VoidPhil

Knut Hamsun's Hunger is an excellent example of the naturalism movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hamsun has a distinctive style that focuses on the body of his protagonist and his nervous and erratic behavior stemming from his near-constant starvation. Reading a book by Hamsun is almost as rewarding as reading about his life. Hamsun had a very interesting life for a turn of the century Norwegian.

William Gibson's Neuromancer is a landmark work of science fiction, one of the formative works of cyberpunk literature. Neuromancer foreshadows many of the current societal and economic issues surrounding capitalism and technology, and presents a compelling and disturbing vision of the future. As a big fan of science fiction, I wish I had read this book (and other Gibson works) far earlier. The most easily noticeable thing about Gibson's work is his writing style.

In this book Susan Hockfield, neuroscientist and President emerita of MIT, examines recent advances and future prospects for the fields of molecular biology and bioengineering. While the content of the book was fascinating, I was a little disappointed in the author's lack of imagination or discussion of potential future applications. The book reads like an extended Scientific American article which, while certainly interesting, is more of a report of current scientific efforts than anything else.

Sue Prideaux's biography of Nietzsche presents a fascinating and well-researched picture of the great philosopher. Prideaux strikes the right balance of focus on both Nietzsche's life and work, and does an excellent job of humanizing Nietzsche. Nietzsche is a philosopher for whom biography is particularly important (ironically he claimed that all philosophy was biography) and this is an excellent resource for learning about his life and philosophy. Prideaux's book provides a sketch of Nietzsche's life, and does a very good job of not focusing overly much on any particular portion of his life.

Iain Ballantyne's book on the history of submarines is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the topic. The book is dense, weighing in at over 600 pages, but it is a relatively easy read given its interesting subject matter and good writing. Ballantyne does a good job of making the subject interesting and funny, injecting humorous and fascinating anecdotes here and there. I thought the book did a great job of telling the history of submarines particularly in the WWI — WWII era, but it seemed to skim over the history a little more post-WWII.

Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal's book on the dysfunctional American healthcare industry is well-researched and informative. Dr. Rosenthal brings the training of both a Harvard Medical School-trained physician and a New York Times reporter to bear on the issues endemic in the American medical sector, finding serious cause for alarm. Despite her sound diagnosis, her proposed solutions were somewhat anemic and seemed inadequate to cure the current ailment. Reading An American Sickness is sometimes hard to stomach.

Sputnik Sweetheart is a novel by Haruki Murakami. It's my second Murakami novel after A Wild Sheep Chase. Sputnik Sweetheart is par for the Murakami course, striking a balance between generic semi-romantic novel and magical realist adventure. It was shorter and easier to ingest than several of Murakami's novels, especially his more recent ones, but it lacked some of the wonder that A Wild Sheep Chase engendered and that was special about Murakami.

Arthur Koestler's The Lotus and the Robot is an exploration of the religious and cultural identities of India and Japan based on two years of travels he conducted there during the late 1950s. Koestler's look at the two civilizations is very interesting with respect to both his time period and in comparison with modern views. Koestler occupies an interesting location on the artistic continuum between journalism and academia. His works are journalistic in the report style he adopts, yet many of his descriptions are based on historical, psychological, philosophical and theological insights.

Factotum is a semi-autobiographical novel by Charles Bukowski. It recounts several years of Bukowski's life prior to finding success as a writer. This is my first Bukowski novel, and I (like many other readers) have mixed feelings about Bukowski's writing. While I appreciate his honest rendition of “life as a bum”, I disliked his treatment of some subjects, particularly women. The novel begins in New Orleans, where the protagonist and Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, has moved in search of something different from his hometown of Los Angeles.

In this book, American legal scholar Lawrence Lessig discusses contemporary intellectual property law and the effect of the Internet on it. Lessig argues that the current American climate surrounding intellectual property is misguided and needs correction. Lessig uses a number of entertaining and persuasive anecdotes to argue his position, and I think makes a very compelling case for radically rethinking our intellectual property framework. Lessig paints a broad picture of the state of intellectual property law in the United States, including the history of our legal system starting with British legal traditions.