books I’ve quit.

Yesterday I posted the books I’ve read in the last few months–all 40 titles, and nearly 50 reads. I feel like I should be totally transparent here, and publish the books I’ve bought and never managed to finish. Unfortunately, there were a few that I either couldn’t comprehend, didn’t enjoy, or decided weren’t worth my time.

Knowledge and Decisions–Thomas Sowell

Tucker told me to pick this one up, but honestly, I’m just not smart enough for it yet. I told him about my troubles with it and he said that the first half was ridiculously dense and that I should start in the middle. Problem was, I’d already made it half-way and was just too burned out to continue. I had too much respect for the author to keep reading when I wasn’t truly grasping his message. I did learn a lot–mainly the animistic fallacy–so I’ll be picking it up within the next 6 months to give it a go.

The Mind of War–Grant T Hammond

I flew into a rage after picking up this piece of shit. Honestly, I’m still baffled as to even the possibility of writing a boring, dry book about John Boyd. But Hammond pulled it off–it reads like a 6th grade essay. Read the Coram book.

Unleashing the Killer App–Downes

This is an interesting one, it’s just a bit dated. It has some cool concepts like the Law of Disruption. Which essentially states that societal change is incremental while technological change is exponential, so the law states that technology disrupts society–often turning the system on its head. I think I just got distracted here and that’s why I didn’t finish.

The Histories-Herodotus

I LOVED Thucydides, and figured I’d feel the same about Herodotus. It’s a much more difficult read in that it’s not as linear or focused on a single series of events. But there are some great parts, Thermopylae of course. I’ve probably read enough of this book to consider it “read” but I decided only to include books I’d finished, cover to cover. It’s a good reference piece, so I’ll continue to leaf through it.