Christopher > Recent Status Updates

Excellent.

Very nice collection of essays that examines the histories of India and China back to back. China being my greatest interest, I don't feel that this taught me much about it, but my knowledge of India is thankfully expanding rapidly. The juxtaposed presentation is especially intriguing, to see how incredibly different these two civilizations are, and it helps me reflect on China in a different light, which is nice.

A series of reviews taken from a handful of well regarded publications excoriating the anti-hagiography that is Chang and Halliday's Mao: The Untold Story. Some are more compelling than others, but they are each fun reads, especially when the first reviewer debunks Chang and Halliday using their own words from more level books. I'm glad this book exists and wish the genre would catch on, could be good for society.

I am only a few chapters in and I'm amazed that this piece of slop was published. I'm looking forward to finishing it only because I want to write a scathing review, unless somehow the quality improves. It feels like it was written by a child. The historical myopia is truly astonishing and the elementary observations which he treats as incredible are only incredibly shallow. How does anybody like this nonsense?

Greatly enjoying this book, the best written (translated?) Japanese historical fiction I've yet encountered.

How does one even report on the radioactive cesspool that is Fleet Street without becoming toxic oneself?

I didn't expect to enjoy this book. So far, the only South American author I really care for is Borges. I'm not crazy for Azuela anywhere near the fondness I feel for Borges, but I am happy to be reading this book, which is more than I can say for Herrera or Pedro Paramo or even the first half of The Alchemist, which I just couldn't finish.

more like a reference work, not much of a narrative.

Incredible book, dense with information, all of such a fascinating nature, detailing one of the most important historical subjects, yet about which few people seem to know anything whatsoever.

Knowing almost nothing about the history of Mexico after the conquistadores (save for the Alamo), especially this period, with the exception of the name Pancho Villa, the historical context is quite lost on me. I'm definitely not able to appreciate the story as well as one should. I'm not bored by it, but nor am I engaged. I'll probably finish it, but I can't say I'll be the better for it.

A very broad look at the pretty long series of Westerners who made their way to China and wrote about their experiences for the countless newspapers which appeared in the decades between 1830 and 1949, both in China (usually in the treaty ports) and back home. However, it's not very deep at all, doesn't really give a taste of how or what they wrote, just paragraph after paragraph of individuals coming and going.

Such an interesting history, but I do think Sam van Schaik has tried a little too hard to conclude against Chinese claims to Tibet even when the story he presents leads to different conclusions.

So far so good. Incredible to see how incredibly divergent China and India have been, with the one looking almost the polar opposite of the other.

I almost forgot about this book for a little while, but I do enjoy it, so I should aim to finish it soon.

At first I found the constant interjections to be tedious, with several per sentence in the first few pages, but that becomes much less common before long and the story, told with humor and mystery, quickly transformed whatever doubts I had into eager curiosity.

Rama is shown as such a one dimensional character with the exception of his moment of doubt spoken that first night in the forest to his brother Lakshmana. That moment ought to have been built upon to create a more human Rama.

A strange little story about an American gone to China for his firm to look into making a dam on the great river. He fluctuates between racist disdain for the people all around him and a certain reverence for their culture and tenacity. I wanted to read his much longer novel set in China, but first I needed to gauge the racism it seemed likely to contain; halfway through, I'm still not sure if I will want to read it.

The movie was better.

It's hard to imagine that a people could have one-thousandth the adoration for their leader as all the world had for Rama. But rather than seeing it as an aristocratic wet dream, better to see it as an aspiration for future rulers to live up to. "Go forth, my son, and live a life to earn you the reverence held for great Raghava!"

It is like this section will never end. Yet for some reason I just can't stop reading.