Books of the month — April 2023
Five books, briefly reviewed: Houellebecq, Aramburu, Peter Medawar's science essays, Marcet and García on humanist management, and Torretti on set theory.
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Atomised. Michel Houellebecq. I had been wanting to read some of his early work. I found it superb, hard to put down once you start. Everything he writes amuses me enormously.
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Hijos de la fábula. Fernando Aramburu. While reading it I had the feeling of reading Don Quixote in a contemporary version. The style took me a while: short, very flat sentences, which makes complete sense as a counterpoint that gives the epic register a decidedly comic air.
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The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice. And Other Classic Essays on Science. Peter Medawar. I greatly enjoyed this collection of articles and essays, which combines the practice of science, philosophical reflection about it, and a good number of ideas that enrich your thinking and help you steer clear of the myths.
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Management humanista. La estrategia son las personas. Xavier Marcet, Javier García. It reads as well as the articles the authors regularly publish in the press. With no systematic ambition, it moves across many topics in management theory, enriching them with the authors' own experience. Take it or leave it.
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El paraíso de Cantor. La tradición conjuntista en la filosofía matemática. Roberto Torretti. A beautiful book. It works as a history of set theory, as philosophical reflection, and as a mathematical toy. Written with Torretti's habitual clarity and grace.