Unanswerable questions

From the Wall Street Journal:

• Where Tech Keeps Booming

  BOOKSHELF
  By James K. Glassman
  In "Start-Up Nation," Dan Senor and Saul Singer document Israel's economic dynamism—especially in the realm of advanced technology—and try to account for the country's extraordinary success.

Lemme think about this one. What could account for Israel's extraordinary economic dynamism in the realm of advanced technology ... hmmhmmh ... No, I'm drawing a complete blank ... I guess I'll have to buy the book to find out what the answer could possibly be.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Books for Boys

Books for Boys: There's been a vicious circle in kids' publishing in recent decades. As women came to dominate education and publishing, the books assigned in class got girlier and girlier, and boys lost even more interest in reading books, so publishers brought out even girlier books, and boys got even more bored, etcetera etcetera ...

Finally, two publishing industry veterans, Steven D. Hill and Peggy Hogan, decided to make money off this market failure by launching Sterling Point Books, which specializes in nonfiction books about heroes aimed at boys in the 10-17 range. Most of the initial titles are reprints of out-of-print books from Bennett Cerf's Random House Landmark Books of the 1950s onward. Cerf signed up heavyweight authors like John Gunther (Inside Europe), C.S. Forester (Horatio Hornblower), Alistair MacLean (Guns of Navarone), and William L. Shirer (Rise and Fall of the Third Reich) to write about warriors and adventurers for boys.

My younger son has now read a half dozen of the Sterling Point titles. Geronimo: Wolf of the Warpath has been his favorite. They've inspired him to ask me lots of questions, mostly of the unanswerable "Could John Paul Jones beat Lawrence of Arabia?" variety.

They come in handsome paperbacks for $6.95, with good-sized typefaces and lots of leading between the lines to make the pages inviting to the eye.

They would make good graduation presents. Here is the list so far, with more due in November.

- Admiral Richard Byrd: Alone in the Antarctic by Paul Rink (Aug 28, 2006)

- Alexander the Great by John Gunther (Hardcover - April 1, 2007)

- Amelia Earhart: Flying Solo by John Burke (April 1, 2007)

- Behind Enemy Lines: A Young Pilot's Story by H. R. DeMallie (April 1, 2007)

- Ben Franklin: Inventing America by Thomas Fleming (April 1, 2007)

- General George Patton: Old Blood & Guts by Alden Hatch (Aug 28, 2006)

- George Washington: Frontier Colonel by Sterling North (Aug 28, 2006)

- Geronimo: Wolf of the Warpath by Ralph Moody (Aug 28, 2006)

- Invasion: The Story of D-Day by Bruce Bliven (April 1, 2007)

- John Paul Jones: The Pirate Patriot by Armstrong Sperry (Aug 28, 2006)

- Lawrence of Arabia by Alistair MacLean (Aug 28, 2006)

- Path to the Pacific: The Story of Sacagawea by Neta Lohnes Frazier (April 1, 2007)

- Teddy Roosevelt: American Rough Rider by John Garraty (Mar 1, 2007)

- The Barbary Pirates by C. S. Forester (April 1, 2007)

- The Sinking of the Bismarck: The Deadly Hunt by William L. Shirer (Aug 28, 2006)

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My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer