The Art of War

Eli Schuster's View:

Synopsis: (Extract from The Art of War. Presented in dialogue form) Mercenary commander Fabrizio Colonna shares his thoughts on warfare, conscription, untrustworthy mercenaries, and the good old days of citizen warriors in ancient Rome with Florentine gentleman Cosimo Rucellai.

What I learned: One should select infantrymen from the countryside and cavalry from the towns. Why? Because Machiavelli said so!

Memorable Line: "...there exists no more dangerous sort of infantry than one composed of men who make war their profession, since you are forced either to make war constantly and repeatedly pay these men, or run the risk that they will take your kingdom from you. To wage war constantly is not possible; one cannot pay them repeatedly either; therefore, of necessity one runs the risk of losing the state."

You Might Like This Book If: you want to learn more about early 16th Century warfare and don't mind reading a bit of flowery ass-kissing.

Somebody's a Grumpy Bear: "Before they had felt the blows of the Transalpine wars, our Italian princes believed that a prince need only know how to dream up witty replies in his study; write a beautiful letter; display intelligence and readiness in his conversation and his speech; weave a fraud; adorn himself wtih gems and gold; sleep and eat in a more splendid style than others; surround himself wtih a large number of courtesans; conduct himself in a miserly and arrogant manner with his subjects; rot in laziness; give military positions as favors; despise anyone who had shown them any praiseworthy path; and expect that their pronouncements be taken as oracles."

The Galapagos Islands

Eli Schuster's View:

Synopsis: (Extract from Voyage of the Beagle) Charles Darwin hangs out with lizards and giant tortoises on the Galapagos Islands, and later visits Tahiti as part of a five-year scientific journey in the 1830s.

What I learned: The snakes on the Galapagos Islands are harmless, and there aren't any frogs or toads. Young tortoises make excellent soup.

Memorable Line: "The inhabitants, when walking in the lower district, and overcome with thirst, often take advantage of this circumstance, by killing a tortoise, and if the bladder is full, drinking its contents. In one I saw killed, the fluid was quite limpid, and had only a very slightly bitter taste. The inhabitants, however, always drink first the water in the pericardium, which is described as being best." (Darwin on the subject of big tortoise bladders)

You Might Like This Book If: you remind people of this guy.

Line I Wasn't Expecting: "They forget, or will not remember, that human sacrifices, and the power of an idolatrous priesthood - a system of profligacy unparalleled in the world, and infanticide a consequence of that system - bloody wars, where the conquerors spared neither women nor children - that all these have been abolished; and that dishonesty, intemperance, and licentiousness have been greatly reduced by the introduction of Christianity." (Darwin, the father of Evolution, defending the introduction of Christianity into Tahiti).

Oopsy Daisy: "it never occurred to me, that the production of islands only a few miles apart, and placed under the same physical conditions, would be dissimilar. I therefore did not attempt to make a series of specimens from the separate islands."