Over winter vacation, I spent almost a week at my wife’s mother’s place in Nagoya. No Internet. Which meant lots of time for reading paper-based stuff. Here is how I spent my New Year’s.
The Limits of Power by Andrew Blacevitch, former Navy Admiral shows how we can’t continue our imperial ways in the world, how they got started with Regan, how Carter was right, and how Rhienhold Neibuhr foresaw this a long time ago.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson: Monks in the future, on another world, grapple with society, purges and a new world-shaking event. 940 pages of classic Stephenson, his best book yet, but hard to read because it has its own vocabulary.
The Big Necessity by Rose George: The biggest health improvement in the last 500 years has been sewage treatment. This Guardian reporter explores, literally, the biggest and the best, the worst and the stinkiest ways to handle shit.
