Asian Saga

i recently re-read the wisdom of crowds, ~15 years now since i first read it. still good, still relevant. there's even a section on how quickly SARS was identified in international collaboration despite no central, coordinating entity. it's covertly a book about statistical reasoning, but with no dry statistical language, subversive in a way. we need more statistical reasoning in the world, particularly around risk assessment, to subdue fear and panic. edit: as for fiction, james clavell's asian saga[0] series is entertaining historical fiction, which i've read twice. pat conroy's southern portraits, particularly the lords of discipline and the prince of tides, both wrenching, haunting, and beautiful. also in the historical/cultural fiction realm: anna karenina, crime and punishment, a tale of two cities, les miserables. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asian_Saga

I highly recommend all of his Asian series. They're fantastic.

Yeah the Asian Saga includes King Rat, Shogun, Noble House, Taipan as well as Gai-gin, The Whirlwind. They're all pretty good books but I believe Taipan, Noble House and Shogun are considered Clavell's best work, in that order (personally I like Noble House best). Thanks for the recommendation though.

Shogun is a great read. It got me started on the whole historical fiction genre. The rest of the books in Clavell's Asian Saga are pretty good too except for maybe Gai-jin. I also enjoyed reading Gore Vidal's Lincoln and Burr from his Narratives of the Empire series - very entertaining and definitely not run-of-the-mill biographic portrayals.

Clavell's whole Asian Saga (Shogun, Tai-Pan, Gai-Jin, King Rat, Noble House, and Whirlwind) is amazing. My favorite is Tai-Pan - the book had a tremendous impact on me, and I'd imagine it would appeal to every real entrepreneur. The underlying themes are freedom, individualism, honor, risk-taking, and ultimately, building something and defending it.