21. Meditations - Marcus Aurelius. For some eerie reason, Meditations comes across as a re-hashing of Enchiridion.
22. Winning Modern Wars - Clark, Wesley K. The General speaks. I am disappointed with this book, as I was expecting profound perspectives on the new battleground that has been consuming the sensibilities and economy of America. Instead, I was treated to a rehashing of ideas flogged dead in the mainstream media. America is geared and prepared to battle a foe enshrined in Cold War concepts; as far as the battle with terrorism goes, the terrorists have us cornered. As they cannot face us on the battlefield, they've found a way to make us live under constant fear: fears perpetrated by an uninspiring "intelligence" fraternity and an even duller political administration. Our economy bears the brunt. Our formerly open society becomes insular, isolated and increasingly ignorant. Formerly a beacon, we are firmly entrenched as the folks who cried wolf, the flatliners. This is the new war, not a grossly mismatched exchange of gunfire and bodybags.
23. Competitive Strategy - Porter, Michael. This famous book isn't that difficult to read, although I get the distinct impression that most benefit would accrue from not reading the book as such but using it as a reference. Interesting though, that it is still quite relevant 23 years down the road. The chapter I liked best was the one on exiting from a declining industry - entry is much easier than exit. So that is why I liked it.
24. The Da Vinci Code -Brown, Dan. Gripping, artsy book. Remarkably easy reading though a tad too ... hollow. Sounds credible enough, and I suspect it will be made into a blockbuster movie at some point. Brings together modern life (email, problems with the American catholic church), art (mainly Italian), the church (mainly Italian again), couture (french and british), superstition (Holy Grail) and fables (the "divine feminine" as presented in various forms of art ranging from poetry to sculpture to Disney works), and the famed Merovingian. I guess the Merovingian is decidedly French - Matrix Frenchman, Dan Brown's line of David's French spawn. Arggh.
