Bryan Crosby Dot Ca » books

1434

Bryan — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:47:29 +0000

Either love or hate the ideologies behind big box book stores such as Chapters-Indigo , but one cannot deny that they have some fairly killer book deals when Ms. Reisman is looking to drop some of her older stock. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s not the public library or fake book shop prices , but hey, 50% off ain’t too bad.

I picked up Gavin Menzies second book 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance for eight clams (hard-cover). Mr. Menzies is most known for this highly controversial 2002 book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World . I’ve always digged stories about exploration…and remain puzzled why I haven’t read 1421 (it’s always been a hefty price everywhere I’ve seen it…)

Many of the criticisms are listed here , but generally I get the feel that the exclusive academic community got its knickers in a knot over an ‘outsider’ drafting up a theory that didn’t conform to their notion of proper history. As John Ralston Saul writes in A Fair Country (which I also picked up for 10 big ones…great read too) "The higher your studies go, the more they are built around narrow exclusionary ideas of truth, tightly tied to a world of people footnoting one another” (Ralston Saul 2009; 36). 1421 also ties into A Fair Country in the sense that both books are advocating a version of history that distances itself from (without necessarily marginalizing) a European-influenced story of Canada ( A Fair Country ) and China ( 1434 ).

That said though, after reading a few chapters, I can see where some controversy might lie. Mr. Menzies is quite fond of the “If A, B, C , and D occurred, then E must have been the outcome” logic used to create conclusions about Admiral Zheng He’s naval expeditions. It can be quite inferential at times, especially when one considers that something this logistically large escaped solid, undisputed documentation (on both the European and Chinese sides). Still, the theory is tantalizing…even when one remains skeptical, there is some evidence to suggest that it might have happened .

Ralston Saul, J. (2008). A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada. Toronto: Penguin.

Technorati Tags: books, canada, chapters-indigo, china, gavin menzies, john ralston saul

Underground City

Bryan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:37:06 +0000

I picked up a copy of Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us from Indigo’s books under $10 table. I’m not sure what a book has to do to be heaved onto the $10 table…perhaps this is where former “International Bestsellers” go to spend their twilight years…next to the the Chicken Soup for the Atheist books. Not quite the $2 “you are irrelevant and are taking up too much stock space” table, but not quite the at the head of the book line. Perhaps the “has-been” table?

Either way, one cannot pass up an international bestseller for $10. Actually, in a bout of honesty, I’ll say that that tag-line was probably the biggest reason I bought it. The book is essentially a thought experiment regarding a hypothetical Earth completely without humans. This is exactly the kind of stuff one would expect to be sharing space in the $2 bin with alien conspiracy books, tell-all biographies of 90210 movie stars and anything on the Clinton Administration.

I secretly wanted to buy it regardless (call it a guilty pleasure regarding the apocalyptic), but ‘international bestseller!’ there must be some credibility to the premise - how could I not buy it now!?

I haven’t been disappointed – it’s really good. Well-written and well-researched. Relevant? Meh…maybe, he talks a lot about historic climate changes and the immense way human ancestors changed their surrounding ecologies. There is also considerable amounts of discussion regarding urban environments, so I can cheat myself into thinking that this could be useful to my upcoming profession.

A great example he used to highlight some potentially super-long lasting human settlements was the underground cities in Turkey. known as the Derinkuyu Underground Cities , these massive caverns were excavated during the 7th or 8th century BC and opened to the public in 1969

The city could be closed from inside with large stone doors. With storerooms and wells that made long stays possible, the city had air shafts which are up to 100 feet (30 m) deep. Derinkuyu is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey. The complex has a total 11 floors, though many floors have not been excavated. It has an area of 2,000 square feet , with a possible total area of 7,000 square feet (650 m ² ). Each floor could be closed off separately. The city was connected with other underground cities through miles of long tunnels. The city could accommodate between 3,000 and 50,000 people. ( Answers.com )

Yet another reason to visit Turkey!

Canada, of course – has it’s own underground city in Montreal, although I don’t think it was designed as a refuge against invading forces.

Probably one of the deepest man-made cities I’ve come across would be the Moscow Subway network. When I was there I made a point of visiting the deepest station, Park Pobedy, which is 84 meters deep, complete with nuclear blast doors near the entrances. Navigating up to the surface was quite the prolonged escalator journey.

Technorati Tags: books, caves, derinkuyu underground city, environment, history, metro, moscow metro, travel, turkey, underground cities

2009

Bryan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:01:34 +0000

First 2009 post and 308th post since 2004 when I started this blog. Actually, I began blogging in 2003 at http://www.bryancrosby.ca (without the “-”) but lost that domain, and the 100 or so associated entries because of an amatuerish mistake regarding hosting payments…make sure credit card information is up-to-date or one might find their hosting privlidges revoked, all content removed and their domain name up on the block for outside party purchase.

So about five years of silly scribbles + one internet stalker = my blogging experience up to present day.

James Fallows (The Atlantic’s China correspondent) has a new book out entitled Postcards from Tomorrow Square documenting his two years in China. I’ve been following Fallows since he first arrived in Shanghai in 2006 and was immediately hooked on his blog. China pundits, folks making claims of building ‘east-west bridges’ and China related books are a dime-a-dozen these days and even as recently as 2004 the English-language Chinese blogosphere wasn’t nearly as developed as it is now, nor were there nearly as many print publications floating around the market. I always felt thought that Fallows, eventhough he didn’t have the Chinese street-credentials (language fluency, 10+ years in country, local wife etc….) like many other Mainland commentators, he wrote some of the best articles I’ve ever read regarding China, especially on CCP Public Relations with the international community. I suspect that most of the book is a pasting of his Atlantic articles and blog posts, (seems to be the trend recently) but at 10 dollars, I might have to make a trip down to the local Chapters to pick up a copy (I have a suspicion that this book will make it into the local library…or even campus library).

Technorati Tags: 2009, blog, books, china

Stauffer Library

Bryan — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:25:30 +0000

I was a bit of a library/book nerd when I was an undergrad (actually, probably ever since I became a library helper in grade 5). Having such an occupation would involve numerous hours browsing around looking for interesting items in a university library. That’s right…in a university library looking for non-fiction books to read that are not related in anyway at all to required or even suggested course readings. Let me tell you, I was the coolest kid on campus.

This habit diminished significantly during my time abroad but I suppose it was only natural that it would make a return with my return.

My program doesn’t involve much time in the library as most of our readings are provided in course packs and relevant journals can be easily accessed online and printed at the school – nevertheless, I thought it was time to visit Stauffer (the visit would also correspond with a project for one course involving graphically modeling the library).

In an attempt to keep my China skillz current (in regards to planning) I searched up some books on the topic and recorded down their call numbers. Call numbers are quite long and I am quite lazy, so after only one I noticed that most planning books held the first four digits in common thus would probably be found in the same section of the library – so a marched off confidently to the HT166 section of Stauffer. Sure enough, the books are there….all three bloody rows of them – I should have written down the whole call number.

I managed to find the several books I was looking for but I soon found myself surrounded by hundreds of relevant, current and damn interesting books on planning. The Stauffer Library urban planning section is quite good (too me at least, maybe it has an awful selection…I’m not edcuated enough to know – ignorance is bliss). I quickly discovered that I’m interested in almost all of them and in all aspects of planning…except maybe housing. Despite being probably one of the most important and relevant aspects of urban planning, housing just isn’t sexy….my concentration, land use is far sexier.

Planning sexy? *slap* – When was the last time you heard a woman comment – “I love a man that plans”. It’s usually the attraction to a dude’s spontaeous nature – something which is the anti-thesis of the planning profession.

So here I am – back to my dorky ways.

Technorati Tags: books, china, land-use, queens university, stauffer library, surp, urban planning