To give a small example: We all attribute a certain value to 5 dollars. We all know what we can do with 5 dollars if we save them on a purchase and we have an estimate how long it takes us to earn 5 dollars. Those things are constant which means that if we think rationally it does not matter whether we save 5 dollars on one purchase or another because this changes neither the benefit gained nor the work saved to earn them once more. One way or another we will have 5 dollars in our wallet. Nevertheless if asked if we would drive 10 minutes to save 5 dollars on a 8 dollar meal we would of course take the time and attempt to save the money. However if asked to drive 10 minutes to save 5 dollars on a 250 dollar suit we probably wouldn’t bother. This is totaly irrational because in both cases we gain 5 dollars for an investment of 10 minutes of our life. Even more surprising is that if confronted with this fact we would all agree that although it’s both about the same 5 dollars, saving them on an eight dollar meal is a very good deal definitely worth the effort.

This is only one of the situations that happen to all of us (or at least me) all the time. I think this book can have the very positive effect to tell us about the irrational nature of our decisions and by literally forcing us to review them help to change our decision making processes. This especially applies to the chapters discussing “The cost of Free” and “The High price of ownership” which at least taught me a valuable lesson. Definitely a book I can recommend although there might be some undesired side effects like temporary destroying the effectiveness of placebos you use, but that is a risk definitely worth taking.

Feet of Clay (Front Cover)

On Sunday I finished another book. “Feet of Clay” a discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. I must say I really like the discworld novels, not only because I’m a fan of fantasy in general, but because Pratchett puts a lot of work into his characters and the description of the physics, the magic and the politics of the discworld itself. In addition to that he writes with an almost infinite amount of humor, mostly of the dark kind.

In this particular novel you will get the invention of modern police work in the biggest city of the discworld . The city watch starts following clues (instead of solving rimes in the traditional way using fists and swords). At the same time there is a theological dispute about the nature of golems and the social problem of integrating dwarfs, goblins and undead people into the already chaotic society of Ankh-Morpork.

Definitely fun to read! If you want to give it a try consider reading it in English because some of the gags are rather hard to translate if one can translate them at all.

My initial impression was not that far off, in fact it was more like two and a half months. But contrary to my prior experiences involving literature this heavy, this novel not only managed to keep me interested but got me reading while walking from the subway station to my flat which is way to go knowing my reading habits.

Schätzing really knows how to build up suspension and keep it on a high level while simultaneously describing is characters, their thoughts and profiles in great detail. So even when he goes on to discuss the family problems of his characters that don’t have a major impact on the story you are absolutely spellbound. Another thing that clearly helps keeping you bound is the fact that it becomes clear in the course of the story that not all is going to end well and not everyone is going to have a big party after everything is over. While this is true for most books Schätzing does not merely sacrifice the character that came on 2 pages ago just to keep the story credible but accepts that some of the major characters have to be sacrificed during the course of the story to keep it from being a classic fairy tail. Contrary to fairy tales not all the characters die in a last heroic act of self sacrifice but sometimes simply happen to be in the wrong place at a bad time.

All in all a book I can definitely recommend.