Review: The Evolution of God
The Evolution of God by Robert Wright
My rating: 
Read from December 18 to 24, 2010
Overall: a decent religious survey and contains an interesting idea that population size and globalization has caused the evolution of most (all) religions in a common direction. At times Wright is rather long winded and has a rather unnatural fascination for 'zero-sum games'. So unnnatural that I don't there there was a chapter where he did not reference it at least a half dozen times.
Wright seems to have two major thesis and one ambiguous thesis:
1) there are distinct characteristics of religion as it evolved with society. The role and purpose of the gods reflects the social evolution: hunter gather gods tends to answer why it rains, why there are no fish, why there are lots of rabbits, etc. Agrarian cultures transition to occupational gods (hunter god, haircut god, traveling god, etc) and ultimately as societies became larger and more globally focused, the role of these gods transitioned into satisfying political acuteness: it is easier to conquer by assimilating other religions than trying to rip and replace (which is the second thesis). Fundamentally, all forms of religion and god have roots in trying to explain the world around and using anthropomorphic projections to do this.
2) the abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) all evolved similarly - starting from polytheism and only stumbled into monotheism. The religions of the book were not radical departures but slow evolutions. All three have evidence of synthesizing the religions around and then over time amalgamating the gods into a singular form. Over time as editorial processes occurred in the sacred texts a cohesive narrative is constructed.
His final ambiguous thesis is that the moral evolution of all religions are evolving to a common non-zero sum game. And that this common evolution is evidence for a moral designer. However he never quite commits to this generic 'god' idea but does spend a lot of time defending it. He could have skipped the last number of paragraphs and had a stronger finish.
Review: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins
My rating: 
Read from December 7 to 12, 2010
Review: Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
My rating: 
Read in December, 2010
The premise for Linchpin is excellent and sound, but I find that most of the book lacks substance and is more of a motivational ra-ra. The first 50 pages are inspirational as are the back 10. Maybe this might have served better as a series of blog posts instead of a book.
Review: Player One: What Is to Become of Us
Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland
My rating: 
Read in November, 2010
Overall impression: Meh.
Coupland is good at setting the stage and introducing us to interesting characters, but just like Generation A, he has a hard time finishing the story. In fact, this book mirrors a lot of thoughts from "Generation A" that I would almost call this world a parallelquel.
The story line premis and back of the book description is interesting, but the story lacks any final punch other than to remind us of the precarious dependency that we have on oil. Even that seems to be a lost subplot.
Review: Generation A
Generation A by Douglas Coupland
My rating:
Read from June 21 to November 22, 2010
I read this book at the same time I was listening to Player One so I think I might have over done it with apocalyptic Coupland stories.
Much like Generation X, the story is about the characters and the stories they tell. The premis is interesting and the five principle characters are even more intriguing.
Alas, the momentum that the first half of the book delivers is squandered in the second half. The bee story line is discarded and ignored half way through like a dejected sub-plot that never existed. The second half of the book is really a collection of short stories from individuals in a post-bee world. However, even these sub-stories became mundane as they all seemed to have the same fatalistic and depressing punchline. Almost as if they were the same story recast with different settings.
Review: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath
My rating:
Read in November, 2010
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