An Essay On The Principle Of Population

Book Name : An Essay On The Principle Of Population
Author : Malthus T.R.

What is it about : The first version of this classic work on the many aspects, theories and practical "checks" on the topic of human population was published in 1798. The all-round philosopher, economist and politician presented his views on labor, social welfare, agriculture, industrial ventures and his rebuttal to the many on-going economics-thoughts and philosophies that were in vogue at the time; these fashionable ideas included  the "perfectability" of the human species, conjectures concerning the progress of the human mind. The ideas, theories, arguments and government Bills, put forward by the likes of Pitt, Adam Smith, Godwin, Condorcet were torn apart mercilessly. The Author established himself as a giant in this field as hereafter, Malthusian concerns had been often debated whenever plague, famine and endemics ran wild on our fragile Earth.

Some thoughts after having read the book : Truly an all-time Classic with the capital letter C. This version of the book was presented in a style of English that was prevalent almost 300 hundred years ago, so it was tough going for the readers to grasp the sheer English-ness of the essays. The essays were peppered with examples and illustrations taken from far afield of China, the United States of America as well as cases coming from closer to home, of the introduction of the Poor Bill, the Adam Smith's scenario of industrial revenue against the trends of labor movements. Interestingly, when viewed from our standpoint of the modern world of Genome, space exploration, gene therapy, organ transplant, Malthus might have been too short-sighted (or perhaps not enough qualified in the field of general Science) when he argued against such ideas as "organ perfectability", "indefinite prolongation of human life". What would he think now ? Of a particular note - I thoroughly appreciated the style of how Malthus constructed his attack and defense in his lines of arguments.

Would I recommend this book to you : Be prepared for a tough ride as the readers would find the English impossibly painful, the arguments almost irrelevant to our modern age of iphone, speed dating and mass consumerism. But also be prepared for the reward of having struggled through this "Malthusian" monumental works and having the satisfaction of knowing a totally different world and society that existed 300 years ago; and also the fact that the Malthusian concerns, arguments and debates would still strike a chord this very day, when the human societies could still not find adequate solutions to food crisis, the spread of virus and social (un)fairness.

The Accidental Mind

Book Name : The Accidental Mind
Author : David J. Linden

What is it about : Brains, brains, brains ! All you had ever wanted to know about what actually went on upstairs. The book would present the on-going quest to understand how come human childhood took so long, how come our dreams almost always depicted fear and anxiety and how our brains made up stories in its automatic ways. The book started off with hard balls biology on the neurons and whats-not which were constantly being fired around in our grey matter; the book would then move on to depict our brains as scoops of ice cream layers with the bottom-most, sharing common grounds with the likes of frogs and dolphins; the final chapters contained explanations of how the brains affected our behavior in sleeping, dreaming, sexual orientation, religion, memory and learning.

Some thoughts after having read the book : The parts of the book explaining the nuts and bolts of neurons and stuff were way beyond my league but I did gain a certain level of comprehension of the goings-on by reading between the lines of what the Author was trying to put across. The Author did brilliantly in covering topics related to human behavior as a result of our brain's functions and these coverage were all enlightening and interesting; I was particular fascinated in how the brains constantly "made" things up, so as to help us to make sense of this world. The Author stressed that the "Middle Thing" was still missing - on a molecular level, things had been cleared up a bit with the technology making progress on DNA, Genome and so on; on a behavioral level, psychiatrists and scientists made great progress in analyzing our dreams, memory and general intelligence; BUT the "Middle Thing" linking these two levels were still very much unknown before a more complete picture could be made out, on the detailed functioning of our brains.

Would I recommend this book to you : The biology parts were pretty hard going but overall the book was well presented and many interesting topics were succinctly covered. I enjoyed the read and was fascinated by the insights and I would recommend the book to readers of all levels.

Cat O' Nine Tales

Book Name : Cat O' Nine Tales
Author : Jeffery Archer

What is it about : A collection of short stories, most of which are embellishment of the tales he came across from other prisoners during the author's own time spent at HM Prison.
Some thoughts after having read the book : I first read JA's works in 1990 (First Among Equals) and was gratified by this author's excellent command of "straightforward" English as well as the interweaving plots and clever use of inter-dependencies. I have since read many more (to be covered later in this Blog) of his works and I have always found them fun and enjoyable. This book however, perhaps due to the author's own sentiments (he was in prison), I felt a certain darkness and subdued-ness (as if the author was not in a very good mood when telling us these stories) which were quite unlike the previous ones I read. I still derived much enjoyment out of this book though.
Would I recommend this book to you : Yes. Bring the book on a plane, to the beach or over a glass of chilled white wine alone on a long evening by the fire. With this author, you know you are going to be reading some slick, excellent and straightforward English. I would recommend this author's book to any learner of this language, just to read some good English. Of course, REAL people just don't talk as clearly as the characters in his stories.