aside from a bunch of game books at the begining of the summer, and a reread of Dune and some science fiction by Theodore Sturgeon (of the Ray Bradbury era of scifi) my reading has been what some might consider dry.
"Lies My Teacher Told Me." Good book, takes a look at highschool history classes in the U.S. and why it's one of the worst subjects for students, history text books have gross inacuracies (and in some cases out right lies) and how history classes in general tend to avoid topics like racism and segregation, U.S. foriegn policy, and leader responsibility. It's a strong critique but it's interesting in the amount of history it divulges as it's critiquing.
"A History of Knowledge." Over all i liked this one, it explored philosophy, science and religion through the ages. it's very western in it's paradigm though and little acknowledges asia (Chinese primarily) influence or discoveries (which often times pre-dated the same european discoveries by hundreds of years). it's interesting though, to see how things are related.
"1421: The Year China Discovered America" This book was fasinating. the author, who's interest in renasaince cartography led him to begin researching this idea earnestly about 15 years ago, is not the only one that holds to this theory, but he is probably the first westerner that is so passionate about it, and the most vocal. He has alot of very good evidence (and some that may be stretching it a bit) for this book, and as Archeological digs that he has arranged begin to occur, more evidence will either surface or sink him. One interesting note, only in the west (europe and american, and australia and new zealand though the evidence of large scale mining projects and chinese architecture are hard to argue against) is the idea that China discovered america not popular amoungst the historians. Else where in the world it is quite common. Just finished this one and i'm moving on too....
"Freakonomics." i've actually read two chapters out of this and .... this is a book about the quirkiness of the world, and the way it works. pretty interesting.
so that's what i've been reading.
posted by F.G. Shaw @ 7:19 AM
3 Comments:
I used to read. Books (Star Wars), now I just re-read comics (star wars) in the "home office".
Wouldn't be surprised to see this one catch on...I remember when it used to be considered HIGHLY controversial to suppose that the Vikings may have found the Americas prior to Christopher Columbus...I don't recall having heard anyone come right out and confirm it yet, but there's so much archaeological evidence that it's altogether plausible. So, why not from the opposite coast, as well?
he posits that they were on both coasts. that they traveled around cape horn and sailed through the straights of magellan in this time. his most solid evidence is from the europeans however: mostly thier charts, and an account by a venetian who traveled with the chinese (So he claimed) during this period. there are also claims in both Columbus's journal and the journals of some of Magellans men that they had seen charts depicting lands to the west. (Magellan claimed to have seen the passage of the straits of magellan on a chart while he was living and working for the king of Portugal). there are also stories around this time of men from Cathay in giant ships raiding Greenland (it appears in a couple of small accounts) which at least seem interesting. also some early travelers (not nessecarily settlers) to the northern coast of americas report seeing settlements of stone houses and women dressed in the style of the far east, this is early 1500.
there are a couple of archeological digs in the process of being done on the island of Bimi, that may either confirm the authors theory, or still leave it up in the air. there's more evidence (some of it stretching a bit) but i personally am convinced that the chinese did make it at least to the pacific coast, and very likely to the to the east coast as well (which requires more solid evidence than the west coast given the distance of china). it's worth checking out.
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