Life after death on Mount Everest
by Lincoln Hall
In May 2006 Hall was left for dead on Everest. The next day climbers found him alive and sitting on the summit ridge saying: "I imagine you are surprised to see me here."
Dead Lucky is Hall's description of his ordeal. It is a bit chatty, and his facts sometimes questionable for instance his description of the Danish winter. However, the book tells a story not usually told since people do not usually survive such an ordeal. Hall was an accomplished climber and although many have used him as an example to criticise commercial operations he does not question the decision to leave him for dead on the mountain.
Although it is longer that the standard mountaneering book it kind of reads like a novel.
Recommended.
by Richard Dawkins
A crusade against religion. Alledgedly Dawkins writes for those who want to but have not been able to break free of religion. It seems unlikely, though, that many religious people will spend time reading it let alone drop their religion over it.
Reading the book it strikes me that Dawkins' mind is as closed as any religious mind e.g. when he calls Foucault and others "francophonies". Dawkins is philosophically a realist and no other position is acceptable to him. Even to an atheist that seems excessive.
‘Tell me; the great twentieth-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once asked a friend, ‘why do people always say it was natural for man to assume that the sun went round die Earth rather than that the Earth was rotating?’ His fiend replied, ‘Well, obviously because it just looks as though the Sun is going round the Earth.’ Wittgenstein responded, “Well, what would it have looked like if it had looked as though the Earth was rotating?’
The Financial Times wrote:
The God Delusion is a fascinating book ... expressed in sparkling language which makes the book not only a pleasure to read but also a stimulus to thinking across this widest of spectrums.
An ok read.
Paradoxes of Perspective
by Bas C. van Fraasen
An empiricist philosophy of science book.
Interesting yet difficult.
Recommended.
Introduktion til Michel Foucault
af Dag Heede
En udmærket introduktion til Foucaults tænkning inddelt i henhold til forfatterskabet.
Bogen er vanskelig, men det skyldes primært, at Foucault er så vanskeligt tilgængelig.
Opsummerende kan man således foreløbig sige, at magten ikke først og fremmest undertrykker individerne, men snarere producerer undertrykkende individualiteter, individualiteter som både er magtens slutresultat og befordringsmidlet for dens fortsatte virkemåde.
Anbefalet.
The Evidence for Evolution
by Richard Dawkins
A book on the evidence of evolution.
While the book is littered with interesting titbits information on evolution e.g. the story of Linski's W. coli experiment it is also a bit marred by Dawkins' attempt to write for creationists as well. It would have been better had he chosen either or.
Also I find Dawkin's chatty style a bit annoying. There really is no reason for Dawkins to inform the reader twice in one chapter that he has cold while he is writting that chapter.
Well-educated’ reminds me of Peter Medawar’s wickedly astute observation that ‘the spread of secondary and latterly of tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well-developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought’. Isn’t that priceless? It is the kind of writing that makes me want to rush out into the street to share with somebody – anybody – because it is too good to keep to oneself.
Recommended.
by Jean Baudrillard
Four essays on terrorism and globalisation.
Some interesting ideas but mostly unimportant and a bit dated.
A fractal war of all cells, all singularities, revolting in the form of antibodies. A confrontation so impossible to pin down that the idea of war has to be rescued from time to time by spectacular set-pieces, such as the Gulf War or the war in Afghanistan. But the Fourth World War is elsewhere. It is what haunts every world order, all hegemonic domination – if Islam dominated the world, terrorism would rise against Islam, for it is the world, the globe itself, which resists globalization.
Furthermore, the first two essays are on the same topic right down to sharing a few of the same sentences.
An ok read.
Danmark i Afghanistan og Irak
af Anja Dahlgaard-Nielsen
På basis af fem måneders feltarbejde i Kosovo, Irak og Afghanistan har Dahlgaard-Nielsen skrevet en kort bog med politiske analyser af Danmarks i krig.
Bogen er velskrevet, men i betragtning af længden sætter den sig lidt mellem to stole i sin sammenblanding af Dahlgaard-Nielsens personlige oplevelser og de politiske analyser. Endelig er kritikken af den danske indsats afmålt, men tydelig i hendes brug af sætninger som "det såkaldte al-Qaeda i Irak" og:
Vi befinder os i dag i den priviligerede situation, at krige og konflikter kan vælges til eller fra. Deres udfald kan nok påvirke generelle danske sikkerhedsmæssige, økonomiske og politiske interesser, men ikke true Danmarks eksistens, sådan som en Øst-Vest konfrontation kunne under den Kolde Krig. Der er næppe heller nogen eksistentielle interesser på spil for vores europæiske og amerikanske allierede. det ved de fleste politikere sandsynligvis godt, til trods for den retorik, der omgiver "krigen mod terror".
Dahlgaard-Nielsens hovedpointe synes at være, at vi de vestlige magter skal forpligte sig mere eller helt lade være, men at det nok er politisk vanskeligt, da det vil koste væsentligt flere liv.
En letlæst og ok bog.
by Andy Cave
A biography of a working class man working in the mines turning mountain climber and getting a PhD.
The book equally describes mounteneering and his working class background so do not read it before so many other books on mounteneering if you are not interested in reading about working in the pits.
"Is Brendan with you?" I shouted again into the mist.
There was a long silence and then a roar, "No!"
"Oh ... fucking hell, he's gone." I screamed.
The Observer wrote:
... a gripping book on mounteneering that will appeal even to those who didn't know they were interesting in climbing.
An ok read.
I krig med eliten
af Thomas Rathsack
En bog om en jægersoldat i krig i Irak og Afghanistan.
Bogen går tæt på de aktuelle operationer, og som bekendt forsøgte forsvaret at få bogen forbudt med henvisning til rigets sikkerhed og hensynet til fremmede magter.
Men der er ingen "smoking gun" i denne bog. Hvis bogen afslører militære hemmeligheder, der kan skade rigets sikkerhed eller fremmede magter, må det være fordi, forsvarets anser "security by obscurity" for at være et holdbart princip.
Bogen er interessant, hvis man ikke kender til de mere operative sider af elitetroppernes virke, men som sådan er den ikke noget særligt.
En ok bog.
The Extraordinary True Story of Everest's most Controversial Season
by Nick Heil
The story of the 2006 season on Mount Everest where eleven people died.
The book concentrates on the stories of David Sharp, Lincoln Hall and Thomas Weber. Heil was not on Everest himself so it is based on interviews.
A tale from the 1996 season:
"Henry did what he said he would - he got me oxygen and a mask," Tina [Sjogren] recalled later. "But Beck Waters nose was still in it."
An ok read.
Conversations on the post-9/11 world
Noam Chomsky, interviews with David Barsamian
A series of interviews with Chomsky by David Barsamian on politics and democracy. As usual Chomsky has excellent points put his political view makes the book biased reading.
The book contains nothing that I have not read elsewhere in books by Chomsky. I would have thought that the interview method would work better than the Q&A style books that Chomsky already has published.
The New York Times Book Review writes of Chomsky:
Reading Chomsky today is sobering and instructive. ... He is a global phenomenon ... perhaps the most widely read voice on foreign policy on the planet.
A short and ok read, if you have not read e.g. Hegemony or Survival.
by Joe Simpson
Primarily Simpson's story of an attempt to climb the northface of the Eiger.
Waterfall ice climbing is a strangely addictive pastime. It arouses in me a host of conflicting emotions giving rise to questions ot which I have no answer. The most prominent of these is 'What are you doing, you idiot?'
Sunday Times wrote:
Eloquent, spine-chilling stuff.
I recommend reading Harrer's The White Spider before reading this one. Although Simpson retells some of the stories knowing them in advance goes nicely with Simpson's feeling of recognition when climbing the face that his heroes already had climbed and died upon.
Some literary references for instance Dylan Thomas Against the dying of the light when descibing the horrible death of Toni Kurz.
Recommended.
Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks
by Ed Viesturs with David Roberts
The story of a life of mountaneering and the 18 years it took Viesturs to climb all the 8K peeks in the world.
Reaching the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.
A compelling read.
Recommended.
America's quest for global dominance
by Noam Chomsky
Chomsky's analysis of America's pursuit for global supremacy. His main idea is that US foreign policy is still dominated by a Wilsonian idealism which must be considerd outdated.
The reach of US power was still limited in Wilson’s time, but as President William Howard Taft had presciently observed, ”the day is not far distant [when] the whole hemisphere will be ours morally.” Latin Americans may not understand, the Wilson administration dded, but that is because ”they are naughty children who are exercising all the privileges and rights of grown-ups” and require ”a stiff hand, an authoritative hand.” More gentle means should not be overlooked, however. It may be useful to ”pat them a little bit and make them think that you are fond of them,” Secretary of State John Foster Dulles advised President Eisenhower.
While his analysis of the Iraqi war does not reveal anything new (at least to a European) I found his analysis of e.g. the Nicaraguan and Cuban conflicts interesting.
As usual his personal views shows too much
What remains of democracy is largely the right to choose among commodities. Business leaders have long explained the need to impose on the population a “philosophy of futility” and “lack of purpose in life,” to “concentrate human attention on the more superficial things that comprise much of fashionable consumption. Deluged by such propaganda from infancy, people may then accept their meaningless and subordinate lives and forget ridiculous ideas about managing their own affairs. They may abandon their fate to corporate managers and the PR industry and, in the political realm, to the self-described “intelligent minorities” who serve and administer power.
but his analysis is clear and logical.
An ok read.
by Robert Nola & Howard Sankey
The book covers methodology as well as relating the various schools of the philosophy of science.
An excellent book about the philosophy of science for advanced students.
Recommended.
The Indispensable Chomsky
by Noam Chomsky
Three decades of US and world history according to Chomsky.
The book is a series of recordings of questions and answers by Chomsky given to audiences in the period 1989 to 1999.
New York Times calls Chomsky:
Arguably the most important intellectual alive.
Chomsky has a lot of intersting interpretations:
Well, the terminology we use is heavily ideologically laden, always: if it’s a term that has any significance whatsoever – like, not “and” or “or” – it typically has two meanings, a dictionary meaning and a meaning that’s used for ideological warfare. So, “terrorism” is only what other people do.
But must often his interpretations of politics is just way out there:
Actually, Bush [Sr.], technically speaking, is not really president - because he refused to take the Oath of Office. I don't know how many of you noticed this, but the wording of the Oath of Office is written in the Constitution, so you can't fool around with it - and Bush refused to read it. The oath of Office says something about , "I promise to do this, that, and the other thing," and Bush added the words"so help me God." Well, that's illegal: he's not President, if anybody cares.
It is important to note that the book is about power in politics, not about power as such.
An ok read.
by Ronald N. Giere
In this book Giere introduces a pragmatic philosophy of science rooted in methodological naturalism and a revised realism.
Giere's scientific perspectivism sees e.g. knowledge and observation as a perspective on reality. Science cannot be done without instruments or theoretical concepts which introduce a purpose.
Recommended.
by Ronald N. Giere
Giere has collected a series of previous papers on the philosophy of science.
He covers several central topics such as naturalism, realism, the hisotry and sociology of science.
Recommended.
by Andy Cave
The sequel to Cave's Learning to Breathe.
After breakfast we could put on our boots and mittens and try and dig out the entrance, find out what sort of day it was.
'This is obviously a spat of the infamous St Elias weather,' I said, a little glum.
'We do like a challenge, Andrew. It's good for us,' Mick said, sounding like some bonkers Victorian missionary.
'Mick, it's freezing and we're sat on an island of snow, three thousand and whatever feet above the glacier. I don't know what's good about that.'
'It's character-building.'
'I did all my character building in Patagonia in the wind. I don't need any more here.'
'Think of the retrospective pleasure,' Mick said, sipping his tea.
'I want to climb this thing, get it over with, and talking of pleasure ...'
'Talking about pleasure, let's get som porridge ready. I'm, ravenous.'
Financial Times wrote:
An intriguing mix of travelogue, mounteneering history, geography and an effectinate portrait of the climbing fraternity.
That nicely sums up what Thin White Line is. It also reveals that there is not much mounteneering in this book.
An ok read.
The Savage Mountain
by Charles S. Houston and Robert H. Bates
The story of the American 1953 expedition to K2.
It is a short and easy read that contrast nicely to more recent tales of mountain climbing.
Our sick comrade, who had called to us few minutes before, had disappeared. Even the two ice axes used to anchor him safely had been torn loose. The white, windswept ice against which he had been resting showed no sign that anyone had ever been there. It was as if the hand of God had swept him away.
Recommended.
by Simon Singh
A book about the history of math from Pythagoras as related to Fermat's conjecture which was solved by Andrew Wiles. There is hardly any math in to almost anybody can read but an interest in math is an advantage.
Easily read.
The Irish Times wrote:
This is probably the best popular account of a scientific topic I have ever read.
Well, that may be overstating it a bit but I certainly recommend it.
Mountain Without Mercy
by Broughton Coburn
A companion book to the IMAX Everest movie.
The book tells the story of the filming of the IMAX movie in 1996 where 8 climbers also died in the storm.
As a companion book to the movie the book's intention is to describe what cannot be in the movie e.g. the science like geology, the sherpas an so on. While al that is very interesting it is not what you would expect of a mountainering book. More than half the book is over before the actual mountainering begins.
That said the book's pictures are what makes the book worthwhile. Also the book tells part of the story of the 1996 tragedy that I have not seen elsewhere.
Jon Krakauer wrote:
Everest describes the making of what must surely be the most challenging films ever attempted.
Recommended.
An Anatomy of Depression
by Andrew Solomon
An attempt to write the ultimate book about depression. It covers the treatment, nature and history of depression along with several case stories.
In many ways the book tries to compine the two angels on depression that Kay Refield Jamison wrote about in Night Falls Fast and An Unquiet Mind.
Solomon who is a journalist is himself suffering from depresssion so the book more of a personal view of depression although attempting to be scholarly.
Unfortunately, the author looses credibility when he writes uncritically about things like his own dyslexia which his mother allegedly discovered when he was two or a case story where a 135 kg man allegedly pounded a 45 kg woman's head into the ground for hours. Or about his reaction to a therapist that thought he had been sexually abused by other kids which he has no recollection of or as he writes it that he could not create a memory of.
This makes me less likely to accept the author's assessments about depression. Accordingly, I would also prefer Kay Refield Jamison's two books to this one.
An ok read though.
Verdens idéhistorie
Antikken til 1600
Redaktion: Hans Siggaard Jensen, Ole Knudsen og Frederik Stjernfelt
Først bind af Tankens magt dækker en periode på mere end 2.000 år på 700 sider. Selvsagt kan den kun blive overfladisk, når værket søger at dække emnerne teknologi, naturvidenskab, politik og ret, æstetik og kunst, menneske, sprog og samfund, filosofi og religion.
Intentionen er at give en samlet fremstilling af den vestlige tænknings historie. Det kan godt virke sådan, hvis man ikke i forvejen er bekendt med emnet, men det kan kun blive overfladisk, hvis man allerede har et indgået kendskab.
Når det er sagt, er det bestemt interessant læsning.
Anbefalet.
af Søren Gudman
En dansk bjergbestigers beretning om hans forsøg på at sætte rekord for bestigning af de syv højeste bjerge på de syv kontinenter.
En stor del af bogen handler naturligt nok om bestigningen af Everest, som selvfølgelig er den store præstation.
Bogen er let læst, men der er så mange andre gode bøger om bjergbestigning, som denne ikke rigtig kan måle sig med.
En ok bog.
The Classic Account of the Ascent of the Eiger
by Heinrich Harrer
Harrer and three others were the first to climb the treacherous north face of the Eiger in 1938.
This is the account of the first successful ascent and the many failed and successful attempts that followed.
While the book is well written and almost scholarly it tends to get a bit teadious to read variations of basically the same story.
... But life had a strong hold on him; in spite of the gale, the volleys of stones, the fearsome cold, he survived the night, swinging backwards and forwards in his rope sling. It was so cold that the water thawed by the warmth of his body froze again immediately. icicles eight inches ling formed on the points of the crampons strapped to his boots. Toni lost the mitten from his left hand; his fingers, his hand, then his arm, froze into shapeless immovable lumps. But when dawn came, life was still awake in his agonissed body. His voice was strong and clear ...
The Sunday Times wrote:
The White Spider provides the classic statement of the weird and frequently misunderstood psychology of the modern rock-cllimber.
Recommeded.
by Bas C. van Fraassen
A book about the philosophy of science and empiricism in particular.
Originally five lectures in the Terry foundation lecture series which acount for the religious references.
Happily it's only philosophers who take ideas to their extreme, and happily no one listens to philosophers when they do.
Richard Rorty wrote:
An ambitious, absorbing, iconoclastic, metaphilosphical tratise.
A somewhat difficult book that should not be your first book on the philosophy of science.
Recommended.
by Nick Davies
An award-winning investigative journalist investigating journalism it self exposing falsehood and distortion of the truth.
A brilliant book that will forever change the way you read new papers.
Journalist used to question the reasons for war and expose abuse of power. Now, like toothless babies, they suckle on the sugary tet of misinformation and poop it into the diaper we call the six o'clock news. Kent Brockman, TV newsreader, The Simpsons
The basic premise of the book is that basicly journalists are forced to write too many stories and that they accordingly stop researching the articles they write.
A necessary and highly recommended read!
Ventures Among Men and Mountains
by Jon Krakauer
A collection of articles on mountain climbing previously published elsewere.
Most of the articles are well written and interesting e.g. Krakauer's account of his own failed attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger.
The personal angle works well.
A few of the articles are not quite as good depicting places and people that I felt no relation to.
An ok read.
Climbing Everest Thorugh The Killer Storm
by Matt Dickinson
The account of Dickinson and Allan Hinkes climbing Mount Everest in May 1996.
Although they were on Everest during the May 10 storm that killed 8 climbers their attempt was made later.
Dickinson writes about the May 10 disaster but only as a witness so the subtitle is a bit misleading. But contrary to Boukreev and DeWalt's The Climb and Krakauer's Into Thin Air this book mostly details the expeditions on the north face on May 10.
Mostly the book is about Dickinson's own attempt to climb Everest.
Recommended.
Tragic Ambitions on Everest
by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt
The Boukreev's account of the May 1996 disaster on Everest where 8 climbers died after getting cought in a storm.
Boukreev is made into a villain in Krakauer's Into Thin Air. In this book he naturally is the hero who saved three climbers and tried to recue another the day after climbing Everest without using oxygen.
No doubt Boukreev was (he died in an avalanche in 1997) an impressive high-altitude climber.
If you have read Into Thin Air you should also read this book for a more balanced view of Boukreev. But Into Thin Air is a better book.
The last part of the book is the author's refutation of the Krakauer version of the story. It is a bit tedious and can be skipped.
An ok read.
A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster
by Jon Krakauer
Krakauer was on one of the expeditions on Everest in May 1996 as a journalist and climber when a storm came leaving 23 climbers on the mountain trying to get down. In the end eight climbers died.
The book is quite good and well written.
It is only mared by Krakauer's insistance on blaming the guide Analtoli Boukreev for climbing down early and leaving paying climbers on the mountain. Regardless of what happened on the mountain (see Boukreev and DeWalt's book The Climb for the other side of the story) one could just as easily blame Krakauer for leaving the freezing and almost blind Beck Weathers on his own way down. Boukreev at least saved 3 climbers that were lost during the storm and climbed back up to 8,300 meters the next day to try and save Scott Fischer.
Recommended.
Joe Simpson
An account of Simpson climbing the 7,000 meter Siula Grande peak in the Peruvian Andes. And in particular an account of why you do not want to break your leg doing it.
It is not great literature but that does not matter. It is a great reading if you are into mountain climbing.
The Sunday Times wrote:
One of the absolute classics of mountaneering.
Recommended.
Understanding Suicide
by Kay Refield Jamison
A book about the psychopatplogy of suicide.
I would recommend Jamison's Unquiet Mind about her own bipolar depressions unless your really interested in the psychopatology.
Very literary.
An ok read.
Introducing the Philosophy of language
by Finn Collin and Finn Guldmann
Introduction to the philosophy of language.
An ok book.
by Alec Fisher
An introduction to informal logic. Contains some theory and lots of texts that are analysed.
An ok read.
An Introduction
by Will Kymnlicka
An introduction to political philosophy covering among other things utalitarianism, liberalism, libertarianism, and multiculturalism.
Timer Higher Education Supplement wrote:
a model of clarity
Recommended.
af Stephen Read og Crispin Wright
Kort introduktion til formel logik.
Wittgenstein:
Logic is hell!
Bogen er både god og dårlig. Hvis du ikke forstår logik, så er bogen for kort og upædagoisk. Hvis du forstår logik, er den god at finde ting i.
Jeg vil dog anbefale Logic af Paul Tomassi i stedet.
An Introduction to Moral Theory
by Torbjörn Tännsjö
A non-technical introduction to ethics covering utilitarianism, egoism, deontology,rights, vertue and feminist ethics.
... In fact, there seem to be no good argument in defence of any moral theory. We do not establish the plausibility of a moral theory by providing decisive arguments in its defense. The defense of a moral theory must be piecemeal. We find situations where the theory is in harmony with our considered moral intuitions, and we feel that it gives a good explanation of them, so we hold on to it, in a tentitive manner, until recalcitrant evidence comes up. ...
Recommended.
An Introduction to Ethics
by David McNaughton
An introduction to moral philosophy and non-cognitivsm and realism in particular.
The book is not easily accessable and it is somewhat annoying that the author openly favours realisme.
An ok read.
af Michael White
En dansk samling af artikler af White om den narrative metode og dens centrale begreber - altså teorien om, at [d]en historie, vi fortæller om os selv, former os; vi har en tendens til at blive den historie, vi fortæller. Der er en interessant indledning af Allan Holmgren.
Der er også en bog, Narrativ praksis, om den narrative metode i den terapeutiske praksis. Jeg synes nu også, at der er en del praksis i denne bog.
Hvis man ikke er særdeles interessseret i den narrative metode, kan man med fordel nøjes med at læse indledningen. Bogen er ikke let tilgængelig, men heller ikke utilgængelig.
by James Rachels
An excellent introduction to moral philosophy with a number of practical examples. Well written.
Recommended.
by Jean Baudrillard
A theory of contemporary culture, of the post modern.
Disneyland exists in order to hide that it is the “real” country, for all of “real” America that is Disneyland (a bit like prisons are there to hide that it is the social in its entirety, in its banal omnipresence, that is caceral).
At times brilliant and at times incomprehensible and out there.
An ok read.
Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism
by Geoffrey R. Stone
A study of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the First Amendment in wartime.
As Justice Robert Jackson observed more than half a century ago, "Is is easy, by giving away to the passion, intolerance and suspicions of wartime, to reduce our liberties to a shodow, often in answer to exaggerated claims of security." Indeed, the United States has a long and and unfortunate history of overreacting to the dangersof wartime. Again and again, Americans have allowed fear to get the better of them.
A quite brilliant and scholarly work.
Bob Woodward wrote:
A lively, masterful history.
I cannot help noting, though, that Stone calls Wittgenstein a German philosopher.
Recommended.
Volume 1: The Spell of Plato
by Karl Popper
The first part of a pasionate defence of the open society and an attack against the socially engineered totalitarian state which Popper feels originated with Plato's The Republic.
Even with the best intension of making heaven on earth it only succeeds in making it a hell – that hell which man alone prepares for his fellow-man.
Recommended.
Adventures of a Curious Character
by Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton
The personal anecdotes of a Nobel Laurate in physics.
Quintessential Feynman - funny, brilliant, bawdy ... enormously entertaining.
Well, it is mildly entertaining and it hardly contains any physics.
An ok read.
Sejre, drømme og frygtelige nederlag i 100 år
af Joakim Jakobsen
René Vietto (1949):
En cykel er et kunstværk, som du må tage op i soveværelset hver eneste aften. Enhver, der ikke gør det, er ikke en rigtig cykelrytter.
En gennemgang af Tour-historien gennem 100 år, der bl.a. udmærker sig ved, at Joakim Jakobsen har en befriende realistisk holdning til eksistensen af doping i cykelsporten.
Henri Pélissier, vinder i 1923:
Vi lider derude fra start til mål. Vil De se, hvordan vi holder det ud? Det er kokain, til vores øjne. Og det er kloroform til tandkødet. Og piller? Vil de sse piller? Voilà, her er piller.
L'Equipe (1959):
Doping er en del af rytternes arsenal, både hos de store mestre og hos ryttere i andet geled. De doper sig for at komme blandt de 20 bedste, de doper sig før tidskørsler, de doper sig, når de skal køre op ad et bjerg, de doper sig for at dæmpe nerverne, og de doper sig om aftenen for at falde til ro, så de kan få noget søvn.
... den 23. juli [1998] blev alle Festinas ni Tour-ryttere og yderligere tre ansatte varetægtsfængslet i Lyon. Efter en nat i arresten gik Zülle, Brochard, Meier og Dufaux til bekendelse og fortalte om den systematiske doping.
En fremragende og grundig bog.
Det havde dog været rart med et navne- og emneregister.
Anbefalet.
af Rune Engelbreth Larsen
En bog om tankerne bag Matrix-filmene.
Engelbreth analyserer den filosofiske, religiøse og litterære baggrund for Wachowski-brødrenes tre filmhits.
En ok bog, der dog langt fra kommer hele vejen rundt.
by Milan Kundera
A series of essays on Cervantes, Herman Broch, Kafka, Shakespeare, Musil and others as well as literary theory.
Man thinks, God laughs.
The most interesting is a dictionary of 63 key words used by Kundera in his novels.
Somewhat theoretical and demanding.
An ok read.
af Jørn Mader
En bog om Tour de France, Riis, Sørensen, Skibby og alle de andre, men også om doping og med et par overflødige kapitler om håndbold og badminton.
"Der er bare en oppustet avishistorie. En af de sædvanlige. Glem den. Det ville jeg gøre, hvis jeg var i jeres sted."
Sagde direktøren i Danmarks Cykle Union, Jesper Worre, til Jørgen Leth lørdag den 11. juli 1998, da de mødtes på Grafton Road i Dublin.
DCU's formand, Peder Pedersen, stod lyttende ved siden af, men havde ikke noget at tilføje.
...
... en af Festina-holdets soigneurs, Willy Voet, var blevet anholdt ved den fransk-tyske grænse ... med bl.a . EPO, blodfortynder, amfetamin og andre narkotiske stoffer, ...
Anbefalet.
The most important scientific discovery of all time and why you need to know about it
by Simon Singh
A splendid book about the physics and history of the Big Bang.
The book, however, does not reveal why you need to know about the Big Bang but as Steven Weinberg said:
The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.
The book is not particularly advanced when it comes to physics but it is quite interesting.
Highly recommended.
af Justus Hartnack
Et forsøg på at overbevise læseren om, at common sense (som beskrevet i Hartnacks bog Filosofi og common sense) ikke er i uoverenstemmelse med den moderne fysik (fx at lys er både bølger og partikler).
Bogen er notepræget, og den virker derfor sjusket, rodet og ufærdig.
Opgaven er måske også lidt svært, for som Einstein sagde, så er common sense the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen, men på den anden side talte Einstein næppe om Hartnacks filosofiske common sense.
Små aforismer
af Inge Houmann
En lille bog med aforismer.
Der er bøger, man ikke bliver klogere, men dummere af at læse.
Der er også bøger, man ikke får noget ud af at læse.
Bemærkninger om magtens teori og praksis
af Per Stig Møller
Per Stig Møllers analyse af magt i teori og praksis. 1. del handler om teorien, mens 2. del handler om mediernes magt med eksemplificeringer fra det praktiske politiske liv.
Man må ikke “trætte seerne med argumentationer, kendsgerninger, tal ... Man skal spille på det intime register af indtryk, følelser”, skriver den franske politiker og jura-professor Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg og konstaterer, at “populismen i dag for det offentlige liv er, hvad fascismen var for demokratiet i 1930 ... Det er stadigvæk følelsen, der vil erstatte fornuften. Demagogien, der vil erstatte menings-demokratiet”. Og demagogerne kommer til, belærte Aristoteles os, når demokratiet er på vej ud.
Især første dels analyser er rigtig gode.
Anbefalet.
- den personlige beretning
af Hans Davidsen-Nielsen, Matias Seidelin
Historien om de 747 dage den algiersk-fødte men danske statsborger, Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane, sad fængslet på den amerikanske flådebase på Cuba, efter han var blevet taget til fange under den amerikanske krig mod terror i Afghanistan.
Om religiøs vækkelse, Jihad og bagsiden af kampen mod terror.
En udmærket, letlæst og tankevækkende bog, der dog indeholder nogle irriterende men uvæsentlige småfejl.
Europæisk spiritualitet og dannelse
af Hans-Jørgen Høinæs
En personlig læsning af middelalderens digtning og filosofi med vægt på Pelagius som modsætning til Augustin, den keltiske kristendom og myten om Kong Arthurs runde bord.
En udmærket bog, som dog næppe kan stå alene.
...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation
by Michael Moore
Michael Moore ranting on the sorry state of the US - "President" Bush, electoral fraud, racisme and more.
San francisco Cronicle wrote:
Hysterically funny. The angier Moore gets, the funnier he gets. Sensational.
The United States is among only six countries that impose the death penalty on juveniels. The others are Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.
I find Moore's rant intensely depressing.
There is a bonus chapter online that is not in the book.
A nescessary and recommended read.
How Big Media uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity
by Lawrence Lessig
Lessig has written a briliant book about the problems of the current US copyright system and the control of our culture that follows from it.
This is the future of copyright law: not so much copyright law as copyright code. The controls over access to content will not be controls that are ratified by courts; the controls over access to content will be controls that are coded by programmers. And whereas the controls that are built into the law are always to be checked by a judge, the controls that are built into the technology have no similar built-in check.
Free Culture is released under a Creative Commons license, so you can get a free copy.
Highly recommended.
The Story of a Ten Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers
by David Edmonds and John Eidinow
A book about a ten minute argument between Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein on October 25, 1946 in which Wittgenstein did or did not threaten Popper with a red hot poker and about the differences in the philophies of Popper and Wittgenstein that led to the argument.
While the poker incident is not much of a story (Ray Monk uses less than a page in his definitive Wittgenstein biography) setting the philosophy of Popper against Wittgenstein’s and the history of fin-de-siècle Vienna is certainly interesting.
Recommended.
by Brian Greene
Excellent book on superstrings that is the theory of everthing that unites quantum mechanics with the generel theory of relativity.
Very well written. Clear and readable to non-physicists as well.
The Sunday Telegraph wrote:
Utterly absorbing ... A brilliant achievement.
Recommended.
by Marc Sautet
A comic book introduction to Nietzsche's life, his major ideas, and influences.
A quick basic introduction of ok quality.
Sautet obviously knows Nietzsche.
An ok read.
Soren Kierkegaard's Journals, Notebooks, Booklets, Sheets, Scraps, and Slips of Paper
by Niels Jorgen Cappelorn, Joakim Garff and Johnny Kondrup
The story of Kierkegaard's journals, notebooks, booklets, sheets, scraps, and slips of paper as well as his work habits and methods.
A alternative, interesting, and fascinating angle to Søren Kierkegaard.
Highly recommended.
by Roberta L. Harris
A book on the archaeology of the Bible from the story of the Jews under the Pharaos through the life and death of Jesus to Islam in the seventh century and Jerusalem under the Crusades..
Very interesting and informative. Richly illustrated.
Highly recommended.
A Reconstruction
by David E. Cooper
A description of the existential phenomenology, existential freedom and the prospects of an existential ethic while placing existentialism in the historical tradition of philosophy.
Cooper is a professor of philosophy at the University of Durham.
Highly recommended.
by Lawrence Krauss
How does the physics of Star Trek seem to a physicist at Case Western Reserve University?
Krauss looks at warp drive, replicators, and phasers and turns it into a discussion of physics.
Recommended.
by Philip J. Davis, Reuben Hersh
An excellent book on the history and philosophy of mathematics.
New Scientist wrote:
An instant classsic. It deserves to be read by everyone with an interest in the future of the human race.
Recommended.
by Thomas Nagel
A investigation of the philosophical problems of how to combine the perspective of a singular individual with an objective view of the world. A
book about morality, knowledge, freedom, the self, and the relation of the mind to the physical world.
Nagel is a professor of philosophy at The New York University.
Recommended.
by Jonathan Dancy
A comprehensive introduction to the main topics of the theory of knowledge and of justification.
Philosophical Investigations wrote:
To have covered so much ground in such a stimulating and challenging way is an achievement which will not be easily emulated ...
Dancy is lecturer in philosophy at the University of Keele.
Recommended.
by Alan F. Chalmers
An elementary introduction to the philosophy of science. Interesting and well written.
Everybody should know what is in this book.
Recommended.
by Bertrand Russell
Russell originally published A History of Western Philosophy in 1945. Being well written it was understandably a great financial success for Russell.
It is, however, by now outdated. The section on Epicurian philosophy is down right wrong. And I suspect that Russell writes with a hidden agenda being a mathmatical logician himself. A position that was demolished by Wittgenstein.
Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Husserl are not mentioned and Nietzsche is ridiculed.
So if you are serious about philosophy Russell's A History of Western Philosophy is a really bad choice. If you read philosophy for your own fun or personal enlightenment it is not nescessarily that bad a choice but you could do a lot better.
I have no idea what possed Ray Monk to write:
History of Western Philosophy remains unchallenged as the perferct introduction to its subject.
The Journals of Captain R.F.Scott
by Robert falcon Scott
The journals Captain Scott wrote as he tried to be the first man on the south pole. A story of heroism (or just plain bad planning), suffering, and starvation.
Intensely moving.
Highly recommended.
by Joseph Schwatz, Michael McGuinnes
An entertaining, easily accessable introduction to the life and thoughts of Albert Einstein.
Learn physics reading a comic book.
Recommended.
by Desmond Morris
... a book about actions, about how actions becomes gestures, and how gestures transmit messages. In short an excellent book on body language.
Niko Tinbergen, Nobel Prize winner and Emeritus Professor of animal behaviour at The University of Oxford wrote:
An extremely important book.
Recommended.
af Ole Andkjær Olsen, Simo Køppe
Fremragende bog om Freuds psykonalyse med såvel den historiske som den teoretiske vinkel.
Freuds psykonalyse er jo mildest talt blevet miskrediteret på det seneste, og det er svært at tage den alvorlig som psykologisk teori, men en bog som Freuds psykoanalyse har stadig sin plads på grund af den betydning som Freuds teorier har haft i literaturen.
Anbefales stærkt.
