Month: November 2024

Books: A New Edition of the Erast Fandorin Series

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Since Boris Akunin’s books have disappeared from sale in Russia, and new ones are no longer being printed, yet readers still want to buy the books about the legendary Erast Petrovich Fandorin, the author has launched a re-release of the entire series under his new publishing house. However, this time, the books will be slightly different. Here’s what Boris Akunin himself has to say:

This is a reissue with an addition. I have included an appendix in each book—’Deciphering’—where I talk about the origins of the plot, prototypes, and more.

In Azazel, for instance, the deciphering section begins like this: ‘This novel, the first of The Adventures of Erast Fandorin, was formed from four components. Or rather, it has four ancestors: two grandfathers and two grandmothers.

In addition to the supplemental content, this reissue features stunning artistic design. Each book will have a beautifully detailed cover, and the endpapers of all the books combine to form an image of Erast Petrovich’s iconic jade beads.

The first book of the updated edition is available for purchase on the author’s website, both in print and electronic formats: https://babook.org/store/7-ebook.

I’m so torn. It’s such a beautiful edition that I wouldn’t even mind spending the money (though my wife definitely would), but I simply don’t have any more shelf space for physical books.

Songs: Tantsy Minus “Step by Step” & “With the Free Wind”

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I am very bad at keeping track of new music releases, even from bands I love. Perhaps there is a service that notifies you when a “new album from a band on your list has been released” — that would be wonderful.

As a result, I usually check for new releases only occasionally, especially before a trip, because I enjoy sitting on a plane, putting on my headphones, closing my eyes, and detaching myself from all the hustle and bustle around me.

This time, for the trip, I decided to load the latest albums of the band Tantsy Minus, which I have loved since their mega-success in 1999. Since then, a few of their songs have remained in my playlist, including my favorite Polovinka from their very first studio album. Vyacheslav Petkun, the band’s leader, has a very unique, raspy voice. But as his career has shown, he is also an extremely talented singer. After all, it was his voice, with its raspiness, that was chosen for the role in the musical Notre Dame de Paris, where the legendary Garou performs in the original. Yet Petkun sang wonderfully in the Russian version too, which I did not expect from him at all.

But let us return to the new albums. At first, I was not particularly impressed by what I heard; some lyrics even left me puzzled. However, I finally got to the last two songs from the album 8. And this is where it truly struck a chord with me.

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Book: Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer “No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention”

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It seems that every large (or simply well-known) company has its unique culture, which is also considered the only correct and successful one. We are all unique, after all. However, the concept of “correctness” and “success” is highly subjective. Yet many want to showcase that they achieved success solely because of their approaches (and that others, therefore, succeeded despite theirs).

First, there was the remarkable book Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull about the culture at Pixar. Then came the very loud, but completely unappealing to me, Principles by Ray Dalio. Finally, I reached No Rules Rules by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who co-wrote this book with Erin Meyer. I frequently recommend Meyer’s The Culture Map almost every time someone asks me about the best books.

This book, like many others, was highly praised by my colleagues, receiving the highest ratings. However, I always strive to form my own opinion rather than follow the masses. I read it. And it took me quite a while to gather my thoughts and finally write my review. This is because it is one of the most controversial books I have read in the past several years.

On the one hand, I will definitely recommend it. On the other hand, I had comments like “interesting, but there are nuances” for nearly every chapter. This is because, as usual, I tried to apply all the described approaches to myself as a manager and to the companies I have worked for. And here, as they say, things became far less straightforward.

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Songs: Dai Darogu! “The Extremist” & “The Coffin on Wheels”

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I’ve never been a fan of the band Dai Darogu!, but when they released the music video for The Extremist, it was so good that I immediately added the song to my playlist. On the one hand, the lyrics seem like “this is absurd, it can’t possibly be true.” But on the other hand, unfortunately, it’s pure truth. All these supposedly “absurd” topics in reality cost the lives of political prisoners in Belarus, whose fate we sometimes don’t know for not just months, but even years. Recently, they finally showed Maria Kalesnikava alive, while people had already stopped believing she was still alive.

By the way, to take the absurdity to an even higher level, in February 2023, a court in Belarus officially declared both the music video and the song The Extremist as “extremist.”

Since the song is in Russian, below is its literal translation.

If you haven’t seen or heard The Extremist, I highly recommend it:

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