After I posted on my leave plans on Sunday, a few of you asked what was on my reading list, so I am sharing some books I have read / am reading / or hope to read. Three of the books are available from the National Library Singapore. Do check out the NLB app (iOS: https://go.gov.sg/moiqhc | Android: https://go.gov.sg/hu17bc). It is a marvellous resource, and you will definitely be able to discover many books to suit your interests.
[ Nuclear Folly, a History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
by Serhii Plokhy ]
The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. I had read "13 Days", the short memoir by Robert Kennedy about it as a teenager, and later Graham Allison's "Essence of Decision", a seminal study using the Crisis to analyse decision making from different perspectives. Both were mainly based on US records. Plokhy's book draws on Soviet archives, to present events from both the US and Soviet points of view. Many mistakes were made on both sides. The saving grace was that both President John Kennedy and General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev desperately wanted to avoid a nuclear war. But even then the two sides avoided a nuclear exchange only by a hair’s breadth, and only by chance, because events once set in motion were no longer entirely within the two leaders' control. A gripping read.
[ The Bilingual Brain, and what it tells us about the science of language
by Albert Costa ]
Having learnt several languages myself, and grappled with our bilingualism policy in schools, this book was a natural choice. I am still reading it. Did you know that a newborn infant already recognises and prefers the language (or languages) which their mother spoke while they were in her womb, and within hours of birth can also distinguish between two different languages that they have never heard before? Infants pick up a language (or two) naturally in their first years, but learning a second or third language later in life is much harder. This book explains why.
[ Capturing Light, the Heart of Photography
by Michael Freeman ]
A book about the different sorts of light, how they influence the photo you take, and how to use them to create the effect and mood that you want. Photographers know about the golden hour and blue hour, hard light and soft light, direct and indirect lighting, front and back lighting, haze, mist and fog, and so many more variations. The book includes lots of the author’s photos illustrating his points, taken over many years. Hope to pick up something from reading it. But the key in photography (as in so many other skills) is to practise and practise, if you want to improve.
[ Bettering Humanomics, A New, and Old, Approach to Economic Science
by Deidre Nansen McCloskey ]
The author, a distinguished economist, argues that economics is not just about incentives and institutions, mathematical models and observed behaviour. It should take a broader, more humanistic approach, paying attention to ethics and values, “what people believe, and the stories they tell one another”, as one reviewer put it. Certainly in government we must think about these broader factors all the time, while making sure we get the economics right. Not just in trade and industry or finance, but also in national development, education, health, manpower, sustainability and the environment, social and family development, and so much of public policy. I haven't read this book yet, but saw an enthusiastic book review, and look forward to reading the book itself.
Happy reading! – LHL
