The above two photos are most of the books that The Situation Jun has read in 2021, and when these books are stacked together, the Situation Jun himself is quite touched: If you insist on taking an hour or two to read every morning and evening, there are really a lot of books to read in a year. The price is that the time you brush the drama to play mobile phones is almost gone, and the circle of friends who have children will miss the likes.
Because many people have the habit of bringing books home for the New Year, but few people can finish reading, because the environment during the New Year is very complicated, there are many factors that cause you to not read books, but few people realize a problem: the book they choose is not appropriate. New Year's reading must be selected, the situation jun from the above list of books to pick 5 books recommended for everyone to read during the Spring Festival, not only has a ranking, and each book gives at least 3 reasons.
First Prize, Machiavelli: On monarchs
Recommended for:
The book is thin. Thin means easy to read, which is the most important factor for bringing books in the New Year.
The book is well-read. When it comes to "realist theory" in the political sciences, Machiavelli and his Treatise on monarchs are typical. Realism means "reality", emphasizing practicality rather than placing "ideals, poetry and distant places" in an important position. The book was originally written for the monarch, telling him that "in order to maintain power, interests, and national stability, do not care about the hypocritical things of kindness, benevolence, and generosity." We now see that these contents are still enlightening, and have a guiding effect on entrepreneurs, small bosses, self-employed people, and even ordinary people, because mixed society must pay attention to reality and practicality. This book is worth reading and even reciting repeatedly, and The Situation Jun has also read it for the second time, and plans to read it every year in the future.
Good to read. Although the book was written 490 years ago, it is not as obscure and esoteric as other thinkers of the period, and the logic and ideas are clear and simple.
Second place, Husseini: "Brilliant Thousand Suns"
It's a wonderful novel. Mainly write about the tragic fate of the low-level people in Afghanistan.
More mature than The Kite Chaser. The most famous novel of Afghan American Husseini is "The Kite Chaser", "Brilliant Thousand Suns" is the second part of his "Afghan Series", and the situation Jun feels that both the maturity of the structure and the rationality of the plot are better than "The Kite Chaser", of course, "The Kite Chaser" is also worth reading, do not go to the movie.
Demystify Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been under the control of the Taliban for less than half a year, and if you want to understand the life, customs and culture of Afghans, Husseini's two novels are very representative. Some people criticize his novels as "cool" works, but the plot is ups and downs, the story is wonderful, the characters are typical, and they can also reflect the background of the times, which is a good literary work.
Husseini was a doctor. People who study medicine seem to have succeeded in literary and artistic creation.
Third Prize, Zhang Hongjie: A Brief Reading of Japanese History
Strong sense of picture. Zhang Hongjie has an obvious personal characteristic in writing history, that is, he pays attention to the "scene and picture sense" of the content, he will carefully select important historical moments and historical figures, and string together history by restoring their behavior and key deeds, so it is full of fun when reading.
Talk about principles. Although everyone is familiar with Japan, it is not necessarily clear what the "emperor, the shogunate, the Meiji Restoration, and the samurai class" are all doing, and this book makes it clear.
Continue recommending. At the same time, I recommend Teacher Zhang Hongjie's "Sitting in the World is Very Tired", which is also suitable for reading during the Spring Festival.
Fourth Prize, Kissinger: "On China"
Differences between China and foreign countries. Over the years, He has read a lot of books on Chinese politics and recommended works by foreign scholars. Domestic scholars inevitably have a large number of theoretical discussions, some of which are like "Si Xiu, Ma Zhe" textbooks, other content is also rigorous and serious, and personal views are very subtle.
Lookers-on see most of the game. Foreign scholars will not cite those contents of the "Si Xiu, Ma Zhe" textbook, purely on the basis of historical facts, there is no ideological burden and restrictions, there is a kind of "bystander Qing" transparency, reading Kissinger's "On China" has this experience.
Professional and popular. Kissinger graduated from harvard university's political science department in his early years, graduated from a class, and after graduation, he lectured at Harvard for 18 years as a professor of international relations; later entered the White House as an assistant to national security affairs and secretary of state, and was a scholar who combined theory and practice. The general characteristics of his book: 40% historical facts + 20% theory + 4% personal opinions. So unlike academic monographs, which are more like popular books, his personal views have stood the test of time and help readers understand.
Continue recommending. This book may be our most curious part of the power struggle has been cut down, and students who want to see that part recommend "Governing China", which is a textbook for political science majors in American universities, very rigorous, academic and professional, and all kinds of problems are not shy away from it, but it is not a popular reading, and it must be prepared with a certain degree of psychological preparation.
Fifth place, Liao Xinzhong: "Our Years in Taiwan" series
Grounded. Taiwanese post-70s writer Liao Xin has published three books. "Our Taiwan These Years 1 and 2" and "The Motherland That Taiwan Has Known Over the Years", these books view Taiwan's development, changes and cross-strait relations from the perspective of an ordinary post-70s Taiwanese, which is very grounded.
Empathize. From his book, we can understand the daily life, behavior habits of ordinary Taiwanese, and the historical reasons behind their behavior. Every time there is an international event, how the other side will react, and the mentality of the people.
Popular value. Understanding cross-strait relations through papers and academic monographs is actually in the service of scientific research, seriously detached from life, understanding the relationship between the political superstructure, and not necessarily understanding the life and culture of ordinary Taiwanese. Reading Liao Xinzhong's three books can understand the real Taiwanese society, in addition to history, politics and economy, but also movies, popular music, and celebrity gossip.
In this pile of books, there are three books that are least recommended for everyone to read and start:
Ma Jianguang's "Apocalypse of the Syrian War" is purely hot spots, of poor quality, and inconsistent in appearance.
Agatha Christie's "Say, Syria", which writes that she and her husband went all the way to Syria to dig up antiques, is worthless. Jia Pingwa's "White Night", long-winded, no literary style, flat characters, everyone's time is precious or read good works.
"Chessboard and the Internet", "Samurai Politics", "Social Contract Theory", "The Road to Slavery", the book is a good book, but the theory, professionalism, and scholarship are too strong, ordinary people are too tired to read, and they don't know what to read after reading.
Let's talk about why the Situation King reads these books.
Part of it is to help the publisher recommend. Some of the above books are new books for 2021, and those are sample books sent to The Situation Jun by the editors of CITIC Publishing House. Because I took people's books for free, I honestly read them every time from beginning to end, and I had feelings in the middle of the way to send a microblog and write down my objective feelings, such as "A Brief Reading of Japanese History", "Supreme Loyalty", "American Black Mirror", "Impulsive America", "Forgotten Depression", "Discrimination and Inequality", "Chessboard and the Internet" are all the cases.
The other part is actively read in line with the development of the international situation. For example, after July 2021, the Taliban rushed all the way to Kabul, so the situation jun read "Taliban - Religious Extremism", "Taliban Senior Leaders' Self-Statement" and "Face to Face with the Taliban", after reading it, I felt that I did not understand Afghanistan, and read "The Kite Chaser" and "Brilliant Thousand Suns", which was much more practical.
Write a book plan for reading. Last year, I planned to write a book about the Syrian war, so I bought all the books with the name "Syria", and also bought a few books from abroad, and read most of them, and after reading it, I was more determined to write about the Syrian war, at least no one in China could explain the war clearly, and the good writing was that the collection of essays was not popular, and the poor writing belonged to the hot spot to make up qualifications.
For the official account update. September 11, 2021 is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in order to review this incident, read George W. Bush's memoir "The Moment of Choice", and "A Difficult Day" written by American Navy SEALs Mark Owen, and after reading the 10,000-word "20 Years of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks".
Read for the purpose of writing online lessons. There are two versions of The Wealth of Nations, which I have read intermittently once before, and three books in two editions last year. This book was published in the year of the founding of the United States, 246 years ago, but it is the founding work of Western economics, and the economic principles we know are derived from this book, except for some things about grain trade, rent, colonies, etc., which are not appropriate, the other content is still regular and will never become obsolete. Originally planned to write a 15-lesson course, according to the current social phenomenon to reinterpret the "Wealth of Nations", the first draft wrote that after section 7, it was too busy to be shelved, and I would find opportunities later.
Park Geun-hye was exempted by Moon Jae-in on the last day last year, which was the reason for reading her famous "Despair Exercises Me", which is also quite suitable for the New Year: thin, simple content, simple writing, and attention can be read in a day.
Guns, Germs and Steel is a well-known book that is almost a must-read in the field of social sciences. But this book is not so easy to read, and the use of natural science to interpret the history of human development belongs to the kind of root-finding reasons. So don't take this book lightly on a trip or vacation, it's easy to waste it if the ear root is not clean. I recommend you to read another book by author Diamond, Why are some countries rich and some countries poor? This is a quintessential or simplified version of Guns, Germs, and Steel, and is sufficient for non-professional readers.
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