Reading, Reading, and More Reading

So today was consistent with a whole load of reading in fact other then my blog and French that is all I did today. So there was three different books I read. One of them was SuperFreakonomics. Another one was Catcher in the Rye. And to finish it up Nothing to Envy. I read about 1 chapter in SuperFreakonomics and it took until about 10:00. Next up I read about until about 11:00 on Catcher in the Rye. I then finished up with some lunch in between with Nothing to Envy. I decided that most of you know what Catcher in the Rye is I think that I will give a rundown on SuperFreakonomics and Nothing to Envy for everyone reading this. Mainly because this is all I really did today. Of course they are all good books and can all teach you something.

Starting with the book that hooked from the title SuperFreakonomics. The first chapter is based on the research by a man named Sudhir Venkatesh. His research was all about the downtown neighborhoods like the rundown neighborhoods in Chicago. In the first book he researched the inner workings of a gang selling crack cocaine. His skin color lets him be accepted almost anywhere even places with segregation. For example since he is Indian he is a mixture of both letting him slip into the ghettos and "Academia" Without any trouble from anyone. So this time he went into the area of work that is known as prostitution. I don't like the subject but the chapter was very interesting. So he researched the wages, the dangers, and finally the overall life of a prostitute. Once again I did not like the subject at all but I liked the overall chapter. In fact I quite like Venkatesh's work in general. Including his entry on the Crack Cocaine in book one which was a bit outside the box.

Next up is Nothing to Envy. This is a book about the life of the North Koreans. The first chapter is all about the lack of Electricity. Can you imagine life without electricity after living with it so long. I don't think I could. Mainly because I can barely stand a day without my computer let alone an entire life where computers are almost completely unheard of. Even worse this means that you can't walk at night because street lights wouldn't work even if there was any. Then there is the problem with if you are not in the high ranks of the community you are in the middle or at the bottom. If your at the bottom then there is almost no chance of ever becoming successful in North Korea. In fact we followed the story of a girl who almost went to work under Kim Jong Il. She didn't go because her father was originally from South Korea and was instantly apart of the bottom class and could never rise from the bottom. So they could never go any higher then where they were so their life was horrible there until they defected to South Korea. That is where she was interviewed by the writer.
And so I end my blog on that dreary note and hope you decide to look into this book as despite how depressing it is this book is amazing as it is all based off of the peoples lives in North Korea.