Here’s a list of the books, ebooks and videos purchased through this blog on Amazon last month. I’m going to try to post updated versions of this list regularly as it seems to be something that would interest many of us. I’ll stick this post to the top of the page for a few days.
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Kindle Books
Mohammed & Charlemagne Revisited: The History of a Controversy
Sailing Alone Around the World
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
The Koran: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
Two Years Before the Mast (Unabridged Start Publishing LLC)
With All Despatch: Volume 8 (The Bolitho Novels)
Books
A Brief History of Disease, Science and Medicine
A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World
Assault and Flattery: The Truth About the Left and Their War on Women
Calculated Risks: How to Know When Numbers Deceive You
Conquest: The English Kingdom of France, 1417-1450
Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House
Home Economics: Vintage Advice and Practical Science for the 21st-Century Household
Learning the vi Editor (Nutshell Handbooks)
Spanish Verbs (Laminated Reference Guide; Quick Study Academic)
The Border Guide: A guide to living, working, and investing across the border. (Cross-Border Series)
Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition
VI Editor Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O’Reilly))
DVDs
The Big Lebowski – Limited Edition (Blu-ray + Digital Copy)
Amazon Instant Video
Drat. I ordered a MacBook Air today and forgot to use the link. I apologize and will try to do better.
This is good to post occasionally. It will give many of the readers (and myself) good ideas on what to add to their anti libraries. And I, like Mike, will try to be better in the future on using the link. I just bought bike tires :(.
Michael, no worries.
Dan, thanks for the feedback. I’ll try to post this list every month or so, or perhaps set up a new WordPress page with a running list of readers’ book purchases.
OK, tell us again how we should approach Amazon so as to send credit back to you?
Texan, thanks. Just click on any book link in this post or in the Amazon banner in the blog header to enter Amazon’s site. Once you have done that Amazon will give us a kickback on any purchases you make regardless of what you buy.
Next order will be though this site.
Let me recommend, with caveat, “Twilight of Affluence” by David Archibald.
http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Abundance-Century-Nasty-Brutish/dp/1621571580/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0
He points out that we’ve been ignoring the basic – food – for too long. He’s predicting a sharp cooling trend due to declining solar activity that will globally suppress grain production. Forget about raising wheat in Canada. Another big volcano will do the same in one season – “Civilization is seven meals from anarchy.”
He argues that many countries, both poor and affluent, will see mass starvation in the coming decades. Egypt for example imports 50% of its caloric intake. As Spengler has noted, no way it could pay for its food even now. Yemen is likely to be another early population collapse.
The caveat applies to his advocacy of thorium-fueled reactors. While these are possible and there is plenty of thorium on the planet, why thorium-reactors are the panacea rather than any of the many other nuclear power technologies is not a case well made at all. His arguments about switching coal production from electricity production to making gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel in coal-to-liquid (CTL) plants is well made and that we should build lots of new nuclear power plants is also convincing. It is just why they need to be thorium is not presented in ANY depth.
I had Unix in a Nutshell but found this to be a better and more comprehensive book – Inside Unix. Sadly, I’m no longer on a Unix machine. :-( I think I am forevermore trapped in a Windows universe. Oh, the humanity!
I’ve just finished Ward-Perkins’ The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. Good stuff: he marshals archaeological and historical data to show that the Dark Ages did not bring about a Greater German Co-Prosperity Sphere (my joke, not his). He writes well, too. Whether he thinks his theme particularly relevant to the present day I have no idea.