“Book Reviews § The Battle Between the Frogs and the Mice, Stallings2019”, Gwern2013-08-23 (literary criticism)⁠:

A compilation of books reviews of books I have read since ~1997.

Review of new translation of a well-known but now-neglected ancient Greek satirical poem parodying the Homeric epics. Stallings’s rhymed-couplet translation is winsome and charming, preserving the too-cute names and bathos, and pairs well with Grant Silverstein’s energetic pencil drawings. A light and enjoyable read.

• 5 Stars
  • Like Engend’ring Like, Russell1986
  • Cat Sense, Bradshaw 2013_11ya: Are We Good Owners?
  • The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M.I.T., Brand1988
  • Radiance, Scholz2003
  • Stories of Your Life and Others, Chiang2010
  • Worm, Wildbow2013
  • Quantum Thief Trilogy, Rajaniemi2014
  • Urne Burial, Browne2005
  • The Discovery of France, Robb2007
  • Selected Non-Fictions, Borges1999
  • The Wages of Destruction, Tooze2007
  • Lords of Finance, Ahamed2009
  • Bias in Mental Testing, Jensen1980
  • The Notenki Memoirs, Takeda2005
  • The Remains of the Day, Ishiguro2005
  • The Book of Lord Shang—A Classic of the Chinese School of Law, Yang2011
  • The Origins of Political Order, Fukuyama2011
  • The Histories, Herodotus2003
  • Genius, Gleick1993
  • The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker2011
  • The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, Mitchell2010
  • Collapse of Complex Societies, Tainter1990
  • Star Maker, Stapledon1999
• 4 Stars
  • ARPA and SCI: Surfing AI, Roland And Shiman2002
  • Past, Present, and Future of Statistical Science, Lin2014
  • The Cultural Revolution, Dikötter2016
  • The Genius Factory, Plotz2006
  • Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes, Everett2008
  • McNamara’s Folly, Gregory2015
  • The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, Swanwick2012
  • Bad Blood, Carreyrou2018
  • A History of Life-Extensionism in the Twentieth Century, Stambler2014
  • Moondust, Smith2006
  • The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III, Byrne2010
  • Unsong, Alexander2017
  • Fortune’s Formula, Poundstone2006
  • Digital Gold, Popper2015
  • Playboy Interview II, Golson1983
  • Spec Ops, McRaven1996
  • Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide?, Gergel1979
  • Titan, Chernow2004
  • A Perfect Vacuum, Lem1999
  • Fujiwara Teika’s Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Shōji Era, 1200, Brower1978
  • Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Márquez2003
  • Stallings2019’, Gwern2013” id=”toc-the-battle-between-the-frogs-and-the-mice-stallings-2019”>The Battle Between the Frogs and the Mice, Stallings2019
  • Singularity Rising, Miller2012
  • The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq, Blasim2014
  • Savage Continent, Lowe2012
  • Quantum Computing Since Democritus, Aaronson2013
  • A Life of Sir Francis Galton, Gillham2001
  • The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, Luttwak2016
  • The Machiavellians, Burnham1988
  • The Vaccinators, Jannetta2007
  • The Black Company, Cook1992
  • Life in Our Phage World, Rohwer2014
  • Tombstone, Jisheng2012
  • Pact, Wildbow2014
  • Drugs 2.0, Power2013
  • The Hall of Uselessness, Leys2011
  • Packing for Mars, Roach2010
  • The Windup Girl, Bacigalupi2009
  • Haikai Poet Yosa Buson And The Bashō Revival, Crowley2006
  • Turing’s Cathedral, Dyson2012
  • Web Typography, Rutter2017
  • Echopraxia, Watts2014
  • Ketamine, Jansen2004
  • Clear and Simple As the Truth, Thomas1996
  • In the Plex, Levy2011
  • Ready Player One, Cline2011
  • Cool Tools, Kelly2013
  • Proving History, Carrier2012
  • Wired Love, Thayer1879
  • The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field, Hadamard1954
  • The Devil in the White City, Larson2003
  • The Mask of Sanity, Cleckley2003
  • The End of History and the Last Man, Fukuyama2006
  • Hyperbole and a Half, Brosh2013
  • Declare, Powers2002
  • A Shropshire Lad, Housman1990
  • Chased by the Light, Brandenburg2001
  • The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald2004
  • The Signal and the Noise, Silver2012
  • The Theory That Would Not Die, McGrayne2011
  • The Man Who Knew Infinity, Kanigel1992
  • Debt, Graeber2011
  • Red Plenty, Spufford2010
  • The Metropolitan Man, Wales2014
  • The True Believer, Hoffer2010
  • Dreams of Steel, Cook1990
  • On China, Kissinger2011
  • The Master Switch, Wu2010
  • The Circus of Dr. Lao, Finney2002
  • The Kindly Ones, Littell2009
  • The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Bailyn1992
  • Friendship Is Optimal, Iceman2012
• 3 Stars
  • Pioneers of Soviet Computing, Malinovsky2010
  • The Operations Evaluation Group, Tidman1984
  • Confessions of an English Opium Eater, Quincey2003
  • The Unholy Consult, Bakker2017
  • A Troublesome Inheritance, Wade2014
  • The Recollections Of Eugene P. Wigner, Wigner2003
  • Donald Michie, Michie2009
  • Average Is Over, Cowen2013
  • New Legends, Bear1996
  • Perseverance Island, Frazar2009
  • Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders, Buffett2013
  • A Memory of Light, Jordan2013
  • Tokyo, Tsuzuki1999
  • 1000 Poems from the Manyōshū, Yakamochi2005
  • Double Entry, Gleeson-White2012
  • Renaming of the Birds, Troupes2013
  • Drop Dead Healthy, Jacobs2012
  • Spam Nation, Krebs2014
  • On the Historicity of Jesus, Carrier2014
  • Mathematical People, Albers2008
  • The Riddle of the Labyrinth, Fox2013
  • Pirate Freedom, Wolfe2007
  • Japanese Love Hotels, Chaplin2007
  • The Life of Samuel Johnson, Boswell1993
  • Selected Poems, Celan1972
  • Moby-Dick Or, the Whale, Melville2003
  • Japan As Number One Lessons for America, Vogel1999
  • Goldthwaite1968’, Gwern2013” id=”toc-private-wealth-in-renaissance-florence-goldthwaite-1968”>Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence, Goldthwaite1968
  • Before the Storm, Kube-McDowell1996
  • Uncontrolled, Manzi2012
  • Research Fraud in the Behavioral and Biomedical Sciences, Miller1992
  • 空ろの箱と零のマリア 1, Mikage2009
  • Game Programming Patterns, Nystrom2011
  • The Dark Side of the Enlightenment, Fleming2013
  • Drift into Failure, Dekker2011
  • The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hopkins1976
  • Possible Worlds, Haldane2001
  • Hanging Out With the Dream King, McCabe2005
  • Theological Incorrectness, Slone2004
  • Shikishi1993’, Gwern2013” id=”toc-string-of-beads-complete-poems-of-princess-shikishi-shikishi-1993”>String of Beads: Complete Poems of Princess Shikishi, Shikishi1993
  • On the Road, Kerouac1976
  • Handbook of Intelligence, Goldstein2015
  • The Secret History of the Mongols, Rachewiltz2006
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman2013
  • A Confederacy of Dunces, Toole1994
  • Bitter Seeds, Tregillis2010
  • Modern Japanese Diaries, Keene1999
  • Voyage of the Beagle, Darwin1989
  • Indiscrete Thoughts, Rota1998
  • Inside WikiLeaks, Domscheit-Berg2011
  • The Bridge to Lucy Dunne, Exurb1a 2016
  • The Japanese Family Storehouse, Ihara1959
  • The Pillow Book, Shōnagon2006
  • Robert Bakewell And the Longhorn Breed of Cattle, Stanley1998
  • Hive Mind, Jones2015
  • The City of Falling Angels, Berendt2006
  • Structural Equation Modeling, Lee2007
  • The Autobiography Of Benvenuto Cellini, Cellini1999
  • Newton and the Counterfeiter, Levenson2009
  • Drug Interdiction, Steffan2010
  • Daemon, Suarez2009
  • The Midas Paradox, Sumner2015
  • Clever Hans, Pfungst2011
  • Hyecho1984’, Gwern2013” id=”toc-the-hye-cho-diary-memoir-of-the-pilgrimage-to-the-five-regions-of-india-hyecho-1984”>The Hye Ch’O Diary: Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India, Hyecho1984
  • Un Lun Dun, Miéville2007
  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson1998
  • Curves and Angles: Poems, Leithauser2006
  • An Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry, Miner1968
  • More Poems, Housman1936
  • Tau Zero, Anderson2006
  • The Buried Giant, Ishiguro2015
  • Matter, Banks2008
  • 50 in 50, Harrison2002
  • Shadow Games, Cook1989
  • Silicon Snake Oil, Stoll1996
  • Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Lem1986
  • IWoz, Wozniak2006
  • House of Leaves, Danielewski2000
  • Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, Ingram2008
  • The Judging Eye, Bakker2009
  • No Country for Old Men, McCarthy2006
  • Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, Lipsky2010
  • The Rapture of the Nerds, Doctorow2012
  • Chinese History in Economic Perspective, Rawski1992
  • The Wallet of Kai Lung, Bramah2002
  • Portfolios of the Poor, Collins2009
  • A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Malkiel2004
  • Kim, Kipling1981
  • Cognitive Surplus, Shirky2010
  • Genius Revisited, Kassan1993
  • Everything Bad Is Good for You, Johnson2006
  • Spice and Wolf, Vol. 01, Hasekura2009
  • The Art of UNIX Programming, Raymond2003
  • Psychiatry And The Human Condition, Charlton2000
  • The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, Appelbaum1980
  • Being Wrong, Schulz2010
  • Silently and Very Fast, Valente2011
  • The Cinema of George Lucas, Hearn2005
  • Practical Criticism, Richards1930
  • Shame: Confessions of the Father of the Neutron Bomb, Cohen2000
  • The Man Who Would Be Queen, Bailey2003
• 2 Stars
  • Solid Fool’s Gold, James2011
  • Existence, Brin2012
  • The Master Algorithm, Domingos2015
  • Intellectuals and Society, Sowell2010
  • The Simple Men, Troupes2012
  • The Fountain, Troupes2014
  • Fascinating Mathematical People, Albers2011
  • Soldiers Live, Cook2001
  • The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, Tolkien2009
  • Tales of Ise, Anonymous1968
  • The Mature Optimization Handbook, Bueno2013
  • Light, Harrison2004
  • Puzzles of the Black Widowers, Asimov1991
  • The Thousandfold Thought, Bakker2007
  • Good Thinking, Good2009
  • The Lady Tasting Tea, Salsburg2002
  • Conversations With Goethe, Eckermann1906
• 1 Stars
  • Rosenthal1976’, Gwern2013” id=”toc-experimenter-effects-in-behavioral-research-rosenthal-1976”>Experimenter Effects In Behavioral Research, Rosenthal1976
  • 100 Years of Nobel Prizes, Shalev2002
  • The Complete Poems, Jarrell1981
  • Left In The Dark, Gynn2008
  • Reflections on Violence, Sorel2004
  • Dhalgren, Delany2001
  • Eragon, Paolini2005
  • Planning for Empire, Mimura2011
• Visual Novels
  • Umineko No Naku Koro Ni