Total 7 books. At the time when COVID hit, there are so many hours to spend. It was a good time to pick up book reading for me.
Guns Germs & Steels, Jared Diamond
History, Read in December 2021
I am such a person who rarely knows what’s popular. This book is another good example that was introduced by my girlfriend. I always wonder about the counties wealthiness. Why is Thailand still a developing coutries? What makes us different from the European countries? The more I travel the world, more I understood that the education plays a major part in today’s society but what influences a good education before today. I have never asked myself why. What if you insist on asking why and never satisfy with a simple answer? I believe such thought process had been applied here in this book to find the ultimate proof of 1=1.
The author use a scientic approach (i.e. experiment) on ‘History’ subject which is particularly interesting to learn how things work similary but also different. This particular part of the book I enjoyed reading the most.
This book compliments “Sapiens” very well. Sapiens talks why humans are superior over other animals. His book talks about the stories among group of human (nations / countries). What has happened and in retrospective why they happened that way.
Senna Versus Prost
Racing, Read in August 2021
I have heard this famous duel from almost anybody that is into this sport. When I was watching a Senna documentary on Youtube, I found another replay of Senna driving in the wet unbelivably faster than his competitors. I knew very little about Prost and Niki’s book (below) makes me curious to know more about him.
So I have this book. I got to know more about Prost and Senna background. Their lifes before getting into F1 and during the time they are fighting each other at Mclaren. How did the situation develop? However, it says very very little about the events around Senna crash. I think the Senna’s documentary that I watched before tells me more on Senna’s crashing moment.
Enzo Ferrari: A Life
Racing, Read in 2021
When I was young I didn’t like supercars. They don’t look like normal cars. F40 in racing games is so difficult to drive. I used to wonder why people like this brand so much.
Since I drove a Ferrari at Silverstone and watching F1, I started to enjoy learning more about the supercars and Ferrari looks more and more beautiful to my eyes. I always hear commentaries about Ferrari’s racing heritages which I had no idea about. So, I bought this book and read it. Hmmm, Yes, Ferrari is about racings. While reading this book, I started browsing photos of classic Ferraris mentioned. They are just so beautiful.
To Hell and Back, Niki Lauda
Racing, Read in 2021
I knew very little about Niki. He was mentioned on many commentaries but the first time I really wanted to know more about him was around Monaco race when he has just passed away and people pay tributes to him. I started to watch some documentaries about him. Recently, I read a book about him. My personal take was you can pursue many interests in your life (he is a successful driver and he owns the airline).
The World Atlas of Coffee, James Hoffmann
Coffee, Read in 2021
I like his youtube channel because I think his experiments sound scientific and reproducable. Thought I could hardly taste the different when I tried myself. I simply need more exposure to differential such a little difference.
I like the first half of the book which is about coffee history. Since the main theme of this book is more of the encyclopedia, I think it’s no exciting moment when reading. I would like to see more in future book about his thought on coffee things from a fair perspective (more opinion based not factual). The second half I didn’t finish it because it is all about coffee growing regions (discretely explained by region). I sometimes revisit this section when I bought a new bean from a new region to learn the background.
Total Competition, Ross Brawn and Adam Parr
Racing, Read in 2021
Reading about a famous engineering personnel - Brawn - only makes me wanted to be in F1 more. I wish I had such book earlier when I was young to get inspired but of course when I was young, I wasn’t into F1, so I wouldn’t have gotten inspired anyway. It’s never been too late to get inspired.
This book is presented in Q&A format between Ross and Adam, whom I have never heard his name. I like when Ross giving answer and one particular thing I still remembered was sometime like - there’s no championship winner with poor car, poor driver, or poor team finance. It’s like you need everything to come at once to deliver a perfect result. There was a retrospective analysis of Ross himself after key moment in his career which is very interesting to hear from the man himself.
On the Adam Parr section, I skimmed through sections when he talks about Sunzi Chinese Military book. I probably need to go read that book before understanding the relavance.
Mark Webber
Racing, Read in 2021
I have heard his name quite often in the commentaries because he appears as one of the commentators. His career at Redbull is fun to read and quite addictive because of a tense livary with Vettel. By opening this chaptor, it makes me want to read more about Redbull, Vettel, Helmul Marco. (I read about Adrian Newey before.)