After Gatsby put me off reading ‘classic’ fiction, indeed fiction in general, I’ve decided to go on a non-fiction rampage. I maintain an Amazon wishlist of non-fiction books that I’d like to read, should time permit, that I’ve seen mentioned in one of the hundreds of news feeds I superficially scan every day in Google Reader, and as I’m too lazy to scroll down the list, I ended up just reading the topmost additions, which happened to be the following:
Manhunt: From 9/11 to Abbottabad – the Ten-Year Search for Osama bin Laden – Peter Bergen
These kinds of books play right in to my still-present boyhood fantasy of being some kind of spy or secret agent (though, if I had the choice, I’d still prefer to be an astronaut). It goes in to great detail about the movements of bin Laden pre- and post-9/11 and the herculean intelligence efforts that went into hunting him down. A worthwhile read, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Inside Job: The Financiers Who Pulled Off the Heist of the Century – Charles Ferguson
An epic treatise on how everything went to shit in the financial crisis of 2007/2008. If you liked the documentary of the same name, but lamented the lack of a thousand more examples of really shitty people and practices, and simply wanted more financial acronyms, then this is the book for you. Read it if you want to get a well-informed insight, or if you just want to get plain old angry at banking shysters fucking up the world.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan (Wonders of the World) – Llewelyn Morgan
For some strange reason, I’ve been mildly obsessed with the Buddhas of Bamiyan (and the Minaret of Jam, since seeing it on a Dan Cruickshank show) since they were destroyed in 2001, so this book was an obvious choice. Morgan does a pretty good job at recounting the history of the area, why Bamiyan was so important in years gone by, and why two Buddhist icons were allowed to exist for so long in the middle of a country controlled by the Taliban. If I had the chance/balls/time/money (choose three), I’d love to go to Afghanistan and see all this first hand – Morgan paints an evocative picture that makes it difficult to not want to. However, having none of those four means I’m content with his book instead.
Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science – Jim Al-Khalili
Strangely, this book was recommended to me by the author of the previous book, Llewelyn Morgan, in a brief Twitter exchange. And what a recommendation, though not for everyone, I appreciate. A crazy-detailed history of Arabic (and not-specifically-Arabian – a distinction Al-Khalili explains and encompasses in his history) scientific advancements over a several hundred year period. He seems to be attempting to put right an oft-quoted scientific timeline of Greek science -> Dark Ages -> Renaissance by illustrating how much further Arabic scientists and philosophers advanced the scientific cause in those apparent Dark Ages. The key players, al-Khwārizmī, al-Bīrūnī et al., are portrayed as peers, or even superceders in terms of actual advancements made, of their Greek and Renaissance cousins. Again, a fascinating read, but provides the greatest return to fans of Arab history, science history or history history (choose two).
So that was my non-fiction run to end the year, all bar Jake Humphrey’s The Inside Track, which was a simple concession to my twin love of Formula 1 and books that can be lazily read with absolutely no thought or understanding required. Guilty as charged.
What Did You Do, Ray? 