Books Are Us at P&D

By Rich Kozlovich

Over the course of my life I've been an avid reader of books.  Fiction, non-fiction, history, science, science fiction, you name the category; I've read them all.  As a result, I've always loved browsing through book stores and public libraries.  But as I aged and developed so much joint and back pain, I don't find browsing in a book store is as pleasurable as it once was, nor am I capable of doing it for long.  So, my book purchases are mostly online.  However, there's nothing that can replace the pleasure of browsing book stores or libraries.

Currently I have about 20 books I've ordered and yet to read, or in the case of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbons, to re-read.  

Why?  

As it turns out I find I'm reading more than ever, but I'm reading less books.  That limits your vision and scope of thinking.   Articles are great sign posts leading you to the right books, but all articles, due to space, are seriously limited in how much can go in them, and I find even in the case of my own articles, if the article is too long, it isn't read. 

As for the limitations in articles; it isn't just space as the reason for leaving out information.  Some writers deliberately leave out important material because they don't want the reader to know the truth, in fact, they're attempting to obfuscate the truth. As time goes by you begin to know who those writers are and can stop wasting your time reading their propaganda, but that takes reading books.

Books are far less limiting, and for avid readers, it seems to me logical fallacies and misdirection are easier to detect, at least in my view.   Being able to detect the smell of horsepucky is a skill that takes time to develop.  That means reading a lot.

Today will be devoted to book reading.  

Currently I'm finishing up with  George Friedman's book Storm before the Calm, and Marko Papic's Geopolitical Alpha: An Investment Framework for Predicting the Future.  

Book reviews will follow.