What book are you reading right now?

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started on peter sloterdijk's "spheres" trilogy in German. so far, I made it through the 98 pages of foreword... it's sesquipedalian. actually, when I opened the amazon package and took out the three books, and realized the stack was relatively close to being a cube, I though: okay, after I'm done with this, I'll shave, get a haircut, and look for a girlfriend.

What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

American Splendor, Voice of the Dolphins, Tao of Physics, and The Futurological Congress.

I've been reading about Victorian life lately because I was shopping at one of my favorite stores "The Victorian Trading Company". They had a book called "How to be A Victorian" by Ruth Goodman that tells exactly what it was like during that time period for men, women and kids during work, play or sleep. I'm still reading it, but that book lead me to another one about medical procedures during the Victorian Era and in particular surgical procedures and infection. This book is called "The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine" that talks about how Joseph Lister got started with antiseptic that was able to kill infection which up until that time, people were dying left and right from post - op infections. One surgeon was known to perform surgery in less than 5 minutes! It talks about the invention of ether too which then allowed surgeons to take their time when performing surgeries. Very interesting!

Hey! Lister knew Hodgkins - the guy who founded Hodgkins Lymphoma! They lived together in college and were even childhood friends!

It says back in those times, bloodletting was very popular. I even have read before that now they believe that bloodletting actually worked - back then they didn't know why bloodletting worked to fight infection. I found this on WebMD that explains how they think it worked :

https://www.webmd.com/men/news/20040910 ... s-benefits

And get this! Lister knew a Robert Liston who was another surgeon that created his own amputation knife - it was so well made that it was later used by Jack The Ripper! This book is the bomb!

Unless one has a basic knowledge of the "germ theory," one really would have difficulty treating infectious diseases.

Until Louis Pasteur, people had certain notions which hinted at how contagious diseases are transmitted---but Pasteur was the one, I believe, who proved it once and for all. That was about the 1880s.

This is why, ultimately, we have the vast majority of the drugs we have.