Category: Books

Notes about everything related to books, including reviews of books I’ve read

Philip Zimbardo “The Lucifer Effect. Understanding How Good People Turn Evil”

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Many have heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment or watched movies inspired by it, but few know the details or the man behind it. Philip Zimbardo is the one who conducted this experiment about 30 years ago. His book The Lucifer Effect is dedicated to several key questions. A large portion of it is a chronological account of the famous experiment and an analysis of its findings. Another significant part is a detailed examination of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, where Zimbardo testified on behalf of one of the accused soldiers. Between these two sections, the author tries to explain the nature of evil. His main point: no one can be sure that, under certain conditions, they wouldn’t turn into a “Lucifer.” At the end of the book, he offers advice on how to prevent oneself from falling into evil.

Since the book is written by the author of the Stanford experiment himself, it’s hard to imagine anyone presenting the subject more thoroughly or thoughtfully. But this is also where the book’s downside lies. There are too many details, and the same ideas are often repeated. At some point, it starts to feel rather tedious.

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Olga Gromyko “As*troheads: Nearby”

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The book “As*troheads: Nearby” by Olga Gromyko is the sixth in the “As*troheads” series. Like the previous book in the cycle, “As*troheads: Before, Between, After“, this two-volume set is another collection of novellas and short stories.

However, I’ve noticed some clear differences. The works in the previous book were loosely connected: two novellas were tied by events, but the rest were simply sketches about beloved characters, some of which didn’t even qualify as full-fledged stories—just brief jokes on the theme.

In “As*troheads: Nearby”, there is a clear chronology of events, and many of the novellas and stories continue from previous ones in the same book. But the most important difference is that this collection introduces a new overarching theme.

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2017 Recap: Best Books

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A lot was accomplished this year, and even more was read. So, my year-end recap for 2017 will focus on books. I’ll choose the best ones and assign categories.

  1. Category “No Comment”: Anna Starobinets “Look at Him“.
  2. Category “A Changing World”: Darren Todd “Pirate Nation” — an excellent portrayal of how digital piracy is reshaping norms.
  3. Category “We Are All Different”: Erin Meyer “The Culture Map” — a book about cultural differences and how they hinder our communication.
  4. Category “A Comic Not for Everyone”: “Saga“ — I rarely read comics, but Saga unexpectedly caught my attention. It’s very strange and definitely 18+.
  5. Category “Strangely About Everything”: Alexey Markov “Hoolinomics” — a look at modern economics through unconventional language.
  6. Category “Games Are a Craft”: Scott Rogers “Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design” — with humor and plenty of illustrations, it shows that making games isn’t magic; it’s something you can learn and apply with enjoyment.

Erin Mayer “The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business”

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Let’s consider an example: an employee (French) and her boss (American) are discussing her work performance. The employee leaves the conversation feeling inspired—she’s exceeding expectations, and she is one of the best. Meanwhile, the boss is left puzzled—he’s tried every way possible to point out how many issues there are in her work, her behavior is inappropriate, but she seems to be ignoring everything he’s said. Think this couldn’t happen? Oh, it certainly can! They’re both acting and interpreting each other based on the cultural codes they absorbed growing up.

I would’ve been just as puzzled myself if I hadn’t interacted with people from all over the world at work. I’ve seen and experienced situations like this firsthand. Knowing just a common language isn’t enough because your personal experiences and cultural background unconsciously shape your behavior, and you evaluate others through the lens of your own cultural perspective.

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Olga Gromyko “As*troheads: Before, Between, After”

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“As*troheads” (earlier versions known as “As*trobiologists”) is the second long-running series by Belarusian writer Olga Gromyko. Her first series, about a witch, brought Olga recognition and a dedicated fanbase. Since then, she has written standalone books and smaller series, but “As*troheads” has been around for over six years, and the adventures of the characters are far from over (in fact, a new two-volume edition was just released).

The book “As*troheads: Before, Between, After” is the fifth in the series, but chronologically, it spans across various points in time, as the title suggests. It’s not a single narrative but rather a collection of novellas and short stories that cover events from before the first book to after the fourth.

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Alexey Markov “Hoolinomics. Rogue Economics. Financial Markets for Those Who Couldn’t Care Less”

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Honestly, I came across this book completely by chance, and it was the title that grabbed my attention. So, kudos to the marketers (or maybe the author himself) for that.

The topic of economics and finance has always interested me, but somehow it always eluded me. In my work, I often approach projects from a business and budget perspective, but as a science, economics never really clicked for me. It all started at university, where I managed to score a failing grade on my economics exam. Over the summer, I read Economics, really got into it, and almost got a perfect score on the retake, but I declined an additional question because I just didn’t expect to go from failing to excellent.

Since then, the subject has popped up now and then—after all, work is always about business, and business is always about finance and economics.

But let’s get back to the book.

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Maxim Dorofeev “Jedi Techniques: How to Tame Your Monkey, Empty Your Inbox, and Save Mental Fuel”

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Max Dorofeev’s training on the “empty inbox” technique has recently become very popular among many of my colleagues and in the IT sphere overall. Probably because many of us are familiar with the feeling of having too many emails, too many tasks, with everyone working at full speed, yet the workload only seems to increase. At some point, many realize that things can’t continue like this.

This leads to a frantic search for books on self-organization, time management, and various “silver bullet” methods that promise to solve everything.

Before writing his book, Max Dorofeev successfully toured with his training sessions and also conducted webinars on the same topic. I participated in one of them myself, but I was curious to see what he compiled under the cover of the book.

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Dina Rubina “The White Dove of Cordoba”

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I probably would have never picked up a book by Dina Rubina on my own. Nothing personal, it just didn’t seem interesting. But my wife read it and insisted that I absolutely had to read The White Dove of Cordoba—that I would definitely enjoy it.

The most interesting part is that, overall, I did like it. But as I read, my opinion of the book swung wildly between “really enjoying this” and “this feels like some kind of women’s fiction.” At first, the latter impression was winning out.

The narrative jumps between the present day and the story of the main character, Zakhar Cordovin, his family, childhood, and coming of age. And it’s the modern-day sections of the novel that are the least engaging—they felt the most “feminine” to me. I was especially annoyed by the courtship and sexual scenes. You can just tell that a woman is trying to convey a man’s feelings, and I kept wanting to skip those parts.

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Sun Tzu “The Art of War”

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The book is, of course, interesting, if only because it’s so frequently referenced. Many of the ideas are quite thought-provoking, especially in the context of warfare and strategy in general. However, more than half of the book consists of commentary and footnotes. And the main takeaway from these is that no one really knows what Sun Tzu actually meant. Everyone interprets it in their own way.

And that’s all I have to say about this treatise.

Kornei Chukovsky “Alive as Life”

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The book Alive as Life carries the subtitle “A Conversation about the Russian Language,” and indeed, its structure feels more like a conversation. It covers several topics, all of which are related in some way to the development of the Russian language.

It’s clear that the author had a deep love for his native language, cared for it passionately, and wanted future generations to preserve and enrich it. Perhaps that’s why he begins the book with a chapter discussing changes in the language—how the younger generation brings new elements, while the older generation resists these changes with all their might. Kornei Chukovsky wrote this 55 years ago, and it’s already evident how much the language has evolved since then.

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