Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have read this before, but not since we started our reading list. I can't imagine many people haven't read this, so a thorough review seems silly, but it was a quick and enjoyable read. One thing to note (obviously depending on which version you have) is in regards to the introduction. In the version I have, the introduction basically gives away a huge amount of the plot! I might understand in a foreword, but I ended up skipping the second half of the introduction because it was so full of spoilers. Crazy! Anyway, it was an easy check mark on the reading list so I can read another leisure book.

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Idiot America by Charles P. Pierce

Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Overall it was a fairly entertaining read. It turned out to be a little more about history than I had expected, so I had to think harder and read a little slower, but I made it through ok.

Given the title, I was expecting something a little more along the lines of Why People Believe Weird Things. I should have had a tip-off that the book was going to be pretty liberal-biased when the review on the cover says "A raucous rant against the armies of the right... Pierce is at his scathing, insightful best." It had sections that seemed a little more balanced, but overall it was more of an attack on the right than an elucidation of the dumbing down of America.

This also reminded me of how weird the rating system for Goodreads is. You can give a book 1-5 stars. 3 stars would then mean that it is average, i.e. I would say it was "ok." But for Goodreads, 3 stars means "I liked it." How does that make sense? On a normal scale I would give it a 3, but since Goodreads is my book review aggregator, I'll abide by their system. I thought it was "ok" so it gets 2 stars.

It was interesting, but anything with such a blatant bias, whether or not you agree with it, gets tedious after a while. The last 100 pages or so I was just reading to finish, not necessarily to enjoy. If it had been pared down, or another author had provided some balance, I think it would have greatly improved the experience.

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