I am reading Atlas Shrugged and meant eventually to write about how really bad this book is. But someone already did that. From Wet Asphalt:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is the worst book ever published. The characters are poorly drawn, the story is ridiculous, the philosophical underpinnings are incoherent and morally repugnant, and the writing is incompetent. Quite frankly and put as simply as I possibly can, there is no value to this book, it should not be read by anyone for any reason.

It’s a fascinating book, though, like a car crash.

I just finished Jeffrey Deaver’s 2008 novel The Broken Window, starring criminalist Lincoln Rhyme battling a psycho killer who uses data mining to get to know his victims and pick a second set of victims to frame for murders.

Data mining reaps information about individuals from whatever is available — medical records, credit records, driver’s licenses, whatever — so that more companies can sell you stuff or to track your whereabouts because you never know, anyone can be a terrorist. Deaver’s novel was scary because of the psycho killer and because it made clear the very real role of data mining in our lives. As one character lamented, there are no secrets any more.

Fast forward to yesterday, when I picked up (behind on my reading, as usual) the Wall Street Journal and learned that Visa wants to show you ads based on your specific credit card charges, your social networking habits and, yes, your DNA. (The WSJ website requires a subscription, so here is a link to a Time story about the WSJ story and here is a link to a WSJ blog post about the story).

Psycho murders, psycho marketers.

 

Unbroken is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It is the true story of Louis Zamperini, bad boy turned 1930s track all-star, an Olympian who was on his way to more fame and fortune when he was badly inconvenienced by World War II.

Zamperini was a lieutenant in the Pacific Theater when his plane crashed and he floated around for weeks, half-starved, dying of thirst, and sometimes extremely clear-eyed and conscious of the smallest details of life, telling tales of meals past to stay focused and alive.

He was captured, imprisoned by the Japanese, and became the special target of a sadistric, insane guard. Still, Zamperini lived.

The US government declared him dead.

Laura Hillenbrand, who also wrote the outstanding Seabiscut, created a real hope-restoring story here. (There’s even a cameo appearance by Ernest Norquist, father of former Milwaukee Mayor John O.) There is tragedy, despair and redemption — all without being hokey.

I’ve done a little, informal survey among the people I know who have read Unbroken. None of us ever heard of Louis Zamperini before the book came out. His story, which was huge at the time it occurred, just disappeared from the country’s mass consciousness.

How do stories like this get lost? And thanks to Hillenbrand for bringing this one back to us in so fine a fashion.