reading

This week I read Cory Doctorow’s science fiction novel - Down and out in the magic kingdom. It is Cory’s first book, published in 2003; simulatenously released under Creative Commons license and can be downloaded in many formats for free. The title is inspired from George Orwell’s “Down and out in Paris and London” (just like “Little Brother”) which describes descent into poverty, a similar plot point in the book. The book is short (208 pages) and I finished it in 5-6 hours....

This weekend, I read Little Brother, a fast-paced Young-Adult novel about government surveillance by Cory Doctorow. You might have guessed the surveillance plot from the resemblance to “Big Brother” in the name. And yes, at the core Little Brother deals with the same questions as George Orwell’s 1984. It demonstrates what it actually takes for our current society to turn into an Orwellian dystopia: Fear, Propoganda, Misinformation. The book came out in 2008, in the pre-Snowden era; but you wouldn’t know that reading it in 2017, because that’s how relavant it is....

“Moonwalking with Einstein” is a very fascinating book. It is written like a documentary, with an amazing narrative; followes the author, a journalist, as he decides to enter the world of Memory Championships and how he goes on to win one of them. And it has a lot to say about Memory and Learning. At its core the book is not about memory competitions or to teaching you quick ways to memorize the digits of pi; it is about the intricate relationship between memory, learning and creativity....

My review of 3 books that I read recently **Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke ** This is my first book by the famed sci-fi author of 2001 space odyssey. Having seen it in my scifi recommendations, I found this book in my library. It is not very long(at ~250 pages) The premise is benevolent aliens landing on the earth, and the aftermath. A major theme is the degradation of human creativity in the lack of conflict/competition....

Animal Farm is a short but widely praised book by the author George Orwell. This is a precursor to his much more famous(regarded as one of the best) sci-fi dystopian novel “1984”. Hunting for sci-fi classics, I originally aimed to read only “1984”, but came upon this book when I saw its measly price and small stature at a local bookstore. I read Animal Farm after “1984”. The Book: For those of you who don’t know, this book is not just a work of fiction about farm animals, it is a reflection on the socio-political-economical struggles of the 20th century....

This was a book I was very eager to read. It was the 2nd biography I read. So I am not a very good judge of what a biography should be. Things i liked: # The physical copy itself, is solid, and quite attractive. # The colored pages in between, showing photos of various times in Musk’s life. # Easy to read, easy to follow. # Covers other aspects of Musk’s personality as well, eccentricities and criticism....

It is important to understand how Musk operates in order to comprehend his extraordinary success. Musk is a risk taker. He time and again, promises to do the impossible. He purposefully commits to doing things that are really really difficult. What’s the most amazing thing you can imagine in a product: he will promise that in the next model, coming out in 2 years. It is easy to call him delusional....

(A primer to my review of Elon Musk Biography by Ashlee Vance) I first came to know about Elon Musk, by reading about a new private space company launched their first rocket in orbit. I certainly at the time, was not aware of the huge significance of it. The name “Elon Musk”, from then on, would continually pop-up in news. Later i’m reading a highly passioned Oatmeal article about why Tesla Model S is the best car ever built with highest safety rating, customer satisfaction; and it’s electric, meaning doesn’t kill mother earth....

MY BRIEF STORY This is the first book i have read by Richard Dawkins. I picked up the book 2 years ago, largely being drawn to the sensationalist title. I started reading, barely 20 pages in, and lost the motivation to go on. The writing was thick, littered with quotes, examples, formal terms. Someday, I thought. I finally picked it up a week go, determined to finish; confident that the interim 2 years would have made me better equipped....

This is a brief summary of what Richard Dawkins argues in his book “The God Delusion”. These are not my opinions. I simply state his arguments in very short, easy to understand form, omitting quite a few. I expanded on the new and non-obvious stuff, that I found interesting and dumbed down the others. I will express my opinions and disagreements with his ideology in a different post. TL;DR Every false belief should be destroyed, especially those which cause more harm, than good....