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Three amazing novellas. I am surprised that Hauptmanns most famous novella was only translated the other year to Swedish (seeind as how Hauptmann is a Nobel prize winning author).

Fun behind the scenes memoir of what its like to work as an editor cutting comedies. The only drawback is that I don't find Judd Apatow to be extremely funny, nor some other filmmakers mentioned in the book. The editor also defends the view that there are right and wrong ways to do comedy. The author also tries to lay down certain "rules" which I am always sceptical of.

So far pretty good. Scarlatti is an underrated composer from the baroque period. I am looking forward to reading the authors analysis of his famous sonatas for the keyboard.

A little too much description of the protagonists environment. So far I prefer Milosz other prose work.

"I didn't really know anyone like Roark or Dominique. Though Ayn Rand insisted that such people existed [...] my own experience of them was purely literary. Everyone I knew was beset by unheroic worries" So? I don't know any Ulysses, Raskolnikov nor Anna Karenina in my life, does that make them unrealistic? Literature is not supposed to mimic reality, its supposed to be sublime (tho Rands novels are pulp fiction).

Disappointed. Contains some well-written and interesting paragraphs but mostly without sufficient dramatic tension to retain my attention. The milieu is interesting (a prepschool in the 60's) but somehow the author doesn't quite manage to capture a perspective that is sufficiently unique.

Good, though not even close to the first book. This one is mostly about power politics and how power corrupts those who hold it.

The author claims that the current economy of North Korea is laissez-faire which seems preposterous. The author tries to be impartial but in doing so appears to be somewhat of an apologist for the authoritarian regime.

Some stories are better than others but all in all, I like this collection very much. It gives the reader a peak into a lived experience one would otherwise not be able to experience. This collection of stories centers around relationships between brothers and explores different forms of relating to ones siblings.

It's good though obviously not even close to the first novel. This one focuses more on politics than on spirituality.

Interesting but doesn't quite get as close to the man Scriabin as one would like. Scriabin is, unfortunately, a mostly forgotten Russian composer and pianist are the only ones who play him these days.

This was the only Scriabin biography I could find. It's a little old (written in the 50's) but still well written. The first 100 pages are a summary of the history of Russian classical music up until Scriabins birth which was a little bit of surprise... Very erudite.

Not so impressed so far.

It starts by describing the narrative fallacy, that is to simplify reality to fit a certain storyline yet falls into that same trap almost immediately. Stone describes Bezos early schooling as having a large effect on his life and work. But who knows? How many other entrepreneur genii did that school produce?

Interesting. Chris Knight lived as a hermit in Maine for 27 years and yet seemed like a normal person when the author of the book interviewed him. Why would an intelligent and capable (or as the values were labeled in Knights family "smart and tough") person choose to live secluded so many years?

First novel by Dickens I read. So far funny.

Love it! Dyson could be my favorite entrepreneur/inventor. "Experience tells you what you ought to do and what you'd best to avoid. It tells you how things should be done when we are much more interested in how things shouldn't be done [...] experience can be a hindrance. [...] Learning by failure is a remarkably good way of graining knowledge. Faiure should be welcomed rather than avoided. It is part of learning"

I dig it.

Too little interesting content so far.

Very funny. Scathing critique of modern capitalism.

"Russell placed an ad for potential riders in leading newspapers throughout the West. The ad itself became legenday: "Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred" You don't see ads like that every day! This books paints a vivid picture of the wild west and how Mark Twain was formed by it.

Funny.

Gets a little monotonous after a while.

Magnificent.

Disappointed. This book was recommended by the Professor of Ophthamology at Stanford (Andrew Huberman). So far it has been far from scientific and it contains mostly anecdotal data. The book suffers from survivors bias as Greene only writes about the ones who have become masters and thereby omits the ones who have failed in their quest.

Surprisingly enjoyable. Tolstoy often describes his protagonist as having two emotions at once and thus comes much closer to how we actually experience the world.