The first month of the non-fiction book club is coming to an end, and I will be posting my review of Easterly’s The White Man’s Burden on Wednesday. As such, it is time to start choosing a second book. I have the following nominees:
1) Speth, Gus. The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability.
2) Jaccard, Mark. Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy.
3) Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. The Worst Journey in the World. (About a failed Antarctic expedition)
What else would people consider reading?
Well, I didn’t make it through Easterly’s book. While the material was interesting, his prose made me want to die.
I suggest Changing Images of Man. Based on what you liked about Easterly’s book, I think the subject of developing effective strategies to manipulate/guide/direct the development of human civilization in the immediate future seems very relevant.
Plus it has Joseph Campbell, it’s really damn weird, and it’s available in PDF!
There was previous interest in reading Jared Diamond’s Collapse. I would like to add my vote to that tally.
I’ll vote for Nick’s selection, but I’d also support Collapse.
Are paper copies of Changing Images of Man available? I much prefer a bound book to a printout or reading off a screen.
Amazon only seems to have used copies, and they cost almost $900.
Unfortunately it has been out of print for decades. Where’s your Kindle now??
You could just print it out. If you don’t print the appendix or the introduction, it comes out to just 200 pages, or, printing 2 pages per sheet, a hundred pages. Even at ten cents a page, that’s only ten dollars.
It’s not the cost that puts me off. It’s the fact that even bound sets of printouts are annoying to carry around and lacking in durability.
What would people think of Charles Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds?
How about:
Grown up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing the World
As an added bonus it would be good to read the author’s prior novel from 1998 first called Growing up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation to compare and contrast his ideas over 10 years as well.
Can you read normal PDFs on a kindle? I thought it only worked with proprietary format?
I think you need to get the files processed by Amazon for a small fee.
That sounds dangerous – that means there is an external record of you having the PDF – and what if you have it illegally? Amazon could be forced to release their records.
I would seriously consider buying a Kindle if they were not a proprietary format only device.
The Kindle is much less useful in Canada, since you cannot buy books wirelessly on it, or use it to access Wikipedia for free.
On the matter of book selection, will other people actually read Changing Images of Man?
If not, I will choose something that I can get in a professionally printed, bound form.
If it really bothers you to deal with a long printout, you can have it bound in several different ways at good print shops.
I would definitely read it – partially because at York I have free printing privileges with which I can print it out.
OK. Let’s go with that, then.
Here’s a book to consider for June:
Oil 101, by Morgan Downey
In response to your note: “Is anyone actually reading the May selection? Alternatively, are people planning to do so by the 15th?”
No and no.
I’ve read the first 4 chapters, and found them highly interesting. I still need to print off the rest.
I started reading Changing Images of Man, but I am not very far into it, so I don’t care if you want to call it off.
I printed out the rest today. It is really an excellent book.
If others are reading it, I will too.
Oil 101 sounds like an indispensable primer, however, it isn’t widely available. It isn’t in the Toronto or Ottawa public libraries and is only available in hardcover from Amazon.
It was only released on January 1, 2009. A paperback version may follow.
Very likely. I was just saying that buying it is the only option since the libraries don’t have it yet. I would be happy to read it, if you want to convert it to a PDF.
My review of Changing Images of Man is up.
It isn’t very positive.