new years resolution
I will finish all the books I've acumalated last year, AND not buy any new ones until these are completed.
Here is a tally of what I have to read in no particular order.
God is not great, by christopher hitchens (completed)
Dracula(graphic novel)
Child 44 by Tom Smith
Empire to Umpire by Norman Hillmer
The war of the world by Nial ferguson
Who killed the canadian military? by J.l.Granatstein
The Krimean war by Alexis Troubetzkoy
The inquisition by Micheal baigen and Richard leigh
1421:the year china discoverd the world by gavin menzies
1424:the year a magnificent chinese fleet sailed to italy and set of the rainaissance by gavin menzies
what stalin knew: the enigma of barbarosa by david Murphy
Hitler and churchill by Andrew Roberts
The death of yugoslavia by laura sibler and allan little
The last kingdom, by Bernard Cornwell
Fathers and Sons, by Ivan turgenev
1917 russia's year pf revolution by roy bainton
The Balkans:Nationalism,war, and the great powers, 1804-1999 by misha glenny
The scourge of god by S.M Stirling
I AM AMERICA (and so can you) by Stephen Colbert
Brisinger by christopher paolini
The white tiger by aravind adiga
The greatest battle by andrew nagorski
Lennin: a biography, by Robert Service.
The russian revolution: a very short introduction(they arent kiding under 200 pages!) by S.A.Smith
The prince by niccolo machieveli
A storm of swords by R. Marten
so 26 books in all.
I'll post a short review after each one and wether or not it gets the pat.c seal of approval.
Since I finished it on the bus today here is a breif review of "God is not great" by christopher hitchens
I quite liked it, its a little like The "god delusion" by richard dawkins, except Hitchens comes off as less foaming at the mouth then dawkings and I think his case is stronger for it. Unlike Dawkins, Hitchens attacks religion more then religious beleife. As is probly evident in the titles; Dawkings "you beleive in god, you are deluded", Hitches "you can beleive in god, but religion is a terrible detriment to humanity" to vastly generalise what they are saying. I'm not sure wich is the more offensive statement, but to me hitchens' by being an attack on religions not the religious seems less offensive. So bassicly what hitchens doese is go through history and finds various horrbile events and lays the blame for them at religions feet, base on the argument that the events wouldnt hapen if not for religion. He also makes the case that all religion is man made (concentrating mostly on islam,judaism and chirstianity but other religions get touched on to) and cites how the talmud,bible and quran came to be, how they were altered ect ect and thus even if divinely inspired arent the originals and thus manmade. He furthers the argument by pointing out descrepnacies within the books, various writing styles atributed to the same author and so on. One thing i found intresting he called the Fascist, Nazi and stalinist regimes pseudo religions, due to their cults of personality and supposed infalibility of the leadership caste. Anyways thats my shody wrap up of the book, It definetly gets the Pat.C seal of approval i recomend reading it.
Here is a tally of what I have to read in no particular order.
God is not great, by christopher hitchens (completed)
Dracula(graphic novel)
Child 44 by Tom Smith
Empire to Umpire by Norman Hillmer
The war of the world by Nial ferguson
Who killed the canadian military? by J.l.Granatstein
The Krimean war by Alexis Troubetzkoy
The inquisition by Micheal baigen and Richard leigh
1421:the year china discoverd the world by gavin menzies
1424:the year a magnificent chinese fleet sailed to italy and set of the rainaissance by gavin menzies
what stalin knew: the enigma of barbarosa by david Murphy
Hitler and churchill by Andrew Roberts
The death of yugoslavia by laura sibler and allan little
The last kingdom, by Bernard Cornwell
Fathers and Sons, by Ivan turgenev
1917 russia's year pf revolution by roy bainton
The Balkans:Nationalism,war, and the great powers, 1804-1999 by misha glenny
The scourge of god by S.M Stirling
I AM AMERICA (and so can you) by Stephen Colbert
Brisinger by christopher paolini
The white tiger by aravind adiga
The greatest battle by andrew nagorski
Lennin: a biography, by Robert Service.
The russian revolution: a very short introduction(they arent kiding under 200 pages!) by S.A.Smith
The prince by niccolo machieveli
A storm of swords by R. Marten
so 26 books in all.
I'll post a short review after each one and wether or not it gets the pat.c seal of approval.
Since I finished it on the bus today here is a breif review of "God is not great" by christopher hitchens
I quite liked it, its a little like The "god delusion" by richard dawkins, except Hitchens comes off as less foaming at the mouth then dawkings and I think his case is stronger for it. Unlike Dawkins, Hitchens attacks religion more then religious beleife. As is probly evident in the titles; Dawkings "you beleive in god, you are deluded", Hitches "you can beleive in god, but religion is a terrible detriment to humanity" to vastly generalise what they are saying. I'm not sure wich is the more offensive statement, but to me hitchens' by being an attack on religions not the religious seems less offensive. So bassicly what hitchens doese is go through history and finds various horrbile events and lays the blame for them at religions feet, base on the argument that the events wouldnt hapen if not for religion. He also makes the case that all religion is man made (concentrating mostly on islam,judaism and chirstianity but other religions get touched on to) and cites how the talmud,bible and quran came to be, how they were altered ect ect and thus even if divinely inspired arent the originals and thus manmade. He furthers the argument by pointing out descrepnacies within the books, various writing styles atributed to the same author and so on. One thing i found intresting he called the Fascist, Nazi and stalinist regimes pseudo religions, due to their cults of personality and supposed infalibility of the leadership caste. Anyways thats my shody wrap up of the book, It definetly gets the Pat.C seal of approval i recomend reading it.