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Book Review: 9-11 (Noam Chomsky)

B. Kline — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 23:33:00 +0000

9-11

I think for most Americans, we can all picture exactly where we were on September 11th, 2001. Same for older generations with Kennedy’s assassination, or Pearl Harbor, or big other catastrophic events. Especially if they hit home or were local.

I was in study hall, early morning, I was 16 at the time, and was sound asleep and woken up and my teacher put the news on. At this point the first plane had hit, and we witnessed the rest live. Not much school happened that day, and I honestly don’t remember being taught a single thing that day, or even the rest of that week or weeks. I had turned 16 on August 27th 2001, and on September 11th, 2001 – the entirety of the world changed in an instant.

Noam Chomsky

A quick biography of Noam Chomsky, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Avram Noam Chomsky^[a] (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian,^[b][c] social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called “the father of modern linguistics”,^[d] Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and an Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is the author of more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism.

Born to Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B. F. Skinner.

An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay “The Responsibility of Intellectuals“. Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard Nixon‘s Enemies List. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. Chomsky began teaching at the University of Arizona in 2017.

One of the most cited scholars alive,^[20] Chomsky has influenced a broad array of academic fields. He is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. In addition to his continued scholarship, he remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, neoliberalism and contemporary state capitalism, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mainstream news media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements.
Noam Chomsky (Wikipedia)

For more information on Noam, you can also visit GoodReads – Noam Chomsky, as well as numerous other philosophical and literature based sites on the web. He is a renowned linguist, educator, philosopher, essayist, and political commentator.

Interviewers

Some of the interviewers for this book are:

Book Review

GoodReads Blurb:

In 9-11, Noam Chomsky comments on the September 11th attacks, the new war on terrorism, Osama bin Laden, U.S. involvement with Afghanistan, media control, and the long-term implications of America’s military attacks abroad. Informed by his deep understanding of the gravity of these issues and the global stakes, 9-11 demonstrates Chomsky’s impeccable knowledge of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia, and sheds light on the rapidly shifting balance of world power. Speaking out against escalating violence, Chomsky critically examines the United States’ own foreign policy record and considers what international institutions might be employed against underground networks and national states accused of terrorism. 9-11’s analysis still stands as a measure of how well the media is able to serve its role of informing the citizenry, so crucial to our democracy in times of war.
9-11 by Noam Chomsky (GoodReads)

It’s now been just over 20 years (read this in February of 2022) since the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9-11 (September 11th, 2001). So there has been some time and perspective, to how the attacks happened, what all has transpired since, and everything else surrounding the world in that time frame. I’ve aged 20 years (good god now I feel old), I’ve witnessed the “War on Terrorism” and our efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and numerous other places in the world. Saw the attack in Islamabad that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden, and how the world has changed as a whole due to all of this.

It’s amazing how well this piece of work holds up, and how Noam Chomsky’s opinions, intellect, and insights are almost prescient. Especially considering this is a collection of interviews, and not just a full on essay by Chomsky (to be fair – there is an essay at the end of the book).

It is a rushed book, and a rush series of interviews collected and edited into this volume. Which is all the more reason why this is actually an impressive work – twenty years after the fact. Chomsky certainly sheds a lot of light on events leading up to 9-11 from a non-American perspective and gives some form of indication and idea of why the attacks were not a complete and total ‘surprise’ by the world at large. He brings up salient points on how America could (before the attacks) have been considered the largest terrorist active country in the world, with regards to our actions in Beirut, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.

This isn’t an pro-American piece of work, and Chomsky doesn’t paint America in the most sympathetic light. This isn’t to be confused with him believing it was a justified attack. Far from it. Nothing justifies what happened on 9-11 and Chomsky wants to be very clear about that. But our actions in Afghanistan, radicalizing fanatical Islamic groups, our actions in Beirut, and Nicaragua, and numerous other countries over the past few decades (leading up to 2001 – 1990s, 1980s, 1970s), certainly doesn’t make us the complete victims we always believed us to be. And don’t get me wrong here – we are victims in this attack. Its an immeasurable and incomparable attack. Pure innocents and civilians died. This wasn’t a ‘war’ attack on a military unit. This was a terrorist attack on innocents.

Like I said above, Chomsky brings up a lot of good points, many of which I only learned years after September 11th, 2001. Especially since I was younger then, in my teens, and my knowledge and research base wasn’t nearly what it is today. The interviews in the book are done well and Chomsky comes off very well, and in his normal talking and writing style. There is some bad or off point questions, but I believe they’ve edited this enough that its coherent, makes sense, and stays on point and topic and creates a nice piece of work with the book.

My GoodReads Rating: ***
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.73 (as of 2.18.22)
My LibraryThing Rating: ***.5

Book Reviews

Interested in more book reviews by us here at The Beer Thrillers? You can check out some below:

Thanks For Reading

Thanks for reading everyone. Stay tuned for more beer reviews, book reviews, hikes, and much more going on in the world of The Beer Thrillers. Please follow us on social media, and leave any comments and questions you have.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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Book Review: 1,339 Quite Interesting Facts to Make Your Jaw Drop (John Lloyd)

BKline — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 03:01:00 +0000

1,339 Quite Interesting Facts to Make Your Jaw Drop by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, and James Harken

Facts and Trivia

If you come to my blog, you are most likely here due to it being a beer and craft beer blog. Which means you are probably fully aware of pub trivia or bar trivia or brewpub trivia. So I think thats what drew me to this as I was walking around and snorting around the Hershey Library. It also looked like a relatively quick read (and it was), and that interested me to help with my 110 Book Challenge this year. (Yea… sometimes you need to just read a quickie to help keep yourself in the mood…. and motivated….)

There is also something about trivia and facts, that its fun to digest them and read them. Like we fake ourselves into feeling like we’re smarter than we are due to knowing some small minute trivial matter that doesn’t really matter. (For example, I can name all of the Star Wars aliens in the Cantina scene or the Jabba’s Palace scene, or tell you what species they all are…… yea… excited now aren’t you ladies?).

Its a large part of our fascination with shows like Jeopardy; that idea of expertise, or knowledge. Not even so much as wisdom, but the complete accumulation of all knowledge. But, like everything, there is a fine line, a difference between things. Wisdom does not equate to knowledge. And I’m not meaning this as an attack on people who love reading trivia or facts or those who love Jeopardy (I love watching Jeopardy), or go to brewpub trivia. But its interesting how we as society love and value this ‘knowledge gathering’ and hoarding of facts. We all have that one friend who can spout out some random fact or trivia piece about the Otter or the Three Toed Tree Sloth or Uganda or the surface temperature of Io. I do have some great quotes of wisdom versus knowledge that I’ll probably plaster at the end of this article after the full review.

Verification

The biggest thing about a book or anything about facts and trivia is verification. And here we run into the first biggest issue on this book. They say you can’t access a website address to verify the facts in the book…. ……the website address “no longer exists” or “404” or whatever pops up when going to it. A redirect to their main page, or something. And no search on their page turns up an actual ‘fact check’ page. So right out of the gate, thats a huge disappointment.

Especially since there are a lot of dubious facts in the book. Some things like “the only lady in England with X name…” or similar equivalent. Which… ok, sure, but that might be at the time of writing, and the very next second that can easily change, or a ton of other things changeable or just questionable with a trivia fact like that. Especially with no dating or timing or anything else on it. And there are a few ‘facts’ that are also of the spurious nation, things that are not just temporal or timely, but downright just questionable due to how it was worded or things that are not exactly fully verifiable facts to begin with.

The back of the book, on page 337 notes this for its verification:

“A Note on Sources”
For anyone keen to verify any of the facts in the book, they can be found online by going to www.qi.com/US1339 and typing the relevant page number in the source finder. There is also a wealth of additional background detail about much of the information. Please do let us know if you have a quibble or a correction and add your own discoveries via our Twitter account @qikipedia.
1,339 Quite Interesting Facts (Book)

This page: www.qi.com/US1339 does not exist. Redirecting to a “404 page not found” page. And this then leads you to a “shop” page.

Book Review

GoodReads blurb:

From the creators of the hugely popular BBC quiz show QI, a brilliant sequel to their New York Times–best-selling 1,227 Quite Interesting Facts to Blow Your Socks Off.

1,339 Quite Interesting Facts to Make Your Jaw Drop is bursting with mindboggling morsels of trivia—informative, hilarious, sometimes arcane or utterly useless, but always entertaining.

Did you know?

• Wagner only ever wore pink silk underwear.

• There are 34,000 statues of Kim Il Sung in North Korea.

• There is a cult in Malaysia that worships a giant teapot.

• Earthworms have five hearts.

• Your eyebrows renew themselves every 64 days.

• Charles Darwin’s tortoise Harriet died in 2006 at the age of 176.

Every fact in this magnificent little volume has been researched with punctilious care in order to bring you the truth in its purest form.
1,339 Quite Interesting Facts to Make Your Jaw Drop (GoodReads)

The facts come at you hard and heavy and fast in this quick to read but compact and dense volume. There is four facts per page and there isn’t an exact order to any or all of them. You’ll go from Tolstoy learning to ride bike at 67 to The Swiss are the only Europeans to eat dog meat.

Which right there is one of those spurious ‘facts’ as I mentioned earlier. Firstly, its an extremely over generalized comment / fact. Secondly, its extremely loosely defined. I understand what the ‘fact’ above is saying – that the culture of Swiss people accepts eating dog meat and do so regularly; but it also feels – especially now in the modern (2020’s) era, that its just a massive simplification and over generalization. Especially also throwing out the “only Europeans” part too.

Moving on, we come to one that as a “myth” has been debunked by many many many people over the past decades. From page 215:

The lower the ration between a man’s index and ring fingers, the longer his penis will be.

This has been debunked so often throughout the history of sexual knowledge and education. Its also one of the most regularly Googled things (men looking for help on the size of their penis, if their big enough, if their too small, how do you know the size of a man’s penis by looking at him, is there a correlation between feet size and penis, is there a correlation between finger length and penis size, etc etc etc etc). And time and time again it has been shown that there is no correlation.

But here it is in print…. but don’t worry, they have a site you can use to get more information and to fact check right? Oh…. oh no….. that leads a to a ‘404 Not Found’.

Hmmm, so just how many other facts aren’t really facts?

Some more facts:

It is illegal for US Citizens to eat Penguin meat. (217)
Nostophobia is the fear of going home. (83)
Turning up the music 22% in a bar makes people drink 26% more. (97)
Earthworms have five hearts. (129)
One in every seven minutes spent online is spent on Facebook. (268)
You can only see a rainbow if your back is to the sun. (305)

And there is plenty more.

This is a fun volume, and lots of the ‘oh cool’ or ‘oh thats interesting’ or ‘hmmmmmm’ type of trivia and facts. Part of the problem with volumes like this though, is that the facts are presented so fast and furious at you that there’s no real way to retain any of it all. (Outside of looking up these facts, I wouldn’t remember them.) And thats just a hindrance of the style and format of books like this, not necessarily an indication of this book in particular.

Its a perfect book to quick read on the ‘john’ or for car rides and things like this. Its super quick to read if you just read it straight through in a couple of sittings. And its perfect as an accompaniment to things like Mental Floss YouTube videos and the such. Sadly I find that the facts might be things you could quibble on, find fault in, or might be wrong. And as per their own book and site, you can’t fully fact check them, so that’s a big problem for me right there. But I guess, luckily, you are far likely not to remember too many of the facts afterwards anyway, so its a ‘wash’.

My GoodReads rating: **
My LibraryThing rating: **.5
Global Average GoodReads rating: 4.10 (as of 2.1.22)

More Book Reviews

Interested in more book reviews from us? You can check out some of the following:

Quotes

As promised (and almost forgotten) here are some of the quotes I mentioned earlier that I would plaster at the end of the article:

Science is organized knowledge, life is organized wisdom. – Immanuel Kant
Knowledge is being aware of what you can do, wisdom is knowing when not to do it. (Unaccredited)
Knowledge without wisdom is like water in sand. (Genesis proverb)
Knowledge comes from learning. Wisdom comes from living. (Anthony Douglas Williams)
Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience. You need experience to gain wisdom. (Albert Einstein)
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. (Socrates)

Thanks For Reading

Hope you enjoyed this book review. As I make my way through my GoodReads 110 Book Challenge this year, I am hoping to get all or nearly all of the 110 books reviewed for up on the site, so be on the lookout for all of them to accompany all of the beer reviews, hike reviews, brewery reviews, brewery news, and other shenanigans we have going on.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Book Review: Thanks a Thousand – A Gratitude Journey (A.J. Jacobs)

BKline — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 03:25:46 +0000

Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey by A.J. Jacobs

Gratitude

Well, first, before we get into the book, and the book review of it; lets get into gratitude. I know its something I need to work on. I honestly feel like, outside of the Dali Lama and maybe Pope Francis (and maybe even him), its just something that we all need to work on…. and I’m also laying odds that even the Dali Lama would say he needs to work on it.

Many would say its like a muscle, it needs to be worked and exercised regularly. For a good, scholarly, scientific study and article on that very notion and idea, here is: “How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain” by Greater Good Magazine and Berkeley Education.

So that brings us to why A.J. Jacobs wrote his book. He decided he wanted to show more gratitude in his life, and wanted to figure out a way to do so with his writing skills and abilities. (And the cynic in me says – and a way to get a book contract and launch a simple way to make money doing a TED Talk, book deal, and get to do some traveling and discuss his favorite thing – coffee; all at the same time.)

The Book

How this correlates is that A.J. Jacobs (the author) wanted to show his gratitude, by discussing through his book, how he learned to show gratitude for something he took for granted. In this case – coffee. And he was going to show gratitude to everyone and anyone who helped get the coffee to his cup and to his lips and down his gullet.

Since he picked coffee, that means starting at his nearby coffee shop – Joe’s Coffee – and working up (or down?) the metaphorical tree. From barista, to clerks, to the people who made the coffee cup, the coffee lid, the logo, the farmers, the owner or CEO of Joe’s Coffee, to steel mill people, etc.

A.J. Jacobs is known for doing non-fictional ‘gimmick’ type pieces of work. Those books in the vein of “I did X every day for one year” or “I traveled to Y countries in a year”. Some of his books include:

The Know-It All (a book about reading the entire Britannica Encyclopedia)
The Year of Living Biblically (as the name suggests – he lived a year according to the Bible as much as possible)
It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree (a book about family genealogy)
The Guinea Pig Diaries (a book about being used as experiments)

And so – Thanks a Thousand – falls into this trope easily. I don’t want to be too cynical, but, it feels more like “here’s a gimmick, here’s something fun and interesting, here’s something that can attract mainstream attention” and “here’s something that I will enjoy writing and get to do fun things while writing”; rather than truly being about gratitude.

Book Review

I’ve read his “The Know-It All” book and I read his book about family genealogy, and while I must say I did find them interesting, and all, they did strike me as slightly gimmicky, even moreso now reading this, and looking over his history of books and writings. I’m not quite sure how to fully encapsulate that idea or why it is. But the word ‘gimmick’ really stands out with this, and his writings, and his oeuvre in general. Perhaps if he had other books and writings that didn’t rely on a “what if I do something for five months, every day, and write about it”, I wouldn’t think that way of him.

I don’t want to say ‘hack’ or that his writing is hacky or hack-ish. (I find his prose easy and fine to read. And I’m sure most people would say he writes better than me.) But there’s just something to these books. I think some of it, is that we have to take it with a grain of salt. He’s writing these things down post-actions or afterwards, or in a way that we are to assume he wrote some of it while the events were occurring, etc. And I have no doubt to believe he is, and I do not mean to imply in anyway that he is a liar or a cheat; but I think there’s just some level of disconnect. Thinking about him living a year “Biblically” or reading the entire Britannica Encyclopedia, or thanking over a thousand people, etc.

GoodReads Summary of ‘Thanks a Thousand’:

The idea was deceptively simple: New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs decided to thank every single person involved in producing his morning cup of coffee. The resulting journey takes him across the globe, transforms his life, and reveals secrets about how gratitude can make us all happier, more generous, and more connected.

Author A.J. Jacobs discovers that his coffee—and every other item in our lives—would not be possible without hundreds of people we usually take for granted: farmers, chemists, artists, presidents, truckers, mechanics, biologists, miners, smugglers, and goatherds.

By thanking these people face to face, Jacobs finds some much-needed brightness in his life. Gratitude does not come naturally to Jacobs—his disposition is more Larry David than Tom Hanks—but he sets off on the journey on a dare from his son. And by the end, it’s clear to him that scientific research on gratitude is true. Gratitude’s benefits are legion: It improves compassion, heals your body, and helps battle depression.

Jacobs gleans wisdom from vivid characters all over the globe, including the Minnesota miners who extract the iron that makes the steel used in coffee roasters, to the Madison Avenue marketers who captured his wandering attention for a moment, to the farmers in Colombia.

Along the way, Jacobs provides wonderful insights and useful tips, from how to focus on the hundreds of things that go right every day instead of the few that go wrong. And how our culture overemphasizes the individual over the team. And how to practice the art of “savoring meditation” and fall asleep at night. Thanks a Thousand is a reminder of the amazing interconnectedness of our world. It shows us how much we take for granted. It teaches us how gratitude can make our lives happier, kinder, and more impactful. And it will inspire us to follow our own “Gratitude Trails.”
GoodReads: Thanks a Thousand – A Gratitude Journey

There is some interesting anecdotes from the book, and you do learn a little bit about the process behind the coffee getting to your local coffee shop, but it all seems to fall so flat. So little is spent on anything in particular, and its such a quick book, that nothing feels more than skin surface deep. Even his actual comments and work about gratitude itself – the primary thrust of the work – seems to barely scratch pass the epidermis.

I feel like there could be a lot more here. And he does mention an interesting article, “I, Pencil” at one point, which basically follows a similar line as his book does – but about how a pencil is made. (Obviously, without the gimmick behind it all of being about gratitude; but more just about the capitalism and economics side of how the pencil is created.) That sounds inimically more fascinating and interesting than this. This is a hybrid creature of gratitude, capitalism / consumerism, and anecdotes of people who made it all happen, that it ends up flopping around with bird wings, human legs, lion head, and fish gills and can’t breath out of water.

My GoodReads Rating: **
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.73 (as f 11.23.21)
My LibraryThing rating: **

Thanks For Reading

Thank you for reading everyone. We’re nearing the end of November, and so far we have been maintaining our blog article per day. On top of that, we’ve had several days with multiple articles (and even got a new writer – Amy – posting as well.)

Also, be sure not to forget our “Free Beer” giveaway. So check that out here:

Small Brewery Sunday Giveaway

So be sure to hop on that and try and get yourself some free beer! (Because whats the best kind of beer? Free beer!)

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Book Review: Life’s Journey According to Mister Rogers: Things To Remember Along the Way (Fred Rogers)

BKline — Sat, 13 Nov 2021 03:12:00 +0000

Life’s Journey According to Mister Rogers – Things to Remember Along the Way (by Fred Rogers)

Who Couldn’t Use Advice From Mister Rogers?

Seriously? Who couldn’t use advice from Mister Rogers every so often. We all grew up on him. (Unless your like 15 or something reading this.) Even my oldest two daughters know him (14 and 12). He was everyone’s favorite neighbor; he was America’s neighbor. Was, and still is, one of the biggest influences on most people’s lives and they don’t even know it.

So I ask again, who couldn’t use advice from Mister Rogers now and again? Just harken back to the time as a small child, sitting there watching him come in through the door, asking us all “Won’t you be my neighbor?”. The man was simplicity, the man was gentleness, the man was kindness, the man was Buddhist lovingkindness. The man was the Uncle, the father, the neighbor, that we all wanted. He was wise like a sage and as gentle as a monk.

Too little do we think about the wisdom he espoused when we were kids; especially now as grownups. As adults with our busy lives that has us running to and fro, scurrying about like mice in the dark with no lights on. Sadly, we’ve all moved away from the little things he imparted on us – love, kindness, respect, gentleness, compassion, empathy, understanding, listening. And we’ve moved on to – busy, money, work, status, importance, etc.

I know personally I’d trade being busy, working, looking important, and status for passion, empathy, kindness, compassion, and understanding every day of the week.

Life’s Journey

Fred Roger’s wife does a good job with writing the prologue. Discussing their dynamic as a couple, saying how she needed to work at the piano, and how it was her form of creativity. You can see in her how much of his thoughts and empathy and philosophy comes through. The two clearly fed on each other for much, despite as she says, “we gave each other our space”. One of the most poignant things, is her discussing how she still hears him even though ‘he’s no longer in sight’, and then later in the book when we read his poem about not seeing people but still loving them and being with them in spirit, even when they ‘completely move on from sight’.

This book has so much to teach us about going through our own journeys through life. Mainly – how everyone’s is different. He talks about a very well educated man who left seminary school to instead become head of a department store, and how some people said he missed his calling, but was then later checked in on; but he wasn’t there at his work, so the man talked to his co-workers, and they talked about how great he was, how he changed the work culture at the department store, etc; and Rogers says to the effect – ‘and he ended up right where he needed to be’.

Book Review

GoodReads Blurb:

An inspiring collection of thoughts to take with us on the paths we travel in life.

For all the roads we choose to travel, and even those we don’t, Fred Rogers has an observation, a story, some insights to share. Whether you’re facing graduation, a new job, a new baby, marriage, any change in your life–expected or not–the wisdom that Mister Rogers offers can contribute mightily to the grace with which you handle the change.

With sections titled Who You Are Right Now, Loving and Being Loved, and Guided Drift, Fred addresses the scope of human transitions. It all comes down to knowing we’re valuable, and that we’re worthy of that value. As Fred would say, “You don’t have to be anything more than who you are right now.”

In her Foreward, Joanne Rogers shares the Fred she knew. With stories from their life together, the joys as well as the struggles, Joanne shows how Fred looked at life as a journey–with the ups and downs and in-betweens.

Known as “America’s favorite neighbor,” Fred Rogers dedicated his life to serving children through public television as creator, composer, writer, puppeteer, and host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Child Development and was ordained a Presbyterian minister, with the unique charge of working with children and families through television. Fred Rogers’ relentless commitment to all that is best in people led to an astonishing array of honors, from induction into the Television Hall of Fame to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Fred Rogers passed away in February 2003.

Family Communications, Inc. (FCI), founded by the late Fred Rogers in 1971 to produce Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and related projects, continues to expand its reach through early childhood trainings, publishing, and new technologies–perpetuating the values and philosophy of its founder.
GoodReads: Life’s Journey (Fred Rogers)

Fred Rogers (photo courtesy of Wikipedia) (see link below)

Wikipedia’s quick opening summary of Mister Rogers:

Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), also known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister.^[1] He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.
Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, Rogers earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Rollins College in 1951. He began his television career at NBC in New York, returning to Pittsburgh in 1953 to work for children’s programming at NET (later PBS) television station WQED. He graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with a bachelor’s degree in divinity in 1962 and became a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He attended the University of Pittsburgh‘s Graduate School of Child Development, where he began his 30-year collaboration with child psychologist Margaret McFarland. He also helped develop the children’s shows The Children’s Corner (1955) and Misterogers (1963). In 1968, he created Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, which ran for 33 years. The program was critically acclaimed for focusing on children’s emotional and physical concerns, such as death, sibling rivalry, school enrollment, and divorce.
Rogers died of stomach cancer on February 27, 2003, at age 74. His work in children’s television has been widely lauded, and he received more than 40 honorary degrees and several awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. Rogers influenced many writers and producers of children’s television shows, and his broadcasts have served as a source of comfort during tragic events, even after his death.
Wikipedia: Fred Rogers

This is a wonderful short, quick, incisive, and thoughtful book. Its 161 pages, counting prologue, counting acknowledgements, and with a few blank pages. Each page is a paragraph (some paragraphs / thoughts run into two pages) style thought by Fred Rogers, some short, some long. They each express an idea or thought.

You can hear his voice in each piece of this book. You can see him sitting there, taking off his shoes, or coat, coming in from the outside, and telling us these things as we sat there rapt as always as children, now as adults. And this is what we all need to hear from time to time.

Its nothing earth shattering or profound, but its the profound at the time. And coming with the weight and knowledge of Fred Rogers behind it, nothing is an empty aphorism or crappy ‘inspirational quote’ you might hear from “Becky” the girl who peeked in high school and is now trying to sell you Avon or LullaRoe.

He speaks to the children in us as adults, giving us the thoughts and wisdoms we still need, despite growing up. Some of us have moved on, to bigger and better things, some of us have floundered, some of us are still trapped, some of us are working on ourselves, some of us are working to just survive; but we are all working on our journeys. And all of our journeys are different, and that is to be celebrated. It is to be lived, and it is to be human. And that is precisely who Fred Rogers is speaking to with this book – the human progressing through their journey.

My GoodReads Rating: ****
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 4.44 (as of 11.12.21)
My LibraryThing Rating: ****.5

Some Other Recent Book Reviews

Thanks for Reading

As always everyone, thanks for reading. Be sure to hit the like, the follow, the subscribe, and make sure to check out our social media pages and do the same.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Book Review: Buddhism 101 (Arnie Kozak)

BKline — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 19:27:44 +0000

Buddhism 101 by Arnie Kozak, PhD

Book Reviews

In general, I’m going to start trying to do a better job of keeping up with book reviews; where as soon as I read the book and finish it, I’m pulling out the laptop or getting on my desktop computer and opening up the blog, and writing down the beer review. Because as it sits, I have a backlog of book reviews to throw up here on the blog now that I’ve added book reviews to the blog as part of the various sections.

I’m a rather prolific book reader; some might even say ‘voracious’ but thats a cliche and I tend to avoid them (or at least try to). Most years I hit 100+ books as per my GoodReads Book Challenge. This year I set myself up for 110, and I’m woefully behind. (This marks book number 74; though I have about 8 books or so that are all nearing completion). In the old days, before I let life really fully intervene and stress pile up, and everything got backlogged, as soon as I finished a book, I would be doing a quick semi-review / semi-write up thing on GoodReads and it would immediately post to GoodReads and my personal Facebook.

But it seems I am getting further and further backlogged, with articles for the blog, travelogues that are in states of half written or just started or not even written but need to be, old hikes that I did from the summer but haven’t written yet, and now book reviews. I need to get better in the habit of – book closed – or hike completed – or beer drank – and write up the review / article. Now that I have everything kind of condensed on the blog here, I think once I get caught up, my stress of it all will ease up and I’ll be better able to maintain a good steady pace of it.

It will also mean I actually get the articles written 1) on time 2) written period and 3) more written. Keeping myself to the grindstone and making sure I stay in the habit of writing frequently, on time, and as soon as completion, will only help that. Because as you further distance yourself from the event (ie. I finished a day of brewery hopping on Day 2… but start to write it on Day 5… and don’t finish it… by Day 9… I am becoming less and less inclined to write the travelogue) (or if I finish a book on Day 3… by Day 7 I am less likely to write the book review), it seems like you can push and put it off more and more.

So this is my attempt to right that ship and to get into a better habit of writing. Hopefully I can still make the reviews and everything fun to read, wordy, interesting, and with lots of information. I was discussing with a new writer for the blog (she’ll be posting here shortly) about my procrastination with articles seems to stem from all the side stuff. The categorizing, the tagging, the uploading to social media accounts, the making it more presentable, checking SEO rankings, etc, etc. The little nuts and bolts of it all. I love writing and enjoy the writing. Its doing things like copy and pasting HTML code and links, and if I’m writing a beer review with a pop culture reference, tagging things and tying it back in with its property (ie. a Simpsons beer with gifs from the show), that just bogs me down and makes me procrastinate and not write as much.

But not anymore… this is me writing (instead of righting…. see what I did there?) the ship. I just finished this book, and now I am launching into the book review. Huzzah!

The Book Review

Ok, so preamble out of the way. Lets get into my actual book review. Now I am streamlining a bit here. Whereas before I might have done a whole section on the Buddha, on Buddhism, with hundreds of links to various sources, I think I’m gonna opt for simplicity here. (I am also looking to finish Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut today, and having that book review up later tonight as well, where I might do much more of that, especially since today is Vonnegut’s birthday – he would have been 99 today – and its also Veteran’s Day).

At this point, I think most people have a general understanding of The Buddha and Buddhism. If you don’t, here’s two quick Wikipedia links:

This book is a summary of both concepts – the Buddha himself, as well as Buddhism and everything that it all entails. I feel like sometimes / gravitating closer to all the time – that these ‘summary’ style books can be very hit or miss. Either too much information is given and its not really a summary, its a full on dictionary of Event X or Person X or Subject X; or it is such a brief summary that to even get a more rudimentary knowledge of the subject you are digging through websites or running through a bibliography of books.

This is 253 pages of text, plus index and other source notes at the end, and I think it does an overwhelmingly good job of covering Buddhism. I am not an adherent, I do profess that I find it fascinating, I do try my hand at meditation and mindfulness from time to time, but in my ADHD addled brain, and my angst and anxiety, I am horrible at given schedules and times and things and am not perfect (nowhere near it) at keeping to regiments or staying on hand.

My attempts sometimes at meditation and mindfulness is like the old Atari game of pong, but with four thousand balls bouncing around and thirty different paddles. All the while Donald Duck is screaming in the background.

So I have to say I really like Buddhism and what the Buddha stands for. I have read numerous works about the Buddha, read some of the various dharma and teachings, and one of my bucket list goals in life is to trace the steps of the Buddha (as well as Jesus, as well as do the Appalachian Trail). So I have a great admiration for the philosophy / religion and the practice of it.

I am not perfect in my knowledge of Buddhism, but have what I would deem a rudimentary and basic level understanding of it. From karma to the noble truths, to the three fires, the three jewels, sangha, dharma, nirvana, etc. And I also know how Americans / Westerners have misinterpreted much of it. This book does a very good job of righting some of those wrongs. Expressing how karmic values work, and how karma itself works. As well as samsara, and the wheel, etc.

It also does a good job of delving into the aspects of it that makes it more philosophical rather than religious – and vice versa. The book also covers all the various schools, techniques, thoughts, ideas, and expressions of Buddhism and the Buddha.

It gives a great biography of Siddhartha Gotama Buddha and his family life, his path to the middle way, and everything else. It also does a good job of dispelling some rumors and even calls out the beliefs that people have that most likely didn’t happen.

This is a phenomenal starting point for anyone wanting to get a good idea about Buddha or Buddhism. Its not an academic work, its for laypeople and to help give them a clearer understanding and idea of the subject. When checking this into GoodReads I see its part of a series, others in the series include: American Government 101, Astrology 101, Accounting 101, Architecture 101, Anatomy 101, Mythology 101, Grammar 101, Investing 101, Economics 101, Art 101, Management 101, US History 101, Weather 101, Philosophy 101, Poetry 101, Religion 101, US Lit 101, etc etc (some thirty plus books in total).

I honestly only found this because it was in the ‘new non-fiction’ section at the Hershey Library. I find part of why my reading is so eclectic is due to always stopping at the ‘new non-fiction’ and ‘new fiction’ sections right in front of the door when entering. Its the greatest way to broaden one’s ideas and senses – by checking out books that you normally wouldn’t and reading subjects you normally wouldn’t.

I fully recommend this to anyone looking to get more information on the subject of The Buddha, Buddhism, meditation, and/or mindfulness. Its a good read, its quick, well laid out, informative, and written in a nice and concise and fun way.

My GoodReads Rating: ****
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.76
My LibraryThing Rating: ****

GoodReads Blurb:

Learn everything you need to know about Buddhism in this clear and straightforward new guide.

Buddhism was founded thousands of years ago, and has inspired millions of people with its peaceful teachings. Buddhism 101 highlights and explains the central concepts of Buddhism to the modern reader, with information on mindfulness, karma, The Four Noble Truths, the Middle Way, and more.

Whether you’re just looking to understand Buddhism or explore the philosophy in your own life and own journey to Enlightenment, this book gives you everything you need to know!
GoodReads: Buddhism 101 – From Karma to the Four Noble Truths, Your Guide to Understanding the Principles of Buddhism by Arnie Kozak

Other Book Reviews To Check Out

Thanks For Reading

Thank you for reading. And thank you to all of our veterans today, on Veteran’s Day. We appreciate your commitment, and time served, and your honor and duty to America.

Be sure to check back later, after my hike at Hawk Rock, and stop at Liquid Noise, when I should be uploading the book review of Vonnegut’s Armageddon in Retrospect on today – what would have been his 99th birthday.

(And be sure to check out our Instagram page as we are likely to be posting pictures!)

Cheers!

–

-B. Kline

Book Review: How To Be Interesting (in 10 Simple Steps) (Jessica Hagy)

BKline — Sun, 07 Nov 2021 03:58:23 +0000

How To Be Interesting (in 10 Simple Steps) by Jessica Hagy

I Sure Hope I’m More Interesting Now…

I sure hope that after reading this I’m more interesting, because, according to my one daughter, I needed to read this. Footnote: never take your daughters to a public library sale – firstly, it will end up costing you a hundred (+plus) dollars, and secondly, you’ll be guilt tripped or harangued into buying books similar in title to this. Much like my daughter (Lily) did at Barnes and Nobles and harassed me into picking up 1200 Words To Sound Smarter – she also harassed me into getting this, citing that I wasn’t very interesting and could use this.

So for my daughter’s sake (and I suppose my own) I hope this book has rubbed off on me and I’ve become more interesting. (I think it didn’t work though……)

‘Pop’ Books

This falls under that category of ‘self help’ pop books. Like mainstream, popular, pseudo intellectual churn them out style books. Nothing in this is incredibly deep – but sounds like it is on the surface level; like “inspirational” Facebook memes / posts / pictures. The kind of near interesting quotes or sayings that make you go “oh thats deep”… until you spend an extra thirty seconds thinking about it (which most people don’t do – they click LIKE on it, and keep scrolling) and then you realize its not deep at all. Like swan diving into a pond only to find a puddle.

This book will not make you more knowledgeable, nor wiser, nor intelligent. It will not make you enlightened, or help you attain some kind of nirvana. Pick out that one girl you graduated high school with, but haven’t seen in about fifteen years, she sells Avon or leggins or Mary Kay, or some other similar thing, probably has a fascination with crystals and probably knows the best ‘home remedies’ and ‘protect – alls’ against all kinds of diseases. Scroll through her page, and I’m sure you’ll encounter a lot of her ‘inspiration’ memes. Some nifty quote with a beatific nature picture in the background. Thats what this is.

Every page is one such quote, with a Venn diagram to make it look like its more than it is. Its all really just a pad filler. You can practically read this book in less than thirty minutes, all two hundred or so pages, because most pages are just one paragraph, and some are even less, and they all come with a side page of a Venn diagram that you can easily skip over.

Overall

Overall, is there any merit to the book? Ehhh…… I don’t want to say this is utter and complete garbage. But I think it needs to be realized for what it is. It is obviously not a stellar piece of writing or work, and I think it knows that, and I’m sure the author knows that. This is targeting a niche. Aimed at kids just graduating high school, looking to start out on their own, unsure of themselves, but wanting to feel better, more cool, more in.

The idea that this book could make them interesting; possibly to be the life of a party, or to stand out for a potential partner, or for getting a job, or who knows what; is very appealing. And this is hoping to tap into that – that need, that want to become more than the person is.

So I suppose on that level, it does what it sought to do. So on a technical aspect it works. But on every other merit besides that, its a complete ‘nope’ burger. A big fat failure on anything other than achieving the goal of reaching to the lowest common denominator and giving them hope of being more interesting.

(Spoiler alert: this book will not make you more interesting.)

(Double spoiler alert: in fact it will probably do the opposite when people find out you read it.)

This “just is what it is”. Its not memorable, its not illuminating, its just super quick. Need to hit your Reading Challenge for GoodReads? Then this is the perfect book for it. Its a simple, quick run through of buzz words, pop words, catch phrases, and ‘sounds smart but really isn’t’ slogans that eat up a lot of pages and makes you feel more important / smarter after you read it.

My GoodReads Rating: **
Global GoodReads Rating: 3.69 (as of 11.6.21)
My LibraryThing Rating: *.5

Thanks For Reading

As always everyone, thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this book review, be sure to visit some other recent book reviews here:

We’re now done with six days of November, and even going to change the clocks in a few hours (I’m getting this in just in the nick of time, finishing this up at 11:50PM). Six days so far and we’ve hit our goal of a new article every day. So be sure to be checking in daily for more news, articles, blog posts, beer reviews, book reviews, travelogues, and more. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Book Review: Guardians of the Whills (Greg Rucka)

BKline — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 12:55:00 +0000

Guardians of the Whills by Greg Rucka

Disney Canon

Before jumping into the review of this, let’s delve a bit into the Disney Star Wars canon versus the old (now labeled Legends) Expanded Universe canon. This came out around the time of Rogue One (or soon after) and was made to work with the other similar Young Adult (and Adult and even Children’s) literature to work as a larger ‘tie-in’ with the movie. Disney’s Canon (outside of the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy) is pretty vastly different than the old school Legends canon.

This is primarily due to the sequel trilogy and its involvement and change of everything fundamentally post – Endor. They have brought back some aspects of the old canon and integrated it into the new canon, but obviously tweaked, and altered from its origin. The sects and followers of the Force and Jedi is one such example. In the new canon this is represented over some different various sects, religious or not, and followers.

Fast forward to Rogue One and the kyber crystals being more used in the canon, and here we have the introduction of Baze and Chirut who are former Guardians of the Whills who looked after a kyber temple in Jedha. This is one of the few aspects of the new canon that I actually appreciate over the old, or at least as in addition to the old canon. I think there is a lot of story elements and ideas that they can go with and use this for.

Guardians of the Whills

“The Force is with me,
And I am one with the Force;
And I fear nothing,
Because all is as the Force wills it.“
―The Guardian’s Mantra
Guardians of the Whills – Wookiepedia

The above mantra is the one that Chirut repeats to himself several times throughout the movie – Rogue One, as well as he does in various other books / comics / etc that he appears in (like in the novel Guardians of the Whills).

The Guardians of the Whills, also known as the Guardians of the Kyber Temple, were a religious order that existed at least a few years before the Invasion of Naboo. The Guardians later acted as a resistance group^[1] of monks active in the Jedha City on Jedha during the Imperial Era. They traditionally handcrafted the lightbow, a complicated form of bowcaster native to Jedha, such as the one used by Chirrut Îmwe during the Battle of Scarif.^[3] The Guardians protected both the Temple of the Kyber and pilgrims who visited it.
Guardians of the Whills – Wookiepedia

For more information be sure to check out the Wookiepedia page above. Just be careful, the Wookiepedia is a massive rabbit hole (or insert Star Wars themed animal here, gundark hole? sarlaac hole? etc.) that can literally take you hours to crawl back out of. I’ve found myself doing that. Clicking one article to go to another to go to another, after another, after another. Good luck, and May the Force Be With You to see your way back out.

Book Review

Now that we got all of that out of the way, let’s dive into the book and give it an actual review.

GoodReads blurb:

Baze and Chirrut used to be Guardians of the Whills, who looked after the Kyber Temple on Jedha and all those who worshipped there. Then the Empire came and took over the planet. The temple was destroyed and the people scattered. Now Baze and Chirrut do what they can to resist the Empire and protect the people of Jedha, but it never seems to be enough. When a man named Saw Gerrera arrives with grand plans to take down the Empire, it seems like the perfect way for Baze and Chirrut to make a real difference and help the people of Jedha. But will it come at too great a cost?
Guardians of the Whills (Disney Canon – Star Wars Junior Novel) (GoodReads)

This is a ‘young adult’ novel, or a ‘junior’ novel, its relatively short, it has pictures, and pages that are just quotes at each chapters. Its a smaller square hardcover novel. The little poems or philosophies or quotes we get at each chapter add to the universe and the scant knowledge we have of the various Force followers / sects / etc. Its 234 pages and with the larger font, the smaller hardcover size, and the chapter breaks, etc, its a quick read.

One of the complaints about the movie Rogue One was that the characters come off as flat or more plot device based, or woodish and cardboard; this novel goes a long way to providing some insight, some background, and some added backstory to Baze and Chirrut. Arguably two of the more interesting characters to come out of the movie. (I mean, who doesn’t like a Force monk and his gruff buddy who’s given up his religion?)

In many ways this is a study of an odd – couple that have a lifelong friendship despite (or because of) their differences. Chirrut, ever the space Monk, the tidy one, the philosophical, religious, theologian, the clean, the perfunctory, and blind man of faith is juxtaposed by Baze who is gruff, uncouth, rough, harsh exterior yet with a heart of gold, a man of the streets rather than a man of learning or belief. One who has kept his faith despite all that has happened to him, and a man who has lost his faith due to all that has befallen him and his friend.

Baze and Chirrut act as a form of Robin Hood style do gooders, vigilantes on more of a mission of righting wrongs rather than killing for purpose, but as the Empire starts leaning heavier and heavier on the city, squeezing it for all of their kyber crystals; they find themselves working with Saw Guerrera and forming an alliance they rather not really be making with him.

This is a good strong character heavy and introspective novel on two different and interesting characters; especially for a junior / young adult novel. There is some actual sequences (the various little skirmishes in the streets, some other attacks, etc.), but for the most part, this is a drama that plays out in the heads and actions of our two Rogue One characters (Baze and Chirrut). And its done quite well.

Greg Rucka does a good job of getting into these characters, what makes them tick, their differences, their commonalities, their motivations, and leaves them in a good place for the start of Rogue One. This works as a wonderful set up to the movie for these characters.

My GoodReads Rating: ****
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.83 (as of 11.2.21)
My LibraryThing Rating: ****

The Beer Thrillers and Star Wars

For more Star Wars content here on The Beer Thrillers, check out the following:

So far, so good, with the November day to day posts. Two days done so far, and two completed. Yesterday we kicked it off with a Beer Review of Life Sentence by Tattered Flag. Who knows whats in store for tomorrow – the 3rd – and beyond. Be sure to check back and check in often as we kick off this month of daily posts!

(Today’s was a bit of an interesting one, I had about 90% of the article written before I had to leave for work at 9:15AM, worked 10-7PM, stopped at the local high school to vote, and then came home and finished the article. I’m sure there will be plenty more articles and days like this ahead in this November.)

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Book Review: The Words You Should Know to Sound Smart – 1200 Essential Words Every Sophisticated Person Should Be Able to Use (Robert W. Bly)

BKline — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 01:30:00 +0000

The Words You Should Know To Sound Smart by Robert W. Bly

I Be Smart One Day

We all want to sound smart don’t we? Use the best words (the bigliest words? the hugest words?). We all want to sound sophisticated, intelligent, coiffed, suave, debonair, etc….. but how often do we actually come off that way? Perhaps a book like this could help us and make us seem that way; if not actually be smarter – seem smarter. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Well… this definitely won’t do that. Spoiler alert. Sorry.

Different Purposes

There is definitely a weird ‘what is the purpose’ of this book vibe to it. Is it meant to help educate in the sense of actually giving you a better vocabulary? Is it meant to be ‘funny’ or ‘tongue in cheek’? Is it even meant to be worth the merit of the paper its printed on? Who knows…..

When I picked it up, I was shopping at Barnes and Nobles with my twelve year old daughter who pointed out that it was bargain-binned for 4$, and she says I have a good vocabulary – why not increase it. So, it was completely a ‘whim’ buy and pseudo-peer-pressure buy from my daughter.

The back blurb reads:

“So you want to debate philosophical precepts with the intelligentsia? Wax poetic with the literati? Lock academic horns with the clerisy?
You can do all that – and be the life of the every highbrow cocktail party – with this most compendious of voluminous volumes. Master this discerning list of 1,200 deliciously obscure terms and you’ll be tossing around bon mots with the best of the portentous artistes and aesthetes – not to mention impressing the perfervid hoi polloi – in no time!”
Back cover blurb

Whew…. well, there’s a word salad that is tongue in cheek and an attempt to make the book actually sound worthwhile when its completely not.

Now, here’s the GoodReads blurb (and yes, all spelling and grammar errors are on the site, I just copied and pasted):

This book is a tongue-in-cheek guide to words that any well-educated, witty person should be able to drop into cocktail conversation. The reader is encouraged to toss off words such as ?disestablishmentarianism, ? ?descant, ? and ?autodidactic? ?words that will make the user sound learned, intellectual, and wise. For those who want to improve the quality and sophistication of their speech and writing, this is the book to keep on the nightstan
GoodReads Blurb

So which is it? An attempt to make you legitimately have a better comprehension and vocabulary? Or a tongue in cheek satire / poke at the rich and hoity-toity? We may never know….

Review

So… is it any good? Firstly, I flat out nearly gave up on it numerous times. Not so much about the word selection – yes I think I have a halfway decent vocabulary, and knew most of the words (80% at least) and their meanings, but, the example sentences are atrocious and the absolute worst.

I think there is a lot of “attempt” at humor with these sentences. Every single one aimed at the 1%’ers of the world, and the way they can use the words. But, every single sentence reads the same, and its just so obnoxious, pretentious, and flat out boring, that it becomes repetitive and nauseating reading it.

Couple this with the fact that they use words that are in this book to explain other words. That’s just poor form, especially if you read the book alphabetically (since its grouped by letter, starting at A and working your way to Z), don’t be using “noveu rich” and other terms over and over and over in various sentences when you’re still in the C’s and D’s.

On top of this, some of the sentences are used are poorly constructed and just horrible sentence structure. Using the negation of the word to figure out the meaning of the word and giving an example, is just abysmally stupid.

An example of a word, that I had to pick out for this review, because it irked me so much when originally reading it:

“Euphony (YOU-fone-ee) noun
The habit of changing the pronunciation of words or the wording of phrases so they are pleasing to the ear and roll off the tongue with greater ease.
In finishing school, Alsace learned the art of EUPHONY, and she has parlayed that into a hobby of earning roles in television commercials.“
Page 51

What does this even mean? How do you read that sentence and immediately go — “Ahhh, I see, EUPHONY means the pronunciation of words and making it pleasing to the ear…” I can get where the sentence works as it reads, and it is used correctly in that sentence, but as an explanation and way to use it… it just doesn’t work and rings so horrible.

And this might not even be one of the most egregious examples.

Sigh.

I was willing to give the book a pass until I read the author blurb at the end, and thats when it sank from a 2 or 2.5 star review, immediately down to a 1 or even possibly a .5 star review.

And all it needed was one sentence about the author:

“Robert W. Bly is a professional writer and self made millionaire.”
Author Bio – Back Inside Jacket

Either that is also tongue in cheek, or its just dreck and makes me hate this all the even more. Either way, it fails, and just makes the whole enterprise even more hollow and pointless.

My GoodReads Rating: *
Global GoodReads Rating: 3.81 (as of October 17th, 2021)
My LibraryThing Rating: .5

Some other Book Reviews:

-B. Kline

Book Review: On Bullshit (Harry G. Frankfurt)

BKline — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 18:45:41 +0000

On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt

Don’t Step In It

Another ‘philosophical treatise’ that is a bit ‘out there’ that I had to have once I saw it. (Similar to the Assholes – A Theory book by Aaron James). Saw it on the philosophy shelf at Barnes and Noble while my daughter was looking for her manga, and saw it was 9.95$ for 67 pages, and passed on it. Found it on AbeBooks for 2.95$ with no Shipping and Handling, and scooped it up. (Woot…. that’s a 7$ discount….)

Kind of funny how I drew the line there at that, for all of 7$, like looking at the book, I said to my self…. “Nope, 9.95$ is just too much”, but picking it up online for 2.95$ seemed much more reasonable. Maybe it was because my hands were already full of books for me and for books for my daughter, or maybe its because mentally I drew a line at the 67 pages/9.95$ cost and did some kind of mental calculation/algorithm on pages to dollar ratio, I don’t know.

I have been using AbeBooks.com more and more and more and more. Nearly daily I am coming home to 2 – 4 packages of books (each package being just one book, maybe two). Its an independent online seller that lets independent bookstores sell through them to customers. Similar in a way to eBay but with always fixed prices, no auctioning. It is a wonderful resource that helps out small, independent bookstores rather than always just going to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or other big retailers. I once even got a book that came from MidTown Scholar in Harrisburg. (I often forget to check to see who the seller is when selecting the books.) You can visit AbeBooks here: AbeBooks.Com.

Little Quirky Philosophy Books

This falls under philosophy, but at the same time it doesn’t. Its kind of hard to explain it. Like, its the ‘philosophy of bullshit’, if that can be said to be a thing. This was published in 2005, and since then, it has certainly taken on more interest due to the past two election cycles. There’s a bit of a cottage industry of small, stylized essay type books that are somewhat philosophical, like quasi-philosophy, not pseudo-philosophy, but quasi-philosophy. I think this falls into that realm.

I do think there is some meat to this, and I think it is illuminating, especially in regards to where we find ourselves in 2020 – 2021…. but I don’t think its quite as deep as many think it is, especially those on GoodReads with their reviews. Maybe its due to how much I think he spends just breaking down the definition from the Oxford English Dictionary (the OED), and how that makes up for the basis for a lot of the essay, and when the essay itself is only 67 (small book, regular sized font) pages, and he spends 20 or so pages detailing the definition and breaking it down, and discussing it, I find that… …pedantic perhaps would be the term.

Book Review

As the last paragraph eludes to, lets get into the actual review of this work. The essay is 67 pages. Its a small size book, with normal size font, and each page is basically one paragraph or a paragraph and a half (he writes in large paragraphs, but that should still give you an idea of the size and scope of the written word in this book). Like I said above, the first roughly twenty pages are devoted to breaking down the etymology and definition of the word, using primarily the OED but also some other sources.

I understand the idea of breaking down the definition to start off the essay, and it is the right decision and smart thing to do, but I think it becomes belaboring and the point is loss when it takes up nearly one third of your entire essay.

I do enjoy the work, and it was a quick and easy read (less than a day to read it). But at the end of it, unlike many of the reviewers on GoodReads, I didn’t necessarily feel ‘illuminated’. I feel like its a bit looping in a lot of places and feels more like the Professor, Mr. Frankfurt, is trying to amuse himself, more than he is trying to amuse us – and if we get amused as well, all for the better. Like he realized he was getting to write an essay on bullshit, and was getting paid to do it, and found it ironic and funny in and of itself. As if the entire thing was an inside joke.

There is some interesting comments and ideas in the book. And there are a few sardonic or funny lines in it as well. But not enough that really screams that this is definitive, or must read, or even illuminating. I think anyone who would buy a book called ‘On Bullshit’ probably has a strong enough grasp of what bullshit is, that its all self redundant in and of itself. All in all I don’t think there’s enough here or to this, and I don’t think it bestows any kind of wisdom on us or makes us know more about bullshit. At the end of the day, we know bullshit isn’t completely the same as lying, we know people do it for a few reasons, and we know its not always (and often isn’t) done maliciously.

Conclusion

Is it worth reading? I suppose. I’d say this is a more of a fun, quick, ‘library read’, then I would suggest buying it. It’ll be a quick read, and really won’t be as illuminating as the GoodReads reviews tell you. (Its interesting how that word ‘illuminating’ popped up in several of the reviews.)

GoodReads Rating: **
GoodReads Global Average Rating: 3.58 (as of 10.7.21)
LibraryThing Rating: **.5

Be sure to check out our other book reviews, as well as check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, brewery news, and much more here on the blog!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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Book Review: Free Will Explained (Dan Barker)

BKline — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 14:15:00 +0000

Free Will Explained by Dan Barker

Free Will

As I discussed in my last book review on here – Free Will by Sam Harris – (posted yesterday, read back in March), free will, philosophy of the mind, and similar topics are some of my favorites to think about, discuss, debate, and read about in the philosophy milieu.

Dan Barker is a determinist despite his language in the book, he uses the term ‘harmonic free will’ and makes many analogies to music throughout the work. But he comes on the side of Sam Harris and others in that he believes in a deterministic viewpoint of free will.

For those interested in reading more about Free Will, definitely check out my review of Sam Harris’s book, and check out the links at the very end of the article, to some interesting works, as well as YouTube videos. I will also have some reading related links in this article as well. Ones that I think will help readers in general, rather than just about Free Will.

Book Review

Similar to most small philosophy books, this is a quick read. Chapters are two to three pages, with complete page breaks and and empty pages (with re-quotes of his own previous paragraphs on them), chapters have headings and titles and are mostly 3/4th pages.

Aesthetically, the book is really great. The feel of the pages, the overall look and appearance and presentation of the book is top notch, and it look drives buys, and it is definitely in that realm of ‘pop academia’, where, its academic study written to be mainstream and written to be consumed by everyone. Big bold chapter titles, lots of spaces and blank pages, with quotes, and little birds on a telephone wire imagery, so it really has this appeal, and it makes the simple quick read look longer, so it kind of gives that false ‘wow, I’m smart’ feeling to it after you’re done reading it. Its pretty. I like it. But it is what it is, and I’m just pointing that out.

I would recommend reading some other literature on Free Will in advance of this. Not that you have to; but it would help. Primarily as a basis, and a background to this. But also because this does reference quite a few of other works. Mostly Sam Harris’s ‘Free Will’. (Luckily for me I read these in that order.)

The chapters are broken down into small little bites that lead up to bigger fuller thoughts. He gives you a piece of this, a piece of that, and then gives you the whole. He takes a few chapters to build up an idea, presents the full idea to you, and then tells you why this idea matters. The biggest thing is, he comes up with ‘harmonic free will’. Its part of his music analogies.

Harmonic Free Will

His idea of harmonic free will, falls in line with what he calls ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ thinking. He says not everything is compatible on the same line of thinking. That there’s latitude and longitude thoughts. Vertical thoughts and horizontal thoughts. And so this is where he develops ‘harmonic free will’.

His idea of harmonic free will is that he stands by his guns (or attempts to look as if he does) that he’s a determinist. He then builds up the idea that we ‘NEED’ to believe in free will. That we have a ‘societal free will’ and a ‘moral free will’ that we all need to keep in mind. That this is what keeps us moving.

He brings up the case where a small town in 1916 hung an elephant, he discusses his chipmunk friend, and he brings up a few other cases and things of various note to explain this and give it a background. Basically he says while free will might not exist, we have societal free will, and we need to believe in it if we want to keep going as humanity. Otherwise, we are no different than his ‘Little One’ chipmunk friend. That this breakdown of free will is both compatible and incompatible (so he calls it ‘acompatible’ because of the tiered levels of looking at things that he describes).

He kind of has to run in circles to get to this point however. Stating how we have to construct our own societal moral values, and that we only have free will in regards to this societal moral values. That even a person by himself must create his own society onto himself to affect himself to have free will; otherwise he is basically no different than an animal, running on instincts and has no self – autonomy.

Conclusion

This is a bit convoluted, but it gets him to where he wants his point to be. He runs through various analogies to get there. Including Wilson (the volleyball from Castaway) to show how we fabricate our own societies. He discusses the comparisons between societies of people, and animals. But his main thesis of the work is the ‘harmonic free will’, and the ‘acompatibility’ of determinism and free will. Stating that their on two different levels of cross thought, (horizontal thinking vs. vertical thinking) and that doesn’t make one more wrong than the other. Just different. Just at cross points that need to be examined together.

Dan Barker is ordained and a former preacher, and now jazz pianist and writer. He writes as one you might have expected to be a former preacher. He’s not outright hateful of religion and theology – but he certainly paints them in a light here, especially in regards to the free will debate. His prose is nice. Elegant even. He does get a bit convoluted with his analogies. Ultimately this is worth reading. His explanations and thoughts are pretty good, and does add weight and merit to the free will debate. Sadly, his overall argument is a bit lacking, but his writing to get there, while at times convoluted, is interesting. There is a preponderance of analogies, that some might not enjoy. (Especially if one doesn’t get the references.) He also goes on a bit too long about the chipmunks and music too. (Mileage may vary of course on this.)

My GoodReads Rating: ***
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.84 (as of 8.27.21)
My LibraryThing Rating: ***.5

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