The good: I've recovered, except for a bit of a cough. Over the weekend, we also had a great time hanging out with friends, went to a place called "Chili Pizza" that opened up around here a week ago.
The bad: I haven't worked out in a long time, so for that reason or some other, I feel physically and mentally awful.
Anyway, I wanted to write about books.
Vladimir Yakovlevich Tsvetov - The Fifteenth Stone of the Ryoanji Garden
A Soviet journalist writes about his perception of the Japanese attitude toward labor and the functioning of Japanese corporations. The constant ideological component that affects the whole narrative is incredibly annoying and gets in the way. Naturally, it is far from positive. The Japanese already work and live in a workaholic hell, mostly devoid of a personal life, if you look at it from our perspective, and the Soviet author hyperbolizes this even further to show the horrors of "communal capitalism," as he calls it. Overall, the book turned out rather gloomy, though interesting. It seems that recently the situation in Japan has been slowly changing: the system of lifetime employment is showing cracks and proving its incomplete viability.
Steven D. Levitt Stephen J. Dubner - two books, "Freakonomics" and "SuperFreakonomics"
Curious and very famous books by "new" and "outside-the-box thinking" economists, or rather an economist and a journalist. It's a light and fun read; the authors constantly emphasize their rationalism and rejection of the emotional approach to socio-economic problems. They bring up a bunch of interesting cases and statistics about seatbelts, the income of prostitutes, simple solutions to the global warming problem, teacher cheating in American schools, sumo wrestlers on Japanese tatamis, the dangers of private pools, fact distortion by experts, and the benefits of abortion. I recommend it to everyone; it's interesting and informative.
Douglas R. Hofstadter Daniel C. Dennett - The Mind's I
An overview book on the problems of consciousness and the mind, written as a compilation of different viewpoints ripped out of various books. The book features stories, essays, and reflections on what consciousness is, where it is contained, and how it functions. It's very hard to read in places, but usually quite interesting. It's all written from both scientific and philosophical standpoints at the same time, but naturally, without mysticism and "spirituality" (otherwise I wouldn't have read it).
I recommend it to those who aren't intimidated by more complex books and are fascinated by questions of consciousness.
Albert Hofmann - LSD - My Problem Child
A very famous book, the autobiography of the creator of the hallucinogen LSD. Albert Hofmann was a well-known medicinal chemist who invented many useful drugs; he got LSD by accident while working on them. Later he also researched other hallucinogens. It's a book without mysticism, by a practical and outstanding person, written with German thoroughness. But it's quite easy and interesting to read. For the general public, the book will dispel many misconceptions about hallucinogens and LSD, and it's generally interesting because the history of the discovery and the substance itself are unique in many respects. Overall, the book isn't about whether such substances are good or bad, but just about the chemistry and history of hallucinogens. It could just as easily have been about the chemistry and history of TNT — the same social aspect and broad impact on the world.
Lynn Zimmer John P. Morgan - Marijuana: Myths and Facts
Propaganda from the pro-legalization crowd. For the most part, it's just paragraph after paragraph about how marijuana is virtually harmless in every way, with links to studies and reports from dozens of government commissions that have reached these conclusions over the past century. It's a bit boring to read, with little practical use, except maybe to elegantly slip the book to those whose brains have been washed in the opposite direction.
The main question is whether the "war on drugs" causes more harm to society than the actual use of these drugs. Society as a whole is conservative and still believes this isn't the case. Right now we are seeing a slow evolution of views toward the decriminalization of soft drugs, and it's quite possible that it will happen in the next 10-20 years, at least in the liberal US states and a few European countries. Then again, whether things will get better or not, we'll see in reality when the time comes. By then, my generation will already be slowly turning into conservatives and boring old geezers, and it will be very strange to watch how something that is taboo for us will become a way of leisure for the youth.
Lynn Visson - Russian Problems in English Speech
A very informative book about mentality as it manifests in linguistics. Why we and the Americans think and speak so differently, common mistakes and misunderstandings. I probably knew maybe 50, well, 70 percent of this, tops, but nowhere near in such a clear and structured form. An excellent book for anyone who wants to improve their English, or is simply interested in culture or linguistics on an amateur level.
And if you're moving to a foreign country to live and work, it's absolutely mandatory reading.