Reading time: 5 hour
Rating:
New knowledge 7/10
Need to pay attention 5/10
Emotional connection 3/10
Unquantifiable satisfaction 9/10
Overall 8/10
Mary Roach is hilarious no matter what subject she takes on - so far she has managed to bring her dry wit and casual humor to such subjects as the paranormal, the dead, and sex. In this latest research project of hers, Roach tackles the topic of space exploration. Though she provides more than enough history that even someone who didn't know the first thing about traveling to space and landing on the moon understands the historical context perfectly, she manages to tell these somewhat dry accounts through the most interesting tidbits and anecdotes she can find. She delves into the memoirs of many astronauts and schedules interviews with NASA officials so that she can tell us about all the little human details of space exploration.
As most her books, this one is divided by chapters that are little mini-research projects of their own, so there's no issue with putting down the book for days and coming back to it when you have the time. Although I guarantee that once you start reading you won't want to stop. Roach is brilliant at injecting humor into the driest of topics through her own personal observations and opinions - a human element that is far too often missing from non-fiction books.
Packing for Mars on Amazon
Reading time: 7 hours
Rating:
New knowledge 7/10
Need to pay attention 3/10
Emotional connection 5/10
Unquantifiable satisfaction7/10
Overall 8/10
A.J. Jacobs' first foray into writing a non-fiction novel follows his year-long quest to read The Encyclopaedia Britannica in its entirety. The book is structured by letters of the alphabet, with him pointing out the most interesting tidbits he comes across (from history of fashion to Renee Descartes' love for cross-eyed women). Alongside quoting the most fascinating of trivia, A.J. allows us into his personal life to show how his newfound knowledge is changing his relationship dynamics and his life philosophy. As we learn about gods of fertility in many cultures we also watch as A.J. and his wife struggle to conceive a child. As we read about learned scholars and their hapless relatives, we watch A.J. try his hand at Jeopardy and Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
This is a handy book to have for those who have short periods of free time during which to read. With no plot to speak of, you only need to concentrate on the entry at hand, which range from a paragraph to several pages. A.J. is an extremely likable narrator and we learn to love him and his idiosyncrasies early on. You will emerge from this book knowing a lot about a lot without feeling overwhelmed, because the entirety of the greatest encyclopaedia in the world has been filtered through a man who writes fluff pieces for Esquire.
The Know It All on Amazon
Reading time: 4 hours
Rating:
New knowledge 7/10
Need to pay attention 4/10
Emotional connection 3/10
Unquantifiable satisfaction 8/10
Overall 7/10
This non-fiction tale about a one-man quest to understand psychopathy reads like a journal. Jon Ronson - an anxiety-ridden journalist who gets the bug to find out as much as possible about the history of psychopathy as a mental disorder takes us around the world as he visits not only the man who came up with the original psychopath test to several psychopaths - from convicted criminals to powerful CEOs. He presents all his information in an amusing manner and annotates historical vignettes and psychological jargon with his own witty remarks.
I read this book in one sitting - it is a fascinating and an easy read that will have you knowing a little more about a strangely specialized subject. It's probable that you will start suspecting yourself and others around you of being a psychopath, but that will fade after a few days. If it doesn't face - here is a link to the psychopathy test that Ronson provides in the book. Just in case.
The Psychopath Test on Amazon
Reading time:7 hours
Rating:
New knowledge 6/10
Need to pay attention 7/10
Emotional connection 3/10
Unquantifiable satisfaction 5/10
Overall 6/10
This non-fiction tale of one of the original hackers of the 1990s reads like a novel. The story centers around Max Ray Butler (whose Wikipedia biography doesn't do him justice) who grows up playing with computers and quickly turns to a life of crime when he realizes that it will give him reason and resources to live his passion.
Despite being a true story and thus occasionally venturing over into the technical side of hacker culture, this book is an easy read and does not require any advanced knowledge of computers. Instead of being a commentary on the hacker culture, it focuses on one man whose life was turned upside down by the advent of Internet and the various security features that were introduced into e-commerce in the last 20 years. It is a nice, albeit brief, history lesson for those who don't know much about the evolution of cybersecurity. The book covers all bases, flawlessly transitioning between Max's emotional state to a how-to in credit card fraud. The story is well-researched and put together from interviews with the man himself (who is now in prison for credit card fraud), correspondence, and friends' testimonials.
