Richard Florida

Another one of the autographed copies from the Author's@Google series, which I finally got around to read - even though the 1h talk did sum up the punchiest key points quite nicely and the book didn't add much additional insight. Richard Florida, part show-man, part social scientist throws a lot of data and and sprawling network of collaborations behind the idea that place matters. It seems to affect our economic potential, whom we might spend our live with and even our psychological happiness. Despite our post-industrial economy being less and less defendant on any physical resources, people increasingly cluster by themselves into cities and regions, economic activity and innovation even more so. If the world is really flat, this doesn't seem to make sense... The strongest argument seems to be the correlation between economic success, innovation and the clustering of certain personality types - leading to superstar cities, which attract increasing number of highly innovative and successful people until the reach a level of shear inevitability in certain sectors (technology in Silicon Valley, Finance, Fashion in New York, politics and public affairs in Washington D.C. etc.). The tongue in cheek "gay and bohemian index" seems to work as a measure of real-estate appreciation, not particularly because those people contribute disproportionately to any of the economic benchmarks, but because they are the canaries of urban development whose presence indicates a climate which is likely to attract the kind of people who on average are more innovative and thus have a disproportionate impact on economic activity in an economy which largely runs on intangible concepts and innovation.

As somebody who pays ridiculous rent and accept all kinds of inconveniences to live in New York City, I am obviously conditioned to believe most of what Mr. Florida has to say and in fact happy to get some outside validation that I am not completely nuts. Besides it's key arguments, the book presents the results of some massive multi-factorial analysis which is supposed to show which kinds of places should appeal to what kind of people. Many non-intuitive names are on those lists (Trenton, NJ - WTF...?!?), without any attempts to illustrate or attempt which factors might have pushed them there. I guess after all, I'll have to read Jane Jacob's for some deeper insight into why certain places might feel "right" and others just don't, despite all the efforts.

Alexander Roy

The first of the signed book copies from the Google NYC author series which I actually read, since it is a very quick read and outrageously sinful and crazy in its premise that it is hard to pass up. The somewhat hard to believe cover story for the book is a 4-5 year long obsession by the author to find "The Driver" after some vague remarks his father had made on his deathbed. If we shall believe this part of the story, it is up to psychoanalysts to determine what drove the author to turn his fathers youthful dreams (which he reasonably abandoned) into his own endeavor as pointless as it is reckless? Maybe there is some of the same "finish your fathers unfinished business" at work as the one which might have led to the invasion and occupation of Iraq in another famous father/son relationship? Fortunately, the authors unreasonable obsession did not end as disastrously.

The driver is a mythical and probably non-exsting organizer of follow-on competitions to the crazy cross-country road races of the 60ies and 70ies and the author signs up for a few long-distance road-rallies to hopefully find this guy or get on his radar. While these road-rallies mainly seem to be collective road-trips and parties for rich playboys and their expensive cars, there seem to be a group of people who take it more seriously and somewhat implicitly race against each other.

The driver never shows up, but instead does a film-maker working on a documentary about the holders of the current cross-country "land-speed-record" from ca. 1983 during one of the last such underground races. After having gained some experience in the art of underground long-distance driving - being fuel efficient and consistent to keep the average speed high, being watchful and inconspicuous to avoid being stopped by the police - the author attempts to break this record in a solo run and does so sometime in 2006.

Interestingly the author seems to be very concerned about emphasizing his nearly scientific approach and obsessive preparation to underground long-distance driving. It is pretty clear that he is basically aware that what he does is pretty stupid and dangerous - something which no degree of rationalization can cover up. In the book he has to come close to even admitting that the reason why they broke the record may not have been as much in his scientific approach, but his co-drivers instinct driven approach to simply floor the pedal and drive as hard as the circumstances allow. Maybe in the end it was a combination of the two approaches - which still doesn't make it any safer or more reasonable.

Susan Gregory Thomas

An investigative report on the consumer industry's latest target market: 0-3. The author identifies a Whitehouse conference on early childhood development and learning in 1997 as a turning point in the development of this market. While the original intention seems to have been to point out the damaging consequence of neglect during those early years, many parents seems to have interpreted the emphasis on 0-3 as an occasion to attempt to "fast-tracking" their child through its natural development stages. Indie-sensations like the Baby-Einstein video tapes series (now owned by Disney) showed the media industry that there was a legitimate way to target the 0-3 market, which until then had been somewhat taboo: it was ok, as long as it was "educational".

The research backing behind the "scientific" labels media and toy companies use on their products is rather spotty at this time. Doing research studies with babies is still considered rather unethical and babies don't fill out sociologists survey questionnaires very well. From whatever scientific research on the topic there is, it seems that while babies very effectively learn from the interaction with humans, they do not benefit much from audio-visual learning support. Possibly because at that age, they seem to be incapable of abstraction or drawing analogies - a TV is simply a box that emits sounds and rapidly blinking lights and not a projection or model of something which might have relevance in the real world.

The only things which pre-schoolers seem to be able to do - starting at about 2 years - is to recognize characters - specially if they have big soft features, big round eyes and primary colors. After repeat exposure, they will happily recognize and them out on any cereal box or other product conveniently placed at eye level in the supermarket.

As for younger children, is not very clear what babies actually experience when they clearly transfixed and fascinated by watching TV - some scientist think it might be like a continuous mild seizure as the brain is overstimulated with audio-visual signals and tries to situate itself in a current context - similar to being continuously surprised or startled. Some studies suspect a link between early TV exposure to ADD or as a trigger for autism. Being on the side of caution, the American Pediatric Association recommends not TV watching for children under 2 years old.

Since marketing to children always implies marketing to parents as well, the book also goes into how marketeers view and segment the current generation of parents: Generation X being the first one largely reared on daycare and TV is supposed to rebel against the openly egoistic and materialistic outlook of their yuppie baby boomer parents and thus presents a bit of a challenge to peddlers of consumerist wares. But nothing that a few sociology and psychology PhD working for the advertising industry couldn't overcome. The Achilles heel of Gen X parents is their life-long emergence in consumer culture and the nostalgia for the brands and media properties of their childhood - which would explain why no comic book or TV series from the 70ies or 80is is too cheezy to be re-issued as big-budget movies (Underdog the movie, anyone?). Gen X parents are into attachment parenting and only want the best for their children - thus an "educational" message paired with the brand familiarity and nostalgia factor appears to be the winning strategy for marketers.

A side effect of the consolidation of the media industry into about 5 conglomerates for the English language market is the disappearance of independent authors and publishers of children's books. Instead of artistic diversity, what dominates the market today are low-cost production re-hashes of the same prime media-properties, licensed by the large media companies. In addition, the day care industry - among the most cash-strapped - is more than happy to receive additional "educational" material based on the same licensed characters for free or a very reasonable cost. Marketers are very conscious of the value of brand loyalty and with children growing up ever the quicker into consumers, brand awareness and loyalty has to be acquired ever the earlier - which they seem to be achieving quite successfully, but not necessarily to the benefit of parents and children at whom the whole wave of branded "educational" media material is targeted.

Paul Fussell

Americans don't tend to think of themselves as class society, but recent research seemed to show that there is less social mobility between generations in the US today than even in aristocratic old Europe. At first glance the American class system is largely about money, but not quite. According to this book, there are many defining or at least telling signs of class, like education, culture, security, values, habits, dress or speak.

By and large, American society is defined by the bourgeoisie or middle class, which has swept the old landed aristocracy from power at about the time of industrialization. And the United States being born in this period is clearly a country of bourgeois ideals: values of hard work, success, personal improvement, achievement are an implicit part of the social contract.

However, even in the US there is an upper class, but not very visible since "we", the dominant middle class don't really understand them (and vice versa). They are born rich into a life of leisure and even though they may have heard that some people need to work to earn a living, they cannot relate to the idea from experience. Thus to be upper class - or "old money" as it is called in America, on has to be born rich in the second or third generation at least in order to not be exposed to any more to such middle class values like the virtue of hard work.

Some of the richest people today have amassed their fortune as part of their professional career, which makes them upper-middle class at best. Class also has to do with security or the freedom to choose ones own destiny - not having any bosses or other socio-economic pressures dictating what to do. According to this book, the middle class is the most insecure about its position, sandwiched between the working class and the upper class. Feeling the need to constantly prove and establish themselves, they are very aware of status and the wealthy middle class is the quintessential consumer for any kind of perceived status symbols. The upper class does not feel the need to prove themselves, since they know their place and they don't really understand the so very middle class idea of self improvement anyway. In some sense, they are not that different from the aristocracy of the feudal age.

The first of a series of pregnancy and parenting books we have received from concerned friends and family, since I guess we appear to be that unprepared...

Written by a British nanny who now runs a baby consulting business in Hollywood, this has been recommended as one of the more middle of the road "pragmatic parenting" approaches. (If this is pragmatic, I rather don't want to see the non-pragmatic ones...).

The centerpiece of the prescription is the E.A.S.Y approach, as sticking to a regular and predictable but not rigidly timed cycle of Eat, Activity, Sleep and You (while the baby sleeps). Baby's seem to be creatures of habit who take much comfort in their daily routine.

The author's key observations seems to be that most parents are overwhelmed and don't know how to interpret a baby's need, since crying doesn't always mean "feed me". Much of the book is about giving parents more structure and help figuring out what baby might need this point. She also tries to reassure parents that it's perfectly normal to be overwhelmed and people always have been - except that in pre-modern times there used to be more of a stable and local support structure in traditional families and communities. Today, if you are lucky enough to live in the UK, you have the professional support from a nanny by the NHS, if you live in the US and lucky enough to be rich, you can hire a highly paid baby consultant - otherwise good luck figuring it out yourself eventually...

Peter F. Drucker

Looking for an introduction to the work of the late management philosopher Peter Drucker, this sounded like a good starting point - given his extensive writings. Either that or an MBA.

J.K. Rowling

The final volume in the 7 book epic series of a young wizard's coming of age in difficult times is loaded with action and dramatic tension. As opposed to the previous book , the challenge of making the movie might be not the lack of cinematic scenes but too many worthy ones to be sacrificed.

It starts explosively with a spectacular arial combat sequence of the great air-lift operation to bring Harry to safety around hist 17th birthday, when the protective shield-spells around his childhood home expire. Book number 6 had defined the task for Harry and his close circle of friends to accomplish if they want to stand a chance of ridding the world of the dark lord Voldemort.

However, things do not appear to be going well. In the middle of a wedding, news comes that Voldemort and his followers have taken over the Ministry of Magic in a coup instituting a reign of terror. Harry, Ron and Hermione go underground and are on the run from there onward.

While they know in principle their mission, they really have no clue about the details. Finding the reminding Horcruxes, magical object in which Voldemort has hidden part of his soul to achieve immortality, is complicated by the fact that they barely know what these objects might be and even less where they might be hidden. Operating under the dangerous and oppressive conditions of an occupation or totalitarian regime does not make things easier and any move requires spectacularly risky operation like the intrusion into the Ministry of Magic, a Heist of Gringotts.

The middle section is an excellent portrayal of the unromantic sides of a resistance movement or live under occupation by a ruthless totalitarian force. After loosing their safe-house we find the trio hiding in the countryside, freezing, starving, dispirited by doubt and frustration from the lack of progress, moving daily to avoid detection and capture, always on the defensive. Any attempts to regain the initiative results in ambushes, dangerous near-misses and escapes by a hairs width at considerable cost each time. The low point is reached, after Ron runs away and the remaining Harry and Hermione barely speak for weeks being reduced to going about their daily routing to evade capture. Only through luck - or an invisible hand - they finally make some progress in retrieving and destroying some of the items necessary. They are finally tracked down by bounty hunters and end up in the dungeons of Malfoy manor, which is now the headquarter of the Death Eaters, Voldemort's pretorian guard and secret police from which the magically escape with the help of Dobby the house-elf.

The final act is the great battle of Hogwarts, where a spontaneous resistance is formed to provide sufficient cover for Harry to go about his secret mission of finding another Horcrux which he knows Voldemort has hidden somewhere at Hogwarts. Here the story takes more twists than a John Le Carre novel with secretive and manipulative spy-masters and double-agents whose ultimate goals and loyalties seem to shift and twist by the minute. Snape's reputation is restored as he is reviled as an ultimately tragic romantic figure (or a very good liar...?) and Harry learns that he is the 7th Horcrux and that the ultimate sacrifice is required of him, to break Voldemort's immortality.

Some some hair-splitting subtleties in the laws of magic and a near-death experience later, the final showdown between Harry and Voldemort has some of the ritualized pompousness of a spaghetti western with all the drawn-out twisted scheming, positioning and maneuvering followed by a quick and decisive climax.

While the endings of Harry Potter books tend to wrap up too many things somewhat too neatly and too quickly, I find the description of life in the resistance during the quest for the Horcruxes the most captivating. But I always like the Harry Potter franchise best for its matter-of-fact description of the mundane details of magical every day life as well as its punchy political allegories. Overall this might be my favorite book in the series.

J.K. Rowling

The downside of a short commute, is that I don't really have the time any more to read books - I barely make it through my copy of The Economist in a week. So this is the first fiction book in almost 3 years...

This episode is a bit slow, without major dramatic side plots and action sequences (until the very end). Might this could be a bit tougher to make a movie out of than some of the previous ones. Many flash-backs, much time is spent to tie up loose ends and work in some historic context and background.

It is now undeniable that you-know-who is back. People are starting to disappear or die, but the dark-side's struggle for power is still at the level of covered action. There is a general sense of malaise and paranoia - kind of like the mood in the US in the years after 2001. In order to appear in control, the ministry is arresting and locking up people at random.

Dumbledore is passing on the conclusions of research on to Harry in a series of private lessons, through which it becomes clearer what Harry is really up against and what he is supposed to do once we get to the 7th and final book. At least some rough outline of a plan.

Della Chuang

The second book in the series is more conceptual than the first one. It consists of a series of case studies to illustrate and explore a set of playful approaches which a designer of everyday objects can take, to interact with the observer. The book itself is visually rich and full of ideas, since each chapter illustrates the point it is trying to make with its own visual language. Some of it self-referential like the photo of the sketches for a few layout-spreads of the book, hinting at the process behind its creating and at that a book itself is a design object.

Beppe Severgnini

An experience report of an Italian journalist living in Washington D.C for a year and his observations on the strange customs of the native population. In some ways tells as much about the idiosyncrasies of Italians than about those of Americans, but any of those personal culture clash stories typically are. Funny and amusing, specially for somebody who can actually relate to the wonder amusement and frustrations that are particular to being an European expat in the US.

Della Chuang

A gift from the author - since it's not really available on the US market (yet). A series of interviews and portraits on people who animate the downtown fashion scene - observed in their natural habitat by someone so embedded in the neighborhood that it's harder to get her to cross Houston Street (maybe to go to the East Village...) than to fly half-ways across the world.

Sayo Masuda

An appropriate read on the long flight to Japan, finally translated into English after having been published for nearly half a century. In the blunt and simple language of somebody who has not had the privilege of education, this is the story of a geisha in a poor rural area in wartime Japan. Just simply poverty, abuse, sexual exploitation, hunger and pain, without the myth of glamor and sophistication surrounding the stories of geishas from Japans urban center.

Ernesto Guevara

Part experience report, part encouragement for anybody who like the author was an idealist concerned with the social situation of the vast majority of people in South America. He is convinced that Cuba could serve as an example for how to spark, maintain, grow and wind a popular revolt against an oppressive government in feudal South America, by starting as a small band of Guerilla in remote inaccessible regions, using peasant rights and land-reform as the main catalyst for change. Focuses more on the why than on how, on the pain and hardship than on battle-heroics but is ultimately hopeful if "the people", whoever that is, want something badly enough and are willing to sacrifice enough, they can ultimately overcome and wear out and "unjust" and "oppressive" enemy. In the meantime, keep walking, take care of your shoes and never waste ammunition...

by Kurt Vonnegut

How can you tell a story of war without making it seem logical and heroic, suitable for a film with John Wayne or Frank Sinatra in it? How can you suitable describe probably the bloodiest single event massacre in history, the fire-bombing of the historic city of Dresden, chosen as target not because of any military or strategic value but because it would burn well. Vonnegut manages with his non-narrative fatalist glimpses at the full spectrum of time lying before us in 4 dimensions.

Plato

The most interesting aspects of following Platos rational chains of arguments from a considerable historical distance is what he seems to consider as sufficient absolute proof. It again illustrates how much we chase the shadows of our own bias, even when we are convinced to be absolute and objective - even the master of essential forms himself...
Even if this descriptions of the ideal state borders to the dreams of a fascist control-freak (propaganda, censorship, euthanasia and other heavy-handed control of every aspect of life in order to create and stabilize his notion of an ideal society) , his analysis of political systems still has a lot of validity and it helps to see Democracy in a different light, which is today considered with quasi-religious certainty as the ever unachievable ideal.
Even though many analogies and arguments seem dated, most of the ideas seem so current that one wonders if humanity has come up with any significant new ideas or if maybe the emphasis on classical education in the west have directed centuries of thought along the same lines?

by Aldous Huxley

A dystopia, not unlike Fahrenheit 451, where thinks like independent thoughts and emotions have been abolished to create universal "happyness" for the sake of social stability. However the striking difference is how this hyper-industrial society is very much organized by an all-powerful government and humans are conditioned in their wants and abilities to fill exactly the position in society to which they are predestined by the controlling bureaucracy. This results in the most rigid class society imaginable - a vision that could only have been thought up by an Englishman...

Much fun comes from all the funny names and titles around the organization of this society and its ersatz-religion "Ford-ism".

by Ray Bradbury

A brief story of a future, where an intellectually and emotionally impoverished society, addicted to flashy TV and with a 15s attention span (sounds familiar...?) is starting to find books and the non-conformists who insist on reading them highly suspicious. Since houses have been coated in fire-safe materials, the firemen now go around to burn books. First published in the 1953, another period when the American people was afraid of an invisible and intangible enemy, Bradbury draws something that is very uniquely the nightmare of an American intellectual, believing firmly, that in a democracy, the government can only oppress the people if they want to be oppressed - or rather oppress some insignificant and suspicious minority in the name of the majority. But if they do, there is no stopping them...

Alexis de Tocqueville

Probably one of the most insightful books I have read in a long time. Written in ca. 1830 based on travels to the US de Tocqueville writes his observations and conclusions about the state of democracy in America while trying to generalize what this means to the world in general. Being born into a noble family, but at this time being a government employee of the 2nd French republic, is a strong supporter of democracy, which he considers to be an unavoidable conclusion and consequence of the last thousand years of human evolution and in particular an increasing drive towards equality. He argues that by observing the state of affairs in America, one can evaluate the merits of Democracy without the distortions brought about by violent revolutions and a host of old traditions as it it was the case in Europe. He postulates equality to be the essential driver in any democratic system - equality leading to democracy and democracy favoring equality - and argues how the mechanisms and guiding principles at work affect all aspects of public and private life - how people think, feel, behave and act.

Being an astute observer de Tocqueville puts his finger on many points that to a newcomer are still striking idiosyncrasies of the American society today. Speaking of how ingrained habits and traditions can be! In other points he has predicted how the forces at work would drive the American society (or the democratic world in general) towards certain conclusions - which some can from todays point of view be confirmed. But also having brought up in a society where equality is explicitly NOT taken for granted, he adds an outsiders viewpoint to the principles of democracy that we have lost since any alternative seems unimaginable for us today. He also seems to experience a similar ambivalence towards the American system as much of the world conditioned by slightly different traditions, still does today. While on one hand, he admires the universally high standard of living, wealth and education, the low rate of cruelty and injustice of the state towards its citizens or the great energy and enthusiasm which are directed towards improving peoples (material) lives - on the other hand, he deplores the drive towards mediocrity and uniformity in the intellectual and cultural live, focus on the extreme near term with little consideration for the past or future, a lonely kind of individualism and a single minded concern for material wealth only.

This abridged version is very readable and should eliminate any excuses, why this text should not be required reading for anybody who wants to use worlds like "Freedom" and "Democracy" in any conversation.

by Herman Melville

Captain Ahab, with his "steadfast and unwavering leadership" (I learned some new words today from watching the RNC on TV...), drives the crew of his ship into doom through an obsessive quest of hunting down the whale who previously tore off one of his legs. While the story unfold, the author also launches into into extensive background exposes on whales, whaling in general and the nature of the south seas sperm whale fishery in general.

From todays perspective, the story seems to say a lot about abuse of the power, means and people entrusted to a leader in the pursuit of a (self)-destructive personal quest.

by Joseph Heller

A stab at the absurdity of war, the military and the bureaucracy of any large hierarchical organization in general. This world is threatening and confusing, without any discernible pattern of logic - maybe how "The Trial " would have turned out if Kafka had been a humorist.

However I did not enjoy the book as much as I could have, since I felt that none of the characters appear human. Each of them is too over-the-top and unreal, more a caricature than a character. They all seem extreme, flat and one dimensional. The funny thing is that much of the absurdity and craziness that is described in the book happens in real life without any of the actors even being as single-mindedly stupid, malicious, greedy, power-hungry etc. It's amazing what kind of stupidity bureaucratic organizations can produce, even if all their members taken by themselves appear to be reasonably rational and good-hearted people who are honestly trying to do a decent job...

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The story of an imaginary family and an imaginary town, somewhere in the sticky swamps of a Caribbean coast - where life goes on in all its splendor, mystery, beauty and cruelty. The biography in the end hints to the origins of the book and to the nature of the author's style of story-telling as trying to imitate the way his grand-mother way of telling stories: mixing facts and fiction effortlessly with the same convincing dead-pan delivery. "Mystical Realism" as a novelists attempt to capture and recreate the moment where myths and folk-tales originate - with a talented story teller!

by Vaclav Havel (edited by Paul Wilson)

Starting with the period of the Prague Spring or rather its abrupt end under the chains of Soviet tanks and ending with the inaugural new years address as president of the new republic of Czechoslovakia (without the people...) - this books shows the state of Eastern Europe during this period through the eyes of one of its most respected intellectuals and for lack of better words - "dissidents".

For example with "The Power of the Powerless" one of his most famous and at the time influential essays, Havel seems to set a theoretical and moral framework to analyze the particular state of soviet block communist states - a system he calls "post-totalitarian" in its transcending, apersonal and bureaucratic way of exercising power, as opposed to the more traditional dictatorship that is tied to the person of the dictator and its inner circle. Since a post-totalitarian system bases its power more on an all-transcending ideology led ad absurdum and a series of empty rituals, he claims that simply "living the truth" and to simply say out loud that the emperor has no cloth, if one believes so, has the most radically deteriorating effect on a system that is built upon keeping up appearances.

It helps understand why this form of a-political and peaceful dissent of passive resistance from within ultimately brought down many of those post-totalitarian systems, at least in Eastern Europe. But it may also help to understand why such an approach may not work in other circumstances - where the exercise of power is still more immediate and raw and has not reached a wide complicity of the masses in upholding its doctrines yet.

by Isabel Allende

The sweeping epic saga of a heavily dysfunctional family from the ruling upper class of an unnamed south-american country during the 20th century. This unnamed South-American country can only hardly disguise its striking similarities to Chile and its social/political turmoil around the events of September 11 (1973 that is), where the first elected socialist government in Chile is overthrown by a military coup (under very heavy involvement of the US for that matter...). Isabel Allende is the grand-daughter of President Salvador Allende, who was assassinated that day - presumably she must have an opinion on Chilean politics and history!

by Peter Post

Written by the great-grandson of Emily Post, who was supposed to be the ultimate reference of American etiquette, this book is supposed to be the streamlined beginners version for our casual and informal times. In fact "essential" is probably to be taken literally: the book seems to be apologetic from the start, and seems to imply that men would have to forced or coerced to read a book on etiquette. In fact the standards don't indeed not seem to be to high any more - kind of along the lines of "don't wear the T-shirt that you used to do the oil-change and mow the lawn on Saturday afternoon to go to the dinner party in the evening and avoid burping loudly at the table". O tempora, o mores...

by Henning Mankell (in German translation)

Not much heroism and glory and not even the noir-is fascination of an anti-hero for the characters in this gloomy Swedish murder mystery. Broken dreams and the claustrophobic daily routine of a small scale provincial police station overwhelmed by global problems and a new time where any crime can happens as well in such a quaint rural setting. The murder mystery is more of an excuse for an exploration into the live and character of its main protagonist, Inspector Wallander and the society he lives in.

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"Stolen" from my sisters library - trying to get more into South American literature. Like the previous entry, also a story of forbidden love between a older man (a priest) and a 12 year old girls... A fictional historic tale based on a news story by the author about the crypt of an old convent being emptied and telling the story of the people who were buried there - or not. A sensual portrait of a South American city where the cultures of African slaves clashes with those of spanish nobles and the church is trying to keep control of it all with whatever means necessary.

by Vladimir Nabokov

I had seen the rather disappointing movie in my own private Kubrick retrospective (all the things you can do with a Netflix subscription...) and some reviews had indicated that the movie was not doing any justice to the book. I was curious about the "road trip" angle compared to that other quintessential American road-trip story from the same period ("On the Road" by Kerouac) or the symbolic angle of the sensation of decadence and moral bankruptcy prevalent among European writers and intellectuals after the horrors of the first half of the 20th century and their longing for the young, wild, fresh and uncorrupted America.

Nabokov, in the epilogue to the book, denies any intentions of meaning or symbolism and I tend to believe him. His writing is intense and atmospheric and a pleasure to read - "l'art pour l'art" (art for the sake of art) for those who enjoy and accept a certain stylistic playfulness as an end to itself. But because it is atmospheric, it does capture a specific view of post-war America through the eyes of a detached, disillusioned and over-civilized European immigrant, struggling with his daemons.

Without having seen the movie before, I would not have gotten all those underhanded references to the identity of the mysterious pursuer that puts an end to Humbert Humberts ill-fated, painful, hazy and destructive love-affair with Dolores Haze, aka Lolita.

Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian

Third book in the about 20 volumes strong Aubrey-Maturin series that I read after seeing the movie inspired by it. Admittedly, I am a sucker for any naval adventure story and easy to please in this respect, but O'Brians almost pedantic style of narration creates a very detailed and atmospheric picture of the life British navy during the napoleonic wars. Some of my favorite details are the description of the HMS Leopard going through heavy weather in the Bay of Biscay or the "action sequence" of a multi-week ship-chase or cat and mouse game where she is chased away from her supply bases at the Cape well into wild roaring westerlies around Antarctica.

Ocean Sea by Alessandro Baricco (in French translation)

Sensual prose that reads like poetry. Wonder how it would sound in English. English can be so to the point and utilitarian at times.