The sense of style of style by Steven Pinker

As someone who believes in continuous improvement, I have a great desire to improve my writing abilities, especially with this blog. So a few weeks ago I picked up this book amongst others at the public library where I work. 

However today, I returned it after just reading under half of it.  I was looking for a book that aimed at improving writing style and to better capture the reader’s attention. After the first chapter I realized this was a book about improving your written grammar and providing tips in how not to confuse the reader.  This was all very well and good but it wasn’t what I was looking for, hence the early return, I did find some of the grammar advice very helpful.

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In the footsteps of Alexander the Great by Michael Wood

Yesterday, I finished reading “In the footsteps of Alexander the Great” by historian Michael, I have already watched the DVD box set of the TV series of the same name and I found it extremely well presented and informative. 

So I decided to read the book as well. Obviously the book provides alot more information than can be shown on screen and it was nice to have all those little details filled in. Early on, it provides more details about Alexander’s upbringing and how it may have shaped his desire for conquest even after he was done with the Persian empire. For history buffs, I recommend this book as it is very well written and neatly organised into shortish chapters.

Doom by Niall Ferguson

I just completed another one of my second hand books, “Doom - the politics of catastrophe” by Niall Ferguson. It is centred around the recent Covid pandemic and Ferguson analyses how authorities reacted to it compared to previous natural and man made disasters. Let’s see what the highly regarded economist and historian has to say.

The book was completed during the darkest mid point of the pandemic, before any of the vaccines were rolled out.  His main comparisons were the Spanish flu of 1918 and the lesser known Asian flu of 1957/58.  He in particular looked at government responses to more recent disasters such as Chernobyl and the deadly Boxing day tsunami of 2004.

Ferguson is very fair in his analysis, although blame can definitely be attributed to governments, there was only so much they can do.  Plus in the case of Covid, there was a natural lack of information early on.  Once the information was available it was too late. 

He doesn’t dive deeply into the science but he makes it clear that the transmission rate of the virus was but one part of the problem. It’s a very readable book on how past calamities have been dealt with and he does leave us with some best practices on how to deal with future ones.

Everybody writes by Ann Handley: a review

Like any good perfectionist, I wanted(and still want) to improve the output of this blog so I bought the this highly recommended book for blogging and online content.  Did I find it useful though?

 

“Everybody writes” is broken down into five parts and a total of eighty three chapters.  Most of the advice given is aimed at online marketing people rather than bloggers.  Although as a blogger it gave some useful advice in how I write to engage the reader as well as to entice the reader to read the post in the first place. 

More detailed advice included the style of English to use, how to use headings and sub headings to break down the text and fair use of stock images.

In terms of blogging advice, I was expecting more practical items and give the reader detailed real world examples. Still it was an interesting read and very enjoyable. Not bad considering I bought it second hand.

The Sceptered Isle 55BC to 1901 - a review

After nearly two months and four library renewals I have finally read Christopher Lee’s six hundred page book on British history from the Romans to the death of Queen Victoria. And here’s what I think of it.

The book contains many extracts from Sir Winston Churchill’s “A history of the English speaking peoples”.  It gives an overview of the English monarchs(post 1066), along significant people and events throughout the last two thousand years of the UK.  These events and personalities all add up to Britain, its culture and society that we see today.  

As expected, lesser known parts of British history were given less coverage than usual, especially the post Roman Anglo Saxon kingdoms, it was the ‘Dark Ages’ after all.  Without going into too much detail, it tells you the origin of some of our institutions and certain words.  Did you know that ‘Parliament’ got its name from the French word ‘parler’ to speak.  It always been a place to ‘parley’ or to speak.  Elsewhere I was interested in the rule of the some of the lesser known medieval monarchs such as Henry I and Henry III.

In brief, its a very readable book and the chapters are broken down in ten to fifteen page chunks.  Despite the intimidating thickness I would recommend this book if you are in any way interested in British history 

Charles Loft, “Last trains”

Even since I started following Youtubers Geoff Marshall and Jago Hazard since 2017, I have developed a slow iterative fascination of trains and railways. In 2023 I visited the National Railway Museum in York, United Kingdom as a result of watching Geoff’s videos. It was a very informative place for anyone with a remote interest in trains. 

Whilst there I bought a book, “Last trains” by Charles Loft. It gives a deep insight into the notorious Beeching cuts that took place in the 1960s as a result of Dr Richard Beeching’s report on the UK railway system.

Although I have previously heard of Beeching, it was mostly negative.  People did not want their local railway line and stations closed naturally, so I decided to read all about it in Loft’s book.

Loft starts off with a background, after world war two, the nationalised railways were haemorrhaging money as there weren’t enough passenger journeys to justify some of the lines and stations. Coupled with that, private car use was increasing. The government simply could not economically sustain a railway system that grown exponentially since the Victorian era.  

As the book pointed out, Beeching was not just about cuts to the system but also investment in improving certain lines. However history has overlooked this. Loft mentions the opposition to cuts, which included local residents and the rail unions. His report did mention the social effects of the closures and alternatives were proposed.

Contrary to public perception, Loft points out that not all lines that were proposed to be closed were closed. Some of it was due to political pressure. The UK, after all has general elections and railway closure proposals were an election issue in the 1964 and 1966 general elections. The switch from the MacMillan Conservative premiership to the Douglas-Home premiership disrupted the process, however the incoming Labour government in 1964 generally stuck to the recommendations of Beeching. 

One of the things Loft mentioned was that some of the closed lines live on as heritage railway lines. An example is the Bluebell railway in East Grinstead, Sussex, which I have personally visited after hearing about it in a Jago Hazard video. 

I find this book to be informative if you want to know about Britain’s railway history in the era of rapid economic, social, cultural and technical changes.  

Quantum mechanics: the theoretical minimum, first impressions

So far I have read past the first chapter of this book by Leonard Susskind, it is written for theoretical physics undergraduates in mind. Unlike other books I have read on this subject, it contains the mathematical explanations with mathematical formulas and also at the end of the chapter there are exercises for those who want a challenge.

After doing some background research on the author, it appears the book is based on his lectures. I will post more on this later.

Quantum mechanics: the theoretical minimum

I started my next Amazon kindle book and its back to quantum mechanics with "Quantum mechanics: the theoretical minimum". I am on the first chapter and he is already talking about "qubits", should be very interesting.

Finished Bang! The complete history of the universe

In the past few days I have finished reading 'Bang! The complete history of the universe' by Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott.

This book is a very good introduction to the history of the universe from the moment of the big bang, past the present and onto the future of the solar system and indeed of the universe.  It introduces the sub-atomic particle particle physics side in a very easy to read and informative manner.

I thoroughly recommend this for anyone who wants to grasp the basics of the big bang and how the universe will progress in billions of years time.