As mentioned in my last 'Wrap Up' blog, my this year's reading agenda is set to a specific genre for each month. January was set for 'Contemporary Fiction', whereas February was a month of reading 'Nonfiction Science'. However, since I was on a short holiday back to my hometown, I didn't get a lot of leisure time to read. Yet guilty as charged, I didn't feel like reading even if I managed to spend a day or most of the day in my room back at home. Therefore, I only managed to read 3 books last month. But as I always say, numbers say but so little about the books we read. Though only 3, these books exposed my mind to the infinities of physics and universe as well as to the overwhelming future the humankind might be up against in a couple of centuries. Without much futher ado, here is a list of what I read in February of 2021.
1: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
There might be a reluctance in a general reader, specially one who loves pure literature, to read nonfiction books. Yet what I believe is that reading nonfiction only strengthens the reader in understanding life more fully and conceptually, something literature alone might fall short of. Hawking's book isn't just a book about physics and what it has achieved or is trying to, but about the universe we live in, and ultimately, about ourselves. A book where the most advanced and complex theories of physics are explained in prose that even a child might be able to understand - or specially, the child. Sublime and an essential read according to me.
2: The Hidden Half by Michael Blastland
This book uses the metaphor 'hidden half' to talk about the invisible forces in work that determine the outcomes of almost everything in this world. As advanced and sophisticated our research has gotten, humans are, nevertheless, never too smart to be right all the time. Blastland's book might be unsettling, but it is important for its cautionary tale of how blinded we are by only too few a data that we possess. As Mark Twain said, 'It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so'. This book has some really fascinating case studies to keep the reader's entertained while getting its point across. I, however, did not like this book very much. Maybe because it got a bit repetitive after a while. 3/5 stars it was from me.
3: Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
First read the Sapiens, then read the Homo Deus. You cannot read one and ignore the other, for both of these books, as well as the third book in this series '21 Lessons' which I've not read yet, complement each other so well that combined, they will provide you with all conceptual understanding of humankind, from past to present to future. Harari is a brilliant storyteller and has a mind of a creative thinker. What he hunches is seems so factually true, that you just cannot ignore reading him. This book will shock you, provoke you, entertain you, but most of all, it will enlighten you. Read it, now!
That does it for this 'Wrap Up' edition. I hope to get back on track with reading in the month March again, where I'll be reading Iranian Literature. Oh, it is my favorite!