How to Do Nothing 

By Jenny Odell

256 pages

Published April 9, 2019 by Melville House

I’m not sure how I came to read this. It was on my audiobook file. I turned it on accidentally, and then was intrigued by the subtitle. So, I gave it a shot.

I’m about halfway through it now. And I have a theory about how it got onto my audiobook file. It is the sort of book, like The Maid (reviewed here on Feb. 25), that is destined for success. Topically interesting. Politically correct. And lush with complex sentences.

In fact, it was one of President Obama’s “Favorite Books of 2019.”

Unfortunately, the complexity is mostly in its literary style. The thought content is wide, but not deep. The analysis is superficial. The fundamental perspective is anti-capitalist, in the most unexamined way. And the solution it offers – dropping out while still caring (by staying anti-capitalist) – well, it’s only helpful for people who, like the author, make their living as entertainers or educators.

What I Like About How to Do Nothing 

* Odell admits that she is speaking from a privileged position and that “not everyone” can get paid good money to do the sort of thing she’s doing.

* She is right in saying that we can and should “refuse calls for our attention that do not serve us and reclaim our attention, directing it towards people and places and activities that we personally value.”

What I Don’t Like 

As I said, I haven’t finished the book. I don’t know if I will. That’s because my “don’t likes” outweigh my “likes.”

* Her analysis of the “problem” – capitalism – is inexcusably naïve, even for a university teacher. Her view of what’s wrong with the world today? “The colonization of the self by capitalist ideas of productivity and efficiency” and this idea that “we should all be entrepreneurs.”

* Her remedy to the problem: Refuse to do any sort of work that you don’t want to do. Find a job, such as teaching performance art, in a good university or become a writer.

Two examples from the book on how to refuse the demands of attention economy and “do nothing”: (1) Diogenes, whose contribution to philosophy consisted of walking backwards and other exhibits of performance art. And (2) Bartleby the scrivener, Melville’s lovable dope who, whenever asked to do a simple job, replied, “Thank you, but I prefer not to.”

Critical Reception 

How to Do Nothing was named one of the best books of the year by many critics, including those from Time, The New Yorker, NPR, GQ, Elle, and Fortune.

* “A complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto.” (Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times Book Review)

* “Approachable and incisive…. The book is clearly the work of a socially conscious artist and writer who considers careful attention to the rich variety of the world an antidote to the addictive products and platforms that technology provides…. [Odell] sails with capable ease between the Scylla and Charybdis of subjectivity and arid theory with the relatable humanity of her vision.” (Nicholas Cannariato, The Washington Post)

* “An erudite and thoughtful narrative about the importance of interiority and taking time to pay close attention to the spaces around us.” (Annie Vainshtein, San Francisco Chronicle)

About Jenny Odell 

Jenny Odell is an artist, writer, and educator based in Oakland, CA. In 2015, she started an organization she called The Bureau of Suspended Objects. She was then “artist-in-residence” at Recology SF, a.k.a. the San Francisco dump. Her “work” there, which consisted of scavenging, photographing, and detailing the histories of objects that had been thrown out, culminated in an exhibition and archive intended to bring attention to the resources involved in the objects’ production and consumption.

Click here to watch Odell discussing How to Do Nothing.

Romeo and Juliet 

By William Shakespeare

Probably written between 1591 and 1596

Both film versions of West Side Story (1961 and 1921) are very good in so many ways. But watching them, I was constantly reminded of the dramatic scenes and beautiful speeches of the Shakespearean tragedy on which they were based.

So, I found my collection of Shakespeare’s plays and read Romeo and Juliet again. And it happened again. Two thoughts: “Shakespeare really was the greatest ever writer in the English language.” And, “Why do I read anything else but Shakespeare?”

Romeo and Juliet is not Shakespeare’s best tragedy. But it may be his most popular. It is certainly the most imitated/emulated/revised/modernized, etc.

If you have never read a play by Shakespeare, do yourself a favor. Read Romeo and Juliet now. Click here.

And there are many versions of the Romeo and Juliet story that you might enjoy.

Click here for a list of film adaptations.

And click here for a list of tales about similarly star-crossed lovers.

Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything 

By Kelly and Zack Weinersmith

368 pages

Published Oct. 17, 2017 by Penguin Press

Soonish is a fun and fascinating look at transformative technologies that are just around the corner – from robot swarms to nuclear-fusion-powered toasters. Through research and interviews with scientists, the Weinersmiths explore why these innovations are useful, how they might work, and what obstacles for implementation stand in their way.

A brief list of technologies covered:

* Space Exploration: It’s expensive to get into space. The solution, according to Soonish, is space planes, space elevators, and asteroid mining.

* Fusion Power: Something is going on at Sandia Labs with an experiment known as the MagLIF project. It has to do with fusion – splitting atoms. I didn’t understand it, but it sounded exciting. I’ll have to read that chapter again.

* 3-D Printing of Houses: In China, the company WinSun has cleared an impressive hurdle. The company prints the walls and other components of the house, layer by layer, in its factory, and then assembles them on site.

* 3-D Printing of Human Organs: This is a field of study that is well advanced but stalled. The challenge lies in figuring out how to recreate the tiny blood vessels that are vital to organ function. But have no fear. At Rice University, a team led by Dr. Jordan Miller has been working on it.

* Programmable Matter: This sounds crazy, but Soonish imagines a future house that can change its structure depending on the weather. The Weinersmiths argue that this is not just possible, but already in the works.

* Synthetic Biology: An emerging field of study that relies on DNA manipulation to eradicate disease. Recently, biologists figured out how to manipulate the bacterial immune system in a way that allows them to cut DNA at a specific location, remove a piece from one organism’s DNA and add it to another’s. The technology (CRISPR-Cas9) could enable us to do things like cut potential diseases out of human embryos or change the eye/hair color of your future child.

* Precision Medicine: A better and quicker way to diagnose and treat sickness and disease using biomarkers that may be able to instantly detect any unwanted molecules entering your bloodstream, cancerous growths, or even symptoms relating to depression.

* Brain Computer Interfaces: Who knows where this field will lead us? Right now, progress is being made on developing brain-computer interfaces to fix problems like blindness and paralysis. And a deaf patient can now receive a cochlear implant, which uses a small microphone to deliver sounds to a receiver in the patient’s skin. The receiver then translates the sound into electrical signals that are sent to the inner ear. The result has been described as sounding like a low-quality cassette tape recording, which is still far better than silence.

Critical Reception 

“An entertaining look at future tech wizardry, from space tourism and asteroid mining to nuclear fusion power, matter replication, synthetic biology and direct brain-computer interfaces…. The text is very well-researched, with a casual, friendly style (‘Tinkering with the language of life. What could go wrong?’), and color cartoons add a wry counterpoint to the narrative of a future that, as always, might be utopia or disaster.” (Steven Poole, Wall Street Journal)

“Curiosity is a beautiful thing, and Kelly and Zach Weinersmith have it in spades. Their coauthored Soonish is an unabashed nerd-out of a book, zinging from outer space to DNA, hardly pausing for breath…. The gleeful geeking out makes for a great read – I couldn’t help chuckling or outright cracking up a number of times – while surreptitiously teaching some really important science. It’s a winning combination. The sheer breadth of topics covered is also amazing: Probably no other book in history has seriously described the science behind both tentacle construction robots and the human nasal cycle.” (Colin McCormick, Science)

“Fans of science, math, or medicine; gamers; and those who love the weird and wonderful will gravitate to this volume.” (School Library Journal)

TS recommended it to me a few weeks ago. I bought it and put it on top of my “recently recommended” pile.

I might have gotten to it a year from now, but the title intrigued me. So, I picked it up and started reading. It was an easy read. I finished it that evening.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree 

By Eric Barker

320 pages

Published May 16, 2017 by HarperOne

Barking Up the Wrong Tree follows the template of all bestselling self-improvement book by asking, “What are the traits of uncommonly successful people?” But it distinguishes itself from the pack by offering up lots of insights into success that run against the grain, by providing lots of evidence to support those insights, and by bringing them to life with lots of entertaining facts and stories.

What I Liked About Barking Up the Wrong Tree 

Many of Barker’s observations differ from conventional wisdom. (I don’t trust conventional wisdom.) Most of those jibe with observations I’ve made and written about over the last 22 years.

For example:

* There are two kinds of business leaders – corporate executives (who make predictable decisions) and entrepreneurs (who make unpredictable decisions).

* Networks are powerful. It’s as true at IBM as it is with small businesses.

* It’s not enough to do good work in a corporate environment. You have to get noticed. Which usually means you have to toot your own horn. Be modest. Give credit to others. But be sure key people know what you’ve done.

* Quantity produces quality. People that do great work tend to have been doing more work. This has always been my strategy. It is part of my Ready, Fire, Aim philosophy.

Critical Response 

* “Whether you are a connoisseur of self-help books, or despise them, you won’t be able to resist this recipe for living a better life.” (Robert Sutton)

* “Delightfully puckish, evidence-backed and full of insight, this book answers questions about success that have puzzled us for far too long.” (Adam Grant)

* “This book is compelling because Barker’s irreverence is so consistently on-target, relentlessly puncturing the wisdom balloons that most need bursting.” (Robert B. Cialdini)

Click here for a discussion about the book with Eric Barker.

And click here for a short video takeaway from the book.

10 Very Good Books on Writing 

On Monday, I answered a question asked by the son of a friend. He wanted to know what books he should read to improve his skills as a writer.

Three titles came to mind immediately: The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, On Writing by Stephen King, and On Writing Well by William Zinsser.

I thought I’d extend that list today. So, here are 10 of the best books I’ve read about writing.

1.- The Elements of Style

By William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

It is short. It is simple. And it is also the undisputed champion of how-to-write books. It lays out the must-know rules of grammar and usage and sets the standard for prose style. I can’t even remember how many times I’ve read it or recommended it.

2.- On Writing Well

By William Zinsser

There is a reason this was one of my top three: It is just so clear and straightforward and common-sensical. Zinsser has a talent for getting to the heart of any matter he deals with. And he does that here so helpfully for beginning writers. He touches on all the most common mistakes new writers makes and provides ways to avoid them.

3.-On Writing

By Stephen King

Stephen King is known as a master of the American thriller, but he’s also a very good writer of literary fiction and essays. This book has two parts: The first is about his childhood attempts at writing. And it’s good fun. The second provides insights and advice on the technical aspects of writing – developing plot and characters and facing the blank page.

4.-Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

By Roy Peter Clark

Like Elements of Style, Writing Tools is treasure trove of good ideas and practical tips on becoming a better writer, packed tightly into a single, slim, readable volume.

5.- The War of Art

By Steven Pressfield

“Being a writer, to Pressfield, is no more glamorous than being a plumber. A professional shows up every day and ‘fixes a toilet.’ I doubt any book has had a more positive influence on my writing life than this one.” – Donald Miller

6.- The Writing Life

By Annie Dillard

The core message here is “Kill your darlings” – i.e., don’t fall in love with your words. Be tough. Even brutal. Writing well is a great deal about cutting away everything that is unnecessary.

7.-Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

By Anne Lamott

Lots of helpful hints mixed in with engaging little stories and inspiring advice about how to push through the hesitations and setbacks and build your masterpiece, bird by bird.

8.-Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

By Natalie Goldberg

Solid advice and smart strategies for non-fiction writers, including how to start brainstorming, the importance of learning how to listen, the vital role verbs play in writing, and even how to find an inspiring place to write. No matter the stage you’re at with writing, this inspiring read will give you the encouragement you need to keep going.

9.- Zen in the Art of Writing

By Ray Bradbury

A collection of essays about writing written by a very good and accomplished writer.

10.- The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way

By Bill Bryson

Whatever the subject, I’ve never read a book by Bill Bryson that didn’t delight, amuse, and inform me. This is no exception.

And here’s one more – a book I haven’t read yet… 

The Sense of Style

By Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker offers a new take on some of the classic writing manuals. In The Sense of Style, he analyzes examples of modern prose, pointing out fantastic writing styles from those he considers awful. To help you improve, Pinker also provides tips to spruce up lackluster work.

A Cry From the Far Middle 

By P.J. O’Rourke

320 pages

Published Sept. 15, 2020 by Atlantic Monthly Press

Several years ago, I met P.J. O’Rourke at a small event at a private, lodge somewhere. We were speaking on the same panel. He seemed affable and approachable. I’m sure I could have had a chat with him, but I was in a mood. Alas.

When I heard that he died on Feb. 15, I suggested to my fellow Mules that we read one of his books in honor of his passing. They agreed. And so, I came to read A Cry From the Far Middle.

I had read many of his individual essays, but this was my first P.J. O’Rourke book. And it’s a good read. It has the wit and intelligence you would expect from O’Rourke, but there is something else that made it especially sweet. Although there was no mention of it, I felt like he knew this was going to be his last book. It felt like he was writing a farewell to the world.

What I Liked About It 

* O’Rourke’s prose style: Casual but elegant, piquant but restrained, funny but serious.

* His intelligence: He is very good at showing the idiocy and/or hypocrisy in commonly held views.

* His moral posture: He lampoons, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously. There is a humility to his satire.

What I Didn’t Like So Much 

P.J. O’Rourke is smart. And funny. But I wouldn’t call him profound. That’s not a criticism of him or his writing, but of my expectations. I was expecting a Jordon Peterson, a Steven Pinker, a Yuval Harari – i.e., a revolutionary thinker. Of course, a writer doesn’t have to be profound to lampoon popular thought and political idiocies.

Critical Reception 

“[P. J. O’Rourke] occupies a rare place among the laughing class: He has somehow avoided the orifice obsession that captivates many of its members; he identifies as Republican; and he is no mere thumb-sucker, having visited more than 40 countries to report on wars, regime changes, economic revolutions and the experience of drinking cocktails garnished with the poison sacs of cobras.” (Wall Street Journal)

“Outspoken conservatives have long been a minority in comedy, particularly in the mainstream media, which provided an opportunity for P.J. O’Rourke, who for decades cornered the market for prominent right-wing humorists…. If his wry essays have a mission statement… it’s this: Starchy Republicanism is really, really fun.” (New York Times Book Review)

“O’Rourke employs sweeping generalizations, over-the-top screeds, unconvincing self-deprecation, and, above all, gale-force sarcasm. His meld of serious comment and attempted humor is an unhappy marriage, and even longtime O’Rourke devotees may not be sure where one ends and the other begins. The author has become a more jocular, less verbose version of William F. Buckley.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Click here for an interview with P.J. O’Rourke about A Cry From the Far Middle.

Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm 

By Thich Nhat Hanh

176 pages

First published Jan. 1, 2012 by HarperOne

This was a Christmas book – a stocking stuffer that fit easily into my reindeer stocking hanging on the mantle. I put it in the bookcase where I keep books that have been given or recommended to me. Since it was a thin book, it was selected well ahead of others that have been in that bookcase for years. (Plus, it was given to me by a relative that was going to be asking, “So, did you read it? What did you think?”)

What I Liked About It 

* It’s wise.

* It’s poetic.

* It’s unpretentious.

* It’s a quick read. (Did I already say that?)

What I Didn’t Like So Much 

It’s replete with thoughts that, however wise, are so familiar that I thought it might have been better published as a Thought-of-the-Day calendar.

About the Author

According to the NYT, Thich Nhat Hanh “ranks second only to the Dalai Lama as the Buddhist leader with the most influence in the West.”

The jacket cover describes him as a “Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master, poet, scholar, peace activist, and one of the foremost spiritual leaders in the world – a gifted teacher who was once nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr.”

And there’s this from Facebook, posted after Hanh’s death on Jan. 22 at the age of 95: “Ordained as a monk aged 16 in Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh soon envisioned a kind of engaged Buddhism that could respond directly to the needs of society. He was a prominent teacher and social activist in his home country before finding himself exiled for calling for peace. In the West, he played a key role in introducing mindfulness and created mindful communities (sanghas) around the world. His teachings have impacted politicians, business leaders, activists, teachers, and countless others.”

The Maid 

By Nita Prose

304 pages

Published Jan. 4, 2022 by Ballantine Books

The Maid was the March selection of my book club, The Mules. I didn’t finish it. I couldn’t .

This book is absolutely the worst piece of garbage I’ve read since I can’t remember when. It should be consigned, along with Where the Crawdads Sing and Bridges of Madison County, to the eighth circle of literary hell. The eighth circle is reserved for sinners guilty of fraud – and The Maid is, on every possible literary level, a fraud.

The Plot  

Molly Gray, who struggles with social skills and interpreting the intentions of others, relies on her “Gran” (who raised her) to help her make sense of the world. She works as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, and loves her job, because, in addition to her naiveté, she’s OCD about cleanliness and order. All is fine until (1) Gran dies and (2) she discovers the corpse of a Mr. Black when she goes to clean his hotel room. Being the first to discover the body, the police consider her to be a Person of Interest. And before she knows what’s happening, she is suspect number one in a murder case.

What I Liked About It 

Nothing.

What I Didn’t Like About It 

Everything.

The plot is trite and predictable, which is a mortal sin for a novel that presents itself as a mystery.

The main characters are one-dimensional and artificial.

* Mr. Black, a successful businessman, is an Evil Rich White Guy who cheats and steals to earn his wealth, exploits his employees, and abuses every woman that passes through his life.

* Molly Gray (Get it? Black/Gray) is a neuro-atypical maid who lives invisibly until she happens upon Mr. Black’s corpse.

* Gran is Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey.

* Mr. Preston, the kind old doorman, turns out – of course – to be Molly’s grandfather.

* Juan, the deus-ex-machina romantic hero, is an honest, humble, and exploited Mexican immigrant.

* Giselle, the wife of Mr. Black, is a manhandled gold digger with a heart of gold.

And the secondary characters are even worse.

The style suffers from dissociative identity disorder. (See “Good to Know,” below.) That’s because the book begins as a Whodunit, but then mutates jarringly and disturbingly to a True Romance novel about three-quarters of the way through.

The diction mutates, too. It begins with restrained literary touches, but then steadily transmogrifies into an unrestrained indulgence in the most hackneyed and florid language one can imagine. Molly’s diction is a good example. In the beginning, it is imitative of the Sam character in the Netflix series Atypical, which works. But by the middle of the book, her command of the English language is nothing less than Shakespearean. Not real Shakespeare, but the sort of Shakespeare you’d expect from Saturday Night Live. And when Molly isn’t gilding the literary rose, the author is – mostly by inserting unneeded adjectives before every other noun. You won’t find “rubbish” standing alone in The Maid. It’s going to be “utter rubbish.” And Saran wrap can’t be just plastic wrap. It has to be gossamer thin.

And finally, the world view that shapes this novel is a cornucopia of past and present Woke ideas – from the purity of the simpleminded to the heartlessness of Classism to the wickedness of Capitalism to White privilege, the male hierarchy, and the Me Too movement. But the worst of it is the morality. That lying and cheating, plotting and entrapping, manipulating and whoring, are all acceptable means when the end is Woke.

Critical Reception 

After what I’ve said, you might conclude that I believe the author is an airhead. On the contrary, I believe that Nita Prose is very smart and knew exactly what she was doing in writing this novel. In fact, I wouldn’t call it writing. This is a constructed work of fiction, designed and assembled, cliché by cliché, for a very particular purpose. Either to get onto the bestseller lists, or – and this is my secret hope – to make fun of bestsellers generally and literary fiction in particular.

Keep in mind that Prose is not some literary ingénue writing from a basement in Amherst. She is Vice President and Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster Canada. (And by the way, her given name isn’t Prose. It’s Pronovost.)

So in scanning for reviews, I expected to find two things. A call-out or two by readers, like me, who knew or guessed what she was up to. And a slew of scathing critiques, like mine. But there were neither. I found nothing but positive to very positive comments.

Here are two examples:

* “Prose threads a steady needle with the intricate plotting, the locked-room elements of the mystery, and especially Molly’s character…. The reader comes to understand Molly’s worldview, and to sympathize with her longing to be accepted – a quest that gives The Maid real emotional heft.” (New York Times Book Review)

* “The Maid is such an enjoyable read that I was sad when it ended…. To use one of Molly’s favorite words, a ‘delight’ from beginning to end.” (Washington Independent)

I did, though, find this objection in an otherwise positive review:

* “Unfortunately, the author felt a need to throw in a kitchen sink of social issues along the way, which took away from the charm of the story. Illegal immigration, domestic abuse, drug running, euthanasia, with the latter being the most egregious and out of character. I suspect it was added as an agenda of the author’s. She should have restrained herself. Unfortunately, stereotypes abound in the minor characters, especially the maid staff, and the ridiculous side story about an illegal immigrant was eye-rolling and offensive.” (Jan B on Goodreads)

How to explain a book this bad getting such universally good reviews? Here’s my theory. I believe this is, and was meant to be, a gag. A literary hoax.

I believe Ms. Prose (probably with the support of some of her friends at Simon & Schuster) wrote it as a parody of bestselling genre fiction – detective stories and romance novels.

If I’m right about that, I have nothing but the greatest admiration for her. If, however, this was meant to be a calculated way to become a bestseller, I feel ambivalent. I admire her skill, but rue her cynical view of the reading public. (Which, in any case, turns out to be true. The high level of praise for The Maid marks a low point in American taste and intelligence.)

We’ll probably never know what Ms. Prose’s intentions were, because she got a movie deal out of it – and she’s not going to do anything to spoil that.

By the way… The Maid was inspired by a nonfiction book: Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land. I haven’t read it. (I intend to scan it.) But I did begin watching the movie that was made from it, which is – so far – not bad. You can watch the trailer here.

Nightmare Alley

By William Lindsay Gresham

304 pages

Originally published in 1946 by Rinehart & Co.

Every so often we Mules (my book club) select not just a book of the month, but a movie to go with it. Our book for January was new to me: Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham. And we watched two film adaptations with the same name – one from 1947 and a recent remake that is still playing in theaters.

Nightmare Alley is the story of the rise and fall of Stan Carlisle, from hapless young carnival hustler to nightclub magician to mentalist-preacher-con man of the social elite. Gifted and ambitious, he’s not the only morally questionable character in this inverted bildungsroman. The entire population of the novel is comprised of broken and incomplete and self-interested people trying to make their journey through Gresham’s social landscape of fate and failure.

Nightmare Alley is The Grifters meets Freaks. It’s Jim Thompson meets Tod Browning meets Dostoyevsky. It’s everything you could want from noir fiction with an extra dash of fatalism lifted from the darkish lyricism of Cormac McCarthy.

In short, it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

What I Liked About It 

* As I said, it has the best elements of noir literature – grim, dark, fatalistic. A view of human nature through gray-colored glasses.

* Riveting interior monologue – as good as John D. MacDonald’s.

* Vernacular dialog equal to James Ellroy’s and Dashiell Hammett’s.

* Lots of vivid and elucidating details about the carnival world.

What I Didn’t Like 

It was long. And I don’t like long books because I don’t have a lot of spare time to read. But I half-read and half-listened to it. And because it was so damned good in so many ways, I finished it in time for the Mules meeting.

Critical Reception 

Nightmare Alley got the recognition and praise it deserved:

* “For fans of vaudeville and magic, the book is a treasure trove of trade secrets.” (Walter Kirn, New York Times)

* “While I’ve known for a long time that Nightmare Alley was an established classic of noir fiction, I was utterly unprepared for its raw, Dostoyevskian power…. It’s more than just a steamy noir classic. As a portrait of the human condition, Nightmare Alley is a creepy, all-too-harrowing masterpiece.” (Michael Dirda, Washington Post)

* “Nightmare Alley remains a masterpiece, not only due to its driving narrative power, but because it’s underpinned by the premise that the human animal is alone, helpless in the face of destiny, stumbling in the dark… toward the inevitable wall of death at the end. Yet we can’t stop ourselves hoping, and fearing, that there might be something beyond that wall. The message of this disquieting book couldn’t be more human, yet that message is metaphysical rather than moral.” (Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times)

Enlightenment Now

By Steven Pinker

576 pages

Published in 2018 by Penguin Books

After I published a review of Rationality by Steven Pinker, AG, a colleague, sent me a note saying that he was happy I had discovered Pinker and recommending that I read Enlightenment Now.

I did. And Enlightenment Now is a great book. The best non-fiction book I’ve read since Yuval Harari’s Sapiens. It’s definitely a desert-island book, a book you could read over and over again.

The thesis is very simple. Contrary to what most people believe (and especially college-educated people), the world is not getting worse. From a longer-term perspective at least, in most measures of well-being, things are getting better. For example:

* People are living longer.

* People are wealthier.

* Extreme poverty numbers are plunging.

* Literacy has increased.

* Rates of death are in decline.

What I Liked About It 

* This book will educate you. Especially if you believe you are already well educated.

* It won’t just educate you; it may very well change your worldview. Very few books can do this.

* I like the way the book concludes – emphasizing what Pinker says are the essential enlightenment values: reason, science, and humanism.

* He persuasively argues that religious fundamentalism and political correctness are equally dangerous anti-reason ideologies.

If, like me, you have a huge stack of books several feet high that you’re waiting to get around to reading, put Enlightenment Now on top.

Critical Reception 

I’ve rarely read so many five-star reviews of a book. And that’s especially astonishing considering the fact that this book is intellectually subversive in today’s world of the woke. Indeed, there were detractors. Kirkus Reviews said what I expected, noting that “though Pinker is progressive, the academically orthodox will find him an apostate.” And British philosopher John Grey criticized Pinker’s advocacy of “scientism” and argued that he misunderstands Nietzsche.” But most of the reviewers gave the book nothing but praise. Here are some examples…

* “In an era of increasingly ‘dystopian rhetoric,’ Pinker’s sober, lucid, and meticulously researched vision of human progress is heartening and important.” (Publishers Weekly)

* “An excellent book, lucidly written, timely, rich in data and eloquent in its championing of a rational humanism that is – it turns out – really quite cool.” (New York Times Book Review)

* “Pinker is a paragon of exactly the kind of intellectual honesty and courage we need to restore conversation and community.” (David Brooks, The New York Times)

* “[Enlightenment Now] is magnificent, uplifting and makes you want to rush to your laptop and close your Twitter account.” (The Economist)

Steven Pinker is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, he has been named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World Today and one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Global Thinkers. His popular and highly praised books include The Stuff of Thought, The Blank Slate, Words and Rules, How the Mind Works,and The Language Instinct. The recipient of several major awards for his teaching, books, and scientific research, He also writes frequently for The New York Times, Time, The New Republic, and other magazines.

If you’re not in the mood to read this 576-page book but have an hour to spare for watching a video presentation, any of these three will give you a good sense of what it is about:

* For an interview with Pinker at The Commonwealth Club, click here.

* For a talk he gave at Google, click here.

* For a presentation at the Cato Institute, click here.