The Borderlands of Science
by Michael Shermer
Published in November 2002
368 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 3/5


The Borderlands of Science is a good book written by Mike Shermer, an author I respect, and have followed for many years. While it contains many great gems, I found that many sections of the book were long and irrelevant to the central thesis.


The central theme of the book explores the legitimate fringe sciences, and discusses the ways that fringe non-science practices (like hypnosis) eventually become mainstream science.


I particularly liked the initial chapters describing the author’s experiences with remote viewing, hypnosis, and other borderlands phenomenon. Later chapters, about the history and biography of various scientists, also were interesting. There is a great chapter about Alfred Wallace, a scientist who helped Darwin discover the theory of evolution but nonetheless had many “quacky” superstitious ideas about spiritualism.


I found that many parts of the books steered off topic. In particular, the last few chapters go into the “Mozart Myth of Genius” which describes ideas as being spontaneously generated as opposed to slowly and socially formed. I disliked the chapters about the Darwin-Wallace debate over who got credit over the theory of the evolution. These chapters were very long and I didn’t see how they were connected to the central thesis.


This book would have been great if shortened to simply include the relevant passages, and the irrelevant details in the later chapters had been omitted. Nevertheless, it was a good read, and gave me much food for thought.

The Analects of Confucius
by Confucius and his students
Published in 479 BC
224 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 4/5


Recently, I have spent a lot of time studying non-Western history. My main focus has been the Middle East, however I am now shifting east to study ancient China. I’ve watched a dozen documentaries, mostly about the three mythical dynasties (Xia, Shang, and Zhou) and also about the Spring and Autumn Period. I recently listened to the entire History of China Podcast until the Song Dynasty, a show which I strongly recommend: https://thehistoryofchina.wordpress.com/


The Analects are a collection of Socratic dialogs between Confucius and his students. It reminded me a lot of “The Republic” and “The Death of Socrates,” and made me wonder if the two were somehow connected, perhaps through a more ancient tradition or through trade.


Unlike the Tao Te Ching, which is very vague and self-contradictory, the Analects are simple and straightforward. They eschew the questions of metaphysics, and instead focus on a range of down-to-earth issues such as friendship, what it means to be upright, morality at work, and matters of state.


There is no overarching narrative, although there are many reoccurring themes. If I had to pick three central themes / lessons from the Analects they would be:


1: Work hard to improve yourself in every way possible, and try to be elevate those around you without being narcissistic


2: Choose your friends carefully because foolish friends will cause you to act foolishly, and wise friends will help you be wise


3: Respect and honor your family, history, and origins


Some people have claimed that the teachings of Confucius constitute a religion, however that worldview perplexes me. Confucius never mentions anything mystical or supernatural, and always remains focused on questions of morality and good behavior. I think he is much more comparable to one of the Ancient Greek philosophers.


The Analects have many hidden gems and small universally applicable sayings. Some of my favorite are:


Confucius said, There are three types of friends who improve you, and three types of
friends who diminish you. Friends who are straightforward, sincere, and have learned much improve you. Friends who are fawning, insincere, and crafty in speech diminish you.


The Master said, The righteous man blames himself for lacking ability; he does not blame others for not recognizing him.


Take loyalty and trustworthiness as the pivot and have no friends who are not like yourself in this


Overall, I recommend the Analects both as a historical document (which is how I choose to read it) and as a self-help book. It is easy to understand, although knowing about the historical context greatly helps.

After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split
by Lesley Hazleton
Published in July 2009
258 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 5/5


Its been a long time since my last book review. I’ve been very busy these last few months with the Adrianople Group (https://www.adrianoplegroup.com/), and haven’t been able to read as much as I would like to. I also have been taking a break from books and listening to more podcasts lately.


Incidentally, its been nearly two months since I finished the book, which is probably the longest time I’ve waited to review a book. As such, this review will be shorter than normal.


This is one of the best history books that I have ever read.


I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about Islam, and is willing to do the necessary homework. This book is a masterfully crafted narrative of the events as they are commonly understood by Muslims. As such, it is light on archeological material and discussion of sources, however it is not intended as a detailed book.


I do not recommend this book to people who aren’t already at least roughly familiar with the circumstances before the rise of Islam, the Quran, or the life of Mohamed. I very strongly recommend it to anyone who is already deep in the study of Islam.

None Dare Call it Conspiracy
by Gary Allen
Published in 1971
160 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 2/5


None Dare Call it Conspiracy is a mediocre conspiracy book from the early 1970s. The central thesis of this book is that a communist conspiracy was in motion to help the Soviets achieve a “slow victory” over the West.


I first heard about this book through Infowars. Alex Jones mentioned that this was the book that got him to start thinking in a conspiratorial way, so I naturally had to read it.


Roughly 1/3 of the short book is devoted to arguing that conspiracies are possible and likely. I found this argument to be extremely obvious and uninteresting - I obviously accept that conspiracy theories are plausible as I am reading the book.


This book had vague accusations, and I now know where many of the modern conspiracy tropes originate. Everything from the Rothschilds to the JFK assassination is briefly covered.


The central thesis is roughly analogous to that of the John Birch Society - that communists are subverting the American government to hand it over to the Soviets.


What you will not find in this book is evidence or specific history. Many conspiracy books do a decent job at explaining the specifics and citing the sources. Many more are completely superfluous. This book falls into the second category.


I do not recommend this book, and would instead suggest G Edward Griffin to readers interested in diving into the conspiracy world.

​The Hollow Earth: The Greatest Geographical Discovery in History
by Raymond Bernard
Published in 1964
254 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 1/5


I lost IQ points while reading this book.


Every now and then, I like to keep my ideas fresh by reading something really weird and conspiratorial that I find ridiculous. I read authors like Graham Hancock and Anatoly Fomenko, both of which I found interesting and mind expanding even if I disagree. This book was not a well researched alternative view, it was the mad ravings of a crackhead.


This book was written at the height of the New Age era by Walter Siegmeister under the pseudonym Raymond Bernard in 1964. Walter Siegmeister was a founder of the new age movement, and an alternative medicine “expert” who died at the ripe old age of 62. He supported the idea of an “alternative reality” and advocated a one world communist government.


This book attempts to explain the “proven” phenomenon of flying saucers by arguing that the earth is shaped like an apple, and has two massive holes at either pole. These holes are the entrance to an underground world which is home to plants, animals, and alternate human civilizations. These underground alternate human civilizations have a lot of technology like flying saucers. He argues that this underground world would be able to resist nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States.


The book opens with an account of Admiral Byrd, who was the first man to fly over both the North Pole and the South Pole. Byrd says in his journal that, after flying over the North Pole, saw “iceless land, lakes, mountains covered with trees, and even a ‘monstrous animal.’” This could have well been Canada, and he might have seen a bear or seal.


This account (which was likely of Canada) is the only evidence in the first half of the book. From that the author extrapolates underground civilizations with flying saucers. I don’t know about the second half of the book, because I stopped reading it.


I want to stress that I am not giving this book a 1 star because I think that the content is crazy. Reading highly alternative and esoteric authors is very important. I am giving this book 1 star because it isn’t well researched and is poorly written.

Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street
by John Brooks
Published in 1969
464 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 3/5


Business Adventures is a collection of 12 true news events written as narrative stories set in the United States of the 1920s through the mid 1960s. The stories come into two categories: legal and regulatory history, and business history.


The legal and regulatory histories are quite dull, and include a very cursory overview of the US income tax. I’ve already read a lot about the income tax in the United States, and found this particular story to be kind of annoying to read because he leaves out too many critical details. I suggest skipping over all the chapters dealing with regulators instead of businesses.


The rest of the book is pretty interesting. I enjoyed the chapters dealing with the Ford Edsel and the Texas Oil Inside Trading the most. The chapter on the Ford Edsel deals with Ford’s greatest failure, where they waste millions of dollars on a massive marketing campaign that proved useless. I enjoyed hearing about the endless waves of useless market research that included doing opinion polls to see if people would associate automobiles with sexual terms.


I enjoyed this book, and recommend it to people who are already interested in business. ​

Bureaucracy
by Ludwig von Mises
Published in 1944
148 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 4/5


In the last days of WW2, Mises wrote a book about the creeping government bureaucracy that he saw as a result of the war effort. He feared that the bureaucracy would persist after the war, and slowly become totalitarian. America was at war with fascist socialism in Germany and Soviet socialism in Russia, but at home, was also falling prey to the same forces.


The book exposes the problems of incentive and give an overview of the socialist calculation problem. Mises makes it clear that non-market forces act in fundamentally unnatural ways, and must therefore constantly be supervised by semi-totalitarian controllers. The behavior of these controllers becomes increasingly totalitarian as the bureaucracy struggles to survive.

In the Shadow of the Sword
by Tom Holland
Published in 2012
560 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 5/5


This book is the best history book that I have ever read, hands down.


I recommend this book more than any other history book that I have read so far.


It is a book that gives detailed context for the rise of Islam, and instead of covering the events surrounding Islam proper, outlines the times right before.


Fantastic read, 10/10

Muhammad, His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
by Martin Lings
Published in October 2006
384 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 5/5


This was one of the most interesting books that I’ve read in a very long time, and I strongly recommend it.


The book is basically a collection of many of the early Hadiths, the earliest of which were written hundreds of years after his death. If you are unfamiliar with the Koran, and the concept of the Hadiths, then I do not recommend this book.


I now seriously wonder if ancient Muslims were influenced by aliens.


There is a lost of really interesting stuff in here, and I learned a lot about the life of the prophet. I will use the rest of this review to relate three odd and interesting stories.


The first story that really caught my attention was a possible alien abduction followed by open heart surgery. One day, one of Mohamed’s relatives comes down from the road, shouting for help. Mohamed’s father hears this, and asks what the problem is. The boy explains that two strangers, dressed in white, have found Mohamed on the side of the road, and have cut him open. Mohamed’s father in law goes down, and finds a Mohamed who is shaken but fine. Mohamed explains that two strange men, dressed in white, teleported him to a distant universe. There, they cut out his heart, and removed an object from it. The men then returned him. When Mohamed is found by his father he has no marks on his body, save for a small crescent shape on his neck in between his shoulder blades. (Alien Implant site?)


There is another passage of the narrative that also suggests aliens: the story of how Mohamed found out he was a prophet. Mohamed and his companions are travelling across the desert when some Christian monks spot them in the distance. The monks notice that as they travel, a grey cloud is floating overhead. The cloud stops when Mohamed’s party stops, and continues when they continue. (Flying saucer using camouflage / stealth technology?) The monk realizes that this is a sign, and takes the travelers in. He then proceeds to dine them, and while they are distracted, cross references the ancient texts he has preserved to see if any of them are the prophet. He then realizes Mohamed is the prophet, and checks for the crescent shape on his neck. He proclaims Mohamed as the prophet, and the party swears an oath. Interestingly enough, the first thing that the monk says upon discovering that Mohamed is the prophet is “watch out of the Jews”.


The last passage that caught my interest is at the end of the narrative, when the Hadiths describe Mohamed’s unsatisfiable sexual appetite. The Koran only allowed for four wives, yet Mohamed exempted himself, and took a fifth. He also purchased Greek sex slaves, including two tin girls. His wives and concubines were constantly jealous of each other, and would fight. Mohamed clearly is immoral, and violates his own advice. This goes a long way to explaining the uncontrollable bouts of lusts that I’ve noticed have been expressed by Muslims on the internet and in the streets of Europe. Perhaps, if they had followed the religion of a more chaste and more self controlled man, perhaps their culture wouldn’t be so barbaric today.


Either way, there is much to be found in studying the Hadiths for Muslims and for Kaffir alike. I strongly recommend this book regardless of whether you believe in aliens or not, or whether you think Mohamed was a hypocrite or a great man.