This has only been the second (or was it the third?) time I have been to town since the start of the new year. And I know I shouldn't have gone because I've again come back with a bag full of books.
They say that truth is stranger than fiction, and so I brought home James Surowiecki's "The Wisdom of Crowds - Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few", "Heaven on Earth - In search of the next travel nirvana" by Matthew Brace, "The Bodysurfers", a short-story collection by Robert Drewe which became an Australian classic and was adapted for film, and, by way of a slow read in case there are any more rained-out days ahead, Karen Armstrong's "Muhammad - A Biography of the Prophet".
(I also picked up another copy of Alan de Botton's "The Consolations of Philosophy"
which is always a nice present for someone who's outgrown the 'Daily Telegraph')
Right now I'm questioning the wisdom of the crowds that put the kibosh on the Australian share market's recovery after hearing of Trump's esca-lating trade war with China. China is the longest-lasting empire in all of human history and will still be around long after Trump has become the shortest-ever-serving President of the United States. That he became President at all is another argument against the wisdom of the crowds.
Maybe it's because crowds don't read. Dinosaurs didn't read either. Now they're extinct. Coincidence?
