Yet another excerpt from "what the dog saw"

"What accidents like the Challenger should teach us is that we have constructed a world in which the potential for high-tech catastrophe is embedded in the fabric of day-to-day life.  At some point it the future - for the most mundane of reasons, and with the very best of intentions - a NASA spacecraft will again go down in flames.  We should at least admit this to ourselves now.  And if we cannot - if the possibility is too much to bear - then our only option is to start thinking about getting rid of things like space shuttles altogether."
- January 22, 1996


And of course, space shuttle Columbia "went down in flames" on Feb. 3, 2003 when an insulating foam the size of a brief case punctured a hole in the propelling tank.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Up until about 3 years ago, I used to read a book a week, but I stopped for some stupid reason I'm too embarrassed to talk about.  I have decided to resurrect the policy, and since I had read only one book prior to this week, I decided to catch up quite a bit.  I finished "Outliers" and "Stone Fox" (it's a children's book - but it's still a book), 1 1/2 more stories to go on "What the Dog Saw," and I'm halfway done with Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style," which I'm re-reading, and I've read parts of "Brief Encounters with Che Guevara." 

So I'll be done with 5 books by the end of the week, which is on par with my reading during last 1~2 years of college.  Oh, and, does anyone read multiple books at once?  or is it just me?  I don't know why but whenever I feel like reading, I usually read 3 books at once.  I don't know why I do, but I do.

Another revelation I had was that I possibly can't afford to spend 70 dollars a week on books, though there are plenty of books at our house that I haven't read yet.  So I decided to get a library card, and for the first time in my life, I was able to fully appreciate how wonderful public libraries are.  Public libraries are like blockbuster, but free.  Books and DVD's cost about the same amount, but libraries lend them for... free.  Haha, I don't know why I never appreciated that before.  It's probably because I had to read for sake of research, not for sake of pleasure.

Anyways, here are my thoughts about the books:

Outliers:  my one sentence summary:  In order to succeed big, it takes hard work (10,000 hours), some talent and most importantly, luck. 

critique: Typical Gladwell; does not disappoint; fascinating stories as usual.  Some people may have problems with his logic, oversimplification, and selective sampling.  And I would never use this book for academic purposes, but the book is wonderfully entertaining and there are so many insightful stories in the book that it ultimately earns a two thumbs up from me.


What the dog saw:  my one sentence summary:  Collection of some of the most engaging essays I have ever read; my favorites were "late boomers (geniuses that bloom late), the ketchup conundrum, blowing up, trouble makers, and dangerous minds.

critique:  again, typical Gladwell.  I don't know whether this man has some special ability in collecting intriguing stories, or to tell mediocre stories in intriguing fashion. 


Stone Fox: Children's book, where a little boy enters a race to save his ailing grandfather.

critique:  Stone Fox is one of those classics in children's literature, but I actually didn't like it.  May be I expected too much out of it, or may be it's because I didn't like the first page when the authors says something close to: "the life of a potato farm was hard."  What?  Potato farming is the easiest farming there is, and it yields more calories per acre than any other major crop in the world.  If you want to know what hard life on the farm is like, you plant rice, which is probably one of the most difficult crop to grow.

And a little kid trying to make it on his own?  Hello?  has anyone ever heard of social service?  And grandpa gets sick because he failed to pay 500 dollars worth of taxes over the past 10 years?  Has grandpa ever heard of standardized deduction and child tax credit?  Does he know how to check boxes on his 1040?  Or is the author some crazy conservative who wants all children in America to vote for republicans?

I think I expected too much out of a children's book.  But I didn't even understand the moral behind the stupid story!


The Elements of Style: A classic book that will help you write with more clarity and vigor.

critique:  One of greatest book on style ever written.  It helped me for sure.


I will write about Brief encounters with Che Guevara when I'm done with it.  I've only read 15 pages, and it's absolutely amazing so far.