A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities: The Audible Dickens Collection by Charles Dickens

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" is one of the great intros of all time. Beyond that, I was pretty lost. When I had to read Tale of Two Cities in high school, I could not get into it at all. I read the whole book, but nothing stuck. Trying it again now was only marginally better. There was  a lot of anti-immigrant banter. It seemed the French revolution took some detours with "liberty, equality or death". A guy manages to show some mixed English, French ties and hopes to avoid the death part. There is also some romance and other bits in there. This narration was fairly unintelligible at 3.5 speed, but sounded fine around 3.2x. 

On Liberty

On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

What is Liberty? Are there absolute standards of liberty or is it relative to a culture or circumstances? Mill takes a fairly holistic view. Standards of liberty differ from person to person and society to society. Government should not be involved in restraining liberty unless there is a significant harm to others. 

Popular Tales from the Norse

Librivox can be hit or miss, even in a single book. Some "tales" in this collection were read with such thick accents I could barely understand them. Others had way to much "enthusiasm." There were even a few that were done really well. There were many short tales - some that seemed to have more space dedicated to the "librivox introduction" than to the actual tales. But, that is enough about the narration.

The book starts out with a long introduction. Then it jumps into a large number of Norse tales. Then we get a bonus West Indian tales featuring Anansi. (Scandinavia and the Caribbean. Uh, yeah, I see the connection.)

Some of the tales have been popularized (albeit in somewhat different forms) by Disney movies. Others seem to be half complete. There are plenty were the humble guy gets a great advantage by his smarts. There is also a good deal of supernatural behavior.

One tale had a man sell his soul to the Devil, then trick the Devil out of taking it. Since he was not a good guy, he was left without a place to leave and had to sneak into Heaven. The moral? Uh, not sure. But it is an interesting yarn.

While there are some moralizing, it seems that many of the tales are primarily for entertainment. Some are good, while some are bad. This collection would be better skimmed in print than listened to on audiobook.

Origin of the Species

Origin of the Species is a decent size tome that primarily provides examples supporting Darwin's theory of natural selection. Most of the science now appears rather mundane. After all, this is commonly accepted now. Darwin does, come across as extremely cocky. It makes me wonder whether Darwin was given his credit because he was really smart, or just because he had the force to evangelize his positions. (Much of the work is filled with examples of other people's research.) In the conclusion, Darwin goes out on a limb and disparages anyone who disagrees with him, providing some of the arguments that are now common in any evolutionary debates.

Perhaps most ironically, however, is that he concedes that most of the species in existence could have been descended from five original species. (Hmmm... That almost sounds like a contemporary intelligent design argument.)
The book spends some time discussing the problems with the geological record. There are a great many holes in the geologic history due to the way organisms are preserved. The lack of certain fossils does not mean that the organisms did not exist. Without evidence, it is impossible to disprove long-term evolution through natural selection. (And it is also impossible to disprove evolution of species through other means.)
The book provides many examples supporting micro-evolution and the creation and plausible creation) of new beneficial features. He stresses that only new traits that provide a benefit to the individual organism will be propagated. (Though some traits could also provide benefit to others.) Creation of new species (and larger divisions) is primarily supported by supposition.

Darwin's pomposity is probably what gives him, rather than Wallace, the role of "evoution" standard bearer. While there is some decent scientific content in the book, the political rants are what have endured most.