Tag: book log

I read a lot, and I keep a log. Here’s this year’s log and the complete log (which goes back to the beginning of 1999). Read the posts in this section to find out what I thought about these books.

She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard

How did I come to read this book?

I read Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne because it’s on a lot of lists of classic books, and I’ve read other top Verne books, but not this one.

Then, because I somehow thought Journey to the Center of the Earth had more dinosaurs in it, I read The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, which is possibly the one I was thinking of.

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle made me think of Michael Crichton’s novels The Lost World and also Congo, which I read in 2010.

Congo was (according to Wikipedia) inspired by King Solomon’s Mines, a novel by H. Rider Haggard, which I’ve also repeatedly seen on lists of classic books, so I read King Solomon’s Mines.

Then, because the novel She is by the same author as King Solomon’s Mines, and I’ve seen it on lists of classics (some indicating that it was an early science-fiction or early feminist novel), I read it too.

Phew!

Overall impression? What a creepy story. Really not my style.

There were some interesting psychological/philosophical observations, and some poetic, if melancholy, descriptive passages, but mainly the atmosphere was, in general, unpleasantly macabre. The physical surroundings of the characters consisted almost entirely of caves and tombs, except when the characters were traveling on stormy seas or across mosquito-infested swamps. There is no joy in this book whatsoever; the survival of the narrator is a matter of narrow escape—of relief rather than victory. But maybe that’s the point? Reading the book is like passing through a haunted house: you frighten yourself thoroughly with impossibilities, and then return to the real world with a new appreciation for normalcy.

So yeah. Well done, H. Rider Haggard. Thanks, I hate it.

See below for some more specific observations on this unsettling book from 1886.

Continue reading She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard

When and Why I Read She: A History of Adventure

This is the other famous book by the author of King Solomon's Mines.

Genre: classic adventure
Date started / date finished: 28-Feb-25 to 08-Mar-25
Length: 245 pages
Originally published in: 1886/2006/2020
Source link: She: A History of Adventure

King Solomon’s Mines (book vs. 1950 movie)

Mainly the difference is that the book has a big battle in the middle that the movie doesn’t have at all, and the movie has a love story that’s nowhere in the book. See below for complete plot summaries of the book and movie.

Continue reading King Solomon’s Mines (book vs. 1950 movie)

When and Why I Read King Solomon's Mines

The "lost world" novel that inspired Michael Crichton's Congo.

Genre: adventure
Date started / date finished: 22-Feb-25 to 27-Feb-25
Length: 270 pages
ISBN: na
Originally published in: 1885/2000/2018
Source link: King Solomon's Mines

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne (1864), and The Lost World, by Arthur Conan Doyle (1912), initially seemed to be two versions of the same book. Verne apparently inspired Doyle (and others, including Edgar Rice Burroughs).

Lost World has a lot more overt action and adventure than Journey, which makes it quite different in the middle and end, but there are definitely some similarities between the two books in the beginning.

The setup for both is that a young man who wishes to gain the favor of a young woman goes with an irritable scientist on a quest to remote part of the world on the basis of a report that nobody believes except the irritable scientist.

Continue reading The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

When and Why I Read The Lost World

Similar to Journey to the Center of the Earth?

Genre: adventure
Date started / date finished: 16-Feb-25 to 22-Feb-25
Length: 137 pages
ISBN: B075M831DT
Originally published in: 1912/2017
Amazon link: The Lost World

Neurotribes by Steve Silberman

The subtitle of this copy is “The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity.” An alternate subtitle I’ve seen is “The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently.” But I see the book as being more of a history of autism and less of a prophecy or practical manual. That being said, it was fascinating. It’s no wonder the book won an award (the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, now known as the Baillie Gifford Prize).

I bought this book in 2018; I’m glad to have finally read it.

Continue reading Neurotribes by Steve Silberman

When and Why I Read Neurotribes

I've been reading about brains and genetics.

Genre: psychology
Date started / date finished: 05-Feb-25 to 22-Feb-25
Length: 486 pages
ISBN: 9780399185618
Originally published in: 2015/2016
Amazon link: Neurotribes

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson

This adventure is full of realistic true details about, say, strangely geometric basaltic columns, but at the same time, it’s full of absolute nonsense. That’s par for the course for science-fiction, but this is early science-fiction. Now, our science-fiction stories are typically out in space, or in the future. In the time of Jules Verne, there were still many mysteries much closer to home.

Therefore, to read and enjoy this book in spite of advances in geological knowledge, you have to ignore the voice in your head that says, “Of course there isn’t a cavity deep inside the earth that sustains plant and animal life similar to the plant and animal life of prehistoric times.” You have to think to yourself, “What if there were?”

What if your uncle and employer, a grumpy old scientist—and the godfather of your charming girlfriend—proposed to go down into the theoretically hollow earth (which you believe is unbearably hot) based on some explorer’s writings from centuries ago? You’d think he was crazy, and you certainly wouldn’t want to go with him.

But your charming girlfriend tells you it is needful for you to go out into the world boldly and make a name for yourself. So you go. But you’re expecting your uncle’s crazy quest to fail at every moment, and you’re looking forward to throwing in the towel, turning around, and going home.

Eventually, you concede that you were wrong; but by that time, you’re more than a bit worried about how you’ll make it back alive to tell of the marvels you’ve seen. You descended into the bowels of the earth in a volcanic crater in Iceland, but you’ll emerge from a different volcano… in Italy!

When and Why I Read Journey to the Center of the Earth

This is one of the more famous Jules Verne stories. It keeps popping up on lists of classics. But I haven't read it, so I'm reading it.

Genre: sci-fi/adventure
Date started / date finished: 07-Feb-25 to 16-Feb-25
Length: 146 pages
ISBN: B074W95Z2Y
Originally published in: 1864/2017
Amazon link: Journey to the Center of the Earth

Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are by Kevin J. Mitchell

I used to work for Princeton University Press (PUP), and once in a while I go look through their list of new releases. There was a time when I read the whole printed catalog cover to cover in the course of my duties; it always made me want to get hold of the books and become more informed on topics ranging from the geology of South America to… Dining Posture in Ancient Rome.

Now, it’s no different. I see PUP books, I want to learn stuff! A while back I heard about a PUP sale, and made a list of books to be considered for purchase (as ebooks, since I’m out of range of most English-language book supply chains, and the books I can get aren’t cheap). But I don’t like forking over money for ebooks, because I don’t feel like they’re mine, I can’t see them on my shelf, and there’s a limitless supply of public domain ebooks that I can read for free. So in the end, I narrowed the shortlist down to just one book, this one. It purports to answer a compelling question, one that’s addressed to some extent in the twin studies book I read recently: What makes us who we are?

Continue reading Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are by Kevin J. Mitchell

When and Why I Read Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are

I'm reading this because the twins book made me want to learn more about inherent differences and similarities between people.

Genre: neuroscience
Date started / date finished: 27-Jan-25 to 07-Feb-25
Length: 306 pages
ISBN: B07CSHZRGN
Originally published in: 2018
Amazon link: Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are

Entwined Lives by Nancy L. Segal

My reading is about half fiction and half non-fiction; among non-fiction books, there are a lot of pop-science books; among the pop-science books, there are a lot of pop-psychology books. Some of the pop-psychology books have made interesting (but rather isolated) statements about twin studies. These statements intrigued me; surely the scientific study of twins deserved to be described in more depth. Finally, I’ve read a whole book about twin studies!

Author Nancy L. Segal is a researcher (and a twin) with an early 2000s-style website and a number of books to her name; this book, Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior, isn’t the most recent book she’s published, but seems to be the most general. It may actually be the most accessible, general book on twin studies in existence. So if the topic interests you, read on.

Continue reading Entwined Lives by Nancy L. Segal

When and Why I Read Entwined Lives

FINALLY I'm reading a book that I hope will shed more light on my understanding of the nature/nurture debate from the perspective of twin studies. Once in a while I read a sentence that suggests a surprising amount of similarity between identical twins is innate (twin brothers separated at birth both walk backwards into the sea?), but of course the reality is complex. And maybe after this I can read a book that's more recent than 1999, lol.

Genre: biology
Date started / date finished: 28-Dec-24 to 04-Feb-25
Length: 337 pages
ISBN: 0525944656
Originally published in: 1999
Amazon link: Entwined Lives

The Novels of E.M. Forster

I recently read seven works by E.M. Forster in order of publication:

  • Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905)
  • The Longest Journey (1907)
  • A Room with a View (1908)
  • Howards End (1910)
  • A Passage to India (1924)
  • Maurice (written in 1913–14, published posthumously in 1971)
  • Aspects of the Novel (1927)

Forster is known for the mantra “Only connect,” a quote from Howard’s End. Perhaps his best-known novel, which I read previously, is A Passage To India. My favorite of the novels is A Room with a View, which I read and posted about previously.

See below for some thoughts on Forster’s writing.

Continue reading The Novels of E.M. Forster

Books I read in 2024

Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things by George Lakoff

The best book I read this year was Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things by George Lakoff. Much as I enjoyed it, it took me forever.

The copy I read is printed and physically huge, so I didn’t carry it around with me; I had it by my bed. But it’s also an intellectually challenging book that requires concentration. So I didn’t really want to read it at bedtime. It sat there for months, until I made it a priority to sit down and get through it.

The truth is, my reading habits have changed. After I moved from Singapore to China near the end of 2022, I read fewer books overall, as part of the associated swath of lifestyle changes, and a larger proportion of my reading was ebooks in 2023 and 2024. I brought plenty of printed books with me, and I still can (and do) buy printed books in English (in China and when visiting the US), but I lost the habit of carrying a paper book around, and the habit of reading just before lights out. I almost stopped reading paper books in favor of ebooks: in 2024, I read 9 printed books out of 45 total.

In 2024 especially, I took advantage of free public domain ebooks after realizing that I was buying cheap ebooks even though I don’t much like the idea of buying ebooks at all—and I know darn well I shouldn’t be buying ANY books just because they’re a bargain price! So now my goal (again, still) is to try to do a better job following the last-in-first-out rule I made that I’ve been struggling with for a while.

See below for a complete list, book cover thumbnails, and thoughts on the quantity, length, format, and content of the books I read in 2024.

Continue reading Books I read in 2024

26 Years of Doorstoppers

From 1999 to 2024, I have read at least one book over 1,000 pages every year.*

*Except 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2020 (?!).

According to my records, the longest books in those years were:

  • 2015 – Gone with the Wind (862 pages)
  • 2017 – Roots (899 pages)
  • 2018 – The Annotated Malay Archipelago (761 pages)
  • 2020 – Don Quixote (768 pages)

Caveats to the caveats: My copy of Gone with the Wind was printed really dense. Other copies (including the first edition) were more than 1,000 pages. Don Quixote is also often if not usually more than 1,000 pages in English. So I think these two still qualify me as having followed my “rule” of reading at least one 1,000-page book every year.

Roots and The Annotated Malay Archipelago really don’t qualify, though… What happened in 2017 and 2018?

What happened was, my local book group leader decided we would read The Dream of the Red Chamber! I read the five-volume Penguin version translated by Hawkes and Minford, titled The Story of the Stone, from October 26, 2017 to January 14,  2018.

Vol. 1 – 540 pages
Vol. 2 – 601 pages
Vol. 3 – 637 pages
Vol. 4 – 398 pages
Vol. 5 – 383 pages

Total 2,559 pages!

That’s more than equivalent to two 1,000-page books, so I’m going to count The Story of the Stone as my long book for both 2017 and 2018.

So, if granted a little flexibility, I can actually rather truthfully say:

From 1999 to 2024, I actually have read at least one book over 1,000 pages every year!

Or we can say that since there are more than 26 doorstoppers on the list, the average is more than one per year anyway. (Whatever! Much books! Very reading! Such wow!)

See below for the list of all the 1,000-page books (by year and by genre) and some comments.

Continue reading 26 Years of Doorstoppers