A popular book for introduction to European philosophy. Chapter by chapter, Will Durant traces important European philosophers from antiquity to modern times in chronological order. The ideas generated by individual philosophers are interwoven with descriptions of their personalities and their sociopolitical circumstances. Some critics don't like this intermingling — they prefer that philosophical ideas be presented by themselves, not in the context of the lives and circumstances of their proponents.
What did I learn from this book? The first thing that struck me was that logic is highly valued in European philosophy! Now Eastern philosophers consider logic or 'reductionism' to be man's forte. They consider 'intuition' or 'holism' to be a woman's forte, with the two of them coming together to form one whole. The ancient Chinese expressed these sentiments via the Yin-Yang diagram. From the Chinese standpoint, by emphasizing logic, European philosophy has created a blind spot for itself.
The second thing that struck me was captured by S Radhakrishnan in the preface of one of his books. He noted that contemporary Western approach emphasizes individualism and novelty; so different philosophers vie with each other with insights into something new that was never explored before! In contrast, Eastern philosophers believe that everything (relevant) was known to ancient seers and sages; so philosophers have great reverence for the past and merely provide expositions of ancient knowledge in modern language. One consequence of these two different views is that a book in Western philosophy tends to be a chronological concatenation of thoughts of different personalities. After reading such a book, one is left wondering whom to believe because different philosophers say different things! However, a book in Eastern philosophy is always an exposition of truth or wisdom of the ancients, with instructions for practices and encouragement for following these practices so that belief in the truths is established through personal experience.
Edward Tufte's books are a must-read for anybody who ever draws a graph in any presentation. His books have large fonts and are full of graphics. So you may easily finish reading a 300-page book on a weekend.
An interesting tidbit from Tufte's book: Do you know when the first graphs were produced? Surprisingly, the graph format that we take for granted today (plotting two variables on X and Y axes) was first conjured by William Playfair in 1786.
Tufte also wrote The Cognitive Style of Power Point (32 pages, 2006), which highlights the shortcomings of Power Point as a tool for making presentations, a must-read for speakers. More books by Edward Tufte: Beautiful Evidence (213 pages, 2006) — Envisioning Information (126 pages, 1990) — Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative (156 pages, 1997).
A collection of essays for understanding limitations of modern biology, especially the 'genes are everything' model.
This book taught me something interesting: The genes of organisms and the environment influence each other in complex ways. Choosing the environment to be the independent variable and genes to be the dependent variable is a matter of convenience!
This book is a biography of Seymour Cray, an extraordinary computer engineer who envisioned and practically created the supercomputer industry in 1970s. He was well ahead of his times!
What I learnt from this book was Cray's dedication, decade after decade, in picking up increasingly ambitious projects. He never got tired! :)
The book traces the tragic journey of Donner Party in 1846. The Donner Party was a group of eighty seven men, women and children trying to cross the Sierra Nevada in California in the winters along a new route. The party continued to make progress in bitter cold; roughly half survived the journey; towards the end, group members resorted to cannibalism.
Reading the wikipedia article on Donner Party and reading the book are totally different experiences. The book develops the story slowly, in great detail, explaining the circumstances that led to cannibalism. Plot development of their painful ordeal evokes empathy. The wikipedia is 'matter of fact'.
Curiously, the fraction of women who survived was far larger than the fraction of men who survived. This article attempts to explain why women were far more resilient.
An extraordinary survival story of 27 men trapped in Antarctica for 20 months in 1915-1916. British explorer Ernest Shackleton was the captain of his ship called Endurance. They were trying to reach the South Pole. Unfortunately, Endurance was trapped and then crushed by ice. Shackleton and his men survived five months on ice floes. Eventually, they were saved when three of them sailed one of the ship's lifeboats almost 800 miles to South Georgia, a 25-mile wide island, in tough conditions.
Endurance is an incredible saga of courage and endurance. Shackleton is remembered for his leadership skills that kept his team together in extreme conditions.
I was amazed at the scope and depth of thinking underlying the Art of War. Like many ancient books, the original is a collection of short passages, which later writers expanded through examples. The Art of War has general principles on strategy that have been adopted by both business managers and sports coaches. Art of War (wikipedia) is high quality.