Binge Reading Factfulness

Posted on April 7, 2020April 26, 2020 by Simon

I just finished binge reading Factfulness by Hans Rosling. Even conceding that for me a lot of it is confirmation bias, I found it to be one of the best books I’ve read in years. It taught me no... Read More

The Widow’s Strike

Posted on April 4, 2020April 26, 2020 by Simon

Since many of you are sheltering at home and are already giving up on reading Thackeray or Adam Smith I’d like to recommend The Widow’s Strike by Brad Taylor. It is a thriller that has a m... Read More

Gourmet Plastic

Posted on March 3, 2020February 29, 2020 by Simon

Processed food is one of the inventions mentioned in the book Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy by Tim Harford. He focuses on the Swanson TV dinner but points out that among the first pr... Read More

A Tale of Two Toilets

Posted on January 17, 2020January 17, 2020 by Simon

Our condo came with an electric toilet. See the top photo. It was a beautiful idea but it was unreliable and unrepairable. We spent a year talking to plumbers about fixing it or replacing it. Many cam... Read More

W.E.B. Du Bois

Posted on October 3, 2019September 28, 2019 by Simon

Nostalgic reprint from October 2009 I just finished reading “The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. Du Bois. It was written in 1904 and was remarkably prescient. Du Bois was the first the first ... Read More

Book Read: The Opium War

Posted on September 25, 2019September 4, 2019 by Simon

The Opium War By Julia Lovell The first half of this book is an excellent telling of the details of the Opium War that the British Empire and China fought in the mid 19th Century. It is pretty balance... Read More

Book Read: The Big Rock Candy Mountain

Posted on September 18, 2019September 4, 2019 by Simon

The Big Rock Candy Mountain By Wallace Stegner Stegner’s prose are beautiful. He paints word pictures that are so vivid they make you feel like you are living in the time and place he describes.... Read More

Book Read: Enlightenment Now

Posted on September 11, 2019September 4, 2019 by Simon

Enlightenment Now By Steven Pinker This is one of my favorite books from this summers reading. Pinker sees the flow of history and writes about what has worked and what hasn’t. He ends up about ... Read More

Book Read: Between Two Scorpions

Posted on August 26, 2019July 28, 2019 by Simon

Between Two Scorpions by Jim Geraghty I know Jim Geraghty as a columnist for National Review. It turns out that he is also a very good adventure/spy/action writer. It is a quick read with memorable ch... Read More

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Simon Burrow

Quirky thoughts from an old man.

Category: Recommendations