** 4th Read, 4 Languages ** This is my fourth time reading this book, each time I gain something different. The book has become my Rosetta Stone, as I use it to expand my vocabulary. The first time I read it was in fifth grade when I had already read many science fiction novels, so this book didn’t leave a deep impression on me, unlike “Redwall,” “Ender’s Game,” or “Dune.” ...
** Empires Come and Go ** So much of history relies on a modern nation remaining to tell its story, so while most know of the Mongols, fewer know the stories of the Scythians, Xiongnu, or even Tamerlane. For my own reference, heres the roughly chronological list of empires from the steppe: Indo-Aryans: Responsible for the Indo-European language family. Scythians The Huns, Attila: If Attila had not died, Attila and Menoria could have presided over a Western Roman Empire not too different from that of the contemporary Northern Wei emperors. Xiongnu: To fight them, China tried to use 200,000 soldiers and found 5000 horses, but the fodder in horses in China lacked the selenium necessary to build strong bones and muscles, so this effort failed. Mongols, Genghis Khan: 129,000 horsemen out of a population of 715,000. Tamerlane Turks The author makes some dubious claims, such as: ‘Without the unification of the Mongols, China would have remained under warring powers and would not be the world power that it is today. ‘ Not a deep read but an appreciated overview that is not told from the perspective of the romans.
**I’ll be here all week millennium! ** One of me wishes this would be required reading for sex-ed. At least that way students would learn something while attending the class! Second I wish I had read this during the pandemic, when it would have been a great shared experience to read whilst sheltering in place . I appreciate that like Durant , Decameron really humanizes the late Middle Ages. In the same way that late night comics rip monks and nuns today, Boccaccio pokes fun at the holier than thou traditions of the day. Many of the plots are overtly ridiculous, but done so in a way that is humorous and not overbearing. ...
**Will ** you read of the Many Tropes? Will of the Many fills its checklist of sci-fi and fantasy tropes, better than even a fan-fic. Orphaned✓ teenage✓ boy✓ finds himself unexpectedly whisked away from his mundane job✓ to an elite academy✓. There, he ascends through the ranks✓, unveils heretofore unknown skills✓, and aims to dismantle the corrupt system responsible for his parents’ demise from within.✓✓ The academy’s culmination is a battle royale✓ graduation✓, where treachery is guaranteed✓ and even the teachers flout the rules.✓ Let’s not forget the forbidden ruins ominously linked to the world’s end.✓✓ ...
With a few graceful red lights flickering into the waves, Vo sucks the reader into a world that is familiar to readers of Asian history (or fantasy ), but tinged with a velvet sheen of magic that only Vo brings. Far too short for my liking, but that’s just another way of saying that I’ll definitely read through the novella series.
** Another Dictator ** If I die as a dictator, I will go down in history like all dictators… Thus Mr. Chiang documented in his journal, and so history recalls him. We perceive China as a dominant power today, yet this was far from the truth in the early 20th century. Chiang, in his attempt to protect a fragmented and weakening China against Japan, was engaged in power politics without any real power. After experiencing betrayals by nearly every international ally and numerous trusted lieutenants, by the 1930s, he had grown distrustful of everyone. ...
** Imperial Hubris - Antiquity Edition ** The Eagle and The Lion is a slightly underwhelming exploration of the dynamic between the Roman and Persian empires. While Edward Gibbon’s works offer a more comprehensive description of this period, this book falls a bit short in delivering fresh insights from new research, which can be a disappointment. However, it does shed light on the limits of our knowledge, especially regarding the Persian empire, acknowledging the gaps in historical understanding. The book interestingly points out how external empires were often leveraged to boost internal prestige and how internal strife was a reliable predictor of external conflicts. Essentially war was never sustainable, but peace was never prestigious. ...
2024 in books Life doesn’t get many turning points, but 2024 was one. After being tossed from the OpenAI rollercoaster, I’ve expanded work on our family office. Both kids are now in school, and my day to day is an axis between the local coffee shop for me and the BMX park for my son, with much less idle time available for reading. I also focused more on Chinese, which means I read about half as many (54 v. 120) books this year as last year. ...
Bits of plot interspersed with long passages brooding on genitals and hands, or lack thereof. One of the darkest fantasy books i’ve read.
A good book, except I don’t really think about the information I consume, and I’m not sure where to carve out the time, since I’m only consuming information in circumstances where I can’t do something else. Seems like it would be very useful if I were writing a book…. maybe I should write a book?