Let There Be a Miracle: Notes on Books
I’m pleasantly surprised by how many people around me read, so I’m spared the despair of thinking we’re a nation of complete ignoramuses. Quite the contrary. I recently came across the fact that the Czech Republic publishes a huge number of new books for its population.
I have a special shelf in my bookcase, the one in the photo, where I put my new purchases. Booksellers, authors and publishers must be delighted with me, because the books pile up faster than I can read them. My wife is less delighted, of course. And that’s before we get to audiobooks and e-books. In 2019 I read or listened to 25 books in a range of genres, from biography and technical books through military history and popular science to science fiction.
I’m writing this in a café, and the book I’m currently reading is in my backpack, Let There Be Water.
…of Israel’s territory is desert. The country has managed to solve its own water problems and even has water to spare. Israel supplies water to its neighbors, delivering it daily to the Palestinian territories and Jordan. Israel has become a world leader in water management and in developing the technologies it requires.
In the Czech Republic, water worries us only when there’s too much of it, in spring or summer floods, too little of it, in drought, or when it’s dirty, as with summer algal blooms. We’re lucky for now because we live somewhere with plenty of precipitation. But with every further intervention in the landscape and every careless farming practice, we lose a little of that wealth.
Israelis aren’t so lucky. Desert covers 60% of their territory. Their water management has to be diversified so they can use different sources efficiently for different purposes. One example is using treated wastewater for drip irrigation right at the roots of plants. With every book I read about Israel and the innovations that come out of the country, my jaw drops farther.
If you like simple things that make you think deeply, here are two books. Both are written for a general audience and are by no means only for geeks. 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13…
- The Music of the Primes: Two Centuries of the Riemann Hypothesis
- Fermat’s Last Theorem: The Dramatic Story of Solving the Greatest Mathematical Problem
While we’re on popular nonfiction, I can’t leave out Yuval Noah Harari and his excellent Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. They’re all very readable and never dull, which you might have expected from the subjects.
The next two books also stayed with me. One deals with unbelievable indifference and corner-cutting. Both tell powerful stories of personal courage and self-sacrifice.
If you’re looking for a book on leadership through the stories of particular people in particular circumstances, with more to offer than quick tips and obvious advice, I can warmly recommend these two.
- Pád nebes, about the first ascent of the Matterhorn
- I’m Not a Hero: The Life and Work of a SEAL Team Member
I’ll finish with a good bit of science fiction to unwind with, Planeta mezi dvěma slunci by Robert Fabian. And I do have one tip for you.
You can usually listen to audiobooks at one and a half to twice the original speed. Suddenly fourteen hours of narration takes half as long, a few trips by car or public transport.
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