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Other People's Writings Neal Stephenson has the amazing ability to bring whole eras to life with stunning granular detail, and utter comprehension of the larger picture of the time. Stephenson has a tendancy to build his stories slowly, creating the entire picture before making any of it actually move. In his 2000 work, Cryptonomicon, Stephenson managed to completely rewrite World War II, tying it in to a few modern-day plot lines. Quicksilver is set in the 1600's, at a time when our perception of the world, and our place in it was radically changing. Stephenson focuses his tale on the lives of the people whose discoveries and actions at this time would fundamentally alter history. He manages to make 1640 London come to life, down to the attitudes people had about their clothes, their god, and their commitments to their country. Stephenson makes it possible to understand what a radical concept Revolution actually is, and shows one how the word came to mean political and social upheaval, and not just the turning of a wheel. He also introduces a cadre of characters, some fictitious, some real, that are a wonder to behold: Isaac Newton, Daniel Waterhouse, Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe, and Daniel Leibniz, to name but a few. The scope is grand, the detail granular, and the story-telling compelling. I'm actually thankful that this 944 page work is just the first third of the tale, and look forward to savoring the next 2,000 pages.
Recent Recommended Readings Richard Henry Dana, Jr. was a student at Harvard in 1833 when his eyesight began to fail. His doctor recommended fresh air as the only cure, and Dana signed on as a common sailor "before the mast" on board a brig bound to trade for hides along the coast of California. At the time, California was still part of Mexico, and there was no other written account of life in this Golden state. Dana writes with amazing perception and exquisite detail. His chronicles of the life of a sailor capture the day to day risks and boredoms of a sailor with amazing clarity, and he gave me a greater appreciation for the life I live, and the work I have before me. Even if you don't know your starboard from larboard, you probably understand how dangerous it would be to be swept overboard off of Cape Horn in the dead of winter. What makes Dana's chronicle so popular are his accurate and detailed descriptions of the coast of California, pre-Gold Rush. Imagine San Francisco as a one-house town. Imagine Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Monterey as tiny pueblos, where the trade for animal and cow hides is the booming industry. Equally intriguing are the descriptions Dana writes 24 years later, when he returns to California to see what the Gold Rush has done to the place, and discovers that he is a bit of a celebrity. His book, the only written account of California at the time, guided many a soul Westward. However, all of this is distant from what has truly captivated me throughout this book. Richard Henry Dana writes about heroic tasks and immense undertakings with a humility that is refreshing. He presents a profound portrait of a man bent on controlling his destiny, and making the most of his life at every turn. He truly explored California when he could, and partook of fantastic adventures at every turn. While his other shipmates spent their first day off in over three months getting drunk in a bar, Dana rented a horse and explored the countryside. He learned spanish while he was here, and enough of the "language of the Kanakas" to become friends with many of them. At a time of extreme prejudice in the world, Dana rose above it to see people as people, and write about the souls he met on his travels. More than any other book I've read in recent years, Two Years Before the Mast has filled me with a sense of the journey of life, and the awesome completion that comes by living and exploring at every turn. Dana's perceptions and revelations transcend eras, and hit at the very heart of what it means to be human. In America. I've been a fan of the World Series of Poker since I discovered it on ESPN back in 1993. I dealt Black Jack and a number of Poker variations when I lived in Tahoe, and Texas Hold 'Em was always a fascinating, if not intimidating game. I've played in weekly poker games off and on ever since, but they have always been dealer's choice, and filled with circus games. Recently I decided to start a monthly Hold 'Em tournament, and figured I should read up on some strategies. Warren's guide is a straight-forward introduction, and gives solid tips for playing low limit Hold 'Em. His book serves as a solid introduction to the concepts of position, pot odds, and viable hands to play based upon either of those. Personally, I think he's a bit of a crank, but he offers good strategies, and a solid first book to read if you want to do more than spend $40 to get drunk at our monthly tournament. The
Da Vinci Code I tend to resist hype, if I didn't see the hype coming before it hits me. I distrust believers unless I've been convincing them to believe. It would explain why I refused to see The Matrix until it was out on DVD. I had no interest in Dan Brown's latest book, simply because too many people had been reading it for it to be any good. But then my mother in law gave me a copy of Brown's earlier work, Digital Fortress, and I liked it enough to pick up Da Vinci Code in hard-cover. It would be easy to dismiss Da Vinci as Foucault's Pendulum Lite, but Brown deserves more credit than that. In the first 10 pages Brown is able to sink the hook so deeply that Da Vinci Code immediately becomes difficult, if not painful, to set down. Brown creates a modern thriller with a mile-a-minute pace, that utilizes the history of the Catholic Church, the concept of the Holy Grail, and the systematic war against the "sacred feminine" as it's colorful, and historically accurate, backdrop. There's a reason you see 30 people reading this in every airport
you go to these days: it's good, clean fun that keeps you at the
beach all day, or gets you through that plane ride. Schrodinger's
Cat Trilogy Remember how funny, satrical and politically inflammatory The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy was when you were a teenager? I find Robert Anton Wilson that funny now, at this stage in my life. Though written twenty-five years ago, Schrodinger's Cat is an absolutely hilarious, challenging and thought-provoking tale that has lost none of its relevance since it's first publishing. Wilson creates a series of parallel universes that he bounces between, using each to show how one simple choice can lead to radically different outcomes, for the individual as well as the planet. His style of writing is witty and playful, enabling him to tackle some of the most difficult concepts of quantum physics within a wild and whacky storyline. As an added bonus, he spends the entire trilogy building to one of the most godawful, and therefore brilliant, puns of all time. Hi-Larious! And all the more relevant given our current political climate. I wonder if it's Four More Years in every alternate universe out there right now... Play
Poker Like the Pros Phil's an egomaniac with little to offer in the way of true insight. I couldn't recommend his book to anyone except the people I play poker with regularly, in the hopes of royally screwing up their games.
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