Benjamin > Recent Status Updates

Very valuable. I've adopted the mindset and some of the strategies -- I'm already getting much better work done.

This is exactly what I've been looking for! A brief summary of the early history of Japan up to the Meiji Restoration, and then getting really detailed and analytical about World War II and beyond.

Finally up to Japan -- which is my whole reason for reading this book. I still really don't understand why Japan entered World War II, but I know that they mostly focused on China.

This seems like a very worthwhile read. I am eager to get back to it.

I've been only half-listening, but not really getting how this book hangs together. So far it feels like a bunch of unrelated cognitive science and psychology studies.

It's time for me to stop and do some serious writing, which I don't want to do, apparently, so this one is going on the read-enough shelf for a while. Maybe. Or maybe I really need to do the writing...

I'm mostly listening to the audiobook, read by the author, and it's wildly annoying when he does a fake French accent when reading a quote from a French person...

I'm enjoying the "peace" part -- all the romantic dramas, and some of the character development -- but the war part bores me. Especially since all of the alliances and borders were all wiped away by 20% through the last century.

Too many zombies for me. Great writing and great story, but, too many zombies.

This feels much more modern than I was expecting. More like Infinite Jest than Henry James -- dropping into conversations partway through, a swarm of characters, not trying to explain everything that happens, tons of ellipsis...
The Pevear-Volshonsky translation is very readable.

Very useful as a mirror for the current times. Ferguson's understanding is driven by data. So far, it is not about this leader and that leader and this battle and that battle; it's analyzing the reasons for volatility and conflict as driven by economic and large-scale cultural situations. I'm currently reading about "miscegenation" and how it seemed to increase inter-ethnic tensions.

The story is interesting but the writing is inexpert. I get exhausted by Sanderson's capitalization of Allomantic verbs. For that matter, why is even Allomantic capitalized? It messes with the meter of every fight scene. Melissa said this is her favorite book, so I'm determined to get through the first one. Also, Robin Hobb endorsed it -- but these characters have nowhere near the depth that of Hobb's.