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The Road to Serfdom - by F.A. Hayek

Completed

This was the first Faulkner I've read and I loved it. His writing in this novel was very challenging to parse at first, but it is very much worth the effort when the story finally resolves. It's the rise and fall of a Southern plantation owner before, during, and after the Civil War, and the story is told from a variety of perspectives: third person narrative, a letter from one of the protagonists, dialogue between college roommates about the events some 50 years later. I especially appreciated the way Faulkner was clearly an inpiration for Cormac McCarthy, my new favorite author.

I really wanted to enjoy this book as it's Hillary's all-time favorite. I was very annoyed by Conroy's writing style in which he uses a literary flourish -- a metaphor, a simile, some personification -- in nearly every sentence. The dialog was also very unbelievable to me and each character lacked a unique voice, all sharing the thinly veiled voice of the author.

Disregarding the writing style, however, the story is quite beautiful. I can see why Hillary likes it.

Blood Meridian might be my favorite novel of all time. I need more time to process this novel before I write my review of it.

I wish I had read the novel before seeing the movie, though that was 10 years ago (wow). Had I gone in that order, I'm sure I would have thought that making a movie would be great but close to impossible. The novel is schizophrenic (duh) and dark and reads very quickly.

I read The Road in less than a weekend and absolutely couldn't put it down. There is an amazing contrast between the loving bond shared by the Man and his Son and the bleakness and despair of their circumstances.

I think I set my expectations too high for Foundation. I had heard that the Foundation series is the gold standard for science fiction. After the first book, I can't say that I agree. None of the characters were very compelling for me nor did I think the stories were as creative or mind-bending as some of the other sci-fi I've read and loved. Perhaps I need to consider his writing within its historical context to truly appreciate it. I do plan to read at least the next book in the series before I make my final judgment.

A very readable and reasonable case for personal and economic freedom. Demonstrates that the two main parties in the U.S. are two sides of the same coin, both supporting costly open-ended wars and sustaining a global empire through military presence in 80 countries. Shows how far our government has strayed from the decentralized republic envisioned by our Constitutional framers. Points out the numerous instances where our national debate and media cycles only discuss "tinkering" with minutiae of policies while never really questioning the core assumptions of what government's role should really be.

I put this one down after about 6 chapters due to extreme boredom. I suppose I did learn the meaning of the term "Machiavellian" but I did not receive significant political enlightenment.

Very informative account of U.S.'s history in Afghanistan and the origins of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.