The last two years I’ve talked about my favorite books of the year on Twitter (here’s 2018 and 2019). In 2020, I’ll begin by noting that I came to an important realization this year about reading itself. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the incentives and culture of academia, and began to understand at some point that a lot of social science books should be no longer than an article, but are extended to 200-300 pages often by repeating the same ideas in different words. I always sort of new this, but never admitted to myself how much time I was wasting with books that did not need to be read in their entirety.
"The industrial-style, routinized cruelty of the Ottoman Court, including towards the most important actors in it, is absolutely shocking."
Am currently reading The Siege by Ismail Kadare (Albanian nationalist novel playing in the 15h century told from the Turkish perspective). While it's fiction it seems pretty well researched and gives the same impression. Formalized, efficient and barbarian administration by the Ottomans.
"The industrial-style, routinized cruelty of the Ottoman Court, including towards the most important actors in it, is absolutely shocking."
Am currently reading The Siege by Ismail Kadare (Albanian nationalist novel playing in the 15h century told from the Turkish perspective). While it's fiction it seems pretty well researched and gives the same impression. Formalized, efficient and barbarian administration by the Ottomans.