My Life as a Paperback Junkie

When I travel, I usually travel alone. Being a really lousy tourist, my usual weekend activities in a new city is to find a book store and pick up cheap paperbacks. Most of time I end up throwing them away before my return, regretting the time thus wasted. But once in a while I discover a new brilliant writer and end up going through his/her work one by one. Here are a few I recommend to travelers like me.

Iain Pears

Always a delightful writer. "An instance of a fingerpost," and "Dream of Scipio," are the two well-known, especially the former. He mixes up  History, Religion, Art, and Mystery in one bag and produces very enjoyable human drama. Recently I picked up two of his newer novels, Stone's Fall and Arcadia. The former is another impressive novel. It starts out as if it is a common mystery and intrigue, albeit at international scale, but proved to be a story about sins and redemptions in the end. Two of main characters, Elizabeth Stone and Henry Cot, are as vivid and compelling characters as I ever encountered. The final twist was perhaps a bit too much, if not very surprising; My guess is that it had become unavoidable by the time the author reached the end of the first chapter. Unexplanable at all and unexplained is why Henry kept John Stone's memoir intact for decades, I felt, except for the benefit of the readers, which I find to be one of very few weak points. Apparently his most recent novel, Arcadia, has an accompanying app where one can follow different story lines as one chooses. A bit of bother, I feel, but I will give it a go nevertheless.

Dennis Lehane

The writer is better known for "Shutter Island" although I read a newer and far more substantial novel "The Given Day," a story of two men, Luther, a black runaway, and Danny, a white irish cop. Set against the aftermath of World War I, Spanish flu epidemic, and social unrests in Boston culminating in the strke of the police force, the novel is an epic exploring the time period via handful of its characters. In the final catastrophe, almost all major (along the white side) players of the story has some blames to share, yet you realize that's how life is anyway. You try to make things better, not always succeeding, and sometimes causing more pain in people you tried to protect. Luther's role is more of an outside observer, although his life is also very affected by circumstances of the era, no small part of which is of course racial. In some sense, Luther represents the rational side of human being, if not completely clean. Without him, perhaps, the novel would have been a bit too depressing. 

A pair of loose sequels to "The Given Day" have appeared during last few years, "Live by Night" and"World Gone By." As dark as the first, these follows Joe, the youngest brother of Danny, along his Gangster career till "the end." Although not as detailed as "the Given Day," "Live by Night" nevertheless carve out vivid snapshots of the nation. At the end of both books, a reader will likely be burdened with a deep hollow feeling which are weirdly touching at the same time.  

Scott Turow

One of those "lawyer-turned-writer," who writes about laws and lawyers. The background is always the Kindle county courtrooms and law-enforcement agency thereof, state and federal. His characters always feel real, heroes and villains alike. "Presumed Innocent," "The Burden of Proof," "Pleading Guilty," "The Laws of Our Fathers,"  "Reversible Error," etc. While one might classify him as a suspense writer, it is not plot or surprises that give his novels most interesting. Rather his characters are alive and complex. I read "Presumed Innocent" after seeing the movie version and thus knew "who dunnit" very well, yet I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and in fact much more so that the movie. Its vivid portrayal of wide range of characters combined with an impeccable plot makes it an outstanding fiction. This has a sequel titled "Innocent" recently. Pretty good one, too. He is a solid and substantial writer.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Robinson is usually classified as a science fiction writer. His famous Mars trilogy ("Red Mars," "Green Mars," "Blue Mars") is however more of an exercise in political science and in social science. Granted that it plot is set against a colonization of Mars, lead by the "First Hundreds," and story is weaved with devices that make frequent appearances in many science fictions. Yet the strength of these three books has little to do with this SF backdrop. Much of the story concerns struggles of the first Hundreds and their descendents against the MetaNats (multinational corporations on earth who are controlling more or less everything including most of nations) to gain independence of Mars, and also struggle among emigrants to Mars on issues of whether and how to reform the planet to suit human better. Mystic "Hiroko Ai," a revolutionary "Arkady Bogdanov,"  an idealist "Ann Clayborne,"  a realist "Frank Chalmers," a scientist who becomes a hero "Sax Russell," power-hungry "Phyllis Boyle," emotional "Maya Toitovona," and a reliable engineer "Nadia Chernyshevski" are some of the more memorable characters among the First Hundreds. Dozens of lively characters and the underlying respect for humanity make this trilogy an unusual read.

James Clavell

Absolutely the best writer of modern English fictions. Anything he wrote is a superb read. I started with "Shogun" and went through the complete list of his novels. Famous "Shogun" and "Gaijin" are centered on pre-industrial Japan, while "Taipan" and "Novel House" follows a line of traders in HongKong. One reason why Shogun attracted me so initially is that the story is based on the Japanese history from the death of Nobunaga who seems to be both hated and admired by Japanese, the reign of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (who invaded Korea in the late 16th century), and finally Tokugawa Ieyashu. I ended up reading real history of this era, which was as interesting as this novel, by the way. What makes "Shogun" a real pleasure at the end of the day are several very complex characters, each of whom has a crucial role to play in this fictionalized history. Next to these powerful and strong characters, the central figure, Blackthorne, seems almost infantile.

이재일

영미권 출판시장에는 매우 다양한 종류의 읽을 거리가 넘쳐난다. Fiction만 하더라도 Odyssey같은 고대신화에서 시작하여 현대의 Science Fiction에 이르기까지 엄청나게 많은 종류의 문학작품이 공존하는 하나의 생태계를 볼 수 있다. 이는 곧, 다양한 세대와 계층의 문학적 욕구를 충족시킬 수 있는읽을 거리가 서로 공존하고 있다는 이야기가 된다. 이에 비하여, 국내 출판계 현실은 "순수문학"과 "장르문학"이 엄격하게 갈라져 있어 서로 다른 생태계를 이루고 있는 듯 하다. 오랜동안 영미권 문학시장에 익숙해진 필자의 입장에서 국내 문학시장에 대한 가장 큰 불만은 이로 인해 나타나는 다양한 스펙트럼의 부재이다. 무엇보다도, 국내 "순수문학작품"들의 전체적으로 무거운 주제의식들이 과도하게 느껴진다. 과거에 많이 보이던 대하소설들 뿐 아니라, 박완서나 김훈과 같이, 문장 하나 하나가 맛 있는 저자들의 경우에도 이는 피할 수 없는 문제이다. 정유정처럼 순수문학 입장에서는 조금 주변적이지만, 읽는 재미가 우선인 작가들이 생겨나고 있지만, 아직도 가벼우면서도 읽을만한 책들은 턱 없이 부족해 보인다. 아이들에게 독서의 중요성을 훈계하기보다는 조금 더 대중적이지만 동시에 좋은 글로 채워진 문학작품들이 나올 수 있는 환경을 만들어야 한다는 생각이 간절하다.

영미권 도서의 중요한 코너인 SF, Mystery, 그리고 청소년 문학등의 비교적 읽기 쉬운 소비재에 견줄만하 것을 국내에서 찾아본다면 아마도 "무협"이 그 중 한 줄기가 아닐까 한다. 1970년대 이후 중국의, 특히 홍콩작가인 김용등의 소설들을 불법 복제한 책들, 그리고 심지어는 저자의 이름까지 바꾸어 츨판하기도 하던 부끄러운 시절로부터 시작된 이 분야에서, 놀랍게도  "사조영웅전"과 같은 무협의 전통을 이어 받기에 부끄럽지 않은, 혹은 뛰어 넘는 국내작가들이 있는 듯 하다. 한국의 무협임에도 항상 명,청대의 대륙이 배경이 되어야하는 묘한 태생적인, 장르적인 한계를 눈감아 준다면 말이다.
그 중에 한 작가를 꼽으라면 단연 이재일이라는, 본업이 무엇인지는 잘 알려져 있지 않은 아마츄어작가이다. 20년이 넘는 필력에도 불구하고 작품의 수는 몇 안된다. 소위 장르 문학의 최고봉으로 회자되는 모 작가가 이 사람의 하이텔 동아리 연재를 보고 기가 죽었다거나 하는 말들이 떠돌 만큼, 유명세를 가진 작가이다. 이재일하면 반드시 이야기해야 하는 작품이 1994년이후 20년에 걸쳐 저슬된 "쟁선계"라는 장편소설이다. 여러 차례의 연재 중단을 거치다가 최근에 19권째로 완결되었고 여쟁선이란 이름으로 두권의 후기까지 집필되었다. 김용에게서나 찾아볼 수 있던 폭넒은 상상력, 순수 문학 작가들도 기가 죽을 만한 문장력, 20년 전에 만들어진 복선과 암시가 최근에야 회수될 만큼 장대한 스케일과 치밀한 구성 등, 그 깊이를 가늠하기 어렵다.  

Ursula Le Guin

Le Guin is hardly a new name, but I began to read her famed Earthsea cycle quite recently. Much like the Ring or the Dune, the Cycle creates a completely new world with complicated social fabric, and through the delicate and fine writing the author achieved this admirably. The first installment, Wizard of Earthsea, dating back some forty years ago, reads much like any other fantasy novel, but with the progression in the subsequent volumes, one realizes that this is no ordinary "fantasy." With six books in total one consistent theme through the cycle is "death" and how people deals with it. I enjoyed the last installment "the other wind" tremendously;  it reflects on past stories, perhaps with a little regret, and ends with so much courage, warmth, and hope, despite its somber atmosphere.
As I read the cycle I recalled the animation called "Ged war story" ("Tales from the Earthsea" was the English title, same as the fifth book, yet the characters were all from the first four) by the Gibli studio, and, in retrospect,  I can see that the animation was such a travesty. The studio treated the books as an idea box, no more no less, and made a shallow one-dimensional semi-hollywood nonsense. They had such a complete disregard to the author in doing so, I can see, and I became quite angry; My usual high regard for Miyazaki Hayao suffered a bit here, not because he himself made the film (his son did) but because he allowed this to happen.

Peter Hoeg

A Danish writer. Smila in “Smila’s Sense of Snow” is a descendent of Greenland, which is still a colony of Denmark. Within first few pages, you can feel her strong presence and her unusual character, which really carries this novel all the way to the end. Each narratives by Smila is such a delight; this is a book I sometimes bring with me in long trips to reread. I cannot say much for the plot or the story, though.
I just finished his newest novel called "The Quiet Girl." Similarly to Smila's deep understanding of snow, the protagonist Kasper the Clown has a supersensory ability of hearing more or less everything, including inner sound of people. He encounters a unique girl without this internal sound, from which the story begins.  One reason I did not appreciate the overall strcuture of Smila was the way the story turned into a science fiction abruptly toward the end. Quiet Girl also turns into one at the end, but much more convincingly and ominously.
His writing is pretty unique, and the plot can turn on a dime, or rather on a single phrase, easily. An action would occur unexplained, only to be explained obliquely and briefly, twelve chapters later. Missing a sentence would lead you completely confused. He demands a bit more than some of contemporary writer demands. I was a bit surprised to learn that this newest received a lot of bad critiques, both from his homeland and for the English translation, which cited confusing and incomprehensible writing; Puzzling, since it was far better exceuted than Smila in my opinion.
Hoeg probably shares the same kind of unreal perspective as Murakami, although the latter seems a little more shallow, superficial, but easier to read, in comparison.

Eoin Colfer

It was my son who introduced me to this nimble wriiter. His Artemis Fowl series is perfect for kids with relatively short attention span, for he never fails to grab imagination with his wacky reinterpretation of Irish fairy creatures and lighthearted narratives. It could have been an obvious copycat of Harry Potter with all the magical creatures running around, except it is not. The series is a very enjoyable read, and in fact I would recommend it more than Harry Potter series which was a bit dark and serious. If your children have an appetite for English books, let them have a copy. They will have much fun.  

I took me a while to realize who this guy reminded me of; Douglas Adams of the Hitchhiker trilogy. Apparently this occurred  to other people too, and he was commissioned to write the sixth book of that "trilogy."  See below.

Diane Setterfield

"The Thirteenth Tale," tells a story through a biographer Margaret Lea interviewing a celebrated novelist by the name of Vida Winters whose true identity and childhood surroundings provide the main storylines. The letter of invitation written by Winters to Lea at the top of the novel, commanding  Lea to write her true biography, is as captivating an opening as I ever read, equal to the one in the "Poisonwood Bible" by Kingsolver. The rest of story by Winters lives up to the high expectation generated by the opening, as well. LIbraries, books, and love of books set a strong tone for both of the main characters and also for the atmosphere, such as numerous references to Jane Eyre and other 19th century novels. Although this is a myestery novel in some sense, it is really these atmosphere that I was drawn into.

Stephen L. Carter

"The Emperor of the Ocean Park" is his first novel, an impressive one at that. When I shop for papaerbacks, I always look out for a first novel of any author, the thinking here being that more time and energy would have been spent on the first book by any aspiring new writer, than otherwise. This was certainly true of Grisham. I think I was right with this one, too. "Misha" Talcot Garland is a law professor himself whose recently deceased father was once a nominee for US supreme court. Coming from an old conservative black family, Misha relays to us readers many interesting perspectives on racial issues along the way, which also creates some tension that sustains the story to some extent. The black part of America was referred to "the darker nation" and the white part "the paler" or "the larger" nation, which by itself alone imparts a lot. The color disparity is also used in conjunction with thegame of chess, where of course pieces are black and white. I thought this theme of chess was really well placed for the first 3/4.
In terms of the writing, he reminds me a lot of Turow, especially "Presumed Innocent," with deep and diverse characters. Also the way story unfold is slow and measured. This works only if the writer can keep me interested in words, phrases, and sentences, until the next development of the story is revealed, and the I feel that the author was really great in doing so. Toward the end, I am afraid it gets a bit trite and becomes an action novel as the one final piece fall in place, though. I would love to start on his non-fictions with which he apparently made his name known.
"New England Whites" and in particular "Palace Council" are also very recommendable. Characters of the two move around the same sort of conspiracy, although separated by an entire generation. Palace Council can be regarded as a sort of prequel, which happens to be better executed and has a grander view.  

Haruki Murakami

Whenever in Japan, I saw this name in English book sections. I got curious and eventually picked up one of his most recent novels, "Kafka on the shore." I immediately liked the style which was unexpectedly English but still fused with mysticisms. However, I realize now that, compared to pieces like "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" or "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World," and "Wild Sheep Chase," "Kafka..." is tamer and less representative of him. I find an adverstizing phrase in one of his paperback, "relentlessly inventive," a perfect characterization. "The Wind-up...," for example, consists of gripping stories by several people weaved into the main storyline, which ranges from sad to rudicrous. I was simply too tired yet excited to have "heard" so many engrossing stories.
After reading a few more, I realized that he was essentially a short story writer. Short stories, by its nature, are usually more versatile and free in its format and themes. The writer can often get away with almost anything when writing a short story. It could be a weird story, a fantastic tale, or a flat-toned monolog. For short stories, anything goes. Readers are more affected by the ambience than details.
The unique thing about Murakami is that he can write novels as if he is writing short stories. Some reads like a collection of short stories ingenuously connected with each other, as in the case of "The Wind-up..."  Another example, "Norwegian Wood," is like having a mysterious short story explained and completed beautifully. I suspect that he, a rare modern day story teller, has many more stories to tell us in the years to come.   

Philip Pullman

Another case of knowing the movie first, I picked up "His Dark Materials" trilogy on my way to Stanford because I knew I would be disconnected from world for a few days while setting up an apartment. I saw the movie "The Golden Compass" with my son, and was mildly impressed by the character of Lyra, and learned about the series in the wikipedia. Despite somewhat gloomy atmosphere, most of the first volume read like children's story complete with flying witches and talking bears. While the last part of voume one turned quite sinister, this hardly prepared me when the real story of the books was revealed in the subsequent volumes. Either the author showed an admirable audicity or I am too timid. The world(s) created by the authors is not as complete and consistent as the one in the Lord of Rings but every bit as interesting

 Susanna Clarke

She is a newcomer from Cambridge, UK. I remember sitting on her only novel, "Jonathan Strange and Mr.Norell" for a longest time. The book has an unusual tone and setting, with part history and part fantasy. Slow development of the two main characters is impressive, with all the flaws and strengths becoming apparent as the book progresses. Consisting of three parts, the last part is more fast-paced than the first two and most interesting. The ever-more sinister atmosphere as the story progresses is quite engrossing. The author seems to digress so frequently to minor characters and events which nevertheless later come all together seemlessly for the closing. Definitely a very impressive novel.

J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter Series

Not much new to say here, given all the hoopla about the series worldwide. However, I have to say that I liked the concluding volume very much. The Harry Potter at its outset was clearly a story for children, was written as such, and often strayed into childish sidelines. I skipped most of middle volumes, mainly because of this. But the final installment itself was very impressive and showed how Harry, the series, and possibly the author herself have grown together over the last ten years. Resolutions at the end were reasonably tight. The very last three chapters could have been better but I suppose that the enormity of the effort to keep Harry alive was somewhat costly.  

Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

This pair wrote an delightful thriller by the title of "The Rule of Four."  Superficially, the book feels a lot like an Ian Pears with a mix of Dan Brown. Although the material is centered on a mysterious book from the Renaissance era , the novel is more about friendship and life of young adults than solving the puzzle. I liked the way it closed itself, in what began like a long epilog and ended with a promise. You will see what I mean when you read it.

Barbara Kingsolver

I discovered her book "the Poisonwood Bible" in Toronto. For the first time, I think I understand what it means to call something "a haunting beauty." Consisting of narratives by a mother and four daughters, relatively rare are voices by the mother, Orleana, and by the youngest, Ruth May. But these are the centerpieces of the book, setting the tone of the story. The book starts with Orleana's beautiful narratives in a look-back mode, and ends with a mirroring voice of Ruth May. Three daughters, Rachel, Leah, and Adah, are actual story-tellers. Their lines impart three clear and very different characters. Set againt the era of early sixties in Belgian Congo, the novel accuses political powers of the western world whose evil is also in part hidden in the much-lame character of the father. Overall, one of more beautiful story I read in years.

Kurt Vonnegut

is perhaps the strangest, although most interesting, writer I have encountered. He is best known for "Slaughterhouse-Five," whose protagonist is "unstuck in time" and reflects on events during Dresden bombing in the World War II. "Cat's cradle" is one of his earlier work, when he might have been labeled as a sort of science fiction writer. His outlandish story telling was already apparent. With Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast for Champion, in late 60's and in early 70's,he became a major novelist with strong anti-establishment flavor. His later novels in the 70's and 80's feels a bit too much of farce, however, so much so that it almost seems to me he was making fun of himself.

John Grisham

Appeared out of nowhere with "Time to Kill," a superb fiction, which was followed by "The Pelican Brief" and "The Firm,"he became an overnight success in the American fiction market. I liked his book up to "Client" and "Rainmaker." The writing has gone downhill pretty fast. One too many lawyers and too much "money talks." He seems to be doing variation on the theme with the theme being "The Firm" and "Rainmaker." For his genre, I like Scott Turow better.

Gore Vidal

An enjoyable writer. "Burr" and "Lincoln" are highly recommended. His taste for older generations finds itself again in "Creation" and "Julian." Two of his strangest novels I read are "Kalki" and "Myra Breckinridge." A relative of former vice-president Al Gore, he uses "Gore" as if it is his first name, for some reason.

J.R.R. Tolkien

Thanks to "The Lord of the Rings" movie, he became a household name. I, for one, did not pay attention to his works until the first installment of the three part movie. The book itself is composed of 6 parts, even though they appeared in 3 separate publications. Reading through this book was one of more satisfying and moving experience, and I would count it among top three such: together with "Shogun" by Clavell and "The Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger. Having been written in pre WWII era, in a style of his own, it asks for some patience in the reader, but its slow but definite progress of the grand story line toward the final catastrophe (for everyone except "men") is a sheer joy to follow. The book has a strong flavor of old European culture, such as Norse legends. A germ of this story started with a much smaller novel "Hobbit," yet the latter also shares the same characteristic with an unexpectedly grand finale.

J.D. Salinger

"The Catcher in the Rye."
What else do I need to say?

Douglas Adams

A rare talent he must be. The word "hilarious" is a perfect descriptive of the famous "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy. Although the publisher kept calling it a trilogy, at least for a while, there are actually five books.  "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Restaurant at the End of the Universe," "Life, the Universe and Everything," "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish," and "Mostly Harmless." The latter two are added late, almost as an afterthought, and suffers from usual problems with overextended sequels: I guess someone needed money. If you happen to be very depressed, I recommend the first three books as a sure cure out of that malady. I read him first when I was in graduate school, and I still miss his kind of books once in a while.

Recently, the sixth book of this "trilogy" was added by Eoin Colfer, with the blessing of whoever owns the right. Although Colfer's style is vaguely similar to that of Adams, I feel that their difference shows amply in the book which is much more event-oriented than the original series. I was hoping for Fenchurch to reappear in this closure, but it was not to be. I guess she was too sane a person to fit here.

Frank Herbert

"Dune" series is deemed to be the only such among 20th century fictions that could be thought of rivaling "The Lord of the Rings." I ignored both, with a prejudice that these were just two of many garbage produced under the name of "fantasies." I am sure both inspired many "fantasy" novels but this is not to say that the latter also inherited the quality of writing of these two. So far, attempts to make movies or TV series out of Dune series have all failed miserably. Perhaps because the entire series live on a planet called Arrakis, which has nothing but sand.

Anton Pavlovich Chekov

I normally do not care for "classics" any more but do persist if the writing is not too grand. Not knowing a single word in Russian, I read Chekov in English and in Korean, most of them in English. A reasonably complete compilation of his works exist in English form, known as the Oxford Chekov. If you like short stories, you will like him. I think Penguin books are the usual source of Chekov if you want to find them in Seoul, but there are so many stories he wrote and Penguin publishes only small fraction of it. "Ariadne" and "Wardsix" are two of my favorites. He is of course also famous as a playwright. I find his description of Russian women most interesting, which smells his own ambivalence toward this tender half of human race. Both deep admiration and compassionate contempt.

More to Come......

Others / Proceed with Caution

Dan Brown

Another overnight success story with "Da Vinci Code" which apparently sold something close to ten million copies over the last few years. While you are in the middle of the book, it is one of most exciting experience, close to watching an expensive Hollywood movie which exudes obscene amount of money and confidence of technicians. At the end of it, however, nothing seems worthy of remembering, just like so many blockbusters again. Even worse, some of his earlier works seem so similar in pattern to this more recent book that I have to question integrity of the author. Of course, I am saying all this to caution readers against the hype of this book, rather than to say Brown is a bad writer.

Tom Clancy

Difficult to beat this guy when it comes to fighting "evil empire" such as Soviet Union or more recently anybody who gets in the way of US. Mainly considered by me because of the thickness of his books. If you do not know this already, paperbacks in US are almost of uniform price regardless of the number of words in the book, and when you travel for 15 hours on a plane you need an assurance that the book will not quit on you before getting to the hotel room. (In this aspect, Kurt Vonnegut and JD Salinger are the two worst by the way.) His works are invariably satisfying that way. In fact, he is a pretty good writer in a sense. He knows how to set up a complex plot and how to punish bad guys for a satisfying conclusion. Earlier ones like "The Hunt for Red October," "The Cardinal of Kremlin," "Clear and Present Danger," etc are fairly enjoyable read.  After two or three readings, however, his macho, all-American, chauvinistic attitude began to get on my nerve. Actually he seems getting even worse in recent years, and I quit buying him despite his still high would-be performance/dollar ratio during long trans-pacific trips. My last straw was "Rainbow Six" in late 1990's which was pretty sickening.

Michael Crichton

Someone who writes novels with an aim at making them into Hollywood movies, or at least it seems to me. Whatever the intention, they seem to be perfectly ready to turn into movie scripts. Famous for "Jurassic Park" of course, he is solid at surprising readers and wrapping up without causing too much emptiness. Most of his pre-1995 novels are worthy companions on your trans-pacific flights. "The Andromeda Strain," "Sphere," "Disclosure," "The Eaters of Dead" are among those eventually made into movies. His recent novels makes me wonder whatever happened to his earlier talent.
Anyway, one of his most annoying habit is to pontificate on the subject matter of his book, usually science related part, sometimes in the text but more usually in the form of an afterword. This annoyance reached its height, I feel, with one of his newest novel. "State of Fear" reflects his view on the global warming issue, and here he seemed to have overdone it by making half of the book essentially propaganda on behalf of those who says that the Kyoto agreement has no bona fide raison d'etre. This is then further emphasized by the appendix where his opinion are listed from number one to god-knows-how-many.
I sort of knew that the author feels that he knows everything once he read a few dozen books on any subject, as opposed to working as a researcher for dozens of years. As a scientist myself, I find that this casual attitude and the mislead pseudo-research offended me so much, regardless of particular opinions. Of course, the term "research" means something entireIy different to journalists, novelists, etc, so perhaps I shoud be more understanding. I sort of liked his books when I began on this habit, so it is only with much regret that I move him to this latter category.