Reading list

This page will list some of the books I have read recently, with an emphasis on non-fiction:

• Watkin Tench’s 1788 (Comprising a narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay, and A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson) . Edited by Tim Flannery. 2009.
  • A really great book, absolutely fascinating. Tench was a lietenant in the marine corps on board Australia’s First Fleet. This book is his first hand account of the first few years of British settlement in New South Wales. His account of their relationships with the aboriginal people’s of the area is absorbing, and does not fit many 21st century stereotypes of this period of Australia’s history. RECOMMENDED
• The Uses and Abuses of History, by Margaret MacMillan, 2009.
  • Easy to read and interesting. A morality tale about the risks of using various versions of history as morality tales.
• The Politics of Climate Change, by Anthony Giddens. 2009.
  • A useful overview, but a bit on the boring side. The last chapters, including  “International Negotiations, the EU and Carbon markets” led me to despair. How will  international negotiation processes ever deliver results in time?
• Quarterly Essay 31: Now Or Never: A Sustainable Future For Australia? by Tim Flannery
  • Frightening description of what could go wrong with the whole biosphere, given current trends in the behaviour of homo sapiens. Plus a number of short accounts of possible technical solutions, all much less convincing. A brave attempt at trying to make people aware of the scale of the problems we face without leaving us with an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.
• The Oxford Handbook of Innovation. Editors: Fagerberg, Mowery, Nelson.
  • Not exactly bedtime reading. But I was looking for a compendium type book. Chaspter 3, on networks of innovators was interesting, given my interest in network perspectives. I am still working through selected chapters, and will be doing so for quite a while yet! Its a thick book!
• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. by Nassim Taleb.
  • Another reviewer has rightly commented “Taleb wants to be seen as a radical iconoclast. Every sentence drips righteousness and often irritation. He is the strutting, impatient sage, the rest of us blinkered morons. Apparently he doesn’t like his editors trying to change this. A word of advice to the author: if you want your advice heeded, don’t shout and sneer at your audience. For this reason, an interesting thesis, but in the end a wearisome read.”
• Small Island by Andrea Levy
  • Funny and critical story of Jamaican immigrants experience of 1948 post-ward Britain. And on balance, reflecting better on the Jamaicans than the Brits. Read the reviews.  RECOMMENDED
• Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart by Tim Butcher
  • An easy but depressing read, especially the sections describing how some parts of the country have been moving backwards, for the last few decades.
• Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything by Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams
  • Better than I expected given the hype title.
• The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies by Scott E. Page
  • I did not manage to read all of this. It was hard going in places. But the underlying thesis, about the value of diversity, and his approach to proving it – by theory building and testing, appeals to me.
• Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage by Axel Brun
  • Disappointed. One idea repeated too often, rather than developed