What are you reading 2019?

[ApatheticNoMore]

We finished "Beyond Growth" by Herman Daly (no great novelty, but I often read real basic foundational stuff). I attempted it before, but this time completed it. Required reading for citizens of planet earth IMO. The book is a collection of essays on the steady-state economy concept. It's not a real detailed policy plan but setting out the basic principles. De-growth is becoming a bit of an idea that's getting some traction and being debated now (yea you'd think huh), not real mainstream of course but ...

[JaneV2.0]

In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch, by John Zada.
Best book on the subject I've read so far was The Hoopa Project: Bigfoot Encounters in California by David Paulides.
This one is set in the Bella Coola region of British Columbia. Both seem to rely heavily on indigenous anecdotes.

[Ultralight]

I am reading Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. Not a fun book. I will be glad when I have finished it.

After that... I am open to suggestions.

[jp1]

Just finishing up Timekeepers by Simon Garfield. It was a random library find but I was sold after I read the table of contents and saw that one of the chapters was about a woman who thinks we should have 13 28 day months and 10 hour days. I'd had this idea before, so I had to read the rest of it.

One of the more interesting chapters involved music, and the speed at which it is performed. For instance Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has been recorded by orchestras at lengths ranging from less than an hour to 72 minutes. Who's to say which is the "correct" interpretation. Several composers who were alive as recordings become commonplace, like Aaron Copland, lamented the advent of recordings because they feared that early recordings of a piece would tie the artistic hands of future conductors/performers.

[Yppej]

An American Sickness about the US health care system. It focuses on these 10 tenets:

1. More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive option.
2. A lifetime of treatment is preferable to a cure.
3. Amenities and marketing matter more than good care.
4. As technologies age, prices can rise rather than fall.
5. There is no free choice. Patients are stuck. And they're stuck buying American.
6. More competitors vying for business doesn't mean better prices; it can drive prices up, not down.
7. Economies of scale don't translate to lower prices. With their market power, big providers can simply demand more.
8. There is no such thing as a fixed price for a procedure or test. And the uninsured pay the highest prices of all.
9. There are no standards for billing. There's money to be made in billing for anything and everything,
10. Prices will rise to whatever the market will bear.

This makes me wonder if any of you in the US have bought prescription drugs from Canada and how did you go about it?

[Tammy]

Back when Claritin was still only available by prescription and cost about $50 a month, we would buy it over the counter in Canada for about 1/4 the cost. We lived close to the border and often were in Canada for other reasons, so it was a simple stop at a drug store and we had a supply for the next several months.

[catherine]

On a 5 hour drive back home I "read" an Audible version of "The Hidden Life of Trees"--very interesting and accessible to non-foresters! (Even though the orientation was through the lens of a German forester who focused on beech trees, which are the dominant species in Central Europe, apparently. But all in all, a fascinating look at the community of trees in old and new forests.

[Yppej]

Back when Claritin was still only available by prescription and cost about $50 a month, we would buy it over the counter in Canada for about 1/4 the cost. We lived close to the border and often were in Canada for other reasons, so it was a simple stop at a drug store and we had a supply for the next several months.

Thanks. If I ever am in these circumstances it may make sense for me to get a passport. I could drive there and back on a very long day.

[pinkytoe]

The Body - A Guide for Occupants/Bill Bryson. Really interesting stuff about all our bits and systems.

[rosarugosa]

Thanks. If I ever am in these circumstances it may make sense for me to get a passport. I could drive there and back on a very long day.

Costco has a generic/store brand equivalent that is pretty reasonable.