Something I Found on YouTube

A short extract from the TV series that Alain De Botton made, based on his book 'The Architecture of Happiness'

The Architecture of Happiness by Alain De Botton

A fascinating book about the relationships we have with the buildings we inhabit, homes, workplaces and public buildings.  It is a work of psychology and philosophy as De Botton examines why some buildings (and the fixtures and fittings) are ugly and some are not, why they can evoke a particular feeling within us and how buildings can reflect cultural characteristics as well.
A really very interesting book on a topic that is rarely discussed in the public arena.  Highly recommended.

Notes from our July meeting

Yes I know it's late but I wanted to get the first set of notes up and running - they come from Rebecca who is the book club convenor.
'Last week we had a smallish but quality turn out at our first meeting for some time.  There were a few recommendations, notably:
Jasper Jonesby Craig Silvey; The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst; The Fracture Zone by Simon Winchester; Wild Things by Dave Eggers;  Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan;  The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko; Valley of Grace by Marion Halligan; Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver; What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell; An Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell; and the Gastronomy of Marriage by Michelle Maistro.
The new titles for this time are:
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout; A Week at the Airport by Alain de Botton; Widow Clicquot by Tilar J Mazzer; Dear John by Nicholas Sparks; The Book of Love by Phillipa Fioretti; Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott and Rhubarb by Craig Silvey.'
Our next book club meeting is next week so I'll post the notes and whatever comments as soon as I can.

The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst

Set in 1937/38 the book follows the exploits of Colonel Mercier, a French army officer stationed in Warsaw and a French agent. This story captures the essence of the times and is historically exact. It seems to be a fairly low key story at the start but the author quickly draws the reader in and I found it an engrossing story as I tried to guess how the various plot lines would play out. Very enjoyable. Highly recommended

Empire of Illusions - The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges

Another very interesting book where the author shows how the US is becoming dominated by ‘spectacle’, celebrity culture and is losing the ability to apply critical thinking. He looks to professional wrestling, the pornographic film industry and positive psychology as examples of this.
He also takes aim at corporate America whom he asserts is dumbing down the nation as well as being a major influence on political decision making. It’s a grim look at a possible future of the US.
Stimulating and thought-provoking stuff. (Not for the general shelf as the section on pornographic is fairly graphic, and the language as well).
Highly recommended.

The Black Swan (The Impact of the Highly Improbable) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan Theory is used by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain the existence and occurrence of high-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations.
I found this a fascinating and stimulating book and hard for me to sum up so I have used the author’s words.
Writing in the New York Times, Taleb asserted:
“What we call here a Black Swan (and capitalize it) is an event with the following three attributes.
First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility.
Second, it carries an extreme impact.
Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.
I stop and summarize the triplet: rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective (though not prospective) predictability. A small number of Black Swans explain almost everything in our world, from the success of ideas and religions, to the dynamics of historical events, to elements of our own personal lives.”
And I thought you may be interested in the following:
Taleb enumerates ten principles for building systems that are robust to Black Swan Events.
1. What is fragile should break early while it is still small. Nothing should ever become Too Big to Fail.
2. No socialization of losses and privatization of gains.
3. People who were driving a school bus blindfolded (and crashed it) should never be given a new bus.
4. Do not let someone making an "incentive" bonus manage a nuclear plant – or your financial risks.
5. Counter-balance complexity with simplicity.
6. Do not give children sticks of dynamite, even if they come with a warning.
7. Only Ponzi schemes should depend on confidence. Governments should never need to "restore confidence".
8. Do not give an addict more drugs if he has withdrawal pains.
9. Citizens should not depend on financial assets or fallible "expert" advice for their retirement.
10. Make an omelette with the broken eggs.
A really challenging book to read; full of complex ideas but well worth it if only for the fact that you have to “think” about stuff. I have a feeling after reading this that we are on the verge of a couple of economic and geopolitical Black Swans!!
Highly recommended.

Paper Towns
John Green

I just want to say here the John Green is a really good writer
All his books have young adults as the central characters but the plots are generally tightly written and characters are well developed.
This book is no exception. It’s the end of high school, the hero, Q, is persuaded by his cool neighbour, Margo Roth Spiegelman, to assist her to carry out several acts of revenge. Then she disappears. Q then spends the rest of the book searching for her assisted by several of his friends. And at the end he is faced with making a choice and losing his friend and lifetime love. It felt real.




An Abundance of Katherines
John Green

Another great book this time about a nerdy prodigy who goes on a road trip with his best friend and ends up in rural America and discovers there is more to relationships than just Katherines. I like the theorem about being dumped and I liked the footnotes. And I really liked his insight at the end about how important stories are and “there’s a place in the brain for knowing what cannot be remembered”. Very funny as well.

Check out John Green at: John's blog