2020, book 9: Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

Re-read.

2020, book 8: Music by the Numbers: from Pythagoras to Schoenberg, Eli Maor

Maor is a former professor of the history of mathematics, not of music nor of physics. The result is some light fluff with the occasional factually questionable or outright fancicul statement.

This could have been great. Instead it is mediocre popular history, with the occasional well-meant but poorly applied hints of mathematics, physics, and music.

2020, book 7: Welcome to the ballroom, volume 1, Tomo Takeuchi

Silly. I need to read more of this.

2020, book 6: Why the Dutch are different, Ben Coates

There are interesting parts, and some of the history is reasonably presented, but Coates insists on inserting inane observations of his own. He prides himself on his integration (Look! I bought a bicycle!), but unfortunately, after having lived in the country for nearly five years, he still lacks a basic understanding of many aspects of life. Worse, he ridicules some things he doesn't understand. And worst of all, he cites numbers and statistics without sources.

And this is where the book really falls flat. There are too many inaccuracies and flat-out wrong statements to take it seriously. Many of the statistics quoted are right-wing nutcase scare stories. Given Coates's history as a hack writer for conservative British politicians, perhaps one ought to forgive his unfamiliarity with objective truth.

Just one example, from page 266: no, Ben, Amsterdam was not the fourth "most murderous" metropolis in Europe in 2012, as fifteen seconds on Google would have told you.

I started reading this with interest and sympathy, but ended doing so in annoyance and anger. Shame.