Perlkönig

The books I read, the music I listen to, and the games I play

“The Vegetarian Myth” by Lierre Keith

Everyone should read this book. Don’t let the title fool you. It’s not a book just for vegetarians. Nor is it some brutal tirade against vegetarianism. Keith was a vegan for 20 years, and her appeal to vegetarians—nay, everyone—is empathetic and heartfelt. Her writing style is so direct and immediate that you can’t help but [...]

“Grammar Matters” by Jila Ghomeshi

This book was mentioned by a colleague in the latest edition of the EAC magazine Active Voice. I immediately checked it out from the library. Unfortunately I have to say I was underwhelmed. It’s a small book (only 100 pages, 4.25 x 5.5 inches), and she really only needed a couple of pages to make her point. Her point—one nobody in their right mind would argue with—is that one should not judge others by their use of language. Language is fluid and living, and just because somebody says “workin’” instead of “working” does not mean they are lazy or poorly educated. She then extends this to say that when “prescriptivists” lambaste a particular use (or mis-use) of language, what they are really doing is expressing prejudice. This is where I began feeling uneasy. Why? Because apparently, I am a prescriptivist.

“Infectious Greed” by Frank Partnoy

This book is a financial history. Partnoy’s point is that the financial meltdown of 2008 did not come out of nowhere. It was downright predictable. His goal is to outline the inception, incubation, and full-blown infection that began in the 1980s that led inevitably to the sub-prime mortgage catastrophe. He not only does an excellent job of explaining in layman’s terms what things like derivatives and collateralized mortgage obligations actually are, he goes into minute detail as he describes the people and organizations involved.

“Visual Intelligence” by Donald D. Hoffman

Well if you need to be reminded just how truly awesome the human body is, or need to be reminded just how illusory what we think of as reality is, this book is for you. The book attempts to explain as clearly as possible how vision works (and doesn’t work). His main (and at times belaboured) point is that everything we see is constructed. We cannot say that what we see is “real” in any objective sense. He uses optical illusions, research experiments, and an exploration of bizarre pathologies (à la Sacks’s Musicophilia) to illustrate. It really is fascinating how our brains work.

  • Who am I?

    My name is Aaron Dalton. See the "About Me" link for more information. The name Perlkönig is a combination of my favourite programming language (Perl) and the title of one of Franz Schubert's most famous lied (Erlkönig).

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