General Comment:As mentioned earlier on my April 19 2007 post, I have embarked on writing a few words on all the books that I may read in my retirement. I will reread few books which I read over last few years – this to allow me to capture some good essence from the readings.

The recent book I have completed reading is a book by Jared Diamond titled  Collapse . This book is a follow up book to his earlier  one titled                                         ” Guns, Germs, and Steel”. This book I read a couple of weeks ago.    

I read the present book “Collapse” in Toronto at my son’s apartment when we visited  him for a few days   (starting on 03 November 2007). This is   the second book by Jared Diamond as a follow-up to his earlier book  ” Guns, Germs, and Steel”.

For his book ” Guns, Germs, and Steel”, the author was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

The second book “Collapse” is quite a read re: what happens to societies who do not care for environmental degradation – brought on by deforestation, population explosion and general over indulgence . The author provides many examples of collapse of earlier human societies  including overlapping in our times.

It is in our interest to learn from  neglect of devastation of environment and resulting collapse of existing societies  when resources become scarce .   The scarcity of resources leads to wars and those with more advanced weapons do overpower the others with lesser weapons.

This book together with earlier book by the author “Guns, Germs & Steel” make     one to stop and think about the lifestyle that one can afford and which could lead to long survival of the human society.

Pravin Shah