'Dracula' by Bram Stoker

Dracula, Bram Stoker (4.0)

This book was written around the same time as ‘Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde’ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, and coincided with Freud’s ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’. Each has what we now consider a Freudian component – for ‘Dracula’, many have seen the vampire itself as a manifestation of sexual repression. Given that, the most annoying part of the book was the overly chaste and spiritual language and actions of the protagonists. These characters are hard to take in their earnestness. Fortunately Mr. Stoker does a great job of creating tension and thrills around his incarnation of the vampire, Dracula. I particularly enjoyed any of the chapters in which he played a part. Few books written prior to this (late 1800’s) were able to generate such a page turning experience. As the group tries to capture and kill Dracula before he can return to his castle in Transylvania, I was reading frantically to see if he outwits them once again. I definitely believe it’s worth reading what is considered the ultimate vampire novel, just make sure to skim the Victorian age melodramatic speeches.

'The Book of Why' by Judea Pearl

The Book of Why, Judea Pearl (2.0)

I can’t say that I enjoyed reading this book, though it did bring up some thoughtful questions about how causes and effects are treated in science, specifically by statisticians. Unfortunately, the author has such a high opinion of his own work; the book read as largely a pat on his back. He summarizes theme of the book as ‘you are smarter than your data, data doesn’t understand causes’. While this is true, the act of determining causes is mostly fraught with assumption. The author tends to prove his point by using hindsight, which, by definition, has fewer assumptions. In the book, he unveils his ‘simple’ way of writing causal diagrams (90% of which were simple triangles) that clarify how these causes are involved with the effect. Given that the book was touted as written for non-statisticians and non-computer scientists, I wish he would have included more real life examples to prove his points and less time spent on the math.