Everybody lies

posted on Thursday, January, 29th, 2009 in Thursday Thirteen, reading matter

This week I had a bit of trouble coming up with a topic for my book list. Turns out I could make lots of lists about the books I read, but almost none of them would have 13 entries.  But with not taking the tpoic too literally I finally decided on this:

13 non-fiction books I read last year

1. Tim Ferriss – The 4 Hour Work Week

It took me a while to get around to this book after I read so much about it in dozens of blogs after it came out. In the end I opted for the audio version to be able to listen to it while driving. Ferriss propagates an interesting concept, which probably works for a few people, but I am definitely not one of them. Interesting book anyway.

2. David Allen – Getting Things Done

Another one of those bestsellers that turned into something of a bible for many people. Again, I chose the audio version and again I was impressed with the concept, but it’s not for me either. I am just not that organized and I don’t even want to be. My mind works differently and all these lists and folders and stuff just seem too rigid and, frankly, quite exhausting to maintain. But nevertheless I took some good advice on the more general aspects of getting organized away from this book.

3. Jeremy Rifkin – Das Ende der Arbeit/The End of Work

I stumbled upon this one in my local library (in german, of course). Had never heard of Rifkin before, although I gather he is a pretty well-known analyst and author. Not really my kind of topic normally, but since I am trying to decide what to do with the rest of my life right now, it grabbed my interest. Rifkin’s prognosis is not exactly comforting, but then again, neither is reality.

4. Hingston, Balfour – Home Office/Working from Home

Having been unemployed and unable to find a normal job for the past 4 years now I am starting to think about working from home and becoming self-employed. This is the first of several books I have read last year about this topic.

5. Holm Friebe, Sascha Lobo – Wir nennen es Arbeit

I don’t think this book is available in english yet. Literally translated, the title means “We call it work”. It’s about what the authors call the “digital bohéme” – freelancers, artists, whatever – who make their living outside of the traditional corporate structures. I don’t count myself as one of them, but since traditional jobs are kind of hard to come by nowadays, I will have to think at least into the general direction of such a lifestyle.

6. Andreas Lutz – Businessplan

Well, that one kind of explains itself. Our local library has quite a collection of such books and I have read a couple of them. Not sure if I am much closer to ever actually writing a viable businessplan. Not sure if I will ever need to, either. But it’s sure been interesting to learn how to.

But enough already about the business books.

7. Alan Weisman – The World Without Us

The premise of this book is: what would happen to the earth if human beings all vanished overnight?

Those who know me know that this scenario is my favorite daydream, so there was no chance in hell I could pass up this book once I learned of its existence. If you have ever watched the BBC documenatry “Life After People” you will have an inkling what Weisman writes about: the crumbling of every man-made structure, the decay of each and every trace of human life, the way nature takes over again, but also the lingering time-bombs we would leave behind. Wonderful reading to me, since if this really happens some day, I will by definition not be able to watch it personally and I find it nice to be able to quench my curiosity beforehand.

8. David Vise – The Google Story

Another library find. Even though I’m a big fan of Google products, I also have ambivalent feelings about the trustability of such a fast-growing company. They pretty much take over the internet nowadays, which can’t be a good thing. The book, even though it is not my usual reading choice, turned out to be quite fascinating. I’m not sure if my worries have been alleviated by it, but it sure was interesting to peek “behind the scenes” a bit.

9. Joyce Carol Oates – The Faith of a Writer

Funnily, I have never read any of Oates’s fiction, so I have no idea how good a writer she actually is, but I quite enjoyed her book about the craft of writing. But then again, I usually tend to enjoy books about writing, even if I don’t know the author’s own work. This one stands only as an example of 3 or 4 writing-themed books I read last year.

10. Randy Pausch – The Last Lecture

I have written before about how impressed and touched I was by Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture and the life-lessons he imparted with it. If you have seen the video, you won’t find all that much that’s new in this book – it’s essentially just a slightly expanded version of what he said in the lecture. But it is still worth reading it even if you know the video.

Well, and that brings us to the atheist reading section of this list. After I read Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” last year (which I generally liked, even though I had a few problems with his overly preachy and zealous attitude), I tried a few other books that are often mentioned in the same context.

11. Christopher Hitchens – God is Not Great

Well, if you thought Dawkins is polemic and a bit over the top, you will probably be disgusted by Hitchens. He is a bit wearying with his attacks on religion in general and followers of any kind of faith. I really do agree with the central tenet that religion, especially organized religion, is not a good thing and mainly it’S all a big bag of lies and as such pathetic and dangerous, if taken to extremes. But I really don’t get why Dawkins and Hitchens have to be so fucking militant about it. Do they really think they will convince people of their theses by offending them and pretty much calling them morons for believing in something that is so blatantly stupid and unfounded and whatnot? I really don’t think so. Mainly they’re just preaching to the choir. I mean, as a fellow atheist it is nice to know that I am not alone in my incredulity, that there are more people out there who see religion as fairytales for grown-ups. But I had hoped for a more constructive approach to the discussion. This book is clearly not it.

12. Sam Harris – The End of Faith

Sam Harris’ writing is more what I had been looking for. Yes, he speaks basically the same truths as Dawkins and Hitchens, but he does so in a much more civil manner. He’s not just putting down everybody who honestly believes in religion, but instead opens up a discussion, underlining his opinions with facts and displaying an impressive kowledge of the Bible that is hard to argue with. I’m not saying he is perfect, because he can’t refrain from taking a few cheap shots either. But he is certainly less radical in his views than Hitchens or Dawkins. I know that many people who call themselves religious won’t want to hear what he has to say, but anybody who gives the book a fair chance has to admit that he at least makes sense. If you agree with his opinion or not is a different matter.

13. Sam Harris – Letter to a Christian Nation

This book, as I understand it, was written as a kind of follow-up for “The End of Faith”. He cites quite a few comments made on the first book here and goes on to refute them, aiming especially at Americans this time. Very entertaining, and in many parts enlightening, reading – if, that is, you’re not one of “them”.

That’s it with the 13 books I promised, but and as an added bonus I just have to mention:

Julia Sweeney – Letting go of God

This is not a book, but a show, of which I heard the audio version. And contrary to many of the male atheist authors, Julia Sweeney is not the least bit preachy, but brings her point across in a funny manner (well, ok, I take it this is a comedy show, so that’s probably not much of a surprise). The show is awesome and hilarious. I think, if the so-called “serious” atheist authors showed a bit more humor they would be able to convince many more people that religion is ridiculous and laughable than they do by their fervent sermons that point out that every believer is a fool. But maybe that’s just me.