Joshua

This short book discusses the theory and the shortcomings of its interpretations by some. Marx presents a rather radical solution and it ought to be followed without modifications that dilute the theory. His observations are rather apt arguing that capitalism will eventually ruin everything in the attempt to constantly produce more and more leading to the cultural destitution of everything.

I can agree with his observations arguing that the bourgeoisie are incompetent at ruling but the solution Marx presents is that the proletariat ought to rule themselves without religion. As a Christian myself I cannot agree and his firm stance on the removal of religion is where he lost me. He makes an interesting argument that Christianity and Marxism seem to be compatible but it only benefits the aristocracy; perhaps it is so. The revolution is perhaps not for the Christian who already believe there was a revolution with Jesus.

Livy is particularly fantastic at the rhythm of history. His writing is not of a historian but rather a masterful author who knows how to make a brilliant story. There's so much to say about this book from how patrician/plebeian relations are still relevant today and perhaps a lesson in progressive politics. In how war is not necessarily a glorious affair but a mundane one with terrible consequences if not given immense detail.

What I love is Livy's use of set pieces. You have a whole drama between the plebeians and patricians but then suddenly you have a whole storyline with a great general or statesman. Figures like Verginius who killed his daughter to prevent her debasement under a decimvir or Coriolanus who fought Rome in his exile or most recently Camilus who captured Veii not through force but through planning and strategy. This shows that Livy perhaps like a moderate balance between great men and long-term structures that created Rome.

Livy is not exactly a brilliant historian. He relies on authorities but does not analyse the sources himself, a severe lack of primary source analysis. Futhermore he refuses to cut out mythology which might show him as more of a propagandist rather than historian. This is apparent to me with the recapture of Rome when he critiques the generals for not carrying out religious rituals before battle (Camilus also argues this later). A serious historian would not rely on religious arguments for a defeat in battle, especially when he himself loved Camilus who argued for strategy and planning that affects fortune.

Regardless of my views of Livy as a historian, this is still an excellent book for its wide array of stories that capture a sense of historical rhythm I haven't seen elsewhere.

I thought it was good but not amazing. I didn't particularly like the return to the Foundation Trilogy-esque time skips. I much prefer a story to be isolated over a day or week like in Prelude to the Foundation. Seldon was better in this book and felt more like his incarnation in Foundation. Dors unfortunately felt too one-note and lost all her character from Prelude. Raych was good and his death was quite sad. Wanda wasn't really in it for long enough but it was cool that she's the first generation of the Second Foundation.

Aging feels to be the main theme of the book. Seldon gets older and older and everyone is dying while he's still alive. He's left alone in a deteriorating Empire and ultimately Wanda leaves in order to establish the Second Foundation. It's a rather touching ending that his last words aren't about psychohistory but his love for Dors. Ultimately it's revealed to me that what touches me most about this franchise of books I've been reading for over 2 years now is that it's beautiful the relationship between intelligence, in case of Asimov, the relationship of humans and robots - Daneel & Elijah and Dors & Seldon. In the end, it's all about how we relate and live through the short time we have temporally speaking. I am happy I read these books and I think it will stay with me for a bit.

This is not a book for casual audiences. You are expected to understand what capitalism is, what feudalism is and also have a knowledge of medieval English, French and Dutch history. Ellen Meiskens Wood expects you to know this because she does help you out. This is a very complicated book and will not try to make it simple to understand.

Nonetheless, if you can get past the confusing language, Wood does make a good argument throughout the book. To spoil the gist of the book, she basically argues that the traditional model of what the origin of capitalism is, is wrong. She argues that the ‘commercialization model' assumes too much and just assumes that capitalism was always present. She points out that this is wrong and that the origin of capitalism is very specific in that it only originated in the English countryside through ‘agrarian capitalism'. This book mainly discusses why England is so unique and why they were the only ones to develop capitalism.

She also goes on to discuss her theory in other topic areas such as imperialism or the Enlightenment.

There's also the issue of bias. She is a Marxist so naturally she isn't the biggest fan of capitalism. She actually ends the book saying that socialism is a real alternative to capitalism.

1916: A Global History is an in-depth look into WW1 in 1916. Jeffery looks at many different countries like Ireland, Greece, China, etc. However, I feel that unless you are a WW1 enthusiast, you may find yourself bored at certain chapters. I found myself counting down the pages to get to the ‘good' chapters on topics I found interesting. On the topics I found interesting, he took a very unique angle. When discussing Greece in 1916, it looks at it from the perspective of a spy. In fact, many chapters look at the ‘spy' angle. So for those interested in espionage in WW1, you may enjoy this book.

I found this book to be the best out of the Robot series because it really focused on the interaction between Daneel and Giskard. The relationship between them is so human. The death scene of Eljiah was particularly heartbreaking and was the first book to actually make me shed tears! The death of Giskard was also heartbreaking.

I really look forward to how the future series connect with the Robot series.

There was some pretty fantastic stories here; my favourites being ‘In a Good Cause-‘, Nightfall, It's Such a Beautiful Day and Segregationist. There was some stories I didn't particularly care for but sure, there's something for everyone. I enjoyed it overall.

I am relatively surprised that I enjoyed this book.

It is an easy claim to make that Arnold doesn't like political history and would rather study social history. However, I feel like he doesn't make that claim. Throughout 7 chapters we are introduced to various figures in history arguing that without the ordinary people, there wouldn't be a history. While this claim is bold which minimises political ramifications, he argues it's just one explanation. He never says that one interpretation of history is definitive. Each historian discusses something they find interesting in an arbitrary time period and as a result, not everything is discussed.

He provides a balanced view of each school of thought in history and historiography which I definitely found interesting as a history major.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to perhaps challenge their understanding of history and its purpose.

This book is great. I love biographies and autobiographies and this definitely hit the spot. It's not perfectly chronological and he does seem to jump around time but there's certainly signposted periods, i.e. his early life, his undergraduate, his postgraduate, the Manhattan Project and life after the Manhattan Project.

This book made me love him as a person so much more than I already did. I knew of him through short clips on Youtube that made me appreciate his thinking but seeing his life told in a very entertaining way was just so fun to experience. Of course, as a history student I had no idea what he was talking about when talking about physics but that was not important, I felt his passion and that he was a genuinely passionate person. He did so much more at my age (22 at the time of writing this) than I have with my life. It's perhaps given me a bigger motivation to do more and try more things that seem ‘unsuited' to my personality.

Wholeheartedly recommend.

This is my favourite book without a doubt. Its focus on the political and military situation is exceptional. What really got me into the book was the realisation that this was not just a war between Sparta and Athens but a massive war between the Greeks (and by extension the Persians who sought to reinstate their old empire). Futhermore the generals on each side were immensely competent and showed how close this war was, even with the Sicilian blunder Athens was still not out of the war entirely. I love the use of speeches as a way to break up the text. So many good case studies from the Melian Dialogue, to the oligarchic coup of Athens and the democratic resistance at Samos. Such a good book and one I will plan to reread over and over to really understood the extent of the war and the various details between the issues of various Greek polities.

I thought it was pretty good but not amazing. I didn't really care for Biron as a character. The plot was so-so. I found that using the terms such as ‘Khan' or ‘Tyranni' (basically they're Tyrants!), felt like bad writing. The idea of a Rancher being a lord of the land is pretty cool idea though. I think this definitely suffers from early Asimovian writing but he certainly improves. I did like the plot twist at the end in which the document was just the constitution of America suggesting that democracy is some sort of lost political system. Overall I probably won't read this book again but I'm happy I did, at least to appreciate the wider universe.

It is comical how many of these ideas I have already implemented in my life. I have listened to a fair view episodes of Newport's podcast as well as being interested in the whole productivity genre so perhaps I came into this book expecting more for intermediates whereas it seems to focus more on an introduction.

It seems to me that the idea of the philosophy is to be deliberate with your time. If you feel like you're spending too much time on your phone, you probably are and should change things. He goes a bit further arguing that some things aren't really necessary for us as humans. In that sense it does seem that he's a sceptic of technology instead of a technology enthusiast. What I felt missing was why or what led him to not using social media initially? Sure we waste time there and it benefits only corporations but was that what he was thinking in the early 2010s? As a result his theory is more so based on the experiences of others in an okay way but not particularly hard hitting. It does seem this genre suffers from a lack of complexity and deep thinking - I'm sure he would love to go deeper but perhaps he is limited by the constraints of productivity literature.

It's not a bad book but not life changing. It's alright.

Amazing! The ending that Giskard was actually the most important character and that he could read minds was such a crazy twist and actually makes sense to everything that was said in the book.

It's also really interesting how it's always the smallest stuff that is said in passing that reveals the truth, not the big phrases.

I felt that it was too neat in a way. It probably could've been 200 pages longer to really get into the meat of the case but I suppose the gambling nature of Baley in this book fit with the Chairman scene.

That last scene with Baley and Giskard is so good. It was also so interesting to see Giskard talk not as a robot but as a being beyond servitude. He was talking for far longer and showed so much intelligence. It's familiar to the end of Caves of Steel where Daneel quoted the Bible.

I think this book made the Naked Sun a lot better with the further development of the relationship between Baley and Gladia. I wonder if Baley will ever tell Jessie what happened between them.

Anyways I really enjoyed it.

Pretty great. I really liked how Camus described the environment and individuals so deeply. I really felt like I was in the same room with Meursault. I felt that he was a compelling character and I can understand his indifference at times and find myself being indifferent to major things in my life, or am I understanding my indifference incorrectly but rather as a firm belief in spiritual hope? I really enjoyed the religious ideas discussed as well.

Great book. I feel like by reading this early in my life, I'll have at least an advantage on how to live a better life than someone who read this book later in life.

This book isn't really a practical guide however. It's mostly just going through assumptions people have and why they're wrong and what could should be done instead.

I liked how each chapter was maximum ten pages. Really made an easy read. I enjoyed how chronological it was and how it covered theological debates.

I thought it was alright. It wasn't as good as his first book and I found the whole Challenger Explosion Comission aspect to be unlike his first book which mentions the Manhattan Project but not in such technical detail that I understood nothing. It was fine but not as hard hitting.

Phenomenal book, a book I could probably recommend to anyone and they would have some use for it. The book isn't exactly advanced in its psychology and most likely if you have had an interest in building habits you would already know a lot of these tips.

Nonetheless, fantastic book and really easy to read.

I enjoyed the interaction between Vader and Thrawn and the juxtaposition between the Anakin/Vader character adds a lot to the story as a whole. I've never really felt Anakin was Vader until this book surprisingly.

The stormtroopers were used well and I actually enjoyed Kimmund as a character.

I didn't care for the Padme storyline. She was never really my favourite character and this book didn't really change my opinion on her.

I think too much of the book was unnecessary and probably could have enjoyed a tighter plot. Thrawn didn't feel like the main character but rather Anakin/Vader did.

The reveal that the Chiss have force sensitives and that the Chiss are in the process of civil war is interesting.

Really important book. Christian books can sometimes be hit or miss and this was a ‘hit'. The main theme of this book is why we lack a Christian revival. Now he was writing this in the 1950s and this question still applies today. There has not been a great Christian revival and my generation is the most ungodly group of people ever I would say. Thus, he argues that this is the fault of the Christians themselves; while he does criticise Catholics and communists (definitely feeling the 1959 vibe!), he reasons that the issue is that Christians are too inactive and apathetic, mainly that they do not pray. He argues that we do not pray enough, we should be praying people, and not just pray, but pray in faith and the Holy Spirit. This was a bit of a wake-up call to me as I've only been praying for about two or three minutes every day which is not enough. He notes that a preacher ought to be praying two hours minimum! If the preacher is to pray for two hours minimum, the congregation should not be left behind. The preacher does not bring us to heaven but rather helps us get there.

Really important book in terms of my spiritual development.

It was pretty good! I'm glad the psychohistory of Caves of Steel and Robots of Dawn have finally been sufficiently developed to have a whole new science. It's still pretty early in this series but I'm hoping there will be more references to previous works like mentioning Elijah Bailey, the Solarians and robots. This was pretty good as well as it had good protagonists and the antagonists were built into the storyline as a strategic problem which I found really well done. Mallow's trial was pretty amazing and definitely one of the highlights of the book.

I liked it a lot! I found the characters to be great and interesting. I loved the relationship of the gods between each other and also how they intervened in human affairs. I wasn't huge on the massive battle sequences and felt that they could drag on for too long. I did like when they did the 1v1 battles with dialogue interspersed. This book also taught me about writing techniques I never thought of such as giving multiple names for the same character or referring to a character in different ways. Overall, I am very happy I read this and I plan to read more classical literature!

Brilliant book. Jake was very well written and the characters of Deke, both Miz's, Mike, Al and so on were great. Lee Oswald was great and his relationship with Marina was intriguing. I also loved the minor once offs like Silent Mike or the Jump Rope Girls. King does a great job at painting the picture of what exactly is happening. I think my favourite part of the book was the whole Jodie arc - it really felt that Jake was at his peak and the blossoming relationship with Sadie was great. Unfortunately I can't give this 5/5 as I think Sadie didn't get a whole lot of time as a character and I felt she was more of a love interest rather than her own individual - these grievances are minimal as she does show individuality following the Clayton incident and the whole 11/22/63 scene. I also felt the alternate history was undercooked with only ~10 pages given to a scenario in which JFK lives - basically it's bad, not because of him as a president but as the rules of time travel which the book argues that time travel is not good, but sort of is for love? It's not really an alternate history, sci-fi book but more of a 1950s, 1960s period, romance drama. I think the book was at its best when it did that versus the time travel of the Card Men which was not well written I feel. The fact that the alternative wrong timeline was given such little time shows that it wasn't really ever a sci-fi book but rather a ‘foreigner in a strange land' story. It's definitely interesting because it shows how different the 2010s are to the 1950-60s. The high intensity scenes like the Dunning, Clayton and Kennedy incidents are well written but ultimately feels more drama and detective novel rather than something we'd see in sci-fi. It uses time travel as a means to talk about a different period in our lives, and a well written one at that, but falls flat on alternative history, sci-fi and explanation of time travel.

Great introduction on Roman History. Would recommend for people who never studied it before, like me for example.

I read this book before when I was 14 during my school's attempt to get us to read more. There was a copy of this book in my house so I decided to read it. Back then I didn't care much for reading and as a result I didn't get a whole lot this book particularly.

Fast forward many years later I'm reading it again but in the same way I didn't get a whole lot from it. The translation I used was really good and it was great that it included various other writers to add on what Sun Tzu is saying or to even simplify what he said. But ultimately I feel like this book will have limited impact in my life going forward. There are some interesting aspects to take away but overall it is not that astonishing as something like Marcus Aurelius' Meditations - of course philosopy and military theory are very different and the application of military theory is very limited to the military. Perhaps I'll enjoy this book more as I engage further in military theory reading if I ever do engage in it further.