52. Read three non-fiction books

52. Read three non-fiction books

First, I quote myself:
One down, two to go. Finished reading David Remnick's Lenin's Tomb a little bit ago. Seriously, my brain actually feels bigger. There could actually be something to this whole "Non-Fiction" nonsense. In fact, I watched the film Everything is Illuminated a few days ago (which takes place mostly in the Ukraine), and it actually... gave me insight into the film. Effing weird. Not that the film really had much to do with Stalinism or the rise and fall of Communism (except in a relatively tangential sense), but I better understood the region. Next on the reading list: Rick Atkinson's An Army at Dawn. Soon I will know all there is to know about North Africa!

...and now I know all there is to know about North Africa. Really, I should have learned my lesson from the Video Game synopses a couple months ago, and written a synopsis right after reading the book, as opposed to waiting a month or so. Anyway, I really did get a lot out of this book. It certainly gave a strong insight into the character (warts and all) of the major players in North Africa, in WWII. My only major complaint -- the author almost completely ignores any reference to Allied air power for the duration of the campaign. At about 100 pages in, he's fully established that the Axis owned the air, that Allied planes were poorly managed and severely outgunned. Then, as the Allies are finally closing in on Tunis, some six months and 300 pages later, we suddenly learn that the Axis' air force has been decimated, and the ground forces are "re-taking" cities that have been all but abandoned because of the overwhelming allied air presence. Bwah?

For book #3, I read The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science and the Human Brain, by David Shenk. I picked this up on a whim, after hearing the author give an interview on NPR. I was stopping by Borders anyway, and grabbed this too. Really, if you've ever had so much as a passing interest in chess, I can't recommend this book enough. As the title suggests, it details the history of chess, dating back some 1400-1500 years in India, the evolution of the game through the middle ages (the Queen and Bishop were not always part of the game, for instance), and into contemporary society. Between each chapter, the author is also progressively analyzing a famous chess match from 1849, which has come to be known as "The Immortal Game". I totally would have gotten my ass kicked, in that game.

In learning a bit more about chess, though, I think I have to re-assess my #49 (Learn 3 “named” chess strategies). I had been thinking that these would be four or five move combinations for useful (and hopefully devastating) effect. But I don't think they really work that way, knowing a little better how chess masters think, and how they play the game. In order to find them particularly useful, I'd have to start spending some serious quality time studying the game, such that I'd probably be pursuing competitive play (which I'm not particularly interested in doing, because I don't want to get my head handed to me by an 8 year old). So I'm modifying that to something a bit more suited to my skill level, Learn 5 useful opening chess strategies.