Nedeljka Pirjevec: Zaznamovana

Ta knjiga je bila najdena v enem izmed antikvariatov v Ljubljani in sicer pripada Dnevnikovi zbirki Slovenska Zgodba. Iz ovitka gleda gospa z Kim Jong Ilovimi sončnimi očali, zelo resnobna in izvemo, da je zadnja žena legende slovenske primerjalne književnosti Dušana Pirjevca. Knjiga je očitno precej avtobiografska, četudi so imena glavnih akterjev zamenjana. V osnovi gre za zgodbo, kako je Pirjevec umiral, ki se prepleta z avtoričino življenjsko zgodbo. Kakorkoli že, resnobna gospa gor ali dol, celo knjigo fukajo in pijančujejo. V resnici gre za zelo luciden vpogled v družbo 60ih let, brez interneta, v komunizmu, ko je bilo iti na Dunaj že svetovljansko potovanje. Ta čas so ljudje res drugače doživljali sebe in druge: profesorji so bili legende, intelektualci so preživeli večere ob kajenju, pitju in razglabljanju o svetu in filozofih, redke knjige so bile svetinja. Informacijskega onesnaženja in socialnih mrež še ni bilo in moško-ženski odnosi so bili kljub vsemu intelektualizmu še komično šovinistični. Skratka, 60 leta so bila resnično drugačen čas, veliko bolj tuj, kot si danes to mislimo. Svetujem.

Lars Gustafsson: Čebelarjeva smrt

Še ena kratka knjiga iz cikla 20. stoletje, ki sem jo prebral na brzino čez novo leto. Človek umira in potem umre. Pred smrtjo še naprej živi bogu za hrbtom nekje v ruralni švedski in se ukvarja s tem, kako misliti lastno smrt. Tip depresivne knjige, ki mene vedno znova nagovorijo, četudi knjiga ni kdove kako inovativna.

Ann Finkbeiner: A Grand and Bold Thing

I bought and read this book, because it deals with the history of SDSS, a project that started in late 80s and is now in its third incarnation. As a scientist I spend most of my time working on BOSS, which is part of SDSS3 and so I was interested in reading this, especially given that I wasn't around when the interesting things happened. The book is good for me, because it deals primarily with: a) the horrible politics surrounding such big project and b) the way how SDSS changed the way we do astronomy these days. It doesn't do too much science though and when it does it is neither very accurate nor very well organised or focused. So, if you want to buy it for learning about what SDSS did - don't. Also, there is some stretching of truth here and there. For example, as someone who actually attended a couple of collaboration meetings, I have never heard of anyone referring to ourselves as Sloanies (or Threeons). I have hard time believing Željko Ivezić is the same to LSST as what Jim Gunn was to Sloan (and this is not to say that Željko is not super competent, just that LSST is one big corporate beast run by particle physicist where everyone is replaceable by construction). She completely skips big chunks of exciting science and everything revolves too much around Jim Gunn (yes, he is a walking legend, very intellingent dude, everything is cool, but we should get over personality cults at some point). Still, there are anecdotes in the book to tell on wintery nights in warm pubs and this is why it is still a must read for every one of us.

Jean-Paul Sartre: Intimacy

I got this book for free, ages ago, while I was still a PhD student and an old professor brought his unwanted books to be picked up for free. And then, faced with a 9 hour flight, I picked it up 8 years later, not expecting too much. However, it is an amazing collection of 5 short stories; it sells as 'The Wall' these days. Short stories are a funny medium, because you never get immersed into them as much as you do in real novels, but on the other hand they offer a variety, which a normal novel cannot (in the sense that it is possible to read 7 short stories in 7 days). Maja was complaining that it is pure and boring intellectual existentialism, but I must profess that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. For example, the last (and the longest) story, "The Childhood of a Leader" presents a perfect timeline of a young intellectual, stuff that we all went through: one is a teenager and then you discover philosophy and then you discover psychoanalysis, and then you try drugs, etc, etc, all these stages a young person goes through, only that the protagonist ends up being an idiotic antisemite in an utter anticlimax of the story. Warmly recommended, I haven't enjoyed reading fiction for some time now!

Sunzi: Umetnost Vojne

Sunzi je famozni kitajski general, ponavadi se ga transkribira kot Sun Tsu. Oboje pomeni mojster Sun. Knjiga je prevod iz angleškega prevoda, torej ni neposredni prevod. Prevod je tu pa tam tudi malo labav. Celoten tekst se ponovi dvakrat. Prvič kot sam, neobremenjen tekst in drugič z dodanimi komentarji. Sam tekst je precej zanimiv, osebno mi je precej bolj berljiv kot npr. biblija. Čudna mešanica splošnih modrosti, nekaterih na robu kitajske ezoterike, in zelo konkretnih napotkov za npr. količine srebra, ki jih cesar potrebuje. Komenterji so še nekoliko bolj zanimivi, saj so k vsakemu verzu dodani komentarji tako starih kitajskih filozofov, kot tudi relevantnih rimskih/grških vojnih mislecov in modernih akademikov. Skratka, 2500 let star tekst, do kosti prežvečen.

Ommegang: Hennepin

Ommegang's Hennepin declares "true Belgian-style saison". Indeed! Hennepin was a Belgian missionary who discovered Niagara falls. Ommegang is a small brewery in upstate New York which focuses on Belgian stuff. And they do make quite good beers that taste of the Old World. A bucolic summer beer, slightly citrusy with a non-threatening light colour.

Stanislaw Lem: Fiasco

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of Stanislaw Lem. I read everything that was translated into Slovene. As an adult, I am still fan of Tarkovski's Solaris. So, I've listened to this book in an audio version on the way to work. Nearly 15hours of stuff. I like science fiction books that progress slowly and this is one of them. The production from Audio Frontiers was high quality stuff, reading was convincing and clear. The content however, is very much crap, however. Stanislaw can be repetitive, in about 5 different places of the book he goes on about how being in weightlessness can be tricky. Yes, i can imagine. But much worse, for all the musing about anthropocentricity that main characters indulge in, the story falls into anthropocentric traps really badly many times. For example, when they finally establish contact with foreign civilization using some sort of code (it is not explained modulo that it is transmitted by laser), they beam to our earthlings something like "Welcome. We expect you in peace". Come on, 'welcome' and 'peace' are utterly human concepts, they do not transcend species. Surely, we could agree on the value of pi or fine structure constant, but give me a break with welcomes...