The Greatest Show on Earth – Richard Dawkins

Posted by Magnus on October 23, 2011
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Dawkins came to realize that a disturbingly large percentage of the American and British public does not share his enthusiasm for evolution. In fact, they actively abhorred the idea, since it seemed to contradict the Bible and diminish the role of God.

And like a detective reconstructing a crime, Dawkins amasses a mountain of evidence in this richly illustrated, enormously readable explanation of the theory of evolution. Though Dawkins may have softened his attitude toward those who can reconcile their religious beliefs with evolution, he still harbors great hostility toward its detractors, equating them to Holocaust deniers.

He is indeed a master of explaining complex scientific ideas to nonscientific readers, and though The Greatest Show on Earth is a well-written, captivating review of the science behind the theory.

Even though you might not be too interested in evolution, the book is highly entertaining and amusing and is absolutely a must-read!




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The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (Hardcover)

By (author) Richard Dawkins
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An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris – Georges Perec

Posted by Magnus on July 28, 2011
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One overcast weekend in October 1974, Georges Perec set out in a slightly different quest: What happens, as he put it, when nothing happens?

His choice of locale was Place Saint-Sulpice, where, ensconced behind first one cafe window, then another, he spent three days recording everything to pass through his field of vision: the people walking by; the buses and driving-school cars caught in their routes; the pigeons moving suddenly en masse; a wedding (and then a funeral) at the church in the center of the square; the signs, symbols and slogans littering everything; and the darkness that finally absorbs it all.

In An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, Perec compiled a melancholic, slightly eerie and oddly touching document in which existence boils down to rhythm, writing turns into time and the line between the empirical and the surreal grows surprisingly thin.

Fancy.

 




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An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (Paperback)

By (author) Georges Perec
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Life: A User’s Manual – Georges Perec

Posted by Magnus on July 28, 2011
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Life: A User’s Manual, an highly experimental and original novel, takes as its plan a block of flats in a Parisian suburb, a 10 x 10 grid, over which the narrator must proceed by way of the moves of the Knight in chess, never landing on the same flat twice.

In an ice-cold literary voice, the author systematically describes the inhabitants and contents of a Paris apartment building. His style is at first totally uninvolving, yet somehow, amazingly, his monotonous descriptions come together like the tiles of a mosaic to create a living, exciting picture. Even if you know nothing about the philosophical and aesthetic theories that gave this book its structure, you will find it highly rewarding.

Although this is certainly an experimental novel, it is absolutely readable and fun.




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Life: A User's Manual (Paperback)

By (author) Georges Perec
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The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise – Georges Perec

Posted by Magnus on July 28, 2011
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The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise (Hardcover)

By (author) Georges Perec

A long-suffering employee in a big corporation has summoned up the courage to ask for a raise. But as he runs through the coming encounter in his mind, his neuroses come to the surface: What’s the best day to see the boss? What if he doesn’t offer you a seat when you go into his office? Would it be a smart move to ask about his daughter’s illness?

Will he succeed?
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A Void – Georges Perec

Posted by Magnus on July 28, 2011
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A Void (Verba Mundi) (Paperback)

By (author) Georges Perec

The year is 1968, and as France is torn apart by social and political anarchy, the noted eccentric and insomniac Anton Vowl goes missing. Ransacking his Paris flat, his best friends scour his diary for clues to his whereabouts. At first glance these pages reveal nothing but Vowl’s penchant for word games, especially for “lipograms,” compositions in which the use of a particular letter is suppressed. But as the friends work out Vowl’s verbal puzzles, and as they investigate various leads discovered among the entries, they too disappear, one by one by one, and under the most mysterious circumstances …

A Void is a metaphysical whodunit, a story chock-full of plots and subplots, of trails in pursuit of trails, all of which afford Perec occasion to display his virtuosity as a verbal magician, acrobat, and sad-eyed clown. It is also an outrageous verbal stunt: a 300-page novel that never once employs the letter E.

Eh?
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Species of Spaces – Georges Perec

Posted by Magnus on July 28, 2011
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Species of Spaces is a collection of essays, fictions, and verbal bagatelles showcasing a Parisian who “never wanted to write the same thing twice.” His phenomenal linguistic skills and imagination remain incomparable, and he explores the spaces we inhabit, beginning with the most evident, the page itself on which he writes and you read, and zooms out into ever grander scales: the apartment, the street, the city, the country, and the universe itself.

He does not cease to inscribe himself in each of these spaces, for the crisis that drives this book is that Perec does not exist except in language, on the page, in the apartment, in the street, etc. Every act of writing is an existential re-affirmation.

The author fuses trivial concerns with psychological imperatives, and takes you to places you’ve never been before. Perec’s work is the infra and ultra of literature’s spectral continuum.

Oh, and the book is actually funny, too (although, I must admit, it looks quite boring).

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The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana – Umberto Eco

Posted by Magnus on July 28, 2011
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The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (Paperback)

By (author) Umberto Eco

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana is the story of a 59-year-old Milanese antiquarian book dealer who loses his episodic memory due to a stroke. At the beginning of the novel, he can remember everything he has ever read, but does not remember his family, his past, or even his own name.

He decides to go to his childhood home to see if he can rediscover his lost past. After days of searching through old newspapers, vinyl records, books, magazines and childhood comic books, he is unsuccessful in regaining memories, though he relives the story of his generation and the society in which his dead parents and grandfather lived.

Ready to abandon his quest, he discovers his grandfather’s special book of which he never knew, the shock of which causes another incident, during which he re-lives his lost memories of childhood.

Can he regain the memory he seeks above all others: the face of the girl he loved as a student and ever after?
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The Island of the Day Before – Umberto Eco

Posted by Magnus on July 28, 2011
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The Island of the Day Before (Paperback)

By (author) Umberto Eco
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The Island of the Day Before is the story of a 17th century Italian nobleman who is the only survivor of a shipwreck during a fierce storm. He finds himself washed up on an abandoned ship in a harbour through which, he convinces himself, runs the International Date Line. Although he can see land, his inability to swim leaves him marooned and he begins to reminisce about his life and his love. He becomes obsessed about his allegedly evil twin brother, who is split from his own persona through a process reminiscent of the doppelganger effect, and thus accusing him of all the bad things that happened in his life. The brother takes blame mainly for his bad choices and is present to sweeten the disappointments of life. Through this reminiscence he becomes convinced that all his troubles will end, if only he can reach the land.

The story is told from the point of view of a modern editor who has sorted through the man’s papers.

And how did he obtain those papers?

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Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco

Posted by Magnus on July 28, 2011
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Foucault's Pendulum (Paperback)

By (author) Umberto Eco

Foucault’s Pendulum has been called the thinking person’s Da Vinci Code: The plot of revolves around three friends who work for a vanity publisher in Milan. After reading one too many manuscripts about occult conspiracy theories, they decide they can do better, and set out to invent their own conspiracy for fun, a game they call “The Plan”.

As the friends become increasingly obsessed with The Plan, they sometimes forget it’s just a game. Worse still, when adherents of other conspiracy theories learn about The Plan, they take it seriously. Belbo finds himself the target of a secret society that believes he possesses the key to the lost treasure of the Knights Templar.

A number of sub-plots are woven into the grand theme of The Plan. Against the backdrop of the Templar Plan for world domination, the novel brings out the credulity inherent in all people.

An interesting read!
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The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

Posted by Magnus on July 28, 2011
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The Name of the Rose: including the Author's Postscript (Paperback)

By (author) Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose is the first novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery, an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory.

William demonstrates the power of deductive reasoning and refuses to accept the diagnosis of simple demonic possession. Although the abbey is under the apprehension that they are experiencing the last days before the coming of Antichrist, William, through his empirical mindset, manages to show that the murders are, in fact, committed by a more corporeal instrument! By keeping an open mind, collecting facts and observations, following pure intuition, and the dialectic method, he makes decisions as to what he should investigate.

And does he manage to solve the mystery?
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