YoungForest's blog

The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972 Recommended by Luoji Siwei. The author’s left-wing tendency is quite serious: he beautifies the Democratic Party and demonizes the Republican Party. The writing is so beautiful that it is almost excessive. It reminds me of the Grand

Reposted from my blog Previous year-end reviews: * 2023 Year-End Review * 2022 Year-End Review * 2021 Year-End Review * 2020 Year-End Review * 2019 Year-End Review * 2019 Mid-Year Review (Birthday Thoughts) * 2018 Year-End Review * 2017 New Year Outlook Milestone reviews: * Three-Year

Weekly book 24: Shi Nan Zhi Tu by Ma Boyong The author seems to be using the Han dynasty’s Nanyue issue to map onto the Taiwan issue. Ma Boyong is still as good as ever at taking a few scattered words from historical records and imagining a complete suspense story out of them. His earlier The Longe

Weekly book 22: Deep Simplicity: Chaos, Complexity and the Emergence of Life A book recommended by Poor Charlie’s Almanack. It understands the universe, life, and society from the perspective of chaos, which is a very interesting angle. Through chaos, a mathematical concept, the book strings togeth

A Matter of Degrees: What Temperature Reveals about the Past and Future of Our Species, Planet, and Universe Douban link Excellent. It is a book recommended in Poor Charlie’s Almanack, and I came to it from that book. Munger emphasized the importance of multidisciplinary knowledge, and perhaps tha

A feast of conservatism, liberalism, and optimism. Nassim Taleb is a writer recommended by both Naval and Li Zong. Perhaps they would call him a philosopher. Antifragile feels more like a success book. It tells people to embrace pressure and bad things in order to gain restorative growth. It is ac

Ma Boyong’s new work. Excellent, recommended. In the afterword he says it is a leisure piece, and it indeed reads smoothly and recreationally. I finished it in two days and could not put it down. Personally, I think its quality is second only to the long novel Mystery of Antiques, and better than Th

Weekly book 18: Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger Charlie Munger passed away at the end of last year at age 99. I am ashamed that I only now read Poor Charlie’s Almanack, which gathers the essence of his thinking. It can be considered the product of 80 years

Douban link The first half is about wealth, suitable for reading before age 35 to change one’s current situation. Much of the wisdom is also widely recognized and easy to accept around the world. The second half is about happiness, suitable for reading after 35 to accept the current situation. But

It has the feeling of Dangnian Mingyue’s Those Things in the Ming Dynasty. I do not know whether it is intentional imitation or unintentional resemblance. It often interacts with Jin Yong’s novels, especially with the same compassion for the world. Yue Lingshan: “Self-pity, self-sorrow, and self-r