The Ghost Map

Book Description

A thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London-and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world.

From the dynamic thinker routinely compared to Malcolm Gladwell, E. O. Wilson, and James Gleick, The Ghost Map is a riveting page-turner with a real-life historical hero that brilliantly illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of viruses, rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry. These are topics that have long obsessed Steven Johnson, and The Ghost Map is a true triumph of the kind of multidisciplinary thinking for which he's become famous-a book that, like the work of Jared Diamond, presents both vivid history and a powerful and provocative explanation of what it means for the world we live in.

The Ghost Map takes place in the summer of 1854. A devastating cholera outbreak seizes London just as it is emerging as a modern city: more than 2 million people packed into a ten-mile circumference, a hub of travel and commerce, teeming with people from all over the world, continually pushing the limits of infrastructure that's outdated as soon as it's updated. Dr. John Snow-whose ideas about contagion had been dismissed by the scientific community-is spurred to intense action when the people in his neighborhood begin dying. With enthralling suspense, Johnson chronicles Snow's day-by-day efforts, as he risks his own life to prove how the epidemic is being spread.

When he creates the map that traces the pattern of outbreak back to its source, Dr. Snow didn't just solve the most pressing medical riddle of his time. He ultimately established a precedent for the way modern city-dwellers, city planners, physicians, and public officials think about the spread of disease and the development of the modern urban environment.

The Ghost Map is an endlessly compelling and utterly gripping account of that London summer of 1854, from the microbial level to the macrourban-theory level-including, most important, the human level.

Customer Reviews:

A Solid History of Science Book.......2007-09-07

This is the story of Dr. John Snow and the development of modern epidemiology and germ theory. As a history of science read, this book is very good. It has lots of drama and reads like a mystery. I did learn about Snows research into anesthesia, something I didn't know about. Most of the book centers around the cholera outbreak in London and Snow's work to counter the generally accepted miasma theory. This is a great book for young researchers to see how prevailing paradigms can be completely wrong, yet generally accepted and even unquestioned.

Thinking outside the box.......2007-09-06

This is a very interesting book on several levels. It is a fairly detailed case study of a cholera outbreak in London in 1854 and of the attempts of two dedicated men, one an esteemed physician and the other a neighborhood Anglican priest, to determine the cause, which turned out to be contaminated water. Once they do determine the cause, they run headlong into the established scientific orthodoxies of the day, which center around the "miasma" theory, a vague notion that such epidemics are caused by the overall environment in which they occur, sometimes the air, sometimes living conditions, and even, in a classic case of blaming the victims, by the characters of the victims. Eventually the scientific establishment is won over to the waterborne theory, but not after long hard fights, and not until after many more deaths could have been prevented.

The central points that I got out of this book are these:

1) Pre-scientific modes of thinking prevailed in the scientific establishment until well into the 19th century, or 1854 as we see here. The idea of empirically testing hypotheses seems not to have occurred to many scientists of the day.

2) The importance of "thinking outside the box," of not accepting conventional or established ideas just because they are established.

3) Revolutions in scientific thinking, or paradigm shifts, as Thomas Kuhn called them, rarely occur easily. Often the revolutionary idea is ignored, then ridiculed, then fought against, then eventually accepted, often by a later generation which had not been schooled in the conventional ways of thinking.

All told an interesting book, well recommended. I did not give it 5 stars because the author can at times move away from the immediate narrative to more abstract matters that can often be tedious. The book can be redundant as well. But altogether a good read.

Fascinating topic, redundant writing style, too little about the map.......2007-07-28

I will omit a synopsis of the book. This book has been assigned as incoming Freshman reading for my local university, thus my specific purpose in reading it. The general idea of an "historical medical mystery" presented in non-fiction form was a very reasonable one for a book. The quest for the origin of the Cholera epidemic in 1854 London by Whitehead and Snow was presented in a an exciting captivating way. The writing style was painful for me. Quite a bit of the material was repeated over and over in subsequent chapters. When I put the book down and picked it up again, I would wonder if I had lost my place (ie, a deja vu-type of experience) as I was certain I had read the material previously. Although there is some info on the making of the map, it was a small part of the book's focus. Truly, my greatest objection is the way the editor allowed the author to roam wildly. I believe this book will be viewed as a painful reading experience for 18 yo college students, not one that would offer stimulation for future reading of medical mysteries nor historical fiction. In general, I could not recommend this book to the general public; those interested in medicine/epidemics/certain mysteries, might enjoy it.

A rare find.......2007-07-24

This book was one of those rare finds tht do not come along very often. I read it in 2 days - I simply could not put it down. In the beginning of the book, when he was describing London in the early 19th century, I was reading along while crinkling my nose and whispering "oh my gosh" the whole time. I was simply entranced.

Johnson did start to pontificate a bit at the end - this could easily have been left out, and frankly I finally gave up reading all of his views at the end of the book. But, that is certainly no reason to miss this fantastic read ... and gritty and real historical view of what 19th century cities were TRULY like.

Overall a fantastic book!

Wonderful storyteller but with a broken crystal ball perhaps.......2007-07-09

This was a very well written book about a subject that could cause stomaches to turn. The way the author told the story kept it interesting in spite of the sordid details of the disease and it's ravages on the human body.

Several have commented about the ending of the book where the author takes out his crystal ball and sort of predicts the future of the urban environment, but even that I found fascinating, if not a bit hopeful.

He did touch on the use of fossil fuels, but he seems to think that term only means gasoline ( his mention of New York City being the greenest city on the planet since it's citizens have a low gasoline consumption ) when in fact fossil fuels include, but are not limited to; fuel oil, natural gas, coal, gasoline, diesel and turbine fuels. All of which New Yorkers are huge consumers.

If the cost of energy becomes as expensive as some pessimists suggest, then I think the huge cities will once again become dark, dirty places which will lose huge numbers of citizens.

This book also makes me wonder if 200 years from now algore will be today's Dr. John Snow or Edwin Chadwick in regards to Gullible Warming. My belief is that he and the other Gullible Warming fanatics will be no different than those who subscribed to the "miasma theory of disease" as detailed in this book.

A great read, highly recommended!!

Average customer rating:

1984 - George Orwell
just what i wanted
Terrific reads.
Animal Farm and 1984
A Classic

Animal Farm and 1984
George Orwell
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0151010269

Book Description

ANIMAL FARM

George Orwell's classic satire of the Russian Revolution is an intimate part of our contemporary culture. It is the account of the bold struggle, initiated by the animals, that transforms Mr. Jones's Manor Farm into Animal Farm--a wholly democratic society built on the credo that All Animals Are Created Equal. Out of their cleverness, the pigs Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball emerge as leaders of the new community in a subtle evolution that proves disastrous. The climax is the brutal betrayal of the faithful horse Boxer, when totalitarian rule is reestablished with the bloodstained postscript to the founding slogan: But some Animals Are More Equal Than Others. . . .

1984

In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.

Customer Reviews:

1984 - George Orwell.......2007-10-01

On 1984:
In George Orwell's 1984, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. So goes the slogan that describes life in dystopian London, a city monstrously ruled by the totalitarian state of Oceania. Along with Oceania, the states of Eurasia and Eastasia rule the world. Their co-existence isn't peaceful, however, as the three states are perpetually at war with each other. In Oceania, the government's figurehead is Big Brother, who is a personification of the collective power of the state and not a real person. His "face" fills the streets on the poster fronts plastered all over the city with the words "Big Brother is Watching You" underneath his overbearing glare.

Winston Smith, the novel's main character, works for the Party (the government). He despises his job along with the Party and Big Brother, but under no circumstances is he allowed to show it. In fact, to so much as even think a thought against the Party or Big Brother is considered treasonous and punishable by death! At present time, the Party doesn't have the technology to read people's minds, but they are working on it. Instead they control behavior through telescreens (television panels) and microphones. In London, telescreens are ubiquitous and cannot be turned off or interacted with. Presumably there are agents monitoring activity nearly everywhere that a member of the Party might frequent through these devices. In addition to technological surveillance, there is also human surveillance offered by both children and adults. Citizens of Oceania and members of the Party in particular are encouraged to report any unusual behavior which is interpreted as disloyalty to the state. It becomes virtually impossible, then, to get away with saying or projecting any kind of dissidence towards the Party. Individualism of any kind is considered unorthodox and a threat to the state. Winston would not be allowed to read this review without risking his life.

Oceania's population is divided between Party members, who make up 15%, and the unintelligent and underprivileged proletariat, which round out the remaining 85%. The "Proles" as they are known, could theoretically rebel and destroy the Party, but they are too ignorant and simple-minded to even dream of it. Winston knows this to be true, though still reserves some faint hope that he could be wrong and that the Proles could rise against the machine. The only other hope he has of an overthrow lies in the mysterious existence of the Brotherhood, a shadow collective inside of Oceania seeking to eliminate the Party and establish a democratic government. Winston has never met a member of the Brotherhood because it is impossible to even approach somebody to find out if they are disgruntled with the Party. To do so would be to risk your life. If they caught you, you would be eliminated and dubbed an unperson in Newspeak (the official and preferred language of Oceania). You will never have existed.

This is why Winston was apprehensive when Julia, a girl working in the same government building, slipped him a note. Initially he had suspected that she was a member of the Thought Police, an organization involved with seeking out heretics or disloyal Party members. Was she trying to snuff him out? Had she tapped into his mind and found a reservoir of anti-government angst? Winston thought his days were numbered, but was she the one that would reveal this to the authorities?

Orwell has given the world a political and psychological masterpiece. Written in 1948 as a vision of how the world would look in 1984, Orwell's only fault has been the fact that the novel is more relevant today than during its namesake. In our ever-advancing technoage, 1984 stands as a caution and a warning against governmental controlling measures. But to view his novel as a reaction against totalitarianism is to miss the boat. Orwell also explores human nature from a multiplicity of levels. He examines the human thirst for power and how this thirst intensifies when a group fuses their collective thirsts into a giant groupthirst (to use Newspeak). He asks what ultimate loyalty really means and how it can be redistributed from one object to another. What will such a task require? Can pain or love or any human longing outlast or outperform the other? Can truth be altered? And if so, who has the right or the power to alter it? These questions and more are asked in 1984. Will your answers to the questions tow the Party line, or will you sigh in paranoiac relief that you can think for yourself?

On the quality of the edition:
The cover is hard and firm, just what you'd want from a hardcover edition. Unlike other hardcovers which bend easier, however, this version takes quite an effort to keep the book fully opened and bent back to read. This makes it impossible to read with one hand holding the book up. I read with the book placed on a surface, so I have no problems. But for others, this might be an issue. All in all, I am very satisfied with the quality of this edition.

just what i wanted.......2007-07-18

this was just the item i wanted so i was very well pleased with it.

Terrific reads........2007-06-13

We are living in George's nightmare !!ONE!1! =O

Animal Farm and 1984.......2007-02-12

I only wanted "1984" but was unable to find "1984" in a book apart from "Animal Farm". Otherwise the book and timelyness of shipping and receipt were great. You have made my Grand daughter happy with her gift.

A Classic.......2007-02-10

Should be required reading. A starkly written story with incredible accuracy considering it was written decades ago. Orwell is one of the best. Read Animal Farm also.

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Average customer rating:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Average customer rating:

A delightful book full despite rat-eating violence
Original, adventurous, and completely enjoyable.
Great Writing, OK Story
A great page turner
Wonderful fantasy fiction

Neverwhere: A Novel
Neil Gaiman
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060557818
Release Date: 2003-09-02

Amazon.com

Neverwhere's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. He ceases to exist in the ordinary world of London Above, and joins a quest through the dark and dangerous London Below, a shadow city of lost and forgotten people, places, and times. His companions are Door, who is trying to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why; the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors; and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game. London Below is a wonderfully realized shadow world, and the story plunges through it like an express passing local stations, with plenty of action and a satisfying conclusion. The story is reminiscent of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but Neil Gaiman's humor is much darker and his images sometimes truly horrific. Puns and allusions to everything from Paradise Lost to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz abound, but you can enjoy the book without getting all of them. Gaiman is definitely not just for graphic-novel fans anymore. --Nona Vero

Book Description

Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinarylife, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.

Download Description

"Special e-book feature: contains three stories - ""Fifteen Painted Cards From a Vampire Tarot""; ""Eaten""; ""Apple"" - not available in print edition. The distinctive storytelling genius of Neil Gaiman has been acclaimed by writers as diverse as Norman Mailer and Stephen King. Now in this new collection of stories--several of which have never before appeared in print and more than half that have never been collected--that will dazzle the senses and haunt the imagination. Miraculous inventions and unforgettable characters inhabit these pages: an elderly widow who finds the Holy Grail in a second-hand store...a frightened little boy who bargains for his life with a troll living under a bridge by the railroad tracks...a stray cat who battles nightly against a recurring evil that threatens his unsuspecting adoptive family. In these stories, Gaiman displays the power, wit, insight and outrageous originality that has made him one of the most unique literary artists of our day."

Customer Reviews:

A delightful book full despite rat-eating violence.......2007-09-25

Gaiman has this way of creating delightful stories even though they might contain less than delightful content: such as biting the heads of off live rats, bloody torture, and sifting through human sewage with a net. This is true in Neverwhere, where the story often turns violent. Somehow, though, it doesn't leave any feeling of nervousness or disgust, which is what grounds this type of story in Fantasy and out of Horror.

I'm not sure how he does it, but I believe it might the wondrous and complex worlds that he creates: in Neverwhere, this world is "London Below", a pseudo-real subterranean world in the tunnels and sewers under London. There are many interesting things happening, that the brutality of certain scenes is somehow made more palatable. Dont get me wrong - this is not a gore-fest, but there are very violent moments, as well as moments of extreme emotional distress for some of the characters... but there's no lasting sting. I associate it with a fine Single Malt: there might be a smokey or even sharp flavor to start, but the finish is pure velvety smoothness.

Another reason that Neverwhere appealed to me is the characters: each was a hard-survivalist on the surface (a requirement of living in the dangerous world below London), but they all had a depth to them that quickly revealed the heart under the hard exterior. I found myself liking every character, no matter how small their part in the story.

I highliy recommend Neverwhere, alhtough it may not be as suitable for younger readers as, say, Stardust

Original, adventurous, and completely enjoyable........2007-09-24

I'm relatively new to Gaiman's work, but I found this novel to be quite amazing. The subterranean world he creates below London is quite strange, yet I often felt as if I were there as I read it. The characters are quite appealing and easy to relate to, and the plot takes many unexpected twists and turns, making for a very interesting and enjoyable read.

Great Writing, OK Story.......2007-09-19

This book was highly recommended, but I found it somewhat difficult to get into. The characters are very sketchily drawn, and the story just seems to wander with no real point. There are plays on the names of several London Underground stations, but they seem randomly selected and don't really add anything to the story. There's no explanation of the talents of the various inhabitants of London Below, or any indication of the alliances/hostilities that require areas/times of safe passage. Some characters seem to move between the worlds and the main character suddenly "disappears" from the world above for no apparent reason other than to bring him below as the narrator. The book is very well written as far as the imagery, but without a compelling story to hold it together, it just doesn't mean much.

A great page turner.......2007-08-28

I was recommended this book by my friend, and I'm not disappointed. After reading this, I also read Stardust since it was by same author, and found Neverwhere to be better (darker). I would recommend this book to anyone who likes science fiction, has vivid imagination, or looking for a thriller. If you've ever been to London (I haven't), you might find this book close to home as well.

Wonderful fantasy fiction.......2007-08-27

I've always enjoyed fantasy fiction, and thrillers. Combine both, and throw in a good sprinkling of self-deprecating humor, and you have the wonderful read: Neverwhere.

I can't tell you how much I loved this book - I didn't want it to end. The world of Door, and Islington, and Croupe and company is entertaining, inventive, and imaginative. I love books where you are actively challenged to use your imagination, but to do so as smartly and whimsically as in Neverwhere is a total joy.

Set aside a few hours to read -- this is a can't-put-it-down-read-until-you-are-dizzy thrill of a book. I can't recommend any recent fantasy book more heartedly, I loved it.

Average customer rating:

Big Brother Is Watching You.
Apocalypse Now and Then
One of my favorites...
Required Reading for any thinking person
A few thoughts on my favorite book...

Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0452284236
Release Date: 2003-05-06

Book Description

Thought Police. Big Brother. Orwellian. These words have entered our vocabulary because of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel, 1984. The story of one man's nightmare odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but also individual thought and memory, 1984 is a prophetic, haunting tale.

More relevant than ever before, 1984 exposes the worst crimes imaginable-the destruction of truth, freedom, and individuality.
With a new forward by Thomas Pynchon.

Customer Reviews:

Big Brother Is Watching You........2007-09-24

_Nineteen Eighty Four_, first published in 1949 by George Orwell (pen name of Eric Blair), is a horrifying dystopian novel of a world in which the individual human being has been completely degraded and deprived of his fundamental humanity that reflects the totalitarianisms of the day, particularly communism and Stalinism. George Orwell (1903 - 1950) was the pen name of the British author Eric Blair, who developed an early enmity towards those in power and their abuses of power. Orwell was a socialist but came to witness the horrors of the Soviet state and the betrayal of his ideals by Stalinists. As such, Orwell came to loathe totalitarianism in general and wrote novels showing the degrading effects such societies had on people. Throughout this book, one can witness the underlying hatred of Orwell and those imprisoned by the system for the totalitarian state and bureaucracy which completely controls their lives and existences. This book in particular shows that rage in the main character of Winston Smith, a mere pawn in a totalitarian society. Orwell's books are indeed prophetic and show us a world in which the very life-force has been sapped out of mankind by those in power. Orwell imagines a highly efficient totalitarian state, capable of enforcing political correctness at the highest levels, tampering with the memories of men, and maintaining a total disregard for the truth. Orwell shows how under such regimes the very notion of truth becomes suspect and the individual can no longer distinguish between fact and state propaganda. This particularly applies to the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin, which is the primary setting for Orwell's stories. However, Orwell's books are also applicable to the West of today, where the constant menace of totalitarian ideology exists.

_1984_ gives us a whole slew of new terminology to describe the situation as it exists in a totalitarian state in which political correctness is enforced. The book introduces such terms as thought police, thought crime (and thought criminal), doublethink, memory hole, Ingsoc, and Newspeak. Such terms reflect the complete disregard of the totalitarian state for the truth and the active promotion of propaganda within society. They have also largely entered into our culture as expressions to describe the enforcement of political correctness.

_1984_ focuses on the main character Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party who lives in England and works for the Ministry of Truth. As it turns out, the Ministry of Truth ironically is responsible for spreading propaganda, and as all ministries mentioned by Orwell has a purpose exactly opposite to its stated purpose. The world of 1984 is a very bleak one indeed, run by a single party and its ruling leader "Big Brother", in which all individuals are subject to surveillance by the state should they commit a "thought crime". All expressions of individuality in 1984 have been wiped out and the human being is totally degraded living a pathetic existence of total subservience to the party. Sexuality has been suppressed as part of the "Anti-sex League" as well as religion. Truth itself is highly malleable and memory is constantly distorted, reflected in such ironical and oxymoronic sayings of the party as "War Is Peace", "Freedom Is Slavery", and "Ignorance Is Strength". Further, the nation of Oceania is constantly at war with either Eurasia or Eastasia, varying from day to day and reflected in the official propaganda of the state bureaucracy. All party members revere their leader "Big Brother" (perhaps reminiscent of Josef Stalin or other totalitarian dictators) and despise the rebellious "Goldstein" (perhaps reminiscent of the Soviet hatred for Leon Trotsky). Further, the party exists in a caste system in which the "proles" (the proletariat) live underneath the party members (who are divided into the Inner and Outer Party). Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth but begins to keep a diary (which is strictly forbidden to party members) in which he reflects his hatred for "Big Brother". His work involves developing propaganda for the party. At work he meets up with Julia, who he initially believes is a strict orthodox member of the party. However, eventually he comes to realize that Julia is in love with him and they have a secret encounter in the countryside. Eventually Julia expresses to Winston her complete loathing for the party, though she publicly maintains a persona of utter obeisance and orthodoxy and belongs to the "Anti-sex League". Together they find a new hiding place in a shop in a part of the city where the "proles" live and attempt to re-discover the past of England. Throughout this period, however, the two live in constant fear of the thought police, should they catch onto their affair. Eventually, Winston meets up with O'Brien at work, a man who he believes is a member of the Resistance, and is given a copy of Goldstein's book which explains the rise of the party and the need for perpetual war. Orwell quotes extensively from Goldstein's book which reflects much of the social thinking of the time, in particular the theory of managerial elites. However, Winston and Julia are captured by the party and it turns out that O'Brien is in fact a member of the party. While taken captive, both are tortured and made to recant their original beliefs about the party. In a particularly disgusting scene, Winston is taken to Room 101 where he must face his worst fear. There he ultimately betrays Julia (as she has already betrayed him) to save himself from being tortured by rats (the worst torture that he can imagine). Eventually, Winston is completely re-educated and made to love "Big Brother" while his relationship with Julia is forever changed after their mutual betrayals of each other. Thus, ends in the most horrifying of manners Orwell's classic novel. Orwell concludes with an appendix on "The Principles of Newspeak" which effectively shows how even the language itself can be put to the purposes of propaganda within a totalitarian state.

_1984_ remains a classic dystopia reflecting the darker side of human existence within the Twentieth Century as it played out in the totalitarian dictatorships of the age. Throughout this novel, the very notion of truth remains problematic, as the party re-defines history to reflect its own agenda and thus even memory itself becomes distorted. Orwell shows the sheer degradation that the human being undergoes within such a surveillance society, to the eventual point where a man can be tortured by the powers that be to such an extent that he will eventually even renounce his love and embrace the figure he hates the most. While the novel is made to reflect Soviet society and Stalinism in particular, it also reflects the modern world in general, in which large-scale and efficient bureaucratic structures rob man of his humanity. Orwell's novels prove particularly prescient warnings to mankind to avoid the dangers of totalitarianism. As such, they should be read by all thinking individuals who seek to understand the horrors that can be inflicted upon the human being through totalistic societies.

Apocalypse Now and Then.......2007-09-17

"1984"--or "Nineteen Eighty-Four" in the Oldspeak--is one of those books prophecizing doom that has remained relevant enough to generate a famous Macintosh commercial, a "Simpsons" parody, and a reality television series named for it among other things. What allows "1984" to remain in our consciousness and not a relic of the post-World War II, Cold War, Atomic Age era is that like the book of Revelations, "1984"'s dire predictions can be adapted for each new generation.

"1984"'s epic battle of good versus evil doesn't take place on any plain of Armageddon, but rather within the mind of one man: Winston Smith. Winston is a 39-year-old man who works for the Party at the Ministry of Truth, which has an ironic name because Winston's job is actually to doctor reality so that the Party always appears infallible. Winston sees that while the Party, under the leadership of Big Brother, claims surpluses of everything, no one can buy simple items like razor blades or shoelaces. As he becomes disillusioned by the Party's rule, he and a young woman named Julia begin a torrid secret affair. Then he is contacted by a man high up in the Party named O'Brien who works for a resistance group known as the Brotherhood. But before he can help the Brotherhood, Winston is betrayed, arrested, and taken to the dungeons of the Ministry of Love, where he endures physical and psychological torment that threatens to break him and strip him of all humanity.

As it is written, Big Brother and his Party would seem to represent the fascist or Communist movements of the 1940s. Taken literally it would be easy to dismiss the book as an archaic remnant of Cold War hysteria. But the beauty of "1984" is that because it focuses on the internal struggle for Winston Smith's soul, it can transcend all that. For the warning in "1984" isn't about communism or fascism, but the threat of letting anyone crush the human spirit through overbearing dogma.

Much like faithful Christians of every generation have painted everyone from the Pope to Hitler as the Antichrist, every generation looks for its Big Brother. From communists to corporations to churches, individual readers can read "1984" and make their own interpretations of who or what Big Brother and the Party represent. But no matter how each of us sees it, the general warning should be clear: the human spirit is our most precious possession and must be retained at all costs.

That is all.

One of my favorites..........2007-09-11

This is one of my favorite books of all time, right up there with Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. If you haven't read this book, and you are into politics, it is a must read for everyone!

Required Reading for any thinking person.......2007-08-15

1984 should be required reading for any thinking person. Not only is the base story line compelling and thought provoking as a lesson on the more obvious problems presented in Orwell's dystopia, the ideas and thoughts presented through such things as the book the "resistance" reads are extremely relavent to today's world. The view of the military-industrial complex and how it helped lead to the society shown are amazingly prescient of how many industrialized nations are conducting business in modern society.

A few thoughts on my favorite book..........2007-08-09

Reading this book as an impressionable youth back in 1976 turned me, in many ways, into who I am today, thirty-plus years later. Never trusting the official government story, whether it be the Kennedy or Martin Luther King assassinations or the official 9/11 conspiracy theory. I realize that the powers that be always have their own agenda, which invariably differs completely from the people's interests. It has led me to do my own research (now far easier on the internet than in the NYC libraries with their budget-slashed hours I could never coordinate with). It has led down some frightening paths that more people should be going down, for truly we are living in Nineteen Eighty-Four this very minute.
And as a bit of clarification, Orwell was not "predicting" this dystopia for 1984, as some have written here. He was not a soothsayer. With this book he artfully expounds on his experiences working in the real "Ministry of Truth" during World War II: the BBC's Propaganda department. The date 1984 is a simple juxtaposition of the date in which he wrote the book, 1948. Another way of saying, "today". And to me, that's far scarier than some date off in the future.

The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo.

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History was VERY unkind to this book....
A solid reference work
A must read in the globalization debate
The Global City -Saskia Sassen
The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo

The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo.
Saskia Sassen
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691070636

Book Description

This classic work chronicles how New York, London, and Tokyo became command centers for the global economy and in the process underwent a series of massive and parallel changes. What distinguishes Sassen's theoretical framework is the emphasis on the formation of cross-border dynamics through which these cities and the growing number of other global cities begin to form strategic transnational networks. All the core data in this new edition have been updated, while the preface and epilogue discuss the relevant trends in globalization since the book originally came out in 1991.

Customer Reviews:

History was VERY unkind to this book...........2004-09-19

This is a sad book. History was very unkkind to this woman. Just when she thought she completed here masterpiece, a book that was supposed to ensure her tenure and fame and all the things that a sociologist may want, everything blew up in her face.

Her theory in the original version went like this; Why oh why are there huge concentration of functions in Tokyo, London, New York, when so much IT allows easier communication and remote office and all that? Why do these cities grow, when all the production and other functions gets shipped off to backwater countries?

Well, she said, IT allowed the separation of production and management/development. That's why managers remain in cities with their high pay, while actual sweat work goes to third world child labor under measly wages.

But why did the cities grow bigger? Well, because cities are the new production centers. Management and stuff requires a lot of legal services and accountants and other services etc that are much easily available in the cities. That's why all those management stuff accumulated in the city.

But aren't those activites just leeches to the actual job? They don't create any new value, do they? Aha, she says. But they do! Look at all those financial innovations, like hedge funds and derivatives and stuff! Look how much money they are making! They are not leeches, they are creating new values. You gotta throw away your old ideas about the economy! Only cities can produce that sort of new financial products, and that's why London, NY, Tokyo are growing!

There was another brownie point. Her theory went very well with shallow anti-globalism arguments. Managers stay in NY/London with high pays, while at the factories half way around the globe, workers suffer forever under low wage.

But exactly when the first edition came out, everything changed.

First was the collapse of the Japanese economy, that took down Tokyo with it. Her theory had nothing to prepare or explain this. What happened to the new production? What happened to all those financial innovation? Why didn't that work in Tokyo? In the book, Sassen tries to answer this using various ad-hoc excuses, but the more she does it, the less convincing the original proposition becomes. So it wasn't THAT important, after all? All those theories of yours were only subordinate to those other stuff that you never mentioned before?

And yes, what about those innovations? Collapse of LTCM and huge hedge funds etc. since the first edition made finance less glamorous. Arbitrage does increase some efficiency of the market, which does create some value. But they were not the major new "product" to sustain the world.

Her theory about the separation of production and management wasn't so hot afterall. Look at Asia, look at China! Concentration of production functions REQUIRED many management and design / development functions to go along with them. Also, the factories did make the workers richer, and as a result, much of Asia and China really became better off. There are dicrepancies, and differences in earnings, but its nothing like what Sassen had described.

It's amazing that NOTHING of here original theory remained. In this second version, she tries to pick up the pieces, but they are too completely destroyed to be picked up, and the effort is almost painful to read. I wonder why she even bothered with the second edition. It's not a book worth salvaging in 2001, and it's hardly worth reading, except as a sad but amusing look back at the strange ideas of the past.

A solid reference work.......2003-03-18

Sassen aims to - unpack the concept of "the city" (p. xviii) - as a unit of analysis in sociology and economics from a global perspective. The scope of this endeavor is quite staggering and she has to bring an number of different fields under the same conceptual umbrella in order to capture the elusive character of 'the city'. Her method is the painstaking analysis of a huge amount of data from a vast array of sources. This might seem unnecessary to some people who are more interested in bold visions of the future á la Manuel Castells or Antonio Negri. The thing about Castells or Negri though is that you need a leap of faith to interpret the world according to their views. Sassen is more boring to read but one can always rely on her providing the data leading up to her conclusions. This is crucial to anyone wanting to take a stab at the interdisciplinary phenomenon of the global city and use availible data for comparison. The thorough research foundation of the book makes it easy to link the issues to areas that otherwise would be quite far apart such as urban planning and service management. Personally I think the most important message is that place and location matters maybe even more nowadays than it used to when production and consumption was explicitly bound by the physical limitations of our world.

In all I think that this book is a must read for anyone even remotely interested i urban matters. It's a bit tough to get through though and the visual presentation of the data could have been better, hence rendering the book a four rather than a five star grade.

A must read in the globalization debate.......2002-02-13

In writing this review, I had to begin with one critical question: why on earth would I review a book already in print for almost four years? What better time than now, when anti-war advocates are seen in many eyes as un-American, to write about a book in which the author discusses the dangers of nationalism and xenophobia in the context of an ever-globalizing economy? In ten essays the doctor of sociology attempts to "expand the analytic terrain within which we need to understand the global economy in order to render visible what is now evicted" from our current picture of the global economy. She writes in such mouthfuls often, yet her textbook style of writing is a welcome break from the sensationalist and anecdotal approach most often utilized in accounts from the anti-globalization perspective.
If, in the last ten years, you have followed the globalization debate even just a little, then nothing I write here can spoil the book's ending for you. The ending is inconsequential, however, for it is this native Dutch woman's approach to the globalization topic that matters most. The book is not a story, and thus does not follow a traditional plot line, but it never tries to disguise itself as anything other than a categorical critique of international policy. Nor is the book a moral plea to human rights, an approach that seems an easy trap into which fall most writers with parallel paradigms to Sassen's. She takes an obvious stand against globalization of the economy, but instead of simply stating that globalization is bad, Sassen pulls the reader through 218 pages of hard earned facts and qualified theories about the dangers of globalization. Rather than dwell in idealisms, the University of Chicago professor acknowledges the simple observation that globalization is occurring, and rather than asking for an uncompromising end to globalization, she takes a card from the neoliberals' hand and offers concrete solutions to the globalization problem. While that seems like a rather unexciting prospect in itself, one has to remember that many opponents of globalization get sucked into the blame game mindset and offer few (if any) plausible-- or well backed-up-solutions (see the Global Exchange website if you do not believe me).
The remarkable quality of the book is its language. It is written under the assumptions of a human-rights advocate but with the deliberate, yet convincing style of an economist. Its academic quality will turn off a lot of people, but this book was never intended to be bedtime reading material. The normal arguments of the two sides of the issue often give the appearance of two runners in completely different races. Sassen, however, meets her opponents head on, and by using their lexicon and dry grammatical structures, she writes one of the most important books about globalization to this day. Indeed, if there is one real weak point to the book, it is her penchance for writing too dully for even academic writing. She falls occasionally into the trap of spending too much time telling the reader what she is going to say before she actually says it- but only occasionally, and her writing style is disciplined for the most part.
Globalization is inherently a complex issue. Sassen does the reader a great service by avoiding getting stuck on minor or irrelevant points about the issue. Perhaps she pulled a page from Wordsworth, for her attack on globalization is well organized to the point at which she seems to have recalled "in tranquility" the issues rather than descending into scare-mongering tactics. She gives the argument for which the globalization proponents have been asking, and she completely avoids forays into minor points that matter only to those whose heart strings it tugs.
As boring as the subject could be for anyone not passionate about globalization, Sassen grounds well the work by looking at globalization in several contexts. Though she seems at times to be dwelling on topics minor in comparison to the greater umbrella issue, she manages to examine all the major issues of globalization. After first explaining her paradigm in the introduction, Sassen looks at globalization through the window of immigration in the first three chapters. The chapters begin and end with statements about immigration, but the arguments within the envelope structure are based around the general issue of globalization. Splitting up the issue under the subheadings of immigration, feminism, and what she calls "space" helps to deliver her arguments in bite-sized portions without making her seem as if she is avoiding any issue. Indeed, she covers every main argument made by opponents of globalization, and she editorializes it further with her recommendations on immigration policy and her focus on feminism. At the risk of repeating myself, however, she brings up all her points carefully and avoids dropping her extensive knowledge on the reader like lead weights. One would hope that she would write in such an organized fashion, but in the globalization arguments, such structure is rare, unfortunately.
As to the original question: why review such an old book, the answer is becoming readily apparent. Though Sassen has written several books on globalization, including The Global City, a book written in 1991 but updated in 2001, this book encompasses all the major issues of globalization in one fell swoop, and it serves as an authoritative text on those issues. There may be more contemporary versions of Sassens arguments, but none serve as better tools in the argument against globalization, one of the most important fulcrum issues in the post September 11th world. As we continue to wage war against nations our president deems as "terrorist," the issue of globalization continues to be, perhaps, the most important dialogue for our nation. Whether we care to admit it or not, terrorism does not appear from thin air, and we must now ask the question of ourselves: what could America have possibly done to anger people enough to kill themselves in an attack on our nation? Sassen takes an honest look at how American and international policy is affecting marginalized countries and our own, and we would all do well to pay attention to what she is saying.

The Global City -Saskia Sassen.......2000-08-27

If you can understand this book you are obviously incapable of living in the real world. Sassen's dense, turgid writing style simply aims to bewilder the reader into unquestioningly accepting her doomsday view of socitey. Most depressing reading.

The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo.......2000-07-03

This book is a profound empirical assessment of the changes that have taken place in the world economy since the sixties and the emerging role of core cities therein. One of the more significant changes in the world economy has been, according to the author, that manufacturing activities have been spatially dispersed while at the same time production-related services such as finance, accounting, and management have been spatially centralized. It is this 'combination of spatial dispersion and global integration [that] has created a new strategic role' [p. 3] for such cities as New York, London, and Tokyo. They have become global cities, i.e., 'postindustrial production sites' for a variety of command functions that integrate the global economy in the post Bretton-Woods era. An immense volume of data is presented to substantiate the hypothesis that these three cities, diverse as their historical, cultural, political and economic settings are, have undergone similar transformations: their economic base has shifted from manufacturing to services, in particular to producer services (chs. 5,7); agglomeration economies in favour of these global cities induced the urban hierarchy to become more top-heavy in the U.S., Great Britain, and Japan, respectively (ch. 6); and their urban social structure is characterized by increasing income and employment polarization since there is complementary expansion of jobs at the top-level and in the informal economy (chs. 8,9). Quantitative indicators, almost by definition, do not suffice to vindicate such far-reaching conclusions. Some of them rely on a questionable notion of what is normal, e.g., the indicators of these cities' 'disproportionate share' in worldwide capitalization of equities, due to their stockmarkets, or the 'overrepresentation' of the financial industries' assets and income in these cities [pp. 171-179]. But what is normal about the value of equities and banks' assets being proportional to city size? Other indicators do not necessarily support the hypothesis forwarded. The conclusion that 'the salient difference' between the three global cities and other major cities 'is the extent of concentration of the producer services and finance' [p. 326] is undermined by the observation 'that the producer services as a whole have grown rapidly over the last decade and that they have grown more rapidly in the countries as a whole than in these cities' [p. 138]. The evidence thus suggests that the 'salient difference' may be a temporary phenomenon and can hardly serve to characterize global cities in general. However, these are minor objections against some empirical arguments in favour of the Global City hypothesis. The author, Professor of Urban Planning at Columbia University, provides much more qualitative and quantitative evidence to substantiate her case. It is the outcome of work for years, in collaboration with an impressive number of other reserachers and institutions. And apart from the attempt to empirical verification, there is also a theoretical framework which supports the Global City hypothesis. The study contributes to an emerging literature on' the social geography of advanced economies' [p. 251] in the classical tradition of political economy. It deviates from orthodox classical or Marxist theory in that the iron law of falling profits is modified by the notion of capitalist 'regimes' or 'models of growth' which are able to restore profit-generating opportunities on a global scale. Fordism has been the last fully articulated regime, charcterized by 'capital intensity, standardization of production, and suburbanization-led growth' [p. 331]. The present work on global cities thus amounts to search for the new 'form of economic growth' and its sustainability [p. 12], based on speculative finance, shift to a service economy, and inner city growth. Even if one does not share this theoretical background and the preoccupation with questions of how durable a particular phase of capitalism is, SASSEN's book proofs tiffs perspective to be a useful device to focus a study of rather complex issues. Moreover, there is abundance of material which should be of interest to the more orthodox-minded economist. Just to mention two examples: the paradox of financial market deregulation being motivated by the need of governments to finance ever larger deficits [pp. 88, 118]; or descriptions of processes in global labor markets [p. 31 ] and urban economics [p. 126] which extend COASE's logic of the firm, though not mentioned, to new fields of study. This is clearly an outstanding book, an authoritative study of the subject and yet stimulating reading for further theoretical and empirical research on major cities and the world economy.

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Yaar, what happens when you win?
Weirdest Book I Ever Tried To Read!
I couldn't put it down.
Luxurious, blasphemous, and brilliant
a complex story with ingested criticism

The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie
Manufacturer: Viking
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0670825379

Amazon.com

No book in modern times has matched the uproar sparked by Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which earned its author a death sentence. Furor aside, it is a marvelously erudite study of good and evil, a feast of language served up by a writer at the height of his powers, and a rollicking comic fable. The book begins with two Indians, Gibreel Farishta ("for fifteen years the biggest star in the history of the Indian movies") and Saladin Chamcha, a Bombay expatriate returning from his first visit to his homeland in 15 years, plummeting from the sky after the explosion of their jetliner, and proceeds through a series of metamorphoses, dreams and revelations. Rushdie's powers of invention are astonishing in this Whitbread Prize winner.

Book Description

Just before dawn one winter's morning, a hijacked jetliner explodes above the English Channel. Through the falling debris, two figures, Gibreel Farishta, the biggest star in India, and Saladin Chamcha, an expatriate returning from his first visit to Bombay in fifteen years, plummet from the sky, washing up on the snow-covered sands of an English beach, and proceed through a series of metamorphoses, dreams, and revelations.

Customer Reviews:

Yaar, what happens when you win?.......2007-10-10

I am of the belief that Ruhullah Khomeini made his infamous fatwa against Rushdie (and this novel) based on one line in the book: "when the aga khan drinks wine, it turns to water in his mouth." This is a direct mocking of Ruhullah Khomeini and probably was the real reason for the fatwa. Khomeini fiercely wanted to be the grand marja' of every shia; he worked to gain supreme power in the form of a theocratic revolutionary. I believe Rushdie's comment was probably more stinging to his assumed authority than anything else in the novel. Picking on Islam would have united people under Khomeini (uniting against a common enemy), but attacking Khomeini would usurp his power and divide his support base.

This is not to say that the book does not have plenty of subtle and intertwined criticisms and twists on the Islamic faith. To understand these moments in the book the reader does need a fairly large knowledge of Islam. There aren't direct and pointed attacks, they are more so the settings of scenes, the ruminations of characters (particularly Salman the Persian). Many of these episodes which display twists on early Islamic history are presented as in a dream by a crazed Indian actor, Gibreel Farishta. So Rushdie never goes so far as to suggest that any of these sequences is even possibly true.

But to balance the above, are moments where faith and willing suspension of disbelief courageously overcome and succeed. Magical experiences which suggest that those who mock religion are actually the fools.

Rushdie's writing style can be a bit difficult, but once you get used to it, its very melodic and rich. The reader gets the feeling that Rushdie never rushes (!) his prose; there is never a hurried sense to his narrative. Aside from religious content, sex and violence are topics that are, if not explicitly detailed out, present continually through the book. The book isn't for easily disturbed readers.

Weirdest Book I Ever Tried To Read!.......2007-10-09

I tried to read this book,but only got as far as the 3rd. or 4th page,besides being totally weird and uninteresting, when I came upon the second incidence of cursing in these few pages,I knew that as a Christian,this book wasn't worth it!

I couldn't put it down........2007-09-12

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but this book and the writing of Salman Rusdie drew me in and I couldn't put it down. I promptly bought two more of his books.

Luxurious, blasphemous, and brilliant.......2007-08-10

I tried to think up an apt analogy to describe Rushdie's Satanic Verses, and the best I could come up with was watching a fireworks show explode into a thousand brilliantly streaming fireballs away from the center, then watching it in reverse as those streamers are brought back, flaming all the way, to the point of explosion. Each fireball of prose (or poetry or stage directions) blasts out from the story, seemingly on its own, only to be cleverly ushered back to the storyline, building a larger and more intricate story as it goes along. The words are a pleasure to read. They are luxurious, never spare. For the writing alone, I would give this 5 stars.

The topics that Rushdie approaches are broad and interesting. His use of "thesis + antithesis = synthesis" works well to bring all aspects of his thought to the fore. He is especially interested in purity vs. impurity and steadfastness vs. compromise. There are no villains, as such, in this story; there is only each person's struggle with themselves.

What we are led to discover is that purity and steadfastness obviously lead to suffering, that there is no solace either in impurity (mixing of cultures/dogma) and compromise. If any option leads us to pain, then what sort of choice have we been given?

Gibreel Farishta, a Bollywood megastar, represents the purity that Rushdie seeks to show. Though surfacely he may seem to be wholly entrenched in Western culture, his roots lie in his Indian heritage and he approaches everything from that angle. Even in his relationship with English Ice Queen Alleluia Cone, he never sacrifices his Indianness to make things easier with her.

On the other hand, Compromise is embodied in Saladin Chamcha, an Indian immigrant to England who has thrown away his heritage in order to become "more civilized" in the Western world. For him, his roots are something to be shunned, and in this drive to be un-Indian, he adopts a totally English posture.

The examination of immigrant attitudes is an enormously interesting aspect of the story, and Rushdie does a great job of bringing out the good and bad of each man's approach to their home culture and adopted culture.

As we are all aware, Rushdie was the target of a fatwa for his blasphemous depiction of a compromising and waffling and altogether unappealing Mohammed (Mahound, in the book). Taken on its own, the substory of Mahound and the Satanic Verses is lively and appealing, but the reader ought to also consider Rushdie's point that men are weaker and more likely to compromise than women, who are stronger and more steadfast in their beliefs. The substory of Mahound is played off against the substory of Ayesha who is offered similar choices as Mahound and takes a different tack, with very different results.

This is a thoughtful, well written, sometimes hilarious investigation into good and evil. I'm looking forward to reading it again soon.

a complex story with ingested criticism.......2007-07-29

The author is an expert when providing criticism that is interwoven into his narrative. I was drawn to this book bcause I read his short stories and because of the criticism by certain religious groups. What I find most interesting is that this book is not easy to read and the remarks he makes are not blatant. More than anything, you can easily find yourself bored at times when reading this book. No author in the world should be able to trigger any group this literally. ---Get something else to do. Go to a movie. Get laid. There is nothing here that couldnt be discounted the same way as changing the channel on the TV.

Times Atlas of the World : Comprehensive Edition

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Atlas on DVD
I'm humbled but I need your help
The formation of Arabian Gulf?
Persian Gulf instead of Arabian Gulf
Excellent, but not the most current edition....

Times Atlas of the World : Comprehensive Edition
London Times
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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World | Atlases & Maps | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 081293265X
Release Date: 1999-10-13

Book Description

For more than three decades, The Times Atlas of the World has earned international renown for the beauty and legibility of its mapping and its unparalleled detail for coverage of all parts of the globe. As Lord Shackleton, former president of the Royal Geographical Society, said of an earlier edition, it is "the finest reference atlas ever published." Now, The Times Atlas of the World, Tenth Comprehensive Edition, the first completely revised edition since The Times Atlas of the World debuted in 1967, establishes an even higher standard among all reference atlases, and a new benchmark in its own unparalleled tradition.

The Tenth Comprehensive Edition opens with stunning satellite images of the continents and the oceans as they appear from space. This preliminary section continues with a series of graphics, photographs, maps, tables, and charts reviewing the cosmos, the natural world, and humanity's interaction with our home planet. Next is a comparative list of Earth's physical features, from rivers to mountains to islands to deserts, and a complete statistical guide to the states and territories of the world. This opening section concludes with a fascinating chronicle on the evolution of world mapping, beginning with our first attempt to map the world more than a thousand years ago.

The central section of The Tenth Comprehensive Edition, with 248 pages of breathtakingly detailed reference maps, provides the most accurate and up-to-date visual presentation of geographical knowledge in any atlas today. Each map, drawn with generous scale and projection, has been entirely redesigned since the last edition, using the latest digital technology. While creating maps of optimum accuracy, these new methods also provide enhanced clarity and greater legibility than ever before, even for an atlas that was already legendary for the readability of its maps. In addition to recording the new states and republics created by political upheaval in this last decade before the millennium, The Tenth Comprehensive Edition includes a multitude of renamed towns and cities, along with many revised national borders.

The revised and expanded index, covering more than 200,000 place names, is the largest index ever found in a single-volume atlas, virtually ensuring that any location a reader may be looking for will be included in the book. The index is also unique in scope, giving the name, description, regional and country locations, the map grid reference, page number, and latitude and longitude. No other atlas comes close to providing such an index, either in sheer numbers or in reference value.

In the last three decades, The Times Atlas of the World has been in the vanguard of a revolution in the science of cartography, replacing maps formerly created on hand-etched copper plates with maps that are computer-generated. The Times Atlas of the World, Tenth Comprehensive Edition, represents the fullest flowering yet of this remarkable revolution in cartography. It is the finest atlas ever published, sure to be treasured by students, scholars, armchair travelers, global sightseers, and anyone seeking better understanding of our dynamic planet.

Customer Reviews:

Atlas on DVD.......2006-04-12

Just to answer Craig: Try the Microsoft Encarta DVD. It includes a world atlas that alone is worth the price. When zoomed all the way out, it is like a globe you can turn with your mouse. At the highest magnification it presents more detail than any atlas I know of. All country names and many city names and geological features are hot linked to the encyclopedia articles. There are many interactive ways of using this atlas including choosing themes like population density, precipitation, and statistics.

As much as my first love is for printed atlases and physical globes, I couldn't do without this version.

Note: I have not yet purchased the Times Atlas. My 5-star review is only there because I had to choose a rating in order to post this.

I'm humbled but I need your help.......2006-04-07

I have not bougght this atlas. Maybe I will BUT WHAT I REALLY WANT IS SOMETHING of superb detail that is on a DVD. Does ANYBODY make such a thing?

I have the Oxford World Atlas and I'm still looking for something that I can do a look up and get 'detailed' maps of my inquiry.

The formation of Arabian Gulf?.......2004-12-08

National Geographic Atlas has always been a great informational source. However, I was quite shocked by what I saw in the last edition (the 8th). I am sure most of those who have bought this Atlas or had a chance to look at it by now, have noticed the formation of a new gulf that never existed before, Arabian Gulf! It's sad how money can replace names even in the map (Arabian Gulf instead of Persian Gulf!) What National Geographic hasn't noticed yet is how its credibility has dropped among the intellectual crowd and many others are enraged by this act. I never thought history can be distorted, but with what I saw from National Geographic, which has lost it's credibility among those that understand the impact of this change, I am not so sure any more. It's unfortunate and humiliating what money can do!

Persian Gulf instead of Arabian Gulf.......2004-11-20

It seems like Arabs money have been able to buy even these people from national Geographic. So the editors of the book has changed the name Persian Gulf which has been used for thousands of years to Arabian Gulf. WOW. I do not call this just a mistake. It is nothing but a bribary scandle to editors of the :Times Atlas of the World" and they should correct this intentional mistake quickly and withdraw all copies from the bookstores shelves as soon as possible.

Excellent, but not the most current edition...........2004-10-09

Just as a point of information, while this is a superb work, a newer edition has been available for the last year in the UK and elsewhere. The newer edition, the 11th, was released in October 2003 and I do not believe it is yet available in the United States. If you are looking to spend this much money on an atlas (and if you like atlases, I highly recommend this one), you should order the 11th Edition from Amazon Canada (and of course, not receive free shipping). You will be happy to have the most up-to-date edition (with all the new features and political changes incorporated). The ISBN of the new edition is 0007157207.

[Update 28 December 2004] The 11th Edition is now available from Amazon.com (USA site)! Search on the ISBN above.

Belle de Jour: Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl

Average customer rating:

Books from Blogs
Enjoyable, fun, interesting and honest
Clean and Dirty
Amusing and clever
Same as the blog... but fun if you haven't read it.

Belle de Jour: Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl
Anonymous
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0446577251

Book Description

DESCRIPTION: Belle couldn't find a job after University. Her impressive degree was not paying her rent or buying her food. But after a fantastic threesome with a very rich couple that gave her a ton of money, Belle realized that she could earn more than anyone she knew--by becoming a call girl. The rest is history. Belle became a twenty-something London working girl--and had the audacity to write about it--anonymously. The shockingly candid and explicit diary she put on the Internet became a London sensation. Now, in BELLE DE JOUR, she shares her entire journey inside the world of high-priced escorts, including fascinating and explicit insights about her job and her clients, her various boyfriends, and a taboo lifestyle that has to be read to be believed. The witty observations, shocking revelations, and hilarious scenarios deliver like the very best fiction and makes for a titillating reading experience unlike any other.

Customer Reviews:

Books from Blogs.......2007-03-30

Sex books from blogs are the thing of the future. As writers reveal their secrets and put them on the web, it is inevitable that the best of them are turned into books. The two best I've read so far are this one and Abby Lee's Diary of a Sex Fiend: Girl with a One Track Mind. Both are English. Both are sexy. Both are "stimulating" and honest.

Enjoyable, fun, interesting and honest.......2007-03-02

Really one of the books I couldn't stop reading it. No pauses, a continuous 2 days reading. It was very interesting and attractive. Honest and straight, the writer has the ability to present the moment, the most interesting happening, the most notable thought. Initially I did know that it was from a blog. But even when I figured that out, I didn't regret with the book. It was very interesting and far more different from reading a blog from a computer screen. Highly recommended!

Clean and Dirty.......2007-01-04

Belle de Jour, the shockingly intimate adventures of a london call girl has, by all accounts, become a cult phenomenon. The blog-slash-diary of an educated woman who resorts to prostitution to pay her bills for want of a regular job in a tough job market is by all accounts shocking, scandalous, candid, honest, voyeristic, and human. Her hunger for sex leads her into an unlikely job role, after facing rejection upon rejection in the real world. In between the sheets she finds acceptance, at first from men, and then for herself, as she becomes comfortable in her own skin with what and who she has become. Explicit and triple x rated she transports us in graphic detail into the world of prostitution and sex, and perfectly illustrates how we as human beings have deteriorated over the centuries. Even in the oldest of professions, new trends are developing in the sexual revolution, as women and men exchange new roles in a modern world, and Belle takes us there for first hand look.
Living in a world that has learned not to show emotion, Belle too has become one of the masses; a numb body going about the motions of life, lacking feeling, lacking real passion and enthusiasm for life, all the while desperately wanting to return to the feeling of "feeling alive." (146) Belle is not familiar with crying, yet she cries....(149) realizing she is "not all that happy"....and despite the pursuit of money and materialism the resultant ephiphany is that her life has led to "nothing significant."
Belle is a girl in a woman's skin - the girl who had a political opinion at age 8 is still the same young innocent girl who is aching for a return to such innocence and unhurried purity of thought. As we see in the following exerpt, Belle craves a cupcake, and the level of excitement is infectious, until we remember it is actually the voice of a woman.
"...and i insisted that we get two fairy cakes from the bakery with pink icing and little plastic hearts pressed into the tops..."(151)
Belle is still the little girl voice hiding in the adult female body - and for all that we know of the dark world of prostitution she inhabits, it is surpising to see her relatively unaffected on the surface by it, seemingly still able to find pleasure and an innocence in the small things and friendships that surround her.
Yet her innocence with cupcakes juxtaposed with her cynical blog about valentines day combined with the explicit nature of her material leads me to believe that while this is an undoubtedly accurate, honest and extremely candid account of her life, there is still something missing. She leaves nothing out which satisfies the voyeur in us; yet something is missing in her fundamental character and her view and interpretation of her world as we realize this is not normal, she is not normal, and most people do not turn to prostitution after a few bad job interviews.
I feel for the little girl trapped behind her sexual mask - she doesn't know how to tap into the identity of her real self without using her sexuality to play as a grown up in the real world. She is at once clean and dirty, eating to live, not living to eat.
The dislocation of the self is a rich topic, beautifully explored in painful detail in this unforgettable memoir. Five stars.

Amusing and clever.......2006-11-10

The book is a hoot, although (unsurprisingly) lots of it comes directly from the author's blog. Nevertheless, it's been passed around to all of my friends and we all enjoyed it. Great for dramatic readings at three in the morning, while drinking sangria. Don't be misled by the alarmingly trashy cover. The author is clever, well-read, and perhaps a bit of a nerd. She just happens to like sex, and get paid for it.

Same as the blog... but fun if you haven't read it........2006-10-07

Ditto another reader's observations on this. If you've been reading along with the blog these past few years - the book is an unfortunate duplicate. Or, I should say, 98% is duplicate, but unfortunately, that extra 2% is rather like the extra two minutes on some director's cut of a movie. Doesn't change the story, doesn't change the book itself, and you really could have kept it out - but guess that's what I get for not looking closely before I bought it.

Aside from that - if you haven't read the blog, the book is fun. Nothing earthshattering, just leisurely and running occasionally to voyeuristic.

Average customer rating:

Not Your Shell & Tube or Plate & Frame Exchanger
Good reference...
Handy dan useful book
compact heat exchanger

Compact Heat Exchangers
W. M. Kays , and A. L. London
Manufacturer: Krieger Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Applied | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 1575240602

Book Description

Compact Heat Exchangers is a compilation of experimental data on the basic heat transfer and flow friction characteristics of "compact" heat exchanger surfaces, i.e., surfaces with the characteristic of large area per unit of volume, used primarily in gas-flow applications where large surface area is a necessity. The data have a wide application, including space heating, spacecraft heat exchangers, aircraft heat exchangers, and cooling systems of all kinds. Besides the basic experimental heat transfer and flow friction data, Compact Heat Exchangers contains chapters on heat exchanger analysis and design and auxiliary topics.

Customer Reviews:

Not Your Shell & Tube or Plate & Frame Exchanger.......2007-07-26

As a chemical engineer I've had limited use for this book. Kays addresses an area of heat exchangers used in aerospace, semi-conductors and other industries where small coolers or heaters are needed. I remember first hearing about this book back in the early 80's, while living in California, so it has been in print for a while; the first printing was 1955.

Although the author addresses many of the issues of design there is only a half-hearted attempt at examples. Kays speaks to the PhD level not the working engineer. I was hoping for a book more like Kern's "Process Heat Transfer," or even Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot's "Transport Phenomena."

Here's a good example, on page 45, "Procedures for Sizing a Heat Exchanger." Instead of taking the reader through the bloody details as Kern would do, the author refers us back to Figure 2-12, a block-flow diagram giving the reader a vague understanding of the steps involving sizing an exchanger. In the end, in fact, on the same page, the author finishes with: " The complete design of a heat exchanger involves a whole set of considerations, as indicated by Fig. 2-12." This is clearly a cop-out.

I had a similiar experience with plate and frame heat exchangers where so much of the sizing information is now proprietary. This forced me to go back to chemical engineering articles written in the 50's when this technology (also a compact heat exchanger) was new. When people are trying to sell an idea they are usually more open; I picked up some dandy sizing equations.

All in all, this book will be useful. But, it won't help you size compact heat exchangers to the degree of detail necessary to actually build one. It will merely allow the reader a glimmer of understanding of these marvelous inventions while making him/her a slave to proprietary information from some vendor.

If this review was helpful, please add your vote.

Good reference..........2000-11-24

Any packaging engineers, particularly those in the telecommunications field, who are looking at system-level thermal issues may find this book fairly useful. There is a huge amount of information here that is hard to get from any other sources other than scouring a lot of journals.

This is not an easy read and you should be well-versed in the elements of heat transfer, particularly duct flow. However, there is a wealth of experimental data that is still being "mined" by many researchers. Except for some of the newer papers by Manglik and Bergles (see their work on offset strip fin heat exchangers) you aren't missing much information relevant to heat exchangers or heat sinks.

I would suggest another reference such as "The Handbook of Heat Transfer" and "Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer" to supplement the information in this volume. Certainly I have used all three designing new heatsinks for specific applications.

Handy dan useful book.......2000-02-28

This book is very useful for one who wants to design and to calculate performance of the compact heat exchanger. It contains so many figures for the design and calculation of the compact heat exchanger. When I was designing the gas to gas heat exchanger and I decided it must be a compact heat exchanger, I only used this book to help myself.

compact heat exchanger.......2000-01-04

i wanted the design of air cooled unmixed type of heat exchager for refrigeration system

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