Rainy Day Reading

It’s been pouring outside every single day for the past week. Only this morning, however, did I get a chance to knock back a couple of books. The first was a French volume on intellectuals, and the second, an audiobook.

L’histoire des intellectuels aujourd’hui (The History of Intellectuals Today), edited by Michel Leymarie and Jean-François Sirinelli, is an excellent overview on the last hundred or so years of intellectual history. It has a chapter for different categories of intellos, including those in a several different countries, and others working in various media. The Dreyfus Affair in France is held as the crucial moment for thought and cerebral mobilization in Europe. Because of the divisions, this would make a great reference book.

The second title of the day was Thomas L. Friedman’s The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Less political than his other books, this one is concerned with how technology and new ways of thinking have flattened the world, creating advanced global communication patterns and supply chains, among other things. Narrated by Oliver Wyman, I really, really enjoyed it. The content very much follows where my thoughts have been meandering lately, which helps a lot. I’ve had technology on the brain.