This week: demon rum

This week I finally finished Huckleberry Finn, though I'm not sure why it's generally ranked higher than Tom Sawyer.  Presumably its assumed merit comes from it dealing with more serious themes, as a boy on an adventure has to choose between doing what he is told is "good" (turning in an escaped slave)  and doing what he knows is right (protecting his friend).  Morality aside, to my mind Tom Sawyer is a more enjoyable story.  My next 'American classic' will be Little Women or Up from Slavery.

I'm currently having too much fun reading Ian Gatley's Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol. I was going to combine it with a few other books to do a quick review of Prohibition-era America, but my university library was closed last week.  I'm hoping to see To Reign in Hell, the finale of the rise and fall of Khan Noonien Singh, arrive in the mail at some point this week, and I really should mount an attack on one of my to-be-read books to finish off the list.

To be Read Takedown Challenge

1. Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb (7/18/14)
2. The Vikings, Robert Ferguson (6/7/14)
3. Power, Inc; David Rothkopf (6/14/14)
4. An Edible History of Humanity, Tom Standage (7/8/2014)
5. Small-Mart Revolution, Michael Shuman (7/12/2014)
6. The World Until Yesterday, Jared Diamond (5/29/14)
7. Fighting Traffic: the Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City, Peter Norton (7/21/14)
8. Earth, Richard Fortey
9. Good Natured, Frans de Waal (6/27/14)
10. Galileo's Finger, Peter Atkins