Fast Food Nation

About book
Author:Eric Schlosser
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (2002/4/4)
Version: Paperback
Completed: 2006
My Rating: 3.5/5

Comment

I bought this book to give me a good reason to avoid the big M.

The verdict: I still hit MacDonald's once in a while. Why: Simple, bang-for-buck. You get better perceived value for your money when you order a set meal there. But the thing is that the marketing people behind the scene really know how to play the cards by getting the children hook on the gifts so that the helpless parent has not much of a choice but to give-in. The truth is, the burgers and the fries ain't half as bad.

To be absolutely fair to MacDonald's, a similar book like this should also be written about the food-chain so that there can be an apple-to-apple comparison. In any case, the things that go into that BigMac sure ain't just beef. That's for sure. At best, there must be parts-of-someone's fingernails, at worst, well, feces or so it seems. Then there are the so called abuse of power all the way from the farm to the person behind the counter. I am not so sure about the working conditions for other countries like Japan though. I guess they must fare better than the part timers in US.
So does eating at MacDonald's make me an accomplice to evils of the open market and industrialization. Perhaps so, but I feel that I am so remotely removed from the actual problems that I don't feel a tinge of guilt every time I eat at MacDonald's. Hey, information maybe power, but sometimes, the stomach and the wallet sure makes more ruckus. Maybe it's high time to hit the revolving-sushi bar or the curry-rice place more often. After I finish my extra-large fries and coke...

State of Fear

About book
Author: Michael Crichton
Publisher: Avon (Oct. 25, 2005)
Version: Paperback
Completed: 2006
My Rating: 3.0/5

Comment

OK, the starting was a real reader magnet. However having finished the book, the first question that came to mind was, I don't see the connection the introduction has with the rest of the book. This is not a thin book but the pages turn real fast when you can't seem to put it down. Although Crichton has put in a lot of research work into this one, story wise, I find it a little unsatisfying. Character development is there, it's just that Crichton put in too much of his own opinion about global warming into this one. The arguments just come across as pretty unconvincing. And, the bad guys seemed really comical like those characters from the animated cartoon series, Wacky Races from Hanna-Barbera.

Prey

About book
Author: Michael Crichton
Publisher: Avon (Nov. 11, 2003)
Version: Paperback
Completed: 2006
My Rating: 3.75/5

Comment

I rediscovered Michael Crichton books after reading this one. Here is a great writer with a MD degree to boot. His previous books, Rising Sun and Disclosure were what got me hooked to this author's novels in the beginning. This book kind of renewed my interest. And it is definitely a good effort from Crichton. Everything in the book was quite believable until the part about swarm taking the form of sinister humans. That was too way over the top for me. Apart from that, the action comes thick and fast. A real page turner.

Life of Pi

About book
Author:Yann Martel
Publisher: Harvest Books (May 3, 2004)
Version: Paperback
Completed: 2006
My Rating: 4.0/5

Comment

After a long abstinence, and due to the overwhelming positive reviews from readers at Amazon.com, I decided to get myself this book. It's a refreshing read indeed. A good 3/4 of the book mentions about this circumstances and life of the shipwrecked duo. I didn't know you can write so much about 2 characters and one of them don't even say anything at all. I like the epilogue which gives a more believable version of the story. All in all, a great story from a great story teller.

Freakanomics

About book
Author: Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Publisher: Penguin (xxx. xx, xxxx)
Version: Paperback
Completed: 2006
My Rating: 3.25/5

Comment

I can't really say that I didn't see this one coming. The authors gives very legitimate argument for their cases. I think I am open minded enough to agree with most of the authors' research results. Parts about abortion laws and crime being linked to each other is really interesting and original research. Why did the authors' go to such painful length to convince their readers and at some points I feel that they are trying to convince themselves that their results make good argument. If I have the time, I will dig up some of the original papers and read them myself. For now, I think that the book can be written a little more concisely without too much bidding-around-the-bush. For a bestseller book on economics, the authors sure ain't too economical on their words.

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

About book
Author: Roger Lowenstein
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (October 9, 2001)
Version: Paperback
Completed: 2004
My Rating: 2.0/5

Comment

I was curious about how academicians at the ivory tower make it big in the finance world when I first learned about this book. The pace seems to slow down after the first chapter where the characters in the story were introduced. There are bits and pieces of nice-to-know information about Harvard and MIT economics PhDs. In fact I was trudging all the way to the finish. With the conclusion known up front, and the abundant so-you-think-you're-smart clichés, the story unfolds rather anemicly. The conclusion can be pretty much summed up by looking the front page flap which shows a graph of the value of Long-Term Capital Management. Maybe a financial buff may enjoy it.

Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader

About book
Author: Frank Partnoy
Publisher: Penguin (Feb. 1, 1999)
Version: Paperback
Completed: 2004
My Rating: 3.5/5

Comment

All in all, a pretty nice read. An insider story always makes a best seller. And it does because it captures the reader's attention with that what will happen next tale. If I learned anything from this book, it is that, almost anyone with some money sense can be in the financial business. All you have to be is greedy and you'll get rich real fast.

Aloha!

I have always wanted to write a book. I've been writing technical reports, conference proceedings, and journal papers, but not a book. I started this blog to comment about the books that I have read in the past, in the hope that it will motivate me to write my own book, eventually. I've got a backlog of past reviews which I will put up shortly.

A lot of the books in my little collection were bought when I was in KL, Singapore and now in Japan. Borders was my favorite joint in Singapore, as was Kinokuniya in KL. Bookstores in Japan (especially in a small city like Nara where I'm staying) is not so well known to carry foreign titles, so my main source of English materials I got from Amazon.co.jp.

I remember very well what got me into this reading habit. It was the famous Famous Five series from Enid Blyton. I used to frequent the school library back in my primary school years. Maybe a little old-fashioned by today's standard, the Famous Five books made very exciting reading to an impressionable 10 year old. The very first books that I actually bought were the Fighting Fantasy series from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. They were really captivating with fantasy themes not dissimilar to the popular Lords of the Ring. Plus, the books are actually role-playing games that tell a story. Very neat, indeed.

Of late, I have been reading a lot of non-fiction books. Truth can be stranger than fiction, they say. So, without further a due. Let's start the ball rolling.