Gankutsuou French

1.5 book review and 1 more book for the shelf.

This week, I borrowed 3 books from the library. 3 books because its my habit, 2 is too little, 4 is too much, 3 is just right. Now lets not get started on my eccentricities and on to the books. The 3 borrowed books were:

1) Call of the Mall by Parco Underhill
2) The Man Who Changed Everything by Basil Mahon
3) Hand book to life in Ancient Rome by Lesly and Roy Adkins.

I read only the first one so I shall do a review on that. Call of the Mall is a book about american malls and how humans interact inside the mall and also to the exterior of the mall (facade and parking lots etc.). This book is centered around American suburban malls that is difficult for a large number Singaporeans to envision due to the fact that there is no such similar thing that can exist in our island city. I like the first few chapters which is about the distance to such suburban malls and the facade and parking lots. I also liked the information on the how the stores are grouped together in an effort to attract more people. I often spend time at the malls and I can relate to several points regarding mall architecture. However, somewhere near the middle of the book, the style of writing changes from descriptive writing to dialogues. Its not 2 or 3 pages of dialogues but entire chapters of it. I did not understand pages 84 and 123, I did try my best to read the entire chapter back and forth and pages before and after but to no avil. I guess its a cultural thing that separates us from the Americans. There were also some redundant chapters like one on Aqua Massage that is only 1.5 pages long (considering a standard Times New Roman Font 12 with 0.65 spacing width). Overall, it was an OK book, does not use profound langauge but may be hard for people of other cultures to visualise what the author is trying to put across.

I said 1.5 book review because I have not finish reading the next book but I feel that a review can be done. Handbook of life in Ancient Rome is a fantastic reference book for anyone interested in all things roman. Its a reference book so its not meant to be read like a normal book (hence the 0.5 book review). Im suprised it really covers a wide variety of subjects in sufficient depth. The information presented is also accurate, I know because I read roman history since I was 10 and totally fell in love with it.

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I went to kino with my mother today to buy a book called This is your Brain on Music - The Science of Human Obession. I haven't read half of it yet but its very interesting, will do a review when I eventually finish it. Of course I will have to finish reading the last of my 3 library books, The Man who Changed Everything before the dateline.

I only admire people worthy of my admiration.

Some of the people I hold in high esteemed are mostly dead, obscure or either misunderstood in their times. Like youths of today, I too have my own idols. However, they do not sing, most of them can't dance (I suppose the waltz was a social norm) and they are not endowed with incredibly good looks either. The two following persons have always been admired by me...

1) Nikola Tesla
2) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Whenever we flick the light switch, nobody thinks about Nikola Tesla. The name doesn't even ring a bell to most people, sure everyone has heard of Edison and his light bulb but not Tesla. Im not sure why this great man has gone into obscurity after all his great achievements. Tesla was a key player in the War of Currents where both he and Edison were fighting to electrify the world. Edison advocated the use of DC (direct current) while Tesla insisted on the AC (alternating current). Obviously, we knew who won because all our electricty is transmitted using AC and yet, Nikola Tesla is not a household name. The 20th centuary was due to Tesla... Tesla died alone and without recognition. I particularly like this quote: "Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs, The future, for which I have really worked, is mine."

Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey is another great man. He modernised turkey into a secular democratic state from the religious absolute monarchy of the Ottoman empire. As an Atheist, secularism is very important to me... and amidst the rising tension between different religious group everywhere in the world, we see the importance secular government. The US over the years have increasingly been more religious, perhaps due to the charismatic movement. Even here in the island, I see a rise in religiousity amongst the population. Being an Atheist and out to the public now although is more acceptable, is still looked down on. People simply can't see why other people can have no god to worship. Some of us can't just understand why people get killed over each other's imaginary comfort giving deity either. I guess people need to feel "protected" and "guided" by someone greater than themselves. Or simply because people need to be comforted in their times of sadness and despair, prefer to shut themselves from reality and prefer to believe its their deity's will that their lives are the way they are or when someone dies. Thinking deeper, if its the deity's will that life is like it is, then praying does not help at all since it wont change anything.

Well thats lots of things to think about and I like to keep my post short. The religious part was triggered by someone giving me the Pascal's Wager (better to believe than not to believe). Mathematically and using statistics, it can be made the other way round too (better no to believe than to believe) so its a double edged sword.