibly vivid projections about technology. It's easy to disagree with the kind of violence he engaged in, but it's hard to disagree with him about the consequences of industrialized society. I disagree with his conclusions, and certainly his actions, but it's hard to disagree with his reasoning which is one of my favorite things to encounter.

There's a great and bingeable TV series Manhunt which provides some dramatized background on him, but I'd recommend reading his work too.

I was reminded to recommend this by Hans Reiser's letter from prison.

I should be finishing Animal Farm by George Orwell.

A mandatory one..

RIP Jack

Just heard about this one on the Ungovernable Misfits podcast.

Chip War. Part social and economic history of the technology, weaves into a lot of political stuff that explains the state of the world, and (eventually) the very particular way this technology has become a geopolitical issue. Super interesting, very well-written.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid

My signed copy of Gradually, Then Suddenly. </humblebrag>

continuing to read Americana this weekend, really great read so far.

I have been reading The Block size war, quite famous I think but just had extra time recently to read it. Around 200 pages, it remains fairly neutral and talks about arguments and social aspects of each side of people until 2018 wanting a softwork and others a hard fork around the limit of the block size. Ultimately I got some books recommendations from Roger Ver and that I am reading now, Economics in one lesson. A book which uses common sense to explain fallacies in economics. As far as I read it is interesting. And also reading The Book of Satoshi because I am too lazy to go back to bitcointalk and the author compiled writings from Satoshi. The first part I was reading is quite boring though as it is just basic stuff. Still reading, will see if it is interesting. Hopefully next week it will be other books recommendations from Austrian economics.

What the dog saw by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell tries to show us the world through the eyes of others, even if that other happens to be a dog, hence the title.

What the Dog Saw is a compilation of 19 articles by Malcolm Gladwell that were originally published in The New Yorker which are categorized into three parts. The first part, Obsessives, Pioneers, and other varieties of Minor Genius, describes people who are very good at what they do, but are not necessarily well-known.

No Satoshi in there, too well known, lol!