Mike Robbins's Blog, page 2

On the Rim of the Sea: Freebie

I've made my latest book a free download. I'll leave it there for a week or 10 days.

Authors usually do this in the hope people will write reviews, and I will be very grateful if anyone does, but mainly I just hope people enjoy the book - especially if they are bookworms or history buffs. I shan't know who downloads it, as the software doesn't tell me.

"How will the world see the 20th century a hundred years from now? For many, it was like living right on the edge of a turbulent ocean that threatened to engulf them; and sometimes it did. In this thoughtful book, Mike Robbins looks at the century just gone through those who lived it, and the books they left behind."

https://claims.prolificworks.com/free...

On the Rim of the Sea

So I've written a new book. The first in five years.

On the Rim of the Sea: A Journey in Books is a collection of my best pieces from the last ten years. I am a history buff, so it is in effect a journey through the 20th century in books.

Not the obvious classics, though; I have included books that reflect the lived experience of the century. What was it like to crew a windjammer in the 1910s? How did the First World War look to enlisted men? How did the rise of Fascism seem to a Jewish writer? How did Germans fare under the British occupation? And how has it all looked to a cyclist?

I shan't be writing anyone to solicit a review, as that can be seen (rightly, perhaps) as spam. I interact on Goodreads as a reader more than a writer, anyway. Besides, what I really want is for people to enjoy it. But if they review it too, that'll be a bonus.

Pandemic!

So Slavoj Žižek has a book out on the Coronavirus pandemic. (Pandemic!: Covid-19 Shakes the World). To some, this will be an example of a philosopher engaging with his world as it changes. To others, it'll be crass opportunism (of the few media outlets who've reviewed it so far, Buzzfeed and The Guardian were pretty negative).

I'm with the defense. To me, this book is a flawed, disorganized but serious attempt to predict where the pandemic is taking us, and how we should react.

A review.

https://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/2...

Free download: The Nine Horizons

Of all the cities in the world, I had to choose New York City in which to ride out this pandemic. I cannot say I am not worried, but this city will survive, as it has before; and I feel oddly privileged to be here.

Whatever happens, I have had an extraordinary life. My work has taken me to the Amazonian rainforest, the steppes of Central Asia, the ancient souk (now partly destroyed) of Aleppo and the plains of Sudan. I've watched the sun rise on the snows of Kanchenjunga, and seen great herds of yak in the high Himalayas. In 2014 I wrote some of it down in The Nine Horizons: Travels in Sundry Places.

Like all writers, I would like it to be read. So I have made it a free download, and will keep it that way for some days. There is a choice of formats (link below).

I will get through this, as will most of us, but if by mischance I don't, it would be nice to think that some of you have read this, and travelled with me.

https://claims.prolificworks.com/free...

Climate change: The novel(s)

Fiction writers are engaging with climate change and the way it's changing our view of the world. I've just read two excellent examples, Kevin Brennan's Eternity Began Tomorrow and Alison Layland's mystery Riverflow - the latter suddenly more relevant than ever after the Severn floods. Here are my reviews. Please do support these two interesting writers. http://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/20...

Doctor in Jail

Lifting the lid on life in jail: Two remarkable books by Amanda Brown and Karen Gedney

The Lost Baggage of Silvia Guzmán

I've descided to make The Lost Baggage of Silvia Guzmán a free download for a week or so. There's a choice of e-formats.

https://claims.prolificworks.com/free...

I do not get to see who downloads it, but if you do so, and enjoy the book, please consider posting a review to Goodreads or Amazon.

The endgame in the Age of Stupid

Could our society collapse? Yes, and it might be doing so right now. Reading these three books together has made me see all too clearly how.
https://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/2...

Collapse of Complex Societies
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters
The Fifth Risk

A neglected anniversary

A century ago today, a lumbering WW1 bomber crash-landed in an Irish bog. The pilots climbed out, dazed but unharmed. Onlookers quickly arrived from the nearby town of Clifden. "Where have you come from?" someone asked them. "America," they replied. A likely story, said someone; but they had.

This is one of the great stories of human endeavour to come out of the 20th century, and perhaps the only really good thing to happen in that awful year of 1919. Yet the anniversary has been almost completely neglected. Join me in applauding the achievement of John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown.

http://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/20...

Why Nations Fail

I've read this twice, and have thought about the arguments in it very hard.

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty



I have put my thoughts here. Comments and arguments welcome. https://mikerobbinsnyc.blogspot.com/2...