Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

I had a lot of optimism when I started reading Lord of the Flies. I was hoping for a fascinating exploration of the dark side of human nature through the story of what would happen if a group of boys found themselves alone on an uninhabited island. A primitive, savage society arranged around its leader, the lord of the flies.

However, it turns turns out that the lord of the flies is just a pig’s head on a stick.

Still, at least I know never to reveal that my childhood nickname was “piggy”. So it was not a complete waste of ten hours of my life, even if the author, William Golding, somewhat missed the point.

I am pleased to announce the publication of the 3rd edition of the guide. The new edition features 11 brand new reviews and updates to an additional 6. We have also cleared out the 22 that have closed down so far this year (compared to just 2 removed when we published the second edition).

Added

• Around the World in 80 Beers
• Chickando’s
• Colazione
• Lemongrass
• Peachy Keens
• Roxy Ballroom
• Sabor Latino
• Souvlaki
• Tapped
• The Angel
• Wasabi

Updated

• Ciao Bella
• Piccolino
• Primo Ristorante
• Prezzo
• Red Hot World Buffet
• YO! Sushi

If you take a look at Wikipedia’s list of best-selling books of all time, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens comes right at the top. Of course, it was published over 150 years ago, so who can say where Fifty Shades of Grey will be after a similar time has lapsed…

It also shares a very similar name with the Leeds-based food blog A Tale of Two Sittings. I am not sure whether it is a deliberate reference to the book, or whether the blog pre-dates the novel and Dickens was making a reference to the blog. More research is needed.

Dickens tells the tale of a small cast of characters and their jet-setting lifestyle between London and Paris, both before and during the French Revolution. It takes quite a while to get into. I think I got to about half way through the book, still wondering what it was actually about. Of course it all comes together in the end though to form a beautiful tapestry of interwoven stories that culminate in what is probably a happy ending. Ignoring the tens of thousands that went to the guillotine of course…

Liar’s Poker is the first book Michael Lewis published and the one that transformed him from a bonds salesman to a writer. It tells the tale of how he came to work at Salomon Brothers and key figures at the company that oversaw rise and fall. It’s an interesting insight into the excess of Wall Street.

I’ve been thinking some more about why I did not find The Blind Side quite as satisfying a read as I had hoped for. I think it is because the story does not really fit together as well as it could have, and thus the ending was a bit of an anticlimax.

The early part of the book set out a clear narrative. The NFL was taking up to the fact that left tackle was a really important position while simultaneously Michael Oher but a quark of fate was both huge and nimble. It was a fairy tale story ready to be put to paper.

Unfortunately, it did not pan out that way.

The NFL had in fact woken up to the value of left tackle well before Michael Oher arrived on the scene. Far from being unique, the league had already sourced a collection of elegant giants to protect their quarterbacks.

He was drafted in 2009 by the Baltimore Ravens and despite trying him out at left tackle, he has spent most of his time on the right. That is not to say he is not an excellent player. The Ravens won the Super Bowl (after the officials refused to call blatant pass interference on what would have been the 49ers winning drive – I’m not bitter about it though) with him in the offensive line. However, re-write the book he did not. Bryant McKinnie was their left tackle.

That is not to detract anything from what is a wonderful story. It was a very moving tale and an enjoyable read.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s final set of stories about Sherlock Holmes is compiled into Case-Book. It has some interesting tales, but at times I could not help but feel that the ideas were running a bit thin. One wasn’t even really a mystery, it was just someone reciting a story. Others were narrated by Holmes himself. It was true to his character, which while being accurate, was a less engaging style of storytelling. I did not get bored though, so these points aside, it was an enjoyable read.

Pretty disappointed by this book. It was a truly heart warming tale about how a rich white family brought a poor black kid into their home and turned his life around. But what I really wanted was an insight into an industry. That is what Flash Boys and The Big Short delivered.

That is not to criticise Michael Lewis as a writer. He is, as ever, poetic in his storytelling. It is a strange and wonderful story. However, it did not create the “I cannot put this down” feeling as much as the books of his that I have previously read.

The Big Short is a book by Michael Lewis that tells the story of the 2008 financial crises and some of the people who saw it coming. Lewis is a great writer. He takes a subject which is fundamentally rather dull and boring, and tells stories in such an accessible and engaging way that it is difficult to put it down.

It preaches a similar story to that of his later book, Flash Boys. That is that almost nobody in the banking industry really knows what is going on. They churn out new products and new systems so fast that none of them really understand it. Their, and our doom. But at least it makes good reading.

His Last Bow is another of the collection of short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle around Sherlock Holmes. They continued Doyle’s improved storytelling style and offered some further interesting insight into the characters, particularly Mycroft.

Some of it made me think I had read before, particularly when Holmes describes how he reads Watson’s thoughts. I’m not sure if it actually was the same as an earlier story or not. It also jumps around quite a bit in terms of when the stories were set and so a bit more of an explanation at the start would have been nice.

When someone says the phrase “high frequency trading” (HFT), most of us have no idea what it means. Even those of us with some idea, probably think it is trading by computers, but essentially doing what traders do – wheeling and dealing in an attempt to make some money.

Michael Lewis’s book “Flash Boys” tells a different story. High frequency trading is all about front-running. You want to buy 10,000 shares in Apple? Great, I’m going to buy them before you can and then sell them to you at a higher price. It’s illegal, or it was, but with the deregulation of central stock markets in favour of competition between markets, you can now exploit milliseconds it takes for them to talk to each other.

This caused huge investment into the history with HTF firms making enormous profits. The banks didn’t say anything because they were making money from selling the HFT companies the data they needed. The stock markets didn’t say anything because they were making money from the huge increase in trading activity. Everyone was getting rich from scalping the ordinary investor.

I say was, but the problem has not gone away. However, the book also discusses how former trader Brad Katsuyama has gone on to set up IEX, a private stock exchange that tries to eliminate all the unfairness in the market.

It is a fascinating by scary read. To see how totally wrong the entire banking industry is. We all kind of know it, but it really brings it home.