The Space Merchants is a very good short novel (158 pages) presenting an early 1950s view of what the world would look like in the near future if it became dominated by advertising agencies. The book is written from the perspective of the marketing executive who is in charge of promoting the soon to be [...]
I saw this book on the featured shelf at the local library and it looked interesting. I only read this book quickly, so here is a nano-review: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Renewable Energy for Your Home is a very basic intro to the different categories of home energy production and conservation for people who [...]
I just read Reading the Landscape of America by May Theilgaard Watts. It is an excellent popular introduction to understanding what you see as you walk and drive around the USA. Reading the Landscape of America contains good descriptions of succession and development in various communities, extending back to the last ice age. This helps [...]
I now own a copy of The Complete Works of Francis A Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview. Schaeffer is the only author who has multiple entries in my short list of Books Everyone Should Read.
Since today is Darwin Day, I’d like to take the opportunity to recommend Darwin’s Forgotten Defenders by David N. Livingstone. This short book is a good history of the early scientific debate over natural selection. Unlike the incessant popular portrayal of a war between religion and science, Livingstone shows that the debate was actually over [...]
The Engineer-in-Training Reference Manual is the most almost useful reference on almost everything I have ever seen. I’ve had a copy since I was a sophomore engineering student, and still reffer to it fairly frequently. The professor for my Principles of Engineering class went on about how wonderful this book is and what a great [...]
I finally got around to reading Thomas L. Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Friedman is one of the few columnists that I read on a regular basis and the book is on an interesting subject, so I was expecting to enjoy reading it. I didn’t. While I don’t agree with all his ideas, the main [...]
I read this several months ago, but didn’t finish the review until now. This is a hard review to write because Freeman has so many good quotes. I saved 3400 words of quotes from this book. Winning Our Energy Independence: An Energy Insider Shows How by S. David Freeman is an excellent book by an [...]
This is a brief review of Cool It by Bjørn Lomborg. In chapter one, Lomborg lists four points: “Global warming is real and man-made.” Very few people argue this point anymore. “Statements about the strong, ominous, and immediate consequences of global warming are often wildly exaggerated …” This is very dependent on one’s source of [...]